The Secret Code of Vocations?

Basically, this is the one and really only part that I am able to take away positively from the Japanese book that I'm reading. You know, the one called “天命の暗号.” I've determined that it is a self-help book for those who are castaways in the sea of life.

So, anyway, the important part is as follows. We each have different ways we interact with people, right? The author of this book has broken up the way we deal with people into four categories. We all possess these four categories and utilize them in varying degrees. However, we likely have one, or possibly two, in which we are very strong. More importantly, these different categories, or focuses, effect the way we listen to what other people say. Basically, I think this part is important because in understanding this part of yourself, you can better widen your horizon and learn to understand why some people react to you negatively/positively.

I'll try to summarize in brief on what this guy spent a couple chapters.

達成的 – Achievement oriented
Focus is obviously on the end. Characterized by evaluating people's accomplishments and victories in comparison with your own activities. Emphasis is on thoughts like “I could do that” or “That is impossible for me.” You burn with a passion likely based in a blind ambition towards the end point, and things are divided into two groups black and white The goal is the main point.

親和的 – Friendship oriented
The focus is on friends. You base your movements on your group, and often think in terms of your friends. “My friends are doing it,” or “Lets do it together.” Easily the least selfish kind of orientation, but also the most spineless. You either have a group of friends or you are toast if you are fully of this orientation because you draw your power from those around you.

献身的 – Devotion oriented
This one is kind of based on your friends as well. The difference is that you prefer to do 1-1 interactions and are probably prone to dominating said one on one conversation. You even prefer one on one interactions with your enemies. You think things like “If it will help to make him/her happy” or “I'll do it for justice's sake.” Basically, you value loyalty to individuals above anything else.

評価的 – Evaluation oriented
This one is basically your philosopher factor. You interact with people for the sake of shaking down truth. You carefully think about things before doing them, and even then really fear messing up. I think this one would be “I'm the kind of guy that would laugh at a funeral, can you understand what I mean? Well, you soon will.” You look at events based on whether they are interesting or not and you likely come across as KY or cold.

Really, I don't know where I fall in these categories. When I was younger I was definitely mainly devotion type, but then I went through high school and was mainly friendship oriented (still kind of am). College, I was, by necessity, mostly Achievement orientated. Now, I am likely mostly Evaluation orientated. Not sure. I do still tend to think in terms of “is that something I could accomplish or not.”

For those of you that are visual, Visuals!
図１９ 達成的 – Achievement oriented


















図２０ 親和的 – Friendship oriented


















図２１ 献身的 – Devotion oriented


















図２２ 評価的 – Evaluation oriented


















Anyway, as you can imagine, certain types don't get along with other types as well as they could. I don't have the book in front of me anymore, so I can't check what they were. I think you can imagine though that a very strongly Evaluation type person would be very jarring for a strong Devotion type person. The devotion type would see the Evaluation type as cold and unfeeling, whereas the Evaluation type would see the Devotional type as excessively peaceable.

Finally, which type you are strongly effects how you interpret/hear what other people tell you. I think perhaps if I look into it more closely, I might be able to understand some reasons for past miscommunications.

While, I hope this helps you in some way.

PS... I just realized that I typed this all up without saving once... that was gutsy

. ... no naku koro ni.

An analysis of a series you need not read.

Before I start this conversation you need to be warned, I am writing about the mechanizations behind writing horror, so if that bothers you, stop now.

Higurashi no naku koro ni
when the red cicada cries.
Higurashi is a type of Japanese cicada typified by its rusty red coloring. Also, naku is actually closer to the meaning of “cries,” but in English we don't usually say “the cry of the cicada.” However, the translation loses its coolness when translated as buzzes. Don't you agree?

There is a methodology to the horror like madness of this series that I see as a good step in the right direction for writing a despair novel. This series does seem to leave a little bit of hope for the readers in the end, but I think that is the failing point. Actually, I shouldn't complain, if things like the ring and the grudge bothered you, the ending will bother you a lot. It just was too subtle for me.

