Notebook

Saudade: A Found Poetry Project, Part 4

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of all the people in this world, YOU unsought intimate secret I am afraid of YOU
I walked on lonely, a pathfinder, reading shining secrets in the leaves of the young trees.
I drifted toward the burning gardens seeking freedom.
a stranger in the garden a wine-colored shadow in the wind
happiness hinted in a murmur she nodded lips a stunned tribute I looked her face lovely and bright a whispered promise

 

Saudade: A Found Poetry Project, Part 3 & 1/2

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I felt guilty for getting so little done on this project last week, so I did a few more tonight. Charles Scribner III I am not.

And now that I’ve read the first page of the actual book, I suddenly doubt my ability to ‘find’ poetry in Gatsby. It is possible there was already some poetry in there.

three times into the valley of ashes I know the marvelous catalogue the sky, the sea, eternity the whole pathetic time flawless
VI, VII, VIII spared the fate Red, White, Blue did not as often do
a new end followed after an explosion of fame, a skyrocketing, a new generation, the Great Last publication, the death, the apotheosis extraodinary
Great Once (or Once Great?)

Saudade: A Found Poetry Project, Part 3

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unblinking but not physical eyes, looking down upon vague and dim outlines
unblinking but not physical eyes, looking down upon vague and dim outlines

Barely through the introduction and already the lines are tangled.

Also this poetry is crap. Presumably it will get better when we get into Fitzgerald’s prose.

Only one page in a week? This is going to drag on for awhile.

Is this an invocation? Who (or what) is it meant to invoke?

Saudade: A Found Poetry Project, Part 1

Chronicler2 Comments

According to Wikipedia, Saudade is “a word in Portuguese and Galician (from which it entered Spanish) that claims no direct translation in English. It describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never return.” Until recently I didn’t know that this feeling – that ghosts can haunt one’s future as readily as the past – had a name. This feeling has been my constant companion for as long as I can remember. In typical fashion, every time I become inspired I invent a new art or writing project for myself, because I need more projects in my life. 😛 A fortuitous encounter with an Alaska Airlines cocktail napkin has reawakened my interest in found poetry. So here’s the project: I’ll read a book and rip each page out as I finish it. Then I’ll turn the page into a piece of found poetry along the theme of Saudade. (I reserve the right to loosen my grip on the theme from time to time). I’ll post the finished pages here once a week. Sound good? Here’s the book: 2015-06-13 14.32.22

Color by Number #3: Wizard

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This is the latest in my series of Excel color-by-number worksheets. This one is aimed at introducing students to some of the ‘magical’ properties of multiplication. Multiplication by 1, 10, 11, 9, and squares are all touched on here. For those who aren’t rabid fans of 80’s Nintendo video games, the character is the Black Mage from the game Final Fantasy, unleashing a QUAKE spell.

Because math is earth-shaking.

My next challenge is to figure out how to let the player choose which spell the Black Mage casts. I sense some heavy IF/THEN in my future . . .

The Butcher’s Bill, Installment One

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One of the principal joys of being an author is killing your characters in imaginative ways. Don’t believe me? Try it.

For your amusement (and my own) I have assembled a table of the various gruesome ways characters have met their deaths in the work I have published so far. I’ll build new tables as I work on other projects, and publish them here from time to time, perhaps with a running total.

You will notice Perilous Jack’s name many times. The Perilous Adventures of Jack the Dragonslayer are Choose Your Own Adventure®-style stories, in which there are numerous ways for him to meet a bitter ending. Since all the action is directed by the reader, the squeamish or guilt-prone are advised to proceed with caution!

Enjoy!

Continue reading “The Butcher’s Bill, Installment One” →

Coming Soon: The New PerilousJack.com

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For several months now, SmackJeeves has hosted my interactive sprite comic Perilous Jack and the Frost Potion, under the domain name PerilousJack.com. But Frost Potion is only the first chapter of a longer tale. It’s time for PerilousJack.com to grow! The second chapter of the tale, Perilous Jack and the Magic Beans, is nearly complete, with the following chapters close behind. Along with Magic Beans, I’ll be rolling out an all-new PerilousJack.com, to better showcase all of Jack’s adventures.

The new PerilousJack.com will devote an individual page to each chapter of Jack’s adventures, with synopses, trivia, screenshots, and links to the sprite comics. There will also be pages dedicated to his special appearances, such as How to Cross the Flaming Chasm of ZLORK and the board game Numerian Nine.

Here’s a few screenshots from the new site:

Here’s the home page, showing one of five different header images.
These images link to a short description of each volume of Perilous Jack’s adventures. From there you can go to the sprite comic, hosted on SmackJeeves.com
This is the landing page for Perilous Jack and the Frost Potion. The header image is one of the five random headers that loads each time a page is viewed. The image is from Perilous Jack and the Cloud Castle.
This is the ‘About’ page, with my usual disclaimers about copyright and links to the other websites.
This is another view of the Home Page, showing another one of the random headers (in this case, a scene from Perilous Jack and the Plateau of the Endless), along with the repeating background.