Cacophony Of The Soul: Select Writings Of Zarn Ishtare

[Zarn Ishtare]

Red And Black is chaos of some form.

[USSRGirl]

I thought so. Hmm... I was curious about the pink, white, yellow part. Kinda like chaos and order or... Spring and Chaos... gaaah... I hated that anime with a vengeance.

[Zarn Ishtare]

I thought so. Hmm... I was curious about the pink, white, yellow part. Kinda like chaos and order or... Spring and Chaos... gaaah... I hated that anime with a vengeance.

No, that's races of people.

[USSRGirl]

Ooooh I get it now. :: Hits self on head :: Eh okay. Carry on.

[Photosoph]

Very cool; I've enjoyed all these poems. ^_^ I really liked the bit about the tear going down and becoming a river round the island. Very cool imagery in that.

Not quite in the state to say a lot at the moment -but I enjoyed these ones very much. ^_^

[Anna Mae]

Goodness. I missed quite a lot in my absence.

“Nonsense Words: Of Prestidigitation.â€

[Zarn Ishtare]

On a different note:

Anna Mae

Anime

I just got it.


Wow.

[Anna Mae]

Yup. I got the idea from a mix-up with my mom. One day she asked me who this really popular person named Anna Mae was; she had heard my brother and I talk about "Anna Mae" a lot. It took me a while to figure out that she meant anime. I found it amusing.

[Zarn Ishtare]

Anyway, what are your thoughts on the newer stuff?

[Anna Mae]

"Found On An Answering Machine" was interesting, although I am not sure what to say about it. The part about the painted china plate was confusing.

In “Outside of the University A Monster Waits" I found the line "The private butler, the private cook (myself)" amusing.

In "Essa Two" the imagery of the tear drop surrounding an island was good. I also liked your description of the stone statues. In addition, I appreciated your use of colors in the second stanza.

I'm noticing that in these poems you have been often mentioning white china.

I don't know if you intended this in "Essa Three", but I appreciated your sequence of sand... sound... down.

[Zarn Ishtare]

The painted china plate: I've seen gravestones with china portraits of the deceased inlaid into the stone.

As for my general use of white china...it's just this random thing that I imbued with different meaning.

[Zarn Ishtare]

Tesserim.

"Come away from the window, Tesserim
The sea will still be there in the morning."






Sorry, I've been alittle dry of inspiration these days. I'm working on it.

[USSRGirl]

Hmm... interesting in a short Haiku-ish type of way. Where did you get the name Tesserim from?

[Photosoph]

Yes -Tesserim does sound like a cool name. Does it have a particular meaning? Though it reminds me of the word 'tesseract', which is a four-dimensional cube. Oddly enough, I learned that while watching a Disney show. o_O

It may be short, but I like it; it says without too many words a simple message, and gives room for the imagination to wonder about the speaker, the person it's spoken too, the surroundings, and the message itself. For the words of the poem do seem to suggest some character for the speaker -a learned, though young sort of man, in my opinion, talking to a girl looking out the window of a house at the sea. ^_^ ...Or at least that's how it appears in my head. ~_^

It's good to read some more poetry for you. I was surprised that after coming back from being away for a while, there wasn't any new poetry! Sometimes, I find it hard to keep up because you post a lot; at other times, like now, I miss it. Hehe; but neither is too extreme. ^_^ It's just nice to be able to read your poetry.

[Zarn Ishtare]

In The Hills

By...Snowy Mountains

The Gnarled Oak Reaches With

Hands Of

Creamy White

Cracked By Time

To A Sky Of Blissful Down.

"In The Mountains, Speaking Slowly",

An Essa By De Luit

[Photosoph]

...Wow. and I love the title. That's poetic by itself. ^_^
'Gnarled'... 'cracked by time'... Those were the lines/descriptions that really stood out to me. A beautiful poem that draws a picture of a striking figure (the tree).
I also loved the description of 'down' for a cloudy sky.
Hmm... wait: I took that as meaning 'down' as in feather down, like on a bird; but did you mean 'down' as in the direction down?

[Zarn Ishtare]

As in the feather down.

the title is purposely like that: I want people to read it slowly.

[Anna Mae]

I, too, wonder about the name Tesserim. The closest thing to sense that I can make of it is the Tanintharyi Division.

As far as "In The Mountains, Speaking Slowly" goes, I share Photosoph's sentiments.

[Zarn Ishtare]

Every time I chase her

she goes skittering away

How can the silence catch the Fray?

Tempest Tossed

I toss my head,

Stormclouds my pillow

Hurricanes my bed


How can the shadow love the Day?

Where can Light and Shadow Play?

How can the Silence Catch the Fray?


She dwells in cavern spaces and forever lays

at ancient grotto bottoms till the end of days

upon what softness does she make her bed?

On what restful spot does Silence lay her head?


What sweetness is the quiet of the warm summer day?

What art makes such summery life go away?

What can make my loved one stay?

How does the Silence catch the Fray?




