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zebra Dec 2018
come here with the jackknife
and see what I'm made of

i'm **** candy she said
taffy and blood
a steaming deli
doomed chicken of the sea
doll parts, splayed pomegranates
femurs left in a ******; wish bones
eviscerations to admire
peaches and cream sprinkles
skin like cold grey soap

barbed wire ******'s
spin like a toilet flushing
in spirographic squiggles
at the museum of modern art

video girl
video girl
video girl
like
butter flies flutter bye

dead movie star dancing
a matinee cyclops

everybody wants a glitter ****

shes a incandescent candy store
take a piece
take home in little bite size chunks
in a heart shaped pink box leaking red meat
enshrined crucifix; kosher

god is whatever is in your heart

i pray to modernism
to be saved
by *** death and resurrection
and a bigger ****
impregnation ghoul
like a solar ******* hero
*** heroine

a Bedouin and a Jew ******* each other off
in a New York City
Holiday Inn
while the Kabbalah and Koran read each other

I packed the suit case
with a yellow mucous colored rubber tube,
a razor and stockings
I don't know what ill do with it,
but ill think of something

God spins death
so why cant you; or are you to good for that
albeit a narrow construction
to carve my fate in such short order

ill get into my short short funeral skirt
and girly bobbles
ill go up and down on you like a yoyo

sea Venus foaming *******
til you flip me over
like a deli sandwich
and cut me in two
with a splatter of ketchup
on the blue plate special
while a huddling sabbath of *******,
in extra ******
groan like Pisgah turned to mulch
writing indigo shards suicide note
ending in
i don't mind
and precise instructions

please chew slowly
while I **** on your teeth
stuck rot
still kissing you
better bring a napkin and floss

you know I would get hot,
seeing my one way ticket next to your return one

wish we could
**** candy
pastel chew
blood bubblegum
melts in my mouth like
hissing fruity drops looping
that go down like squid
clawing its way back up
half chewed with that hurt look

you wont need a head stone
your feet will look good sticking out of the ground
with anklets
except upside down
your funeral; a foot kissing ritual
religion; follow dead feet, to paradise

head down
*** up
you know
the position of power

your the new aeon
grave stone arches with toe ring twinkles
rectitude striving
hot head buried in dirt
antagonizing worms
because your too hot to chew

a zombie ******
velvet tabernacle
smooth leg art
and pretty pointy toes
ascending
where glitter lights shine
pickle brine
green
in a
Promethean ******* ballet
phantasmagorias dark embrace

this is no ordinary love
dialog of paraphilias
surreal horror subversive
a poem about the non-rational sacred
untethered poetry
song of a shattered world


Across the spectrum of religious experiences—from the archaic and chthonic experience of sacred power to organized religion—surrealism arises in that elusive threshold between the sacred and the profane, between the illuminations and of everyday life and the more formal expressions of the sacred. The mysterious, contradictory nature of this liminal zone is embodied in surrealist literature and art: matter becomes metaphor; the ordinary object becomes extraordinary; and images evoke emotional disturbance and ambiguity rather than specific ideas. The ambivalent force of the surreal resists conventional rational categories of intellectual discourse. Behind its elusive potency of mood and charged associations lie the fundamental ambivalence and non rational power of the sacred.
—Celia Rabinovitch, Surrealism and the Sacred
Brianna Heins Jun 2012
Situations find themselves unraveling uncontrollably,
picking at scabs of superiority,
delving into wide expanded pits of insecurity.
The master of masking change
would be the ever drifting reputation,
it leaves bitter, it brings hate.

May I express how much I hate?
Nothing squirms and squiggles uncontrollably
more, than watching reputations
crumble, due to fake superiority.
What do I want, change!
What does she want? Change, but she gets insecurity.

To understand the confliction, insecurity
must paint walls of peeling purple hate.
Well, something in you will change.
You may remain stubborn, uncontrollably
defending your sudden superiority,
you’re just choosing a rotten reputation.

I wish to fly you to a new nation, I mean shes breaking your reputation.
I’d like to find the spot in your mind resided by insecurity,
I know you’re not studded with superiority.
She’s finding a reason for everyone else to hate
the way you attract uncontrollably.
Nothing about you, in you, should change,

because this digs deeper than the change
her and my relationship took, than are used to be reputation
of adoring each other uncontrollably.
of ignoring that insecurity.
of the day she learned to hate,
spindling a slippery net of superiority.

Her comfort zone of a home lays in superiority,
I’d rather cry endlessly than change
by cultivating my hate
for her, for her debilitating take on your reputation.
Transperency touches insecurity
and you are broken, falling uncontrollably.

