"We don't see things as they are. We see them as we are." --Anais Nin or probably others
JBaz Twisted Quote Unofficial Challenge
A little poem ekphrastic on the quote:
"We don't see things as they are. We see them as we are."
--- Anais Nin, “Seduction of the Minotaur” (1961), but also probably by others before her
Title: Funhouse mirrors, saddle up dendrites!
I'm a chicken troll, bubbling in sandy loam, farting tootsie roll songs, gulping mountains of water I keep trying to climb
I'm not ashamed to be making poop jokes, or guffawing on the ceiling, jelly belly next to bf celly
I'm not ashamed to sit upside down inside of suns that others suspect are blackholes, one toe dipped into an event horizon only I can see
See this foot? Its desiderata of the absurd.
See these eyes? They're smoky beetle juice.
Depetidation, defenestration, desperation to peel my never-ending grandiosity off your skin.
& I'd do it again. For sure, I'd
do it again.
__________
As always, I like to place an image of how the piece would look off of Vocal, since Vocal isn't poetry formatting friendly.
About the piece
The quote was recommended to me by someone I love dearly. It's one they like quite a lot so I decided to use it. Regarding the contents, I would be remiss if I didn't cite the various participants of Penny Fuller's A-Z challenge, whose interesting words I'd tucked away for later use in poetry.
In order of appearance in the poem:
Also, I went back and forth between Beetlejuice (referencing when the two main leads pull out their eyes) and Betelgeuse (referencing the star, connecting it to the black hole reference first and foremost and leaving the eyeball reference as an echo). I went with the former because I wanted it to really be visual how its pronounced. I also felt Beetlejuice was the more absurd image and matched the quote better.
About the Challenge
This piece was written for JBaz's "JBaz Twisted Quote Unofficial Challenge". An unofficial challenge means a regular every-day-joe vocal contributor (not vocal staff) like J Baz gives a prompt they decided on by their own wee selves in order to challenge other writers to answer, and then we do, if we want. This challenge has some rules - like it has to be written off of a quote, or that it can be a poem under 300 words (this is my poetry entry) or microfiction between 300-600 words. However the core of it is the "twisted" part, which I'm not sure I can put into exact words, so I'll let the challenge author's words speak for it
Judging will be done by two people who have a twisted sense of humor, and one who likes to laugh, so take that as your hint of what we are looking for.
Enjoy, lets see where your warped mind goes.
Enter by midnight PST November 30th by putting a link to your submission in the comments of the challenge link above.
About me
I'm a long time lurker, recently popped up to do a little creative writing after having only two pieces up for a ridiculously long time.
They are my favorite pieces and you can find them here and here if you'd like to take a gander:
Butter Cream: https://shopping-feedback.today/poets/butter-cream%3C/a%3E
When we were young: https://shopping-feedback.today/poets/when-we-were-young-m7bv010dxa%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%3C/blockquote%3E%3Cstyle data-emotion-css="14azzlx-P">.css-14azzlx-P{font-family:Droid Serif,Georgia,Times New Roman,Times,serif;font-size:1.1875rem;-webkit-letter-spacing:0.01em;-moz-letter-spacing:0.01em;-ms-letter-spacing:0.01em;letter-spacing:0.01em;line-height:1.6;color:#1A1A1A;margin-top:32px;}
Or, click these embeds that I'm flashing around, now that I've learned how to do them.
About the Creator
WOA
Just trying it out to see what its like.
Keep reading
More stories from WOA and writers in Confessions and other communities.
The steps to losing a child
Step One: Lose a child. Not what anyone wants to happen and nothing you can do to change it, but you can go through steps to becoming happy again. You can go through steps to loving again. You can go through steps to become a new you because after losing a child you will never be the same person you once were.
By Tabitha Hinkley3 days ago in Fiction
Comments (2)
I love this quote, we are naturally judgmental, seeing things our way. Very true. I have tried writing in your 2nd format, we really need cutesie forms on here.
Ok , you totally succeeded. Love the poem, love that you added notes for us low brow poetry people ( meaning me) I like this line: ‘ I'm not ashamed to sit upside down inside of suns that others suspect are blackholes, one toe dipped into an event horizon only I can see’