Tag Archives: Literature

gYgPOP World is Everywhere, Sun Shining Above Despair

Karl Lagerfeld worked at Fendi for as long as I did for Planet Earth.

Our paths crossed in the greenYgrey world.

a person in a green dress standing in front of a building: Yes, fashion month is still happening. The 27 day test of fashion endurance has made it’s way to Milan, Italy. While Milan boasts our favourite shows in terms of craftsmanship, the hidden gem of Milan is the street style. It's the prime example of what can happen when quality and charm work in synergy. This season New York’s street style was colourful and clever, while London’s was classic (and dare we say, quieter than previous seasons?). Here in Milan, the street style is streamlined with sharp tailoring while still maintaining it’s whimsical details. The leather trenches come in Skittles bright colours and the intarsia sweaters come printed in something that your grandma and Miuccia Prada would approve of.While some pieces are universal amongst the fashion crowd, the street style of Milan has inspired us to reconsider them in an oversaturated market. Not into plaid blazers? What about a blazer wrap dress hybrid in the cutest banana yellow. All khaki-d out? You'll want to rethink that come slide 8. Even after two weeks of doing the whole street-style-outfit-peacocking (on top of attending the shows) editors, influencers, show goers are still going strong in providing us with outfit inspiration that will extend far into 2019.See you at the fashion finish line in Paris. We’ll be there with a gold medal and granola bar in hand. For now, click through for the best street style from Milan Fashion Week.

a person in a yellow dress: Model Gigi Hadid presents a creation during the Fendi women's Fall/Winter 2019/2020 collection fashion show, on February 21, 2019 in Milan. (Photo by Miguel MEDINA / AFP)MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP/Getty Images ORIG FILE ID: AFP_1DP2GR

We shared love, but not with each other.

Mine was with a mixed-up vole anagram.

All the images above are from this MSN article this morning.

Musical Coincidence?

While there’s lots of pagan rock on YouTube that relates to my writing, I thought this image from a suggested album captured the greenYgrey world evolution perfectly. The greenYgrey land linking to a PinkyOrangePurple sky through a human – perfect gYgPOP.

Moreover, it was released in 2015, the year I first espoused the new POP art. I did that in January, so think I was first!? Was the album cover influenced by the gYgPOP world, or was it a universal mind ‘coincidence’? Probably the latter, both with the same influences.

I don’t remember the psychedelic 60s, but they say you absorb a lot in the first few years of your life, so it probably did have some influence.

When we got a television in the early 1970s it was certainly there then, from the American Banana Splits to British Goodies.

Mirror Poem Reflections 26-30

Thirty-five reflections from 242 Mirror Poems and Reflections are on the Writing and Poetry blog now, so following on from reflections 1-5, reflections 6-10, reflections 11-15, reflections 16-20 and reflections 21-25 here’s reflections 26-30.

Reflection 26 mirrored Dying to Live, Living to Die:

Life is Like…

Life is like a journey on a neverending road,
you know you’ll never find out
the destination at the end,
but just try and learn along the way.

Life is like flying over a real rainbow,
you know you’ll never find
golden immortality at the bottom,
but just try and enjoy the journey.

Life is like a big night out,
you know that you’ll peak and tire
and not continue forever
but just try and make the most of it.

Reflection 27 mirrored Life Has More Meaning than Death:

Depression
is a state of mind
if you accept its normality
and accurate view
of the negative side
to the world cycle
that enters your life
then it’s not time
wasted.

Reflection 28 mirrored Y Green and Grey Go Together:

Reflection 28 (part 1)

‘by seeing Venus during the day while trekking in the Yorkshire Dales Three Peaks, alerted by the Sky at Night television programme; my first conscious sighting of a middle-of-the-day planet or star at the age of 46. It was on the same March 2012 trip that I took the 242 Mirror Poems cover photo.’

Reflection 28 (part 2)

The second half of the Reflection lightened the mood under a clear day and night sky with a previously unpublished comedy poem:

If the sheepdogs tell great jokes
and livestock like to clown around
under a smiling sun and moon
I want to go to the funny farm.