I will continue to hate her superiority, but that won’t reflect on her reputation.
You mustn’t change your disposition, but lose the grip on insecurity
Don’t you dare hate these words, they care, they love uncontrollably.
s-s-s-sestina!
zumee Jun 2018
will little squiggles
of pixels organised in blocks
of "words" and "sentences" ever
come close to translating
a nuclear blast
in the
brain?
eye
thinks
not.
Lark Train Jun 2016
What in these symbols has power?
None of my letters could build you a tower,
But something within the screen of my phone
Has mass, has inertia, has song, has tone.

Where are the electric lines?
Neither hither nor thither, whichever one signs
But for some reason, I can't help but feel
That my electric lines are something more real.

What are the squiggles that wave from afar?
A symbolic cookie from an imagined jar?
Or are they a prize for forming a speak
That, through my squiggles, may squeak?
What even is a language? What are words? What is it about these mystical, magic lines, that have no corporeal form, that people find so much meaning within?
Write lyrics like spreadsheets with number crunching
Calculate the isotopes
numerical accuracy in the vein of vain attempts to overcome
the show off tendencies of artist who exhibit flow to illicit
concern about existence beyond what they can see of pedagogical poetry
more concerned with numbers and patterns
who gives a **** what the stress is on the vowel in the third stanza  
lyrically despondent personal correspondents for a publication that says
more about what you know than what you feel
and who you are
computer says no, statistically impossible, synaptic haiku
five seven five
musical ronin
go go gadget of talent
extend-o-pole and flying nimbus as you train like son-goku
hyperbolic chamber where time is an illusion only to collapse
true Saiyans are warriors from the womb until death and after
over nine thousand and the scanner short circuits
write on the clouds with light so hot that it burns on thought
not contact
no constants, just variables, electron microscopes to try and hear the angels sing.
Large Hadrons small dreams, no love, just roman numerals
XIV, ***, Blood transfusions in the realm of “O Positive” and you're just a pessimist, negative Nancy at the end of evolution
Flesh and bone as a tent in your double helix of a genome,
flesh like clay in the hands of some master
but you know no master
no nations, under no gods but Darwin
all 23 chromosome pairs making 46 parts of your brain
screaming neurons fire
WRITE
WHAT
YOU
ARE
If you should so choose as to end not with a bang but a whimper
then your memory is forfeit
contribute in some meaningful semblance of sarcasm and sinsethesia with anesthetic medications of pop remedies and voided memories
of sinthesisia
Smell the colours and taste the sounds of pen on paper
when you never own a pen or a pad
just a bright white rectangle you stare at for hours on end
No thoughts just Digg and Reddit
your only contributions a thumbs up or a red thumbs down
like buttons
but no dislike, because if you've got nothing nice to say
then say nothing
unless you're outrage and full of spite
and morose
at the state of human nature
beauty and song thrown out in an effort to leave nobody behind
and so we have a generation coming in
at the age of 5, who are told new math
new science
wrote memorization of equations
no thought process, no argument about relation
theory of relativity, the genious mind just numbers and letters on a page with squiggles and lines that don't have to mean anything more than they mean on the book
we have a generation with no lust, no hope
Do they dream in black and white?
do they dream at all?
is the consequence of IQ tests and graded paper intelligence
the thirst for knowledge and creativity?
WE HAVE TO SCREAM
at the injustice
Burn it to the bricks and ashes
we hurl through the windows
in the streets and in the parks
car radios and clock towers sold
for cheap homemade *****
dance around the fire like the wild things are
LET THE WILD RUMPUS BEGIN
but then we're still hollow
no happy medium, just excess
in the pursuit of Dionysus, trepination,
demon possession is illegal in the eyes of the police and federal law
spread your legs and lean against the car
as they frisk you and plant the seed
of doubt
in the cuffs of your jeans
You have the right to remain silent
but I hope you don't
refuse
question
resist
work in progress.
AJ Jun 2013
When I was younger I was very girly,
I wore dresses and leggings,
But never jeans.
I loved pink and purple,
And I loved sparkles and bows.
I was very girly,
But I hated dolls.
I drew on my sister's baby dolls with ballpoint pens,
Covering their foreheads with my cryptic squiggles.
I would strip my Polly Pockets,
And let them lay naked and ashamed on my bedroom floor.
I would take all the limbs off of my Barbies,
And rearrange them into disfigured beauty queens.
Fake people have always bothered me.
Big Virge Aug 2017
Ya know ...
I used to use ... " Dots " ...

or what's called ... " Ellipses " ...

to Connect ... My Scriptures ... !!!

but Now ... use ... " Squiggles " ...
to Connect ... The Lyrics ...
That I ... sit and ... " Scribble " ... !!!

So I DO ... Connect Dots ... !!!
with rhymes I ... " Jot " ...
About ... Terrorist Plots ... !!!
and ... " Corporate " ... Bods' ...

Whose jobs are ... " Those " ...
where agendas ... "Hold" ...
the keys to ... " Gold " ...

and Maybe ... " Oil " ... !?!
AND ... DRUG LORD ... Spoils ... !!?!!

