secure this beckoning sunshine

Delphic Maxims 003: Worship the Gods

2015-10-20T13:59:05Z

"Worship the gods." The two-to-five-word format of the Delphic Maxims seems to imply that they are simple, however profound, but this is hardly simple. Polytheism is not simple, nor should it be easy.

Continue reading at sunbowpublications.com...

comments

Decoupage People (freebie for the October crowdfunding Creative Jam)

2015-10-17T13:37:58Z

You are just a piece of clockwork
for someone else's purpose.
Everything you feel is you
seems pastede on yey.

What you do is
not who you are.

Except when it is.

Underneath
the pasted-on
job or career or unemployed
we are all just
a solid glass jar
or sturdy wood box.

We cover ourselves
in knitting or writing
or mechanics or decoupage
to be ourselves.

And some of the pasted-on
is there to cover cracks
or fill holes
put there by a world
that doesn't understand.

We are all decoupage people,
building papier-mâché selves
on solid object bases
out of bits of life we're given.

And yes, we're often bits of clockwork,
and mostly we get by,
but form as well as function
and think how drab a world it'd be
if all we were was clockwork
without who we are
glued on piece by piece.

Decoupage People by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

comments

The Way of the Wind (written for the crowdfunding Creative Jam)

2015-09-20T11:32:20Z

The way of the wind
is to blow where it will,
though changed in its course
by sunlight and night
and by walls and by trees,
butterflies, seas.

( The way of the wind / is to blow where it may )

The Way of the Wind by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

comments

The Mountain's Call

2015-09-09T23:32:57Z

The mountain kills its poets, and the mountain maddens bards:
the chair of the giant who slumbers here—it furiously guards
whatever secrets gifted once to those with fae regards.
Turn away, O would-be poet! Turn away, O hopeful bard!
You’re worth more living than inspired, more than Annwn’s discards.

( Her name was Tesni, bright, warm, strong. Listener, take heed: )

The Mountain's Call by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

comments

Sanctuary

2015-07-17T16:44:14Z

home is a sacred space
set-apart space
sanctuary

safety from the chaos and rush of the world

a retreat, a resting place

hearth and holy place and home

I light my little candle and watch the flicker flame
this is the only hearth I have

I long for home

Sanctuary by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

comments

Ancestry

2015-06-29T16:25:32Z

A leaf on the wind
blown here and there
unsettled.
Its roots are—where?
Across the seas and skies,
a journey long and far,
expensive too.
Is there a scar
where leaf was torn from tree?
Can it put down roots here
and tell them true
that this is home that will not disappear?

Ancestry by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

comments

High Priestess II

2015-06-22T14:25:55Z

some things are unexplainable
some things are unexplained still
by scientific knowledge: called
"god of the gaps", if you will

the point of mystery is not
dissection, to lay bare the bones:
it's not to ask "whence Zeus's bolts?"
nor "where sit the gods on their thrones?"

a rainbow is still beauty bright
whether "refraction" or "Iris" you think
reduce it to its photons and
the beauty is gone in a blink

do not kill off the mystery
to find out how it worked before death.
participate, or not, you choose,
but no one way is best. take a breath.

High Priestess II by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

comments

High Priestess I

2015-06-21T17:01:36Z

I am woman.
I am here.
I am that which
all men fear:
that what he knows
is just not so,
and what is so
he cannot know.

The words ring clear:
Believe. Revere.

I am trans and
I am queer.
I am that which
all men fear:
that he is not
what he was taught,
that we have thought
and quite a lot.

The words ring clear:
Believe. Revere.

High Priestess I by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

comments

Delphic Maxims 002: Obey the Law

2015-05-20T17:22:44Z

“Obey the law.” This seems a straightforward enough maxim. Stop at stop signs and red lights. Drive no faster than the posted speed limit. Get out of emergency vehicles’ way. The law exists to keep society moving smoothly, and it’s in everyone’s best interests not to be a roadblock or even a speed bump.

Continue reading at sunbowpublications.com...

comments

The Magician

2015-05-18T14:42:21Z

act
mindful
conscious of
consequences
the power is yours
to do with what you will
pick up the paintbrush
sit down and write
sing out loud
crochet
knit

knit
crochet
sing out loud
sit down and write
pick up the paintbrush
do with it what you will
the power is yours
consequences
be conscious
mindful
act

The Magician by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

comments

Delphic Maxims 001: Follow God

2015-05-17T18:42:25Z

“Follow God”. The singular is distinctly odd in the context of historical Greek polytheism. It’s also masculine, which may denote any of several things. It may be that the original Greek, meant to be gender-nonspecific, uses the masculine singular both as specifically masculine and as gender-nonspecific. It may be that English can only do the same—observe: ‘goddess’ is always female; ‘god’, while typically masculine, may be feminine or gender-neutral; ‘gods’, the masculine plural, is also the gender-neutral plural. It may be that a specifically masculine deity is meant.

Continue reading at sunbowpublications.com...

comments

a half-whispered prayer

2015-05-17T03:25:20Z

For the crowdfunding Creative Jam.