Reflection 29 mirrored I Can See Through You, Why Don’t People Understand Me:

I Like Your Mask

Why should you believe I like you
when I say I don’t care about myself
perhaps it’s because I can’t read your mind
as clearly as I can mine.

But the more I see of you
the more I think we’re no different
just humans living day to day
some with better masks than others.

Reflection 30 mirrored Space Brain Becoming Plain:

The poem was inspired by images of the universe and a scanned brain that looked similarly oblong.

A clear night sky from a dark viewing point is an incredible sight, but it is only what our eyes and brains can manage to see. Telescopes show the connectivity and immensity beyond our Earth view.

Human brains use complex systems to keep us functioning, but we can’t see how it is done, as our eyes see outwards. Scanning equipment shows the connectivity and immensity on the inside.

Smashwords cover

Mirror Poem Reflections 1-5 from Poetry Collection

Over on Marc Latham’s central Greenygrey site Writing and Poetry blog he’s been serialising the reflections of mirror poems contained in the 242 Mirror Poems and Reflections collection.

Mirror Poem Collection

The Folding Mirror poems have been posted on this site. I thought I’d post the reflections five at a time here, with the first five below, along with links to the poems they reflected.

The book’s available from Amazon for under £3 and under $6, and lots of other currencies for the equivalent prices; and Smashwords and other ebook readers for much less.

There are links at the end of the post. Here’s the first five reflections:

Reflection 1

The first reflection mirrored a poem that reflected on the similarities between space and mind in the latest technological imaging called: SAGAS: Solipsistic Astronaut Gravitates Agnostic Space

It’s only a small one, trying to be philosophical, and many of the other reflections are much longer. Here it is:

What I am incapable of understanding has no meaning,
What I understand has no interest.

The second reflection mirrored Hopes Rise With The Sun

Reflection 2 

Concorde on takeoff

Concorde on takeoff (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Narcissism and Ego

I wanted to be famous for being famous, but too late now…?
A little bit of ego allows me to do this, rather than making me do it.

Has my writing and public profile fuelled narcissism, or given it an outlet?

Finding out that you aren’t the centre of other people’s world is a relief, but also a disappointment in some ways, as you wonder why not.

Titanik

Titanik (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Addressing narcissism should help overcome a depression fuelled by feelings of failure: you can’t change the world, and nature of humanity, so don’t expect too much.

Concorde boomed the sky
but clouds still quietly fly.
Trains carry tons of freight
but the land doesn’t have to wait.
Titanic caused a commotion
but didn’t change the ocean.

Reflection 3 reflected Hazy Horizon Optical Illusion

Reflection 3 

Between the freedom of travel
and the solitude of home
is a fantasy world
called society.

Reflection 4 mirrored Adrift in Unnavigable Oceans: Sodium Chloride

Reflection 4

The well-behaved British working class used to be known as ‘salt of the earth’ when they were compliant up to the 1950s, but not so much anymore.

Were things that different in history? I don’t know.
And have they changed that much? Well, elite corruption has been exposed more since the 1950s, making the workers less likely to trust and revere the upper classes; Thatcher decimated the working-class industries in the 1980s, destroying communities; and New Labour betrayed their traditional voters by squeezing them out of the workplace between high-earning elites and foreign workers willing to work for less.
So things have probably changed, but I don’t know how much, or if it is the main reason for there apparently being less ‘salt of the earth’.

Reflection 5 mirrored Night is a Part of Day

Reflection 5

I have welcomed the sunrise
and dreaded it.
On mountains in the dark
the first glimmers of light
are a welcome sight.
On all-nighters when young
the first realisation of light
signalled beginning of end.
They were the same darkness and light
of the same day, which is basically just
the way our planet tilts towards the sun,
but I was in different situations, feeling
different things, on different sides of Earth.