Dots I ... Use ...
CONNECT ... Issues ...
That Some ... " Confuse " ... ???
as ... " Deluded " ... Views ... !?!

So WHO's ... " Deluding " ... WHO ... ?!?
with news they produce ... ???

Groups like ... W.H.O. ... ?

The types who ... FUEL ...
EBOLA News ... !!!!!

As if Africa ... IS ...
A place where the ... SICK ...
Get ... INFECTED ... !!!!! ...
By ... ALL KINDS OF ... " Things " ... !!!

That ...
Seem to ... STING ... !!!!!

EXCEPT ... " Projects " ...
Set by ...  " The West " ... ?????

That are ... " Scientist Led " ...
to FEED ... Black DEATH ... !!!!!

or WORSE ... Black PLAGUES ... !!!!!!

That They then say ...

"NEED TO BE CONTAINED
IN VARIOUS WAYS !"

BEFORE ... They Arrive ...
in ... Western States ... !!!!!!!!!

Something seems ... " Strange " ... ?
AFRICANS ... fade awayyyyyyyyyyyyyy ..............................

While Westerners ... SURVIVE ... !!!
When Ebola Strains ...
Reach ... Their Coastlines ... ?!?

Then OF COURSE ... They CLAIM ...

"Africa NEEDS AID !"

From The West ... who say ...

That ...

"Africa was, the first place
to have aids !"

A.I.D.S. .... !!!!!!!!

The type that left .........
A Trail of ... Death ... !!!

Just like ... " The Feds' " ...
when they SHOOT ... Bullets ... !!!!!

Could cash be spent ?
by the ... I.M.F.
to " Aid and " ... PROTECT ...
and STOP ... These Trends ... ?!?

Well ...
Aid They ... Give ...
These days I ... Think ...............

Seems to be the ... " Type " ...
That Has ... A PRICE ...
That's ... WAY TOO HIGH ... !!!!!

" These " .....

" Dots of Mine " ...
DO NOT ... Contrive ...
to ... Formulate ... LIES ...
That ... DAMAGE ... Lives ... !!!!!

THEY ...
OPEN ... Eyes ... !!!!!
and ... OPEN ... Minds ... !!!
to the things ... "disGuiSed" ...

As TRUTH ... Defined ...

I Think ... You'll Find ...
That ... Truth's ... DENIED ...

Pretty Much ... ALL THE TIME ... !!!

But NOT ... in rhymes ... I ...
Sit and .... Write .... !!!

From ... Relationships ...
that ... Bear ... WITNESS ...
to the ... " Types of Women " ...
Who Play ... " The Victim " ...
from The End ... Back to Beginning ... ?!?

What's with these chicks ... ?
Who Think ... They're ... " Slick " ...

They're SLICK ... Alright ... !!!
Like ... " Grease and Slime " ... !!!

UNTIL ... " Chauvinists " ...
Treat them like ... ***** ... !!!!!

and ....
Leave them ... " DITCHED " ...
Like .... My Lyrics ....

So THEY ... WON'T LIKE ...
These words I ... write ... !!!!!!!

The Dots they ... " Connect " ...
AREN'T GOOD ... for Men ... !!! ...
when they get ... UPSET ...
Over ... PURE NONSENSE ... !?!?!

Or Let ... Their NEED ...
for ATTENTION ... Be ...

The Thing that ... DESTROYS ...
Relationship ... " Poise " ...
because ... " Boys with " ... " Ploys " ...
Can ... OPEN THEM ... Up ...
Like ... ******* Toys ... !!!!
and ... OTHER ... Stuff ... !!!!!!!!!!

These Girls ... " Employ " ...

That ... SATISFY ...
MORE THAN ... These ... " Guys " ...
Who ... TRY and TRY ... !!!!! ...
to ... Make Them ... " Smile " ... !!!!!

By ...
Giving them ... " Child " ...
and ... Marriage Vibes ...
Where ... CONNECTION ... is the Key
to .... Relationship .... GLEE .... !!!!!

But .....
How Many do we see ... ?
who are Living ... " Happily " ... ?!?

CONNECT ... " Those Dots " ...
and you ... Might Get ... SHOCKED ... ?!?
by those now ... "LOCKED" ...

In Relationships ... " Docked " ...
with .... NO iPod ... !?!?! ...

" Hold on, that's wrong ! "

Like couples who ... " Plod " ...
For the ... " Children's Sake " ... !?!

Which i'm ...
Primed to say ...

is a ... BIG Mistake ... !!!!!

If you ... DON"T ... get along
It's time to .... Move on .....................................
WITHOUT ... " Using " ... Your Child ...
Like some ... " ******* " ... !!!!! ...

to be USED ...
while you ... ABUSE ...
Yourself and ... THEM ... !?!?!

