Portrait of Thomas

Thomas was originally from the Bay Area, California, USA, then lived in Sacramento, California and finally moved to Antelope Valley in 2001.

In 2002, Thomas got his job at The Whole Wheatery  in Lancaster, California, and the month of this interview, he was celebrating fifteen years working there. His task included, but were not limited to, produce section, customer service, dish-washing and janitorial service.

Thomas was an artist who did oil painting, drawing with pencil, photography, graphic design and other artistic endevors.

Image Credits: Bat-Ami Gordin ©2017 all rights reserved. Credit if you use it, please

Black Tailed Fliers

Black-tailed Flyers

Black tailed fliers semi-hover, thrust, retreat,
and fly backwards. Still facing their foes,
they swiftly assault. They strike and repeat.
Black tailed fliers semi-hover, thrust, retreat,
and flap flight patterns. Each bird knows
how to sustain and support a propelling wingbeat.
Black tailed fliers semi-hover, thrust, retreat,
and fly backwards, still, facing their foes.

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Written for:

Poetics: New view for you

Prompt, by @bmiller007, was to choose a picture from the dverse page and write a poem that reflected the picture. I chose to write one in Triolet form.

Photo credit: Tracey Grumbach

disembodied spheres

Abstract 02 (From the Musee d Orsay series) by Walter W Smith

disembodied spheres, contiguous to contradictory
aspects of reality ― inviolable trans-empirical congeners.

abstractly marginal concepts run swiftly in
dysfunctional Rodentia  brains silently breaking moonlight.

self-causation. incantation. ordination. reassertion

incandescent power. scintillating siren speaks apostolically.
barrel-jammed full of exo-bizzare causal continuity.

extrasensory existentialist momentary causality
innervates gaudy uniqueness that knows no bounds.

encapsulation. detonation. postulation. misdirection.

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Today’s prompt, by

Tags

Sheila Moore was to write a poem about how the art of Walter W Smith speaks to Us.

Posted on:

Poetics – Awareness of the Experience

Rachel’s Ladder

Rosie Hardy - Self Portrait

     I. When There Is

No darkness without light.
No rest without sleep.
No dreams without love.
No madness without obsession.
No miracles without imagination.

    II. The Builders

Angles and machines build
a nimbus on my breath.
A cherub sends a raincloud.
Archangels bleed excess

   III. The Rest Place

To return
without denial
to a warm body.
My head on a cushion
soul and joy are one.

    IV. The Twin Flame

In dreamland
our silver threads meet:
A love affair in corporeality.

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I think this is the last One Stop Poetry Challenge for Sunday:

http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/07/sunday-photography-interview-rosie-hardy-poetry-challenge.html

This is the:  Sunday Photography Interview: Rosie Hardy & Poetry Challenge

I got the picture from her website, specifically, the Self-Portrait Section:

http://www.rosiehardy.com/1145-self-portraits

Joy Garrison Programs: Command Highlight

     A. Joy

I was born Joy, to enjoy
in a state of overjoyment,
an adventurous joyrider.

I play with a joystick
always joyfully, giving others
much enjoyment.

In this game,
my obstructors
are killjoys.

      B. Garrison

Ghosts defend me
through time, as I design
the ultimate garrison.

Understandably, my actions
lie on the periphery
of the fourth dimension.

I build protective barriers
so you can hold flowers
so you can smile.

     C. Command

The laws of life
move me along.

If I don’t see it,
I make it.

I theorize.
I change the facts.

As I change,
I command the world.

     D. Highlight

Watch me move the pieces:
A Queens Gambit
A fancy castling.
I always defend.
I always protect.
Do not seek my highlights.
I have not peaked:
too much to achieve.

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Posted on:

Open Link Monday

The artwork is by Bonnie. Her blog is http://originalartstudio.blogspot.com/

This piece is a response to onestop poetry challenge:

 http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/07/friday-poetically-with-brian-miller-21.html

I’m not sure what this work will mean to you, but I will assume no one will guess how/why I wrote this. After I explain it, it may make even less sense. 😉

Some time before seven this morning, I HAD to get on my computer to do some preliminary work on my screenplay. I booted up, and instead of NOT turning on my browser, I brought up Google Chrome, clicked on the one stop poetry page, and saw the challenge.  I decided that in order not to waste my time of not writing my screenplay, the only solution was to write the poem about my main character.

