In Silent Passage - Text and Visual Art by Chris DeRobertis (Dero): 2015

// Thursday, December 31, 2015

Questions in Time

What are the analogs?

Can you find them?

What are the variants?

Are you one of them?

What are the answers?

Do you have them?

What are the choices?

Can you make them?

What does tomorrow hold?

Sleep, then arise and forge it.

Tomorrow ever after — and within.
(The tendrils within.)

Tomorrow ever after, amen.

Today's Tendril...

#tomatoes

#rottentomatoes

When good hashtags go bad. <Wink>

// Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Books — they wear their cobwebs well.

Unlike technology, which is so...

temporary,

transient,

bursty,

like fireworks in the night.

// Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Just for Fun 12: Unboxing to Come

Today's Tendril...

If living life is like making a sandwich, then don't fill it with baloney.

// Monday, December 28, 2015

Today's Tendril...

What is "magic" of the highest order?

A miracle.

// Friday, December 25, 2015

Just for Fun 11: Don't Eat Yellow Snow (Men)

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// Tuesday, December 22, 2015

// Saturday, December 19, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Ugly duckling, worry less about your reflection in the pond, and more about those that would take great pleasure in making waves and leaving you in their wake.

// Friday, December 18, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Idealism and perfectionism are lofty and alluring, but easily turn into monsters and harsh task masters when left unbounded.

// Saturday, December 12, 2015

Believe (Christmas 2015)

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Version with a basic white frame (no stars): Believe (Christmas 2015) (BWF)

Copyright 2015 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Signals are corruptible, as are people.

Sequences aren't tamper proof, and neither is the collective.

Information is subjective, and can be subjugated, just like the masses.

Trust, but verify.

And always sweat the details.

// Thursday, December 10, 2015

Today's Tendril...

To fight or take flight,

Is simply a choice.

To SCREAM or be silent,

Only you can find your voice.

// Wednesday, December 09, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Use your brain and your strength, but don't let your heart become black ice and don't let your soul become stained with hate.

Never abandon prayer; not to spite the naysayers, but in spite of them.

And through it all, make certain that it's known, come hell or high water, "Don't tread on me."

// Tuesday, December 08, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Cherish the memory.

Protect the moment.

Pray for the future.

// Sunday, November 29, 2015

Tones of Yesterday

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// Friday, November 27, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Black Friday is really about reds, greens, and grays—

Angry shoppers. Angry drivers. Angry workers.

MONEY. sale. MONEY. buy. MONEY. things. MONEY. want.

Morals and ethics.

// Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Skyway 7: The Sky Electric

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Today's Tendril...

Beliefs are boundaries.

Because everything that lives eventually dies.

Because everything that is known is still just the tip of the iceberg.

Because intentions, actions, and outcomes are often viewed through the lens of consequence.

Beliefs are boundaries.

// Friday, November 20, 2015

Without Words (from Within)

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Today's Tendril...

A life of relativism is poorly lived.

A life of absolutes is hardly lived.

A life of "balance", even one painted in shades of gray, bends in the wind without breaking, but remains rooted nonetheless.

// Sunday, November 08, 2015

Ideas in Motion, Experiment 523D73CD

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Companion Today's Tendril...

Creativity is all about ideas in motion. And the will—the fortitude—to keep moving,

threading,

and transforming with them.

About

A basic "ideas" notebook became its own subject matter and was transformed into a highly stylized version of itself (thanks to the perpetual chaos and tranquility of a creative space stitched with tendrils).

Dedicated to my Notebook Brother.

Copyright 2015 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

// Saturday, November 07, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Satisfaction is a cup of hot chocolate sipped slowly when wrapped in a blanket of melancholy,

And the world outside your window is raining leaves,

And the mood of the day has been painted in soft shades of sunset somber.

// Thursday, November 05, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Guilt — the termites of conscience.

// Friday, October 30, 2015

Fallen (2015)

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Gone in a Blink

Life is a blur,

Gone in a blink.

Day after day,

Pushed to the brink.

Pile on the work,

Do more with less.

Take, but not give,

Lord, we're a mess.

Today's Tendril...

The trouble with any celebration victory is that it places focus on what was and does nothing for what's next.

// Sunday, October 25, 2015

Real for a Moment 3: Lampposts and Moon-clouds

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Original photograph by M. DeRobertis (Used with kind permission)
Artwork & unreality by C. DeRobertis
Dedicated to D, with deepest thanks

Today's Tendril...

