“When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied: “Only stand out of my light.” Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light.” – John W. Gardner, author and educator (8 Oct 1912-2002)
What if death was not the ending But instead, just a new beginning? What if the paranormal was real And not just something that we feel?
Skepticism has its own kind of turning In all walks of life, we keep learning As God moves in His mysterious ways To bring the truth of life to our numbered days
We find our ghosts want us to return To the point where we've come to discern The reasons life is often found wanting And the lessons leading to true haunting
Seven years of bad luck are said to follow In the shattered mirrors grown hollow Consisting of the fears they've come to reveal When there is nothing substantial to conceal
It's whispered that ghosts like the fight As they return to scare us after midnight Blinded, as we are, by their ghastly sight That comes to each of us as our personal fright
There's a grandeur that comes with the pessimism Found inside a New Orleans' sense of spiritualism Watched steps taken even with no hope to save We mortal beings from those beyond the shallow grave
A seance seeks answers needed to be found beyond From disquieted spirits that cannot quite move on However, it is that they come with good intent When you play with the Devil, you are left hell-bent
There inside the crystal ball laced with lead Is the medium's voice that talks with the dead The ghosts have come out for their final play All that's left for us is to quietly pray
Dark spirits are trapped inside that crystal ball Grasping outward as the dark of midnight falls They come bearing bad news for all to hear And it message given begins with succumbing to fear
(c) October 7, 2023 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“The President of the United States should strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his party best who serves his country best.” – Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States
In honor of the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples
A Gathering of Understanding by Michael Doyle
The time has come for the Red Nations to rise Again, and bring healing before the world's eyes With promised blessings that will cure the separations By and between this sick world's crippled nations
Gathering the peoples from the darkest corners of night And sharing the Creator's gifts of hope and light The Great Spirit walks the lands with integrity As the First Nations bring the ways of reciprocity
Memories linger, born from fields that were once green And loving families gather their stories and glory seen That was taken away from them along with traditions That will be learned again with gratitude and intention
Indigenous peoples have fed the best of the world's nations Though suffering colonization that led to their starvation Regaining food sovereignty will help escape this violence That once came against the natives with overwhelming prevalence
The white man willfully destroyed the vast buffalo economy Taking with it the physical, mental, and spiritual liberty Teaching that when a people's food crumbles and disappears So does the people once fed as genocide teaches and sears
To take back the ways of the past will bring the resilience And bring forward independence through self-reliance As we enjoy the five star foods that come from the land And bring the healing only the wisest leaders will understand
Helping one another has its simple but honest importance That is bittersweet and should be obvious with a glance The health of all peoples depends on sharing not chance So it is, in the world and universe's continuous dance
The native blood in my veins is more than legacy It is hope laced with the bits of undeserved tragedy Still, the time has come under the earth's blue skies To come together, as again he First Nations start to rise
There is a spark visible inside our deep brown eyes As we dare to live the dream that never really dies The buffalo and its people will take their home again Given as the gifts of the Creator
(c) October 6, 2023 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.” – Thomas Jefferson, letter to Abigail Adams, 1787
“It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost the things that money can’t buy.” – George H. Lorimer, editor (6 Oct 1867-1937)
There is a tremendous amount of artistic talent found on the virtual platform known as Linden Lab’s Second Life. Two of these incredible artists are my friends, and the friends of many other artistic types, Rage Darkstone and TerraMerhyem. In the past week, they have provided SL guests and residents two new installations. It is important to note that while these wonderful people are partners in SL, their projects are done individually for the most part. Rage Land and Something are two different projects on two very different locations on the Grid. Below are some captures of their recent works.
Rage Land by Rage Darkstone:
Rage Land was set on SLEA’s No 1 grant site. SLEA stands for the Second Life Endowment for the Arts. It provided parcel space, and a set number of prims on which artists can build their creations and hold their events. These events are often quite immersive and quite active.
Through the use of prims and particles, the active components of Rage’s event grew exponentially until it was felt as a series of expanding particle figures that filled the screen as we, the audience remained in our seats.
These particles can take any number of forms. As always, the show events are accompanied with music and the particles are taken through their paces using something called scripts.
Rage enjoys interaction with his friends. In this case, he chose to project an image of himself creeping up on a particles master mixer who goes under the Second Life (SL) name, Roxy Particles.
As a backdrop, Rage used the vastness of space, planetoid shapes, and images representative of stars, light rays, and other representations of phenomena that might be imagined in space.
Rage Darkstone is a master of this sort of immersive events on the Second Life virtual platform and across the metaverse too.
Tsu is a musician on SL. Lexandra is an artist present event. Lastly, there is my SL representation sitting by Lexandra.
Some of Rage’s work took on different aspects of merging forms, and as my daughters often say, colors and shapes. In a sense it is nice to see how some of the most fundamental constructs of art remain significant even in the Metaverse. It is perhaps important to note that Metaverse existed successfully in Linden Lab’s Second Life, long before Facebook chose to use the same term for its attempts at the same sort of construct.
Something Else by TerraMerhyem:
I received an invitation to the Something Else build opening today. Unfortunately, my notes do not include the grid location owned by Hermes on which this event took place. But on checking my Flickr account’s photos, it appears this charming location is called the Kondor Art Center In Second Life. Numerous extremely talented artists were present for this opening.
As TerraMerhyem danced us all to a wide variety of music in celebration of her opening, I did my best to capture the presence of the vast majority of the artists who came and left at will. It was a very pleasant event with a lot of familiar and friendly faces that I had not had the privilege of seeing for quite some time.
Elena:
Rage and Terra:
Tithrit and myself:
Serendipity and Twister:
Crew, Persefone, Anarhana and Others:
Deyanira Yalin:
Ilyra, Twister, and Damien:
And not lastly but last on this collection of photos, Hermes, Chiona, Redi and Dragon:
As I reviewed these photos, it has come to my attention that while the event was memorialized, there is a need to go back to the site and collect photos of Terra’s work next for these photos to be complete. I am going to blame the music and the excellent company for now.
Remembering When Kindness Was in Fashion by Michael Doyle
We live in a time of self-limited imagination Where people cannot dream of outside creation But mysteriously believe in writing only experience Such as found in personal and depraved dalliances
Rather than dreaming of the bigger conceptions Too afraid of the shadows found in the connections This sort of closing down is a time for discerning That these days might be the end to our learning
The plurality of America exceptionally forms its identity Taking its individual strands and becoming its unity It can be bewildering to be bulldozed by deep history While too many stumble past things of pure orthodoxy
Believing that any sort of change is automatically progress Even when, truth be known, authoritarianism is only regress The tribes of America too often forget about what it is to think While society vigorously edges closer into the abysmal brink
Compassion and moral courage have steadily declined As a culture of hate has become all the more refined People of all stripes need to learn to hold back again And to approach responses as if responding to a friend
Because too often even friends forget who they are And the things and thinks said are taken way too far It's funny in a peculiar sense as some have confided Pointing with pride that they believe this one-sided
But the truth needs to be known that each side is appalling With its attacks and counter-attacks of shock and awing Literature should be about the direct coarseness in life Not just about that which brings peace, but also strife
Today, the stories that need most to be ones freely told Are those that cause us to think and act as if bold To love and to liberate, while we debate with compassion Being strong, yet remembering when kindness was in fashion
(c) October 5, 2023 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
Heading out of Australia to escape this Aussie winter. First stop Japan, then UK/Ireland and if work doesn't call me back, onto Chicago. I will make it up as I go along