Does that ... Make Sense ... ?!?

Children NEED ... " Dots " ...
That Connect ... WITHOUT The ... STRESS ...
of Parents ... FIGHTING Like ... Dogs ... !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who Got Married ... Just because ...

" The Premise " ... seemed ... INVITING ...
Before they got a .................. " Sighting .................................
of Who ... The Other ...... WAS ...... !!!!!!

The TRUTH is ... That ...
Our Lives ...
DON'T Always ... " Intertwine ' .............  

which is WHY ...
We SHOULD ... " Take Time " ...
to YES ... CONNECT The ... Dots ... !!!

with someone who IS ... Strong ... !!!
and DOESN'T Cause ... PROBLEMS ... !!!

That SEVER ...
MORE THAN ... " Bond " ... !!!!!!

My Style of ... Rhyme ...
IS ... Clever ... !!!

Because .....

Problems ... " I Solve " ...
Within The Verse ...
I put to ... WORK ...
Like THOSE ... Who have ... " The Job " ...
of being ..... NEW ..... " Sherlocks " ..... !!!!!!!

STOPPING ....
Violent ... " Yobs " ... !!!!!

and Those who ...
Choose to ... ROB ... !!!!!
Or WORSE STILL ...
Choose to ... **** ... !!!!!!

But Nowadays ...
Their Dots ... Display ...
A BLATANT ... DIS-Connect ... !!!

Between these heads in ... " Uniforms " ...
and " Basic " ... " Common Sense " ... ?!!!? ...

and Being ... MORE ...
Than KILLERS Who ...
Are Causing ... STORMS ... !!!

Because they're ... NO BETTER ...
Than ... " Hannibal Lector " ... !!!!!!!

MURDERERS Who ... " Stalk " ...
More Than They ... " Walk The Walk " ...

of .... " PROTECTING TO SERVE " ... !!!!!!

They Connect and ... HURT ... !!!
MORE THAN They ... " STOP " ...

The CRIMINALS ... Who ...
SIT IN ..... "Boardrooms" ...... ?!?

and DON'T GET ... " SHOT " ... !?!
for the CRIMES They ... "PLOT" ... ?!?

Something seems ... " WRONG " ... ?!?
when Blacks get ... SHOT ...
For Being .... BLACK .... !!!!!!!!

What's up with ... THAT ... ?!?

I Think it's TIME ...
To STOP ... These CRIMES ... !!!!!

As it seems to be ... RIGHT ...
To STOP ... These Rhymes ...

Before ... These Lines
are Deemed to ... " INCITE " ...

When ALL They ... " Reflect " ...
Are Some ... " Thoughts " ... Expressed ...
That ... talk about ... " Health " ...
and The ... HARD SELL ... !!!!!
of ... "Devious Plots" ...

That Seem .... ALL WRONG ... ? !!! ?

Until YOU ...
Take The Time ... to ...

" Connect The Dots " .................................................................­....................

Listen Here :

https://soundcloud.com/user-16569179/connect-the-dots?in=user-16569179/sets/the-cmi-sessions
Seems like a few need connecting right about now .... !!!!!
Madisen Kuhn May 2013
everyone individual
is so intricate,
yet we rush to peg them,
to label them,
to tell them who they are

if someone were to draw me,
i think they'd draw an outline
of my arms and legs
and form my lips
into a sweet smile

but if i were to draw myself,
i would darken the inner parts
of the outline with squiggles
and place a thousand different
expressions on my face

the more i meet people
and flip them inside out
to run my fingers along
the cracks of their beating heart,
the more i realize that
no one really is
"normal"
Loisa Fenichell Sep 2012
Boy left me feeling raw and pink, like the baby born a comma in the taxi
17 years ago. Boy left me feeling like Aunt, who didn’t know any better,
but still knew it all, and now she looks like a graveyard. When I was 14, I went
to her funeral, sat Shiva with her (my?) family, didn’t allow myself to cry, but I did.
Opened Photo Booth app. on my MacBook when I got home, because I didn’t know
what my tears looked like – I just wanted to see myself cry. I love crying,
and I love when other people cry. I think that I don’t like crying alone, but I do;
I keep people on speed dial, so that they can hear me cry. Boy used

to be on my speed dial. He and Aunt were the only ones who could
unravel my guts, but then Boy raveled them back up again. He gave me up
for the Girl with Brown Hair living in the next town over. She lives in a house
that quakes, and tilts. They say houses are like dogs. That people buy houses
that look like themselves. My house has a rich, bleeding door, and shingles
that try to bring me back to nature. I am the exception, although I do try
to bring myself back to nature. There is a forest in the back of my house –