Each of us has a horizon in our hearts.

On some days we travel toward sunrise.

On other days we travel toward sunset.

It is only when we stop travelling that the journey is truly over.

// Saturday, October 24, 2015

Boundaries

I rise when the sun yawns," said the vampire.

"I prowl when the moon is a white hole in the night," said the werewolf.

"I haunt the living when the clock strikes midnight," said the ghost.

"I come ashore when the tide is high," said the sea monster.

"I appear on the left shoulder whenever the opportunity presents itself — which is often," said the Devil. And the Devil smiled.

The others felt a chill go up their spines.

The End

Copyright 2015 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

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

// Thursday, October 22, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Travelling the road of enlightenment doesn't prevent the fog of confusion from rolling in.

// Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Never judge a book by its cover, because the book may respond in kind.

// Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Sarcoterygian

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

Today's Tendril...

What's at the heart of vanity and pride?

"i"

Today's Tendril... Bridges (Remixed)

Burning bridges — idiotic.

Letting bridges fall into disrepair — lazy.

Never building bridges — lonely.

Washed out bridges — unforeseeable.

Original version in this Today's Tendril...

// Sunday, October 18, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Regrets are anchors of the soul.

// Saturday, October 17, 2015

XO

XO Copyright 2015 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved. insilentpassage.com

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About

Based on a photo taken at The Great Jack O'Lantern Blaze years ago, "XO" is an artified celebration of the season — and a wonderful reminder of an evening spent meandering through fields of orange.

Copyright 2015 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Every graveyard was once new.

Alternate Version

The life of a graveyard begins with death.

// Friday, October 09, 2015

Up Close and Personal 2: Leafing Through Time

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// Monday, October 05, 2015

Corvus Emerging

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Today's Tendril...

How do you know when a relationship has gone bad?

When you go from being the apple of someone's eye, to the worm of their eye.

// Sunday, October 04, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Rabbit holes and rat holes — easy to enter, difficult to exit.

// Saturday, October 03, 2015

Specimen 1

Specimen 447 Copyright 2015 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved. insilentpassage.com

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SID: 447

Today's Tendril...

There are signs of maturity that often go unseen —

The scars,

The stitches,

The scrapes,

And the dents that the heart collects over time.

Unseen, that is, until they surface in form of perseverance,

Patience,

And discipline.

// Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Age is just a number, until the mirror "proves" otherwise (or provides other lies).

// Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Today's Tendril...

The bridge between dream and reality is built with passion, persistence, discipline, and a touch of pioneering spirit.

// Saturday, September 26, 2015

Today's Tendril...

We spend far too much time trying to get into the spotlight, or to be the "I" of the limelight—to become the "star" for all to see—and not enough time trying to stay in the God-light (but doing a fine job of acting like a deer in Satan's headlights).

Norroskel

// Thursday, September 24, 2015

Today's Tendril...

The path to "happily ever after" goes through the ever present now.

// Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Sometimes the only tide that can be changed is the one in your mind.

Today's Word is...

Positive.

As in:

Positive charge (positively charged)
Positive thinking (the glass is half full)
Positive outcomes (the green path)

// Sunday, September 13, 2015

Everybody Has a Bad Day Occasionally

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// Thursday, September 10, 2015

Today's Tendril...

It's not the skeletons in the closet that should scare you.

It's the ones in your head that you should fear.

// Wednesday, September 09, 2015

Today's Tendril...

The Devil comes to you in the form that is most appealing to your tastes in sin and temptation.

// Saturday, September 05, 2015

Today's Tendril... Bridges

Burning bridges — stupidity.

Letting bridges fall into disrepair — apathy.

Never building bridges — solitude.

Washed out bridges — fate.

When Summer Dreams of Winter

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A Pilgrim in Progress (A Prayer, of Sorts (Remixed))

God,

Catch my tears,

Cleanse them of their fear,

Their pain,

And their sadness,

Then return them to my soul,

So that I may once again,

Know the completeness,

Of a pilgrim in progress.

Amen.

About

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

// Friday, September 04, 2015

Today's Tendril...

God is not afraid of a microscope, a stethoscope, or a telescope.

The scientific mind and the spiritual heart are part of the same soul.

And consider this: What came before the Big Bang?

God.