First, I must explain a bit about the story. There are always two volumes to each section in the story. The first is, I think, the most important, but the second is where all the action and gut-wrenching imagery is. Third and most importantly, high schoolers in Japan seem to be reading this series because I've noticed in my schools libraries.

In the first volume, you are introduced to a character and to a town with a generally peaceful type feeling. Always, I would assume that this will involve an transfer student because otherwise the character would have to be aware of the history around the place. In most cases, that history is only given in broken pieces in the first volume. At first, you only might learn that there is a temple nearby with a certain kami enshrined there. There isn't any mention of the curse... just yet.

The main purpose of that first volume is to show you the main character getting along, to display him having tension with other opposite gender classmates, and to make you endeared to the characters in general. They'll have their cute interactions, their cute reactions, and furthermore cutesy love tension that isn't too likely to go anywhere anyway. They make you feel that this is story is going to consist of normal day in and day out life.

After you've become accustomed to reading about the peaceful and entertaining life of these students, you enter into the sphere of the second volume with a slight odd twinge. The last part, possibly in all the first volume books, jars you just enough to get your attention. A character simply does something that is odd, and then passes it off with some sort of excuse later. In the case of the one that I read, a certain very sweet character's eyes glowed and she spoke in a unearthly tone. The advice given in that tone was vague enough as to possibly only pertain to some sort of near-love squabble so that you, the reader, will be jarred but be able to dismiss it.

Then volume 2 starts. Everything goes to heck. The strange occurance in volume was just the beginning, and your character enjoys one jarring experience to the next. A masturi and a appeasing of the local kami occurs and because of the proximity to that place your character gets hints about an odd history. Finally, just when it is too late, an explanation of the curse is explained with perhaps a minor detail left out.. You are sure you have been given every detail and that the main character might be able to do something. Then people start dying. Gruesome horribly twisted deaths occur right before your main characters eyes. A character claws his own throat out, another character lights herself on fire in a barrel, and some character gets pounded to death. More importantly, somebody just vanishes.

However, the thing that makes them so twisted is that these deaths involve mostly the very characters you have come to think of as normal and sweet. Instead of being sweet now, they are terrified, being attacked, vanishing, going nuts, killing eachother, trying to kill the main character, or being possessed by an oni. Finally, in the end, just when you think the main character is also actually going to die, he somehow remains alive. An explanation, half-baked at best, is given and the story seems to be wrapping up.

In the case of the one I read, the main character is alive recovering in a hospital, but after everyone leaves the room and the detective is done making his point, he sits silently on his hospital bed. The next page has the same picture, but there is a shadowey hand on the corner of the bedspread. The page after that, shows more of a figure with the neck twisted sideways, rotting-like face wrinkles, gangly hair, and hollow eyes like a skull. The final page shows a full view of the things face, and now it looks somewhat like a familiar character and the words that are written there are very broken, scratchy and creepy looking. They say “I've come for you....”

My thought is that a lot of these elements are quite useful in composing a fictitious horror story, and I will possibly weave some of them into a legend that I started some time ago which I call “Skelchin.” That's all.

Nothing happens without meaning.... 意味がないことは起こらない？

Nothing happens without meaning.... 意味がないことは起こらない？

Beware: Philosophical thought to follow... 哲学的な話なんだけど。。。

In Japanese, I might just say this line or basis for moving forward is just 素敵 or “Wonderful.” Belief in this sort of simple line of thought, impresses significance on every little factor of the day. One starts to look for coincidences, fate, and purpose in all things when they have this as part of their worldview. It gives one a vague reason to march forward without hesitance, confident that one's actions and living have purpose. However, the complication that arises, as with all philosophical pursuits, is truth.

