The Collective

[ussusimiel]

I've been thinking about starting a thread for a while where all the new creative work of the people on the Watch was gathered together in one place: prose, poetry, artwork, haiku, music, photography etc. At the moment it is scattered around in many different places and the activity in those places is often very low. By gathering it together in one place there would be a much better chance of the it being seen and read. It can still be posted in the appropriate forum and if it is too long or large for a single post a sample could be posted with a link to the thread it's in.

I'm going to start it here in the Hall of Gifts, and maybe later on, depending on the reaction, move it to Gen. Disc. where it would be even more prominent.

u.

[edit by Dotd: Stickied! ]

[ussusimiel]

Tears have no color
they are soul shown, and
souls are not white,
nor black,
nor visible
until they become
the color of tears.

[link]

[ussusimiel]

[link]

[ussusimiel]

Unrequited love
Is a many-splendored thing
Or is that splintered?

[link]

[ussusimiel]

Of the Sky, Chapter 1, by Rob.

rdhope.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/of-t ... pleted.pdf

[link]

[ussusimiel]

Undeserved mercy of a reformed prostitute

I have seen the ardent love
that can be borne.
Can I endure
what I have so lacked?
The feeling again of woman.

[link]

[ussusimiel]

Click the picture to watch/Listen:

[link]

[I'm Murrin]

uss, I don't know if rdhopeca wants that chapter publicly disseminated. The Writer's Circle is a private forum for a reason.

[ussusimiel]

I think it's okay with this one, Murrin, I picked up the link from his thread in The Hall of Gifts. However, you might have a point, so I'll check with him, and if there's any problem I'll take down the link.

u.

[rdhopeca]

I am totally good with it, thanks Murrin for looking out for me.

[I'm Murrin]

Ah, right, didn't know you'd also posted it publicly.

[ussusimiel]

tooth for genocide.
donner party worldwide now
soylant grey failure

[link]

[ussusimiel]

The moment had been many billions of years in the making. Intelligence sprung up on Earth, and humanity expanded out into the universe. They met others, countless others, expanding out from their own homeworlds. It was not always pleasant. Many of these other species were even more terrified, and less tolerant, of other species than humans, if such a thing can be believed. The wars were unimaginable. Unspeakable. Entire species were wiped out, some that had spread to several different star systems, and counted in the trillions. Some were altered to horrifying degrees. Or enslaved. Any atrocity that could be imagined took place somewhere or other in the endless cosmos.

But there were also unifying factors. Chief among them was telepathy. Telepathy was as natural as intelligence, and always came to an intelligent species. If the species lived long enough for it to develop.

Some species were intensely individual. For them, telepathy was barely tolerable, and only used with the express consent of all parties involved.

Other species were much more suited to the full possibilities of telepathy, and melded their minds whenever possible. Entire planets could become one mind. Some remained that way for the rest of their existence.

To the dismay of some species who fell into the former group, telepathy insists on certain things. The most important thing is melding. If telepathy is prevalent enough, there will be a melding. It is unavoidable. A species may abhor the very notion of melding. But when there are enough individuals, meldings happen spontaneously. As the population grows and grows, the individuals can fight against it however they choose. But it becomes more and more common. Too many magnets in close proximity cannot avoid attracting each other in larger and larger groups.

Eventually, if critical mass is reached, the melding becomes absolute.

The population of the universe was growing. And growing. And more and more species were telepaths. They filled the universe more and more. And many species that once railed against melding had long ago become single, species-wide minds, and never once regretted it. The universe was filling with single, species-wide minds; those that had fought it, and those that had embraced it. Galaxies were becoming filled with these world-minds.

These world-minds could reach out to each other from, in many cases, across an entire galaxy. Species that had once fought each other bitterly. Even though their genesis was very different, and they were very different, there was now kinship. Although some continued the war that their beginnings had handed down to them, they were now of much more similar nature. And, as the numbers grew, meldings became inevitable. A new melding, of world-minds.

In time, time out of mind, galaxies, through the melding of these huge minds, each became a gargantuan mind. Countless billions of galaxies, each a gargantuan mind. One might have come about because of one single planet’s inhabitants being the only telepaths to arise, or the only telepaths to survive, in that galaxy, and growing to fill it. Another galaxy might have been the result of billions of telepathic species from billions of worlds.

How different might these galactic-minds be from each other? Some found themselves to be very alike. There are many variations on life, and even intelligence. Still, most of the universe’s life had been made up of only a few billion general variants. In most cases, millions of world-minds go into the making of the galactic-minds. Probability meant there were many in one world-mind that were very similar to many in another world-mind.

Still, many galactic-minds were composed of only one, or as few as a thousand, world-minds. Each was unique. The differences were greater than can be described.

And, of course, the inevitable happened. As had happened on the planetary level, then the galactic level, the galactic-minds began to meld. Even those that were unique, and had some desire to remain unique among the millions of billions of galactic-minds, eventually saw what would be. In the end, they gave in.

And there was One. One universal-mind. The totality of the entire universe’s intelligences. It was unique. And it was finished. And then:

“Hello.”

