If you like to know...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Shea

It's quite a long story, but I'll try to be brief:
My dad's family are very devout catholics and when my parents divorced (the catholic church considered it annulled), I went to live with my dad. My mom met my step-dad who converted her to christianity and they were married. They then converted my sister and I, but when we tried to tell our Catholic family that we didn't want to be Catholic anymore (I was 12), they threw a fit, and we decided that pushing the issue would probably mean not seeing mom again till we were 18.

I am very religious, and I basically take all my beliefs straight from the Bible. If I can't find it in there, I won't believe it. On the flip side, I also believe in not omitting or ignoring anything from the Bible. I would love to take part in more discussions in the religious text forums, but I had to promise myself that I wouldn't until after I'm done with school, as it takes up quite a lot of my time!

---

I see...so you are basically a Christian but not following any 'stream'...just doing it your won way? I got confused cos I think I naturally associate religiousness and Bible with catholicism, as it's the main religion here and the one I'm accustomed with. My family is quite religious (catholic) and for years I went to the church every sunday just not to raise polemics...when I gave up I had to quarrel with my mum every sunday and it took me like 3 years to get away with it. Now they just call me an 'atheist' trying to offend me but honestly it's nearer to the truth than most other definitions...
So maybe I'm asking a very big question and you can decide not to reply if it would raise too many issues or it would be too long, but what is it in Catholicism that you disagree with, even remaining religious?

crisaor, shame about the make up :D I love men with black make up on their eyes :D No fake brests though ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Koa

No fake brests though ;)

---

How about real ones? ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Isagel

Amuse - is your hair red? For some reason I always thought that your hair is dyed in a dark ruby red colour. I have no idea why I think so.

---

um, i did a bad orange peroxide job about 20 years ago! :D
but no, it's a rich, dark brown, with red highlights in the summertime. mama nature didn't quite get the color you were thinking of, not ruby - i wish - but under the right lighting i have been asked do i color my hair.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mono

amuse: what inspires you MOST to write? And, in terms of other arts, besides poetry, what art do you admire most?

---

the very most? :) pain. shoving the feelings and memories of my stepmother out of the closet and into the light has been extremely difficult and necessary. i feel much more liberated having written about that - i don't like secrets, especially externally imposed ones.
anything fantastic or horrible, be it love, sex, politics, nature, that defies language- that inspires me.

when things are going well with myself and T-- i don't write well. i mean, it makes me feel ashamed :blush: almost to be sappy. i will write sappy stuff to release that feeling of horror, like, it's okay to be in love and silly, but that's really hard to give myself that sort of permission. :) i appreciate the breakthroughs.

there is a sort of a bone and tendon deep sensation when my world collapses/expands simultaneously into a nothingness/everythingness...then my hands and arms are charged. i've felt that since i was little. i don't feel it a lot, but on the occasions when i type and i feel it, i know i'm in the middle of a poem that works even when i don't know how it'll end.

Music inspires me the most...i like voices and guitars that touch your every soft and yowling, high and low place inside and makes them shine. i love to cry and i love to sing. :D
and i love disco. blame it on the 70's. :p the other stuff inspires but disco makes me happy.

Isagel: how long have you known your best friend? you seem like you would keep friends for a very, very long time. :)

mono: same question, please.

Koa: when are you traveling to the states?

Jay: do you have exams? you've been MIA for over a day!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by amuse

mono: same question, please.

---

Like you, amuse, I cannot possibly narrow my inspirations to a few number of select objects or emotions. What inspires me most seems mere inspiration, which comes from, I would like to think, everything - the large, overwhelming emotions of love, down to the small, petty-seeming way that falling leaves once lift imprints in wet pavement (I really did write a poem about this once, actually :D).
For what inspires me MOST to write . . . hmm, I think, seems my conception of infinity and, what I think of as, infinite faculties - most of all love, wisdom, and nature.
Also like you, amuse, other arts definitely lights an inspiration in me, especially music, literature (including others' poetry and plays), and, on occasion, visual arts, like painting, sculptures, and architecture. Rarely, additionally, I will write of, I suppose, more down-to-earth things, like human behavior, childhood, jealousy, politics, and various aspects of science (in symbolism of seemingly mortal beauty), and the like.
If I combined all of my work ever written, however, most of it probably seems devoted entirely to love's expression (I type this with an extra wink at Psyche).

Psyche and baddad: same question - what inspires you MOST to write, or create other art?
amuse: have you written any other material besides your poetry?

mono- i find it interesting that you like Villette and Jane Eyre most guys i know don't like female authors. why do you like this books?

Psyche and baddad: same question - what inspires you MOST to write, or create other art?