Does everything that happens have meaning? I mean truly, does it? Is this thought “true”? From my viewpoint, the answer is “of course.” However, I would addend that answer with the slight warning that you may never know what that meaning is. I suppose you could say that is a convenient supposition as well, but I'm not naive. While I hold the belief that all things happen for a purpose, I do not hold the belief that I will be omnisciently aware of what those little purposes are.

Regrettably, my fiat doesn't answer the philosophical question which is most nearly, “What proof can you offer to satiate our curiosity of how this could possibly be?” At this point, I think the typical person would offer you a myriad of little things that have come to have significance over time which would likely be vague enough that they could be quibbled with individually. However, such a response doesn't even come close to the heart of the matter, because there is a complication herein: I have stated belief in an absolute.

Yes, for those of you panicking philosopher-types, I did just interject “belief” into the realm of “philosophy.” It is where it rightly belongs. The only reason one has faith (did you catch the word reason???) is because they have found it reasonably justifiable. If not, they are simply being a liar to themselves and have violated the first step towards reason/philosophy anyway. They lack the brutal honesty necessary to proceed and are living a lie. I suppose you could say that is harsh, but as the saying goes, “Truth hurts” because truth is the simple, the pure, the impartial, and the uncompromisable reality. Denial of truth, eventually leads to a point in time where you run headlong into it.

Allow me a moment to flip the coin around and rise from the previous “tails” equation towards the hidden “heads” equation. The only reason one philosophizes is because of a faith in philosophy. After all, one must have confidence in the tools of his/her craft before picking them up. Anyone, Christian, Buddhist, Atheist, Hinduism, etc I think can agree with this line of thought. Actually, if one doesn't, then therein lies a belief that philosophy is in some way lacking. However, ironically, such a belief is still a belief. It is a belief that is simply based in bad philosophy. I don't think that is a spiral from which one can escape. You either have a good belief(view) of philosophy(reason) or you don't, but you still have a belief.

Now, I must return to the matter of an absolute. An absolute, being as it is, is nigh impossible to satisfactually prove to someone predisposed against it. It is simply impossible to span all the situations where an absolute covers, and that will inherently leave doubt in the other philosopher's mind. A proposed absolute is best approached from a pragmatic perspective, especially in the case where proving or unproving becomes a simple matter of faith.
Take the one that we are dealing with here:
Nothing happens without a meaning.
What is meant by that statement? I think it means that everything, no matter how small or large, has significance or purpose either to ourselves or to those around us. Essentially, everything gains value.
Short of going through everything in my life and attempting to explain what meaning each individual thing has, I think the doubting Thomas-types will never be satisfied.
Therefore, I propose a pragmatic perspective.
Either this belief helps you in this life or it doesn't. If it doesn't help you, don't hold it. If it does help you, hold it. Personally, I believe that holding it, gives one a more beautiful perspective on life. No longer does the rain falling simply mean you have to carry an umbrella that day. Instead, it is day where someone, somewhere, or perhaps something, needed that downpour. Right?

Yes and no. There is a further reason for people to reject this sort of belief. Psychologically it is helpful, yes I believe that is hard to deny. However, a simple pragmatic perspective for life should never satisfy the truth-seeker. Again, we return to the issue of an absolute being true. Wait, before you say something trite like “never use absolutes.” please use that noggin of yours. “Never” is indicative of an absolute and, therefore, such a statement contradicts itself. It would be far more correct to express an issue with a specific absolute than to attack them, ahem, absolutely.

I then, run up against a wall. I do believe that all things happen with a purpose, but not because I have reasoned it into existence. Instead, it is something more so based in experience which is always something far more difficult to explain. The best I can do to try to explain why. I see things as having a purpose as something deeply allied with optimism and the belief that things do not have a purpose is something allied with pessimism. By pessimism I mean to express not the simple negativity of a critic, but true pessimism, the kind that leads to despair and a death of joy. On the other hand, optimism to me is not a blithe positive outlook but is an informed positive outlook, one that possesses hope and joy. A lack of such optimism in life is to take a path downwards to death's door, completely. Therefore, I cannot even entertain the true pessimistic path to despair with regard to meaning in life.