I had no idea what to write about. I read the first poem posted, by Esther Douek. This can be found on

http://www.estherdouek.com/?p=381

Her poem is titled: “A Salesman with X-ray Vision | The Eyes of Poetry” . Her concept of X-Ray made me think of Four Dimensional art, as in Crucifixion (Corpus Hypercubus)  Salvador Dalí. (1954).   Which you can see on  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dali_Crucifixion_hypercube.jpg

My protagonist’s name is Bashira Garrison. Bashira is a popular Muslim Girl name. It’s Urdu and Arabic for “Joyful.”   The main theme in my screenplay is “Protecting the Protector.” This is why her last name is Garrison. I called the character in my poem “Joy” instead of “Bashira” because I could play with the word “joy.” Poetry is all about playing and painting with words. So at least that part should make sense.

The image, above is saved as file name “ghist.jpg” . I thought it could be a mispelling or perhaps a variant of “ghost”, because it’s a ghostly image. I looked it up, and it’s a computer command: command highlight. The picture is one big highlight.

Bashira is an engineer who is developing a small unmanned aerial vehicle (SUAV). She often must re-programm the control system, so I thought that naming  this poem about Bashira (Joy) after a computer command would be apt.

Yesterday, someone asked me if my poetry was inspired by some sort of ” gift from a higher power.” It’s not.

This is how my poetry is contrived: I have one thing in my head, in this case doing some analysis on my screenplay. Then I encounter something I have to write a poem about, in this case a onestop poetry challenge. I take the two concepts and blend them into an abstraction. I look up words and phrases. I use them in my poem. In this case, I looked up variants of words with Joy in them. I looked up famous quotes for the words “change” and “highlight.”  That’s pretty much it.

The Load ― Remembered

The Load ― Remembered

The metal hanging
from a chain around
his drooping neck ― kept.
His courage ― endures.
His heart ― remembered.
His load ― in pictures.
His cold ghost ― in the beyond.

But no record of back pain.
No recollection of his warmth.
No discussion of limbs,
shorn like Samson’s hair.

Alone, he shivered in the darkness.
He thought of home.
He thought of better days.

Yet nothing could fill the absence
of his soul defeated
by the echoing blast of his first kill.

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This is my memorial day contribution.

I got the picture from http://www.ontherightinva.com/2010/05/30/memorial-day-2/

Between Buildings

From the city alley
appraise a sliver of sky.
Streams of clouds
progress in currents.

Through windows,
saxophones
and treble voices
compete for bandwidth.

In the city alley
the superhero waits
to explode/to save
the world from itself.

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 Posted on:

The Poetry Pantry Is Now Open! – #75

Also posted on:

poets-rally-week-63

His organization is Fragile Oasis  and he’s also on facebook.

Again, I won’t usually be writing free form poetry on this blog, unless it’s there for a reason. It looks like I might actually have a periodic reason: these “One Stop Poetry Challenges.” This time I’m writing in response to the Photography of Scott Wyden.”  The website is:

http://onestoppoetry.com/2011/05/sunday-photography-interview-scott-wyden-poetry-challenge.html

Owl In Flight

Upswept Wings

Cherry orchard sandlots,
rolling terrain of rye.

At the keel,
sternum flutters.
Contoured feathers,
streamlined flight.

Vigilant search for rations.
Scanning from the clouds.
Aerial stillness passing.
Hunger seems to last.

Movement detected.
Gliding high above.

Brief stillness in air.
Ready for the dive.
Falling on approach.

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I am posting this one for the “One Stop Poetry Challenge – the Photography of Fee Easton” .

Also posted on:

Gooseberry Garden

Poetry Picnic Week 9 : Longing, Loss, Loosing and Failure