Smashwords cover

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Mirror Poem about Life, Time and Thought

Marc Latham’s latest Folding Mirror poem was written out of nothing really, just stream of consciousness thinking watching Blondie at Glastonbury on T.V. at the end of June, 2014.

Poem Explanations

The title and last line refers to a single thought of a small creature being superior in that way to great giant stars, which just work unthinkingly by thermonuclear reactions. The last line also plays on the British television series about a vet, All Creatures Great and Small.

So although the universe is mindbogglingly massive, life as we know it on Earth is the best we know for thinking. Here’s the poem:

Sunspot Image Gallery
Photo by NASA.

Particular Preciousness of Thinking, Thought Superior to Reaction

crunch time for mortal minds
strangles infinite breath
day drags for damselfly
century crows to humanity
instinct, learning, loving, expiring
endless summer days

One’s outlook on life, age of calendar July

winter limits light
experience, remembering, warming, gripping
holding on for dear
life becomes more refined
sailing history’s horizon
all creatures greater than sun

Smashwords cover

No Need for Wizard of Oz Theories for Werewolf

YouTube has many videos offering theories for the real meaning behind the Wizard of Oz, with most considering the book to have been an allegory for the economic situation in the U.S.A. at the start of the twentieth century. This video is an example, and also has some great greenYgrey scenery… at the start, before green takes over!

Werewolf of Oz

Hi, it’s G.G. Howling, satirical comedy fiction writing correspondent inspired by J.K. Rowling.

Luckily for today’s Werewolf of Oz readers, our Grey explained the background to that book. It turned the witches of the Wizard of Oz around to criticise fundamentalist monotheist religion through the monotonous monotheists, while supporting the right to follow monotheistic religions in a personal worth rather than personal gain way through the mildly monotheistic Moby.

It also featured the WWW of the greenYgrey world, with strong independent women; a (were)wolf leading an animal welfare and environmentalism theme, and working class characters rising above discrimination.

It also tried to throw in a lot of comedy, while providing geographic, cultural and historical information about Australia. It is still on sale, and as relevant today as when it was written all those moons ago.

Link for Amazon book and kindle.
Link for multiple Ereaders at Smashwords.
Link for multiple Ereaders at Smashwords.

New Comedy Horror Frankenstein Werewolf Joke

Hi, it’s Tony Loboinson, history and comedy correspondent at the Greenygrey. Today I’ve got a little comedy for you. I know it’s not often we crack the jokes around here, and I do seem to spend more time encased in earth rather than unearthing comedy gems, but this one’s been doing the rounds in the Greenygrey world for quite some time… which is a very long time in the human world!

Frankenstein 1118
Frankenstein 1118 (Photo credit: IowaPolitics.com)

New Comedy Horror Jokes

Okay, here goes. I’m pretty sure you all know the Queen of British Romanticism Mary Shelley‘s story about Doctor Frankenstein and the ‘monster’ he created out of body parts.

Well, the joke is: if Frankenstein had created the monster out of werewolf and Loch Ness Monster body parts what would it have been called?

Nessie replica in Scotland. Česky: Lochneská n...
Nessie replica in Scotland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ll give you some time to think about it, and bring you the answer in the next bewildering blog.

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Haiku Journey on River Dart by Jean Knill