If I can live for the enrichment of a single person's life, I would do it.

I apologize. The above is what happens when I sit at a desk for nearly eight hours three days in a row with next to nothing to do and nobody to really engage in conversation. That freedom feeling has changed now that I know how to use the internet at work. I get more stuff done now... just not personal stuff.

Results...

Okay, ever since finding this Chinese Dance Machine song on Newgrounds, I keep wanting to listen to it. (Thanks F-777 for making it!!!)

In fact, Tuesday while I was recovering from my trip to and from Shizuoka, I listened to it over and over for about an hour. Keep in mind it is a 1min 18seconds song and that will seem that much more insane. If you're wondering, I could get away with that because I didn't have any classes on Tuesday even though I was at school. It's midterms.

Anyway, here's the link to the video that is a product of wallbase.net space photos, windows movie maker for windows 7 (it is the lamest version yet), and Chinese Dance Machine. Yes, the quality dropped a little, for that I am sorry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGHgcsk-V-s

Shizuoka Sudden Visit Day 3

Mostly chilled with Kathy and Nick today. We ate together at Micky D's and then Nick and I hoofed (meaning: “we went”) it to Yamada Denki and Kanteidan. Man, I wish there was a Kanteidan in Hiroshima. There is a Yamada denki, but there isn't a Kanteidan. Kanteidan, for those of you who don't know, is basically a Sol's Jewelry and Loan but designed for gamers. They have a large selection of video games, movies, music, manga, cards, figurines, and some other stuff. Besides, our fairly geeky chit-chatting about video games and related paraphernalia, we ate at Matsuya. Then right after we got our food, we got word from Kathy to meet up with her. After scarfing our food quickly, we met up with Kathy.

We ran into Kathy at the Train station, and while we were catching up with here, Erin and Catriona (sp?) found us. Together we went back to get my stuff. Meanwhile, we retrieved the new french guy in Shizuoka... (sorry, I can't remember his name... he's fairly soft spoken right now because he has little ability in either English or Japanese.) Somewhere along their walk home, Kathy and co did Purikura. Meanwhile Nick discovered the electronic dictionary that he had purchased was missing the main part: the denshi jisho. While he was going to get that fixed I waited for Kathy and crew to show up.

After some logistical finagling, we all met up at the Eki and chose to eat at Hanamaru Udon. It is to the South of the Train station and really cheap. I think that most of us had Kitsune Udon, I'm not sure how many of us, but I can tell you it was good. Kitsune udon, for those of you who don't know, is udon with tofu that has been seasoned and lightly fried. It offsets the subtle flavor of udon nicely.

After eating, we returned to the Eki where Kumiko and Misato showed up to see me off. Saying my farewells, we did the whole repetitive stop and wave type of farewell. Not a couple minutes later, I boarded my train and headed for a layover in Nagoya.

Currently, going from the Mark Twain quote of earlier, I have no regrets. I thank you all for a wonderful time. I will be back, but I'm not sure again when exactly. Please come visit me! That's all.


Side Story: Somewhere in all of this, I had to determine my reserved seat for the Shinkansen. While I was in line, I saw two things. The first was a boy wearing a really cool shirt. It looked a little like a baseball shirt, but the writing was Stich Experiment 626, and the front was cool. I startled him by asking him where he bought it. Apparently, you can find cool Stitch shirts in Shimomura in Shizuoka. The second thing I saw was a little girl with a clip in her hair that read I ♥ CL. Yes, I think her mom is a fan of 2NE1. What do you think?

Souvenir Listing
S1: I bought a stitch phone strap thing. He is chewing on a mini Mt. Fuji.

S2: I bought Abekawa mochi for my office. Omiyage!

