Today's Tendril...

God, guide me in the way of little things, so that I can find the footprints of serenity in the vastness of the day.

Alternate Version

God, guide me in the way of little things, so that I might find a path away from the colossal maw of the ever present now.

© Copyright 2009 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Status! State! Fried.

 

About

The status of any project (personal, professional, recreational, etc.) can be reduced to various states of green, yellow, and red.

The status path is colored black and blue.

© Copyright 2009 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Tendril: My Frankensteins

© Copyright 2009 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Reclaiming my balance one thought, one dream, and one Tendril at a time.

Alternate Version

Reclaiming my balance one thought, one dream, and one prayer at a time.

© Copyright 2009 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Tendrils 4

Nothing "pushes the envelope" quite like inspiration; aggravation; desperation.

 

Bend, but do not break.
    Hold, but do not take.
Speak, but do not lie.
    Help, but do not pry.

 

The pragmatist and the opportunist differ only in their perceptions of need versus greed.

 

Practice is the art of learning how not to think, but to do; to act with precision, endurance, and excellence.

 

The perks of loyalty are best enjoyed quietly.

 

Watching the news is like poking a wound – it hurts, but you do it anyway.

 

Under extreme pressure absolutes tend to become one of two things: absolute knots or absolutely nots.

 

A good idea is often a casualty of committee.

 

There's a fine line between "love it" and "covet."

 

Having a belief is easy.

Living a belief is hard.

 

Nothing is true until you believe it.

 

Every sincere smile is a message from the heart and cannot be contained behind a mask.

Every kiss is an invitation, an obstacle, and a commitment.

Everything that is learned about the soul—everything that we are drawn to, everything that repels us—either brings us closer to a union of dreams and reality, or creates an emotional chasm a thousand tears wide.

 

Some days I feel like the string between two (dented) tin cans.

 

Having a bird's-eye-view doesn't give you the right to sh*t on the world.

 

God, catch my tears, cleanse them, and then baptize me with their purity – Your purity.

Let the tears of Heaven rain down upon me.

I'll wait for the rainbow.

I always have.

I always will.

 

If you want to be free of your demons, then do not give them a place to roost in the heart, mind, and soul.

 

Ideas once written can become like flesh – and bitten.

 

Frustration: Trying to rise to the occasion, only to be brought down by the stupidity of others.

 

Do you think God created goldfish, in part, to help parents teach children about death, loss, and sadness?

© Copyright 2009 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Tag, Scan, Succumb

      "It was inevitable," he said, in a sad, despairing voice.

      "What was inevitable," she asked cautiously; afraid in advance of what he might say.

      "That our molecules would be tagged with barcodes. That our lives would be like commodities. They're trying to track our soul-stuff, Olivia," bemoaned Kane, who was now noticeably irritated. "They're trying to put Big Brother right into our very atoms."

      With a sudden intensity, Kane added, "They're marking us all, Olivia. Making us into their things. Don't you see that? They want to craft individuality as they see fit. They want nothing less than the ability to enforce selective uniqueness."

      Then, with a new found resolve, Kane added through clenched teeth, "Tag, scan, succumb—that's their master plan. I can't allow that to happen, Olivia. I just can't. They must be stopped. They must be...punished."

 

Tendrils

Designer genes express the arrogance of man.

 

Will Angels use scanners at the Pearly Gates?

 

Privacy today is a like a unicorn — a myth and a dream.

 

They say that your sense of identity comes from within; that it's what's inside that counts. Barcodes in our bodies turn the sense of self into a sense of societal control.

 

"So there I was, just relaxing on the beach, when I felt something in my palms. Not touching me, mind you. Nothing like sand or water against my skin, but something in my skin. I looked at my palms and was horrified. My skin was raised slightly, and red, and formed this: Sunblock patent SB-VGFU-YUL343341. Restricted public use."

 

"Price check on intelligence cells - aisle four."

 

You have been scanned and we have determined that several of your parts are damaged; several are obsolete. Therefore, you are damaged. You are obsolete. You will be erased for the greater good.

