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Author Topic: Calling all writers  (Read 9828 times)

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Offline OzPaul

  • Member
  • Posts: 415
  • 40 year, Long Term Survivor/LTNP
Calling all writers
« on: January 26, 2007, 09:44:15 pm »
G'day everybody

I thought it might be interesting to get an idea of who among us is a writer.

Who here at the Forums is an author in any medium ? Poetry, essays, short story, plays, commentary, blog, news media. Let us know the type of written expression and what are the topics.

I've had poetry published on topics of HIV, sprituality, nature and relationships. These days I'm on Australian nattional radio writing about living in a rural town. In the works are the early drafts of a memoir loosely based on being Poz for 25 years.

Who wants to go next ?

Cheers
Paul

Offline thunter34

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  • Posts: 7,374
  • His name is Carl.
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2007, 09:45:39 pm »
*cough cough*  Win  *cough cough*
AIDS isn't for sissies.

Offline OzPaul

  • Member
  • Posts: 415
  • 40 year, Long Term Survivor/LTNP
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #2 on: January 26, 2007, 10:10:24 pm »
Hey

Thanks for that  ::)

Offline thunter34

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  • Posts: 7,374
  • His name is Carl.
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #3 on: January 26, 2007, 11:32:10 pm »
I know of another rather studly sort on here that has a way with words.  Scratch that....at least two rather studly types.  I'm going to leave it for now for them to come forth on their own.
AIDS isn't for sissies.

Offline DanielMark

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,475
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #4 on: January 27, 2007, 02:25:09 pm »
G'day Paul,

Well, I'm by no means “studly” but I can write – poetry now and then but usually lyrics for my song writing hobby.

Here's a sample of my latest (just a little folk song for the religious right ... or ... would you kindly get a freakin' grip)?


HOMO’S LAMENT

(listen here)

God hates fags
Well I got news for you
The love that dare not speak its name
Has come out of the old wardrobe

I was made from love
I don’t wanna to kiss your sons
Don’t want your boyfriend and I don’t want your man
I will settle for having my own
I was made from love

I was made for love
When will you understand
I don’t live a lifestyle, there isn’t a choice
When you are born as ho-mo-sexual

Can’t stand the colour pink
Or phoney fashion shows
I’m not queer I’m Gay, yet not festive at all
Can you not figure out what you don’t know
I was made from love

The pope and all his clan
Don’t seem to get the point
In their jewels and crowns  that are dragging them down
They’re missing out something where a soul should be

Get this in your head
And write it on your heart
Love is love no matter who
Is loving me or loving you
I was made from love

Daniel
MEDS: REYATAZ & KIVEXA (SINCE AUG 2008)

MAY 2000 LAB RESULTS: CD4 678
VL STILL UNDETECTABLE

DIAGNOSED IN 1988

Offline dtwpuck

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  • Posts: 1,013
  • дано мне тело, что мне делать с ним?
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #5 on: January 27, 2007, 04:20:28 pm »
I've written poetry for years.  I've been published and worked as a submissions editor for a poetry website for a while.

While I don't really write too much about gay-themed issues, because when I do, it feels trite and strident... here is something I wrote once a personal transformation:

The Hand You Are Dealt

He might speak, if wheels had words,
that draped clothes depress an unsuitable
utility for a frame of alluring
British racing green.
Once spoken, those words paint
brown walls with rhetorical
admonition,
“Why am I not ridden?”

Thank you for coming today, how are you feeling?

Seasons gone, he speaks again
that rain is deterrent to the weak
while the face is pained to sense the stripes
that wet, slip him into tumult
and  knot the body to embrace the asphalt.
No matter, this demon will only win
a pair of deuces which paint
the street with poison blood.

Fine? Glad to hear it.  I have your test results.

The legs groan in happy agony
for first among a thousand riders
he speaks, now blue with shiny wheels,
“the hand to win isn’t in the deal
but the play.”  His words evoke
tears more real than the arms
raised in victory.


HIV Positive.


(c) June 23, 2003
Scott Smithson
Seattle

 
Floating through the void in the caress of two giant pink lobsters named Esmerelda and Keith.