S3: I bought all 18 volumes of X. Yes, Manga. Yes, only 1000 en (aka 10 dollars). The set was specially made for me by the girl who is in charge of the manga section at Kanteidan. Heh, I love using Japanese to communicate but was still really surprised at her response when she started making a set. Before that, I could only find sets that had volumes 1-8 or 1-10, and I was really hoping to purchase all 18 of them. Ongaeshi shitai... >_<

S4: 100en Umbrella, and I've nearly lost it three times already.

S5: Purikura taken with Kathy, Nick, Kazu and Kumi.

S6: Stickers for my students purchased at Village Vanguard: Three leaf clover sheet, pigs with flags sheet, and a butterflies sheet.

Approximate writing time for these blog entries: two hours.
I hate spell check. It has no clue what do with all of my Japanese words.... it wants to change Manga to Mange? Seriously? Can you imagine the sentence, I bought X mange?.. .. sickening.

Shizuoka Sudden Visit (Day 2 Morning Mass)

I sure hope I can recount all of this days events properly. Suffice to say, a lot happened.. .

Don't worry though, I can't just leave it at that, because that would be a cop out.

I got up at an ungodly hour on this Godly day of rest and set out to determine Mass times. Okay, so I suppose 8:30 isn't really all that ungodly, but it sure felt like it. At least, the weather had cleared up and the day looked to become very nice. It was sunny, but not too hot and the humidity hadn't kicked in yet. Thankfully, it wasn't cold.

First, I walked to the northern end of Sunpu's first inner moat ring where I remembered there was a catholic church. (Really should have taken a picture of it too, but I forgot. I think I took a picture of it years ago.). Reading the signs, I determined Mass there was at 10:30am. Rather than wait around for nearly an hour and a half, I decided to go check out the other church in Yahata, the one I used to go to every week. For some reason, I was pretty sure I'd show up and Mass would be nearly over.

Forty five minutes of walking later, I made it to the other church. I discovered their Mass started at nine, so I was like, “well, at least I can get back to the other church in time.” So, after stopping into the church just enough to take some pictures, I made my way back. I wasn't disappointed. The most important thing for me though was how much of Shizuoka I got to see by walking there. I'm amazed at how little has changed, but at the same time, how much has either slightly improved or shut down. For example, Shin-shizuoka center is under construction again, Sunpu koen is under construction, and the Sally Breast building had two very cleared out floors above the main one.

On the walk back to the other church, I realized how hungry I was. I foolishly hadn't eaten anything yet so I stopped at a Circle K to get something. The juice and bread thing that I bought acted as my breakfast. It was really stupid of me to wait that long for breakfast and walk so much, because it felt like my stomach went into shock. I decided I would get something more after Mass.

Mass, by the way, at this church was something I hadn't experienced before. They have a younger grouping and some of them were Philippine. That atmosphere reminded me of the Church I go to Hiroshima. Furthermore, the priest is still a little new to Japanese it seemed, and the gospel reading was repeated in English. Besides the usual trying to keep up with the whirlwind of Japanese around me, Mass was pretty interesting for me because I quickly caught on that the guy next to me was a neophyte (ie. He soon would be becoming a Catholic).

After Mass, I talked with him for a bit. The guy's name was Akiyama. We mostly talked about the way the Catholic Church has so much formality for entering the church. He originally thought that was a hindrance because it sounded like he would just rather join now, asap. However, he seems to have come to understand the reason for this waiting period of time. It sounds like he will join the church next spring. I wished him luck and said that if I was ever back at this church in Shizuoka, I'd look for him.

Upon leaving the church, I realized that my umbrella was missing. After thinking it over for a second, I realized I must have left it at Circle K. I didn't have it with me at church. I figured that I would know at least that much because it is always annoying to figure out where to set it. So, I went back to Circle K and bought Onigiri and on the way out casually picked up my umbrella that I had left there a couple hours before. After that, I wandered down that one main street that I never seem be able to remember the name. Anyway, I peered in a lot of shops and was a little disappointed to notice that the Mister Donuts on the corner was being changed into something else.

