Jul
First of all, I LOVE what has been submitted so far. Really. Jesse gets it. Sal, Parisianne, Wendy get it. Mike Casper gets it. And most certainly Mike Stang gets it. (did I miss anyone?)
But here is what I am looking for, hoping for.
We are a nation where the schism between what we say, what we represent as true, and what is really going on below the surface is VAST.
The falseness that we create leaves everyone with a hollow feeling, a void.
What really does go on beneath the surface of our lives?
I can think of two examples that I would like you to consider when you send me something to post. The first is Mick Jagger. Play Fool to Cry.
He f-ing nails it. The void. He puts his daughter on his knee. She says, “Daddy, what’s wrong?” And he can’t articulate it! She only sees his tears.
And then we have that pretty boy, Tom Brady. Look at his chiseled face. Handsome. Sweet. Innocent. Everyone’s hero. Too pretty to do anything wrong. White America’s O.J. Simpson. Represents all our finest virtues. Yet, beneath the surface, cunning, deceit, contempt for those who believe in justice and fairness, contempt for the values we share. Destroys his cellphone and then claims that this is not about cheating, but due-process. What is going on BENEATH THE SURFACE of this hero?
I want to save the world, and all I have are words: my words, and yours.
I am angry.
Come on, Literati! Dig down deep, and REALLY let us know what’s going on beneath the surface. In you, in our lives, or in our country. You choose, but keep it real.
I need a drink.
write something that MEANS something!
Yeah, you missed Wendy, our beloved maritime ghost.
let me fix that right away! She most definitely addressed the void!
Heavy breath…I believe that I am guilty of coding my poems and stories, but each one is part of me ripped out and thrown on the pages people read. My therapist hates that I live in fantasyland, but reality is terrifying if you are me. My own mother and father would not let me be me, most men give me one arm hugs and women have to tell me they are straight to feel safe. But if you want REALITY that MEANS something to me, tell me in a reply here or privately, but beware of asking for what you want, because I will write it and send it in as lightning bolts from Zeus’s transparency.
I vowed from the first time I heard “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock read to me by a beautiful smoke mouthed young woman that I would not become J. Alfred. “Do I dare disturb the universe?”, “That is not what I meant at all, that is not it at all.” So what do you really mean? So what do you really believe? Go on and disturb this universe. A young man in my freshman rhethoric class said, “I am just one person throwing a brick at the universe.” which I still remember and live by. Go ahead, take off the gloves, leave your fingerprints and throw the brick of truth at us. Rip away the vail that hides what lies beneath your soul and ours. I personally dare you. You show me yours and I’ll show you mine.
I’ve drawn a line in the sand so many times I’ve backed up into The Mojave Desert,
setting flames to my thousand modifications of goal lists and vision boards.
I haven’t had a decent orgasm since 1992 that wasn’t manufactured by my own imagination. (Notice the word decent…should a women just settle for decent)
I became a practicing goddess in 2014. I have no idea what that means but I find it’s the best way to learn. (I hate manuals and rules). The tantric experience has wrapped around my sensuality like molten lava. Who knows when the volcano will erupt? I say run like hell!…or take a chance.
Part 2…Oh…I will never be a homecoming queen, a soul train dancer, or a professional lap dancer. (I need to expand my ambition)
I’m in love for the first time in my life. And I don’t even know who with. My life is a beautiful mess. But it is underneath the surface –with-in the surge– where you’ll find the guts of existence. It all makes sense now…or not. What’s your story?
Being in love begins only when we fall in love with our own soul first by forgiving our mortal self for our inner and outer trespasses as well as all else that is flawed in others. The soul is the radiant light from the opal not the opal stone. Being in love is a return to the radiant glow of Eden’s garden-soul despite the loss of mortal innocence and the gain of knowledge.
Part 1
Thank God !!! Real personal intimacy in this contest – finally !!! Finally someone with “the guts of existence”. The bluntness to admit the truth, that the deeper intimacy hiding “under the surface” needs to be discovered. That’s the real frontier!!!
Saddle up cowgirl. You’ll always have what it takes!