it is brown, and deep, and swallows the monsters stuck in the squiggles
of my eyes. Last year, I went to the forest at night, and slept there. My mother
didn’t know. My father didn’t know. They’ll never know. My father
would have been okay with it, if I had asked. My father called himself
a pushover when writing his brain’s biography, and I murmured in agreement
when I read it. Or thought I read it, but I don’t know how to read properly yet.
I can’t keep characters in my head. I eat characters

for breakfast, along with Nutella. I’m 5’5”, and weigh 130 lbs., and buckle over
when I walk, because my crying weighs 50 lbs., so I push the Nutella
out of my stomach. The Nutella is in Boy’s stomach. Probably in
Girl with Brown Hair’s stomach now, too. I miss Aunt. I wish
she could eat Nutella with me. Next week, I’ll bring a jar of it to her grave,
and a camera. Cry and have a photo shoot, maybe, because I don’t know any better.
jimmy tee Jan 2014
twenty six shapes,
empty spaces too,
dots and tailed dots,
squiggles,
syntax, usage,
certain rules,
phonetics,
with this simple toolbox
we present the sum of human expression
up to and including this one
Cait Apr 2015
A mask looms over me and covers my face.
"Count backwards from 100."
My mouth feels like cotton--
My tongue weighs a ton.
I am falling backwards into an orange fuzz.
Pink and yellow squiggles bounce around me.
A blue one whispers to me,
"Give her more. She's waking up."

When I finally open my eyes,
I ask for it.
I see it in my mind's eye:
Brown, fuzzy
But I want to see the other side--
I imagine that it looks like the back of an eyelid.

I want to hold it and pet it and love it forever-- warm velvet and slime all in one piece of skin--
A most precious part of me that they have removed

It was unsightly
It might have caused cancer
I will never get it back

When I miss it, I touch my scar and am thankful for it.

They can't take me away completely.
Something still remains.
N Schlegel Jan 2018
Once, in a long while,
I go somewhere new in my mind,
shapes take form where voice can’t affect
and my words become hieroglyphs.
It’s when pictures seem more natural than inky squiggles.
because, what’s more natural than shape?
What’s more poetic than an image words don’t capture,
can’t capture, never will—capture?

Despite the decades,
I still have not heard the perfect words
to describe summer skies on clear nights,
God knows I’ve tried,
he’s heard me whispering,
chanting phrase after phrase upwards
as they crash against the stars,
floating, fixed in open defiance of my calls,
immune to my attempts to trap them on paper.
But you can only try to define the infinite in so many ways,
before losing yourself to what is, ultimately,
indescribable.
Shapelessness of Love

I am a logical person
I think in polygons and geometry
But you come around and the shapes fall apart
Into meaningless squiggles on a page.
There is nothing more beautiful than the shapelessness of love.
Part twenty-five
C S Cizek Jan 2015
I forced my razor knife down
into an anniversary coffee cup
crammed with pens, pencils,
two pairs of scissors, and one
roll of color film I'm afraid
to develop. I jammed it in blade-
up so I'd have to deal
with the hard part first
like a blank page before
an accidental tongue slip
drips ink and makes the page
pretty. Some tree I've never met
and some pink dye died for me
to cover this pressed pulp
in illegible squiggles;

and I'll be
                  ****** if I let it down.
'cause I'm drawn to things
without opinions. Sketchbooks,
inkwells, rubber band bracelets,
a mixed-nut dragonfly rested
on my trampoline net. // Cut it
free // cut it loose.

Find a brick behind the shed
and smash it dead,—preteen me—
young Wordsworth me.
I pulled the sepia tape from Queen
cassettes and finished the glossy
plastic off with a vise grip in Dad's truck.
Old Brucey had mustard pinstripes
down the driver's side, all the way down
to the Germania General Store.

He was a blur to me before I could buy
my own Dreamsicles. Passing the chicken feed
and the resident, caged dachshund couple,
I saw his face for the first time. Seventeen-years-
old, staring at my grandpa through picture
and plate glass panes.

The angels he swore were real—the ones he payed,
praised, and prayed for every Sunday and everyday
the sun shined and everyday it didn't—

were now less deserving of heaven.
mûre Mar 2013
are the tattoos I etched
to mark my recovery.

And boy, did it hurt.

The white squiggles at my hips
wink at me every time I look down.
Don't look down!
As if.
I swear, they conspire with each other.

I'll never forget the very first one.
Shiny. Indignant.
I hugged my skeleton and wept.

Now I've grown accustomed
not to the deliberate finality of dropping my gaze
mesmerized by my slow evolution,
but to looking up.

I look at eyes and mouths
instead of the impossible circumferences
above my knees,
the ever shifting law.

Stretch marks
are the tattoos I etched
to mark my recovery.

Do I regret them?
Oh, a little bit always.

But it's sure as hell a story worth remembering.

I take up more colour than I used to,
and these- these are the lines that will never be filled in.