Other young ladies Etain's age of ten years were helping the war effort. They cared for younger siblings to free up their mothers for tasks more important to keeping the queendom of Danaan running; they tended gardens to free up the fields for growing food for the soldiers fighting the Anglians; they knit socks to keep the soldiers' feet warm. Warm feet were very important, Cliodhna told Etain wisely. Nobody could think or do very well with cold feet.

( Etain wasn't very good at knitting )

a half-whispered prayer by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

comments

Delphic Maxims 000: The Wisdom of Phemonoe

2015-05-16T18:45:55Z

Rumor has it that the aphorisms carved into the walls of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi were first written down by Phemonoe, daughter of Apollo and first Oracle at Delphi. Rumor attributes the Delphic Maxims, of which the most famous are “Know thyself” and “Nothing in excess”, to several other sources as well: Heraclitus, or Socrates, or the Seven Sages of Greece (among whose number there are rather more than seven names), or Apollo himself.

Continue reading at sunbowpublications.com...

comments

alexconall @ 2015-05-15T11:13:00

2015-05-15T15:15:59Z

Results must be replicable to be reliable. That's how the scientific method works.

I have a second Patreon (to keep poetry and bloggery separate), and the blog post series discussed there will be kicking off on sunbowpublications.com tomorrow.

comments

baby linkspam

2015-05-13T05:45:58Z

If you have not been following me on Patreon, you missed eight poems. One is Patreon-patrons-only (unless you know exactly where elsewebs to look; it is posted publicly but I won't say where), and the other seven are now crossposted to Dreamwidth.

Ella Chose
Legibility
Aikido
a tanka
sleeping beauty
if I'm not talking to you, I'm not talking to you
anapestic

comments

The Fool

2015-05-13T05:03:35Z

just take the leap without a look
it matters not if there's a net
they call it Faith, they call it Hope
Beginner's Luck, they say
and paint the landscape, write the book
no worried thoughts of work or debt
at journey's start! who needs a rope?
it's good that no one's on belay

The Fool by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

crossposted to sunbowpublications.com

comments

Renovate

2015-05-09T03:56:58Z

when life changes
in heartbeats
the world shakes

it rattles the china
and shatters the notion
that life is as
you thought that
it was

the world shakes
and stands still
and spins on

Renovate by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

comments

alexconall @ 2015-05-07T14:22:00

2015-05-07T18:22:22Z

Sunbow Publications is my new author website. Much updating and customization still to be done, obviously!

comments

alexconall @ 2015-05-05T14:51:00

2015-05-05T18:53:38Z

For reasons, I have blanked the "writing stages" and "planning stages" sections of my works-in-progress masterlist. Things that were on either list may reappear, but only if I actually start working on them again. I intend to take some time to contemplate what I really want out of life and how best to achieve that; I am confident that having fifty works-in-progress is not it.

comments

alexconall @ 2015-03-30T10:46:00

2015-03-30T14:48:35Z

<a href="http://sharonknight.bandcamp.com/album/neofolk-romantique-2">Neofolk Romantique by Sharon Knight</a>

"Fire in the Head", first on Sharon Knight's Neofolk Romantique album, is a ridiculously awesome song about a piece of Welsh folklore: Cadair Idris and its role as a source of poetic or artistic inspiration. "Some wake mad, and some wake dead, and some will rise with a fire in the head..."

Sharon Knight's Portals Indiegogo campaign has sixteen hours to go. Check it out!

comments

Write It Down (for the March crowdfunding Creative Jam)

2015-03-14T16:44:09Z

If it isn't written down,
it never happened.

( who gets to define the past? )

Write It Down by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

comments

Verginia (content note: major character death)

2015-01-13T07:17:53Z

( two tales )

Verginia by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

comments

Music Monday: SJ Tucker's "Solstice Night"

2014-12-22T06:58:48Z

<a href="http://music.sjtucker.com/track/solstice-night">Solstice Night by SJ Tucker</a>

"Solstice Night" by SJ Tucker celebrates the winter solstice just past: My wish this Solstice Night is grace and peace to you.

comments

Fly with Pan, London

2014-11-05T18:37:52Z

London McCabe was six years old
and I bet he knew
exactly
what he wants to be
when he grows up.
All children, except one, grow up—

Fly with Pan and the Lost Ones,
London who'll never grow up.
Find peace and joy and excitement
in Neverland as never on earth.
Perhaps Wendy or Jane or Margaret
shall be your mother—
better she than your own.
Fly with Tink and the Lost Ones,
London who'll ever be known
as just one more name on the roster
of Lost Ones who'll never grow old.
We will weep our tears for you,
and hope you are the last,
and work to ensure the fear killed you
is something of the past.

Fly with Pan, London by Alex Conall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

comments

Music Monday: Lindsey Stirling's Roundtable Rival

2014-10-27T16:20:48Z

So as you may have noticed, my original intent for Music Monday posts didn't go so well. I'm rebooting the concept.

"Roundtable Rival" by Lindsey Stirling, off the album Shatter Me, is a delightful violin dance tune, though I have to admit I'm mostly interested in the video, embedded above. Steampunk Western with sound waves instead of bullets and dance and instruments instead of guns!

This actually comes from one of the same people who brought us "Pokémon Dubstep Remix", a violin remix of the Pokémon theme song, embedded below:

crossposted from conallpublications.com

comments