It’s a universal fantasy, isn’t it?—that the animals learn to speak, and at last we learn what they’re thinking, our cats and dogs and horses: a new era in cross-species understanding. But nothing ever works out quite as we imagine. When the Change happened, it affected all the mammals we have shaped to meet our own needs. They all could talk a little, and they all could frame their thoughts well enough to talk. Cattle, horses, goats, llamas; rats, too. Pigs. Minks. And dogs and cats. And we found that, really, we prefer our slaves mute.

I seem to read online more, lately. Here’s short speculative story that takes a great premise and follows from it, based on the author’s ideas of human nature. Now this one is right up my alley, around science fiction and myth, and with a dash of my favorite mythical topic at that, the trickster idea (i own the anthology this is from).

It is also a story that really made me sad - because i totally bought into where she went. I fear people would be like that… It really made me pause.

It is a delightful story available for free - Enjoy! http://www.kijjohnson.com/evolution.html

Today I chose a poem by Terry Windling, The Night Journey

I’m too lazy to triple check my facts tonight, so here it is from personal memory.
Now Terry Windling is an artist of multiple talents. First she writes, and she wrote one of my favorite books, The Wood Wife. She also writes poetry (obviously!), short stories and non fiction in blogs and magazines, drawing on her extensive knowledge of myth, folk lore and all related arts. She is also a visual artist. Then she is an editor of many successful anthologies, and last - but not least, to me, since this one influences me every week , via the Endicott studio, magazine and blog she also constantly finds delightful art around myth and folk lore, and writes fascinating reflections around all mythical topics. I have mentioned Endicott more than once on this blog so I will not bore my few readers away by going on.

This poem is very much a bit of an enumeration poem, but very musical and evocative… makes it hard to pick an bit out of… besides the page states not to reproduce it without permission in any form. So just go there, I’m too chicken to ask for permission to reproduce an excerpt. But I have had the poem bookmarked a while and it makes me want to go in a forest take pictures, or even draw…

The Night Journey

http://www.endicott-studio.com/cofhs/cofinvoc.html

This is an absolute treat, I read the teasers and the first episode and enjoyed it a lot. I would not have heard about it except I read the blogs of several authors I enjoy, and some of the authors involved happen to be on my list - they then pointed me to the others and they have all been talking about this.

It’s also the product of a childhood imagination pastime being reinvented by the author the child has become.

So I thought I’d check it out. Could have been self indulgence, but so far it’s good

What is it? A donation supported episodic fiction - let me quote:

The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit hunts humanity’s nightmares. But there are nightmares humanity doesn’t dream are real.
The Behavioral Analysis Unit sends those cases down the hall.
Welcome to Shadow Unit.

Nice teaser, eh?

Read More...

Right now the blog is a bit of a mess, while I figure out where i want to take the design. All parts of the site should be functional, but it lacks a bit of polish. Still, I like the texture I created for it so I will make it work!

At the moment it only uses 2 images, and yes, the menu needs making up, so does the footer (needs a bar around it, of some kind, i think) etc. And it looks a lot nicer on a large screen, on low res that pattern looks weird.

The new working title of the blog is the lst line from the poerm “what the dog perhaps hears”, one of my favorites just read from Lisel Muller

What is it like up there
above the shut-off level
of our simple ears?
For us there was no birth cry,
the newborn bird is suddenly here,
the egg broken, the nest alive,
and we heard nothing when the world changed

It’s a simple whimsical poem - full text online here http://plagiarist.com/poetry/3139/

Of course the title on this blog will probably change again…

dog illustration by vgfreddy on deviantart http://vgfreddy.deviantart.com/art/the-faithful-dog-82171082

I had never heard of her but her poetry is full of a sense of wonder, curiosity, and often a touch of the mythical - I think.

