The Wordsmith's Forge

This is the freebie for the August crowdfunding Creative Jam, inspired by a prompt from alexseanchai. It also fills the "hobbies" square in my 7-31-17 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest.


"As Couples As Possible"


A dancer fell in love
with a mathematician,

their affection stymied by
his love of all things body,
her love of all things brain,

until they discovered
square dancing.

* * *

Notes:

"As couples as possible" -- Work as a couple whenever possible. Re-evaluate the formation after each part of the call.
-- Square Dance Dictionary

Dance is a popular form of artistic exercise.  Geometry is the mathematics of shape.  Put them together and you get the math of square dance.

Today we visited the Indiana State Fair for $2 Tuesday. (There will be another one next week.) We had a lot of fun. The weather was sunny and temperate. So we got to stay until our feet wore out -- we were there a little over five hours. \o/ It's highly recommended if you are in driving distance. Total score: 8/10.

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I posted this yesterday on LiveJournal so I could include a photo, and then forgot to echo it here. Oops. So Doug reminded me. We are collecting coins of the world for a project and would like your help.

Today's fun thing was receiving two packages of assorted coins. The top row was sold as coins with different shapes, while the bottom rows are a random batch.



Doug wants to collect some coins, inspired by something he saw at the magic convention recently. :D For the purposes of this project, it does not matter if we get some duplicates; the idea is to gather a mass of widely varied coins. So I'm helping, and you can help too!

If you have access to coins from outside the United States of America, then you can send us a few and get $5 credit toward poetry. I currently have two open epics: "The Inner Tradition" needs $308 to be complete, and "The Order of Their Stars" needs $83 to be complete.  We could really chip away at those with this opportunity.  We're not looking for expensive coins, just pocket change.  Don't worry about exchange rate, the idea is not to send $5 of coins, just at least one coin.  Ideally, I suggest that you figure out what it costs to mail a letter here, subtract that from $5, and use the remainder as a ceiling to estimate what coins to send.  Coins have some weight, which factors into postage, but if you're only sending a few then it shouldn't run up the cost too high.  If your only mail options are more expensive than $5 and you still want to participate, send me a message -- I have a functionally infinite supply of poetry, so your budget is the limit rather than mine.  Make sure you tell me which poem your donation is going toward!  Because if it doesn't say, then I'll just throw it into whichever of the open epics needs attention.

Let the games begin!  \o/

 June Foray has passed away.  She played Rocky the Squirrel and hundreds of other characters.

I guess she wanted to celebrate her 100th birthday at GreatCon.  Because who wouldn't?

I found this analysis of gender in comics to be fascinating.  In many categories, I've written against the mainstream pattern, such as having females with super-strength and males with psychic powers.  In a few areas I may have replicated the pattern; with pheromone control and prehensile hair, I could only think of female characters, although I'm sure there are males with pheromones.

We watched Logorama over supper tonight.  It the most disturbing, hilariously apt depiction of America that I've seen in a long time. 

Adam West has passed away.  Among his more famous appearances, he played Batman on television. 

I HAS A SAD.  :'''(  And I'm trying to figure out how to lower the Batsignal to half-mast.

Somewhere between the dimensions, the egregore of the Joker is crying his eyes out.


EDIT 6/10/17: I got the news about Adam West's passing just minutes before we had to leave the house.  Now that I'm home and have had a few minutes to tune in, here is the elegy. 


"Velvet Messengers"
-- an elegy for Adam West, (September 19, 1928 – June 9, 2017)

There are no seraphim in
this escort, no solemn Uriel
to close his sooty feathers
around the deceased,

even though the wind
is heavy with wingbeats
and the messengers
silhouette themselves
against the full moon.

(Because of course
the moon was full.)

These angels,
when they come,
have wings of velvet

and voices too high to hear.

* * * 

Notes:

Uriel is the angel of death, who along with other angels is believed to escort the souls of the departed.  It has been the custom for some centuries to depict angels with feathered wings.  Uriel's are often, though not always, dark gray or black.

The Bat Signal appears as a bright disc with a dark bat shape in the center.  Similarly, Batman and his gear are often silhouetted against the full moon, in contexts ranging from serious to silly.

Angel voices are often described as too high for humans to hear, or barely within range as a shrill whine or squeak.  Bat voices are too high for most humans to hear.

Here's a cartoon about confirmation bias.  While it technically fits the definition, it's not about belief, but rather about greed -- or possibly survival.  In any case it's an example of how many things which are currently claimed as science are not actually science.  But when you call them that, people mistrust science, instead of mistrusting greed.

This poem is spillover from the May 2, 2017 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from alexseanchai plus conversations with alatefeline, chanter_greenie, stardreamer, and other fans. It has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. This poem belongs to the Calliope thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

Warning: This poem contains some intense topics. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. Calliope and Vagary are in a mess of a bond, which complicates their consent for anything involving each other. They're trying to make the best of it, and making some progress, but it's just not a great situation. So there is awkwardness, fumbling, social anxiety, tripping over all sorts of emotional baggage, Vagary's low self-esteem, Calliope's standoffishness, boundary issues, trust issues, reluctant touching, gender issues (one of the few things Vagary handles gracefully), physical tension, crappy dancing, telepathic spillover, bystander assumptions, trying not to cry in public, knowing when to give up, reference to bad therapists of the past, Vagary's perspective of their initial bonding, and other angst. They do make some good progress, though, and nobody gets punched in the face or groped in personal places. Special thanks to the several readers who realized that dancing was liable to be a disaster. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

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