“Cringing Beast” was prompted by an experience in which a friend said something nice to me.  My reaction was one of disbelief, almost anger.   I realized that my self-worth was misbehaving.

The poem “Nature’s Course” was inspired by Tom Wait’s quote, “The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering.”

Marginalized, non-normative communities are often not seen in products of media.  I attempt to do my part in allowing the grasping of unity.

The poem “Moves to Shock” was inspired by a Twitter posting by @EmMcchrystal that stated “Being me is actually so funny. Imagine. Being me. You could never. You would all DIE of SHAME being me. I am so powerful to still exist even tho I’m the most embarrassing entity to ever live on this earth.”

The poem “A Madness Spun” is about presenting normality while desiring to express much more.

The poem “Guffawed Calm” is a consideration of the power of laughter beyond the expression of joy.

The poem “Cold Medallions” was inspired by NY Times opinion piece with the title “Apocalypse Becomes the New Normal”.

The poem “Perhaps One Day” is a combination of thoughts about impostor complex, feelings of worthlessness, and the knowledge that others are fully in control of the world.

The poem “Pixel Sparks” was inspired by the impression that an unfiltered social media site is more revealing than the rest of a person’s outward world.

The poem “Worn The Halo” was inspired by a Tumblr discussion that spoke to the differences between demons’ horns and angels’ halos.

The poem “Future A.D.” was inspired by the anxiety about the future.  What can I do?  Take care of myself.

The poem “Into The Dream” is about the tortured considerations in the dream world.

The poem “Self-Same” was inspired by my admiration of friends who are as non-normative as this poem’s author.  I feel less alone in the world knowing there are fellow travelers. A shared characteristic is the need to appease the greater populace, only showing the colors when safety allows.

I am seriously surprised, delightfully so, by the friends I have in the dance community.   Often I am chatted up by the unexpected person.  I welcome the interactions though I may not adequately show it.  They teach me about things I may have missed in my life experience, affirm my belief that humanity isn’t a failed enterprise, and help assure that I’m not alone in this world.

“With A Scourge” is about a particular type of dance between two people.   I was pondering the roles of the sadist and *******.  I can relate to the latter.  The former comes from a place that I cannot fully grasp.   It’s about have a personal reference.   The poem examines these dynamics while proposing a common denominator.

“Giving Voice” is about the pitfalls of being an ally.  It was prompted by a YouTube controversy that featured allies to a minority group talking over their stated associates.  The talking inflicted wounds, injuries largely invisible to the allies because they didn’t have a complimenting life experience.

The poem "Cold Glass" was inspired by the song "Hall of Mirrors" by Kraftwork found on the album "3-D".

"Once Top or Bottom" was inspired by a conversation I had with a dear friend. While the poem could be about garment location, it is probably instead about some form of dancing.

The poem “Travelers” was inspired by the quote, “Your boundaries won’t scare the right people away.”

Long ago I read a story about a group who would greet the sun everyday to ensure it would rise again.  My super hazy memory, backed up with the inability to find the source on the internet, had the group stating something like, "who knows what would happen if we didn’t do it? ".   My take-away is that the implied motivation is somewhere between insurance of the future and an action that feeds the group's soul.

The poem “The Flood” was inspired by the quote, “A woman in harmony with her spirit is like a river flowing.  She goes where she will, without pretense and arrives at her destination prepared to be herself and only herself”.

“Fire’s Embrace” was inspired by the quote attributed to Hunter Stockton Thompson, “Blend in with the indigenous life, analyze their weaknesses, prepare the planet for the upcoming madness”.

“Mourning’s Bed” was written against the prompt “the color black”.

The poem “Recumbent” was written in celebration of an accidental computer wallpaper assignment.   An amazing dip picture was featured on my screen and I’m not complaining.

The poem “Stanza’s Meager Breadth” is a consideration of what I can convey via poetry versus what I’d like to write in longer blogs.

The poem “Forests Stretch” was inspired by the quote, “We all have forests on our minds.  Forests unexplored, unending.  Each of us gets lost in the forest, every night, alone."

The poem “Cure the Sad” was inspired by thoughts about the need for stimulus in the typical human experience.

A purpose of poetry is to describe the indescribable, at least those parts that “normal” writing fails to simultaneously explain and hide the rawest parts of the poet’s life.

The poem “Stranger’s Bane” speaks to my involvement on social media.

A Tumblr blog asked readers to post lists of three.  This inspired me to write the poem “To Dwell Again”.