Shizuoka Sudden Visit (Day 2 Afternoon)

After my short walk down the road, I went to Shizuoka's Shiyakusho. There I wandered a little into the machi while waiting to meet up with Kazu, Kathy, and Nick. Of course, I made sure to stay near where we were meeting. Together, we looked at comics, looked the green recycling booths (think of something like 4-H), bought oden etc. The highlight of the afternoon for me was probably the Shizu-oden-man that I had. It was basically shoumai (or nikuman) with Oden inside it instead of the usual stuff. It was yummys. The highlight for Kathy was getting to make a little cutesy parfait phone strap thing. It looked like a lot of fun, and some of the little kids that were also making things were really good at it. I was surprised to note that the desert strap things looked more like something you would find in a store than find made by a child.

From there, we met up with Aoi after a short side trip into Village Vanguard in Parco. VV is basically a Spencer's Gifts gone Japan style. I bought stickers for my students and a A&W root beer for me. Once we met up with Aoi, we all went to Saizeriya and enjoyed the drink bar service while chatting for a while. I think I had Hamburg. Nick and Kazu had something that I cannot remember the name of it, but it was basically a pseudo-Italian dish with rice. It looked really good and apparently is considered the most popular item at Saizeriya. The funny thing about chatting, is that it is really fun, but there is nothing really to report that we “did.” Sorry. It was a blast though! Melon Soda rocks!

After Aoi went and headed home, Kazu took us to eat Udon. Sorry Kazu, I forgot the name of the place, but it was really good. I learned that Kama-age udon is udon that is still is sitting in the liquid in which it was cooked. I also think the tempura that I had there was really good. BTW, have you noticed that we seemed to spend the entire day eating? No complaints there. To borrow Kazu's words “it was a food tour of Shizuoka!”

Having insufficiently killed time by eating, we went to Sega World and chilled there for a long time. Kaze played his Tennis Game. Nick and I played Resident Evil Ex. Kazu and Nick played some shooting game “River something.” Eventually, we all did Purikura. Then Nick, Kazu and I beat it out on that one game... darn, sorry I don't remember the name, but it involved a lot of mini games and a lot of slapping three different colored round buttons. The funniest sight of the day was seeing a couple high school girls playing House of the Dead 2 (was it 2, or was it 4?).

Eventually, we met up with the larger Omaha group: Andy, Tom, Aya, Dai (I went and grabbed him from the station), Kumiko (she met up with us at the udon place), Takuma, Tomohide, and Misato. Did I miss anyone? Oh yeah, Brent was there too. We met up at Karaoke. Nothing much to report there, it was karaoke and it was fun!

The last event of the evening was basic hanging and chatting. Some of the group played ping pong though I guess. We even got some of the new Germans to join us and shoot the breeze. It was like some big International party for a short while there. People kept coming and going so much, I'm not sure if I got to chat sufficiently with anyone, but the experience definitely has made me want to head back to Shizuoka sometime soon.

Shizuoka Sudden Visit (Day 1)

Well, according to Mark Twain, “In twenty years, you will be more disappointed by what you didn't do than by what you did.” I take this to mean that one should be proactive and choose wholeheartedly what it is they will or will not do. This in fact probably just a quirk of my interpretation, but my impression of Mark Twain is set. From what I know of him, this quote has little anything to do with jumping out and doing crazy things, but rather points toward doing the things of significance.

I wish I was usually better at doing things of significance. This past weekend though, I think I succeeded quite well. On a whim, I decided to travel to Shizuoka with a friend of mine named Kishi. I learned he was traveling there before I met him for lunch. As my parents know, I seriously toyed with taking this three-day weekend and spending it in Shizuoka, but at that time, I had firmly decided against entertaining that notion. I purported that the lack of warning for my friends would be too much of a nuisance, and that the cost would be too much. However, two factors altered my thinking. I learned that Brent was going to be in Shizuoka (he lives in Iwate so it's not like I'll get to meet him often), and I also discovered that this was the last three day weekend for this year.