Jean Knill has kindly allowed us to publish her haiku journey on the River Dart. The river flows through the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England.
Jean’s Nature’s Kaleidoscope Folding Mirror poem had the most comments on fmpoetry last year. 
Haiku was the main inspiration for Marc Latham initialising  the Folding Mirror poetry form, and as far as Marc can analyse, Jean provides fantastic haiku examples both in form and quality.
Here’s Jean’s haiku journey, followed by her website link:
Newbridge on the River Dart near Spitchwick on...
Newbridge on the River Dart near Spitchwick on Dartmoor. The stretch here is popular with canoeists. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
On the River Dart 
We board at Totnes
on a cloudy autumn morn.
What delights await?
Ankle deep in mud,
heron standing regally
till its lunch swims by.
Red fox on the bank,
sated belly near the ground,
slinking slowly home.
Buzzards spiralling
as small birds flock together.
Safety in numbers.
Seal heads popping up,
inviting us to join them
for some water play.
Weary parent seals
look on from resting places,
floating wood pontoons.
Houses crowd the banks,
places reached by narrow lanes
for a quiet life.
Boats are moored here too
heralding Dartmouth’s approach
and the open sea.
Boarding for return,
rain drives us all to shelter
till the sun comes out.
Precipitating
raindrops pattern the water
all around the boat.
Bright shafts of sunlight
make the river spark and gleam
for an interlude.
Lower tide reveals
weird shapes of weed covered roots
of the trees above.
Totnes here we come,
disembark the tourist’s boat
for our homebound drive.
We will remember
how we spent a lovely day
on the River Dart.
Jean muses at: http://jakill-jeansmusings.blogspot.co.uk/
Shows the River Dart at Totnes in Devon lookin...
Shows the River Dart at Totnes in Devon looking upstream to the bridges (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Poem Stream Overflows from Literature Lake

Marc Latham’s latest Folding Mirror poem was inspired by a few ideas and short poems that came to him while he was editing an article. Those ideas and short poems are published today on the Greenygrey blog. This poem has now been finished before the article, which is still undergoing detailed editing! Here’s the Folding Mirror poem:
English: Morning mist on Lake Mapourika, New Z...
English: Morning mist on Lake Mapourika, New Zealand. Français : Brume du matin sur le lac Mapourika, en Nouvelle-Zélande. Deutsch: Nebel bei Lake Mapourika in Neuseeland. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Poems of the Prose
page of prose
literature’s lake rose
creating, reviewing, editing
sentences, paragraphs, chapters
minutes pass
hours elapse
concentration lapses
mental absences
deficit reigns, attention drains
streams flow
imagination grows
words gush
rhymes rush
lines, pentameters, cinquains
bubbling, demanding, bursting
language’s river honey
piece of poetry
English: Conemaugh River Lake Dam near Saltsbu...
English: Conemaugh River Lake Dam near Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, USA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Marc Latham’s central site is the Greenygrey (http://www.greenygrey.co.uk), and he has several books available on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/author/marclatham).

New Mirror Poetry Book Published on Kindle

Further to yesterday’s blog, Marc Latham’s 242 Mirror Poems and Reflections has now been reviewed and published on Amazon Kindle, and is available to view and buy for a token payment price, which has partly been imposed to make the book available to only those who want to read it. People who don’t want to read about the topics covered in the book shouldn’t be as tempted as they might be if it was free.
There was one late change to the poems included, with Libran Scales not really working without its image format, which didn’t translate into the Kindle format, so Basket Case was included. That of course means that all the Folding Mirror poems so far published on this site have now been published.
Thanks again to everybody that has visited this site over the last three years; without your support the book probably wouldn’t have been completed, and certainly wouldn’t have taken the title and form it has.
Have a great Sunday…

Front Row Lit Interview and Book Update

Marc Latham has an interview on Front Row Lit, where he talks about his poetry and writing influences and inspirations, and plans for a new Folding Mirrors poetry book. And he followed it up on the Greenygrey website with the following update:
‘… shaping up with my next project: 242 Folding Mirror Poems and Reflections.
I thought I had 122 (one spare) unpublished Folding Mirror poems until recently, but then noticed I’d included one of somebody else’s poems, and one of mine twice! So, I’ve got one more to create, but have a couple of ideas, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
After copying all the poems into a word document I mirrored them with reflections, which are a mixture of old and new thoughts and poems. I am now sorting them into chapter categories such as psychological, social, cultural, travel, nature, folklore and fiction, literary and space. It’s quite boring and tedious work, but necessary. It also makes me absorb the poems, which should be helpful in understanding what topics I’ve focused on, as I haven’t really read them since their creation. Hopefully it won’t take too long to complete the book.’
http://frontrowlit.com/?p=2378
http://www.greenygrey.co.uk/blog/?p=4394