I earned them.
judy smith Dec 2016
"I wouldn't know what to do; I think I would just rot in a corner," replied Zandra Rhodes when asked if she plans to retire anytime soon. The 76-year old British designer who was down in KL (it's her fourth time here now) for the recent KL Alta Moda held at Starhill Gallery where she showed a collection of beautiful songket pieces alongside her signature chiffon print dresses, shows no signs of slowing down even after an extensive six decade-long career that has seen her dressing both rockstars and royalty.

Dressed in one of her designs – a stunning midnight blue, tiered kaftan dress covered all over in gold squiggles, huge pearls and her trademark fuchsia bob, red lips and blue eyeshadow-rimmed eyes, Rhodes maintained a spirited, bubbly cheer at Ritz Carlton where we finally sat down with her after stealing her away mid-tea with the crème de la crème of Malaysia's society.

What's the story behind the collection that we've just seen?

We did a collection initiated by Dodi Mohammad – one that really focused on songket. We chose lovely iridescent greens and pinks, and various groups of clothes. Then I designed and worked on the weaves to make suits and short dresses. It was really to give it another look. Three quarters of the collection are made up of Malaysian songket weaves.

What about the archive looks that you included? How do they relate to the new collection?

I had students who couldn't believe how people were copying the things that I've did in the past – like the pink dress for Princess Diana or the gold dress that Pat Cleveland wore dancing at Studio 54. They suggested that I produce the collection again in a new look, so we did that for Matches Fashion in UK.

Your AW16 collection is said to be inspired by Studio 54 back in its heyday. Would you be able to share with us an interesting story of your own at Studio 54?

I remember with shame going to Studio 54 when they reopened. I sat down in the corner and I was so tired, I fell asleep. I'm sure I was the only person who would fall asleep in Studio 54. I also remember lots of times it was like the parting of the Red Sea when you went in there with Bianca Jagger or Pat Cleveland.

Could you tell us about the Hieronymus Bosch-inspired prints you created for Pierpaolo Piccioli's first solo collection at Valentino?

That was one of the most amazing experiences in my life. He flew over with two of his assistants, opened the Hieronymus Bosch book and said he wanted the collection based on that. And I'm thinking, "Do we want naked people all over it?" It was a fantasy look that I was completely overwhelmed with. I came up with five or six initial ideas and he would look at the things I did and say, "I like your wiggle" or "I like this." Finally, he looked at one of my designs – a lipstick design I had done in 1963 – and said that he wanted daggers and hearts, so we turned that into daggers and hearts and it was wonderful.

Is there anyone else on your collaboration wishlist?

Oh gosh, that's difficult. I think I really just pick and choose. For example, we're currently working on the idea of me doing a print for Anna Sui who is going to have an exhibition in my museum in London. We're going to do the print here in Malaysia using Malaysian fabrics.

Your dresses have been worn by iconic stars from Princess Diana to Pat Cleveland. If you could design an outfit for a current It girl, who would it be for?

I would love to do something for Princess Kate. It would be fabulous to do something for her. She always looks good.

If you could describe Malaysia as a print, what would it look like?

Mad Malaysian houses! I love looking at these tall blocks with curved roofs. I've done a Manhattan print but I think I should do a KL print. You'd need to put the Twin Towers in. I think there's room for a lot of things.

What projects have you got lined-up for the future?

At the moment, I'm designing for the Turandot opera, which is about a mad Chinese princess and a pair of lovers that get beheaded. It's wonderfully mad. It's due to be out in San Diego in 2018.

You've been working since the 60s, any plans of settling into retirement soon?

I wouldn't know what to do; I think I would just rot in a corner.

What inspires you?

Wonderful people. I think it's one's friends. It's very important to do something and exchange ideas. I also love traveling when I get the chance. It's really a case of seeing how far my adventures can take me.

What do you think has been the key to your longevity in this industry?

I'd say longevity is the result of hard work and enjoying what you do. If you do something and it doesn't succeed, you pick yourself up and have another go. You never give up.

Describe yourself in 3 words.

Pink, short, makeup.

What would your hair be if not pink?

I think it will be several different colors. I see all these people with all these different colours, I think I might try that next.

What's your hobby?

Cooking and gardening.

If you weren't a fashion designer, what would you be doing?

I don't know, I don't have time to think about that.

What's the best advice anyone has ever given you?

Oh, good one! Be careful who you step on going up, cause you might have to lean on them going down.Read more at:www.marieaustralia.com/one-shoulder-formal-dresses | http://www.marieaustralia.com/red-formal-dresses
Natasha Aug 2015
What I ink to my page is not poetry,
There is not rhythm or rhyme, nor reason.
The empire state is no structure to my art.


What stains my page is not creativity,
Squiggles and lines leave marks from my mind.
The blank canvas does not lead to my masterpiece.


Words are my patchwork quilt,
Adjectives and nouns thread together my memoirs.
There's no glamour in my prose.