"Silence And The Fray"

This is probably unfinished...it needs work...but I really wanted you to guys to have something to look at, and my more artificial style is beginning to wear thin.

[Zarn Ishtare]

God's iron mouth has kissed me,

And from that mouth

those coalish kisses sprung

Hot upon my sweating brow

the darkness on my shoulders

chased off by

furnace light and

furnace heat

and the sound of iron feet.


And the coals transferred thus

laid in my heart, full of toil
burns away all rot and rust

Until only stainless steel is left behind.

Now my burnished heart is marked by the divine!


"The Kiss Of God"

[USSRGirl]

Oooh. Nice stuff. Silence and the Fray is one of the best I've read by you (even if you ARE slacking off on your duties to Temuoplis to pursue poetic endeavors >`.>;; ). I love this stanza: "How can the shadow love the Day? Where can Light and Shadow Play? How can the Silence Catch the Fray?" Interesting contrast. As for CC - did you mean to capitalize Catch and undercase Silence the first time you mention it (I would keep it capitalized as a name for consistency)? Just patrolling for typos. (I know you asked me for crit before, but honestly poetry is harder for me to crit than stories because of the freeness of it. Still, yours flow very well)

[Photosoph]

Wow; two more beautiful pieces.

'Silence and the Fray' I can see that yes, it could be improved just so the rhythm or something flows a little better, but in this form it's still really remarkable. I love all the opposites, and the way you've just written the whole thing. Somehow, perhaps because of the ideas and imagery and beat, it reminds me of a (good) music video, or at least the words to a really good song.

What do you mean by your 'artificial style is wearing thin'? Do you mean that you've been writing in the same sort of style, using eleborate words and such, but now you're coming back to feeling or a style you think of as more natural?

'The Kiss of God'
...Love it. Beautiful imagery here, even if because of my immaturity or whatever the scene of a kiss still holds some other ideas for me at first, which at first disrupts the image. But that's just a me thing.
Sheesh... I love how you've worked together the fire and the metal image. Again, as I think I may have mentioned in some other post, maybe in different words, the theme reminds me of God refining us as silver in a crucible (silver furnace). Very beautiful.

[Zarn Ishtare]

In order of appearance:


No Temmy, it ain't a Typo. I typed it that way for a reason.


Soph, I've been writing in a very ritualized, dramaticized style ever since clean mountain. I got heavy into Minimalism, trying to express the most in few words, and built a style on it. Now, I feel like I'm progressing (or regressing) abit. The second poem was actually me writing in an older style after reading this thread for inspiration. The first is more in mood with my current...changing poetic nature.


The mental awkwardness of the scene of the kiss isn't an accident; the intimacy one should have with God and human romantic affairs hold some things in common, although other things are quite obviously far removed from each other. I wanted to express the feeling without directly saying it, and a kiss was the best way for me to do that. Now, I'm going to try and write some more....

[Photosoph]

Excellent. Thank you for the explanation.

I wondered if it was something like that. With my drawing, I think I find a similarity. I draw and draw in one style, and get really got at it and can do it with greater ease. But then I also get kind of 'stuck' in that style. Even at the moment, I'm going and actually expending some effort in my art by trying to learn and improve my skills in areas that I have more difficulty with. In other words... it's time for a change.

[Anna Mae]

"Silence And The Fray" is very poetic. Yes, I know that sounds dumb and I'm sorry, but it's true. It expresses ideas through imagery and flows nicely, with good rhyme to boot.

Is the incorrect subject-verb agreement in "The Kiss Of God" intentional as well? And I would read it more smoothly if you had a bit more clarifying punctuation. In any case, I really like this one also. In fact, it may be one of my favorites of yours. If we are intimate with God, his sheer power will burn and refine us. Very, very good.

[Zarn Ishtare]

I'll be gone for awhile, sadly. months, maybe.


So, here you go, one last piece of what I'm workin' on...


"Within my soul

Is like a mud caked hole

or a church thats

been snowed in".

It's a work in progress.

[Anna Mae]

I'll miss you. In the meantime I shall ponder this most recent abstruseness.

[Photosoph]

Hope everything goes well for you Zarn.

Nice -room for improvement, but very good idea already.

[USSRGirl]

Zarn you lazy bum of a naval officer. T___T

Ahem... j/k. Hmm, haven't checked this thread in awhile. Your latest poem - haikuish yet dark with a proverb kind of twist to it. O.O I'd like to see this one expanded if you get time.

[Dante]

Yo Zarn! I KNOW YOUR ON HERE!!! I can't convince you not to join the marines... but seeing as how you'd be going to the same place anyways, you could always consider going Blackwater or one of the other places, getting a higher salary to do the same job, and get higher priority missions with better body armor and guns with absolutely no need to follow international law (Thats what PBS and all the other (albeit highly liberal) channels I watch say). Meh same location, different badge, same country... plus you can likely walk out if you don't like it like a real job... at least that's what me thinks, could be wrong but hey if I am, why not just correct me and smack me upside the head...