For You

The title explains it all... for you.

'For You'

Time...

A memory of the unimagined
Lost in the wellspring of our hearts
A caress...
Brushing away our cares.
Your touch...
So passionate, so tender
A hope once lost...
Now found.

Soul...

A pulse tempered from starlight
Enraptured within the crucible of desire
A word...
Ushering our joy onward.
Your breath...
So delicate, so warm
Moments unfulfilled...
Forever changed.

Love...

A dream of a word bound in an emotion
Enfolded in eternal memory
Made manifest in
Your touch...
Your breath...
Your kiss.

C.

Sometimes Words Fail You...

I admit it, for all my facility with words, they can fail me. Worse, when they fail me, it can have an adverse effect on others, and not the intended result. I suppose that is the irony of what I do and what I am. I can say so much with so little and so little with too much and maybe not enough at all. All I know is that I am better than those words, and should have known better; however, emotion often enters into these things and cause the failure of words. I know better now, but again, hindsight is the ultimate expression of a failure of communication, and as one who knows history, I should know the perils and pitfalls of hindsight.

Still, tomorrow brings hope as it often does... and that is always a good thing.

C.

Summer and Rebirth

Well, summer finally has arrived in North Texas two months late (thank goodness, really, our electric bill was half of last year's this time) and the whole past week and most of this one has shaped/is shaping up to be a scorcher (I think 105 today with heat indexes over 110). Not near as bad as last year, and it is even supposed to get into the mid 90's by Saturday (yay, since I have an outdoor LARP event that day). Even still, the world can surprise you and make the heat of summer fade into memory.

'Rebirth'

All that I have known...

Lost in the quiet of my mind yet
Reborn in tender starlight
Cast gently
From the edge of time
Made manifest in the
Warmth of your
Caress.

All I can see...

Drifts upon currents of space
Revealed in passionate movements
Formed in the ebb and flow
Of the hearts of stars...
Connected by the
Light of your
Soul.

All I am...

Waited at the edge of memory
Borne in the fires of the unimagined
Until these moments
Of wondrous anticipation
Fueled by the light of the universe
Within your
Eyes.

All we are...
Has yet to be written
But rests within the welcoming arms
Of love.

C.

For Thy Right...

I thought I would be posting on the lighter side thanks to doing a little more writing on other fronts, but I had a few thoughts and revisions about earlier essays, sooo... well, I guess I am entitled to change my agenda in the blog now and then :)

The title of the post comes from 'Sonnet #88' by the Bard (that would be Shakespeare, just in case :) and its ending lines, lines which are still my favorite lines from a poem ever: 'Such is my love, to thee I so belong, that for thy right myself will bear all wrong'. I have paraphrased it (and sometimes slightly misquoted it) over the years in essays and random moments, and every time I see it, I have to sit and think of it. I was thinking of those words earlier, thinking of other philosophical content, rummaging through past and realized I had no new spin on the matter. I had to smile a little, perhaps even wryly... maybe it means I finally understand what I had been trying to all along, what I understood instinctively when I read those words for the first time nearly twenty years ago.

I always thought Frodo's words in 'Return of the King' were rather poignant and alas, true: 'How do you go on, when in your heart you begin to understand, there is no going back?' Maybe, every now and then, you can go back... even if you do understand such things. I know I cannot physically be that person again (nor would I want to), but the person I am can learn a lot from someone I dismissed as far too romantic and hopelessly naive. Of course, he would think me too cynical and pragmatic, so I suspect it is a fair trade.

Have a great weekend,

C.

Top Ten Comic Stories

I just got through reading 'Earth X' again, and thought I would do something a little light in the blog, and might do so in the near future, since I have to crack down and get some writing done for the LARP, and perhaps even for my own sake. Most of these stories are self-contained mini series, and there are a couple of one shots and Elseworlds (naturally) hanging out in this as well.


Top Ten Comic Stories
1) Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller (1986): One can almost forgive Miller for trying to revive this story with The Dark Knight Strikes Again because this story is so good, and for its time, so completely different. It ushered in a renaissance in the comics field that lasted probably too long and died with Civil War.

2) Kingdom Come by Mark Waid and Alex Ross (1996): Such an incredible story of the coming Apocalypse weaved into the mythology of the DC universe. While the art was, as always, stunning, the writing by Waid is perhaps the best ever in a comics story.

3) Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross (1994): Aside from being a remarkable story, Ross' realistic art changed art in the comics medium and set the bar perhaps too high for the future.

4) 'The Trial of Reed Richards', Fantastic Four #262, by John Byrne (1983): Most current comic fans do not know this story since they were not even a glint in their parent's eye; however this remains one of the most cerebral comics stories ever, one that combines the nature of life and death with stark questions of philosophy.

5) Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar and Dave Johnson (2003): The ironies of this remarkable story about Superman were he a Soviet, not American hero are enough to contain several stories and it is an interesting look into the nature of power during the Cold War and beyond.

6) Crisis on Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman and George Perez (1986): Wolfman and Perez tried to fix the convoluted DC Universe and succeeded, giving rise to the current forms of Batman and Superman, plus it was a great story, even if constrained by typical plot and art structures of the mid-80's.

7) JLA: The Nail by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer (1998): A story inspired to some degree by the poem 'The Nail' and sets the tone of the story where the world has every hero and villain but one: Superman. The effects of the change are quite interesting, the art is astounding (as Alan Davis is one of my favorite artists), and the end result, well, you should read the story :)

8) Infinite Crisis by Johns, Perez, et al (2005-6): Shorter than the original 'Crisis', this story tried not to fix anything but cleverly expand the DC Universe and force the main characters of the DC pantheon: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, to make some hard choices about who and what they are and what they mean. Also some nice bits about Robin/Nightwing... very moving for one who grew up with the Batman/Robin dynamic.

9) Earth X by Alex Ross and Jim Kreuger (2000): Another dystopian world that imagined the Marvel Universe in the 'Kingdom Come' vein, but it was a world that saw the whole world 'mutate' and the major heroes of the Universe caught in the crossfire. The real story was far more complex and intriguing, though I did not care for the follow ups: Universe and Paradise X.

10) Civil War by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven (2006-7): While I enjoyed the series a great deal, I was angered by the after effects (and whether Marvel fixes this or not is irrelevant) and how it portrayed one of my favorite characters: Iron Man. Frankly, Marvel should bite the bullet and let what happened happen. But they will not leave well enough alone, as the history of comics shows.

Honorable Mentions: The Infinity Gauntlet; X-Men/Teen Titans; Gotham by Gaslight; The Killing Joke; Superman: Doomsday; X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga; The Watchmen; Green Lantern: Ganthet's Tale.

C.