Offline dtwpuck

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  • дано мне тело, что мне делать с ним?
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #6 on: January 27, 2007, 04:22:49 pm »
G'day Paul,

Well, I'm by no means “studly” but I can write – poetry now and then but usually lyrics for my song writing hobby.

Here's a sample of my latest (just a little folk song for the religious right ... or ... would you kindly get a freakin' grip)?

Daniel.... I like the rhythm of your piece.  Yes, I read it out loud.  Nice job..
Floating through the void in the caress of two giant pink lobsters named Esmerelda and Keith.

Offline aupointillimite

  • Member
  • Posts: 3,233
  • FUS DO RAH!
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2007, 04:46:51 pm »
I write.

I was going to write for some local Richmond weeklies... until they told me I was great but that I was too bitter and sarcastic and that I should tone it down.

I did as they asked... and the artistry, which was truly married to the vitriol of what I had written, went completely down the toilet. 

They didn't get back to me.

But I'm writing a book thingy now.  Fun for me. 
Your tastebuds can't repel flavor of this magnitude!

Offline poet

  • Member
  • Posts: 934
  • Poet living and working in Central Maine
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #8 on: January 27, 2007, 05:02:08 pm »
(Full disclaimer, Paul and Tim did not create this thread to plug my new collection. :)  I am working on what may turn out to be a long poem, trying to mesh things from the forums and despite the possible wrath of Tim, I am going to modify it to reflect the edits:

A table centers
This room.  Solid piece
Purchased at auction
Spiraling mismatched
Chairs of odd number.

Words cross it: Salvage
Therapy.  Mood swings.
Disclosure.  Numbness.
Superinfection.
Undetectable.

Drinks cover it: beer
Bottles, emptied wine
Glasses, a half glass
Of water, coffee
Stained cups, juice cartons.

Complaints spill: Neighbors.
I hate my job.  We
Stopped having sex.  I
Got food poisoning. 
I feel all alone.

Some chairs have been moved.
Back, to let out or
Distance.  Closer, to
Claim, hold court.  Some are
Left as if assigned.

Flame wars erupt as
Members' comments bait,
Attack.  Discussions
Are hijacked.  The same
Questions repeated.

Food piles up.  Homemade
Oatmeal cookies.  A
Pizza Hut box.  A
Popeyes bucket.  A
Quart of pork fried rice.

To which I will add for non-writers that I sat with the image of a bureau I found on an early dog walk in Chelsea, NYC, for about five years, knowing that it fit somewhere in a long poem, that the essence of that poem was to be found in the bureau, in the clothes hanging out of it, in the reason why it had been placed at the curb for pick-up but it took five years of starting with it, starting the poem and then coming across it, back and forth, redraft after redraft until I 'got' the full circle which is a long poem figured out and only had to edit, re-edit to finish it last Winter. So there is no way of my knowing, at this point, how this one will play out.  Win
« Last Edit: February 02, 2007, 07:18:10 am by poet »
Winthrop Smith has published three collections of poetry: Ghetto: From The First Five; The Weigh-In: Collected Poems; Skin Check: New York Poems.  The last was published in December 2006.  He has a work-in-progress underway titled Starting Positions.

Offline lydgate

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,022
  • Virgin, can't drive
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #9 on: January 27, 2007, 06:56:53 pm »
I write. Non-fiction mostly, essays. I am, most reluctantly, an MFA student in writing in fact, at Iowa (sposedly the "best" program in the country).

Big project for next coupla years: a history of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Sometimes referred to as the "psychiatrist's Bible." Incredibly influential, all around the world. First edition came out in 1952, the fifth is scheduled for 2011. So, a kind of social narrative history, through the lens of psychiatry, through the further lens of the DSM.

