Tears, Idle Tears

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn-fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.

Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.

Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.

Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more!

By Lord Alfred Tennyson

Ode

Ode
by Arthur O’Shaughnessy [1844-1881]

We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams;
World-losers and world-forsakers,
On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
Of the world for ever, it seems

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world’s great cities.
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion art empire’s glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song’s measure
Can trample in empire down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth.
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself with our mirth;
And o’erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world’s worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

Nursery Crhyme

(Humble thanks for the obvious inspiration of my childhood hero Dr. Seuss)

All the Yous down in Youville like spending a lot
And with no care for the future they bought and they bought
They bought You-screens and surround-sounds and big fancy homes
And You-pods and gas-guzzlers and cellular phones

They bought all they could and then bought some more
With the credit cards they got from the Mega-You store
Till they borrowed all the money that they possibly could
And purchased every conceivable You consumable good

Suddenly when there were no Yous left to spend
The sellers became afraid that You shopping would end
And the government and banks both surely knew
Without shopping and buying there’d be nothing to do

So they thought up a plan and they though it up quick
They guessed lending more money would sure do the trick
So they took lots of money and made oversized loans
To put under-financed Yous in overpriced homes

Though the U-financed You’s knew they could not re-pay
The bankers just told them to refinance some day
So they sold them You homes with all the whistles and bells
And promised their homes would simply pay for themselves

Now every You knows that new homes need new stuff
But very few Yous know when enough is enough
So the new financed You’s just kept on spending and spending
And everyone pretended it would go on without ending

And no one thought to save for the rainy days ahead
They just kept on spending and spending instead
Till spending ended one day and the economy began stalling
And chicken-little You proclaimed the sky is now falling

So they all ran right up to the head You Number One
Who said I know what to do to continue You fun
We’ll borrow some billions from right over there
And pass it around and spend it right here

But the Yous were all fed up with You Number One
So they elected You Two to get the job done
Now You Number Two knew just what to do (he said)
We’ll borrow more billions more billions times two

So the Yous borrowed and borrowed from some magical place
While You bankers and brokers slipped away in disgrace
How this all happened they could not understand
As they all cried boo-hoo on their fat pension plans

Now I’m not one to say how this story will end
But it’s obvious the Yous must now borrow to spend
So the Yous will all spend for that is there lot
They’ll spend and they’ll spend whether they earn it or not

And they’ll go on pretending that loans don’t come due
And assume they’ll be paid eventually by much younger Yous
Now I love to borrow money and I love spending too
But I’m not sure if it’s right to borrow it from little Yous

Especially when they are no more than two

Do You
Poem By: Gift Of Noni

Keeping Hope

I wish that I could hold you near. I wish that I could see your smiling eyes. I've been wandering blind; hoping to find you, someday. Hearing your voice on the wind, and seeing your kind and gentle smile keeps me moving forward though I am weary and the load is great.

-Jason


Keeping hope, though hope is dim, and wishing to return again is all that I ask for this night. I want to be by your side, and hope that my prayer is heard. I wish I could come home to you again. Keep a candle burning for me to guide me back to you.

-Susan


Love me still though I am gone, and keep my memory clear and strong. Help me to believe I can return, someday to be with you again. Give me strength to carry on even though the road is long. I will find my way back to you.

-Jason

Gescano; Call of Duty

Original Tell: His life was duty and service, protection of his master.

Showing:

“My Lord!” Gescano sprinted to intercept the blow descending upon his fallen master. Bringing his sword swiftly into position he deftly blocked the stroke that would have killed his master. Beating back the attacker he quickly disarmed and killed the man.

He swiftly dispatched the others in the attacking group, to the last man. Gescano, swinging his sword like a man possessed, his blade moving faster than the eye could detect. Every movement sure and deadly, he stood between his master and the enemy.

Gescano turned, offering a dirty hand to his master to help him up.

“More practice.”

Xin Makes a Choice

Original Tell: She never doubted who she was and what she wanted.

Showing:


Xin had made her choice, she wanted no other.

Xin's arms snaked out, encircling the man beside her, pulling him back into her warm embrace.

“Where do you think you are going?” She asked Sheva.

Xin silenced whatever he was going to say, pressing her lips to his in a passionate kiss. Sheva returned it, loosing himself in the sensory overload. Xin finally broke it off, breathing hard and smiling, her lips bare inches from his.

“Why me?” Sheva asked, struggling to catch his breath.

“Because I want you, and because I love you, I always have.”

Garain. The Goddess

Original Tell: Her smile was the sun and her tears the life of the world.

Showing:

Garain willed herself into life. She blinked in confusion for a moment, and realized that she was strong. Grinning widely, Garain ran the length and breadth of the world, from ocean to ocean she laughed.

Garain skidded to a halt, she did not know what that sound was, but she intended to find out, Stooping low she saw a small girl, tears running down her cheeks.

'I wonder if I can do that too,' Garain thought, trying to cry.

The heavens thundered down a storm.

“Don't cry little one,” Garain said smiling, and the sun shined again.

“Peace be to you.”

Cathalan Encore

Original Tell: Cathalan's eyes went distant as he remembered how he got to where he was.

Showing:

Cathalan winced at the flood of memories, his father before him was Lord Helvan Slehn. He died a short while ago, pushing his responsibility onto Cathalan's young shoulders.