I’ll graze to Dale Evan’s “Happy Trails” and nay along,
As a horse without a saddle, put out to eastern pasture,
The sun is setting slow on the western ridge trail ride,
What can I do, but care about distant, cloudy weather?
Part 2
Thank you “kyle”, I can now breathe knowing someone other than Thorn gets the combination of personal intimacy, passion, art and cursing humanities’ polite civilities of discretion.
You don’t have to prove to me that you are a “goddess”, because I knew it from the first words I read from you. Instead of smashing my mirror or seeing in that I am not the fairest in the land, REALITY is going to win. Who will join-in this writing challenge. No more Wizard of Oz behind the curtain my dear Michael Stang. I accept the challenge and hope others will too. Brava Kyle, brava.
I, with all due respect, refer you to my entry in this contest, “Child”.
I’ve been the one behind the curtain Michael. Your story is raw reality vicariously felt and shared by you with one degree of separation if I read correctly. I favor zero degrees of separation.
Your choice, of course.
What I meant is that the curtain blocks the “Beneath the Surface”. No one but “The Child” knows what they think in their last moments and only you really know Michael Stang. Zero degrees to me means unapologetic exposure through public confession. We all are guilty of being curtains from each other. My favorite people let me into themselves. One degree to me is “The women come and go talking of Michelangelo”. – T. S. Eliot They are moved by him, but not him.
What is hidden underneath for one may be the surface for another.
well said. AND you did not require more than750 characters to get that across!
That was my intent. To find another perspective.Thanks for seeing it.
Kenneth, beneath the surface your comments are often correct about my writing (not 100%, but a good amount) and it’s annoying as heck, but, I appreciate you not blowing smoke up my butt, and once I’m confident in myself enough to adequately defend my literary voice (in the near future), I can’t wait to write for you (as in, write a piece that YOU would call note perfect). That challenge ain’t for you, it’s for myself. Same with F J Dagg and Sal Buttaci, Mike Stang and Mike Casper – for my own reasons.
“It takes guts to take a hit. Guts I have.” – A Knight’s Tale
And that’s what you get from me when you’ve had sufficient coffee!
mmmm. Coffee and Guts. I’m stealing that title!
Then don’t write about the surface, but what is “Beneath the Surface”. The greatest benefactor isn’t the reader, but the writer. What part of you are you finally willing to face and by doing so discover more about? Star Trek Paraphrase: “To go where you have never gone before, the final frontier. These are the adventures beneath the surface.”
Argghhh! The reality, the “reveal”, the intimacy, the candor, should NOT be in the comments, but in the FICTION that is written and presented. COMMENTS are to be directed towards the WRITING! Does the writing work? Let the writer know if it does. Does the writing NOT work? It’s all subjective, but if there is something ambiguous, or if the writer has failed to convey his/her thoughts, ideas, moods, impressions, insights–whatever is the apparent intent–let the writer know it. This is a writer’s workshop, not a confessional booth.
Have to agree with Thorn on this one. Quite the reaction from the tribe (good to see), but if most of these were in a flash format and submitted entries, I feel the heat of this contest would fuel and make the Merman blush.
Yes. I do agree Mike.
“The world changes in direct proportion to the number of people willing to be honest about their lives.” –Armistead Maupin Thanks for this quote, Kristy Webster. That’s the significance of this contest, to be the archeologist of our own existence, excavate through rubble and sand until we have found our own lost civilization that has always been there, beneath the surface.
Gravitas has come to visit us at the Towers I see… or beneath the surface it has been brewing all along. Strike hard, if the intention and result is growth.
Strike hard…”It’s the only way you will excavate anything worthy of one’s greatest fear. Exposure”
What lies underneath is what is most feared. Not looking will make it go away. But underneath is where the juicy lies – the places that can explode outward and upward to bring more of what and who we are. Bring it on. Don’t hide behind the fear… bring it up from below and throw it into the ethers for they are just words.
They are never “just” words. Out of the heart’s abundance the mouth speaks – whether openly or covertly.
That is true Mac – they are just words, but how they are presented and/or spoken whether from the heart or the mind carries the impact. Their frequency is what tells the story. I do agree with you.
I’m inspired! I too need a drink now.
cheers!
LOL