What I ink to my page is not poetry,
nor is it my intellect or wisdom.
What I ink to my page is life.
Johanna May Sep 2012
If you could be quiet
hang your beliefs by the door
sit down beside this poem
that leans in
to whisper:
“right now at this very moment
even before I finish this sentence
someone is dying unjustly,
or hungry, or is not you—
privy to these squiggles
I form with my mouth,
because reading is as alien to them
as poverty is to you,
there is something terribly wrong
and absurd about this life.”


If you think about this too hard,
like I do…sometimes,
breathing becomes awkward.
allusive to J
Shevek Appleyard Nov 2022
sensations under a primary sun spread through generations
wax drips like sweat on to sweat dripping like rain that clings to our canvas shield
the daybreak smiles as it dries the dewed tarps
At fuzzy minds
That refuse to yield
immersed in enchantment
And Scuzzy with field
ears catching natter spewed as clatter builds
the happy daze that sweeps reality away,
anxieties at bay
primary sun rises above another day
to be blurred into every colour created and yet to exist
sigh to witness the mornings mist
hung to frame this picture of bliss
I try to resist
I grasp to the sounds and movements of the night
Knowing sleep will separate me
Till they are pickled pages of a story I'll half tell
amongst the days of this week that seep together
We seek the fantasy of this forever
Where we are home in the lyrics that swirl through the air
And our feet know the patterns of the beat
Our emotions howl as my feelings digest
a jumble of potions and poisons
and unfinished sentences
I need to rest
but now it is the present
reality is tearing at the seams
dance myself to bed
as the day begins

Little bug whispers
sweet dreams in my ears
As we crawl towards oblivion
moonshine and make believe
Nonsense echoes around my skull  pyjama parties
Suddenly we're in our twenties
Substances and sandwiches
We slumber in our
Gigantic wigwams
Battered old vans
More human that I was before or am I even human anymore?

I sit alone, in a circle
on the soft green carpet of the world
i feel safe
my eyes so dry i shield them
sun fast fading in the sky
my nose crusted rusted shut from the inside
i cry
the wet salt fills my barren pupils
sadness an oasis for my sight to swim through
my breath raspy and raw
throat sharded with sniffs full of backdrip
lungs swollen from heavy tokes on spliff
its tugging me back to reality
i feel defeated and completed
still i want more
and endless sesh of happiness
a party of all of those i adore
my head hits the floor
tomorrow my ceiling will not be the sky
i will not have drugs to help me fly
the hardest part is always goodbye

i hope your shade of smallworld blues is a nice shade
the clouds always seems grey
when summer slips away
the world beneath mirrors it
confidence depleted
hearts defeated
it all feels synthetic
no one sympathetic
my serotonin trapped in
flashbacks of myself, energetic
surrounded by the swish of everyone dazzled up swimming through the same rhythm
primary sun holds us all as children
bodies of movement glittered with sweat
feathered with freedom
shedding regrets
we form circles shapes
and sparkled squiggles
we feel eternal
suppressed only by giggles
we colour skies
we paint our skin
we dance on highs
with solidified grins
im only 9 months away
i cannot give in

Every moment we cherished
Sweet seconds divine where
I am home in her lyrics that melt in the air
My feet bare and bruised with a good time, and the memories I don't want to fade
August runs out so I daydream of May
Throughout the winter we may grow apart
but at the first peep of spring
We know what starts
Studded with those darker sins
We reach out as the festival begins
We forget our troubles and our pain
To cuddle beneath our primary sun again
I wrote in 2019 without realising it would be more than 9 months of no festivals
Michael W Noland Dec 2012
Ambiguously, he was boggled, beguiled by garbled goggles while giggling out the squiggles, to wiggle the signals free.

Deliberately dallying in the Plato piety of proprietary philosophies, he, dastardly deemed, disaster to be, damaging, to the laughter in the chatter of the baggage handlers to another plane.

Manhandler of a plastered paradise, partly in slices, of silly little vices of sacrifices, that shall suffice with vice grips on the lips of the negative with the spices of nicety.

Lavished in lividly living uP the misgivings of lesserly lessons, blessing the blasphemy, in passionate tuck ins, snuck in, upon drunken hunkering in the bunkers of spunkier spiels.

Languid longevity's of luscious lettering, lest will we, count our kills, never ever to leave a life festering in lectured structuring, besting the busy debuts, of flukless frugality, lucidly, counting the calories of calamity, and randomly rhyming without reason in season-less rain clouds, only allowed to put the umbrella away, and fade in play to the part, where we impart patience on the persona from the coma of commonality.

Immaculately conceived, perceived as a ***** who adores hollow hearts, as we, haphazardly heap on the hilarity, in hepatidal waves, through fazes of the common wealth.