 

Barcodes serve a critical purpose and I can't imagine modern business without them. I just don't want them in me.

 

About

A vignette and a batch of Tendrils, all loosely coupled by barcoding.


© Copyright 2009 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

This text composition is a work of fiction. Names, places, institutions, events, incidents, characters, persons, locations, and/or organizations either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Full Creative Writing Disclaimer.

Between Two Ends

I'm alone,
 but I'm alive.
I'll lament,
 but I'll survive.

Sometimes down,
 but never out,
I'll defy,
 this crushing doubt.

Faith in God,
 helps keep me sane.
I'll lick my wounds,
 and use their pain.

And day by day,
 I'll make my way,
Back to the dream,
 I sent away.

I'LL BE ME,
 Between two ends!

Dedicated to all that: (1) are to the left or to the right of the so-called "center," (2) won't give in to the pressures of the crowd, (3) refuse to bow down to those that abuse their positions of authority, and (4) march to the beat of their own drummers (and thus considered misfits or outsiders).

© Copyright 2009 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Why?

© Copyright 2009 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

The God Green

The world seems unusually vivid today,
   even though the sky is a soft expanse of undifferentiated grey,
   and a steady drizzle is creating an illusion of nearly invisible lines,
      shifting and sliding
         with the slightest breeze.

And then there's the green.
The type of green that only appears in Spring.
The virgin green.

It is seen in the plants,
   the trees,
      and the grass.

This is the green we mourn in Autumn,
and can't wait to see again
   when the whiteness of Winter
      swallows our feet.

This is the green we recall at the peak of Summer,
as the Sun bleaches,
   and burns,
      and browns,
         all that it touches.

This is God green.

And I am an ant on a leaf in the rain…

 

About

Weather and the world outside my window; another "mood of the day" piece.

A true story, except the part about being an ant. (Although, aren't there days when we all feel like an ant on a leaf in the rain?)

© Copyright 2009 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Rabbit and Owl

Rabbit	:	Why do you bother?
Owl	:	Bother with what?
Rabbit	:	With what you're doing. Your so-called "art." Why do you bother?
Owl	:	Because it serves the self.
Rabbit	:	So, what you're saying is that your art is self-serving.
Owl	:	No, I did not say that.
Rabbit	:	Yes you did! You just told me that your art is selfish.
Owl	:	No, you asked me why I do my art and I told you that it serves the self. I did not tell you that what I do is self-serving or selfish. You are the one that rearranged my answer to fit your interpretation.
Rabbit	:	Oh, come on. Serving the self or self serving, or even plain old being selfish, what's the difference?
Owl	:	The difference is as striking as the differences in sunlight and moonlight.
Rabbit	:	Oh, please. Now you're just playing with words.
Owl	:	No, I am not. I most certainly am not.
Rabbit	:	Yes. Yes you are. You're splitting hairs.
Owl	:	Trust me, you would know if I were splitting hairs.

 

Somewhere in the distance a drummer plays a rimshot...

© Copyright 2009 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Ghost Demon

"Don't look away, but do look in,
'cause there's always room for a little sin.

I'll whisper out a tempting sound,
and be on your shoulder,
till you turn around."

© Copyright 2009 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

The Notebook Brothers

They write and create,
  and doodle and devise,
because that is what they do.

They cannot separate that aspect of themselves anymore than a cloud can separate itself from the water and ice that make it a cloud.

Why it is a part of them,
and for what purpose,
is the ghost within them,
  glimpsed only from the corners of their minds.

And the impression that remains is a source of frustration,
a vapor of stress,
  and the tendrils of pain.

But it is through these things that they arrive at the wonder,
the joy,
  and the intensity of creativity.

This is how they've amassed volumes of notebooks,
  why they've spent endless hours deep within their pages,
and learned to live within the burning sphere of, "but for what purpose?"

The thoughts and "thinkerings" that flow from their minds,
  and then captured in their ever opening-and-closing notebooks,
is who they are.

For them to do otherwise would be to live in a cell filled with a thousand pens,
  but not a single notebook.


Dedicated to my Notebook Brother.

© Copyright 2009 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.