So, the story goes that I met with Kishi at the train station. We went to get a bite to eat. While chit-chatting about how long it has been (three years+!!!), we got to talking about Shizuoka and Omaha. The more we talked about it the more I got wrapped up in the idea. It would be great to get to catch up with Kishi on the long ride out. I decided “aww heck with it, I'll go too.” I informed Kishi that I would join him. After rushing back to my apartment, grabbing some clothes etc, and buying a shinkansen ticket, we left for Shizuoka together. Yes, within about 2 hours of my decision, I was on my way to Shizuoka and trying frantically to let everyone know I was coming. That was nearly a failure because none of them had any warning, and I still feel bad for those I was unsuccessful at contacting this time around.

We arrived in Shizuoka around 7pm and the weather was draining water onto the ground like a sieve. In this full out downpour, thankfully Mina gave us a ride to meet some friends. We ate at a Curry place nearby the Kaikan that I missed dearly. The guy there was always really friendly, and it was great to make it back there to enjoy his curry. I had omori! (Large size)

Then the fun began. I ran off to Sunpu Koen to meet up with Kazu to help him get to where we were. It took a little bit but eventually I found him. Then while we were on our way, Kumi needed help, so he went on bike to find her while I went back to the Kaikan. Eventually, we all made it back and hung out while chatting and drinking juice, tea and such. Nick and Kazu whipped out Resident Evil 5 and started playing. Then seemingly before we knew it was one in the morning!!! We all headed off and crashed shortly thereafter, but the weather outside was still wearily unloading buckets on Shizuoka.

Rosario Epitaph

This is a fragment from TRUE, a story at which I am dabbling. It is mostly a prosaic mess of noble imagery, stoic characters, and a writer at a loss for the right words, but the intent is that in attempting to read it that the reader will be overwhelmed by the power behind every single sentence. Needless to say, it is progressing very slowly.

Your Story is there. Your power is there. Stand up to fight, draw your sword and strike down your enemies, that in knowing the taste of your steel, they will learn that they will never taste the iron of your blood. ~ Rosario Epitaph.

あなたの話はそこから。　力はそこである。　戦うために立つ。　刀を抜いてそして敵を切り倒せ。　敵にあなたの血液の鉄をけっして味わわない事を理解させる為に敵にあなたの剣の鋼を味わえ。～　ロザリオ墓碑銘

Let me know what you think and if the Japanese can be improved.

Blame it on the Music

Actually... These are what I get for listening to music... songs seem to serve as positive inspiration, but not necessarily positive results. At least no such results are coming by my own hands, anyway. I think. I'm just not sure what it is that makes “poetry” poetry at the moment. I just try and write something to capture and convey a momentary glimpse of something powerful in image and spirit.

Danger by Moonlight
Retreating Fleece
A scream in the dark
When the hounds fall
No one will know at all.

Accursed Lone Wolf
A shard of light.
A glimpse left out.
The Midnight Runner
Hero or Villain?

Iridescence
A well of great depth
Light full of fearsome power
One falling droplet

The Mechanization
A voice of molasses
Two legs of balsa
Three eyes of crystal
Four teeth of steel.
A fifth of pure water
Six fingers on fire
Seven is heaven's grace
Eight directions are blocked
Nine..... nein escape.

The last one is mainly inspired by listening to The Protomen too much. Don't ask how I leapt from a Theatre version of Mega Man to a mechanization of pure evil though unless you really don't get it. I especially like “Here comes the Arm,” “Light up the Night,” “Vengeance,” and “The Stand (Man or Machine).”

None of these poems are really all that good, but I thought I'd post them anyway.