For me, the inspiration is always an epiphany. It comes from nowhere and everywhere, is perfectly intangible and when my soul wraps around it, it is allowed to emerge as art.
I am often at a loss for communication, being as we as humans have a very limited vocabulary. (In my opinion) In times of inspiration, the underlying motive is the need for an amplified form of self expression, looking at it backwards, this expression, a representation and mirror, this pure and unadultrated extension of myself is now solid and able to be put on the table for the other senses to soak up and understand on more levels.
My hand was not directed by my rational thought, rather by my will, my unconcious desire, the questions and the buried treasure underneath the question marks.

Helga - What, so far has been you greatest personal acheivement, and how has it changed things for you?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shortysweetp

mono- i find it interesting that you like Villette and Jane Eyre most guys i know don't like female authors. why do you like this books?

---

I cannot label Charlotte Brontë as my absolute favorite female writer (as I actually prefer her sister, Emily), but once taking a college English course of Women's Studies and Women in Literature, I felt especially drawn to read more authors like Virginia Woolf, George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), Emily Dickinson, Jane Austen, more of the Brontë sisters, and Sylvia Plath.
Two of Charlotte Brontë's novels that you mentioned, Villette and Jane Eyre, I much enjoyed for their gripping plots that weave and turn unpredictably, and that, also, frequently come from a woman's perspective - something rare in the author's time, though, as I alluded, I preferred Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights more for its originality and twisted storyline, deviating from the common, classic love-story nearly expected of the few female authors of that era.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mono

amuse: have you written any other material besides your poetry?

---

interesting question...my last year of high school, my english instructor said if i wanted i could probably have a career in writing...i disagree, however. sometimes my prose is great, but only because of a flow in a few parts or isolated phrases. i tried to write a screenplay once called "a separate sanity" and entered some writing in county-wide competitions (high school), but writing anything of length (over 2 pages :D) isn't my forte. i so admire people who can persevere and write pages upon pages and keep one's interest alive.

mono: when did you begin your first play, and what inspired it? what inspired you to write in the first place?

Psyche: what was your first poem, and do you still have it? what has been the most joyful moment of your life so far?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mono

baddad: same question - what inspires you MOST to write, or create other art?

---

Hmmm.....a diffucult question to answer easily.....my creations, my writing, comes forth unbidden, dribbles out of its own accord. Most often I don't even know what I am writing until it is done. I do not sketch a layout. I do not plan my 'attack' on the subjest matter other than to do research. I keep a few notes, and then I begin to type, and whatever is inside me.....comes out.

I had not plannned to attempt to make a living as an artist, a writer, and writing, while enjoyable as a pasttime as a child, had been long off the radar of things to do for fun. But I went through some experiences beginning back in 1992 that caused me to examine certain aspects of my life, and as enlightenment took hold, some amazing things happened. I felt free, freer than ever before in my life. I decided that this freedom could only be maintained in one way, and that I would do my damndest to maintain it. My freedom came from a decision to be completely true to myself at all times, to never ignore that little inner voice that each of us often fights or ignores completely, often much to our dismay. The inner voice is 'self', and self never lies. The form of enlightenment was an ability to intrepret and devine what the self is trying to tell.

Humanity inspires me. People's lives inspire me. The state of the human condition on an individual level inspires me. A complete disrespect for authority inspires me, social issues inspire me to write of the ills caused by the polarization of the haves and have nots in the world. Hemingway, Orwell, Swift, and Pope inspire me.

Poetry is not really my 'thing' yet I hold many poets in high esteem for their wordsmithing abilities, and I draw inspiration from that. And I am a hopeless romantic, I never say die when it comes to the heart, though like everyone else I've had less than stellar success trying to 'live the dream', and poetry satisfies a little piece of that for me.

Music is such an inspiration to me that some songs make me want to dance no matter where I am at the time, some music makes me cry, some music sends shivers down my spine (I love a slow jazzy/blues rendition by a female with a smokey dark voice). But all music, all genres affect me. I truly believe I could not live without some kind of music. I play a guitar to entertain myself, make some rythmic noise, send a few vibes out into the ether. Of all the art forms, music has the most powerful effect on me. I can feel it down to my bones......


I am an intensely sensual person. This term is not sexual in nature (we won't even go there...) Anything tactile draws my attention. I cannot glance across the street at a garden if someone points it out and says, "Oh, look at the beautiful flowers!" Oh,no, not me. I have to cross the street, stick my face right into the flower, take a big sniff, note the colours, the feel etc., and only then am I completely satisfied. My brain, my 'self' will settle for nothing less. I have a compulsion to experience things first-hand, I must smell things, taste things, feel things with my hands, my taste buds, bare toes in the grass or feet upon the oceans sands......this is just the way that this human system works.....and I love it, wish everyone could suffer from the pleasures and compulsions of it.