Cathalan rose, muttering, before the sun each morning, and dragged himself to bed each night long after the sun was down. He rolled his eyes as he dealt with petty disputes among the people, and after a while all he heard was “Blah, blah, blah.”

“You know, I like working with you Gescano, you expect me to be more than I am. More than what everyone expects me to be.”

Xin Again

Original Tell: Xin would never betray her crew

Showing:

Xin grunted in pain as the armored man used her as a punching bag, She gasped as she felt a rib break, squeezing her eyes closed against the pain.

“Tell me where they are and this will stop,” the Lord said from the far side of the room.

Xin shook her head slowly, another pointed refusal. She raised her drooping head and looked at the Lord. Defiance flashed in her eyes and she spit in his direction.

Xin braced herself for the blow she knew would come, metal slashing through flesh.

“Death before betrayal,” were Xin's last words.

Kinoria Revisited

Original Telling: Kinoria was dangerous.

Showing:

Kinoria sat to her work, her motions sure as she mixed poisons and powders on her workbench. Turning she selected a thin wicked looking dagger from her collection against the wall and applied a thin coating of one poison to it, it would work quickly.

She crouched in the shadows, waiting for her target to come near, she didn't really care who it was, some drunken, lecherous nobleman most likely. Kinoria stood, spying her target. She stepped out into the light, she was breathtaking, and she beckoned him to go with her. She deftly slipped the dagger into his heart.

Alexander Dumas Redux

Original tell: He was Alexander Dumas, he could read.

Showing:

Squinting in the dim candle light, the shadowed figure tried to make out the faded words on the pages, jumping every time he heard the slightest noise, fearing it was the Enforcers.

He shifted nervously, he knew it was to risky to be doing what he was doing, but he could not help himself, the words entranced him, weaving him in their binding spell. He whispered the words to himself, not more than the hush of a breath.

Alexander heard the scuff of a footstep and swiftly his the fragile papers under a stone in a hollowed out corner nearby.

Startled

Startled, Xin looked up at Sheva. He had never said those words to her, had never said them to anyone as far as she knew. Looking around at the crowded campsite she moved closer to him, and whispered in his ear, "I love you too."

Gescano

Gescano readied his blunted sword, it was time to drill.

“Right, left, parry, block, lunge,” he barked orders at his master, who was now his student. He could see sweat running down Cathalan's brow and he was heaving for breath.

“Come my lord, if that is the best you can muster, then you will not live long in this world,” Gescano raised his sword again to attack.

Gescano served Lord Cathalan, as he had Cathalan's father, and as his son would. He took pains to teach them well. His life was duty and service, protection of his master

Kinoria

Kinoria was dangerous. Smiling at her victim they never suspected that she brought them death. She liked to change it up, hardly ever killing the same way in a short space of time. Dagger, poison, fast or slow, it did not really matter to her, the job got done anyways.

Kinoria trembled, they wanted her to kill again, they wanted her to kill Cathalan, her husband. She knew if she didn't do it, they would kill both him and herself, and so she would.


She was an assassin of the first order, but now she was coming to regret it.

Cathalan

Cathalan looked at the man before him, his eyes begging for a short break. His sword was drooped in exhaustion and he was breathing hard. Sweat was running down his face and his usually perfectly coiffed hair was in disarray. Cathalan's eyes went distant as he remembered how he got to where he was.

A painful blow brought him out of his memories and he raised his practice sword in an automatic defense. He swung to wide and received another hard aimed blow.

“Again my lord,” Gescano, his squire, was relentless as he drilled his master in the sword.

Laika

Laika flitted through the trees, no sound coming from his soft shod feet. Clear depth-less eyes peered from an intelligent heart stopping-beautiful face. Bow and hand were seamless, both adept at finding their target and making the kill. His voice raised in song was enough to make the nightingales jealous of his music. His fingers, long and slender, drew from wood and stone images that had no peer. Marriage was not his goal, but his fathers wish.

Running through the woods he fled his decreed fate and looked for a future elsewhere that did not exist for him.

Xin

Xin was a strong woman, a fearless fighter, and a true friend.

She fought with the strength of two and the bravery of ten. She never doubted who she was and what she wanted. Her sword rang out in the heat of battle, dancing in to deliver fatal blows; coming to the aide of her comrades.

The blows rained down on her in the prison, the questioners relentless, but Xin would never betray her crew, she would die before failing them. Through broken bone and blackened eye Xin smiled in the face of her captors.

“Bring me sweet death.”

Alexander Dumas

He was a rebel, he fought against the powers that be. He could not fight directly, but by learning he could help destroy them. He could also dream, in a world where no one knew how to dream anymore, he saw 'Night Visions'

Reading was forbidden, a crime punishable by instant death. There were none now, save for a few who could decipher the ancient words upon the brittle paper.

He was a follower to the cause, in secret he delivered the books and the papers from one to another, always avoiding detection.

He was Alexander Dumas, he could read.

A Goddess Brought to Life

She was a live wire, totally unpredictable and full of life. Here one minute and gone the next, she flitted through the world, riding the waves and basking in the desert heat. To capture her was an impossibility, she called down the stars and danced on the lightning. Her laughter was a thousand voices on the wind, her eyes mirroring all that had ever been and all that could ever be.

Hers was the blessing sought by all living below, calm winds, the gift of a child. Her smile was the sun and her tears the life of the world.