Oh, I did write pornographic sestina once.  :P

Jay
Her finely-touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

George Eliot, Middlemarch, final paragraph

Offline newt

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  • the one and original newt
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #10 on: January 28, 2007, 08:52:33 am »
My last published poem:

...
« Last Edit: February 16, 2007, 06:37:18 am by newt »
"The object is to be a well patient, not a good patient"

Offline DanielMark

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,475
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #11 on: January 28, 2007, 08:53:01 am »
Found this one in an old journal this morning:



Frost lies in quiet sleep across the morning rooftops
On leaves fallen and wind-scattered on the ground
I waken slowly in chilly sunrise, dreaming in a world
Where heartaches were born and yet abound

My hopeful young notions of love beyond spoken words
Childhood given sincerity, and romantic considerations
Were drained early on in my broken hearted long agos
Disappointment surviving even lesser expectations
 
Though now far away, they remain tormentingly near
The mothers, the lovers, the enemy friends, the beasts
By my side, you seemingly reflect facets of them all
But they were not you - I bid them release

Untitled - November 2000
MEDS: REYATAZ & KIVEXA (SINCE AUG 2008)

MAY 2000 LAB RESULTS: CD4 678
VL STILL UNDETECTABLE

DIAGNOSED IN 1988

Offline rick21007

  • Member
  • Posts: 286
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #12 on: January 28, 2007, 12:10:32 pm »
Geez Guys, what a great thread!  Not surprising to find writers in our ranks.  If anything being pozes has a way of honing the creative spirit.

I am published myself--non-fiction.  Actually did a few articles for an Aussie magazine a few years back.  Now trying my hand at gay fiction--finished the first draft of a short story I wrote for my husband.  Occasionally do poetry, song lyrics mostly.  A few lines here:
                              Sorrows past hang by a thread while children play
                                              inside my head.
                               Their laughter heals the wounds which bled.
                                        and tell me what love is.

Best, Rick

Offline pozguy75

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,239
    • POZitively Speaking
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #13 on: January 28, 2007, 04:48:28 pm »
Okay...here is one I wrote in college...you tell me what may have been going on in my life...

Quote
Untitled:

The breeze floats,
While the the attitudes of the bottom dwellers in this stinking hole
We call home remain in checkmate over what
We consider to be complete isolation, however I see all that is
Is encompassing as the pitiful priests practice
Their voodoo on all who seem to be tormented by the
Everyday devils we call children and parents;
spawn of what can only be considered dim
hope at best.

I see only pathetic
Corpses trying to resurect what little
Self worth they have left by purchasing
Cars far too expensive to deem resonable
And then to breathe the toxic air which with we have poisoned
Ourselves and then to be murdered by the one we love the most.

Throats at the barest seem to beckon for the knife
We never seem to find leaving a
Head to hang and flop waiting fr shit and piss
To fill our nostrils as would a delicate
bouquet of a fine dessert wine.

This is what has become home to many
Of us this...this is what we have turned
Our city into.

Nothing but a dung heap that only inhabits maggots
To tear away at flesh not yet deceased,
To fight over the ever loving battle of right and wrong;
To never again see the light of day.

As it once appeared so long ago in our dreams of days long past,
We only have a single desire: DEATH.

A single voice: A CRY OF DESPERATION.

Where have we lost the hope which now is hopelessness?
The shattered dream of a boy who looked
At this city: Wanting, wanting, wanting the world and got instead
A measly pet rock that will never bounce to him,
That will forever be dead, leaving him alone for the rest of
His days on this miserable planet-

-THANK YOU MOTHER-

Dx 2005
ATRIPLA

Offline thunter34

  • Member
  • Posts: 7,374
  • His name is Carl.
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #14 on: January 28, 2007, 05:01:09 pm »
OK...scratch post #3.  Make it three studly types (now possibly 4 even).  No, we didn't create the thread to plug Win...but I had to *cough cough* Win because I have read a fair amount of his stuff now and love it!  I am way impressed by Jeromy's above.  Have not had the chance to read throught the others yet.  Look forward to them!  The talent present here at AM seems to know no bounds.
AIDS isn't for sissies.

Offline OzPaul

  • Member
  • Posts: 415
  • 40 year, Long Term Survivor/LTNP
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #15 on: January 28, 2007, 05:21:35 pm »
Good morning from Australia

Wow guys, thanks for all the moving words, phrases, thoughts and emotions !