Beauty inspires me. I an a HUGE fan of nature in all its forms and permutations. People, natural objects, all of the fine arts, music, flowers, women, animals, all these inspire me, drive me to want to explain their tactile effects on the human mind, the human condition. Once, for a period of a year, I lost my appreciation of beauty. I was truly lost, morose, depressed. I could not figure out what was wrong with me. When I finally realized the truth, all I could do was try to wait it out, hope the gift of appreciation would return. This may sound a little weird, but this period was like having my soul inhabit a wasteland, and was quite a frightening time for me. For a person as sensous as myself to lose the ability to 'feel' is a truly a tragedy...


I'd like to throw out a question to the floor, rather than ask a specific person. Yes, NO? Well, I'll do it and see what happens....


How many people reading this thread identify with my comments about the sensousness of our existence. How does your brain process information? Are you one of those people who have to touch something, smell the flower, touch the wet paint in order to gather useful informtion??

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Psyche

Psyche ... - what inspires you MOST to write, or create other art?

...the need for an amplified form of self expression, looking at it backwards... ... a representation and mirror, this pure and unadultrated extension of myself is now solid and able to be put on the table for the other senses to soak up and understand on more levels.
My hand was not directed by my rational thought, rather by my will, my unconcious desire, the questions and the buried treasure underneath the question marks.

---

Psyche. Great exposure of self. I feel like you have spoken for so many of us, me...............

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by amuse

Koa: when are you traveling to the states?

---

Never :D Let me elaborate...it's not in my priorities. Main reasons: I hate only the thought of having to be on a plane for more than 2 hours. There are many other places that catch my interest first. And honestly and please noone be offended but...I'm not too fond of American accents, I don't know if I could live surrounded by that for long ;) Sorry, I'm British.
Of course if I happen for some reason to have the need/possibility to go there I will end up doing it... But my main interests don't seem to go beyond Europe and Russia at the moment, even if I'd gladly see the whole world (if it wasn't for planes...)

And yes Jay has exams, she said somewhere :D

And amuse, I agree with what you said about pain being inspiring. I think I'm just too...well, not too happy but not depressed enough to write lately. :eek:

As for baddad's question...well, I'm not sure. I have a thing with touching...what's the word...stuff clothes are made of. I often touch my friend's clothes cos I have to feel the texture (? no time for dictionary), I always warn them I'm not a psycho-sex-addict trying to touch them, it's just that i can't help it...And I've happened to be on the bus and there is someone with a great (hopefully fake) furry coat or something...and I dont know them so I'm torturing myself wishing I could touch it... And I adore velvet.
But, it's the opposite with people. I'm not a physical person at all, I need my personal space. I hate to be touched or to have people coming too near when talking. Quite weird for a latin person, I take it as another proof of me being in the wrong place while being a northener in soul. I'm not that fond of all the hugs and kissing habits we have when we greet. There are girls who just touch and jump on boys and use that too flirt...I can't even think of touching someone if it's not needed...

Question for Helga, I'm just very curious about it...is Helga your real name by any chance? Cos I have it in my mind as your real name...well I also imagine you as surrounded by a blue light...:eek2:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by mono

Scheherazade: did you always desire the occupation of a college instructor?

---

In a way, yes. Even though I did other full time jobs, I worked part-time as a teacher as well. I took career aptitute tests 4 times and they always suggested I should become a teacher (90-70%).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Miss Darcy

Scher: What's the weather like over there in England? (Trés originale, I admit it!)

---

Mostly cloudy and rainy although we are having a little nicer weather these days. And in the UK, everyone talks about weather or gardening so you are doing quite well! :D

shortysweetp: How do you manage to deal with both family life and studying?

crisaor: Are you a student? What are you studying if yes?

Helga/mono/psyche: If you could change one thing about your lives, what would that be?

papayahed: Are you happy with your decision to move?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Scheherazade

shortysweetp: How do you manage to deal with both family life and studying?

---

hmm well at first i just went part-time and now that my daughter is a little older i go full-time. i've never really had to study hard so its not too bad. my husband and i arrang our schedules so that one of us is always home with her. somehow i manage to keep good grades. The older I get the better i seem to be at being a mom, wife and student.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by crisaor

Band, The Beatles, definitely. Singer, I don't know. I guess I'll settle with John just to make it easier. :D

---

Apologize, but IMO those lads are overrated :)...And John...Well John doesn't sing too well...Again, I apologize ;)
I thought your most fav is The Cure

Quote:

---

If that MM question includes any type of make-up or fake br easts, then no, I wouldn't (I haven't). I do dress in black most of the time, though.

---

Ok, how bout a little make up like Smith
... Don't Mind the hair...


http://www.pcdome.hu/gallery/article/1059/image2s.jpg