h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I:
My back is straight and clothed:
Shoulders back to meet the new day.
My feet are bare.
Fleshy Rounded. Child-Like Feet.
I can feel the vessel beneath them
Each rib is a mountain, sheer and not to be wandered along
Lightly.
The [Intercostal] spaces between them a valley that stretches inexorably into the future.
I wiggle my toes slowly on the waxy surface; it is
Stretched, like parchment used that one time too many
I am placed in motion, shuffling
rhythmic, swaying like a sultan.
Where I Belong.
I look out at the surrounding vista:
because I can.
I see others on their vessels all locked in their sleepy dance:
Where They belong.
I feel Their world being ripped away as my vessel jolts.
Falls-

II:
i feel like a hill,
a moss covered boulder.
His feet are firmly on my back:
a bow waiting to be sprung, taut
pulled to it's fullest extent.
it is Time to Move,
my feet suffle on- shufti,
shufto, shufti, shufto...
almost be habit.
they don't feel,
they are crusty and warped: a star
folding in on itself
i notice the ground, my constant companion
strewn with angular stones, barren yet hungry for life
i am becoming the land, slowly taking on its characteristics
ceasing to be.
i stumble-

III: We fall, I roll,
We face one another:-
Our eyes... They are so alike!
Round, clear pools flecked with fire.

I place my hands on his arm:
an involuntary motion, uncertain.
We have been together forever, yet
our similarities- They hit me like a blow.
Confused a the starkness of our shared humanity.

He touches my elbow
His Hand is unused:
preserved, and yet.
And Yet, I no longer feel a part of the landscape,
but a part from it.
I am a rock unfurled, seeing the sky
How blue it looks!
I see Him. Watching Me.
I see the sky in him. In His Eyes.

We place out our hands and grab.

wow!


I didn't know you wrote poetry Gnashers...
That's very good you know.

Thanks

Wait! Who is... What is... Who wrote the poem? Or... was the poem wrote for you? Or was it... or could it be... How...? !

Oh, nice poem, though I need to give it a longer reading. Hey, why don't you read some Matholwch's poetry? He's wonderful - I could /live/ in the stuff he writes...

- Jordan

Congratulations Fred!

It's great to see more bards appearing here on h2g2 .

Blessings,
Matholwch the Apostate /|\.

Jordan .

You do me too much honour.

Blessings,
Matholwch the Apostate /|\.

I'd hardly call it an honour! Anyway, it's the truth. And I meant to ask you - would you mind if I printed off some of your poems to put in my collection?
Pleeeeeeease?

- Jordan

Hi Jordan .

As I draw much of my inspiration from the Awen /|\ (the druidic name for the flowing spirit of inspiration) I never copyright my work. It is free to all that want it, so print away .

Blessings,
Matholwch the Apostate /|\.

Awen? Is that the little /|\ you always sign on the bottom of your posts? Ah! What exactly does it mean?

- Jordan

Thanks fynn!

I've just nipped over and read some of your poems Math...they're very good

I've written several on here...but am currently playing with different styles and forms: which is why they don't always look like they've been written by me!

It's funny: I only write when I have something to write about...and I hadn't written any for months before I came on here, and now I've written about half a dozen in as many months: strange!

Very good poem, subtly realistic, and touhing on such a socitivly negative with tender care.

I bow to your work

-- DoctorMO --

Hi Jordan .

As I explained the Awen is the flowing spirit of inspiration. As a druid I am a natural philosopher and a seeker after truth. This doesn't always come easy and so I rely, to a certain degree, on receiving inspiration through my relationships with my gods and spirits. This comes in the form of the Awen.

Many artists, musicians and poets have experienced this effect. They often describe it as a glorious rush of energy and images and words and sound.

The symbol for the Awen is /|\ or iii. This represents the position of the sun at the dawn of the two solstices /\ and the equinoxes |. These lines are the first ray of sunlight at those sacred times. This symbol is frequently used by druids as representative of their quest for truth.

Blessings,
Matholwch the Apostate /|\.

But they're all so different! I mean, I get rushes of emotions, thoughts, feelings, sensations, ideas and notions, but the qualities and tones, and the overall 'auras' of these periods are all very different! Does the Awen encompass all these extremes of feeling?

FwT and Matholwch: what do you feel when you're writing poetry?