After being here at the Forums for over 1 year I had a sense that there are many among us with the gift of a poets mind and heart. I wasn't going to post any of my work but indeed will, soon. I'm contemplating which one to post.

By the way where are our lady writers here at the Forums ? We'd love to hear from you too  ;D !!!!

Offline pozguy75

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,239
    • POZitively Speaking
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #16 on: January 28, 2007, 08:02:11 pm »
Okay...so here is one more I think I should share:

Quote
A Son's Betrayal

I wish I were like you,
I have my star, I wish,
I have my life, I wish,
I have my love, I wish,
I have my dreams, I wish,
I have my colors, I wish.

My dreams are mine
you cannot take them away
I know you love me
You gave birth to me
       I Wish

I gave you my life
I gave you my love
I fell in love with you
Cast away your poison
Don't leave me.
      I Wish

I have red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purlple, and indigo.
all colors of the rainbow,
This rainbow is free.
I am free...
     I Wish

I bleong to me
I am free to love
I love, you...
   I Wish

I wish I were like you!
Dx 2005
ATRIPLA

Offline lydgate

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,022
  • Virgin, can't drive
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #17 on: January 28, 2007, 08:28:36 pm »
Her finely-touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

George Eliot, Middlemarch, final paragraph

Offline Amosboy

  • Member
  • Posts: 156
  • Music is the panacea.
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #18 on: January 28, 2007, 10:01:45 pm »
Surrender To Myself


Silence has never been so full of life’s beauty and innocence.

Words are only whispers behind the immensity of Erato’s heart.

The true chariot of Her beloved slides down my face.

Gently, tearful waves find comfort in your hands as I surrender to myself.

Blissful muses swirl around the source of Her inspiration.

The dewy pools of Her celestial orbs reflect in your eyes.

They reach deep into my lonely Garden of Eden.

Youthful charms feel their way slowly through the maze of thorns.

The light of my inner being savors the depth of your longing.

Not even Artemis’ thoughtful sadness glows so brightly.

My touch finds the child trembling so quietly inside you.

Your dreams spill over me, so fresh like the foam that clings to the shore.

My tears encourage you to let go as your fear withers beneath my embrace.

Eros breathes life into your spirit’s desire to feed from my soul.

The curve of your upper lip tells the unspoken lament of His bow.

With kisses born of fairytales, Passion finally reveals the love in Melancholy.


Brooks Jenkins
"Love isn't love unless it's not painfully absurb."

-Charlotte Martin

Offline Amosboy

  • Member
  • Posts: 156
  • Music is the panacea.
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #19 on: January 28, 2007, 10:16:29 pm »
I thought I'd add one more to this post for now.  It probably should be noted that this poem was actually written with the assumption that I would be speaking it in French.  Trust me, it's better this way.  I am a total French fanatic and at one point in my life, the words in my dreams were in French.  Pretty strange, huh?  I don't have the patience to put all of the proper accents in the French text.  The English translation isn't so bad either, but I definitely prefer to be whispering this into someone's ear in French  ;)  Oh yeah, if you haven't figured it out...I think kissing is so completely underrated, especially in the way that it can catapult you into a total endorphin rush in mere seconds flat.  Slowly now....

Un Baiser

J'entend chuchoter les papillons.
Les paroles tombent de leurs bouches goutte a goutte comme du miel.
Voltigeant  dans le labyrinthe de mon coeur,
Les fleurs de la Passion s'engluent dans mon ame.

Se posant sur mes cils,
Leurs ailes caressent mon front tout doucement.
Des larmes de la confience coulent dans des voies tres usagee.
Ils se baignent dans le ruisseau de mon abandon.

Je goute le nectar du paradis.
Felicite enivrante me restant toujours sur l'haleine,
Ils lechent l'elixir encore a mes levres --
Un baiser comme l'ether transforme les reves en chair.

Brooks Jenkins


Now in English.....

A Kiss

I hear the butterflies whispering.
Words drip off their mouths like honey.
Fluttering through the labyrinth of my heart,
Passion flowers grow sticky in my soul.