The poem “Angel for a Day” was inspired by a photo of a person standing in front of a picture of angel wings.

The poem “Between Two Worlds” was prompted by a photo expressing the fashion of “Southern Gothic”.   The photo was a mix of lace and leather, with banded ******* embracing the core of the model.

The poem “Compelled Normality” was inspired by a friend’s remark, “until you have buried someone you love, you won't understand how hard a Holiday, Birthday, or any other day is without them.”

The poem “Those Roles” was inspired by a Tumblr posting that included the lines, “She was asked why she wouldn’t let him in…  the people closest to you, they expect you to star in that role for the rest of your life. ”

The poem “Beware the Poets” was inspired by a meme that stated “You shouldn’t let poets lie to you.”

Darkness does have a place in creation. There is a tremendous power stored in the shadow. In the early 2000s I was told that I should be writing. At that time I struggled mightily with dark thoughts. I told myself, "I cannot write of what I know. Who wants to hear about madness?". Now I do write. My own shadow is still there. Now the darkness informs my writing, adding wisdom and insight. There are artists who's works are simultaneously very dark, even as they peers into the depths of the human experience. Sometimes it is difficult to look, read or listen to these creations. This is OK. The artist is creating for themselves and for those who are capable of sharing the vision. Deep down, the darkest of works are created with the mantra of "somebody will see this, somebody will recognize this". The shadow is crucial part of creation. Without the darkness, there cannot be light.

"In the beginning God created heaven and earth." So says Genesis 1:1. I say that God is still creating the heaven and the earth. We stare into the same void. We maintain our sanity and soul by seeing the void as a place of potential. What are we to do on this earth? What is our purpose? Merely create the best you can. On the sixth day, you too will say, "behold, it was very good".

The title of the poem “Things Left Unsaid” was inspired by the Pink Floyd album “Things Left Unsaid”.

An online friend came into the cross-hairs of the heated online reactions. They were fighting for changes to a social environment, with the desired result being less patriarchal and less hetronormative. Some people pushed back, with the exclamation of “(don’t) try to change our traditions, call(ing) the values we hold hateful, call(ing) our traditions exclusive despite all evidence to the contrary”. Another said, “this didn't used to be an issue in the scene when I started, because we left politics and agendas at the door”. These are typical, but heated, remarks seen when activists are at work. I’ve seen strong parallels in the area of marriage quality.

My heart further went out to my friend when they began to, completely separately, organize a meet-up of people in a minority group. An online pundit accused my friend of being a bigot, guilty of using activism “as a f*cking front”.

All of this prompted me to write the poem "*******". The speaker of the poem is somewhere in the majority, pushing back against a minority seeking rights and accommodation. My apologies for using descriptive language, but these are the typical reactions, intended or otherwise, of those in a state of majority normality when change is afoot.

Everyone lives life on a variety of experience spectrums.  Most are accepted by the majority of society.  I am blessed with friends with spectrum experiences that defy the patriarchal and hetronormative boundaries.  Society pushes back.  I live outside the boundaries of the normative, living in a dread of this impacting my well-being.  Why do we do this?  It is who we are.   The poem “Swim Through Life” is about living in the spectrums of life.

The poem “Outside of Light” was inspired by considerations that the embracing of kink is more widespread than society would like to present.

“Pointing Westward” is about the struggle of high-functioning depression.

“Child of Dance” was inspired by a friend.

The poem “All is Spent” was prompted by a picture said to represent Death.  The words “Reflections of time and death” overlaid the hands of a clock.

“On The Verge” is very loosely inspired by Frank Kafka’s quote “There are ghosts that haunt one in company and those that haunt one in solitude”.

The poem “Past Revived” was inspired by a dream that touched on a theme common to my nocturnal travels.  The first line of the poem came to mind, “ask the memories why they stay”.

The poem “Music’s Hand” is about my love of music and my struggle to create lyrical poetry.

“True Weight” is a poetic journey through the fall of the ****** predator.  The past **** culture, fully given permission by society, is crumbling under the weight of wrongs to humanity.

“We’re All Magicians” was inspired by a cartoon that commented that a together life was a finely-crafted illusion.

The poem “Title Given” is a consideration of what a life would be titled and how useful this would be to know beforehand.

The poem “Why Dear Mirror” is about the struggle of the outer not matching the inner.  This is a condition experienced by a wide range of people, with each situation asking for acceptance that comes with pain.

I watched a video in which Melanie Murphy, a YouTube presenter and author, talking about what she wears. This inspired me to write “Choose For The Day”.