Here’s a bit of “why we tell stories”

Because we used to have leaves
and on damp days
our muscles feel a tug,
painful now, from when roots
pulled us into the ground

and because our children believe
they can fly, an instinct retained
from when the bones in our arms
were shaped like zithers and broke
neatly under their feathers

and because before we had lungs
we knew how far it was to the bottom
as we floated open-eyed
like painted scarves through the scenery
of dreams, and because we awakened

and learned to speak

see the full poem at http://plagiarist.com/poetry/3140/

She’s now on my list of books to snatch, i have to read more

Some links
short bio http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/85
interview after she got the pulitzer http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/april97/mueller_4-14.html

One of my plans for this year is to read more poetry, as poetry is something nice to read which can also be enjoyed in small doses. And there is loads published online. So I figured I might as well post a few as I find them, to share the fun

Lara Gose lives in Bloomington, Indiana, with her fiancé, author Ed Gentry. A stint in graduate school, pursuing a doctoral degree in comparative literature, encouraged her to use her knowledge of literature, culture, and literary theory to develop her own creative writing. She writes short fiction, usually in the sci-fi, fantasy, or mystery genres, and when writing poetry she enjoys playing with forms like the pantoum, terzanelle, or sestina.

Visiting Grandma Lara Gose

Her hair is air-spun candy, white;
Cat’s-eye glasses curl across her wrinkled face.
Her bent body bends over a flowered puzzle;
Nervous, crooked fingers try this piece here,
But it doesn’t fit, so they try again somewhere else.
She says, “No, I guess it don’t quite go there.

“It looks like it just might go, but it don’t fit there.
See, there’s those little specks of white.
I reckon I’ll just have to try it some place else.”
I wonder if a raisin has more wrinkles than Grandma’s face.
“You pull up a chair, help me. Sit right here.
Let’s sit and talk, fix this thing up purty, this puzzle.”

...

read the full poem: http://www.strongverse.org/poems/gose_lara.html

Lara’s Blog http://lifl.blogspot.com/

This is a challenge for 2008 to read eight books in eight categories

I made it more complicated by deciding I would have to pick mostly books I already own - to go with my own 2008 themes of the year.

The themes I picked are the following

1. Magical realism
2. African Fiction
3. Politics and International trade
4. Science
5. Poetry
6. Around Myth
7. Science Fiction
8. History & Nature

Now the exact list might change based on what i snatch on bookmooch, but this will be up to date http://iphi.net/index.php/site/about/

One of my plans for this year is to read more poetry, as poetry is something nice to read which can also be enjoyed in small doses. And there is loads published online. So I figured I might as well post a few as I find them, to share the fun

Anyway the poem for this week is Solitaire, by Rhett Iseman Trull

I found this one on the site http://www.storysouth.com, which I was brought to via the Endicott journal team. As I have said before I often find good stuff thanks to Endicott! I have donated a little something to the site (it is always a good idea to donate a little something to sites you enjoy frequently, since it helps keep them alive. too many good sites have disappeared without a trace. The same goes for musicians who give their music away, or freeware authors too!)

Anyway, I had never heard of Rhett Iseman Trull, and most likely neither have the 4 readers of this blog....  ”Rhett Iseman Trull received her B.A. in English from Duke University and her M.F.A. in poetry from UNCG. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including The Greensboro Review, Iron Horse Literary Review, Poet Lore and Prairie Schooner. She has taught poetry classes at UNCG and in many high school and ESL classes throughout the triad. She lives in Greensboro, where she works at Acme Comics and edits the poetry journal, Cave Wall (http://www.cavewallpress.com).”

Solitaire by Rhett Iseman Trull

He has learned to love the loneliness of night,

The possible hauntings, faraway sirens, the silver
Of the sky. He used to follow all the advice: hot baths, warm milk,

Soft jazz, no caffeine. He tried sleeping with socks and without,
In silk or cotton sheets. He even took pills, which made him feel
Upon waking, as if he’d slept through a play’s second act.

...

read more at http://www.storysouth.com/poetry/2007/09/three_poems_3.html

The illustration is insomnia by fourcrows, see http://fourcrows.wordpress.com/2007/04/ for a larger size and fourcrows’ blog

Of course these are all (c) their authors and/or the place where they were published, and I am not sure whether can post the poem or part of it without breaching it. Posting an extract feels kind of like amputating the poem… but hopefully it gives a teaser.