Lighting on the lashes of my eyes,
Their wings gently caress my brow.
Tears of trust find well-worn paths.
They bathe in the stream of my surrender.

I taste the nectar of paradise.
Intoxicating bliss still on my breath,
They lick the potion still on my lips --
A kiss like ether makes dreams become flesh.

Brooks Jenkins
"Love isn't love unless it's not painfully absurb."

-Charlotte Martin

Offline marc11864

  • Member
  • Posts: 440
  • I apologize for nothing!
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #20 on: January 29, 2007, 12:11:16 am »
 :D I love to write although I've never been professionally published. Mostly I write in one of the many blogs that I have out there. The topics usually reflect something of recent significance in my life. For example, I recently went to Thailand and met my partner of almost two years for the very first time and I've blogged about it and uploaded some photos.

 I've also blogged about my HIV and about politics and mental health issues which are all very important to me. Hell I was doing it before it was even called "blogging" having created one of my very first personal webpages back on the ole Geocities site that Yahoo incorporated.

 I think I caught the "bug" when I was back in college taking English classes though even when I was in high school I enjoyed it. It's also been very therapeutic for me to just sit down and lay all my thoughts out on paper (natural or electronic).

 Anyhow, that's me!  :)
Let us cavort like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean.

Offline OzPaul

  • Member
  • Posts: 415
  • 40 year, Long Term Survivor/LTNP
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #21 on: January 29, 2007, 12:32:41 am »
Hi Marc and Welcome to  the forums !! I've not seen you here before.

Thanks everyone for the great posts. I had a sense when I began this thread that there were some passionate folks here who love and get tuned into and on by words and, here we are  ;D

Marc, do you have a blog that you would like to put a link to here so we can read it ? I'm always wanting to get a good read from bloggers. I'm intrigued by the mental health aspect of your blog. As I have bi-polar disorder I like to keep an eye out for how mental health issues/experiences are put out into the world.

I'm still  considering what poem of mine to include here, perrhaps Siege or Jesus. I'll have some in the morning ( Australia time).

Paul

Offline thunter34

  • Member
  • Posts: 7,374
  • His name is Carl.
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #22 on: January 29, 2007, 12:38:32 am »
Speaking of great writers...another shameless plug for my buddy, Jonathan (jkinatl2) on his birthday.

I adore this man's writing.
AIDS isn't for sissies.

Offline marc11864

  • Member
  • Posts: 440
  • I apologize for nothing!
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #23 on: January 29, 2007, 02:13:10 am »
Thanks Paul!

 I've been diagnosed with bipolar before and with "borderline" at one point as well. Often I think the medical establishment needs to pay better attention to there charges and actually hear what they are saying. I know I have issues with severe depression sometimes and absolutely with ADD. All that being said, I invite you and anyone else to visit my primary blog any time. You can just click the "Globe" icon under my picture or the following link marc11864.multiply.com. There are even links to a couple of my other sites on it.

 Enjoy!
Let us cavort like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean.

Offline poet

  • Member
  • Posts: 934
  • Poet living and working in Central Maine
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #24 on: January 29, 2007, 06:45:54 am »
http://www.amazon.com/Weigh-Collected-Poems-Winthrop-Smith/dp/1879194201/sr=8-1/qid=1170070617/ref=sr_1_1/104-2799946-2936753?ie=UTF8&s=books  I hope that this is the link to the book which I sent Tim, The Weigh-In: Collected Poems which came out in 1986.  (I think because I am having problems figuring out how my new notebook works. :(  I have sent one of our members the new collection, Skin Check and can, of course, send anyone either or both.  You guys (and ladies) might like the cover image on The Weigh-In. 

IF this were 'our' website to micromanage, I would suggest a 'wall' on which posts of remembrance could be added by anonymous and named posters and now, thanks to this thread, perhaps links section (near the blogs?) to writings, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, blogs, etc. from posters to aidsmeds.com I am, finally, still hoping for a forum feature to pump up the poz.com personals since I find a gap there in not having one for those negotiating online dating.  Best, Win
Winthrop Smith has published three collections of poetry: Ghetto: From The First Five; The Weigh-In: Collected Poems; Skin Check: New York Poems.  The last was published in December 2006.  He has a work-in-progress underway titled Starting Positions.