- Jordan

Hi Jordan .

Yes, the Awen can come in many forms. If you let it, it will carry you along on a wave of creative energy and deposit you on strange shores.

When I am writing poetry I am mostly panicking that I won't get it all down before my inspiration ebbs . Really though, when I am writing poetry I am in a timeless place, one of those subjective time bubbles. My emotion varies widely depending upon what I am writing about.

For instance, when I wrote my poems about the Foot & Mouth Crisis, my anger burnt white hot, my pain was searing and I found it hard to write for the tears flowing down my cheeks. My partner thought I was having some sort of attack! When I wrote 'The Eagle Sleeps No More' I was overwhelmed by a combination of deja vu and profound sadness for what was to come. 'The Stand' induced a deep sense of joy.

I hope that this helps,

Blessings,
Matholwch the Apostate /|\.

But if Awen encompasses such a diverse amount of emotions: is it an amoral thing?

When I first think of an idea for a poem, I rarely write it down straight away. It is usually a concept of some sort. I'll think of it off and on for a while, and then when it's more of an idea, I'll write it down.

When I'm writing, it doesn't just flow...well it does, but I'm constantly re-reading it to see how it could be interpreted: which now includes the form and punctuation that I use. Take the one above: I thought of it for probably around a week beforehand. Then, I wrote the first and second parts, but couldn't write the third. So, I left it for a couple of weeks and came back to it: I hadn't written anything else in the meantime. I wrote it, and then reread it all as one piece. I then copied it up properly, making minor changes. Then, I wrote it on here, making a couple more changes. Looking at this, it looks like a lot more work than it really was

Hi Fred .

Not entirely sure that I am wise enough to answer this question to your satisfaction.

I suppose what I am saying that for me the Awen does flow, from time to time. I have got poems that took months to put together, 'The Blackthorn Tree' being an example. I wrote dozens of drafts of that one. I have others that just seemed to pour out of my consciousness fully formed.

Thinking on what you have said I would reply that the Awen is a force, and it is mostly amoral. With practice you can learn to ride it when it comes. It is not tied to a particular belief system or culture, it is almost elemental in its being.

Just because I am a bard in the British Druid Order does not give me some divine advantage over you when it comes to the Awen. It could flow in me, you or even Justin. I think what makes you a bard or a poet is what you do with it when it flows.

I hope that this has gone in some way to answering your question....

Blessings,
Matholwch the Apostate /|\.

So the Awen could be likened to say Beauty from Plato's Forms: completely seperate from God/s but an ultimate to aspire to. Does that make any sense?

What interests me most about your poems Math is the tight rhyming scheme...because it is something that I find very hard to do. Do you find that a rhyming scheme limits your poems or makes them more effective?

Hi Fred .

Yes, but it is both separate from the divine and also an integral part of the divine..... The Awen is not a value or a virtue so it cannot be aspired to. It is more an elemental force that can be worked with, the raw material of inspiration.

Not all my poetry adheres to rhyming schemes, some of it is quite free flowing. However, I believe that if poetry is to be read by others and have any effect upon them it must be both easy to read and flow in the mind or off the tongue. The reason so much poetry over the millenia has been written to rhyme schemes is so that it will be read and remembered.

The discipline of rhyme can be very difficult sometimes, especially if you are writing for people of widely varying dialects, but I find it worth it. It can limit a poem sometimes, but also by forcing you to look for suitable rhyme words it can draw you into new avenues. If it is anything poetry is an exploration of the mind and the soul and such rhyme disciplines can help you reach further and into unusual places.

Blessings,
Matholwch the Apostate /|\.

So it is similar but different from Plato's Forms!

We have come to a difference of opinion: I like them I think that poetry shouldn't always be easy to read: it's form etc. should reflect what you are trying to say: but maybe this is because when I have studied poems, we have looked at it's form and punctuation etc. and how they reflect meaning. So, I've just gleaned it from Eng. Lit lessons!

Rhyme schemes have always been too limiting for me: I just naturally think outside them. This maybe just that I don't have a large enough vocabulary though!

Hi Fred .

Well if you don't like rhymes don't use them . Each poet must find a way to communicate that suits them. None is more valid than any other. If we all wrote the same it wouldn't be poetry, it would be NewSpeak.

Blessings,
Matholwch the Apostate /|\.