Smile in stealth, love no one else, but self and end up in health, at a lonely age in staged stimuli, reminding me why i'm alive, and not allowed to die, while on rewind through the hard times, to smile on the last lines of laser driven lifelines, laughing at the fragile signs on the finer wines, as they break on the bowes of holy boats in bouts against the sea.

Spewing randomly, he, finds satisfactory solutions to the strengthening of his constitution in loosened blue spells, to dispel his ruthless tendrils from your ears.

The fears fueling the finality in his fractured mentality of maniacal travesties laughing at me.

Its just me, unjustly adjusting for the combustion of the build.

Its lovely here.

Laughing in the lashes.

Signing my entrapment's.

Lapsing out the masses and forming from the ashes of smashed happiness, as it unclasps before my eyes.

Sometimes

It just feels right to be alive.
Datore Fargo Feb 2023
Pen
I misplaced myself,
just like,
my favorite,
pen.
The mirror,
it’s broken,
a lack,
of reflection.
I’m not,
too sure,
what happened,
but I lost,
phone signal,
and my steps,
I didn’t print,
a mapquest.
My glasses broke,
I thought,
I made it,
home,
I’ll stay in bed,
I promise.
That’s just,
a tree,
instead,
blurred from,
reality.
This isn’t fair,
I didn’t ask,
for this,
she did,
I’m not,
her,
she’s already,
dead.
The mirror,
it’s broken,
I’m here,
instead.
A game,
I forgot,
the rules,
to play.
I don’t think,
this is something,
you could,
possibly,
understand.
From a person,
who isn’t,
a person,
just a bunch,
of swirls,
and squiggles,
that forgot,
how to,
get home.
I don’t add a lot of notes to poems, but I’m sure this one is hard to read. My seizures have recently gotten worse, and my brain is hard to really make sense out of. I’m not the same person, and this is my first poem since my last bad attack and waking up in the hospital. Thank you for being patient <3
Michael W Noland Apr 2013
Ambiguously, he was boggled, beguiled by garbled goggles while giggling out the squiggles, to wiggle the signals free.

Deliberately dallying in the Plato piety of proprietary philosophies, he, dastardly deemed, disaster to be, damaging, to the laughter in the chatter of the baggage handlers to another plane.

Manhandler of a plastered paradise, partly in slices, of silly little vices of sacrifices, that shall suffice with vice grips on the lips of the negative with the spices of nicety.

Lavished in lividly living uP the misgivings of lesserly lessons, blessing the blasphemy, in passionate tuck ins, snuck in, upon drunken hunkering in the bunkers of spunkier spiels.

Languid longevity's of luscious lettering, lest will we, count our kills, never ever to leave a life festering in lectured structuring, besting the busy debuts, of flukless frugality, lucidly, counting the calories of calamity, and randomly rhyming without reason in season-less rain clouds, only allowed to put the umbrella away, and fade in play to the part, where we impart patience on the persona from the coma of commonality.

Immaculately conceived, perceived as a ***** who adores hollow hearts, as we, haphazardly heap on the hilarity, in hepatidal waves, through fazes of the common wealth.

Smile in stealth, love no one else, but self and end up in health, at a lonely age in staged stimuli, reminding me why i'm alive, and not allowed to die, while on rewind through the hard times, to smile on the last lines of laser driven lifelines, laughing at the fragile signs on the finer wines, as they break on the bowes of holy boats in bouts against the sea.

Spewing randomly, he, finds satisfactory solutions to the strengthening of his constitution in loosened blue spells, to dispel his ruthless tendrils from your ears.

The fears fueling the finality in his fractured mentality of maniacal travesties laughing at me.

Its just me, unjustly adjusting for the combustion of the build.

Its lovely here.

Laughing in the lashes.

Signing my entrapment's.

Lapsing out the masses and forming from the ashes of smashed happiness, as it unclasps before my eyes.

Sometimes

It just feels right to be alive.
Sunflower Girl Dec 2016
I put my earbuds in and sting my open wounds with stories
I wander through the library, mausoleum of time
Oldness, dust, that faint smell with no name
I open a book in Danish, squiggles and dots
This must be what a child feels like before they can read

My soul is leaking out of my sides, I clasp them tight
As I attempt to imprison my wandering soul, it slips out my mouth
Into these ancient creations of another
I must read to find it
I must find it

It weathers storms on a glassy sea
It wanders in darkness and burns in the light
It jumps off the precipice of possibility
It was screaming and I forgot to listen
I just put in my earbuds and stung in with stories
Until it became one

*Oh my soul I must honor thee, in black and white you illusive remain.
Constantly moving but staying the same.
Freedom you found, freedom these pages contain.
But I am not with thee in flesh I remain.
Sorting through words for which I have no name
Lost in the translation that made the mundane
I don't understand these books, I don't understand other people, but I am lost in translation too so what does it matter?

— The End —