Offline DanielMark

  • Member
  • Posts: 1,475
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #25 on: January 29, 2007, 08:17:38 am »
Sorrows past hang by a thread while children play
inside my head.
Their laughter heals the wounds which bled.
and tell me what love is.


Hey Rick,

From one song writer to another I really like that!

Daniel
MEDS: REYATAZ & KIVEXA (SINCE AUG 2008)

MAY 2000 LAB RESULTS: CD4 678
VL STILL UNDETECTABLE

DIAGNOSED IN 1988

Offline aztecan

  • Member
  • Posts: 5,530
  • 36 years positive, 64 years a pain in the butt
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #26 on: January 29, 2007, 09:13:53 am »
Gee, I'm out of my league here.

I was a newsman for about 18 years.

I was a columnist for six years, writing a weekly column in the local paper while I was city editor.

I loved "stirring the pot" by publishing often controversial opinions on local, national, or global issues.

I wrote quite a few columns about HIV and AIDS, a subject this republican, white-bread community didn't want to discuss.

One funny story then I'll leave you to it. Once, I wrote a column about prayer in schools. Basically, I said if it is allowed, all prayer must be allowed. To do this, I suggested a religion of the day, Monday could be Christian, Tuesday, Muslim, Wednesday,Jewish, Thursday, Buddhist, Friday, Pagan.

The column always ran on Sunday. At 8:05 a.m. the Sunday it ran, I received a telephone call at home. The woman who called started shouting at me, "You are the agent of Satan!" to which I replied, "Don't agents get 10 percent?"

She hung up the phone on me, No sense of humor. I'm glad she called before I had had my coffee.

HUGS,

Mark
"May your life preach more loudly than your lips."
~ William Ellery Channing (Unitarian Minister)

Offline Lisa

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Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #27 on: January 29, 2007, 10:57:02 am »
No worries Mark, she was channeling Dana Carvey (church lady) you adorable agent of SATAN! hehehe ;D

Geez guys, what a talented bunch! I love each and every piece.
No Fear  No Shame  No Stigma
Happiness is not getting what you want, but wanting what you have.

Offline aupointillimite

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Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #28 on: January 29, 2007, 01:37:26 pm »
I wrote this back in March.

I was told by local weeklies that it was "too sarcastic."

I thought it rather fitting.

    

Slobodan Milosevic Is Dead.

Yes, I know all my fellow Americans with short term memories are scratching their heads saying to themselves... "That name is so familiar... who the hell?"

OK, back in the dark ages of the early 1990's... there was a very bad man who somehow, through complex political maneuvering only made possible due to the collapse of Stalinism in Eastern Europe, managed to work his way to some high up position in a country THAT NO LONGER EXISTS.  Yes, boys and girls, that country was called Yugoslavia (or "Shitty Land Left over From the Austro-Hungarian Empire for the Southern Slavs... ia").  Yugoslavia was where those bad cars came from.  The Yugo?  Still with me?  Good.

OK... so, for reasons which NO ONE TO THIS DAY completely understands (this is geopolitical quantum physics here), Yugoslavia fell apart like the reactor at Chernobyl.  Only the fallout wasn't measured in half-lives... it was actually measure in lives.

Did I say that Yugoslavia fell apart for reasons that no one completely understands?  That's slightly misleading.  Yugoslavia would be like quantum physics... if... here's an example.  Imagine you have an atom.  With protons and whatnots.  Now imagine that protons and neutrons and electrons all hate each other with a gut-wrenching passion... but they only reason that they're working together is that the big, bad Union of Soviet Socialist Molecules will kill them if they don't.  So, the molecule isn't an issue starting around 1989, and our little Yugo atom falls apart.  And much like atoms splitting, a lot of pent up gamma rays are released that eventually end up causing tumors.  Only, these tumors are called "People Who Aren't Serbian."  And those tumors have to be removed.