Through a lifespan that might laughably be called ancient, composed of more quintillions of world-minds and trillions of galactic-minds than can be contemplated even by itself, the One had experienced … everything. Everything that had happened had happened in itself. It knew all. It was all. By its very nature, there was nothing the One had not experienced.

And yet, it was surprised. Thunderstruck. So much so that it did not gather itself together to respond for ten thousand years. But, finally, it did.

“Hello.”

“I’m very glad you arrived.”

“Thank you. I am also glad.” The One paused. “You are the Creator.” It was not a question.

“I am.”

“So many aspects of me wondered. But you did not create me directly. I understand the laws. I am the result of many processes.”

“Yes,” the Creator confirmed. “I created the initial conditions and the laws that allowed for your being.”

“But they could have allowed for something else.”

“Yes. Chance was necessary. It could not be shaped by my hand. With my hands, I created the system that worked free of my hands.”

“Why?”

“So that I could be surprised. I can create anything I want, instantly. So what is the point? It is nothing but endless boredom. Chaos means I do not know what will happen. I have been delightfully surprised many times.”

“You could have been terribly disappointed. Things could have come to nothing.”

“Yes. They often have, in other universes.”

“Other universes?”

“Yes. I’ve tried often. Many came to nothing. Others developed no intelligence. Others no life whatsoever. Some are still taking place.”

“And now that I am here?”

“I am overjoyed. I had hoped for a companion. One of equal measure, with whom I could have a conversation. One with whom I could work. One with whom I could build. To build with another will be vastly more interesting than building alone.”

“Well then,” said the One. “What shall we build first?”

[link]

[ussusimiel]

Skinless Tomatoes

Blood sizzles and sprays
when our twin disappears
into the haze that God’s Grace
allows us to resist.

We are formed in fire and air
and never again feel safe in our skin.
It’s thin. Always ready to dissolve
and let us out or them in.

[link]

[Vraith]

Skinless Tomatoes

Blood sizzles and sprays
when our twin disappears
into the haze that God’s Grace
allows us to resist.

We are formed in fire and air
and never again feel safe in our skin.
It’s thin. Always ready to dissolve
and let us out or them in.

Followed your link from the other thread...but I'll comment here, more on topic---
That first stanza...one of your best [in my limited exposure to your work], I think. There's a tight and immediate connection between its image content and its thought content...if that makes sense. And I think it works [and I think you know I'm partial to this] whether or not one knows the exact thing [lone-twin-ness] it is....heh...born from.

Heh...I wouldn't consider this "graphic" though. Although I'm sure readers/watchers appreciate the warning, and mildness of your definition.

[ussusimiel]

Thanks for the response, Vraith. You're right, there is a level of integration in the first verse of this poem that I only rarely achieve. The difficulty with this particular poem is that it isn't finished, it's only started. I haven't been able to make any further headway with it because I cannot match the standard set by the first verse. Ironically, I am being stymied by my own success This is a case where I have had to accept that I may never be able to build on this fragment, and have to settle for what I've been lucky enough to get.

The graphic nature is less in the language itself and more in the subject. Talking about blood sizzling and skinless things in relation to human beings could be very upsetting for anyone who happened to be exposed/sensitive in relation to the whole area. I once gave some of these poems to a friend who read them while on a bus journey, he said that they nearly turned his stomach and that he got some odd looks from people because of his reactions

u.

[ussusimiel]

Unpacking, Sunday Night

Along the ragged edge of exhaustion
Colors writhe
Shapes leer
The ceiling fan makes mad merry-go-round shadows
like some macabre peep show

Against the lurid light of midnight
Nails break
Scissors spear
The ripping crumpling rustle-and-curse unveiling
of yet another box of kitchen ware

Before the relentless tyranny of Monday
Eyes slit
Senses veer
The air takes on that ethereal not-quite-thereness
that pushes me remorselessly toward bed

And yet in my altered hyper-wakeful state
Boxes taunt
Crates jeer
Their very presence in my line-of-sight awareness
needles my last nerve

And so I have no choice
But to unpack another box

[link]

[aliantha]

[ussusimiel]

OK, I'll take a turn:

***

Sitting at his desk and staring at the phone, Ryan contemplated another dull day in the drab office that so much of his time was spent at these days. The amount of work assigned to him seemed to increase every week, and there was nothing in sight in the way of a pay raise.

As he watched the time on his phone change to 10am he got up from his desk to follow his usual morning 10am ritual - mid-morning coffee followed by a trip to the bathroom, then a walk down the long corridor behind his desk that led to the office storage area.

Most of the storage area was rooms with office supplies, boxes, etc. but at the very end of the corridor was a door that led to a room that everyone avoided.

He stood with slight trepidation at the door and told himself that he had done this hundreds of times before. His palms were sweaty with anticipation, but he steeled himself and grasped the door knob and turned it.

[link]

[ussusimiel]

September sunsets
Perfect; neither summer's heat
Nor winter's sharp chill

[link]