// Thursday, September 03, 2015

Danger! Identity Amalgamation

The danger of interaction.

A little of you rubs off on me.
A little of me can be seen in you.
Identity loss? Or, identity amalgamation?

The danger of appreciation.

Liking leads to evaluating,
Which leads to understanding,
Which can lead to adaptation, then incorporation.
Identity loss? Or, identity amalgamation?

The danger of influence.

Teacher. Role model. Leader. Hero.
Whose voice is the one in your head?
Identity loss? Or, identity amalgamation?

The danger of imitation.

To be derivative.
To be a second rate knockoff.
To cross the line and become a thief.
Identity lost. Identity theft.
Game over.

Companion Today's Tendril...

What should originality always include?

You.

What should it always exclude?

"Them."

These text compositions are works of fiction. Names, places, institutions, events, incidents, characters, persons, locations, contexts, scenes, scenarios, symbols, glyphs, iconography, and/or organizations either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Full Creative Writing Disclaimer.

// Tuesday, September 01, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Each breadcrumb,

Each footprint,

And each mind-spark,

Contains a little piece of the milestone ahead —

Even if that piece

Is nothing more

Than the essence

Of the "what is yet to be."

// Monday, August 31, 2015

Moments in Time

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

Today's Tendril...

All philosophy is contrived.

It only becomes truth when it connects with the heart and mind (of an individual — or the masses).

// Friday, August 28, 2015

Skyway 6: Real for a Moment 2

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The Geometry of Life

Birth to death — the circle of life.

There is no equilateral in a love triangle.

But there are three sides to the story.

(To every story.)

The dunce cap — the cone of disgrace.

Sacred shapes?

Perhaps.

But all-in-all, what we really want is three square meals a day, a triangular roof over our heads, and a few gold bars in the bank.

And when the final curtain is pulled, a six-sided coffin would be nice, though a four-sided casket will do just fine.

Copyright 2015 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

// Monday, August 24, 2015

The Scout and the Sentry at Tiberius 3

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As I rounded the bend the sentry spotted me at the same time that I spotted it, and we froze.

With our eyes locked, I couldn't help but wonder, which of us was the watcher and which of us was the watched?

But the only question that truly mattered was primal and not philosophical: which of us would strike first?

Copyright 2015 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

Today's Tendril...

Everything is urgent.

Everything is rushed.

Everything is do it now, want it now, have it now!

Stop.

Think.

Pause before you press —

<ENTER>,

"Send,"

the issue.

// Sunday, August 23, 2015

Today's Tendril...

Openly left.
Staunchly right.

Faithfully theist.
Blankly atheist.

Black-and-white scientist.
Shades of gray artist.

Find a view that's right for you.

But don't tread on—don't trample—the rights of others.

Copyright 2015 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.

// Saturday, August 22, 2015

Frantic Distractions

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Today's Tendril...

Love doesn't need a story book moment to be perfect.

Expressing love, or being in the presence of love, is a perfect moment.

// Friday, August 21, 2015

Fault Lines

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// Friday, August 14, 2015

Today's Tendril...

The trouble with popping your cork (in the company of others) is that you end up losing a part of yourself that you never intended: the respect of others.

// Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Today's Tendril...

"Fundamental change" is nothing more than incremental change with a tactical play and a strategic purpose.

// Tuesday, August 11, 2015

My Purpose - Antellum, Angel of Separation

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Today's Tendril...

Temptation is only sin deep.

// Sunday, August 09, 2015

Characters Within (Interis Dieagolis) 5

"Go ahead and 'think outside the box' all you want. I'm going to build my own box," said Maverick to Platitude.

Today's Tendril...

"Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven," † is a lot like saying "better to have an STD than to be abstinent."

† Paradise Lost (Book I), John Milton

// Saturday, August 08, 2015

Today's Tendril...

We want transparency in governments, corporations, and religious institutions.

Transparent "friends" we can do without.

// Wednesday, August 05, 2015

Remnants of Winter (Remix) (A Prayer, of Sorts)

Remnants of Winter (Remix) Copyright 2015 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved. insilentpassage.com

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About

Recently I came across the original version of this piece and I winced. The original's dark, overly saturated reds—an attempt to call to the mind the surface of the Red Planet—seemed like a good idea at the time.

Thank goodness remixes aren't limited to music. At least not in my mind. >^)

Copyright 2015 Christopher V. DeRobertis. All rights reserved.