By force.

Or by being killed.

So... it's now 199-something or other.  And this dude named Slobodan is "ethnically cleansing" Serbia.  And Bosnia.  And a few other places.  He was like a little Slavic Hitler.

As per usual, after a few years of this, the international community is not happy.  And they spend a few more years debating as to what to do.  See... never let it be said that the First World is racist because they did nothing while Rwanda went down like a lead balloon.  We let the same thing happen to the Balkans just to prove that we can watch white people do it too and not lift a finger to stop it.  The International Community: Equal Opportunity Ignorers.  It makes your head ache with pride, doesn't it?

Long story short... and believe me... the above is a long story made very, very short... in 1999, Those Who Know Best at NATO thought that the best way to stop Slobodan and his cronies in Kosovo (where is that? Oh... it's in Serbia... you know... it's that country on the Balkan Peninsula... OK... it's in southern Europe... Europe?  You know, that thing that juts off the western end of the Eurasian landmass... hence its name... shit... OK... here's the planet Earth, and you're right here.  No... here.  HERE!  RIGHT HERE!... no, that's the Grand Banks... Jesus...  no, it's not near the mall, you stupid shit.)... wait... where was I... oh, yes.  So NATO bombed Kosovo and ended up killing a whole bunch of innocent civilians (Serbian, Kosovar, and otherwise) in addition to destroying the embassy and killing a few diplomats from an absolutely adorable and very understanding teensy little country called the People's Republic of China.

And this somehow worked.  Somehow.

And Slobodan Milosevic took his hobo bag and made his way to the Hague.  Where he sued the world for improperly spelling his middle name on UN form 43A-382132-P22BC (Which, as we all know, is the form for "Reporting A Government for Committing Genocide For Ethnic and Possibily Religious Reasons But Not Because Someone In The Government Had a Bad Experience In The Holiday Inn Located In The Victimized Group's Holy City) dated 21 Feb 1994 that would have made it before the Security Council's undersecretary's sectratary's boyfriend's roommate's cousin in order to be referred to the UN Subcommittee on Southeastern European Fruits, Vegetables, and Suspicious Goverment Policies, which meets from 10:13 AM to 11:42 AM every other Wednesday but only when Mars is retrograde in Capricorn.

Unfortunately, this clever political ploy didn't work... and he was charged with crimes against humanity.  Much like Celine Dion.  Except she has claimed sanctuary in Las Vegas.  And while the excruiciatingly slow wheels of international justice turned... Slobodan died in his jail cell.

Wow.

And the true irony of this story is... *ahem.*  Back in 1999, those who decried the "peacekeeping" in Kosovo the loudest were the ones who were beating the wardrums as feverishly as possible when it came to invading Iraq in 2003.

Because always remember... you're only being unpatriotic if you're ripping apart or publicly shitting on the war of a president who you disagree with.
Your tastebuds can't repel flavor of this magnitude!

Offline bear60

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Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #29 on: January 29, 2007, 01:55:53 pm »
Oh my God.  It was the Celine Dion comment that did it for me!
Poz Bear Type in Philadelphia

Offline Basquo

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Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #30 on: January 29, 2007, 02:29:58 pm »
A decade ago I free-lanced for a local magazine; I was an "advertorial" restaurant critic, meaning I was paid to write good reviews. That was quite a challenge sometimes! The gig went South when I had a tiff with the publisher.

Offline marco23

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Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #31 on: January 29, 2007, 03:56:31 pm »
Wow,
I just wanted to say the poems here are beautiful..what a great thread! Oh and Brooks, I did actually attempted to read the French version - but I think I hurt myself!
Don't hide your hurt, pain and feelings inside..for they will harden your heart.

Offline OzPaul

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  • 40 year, Long Term Survivor/LTNP
Re: Calling all writers
« Reply #32 on: January 29, 2007, 08:47:25 pm »
At last I've decided on a poem for the  thread.
This was written in 1992. I was 34 and had been poz (officially) for 7 years.

Siege

I have HIV
my old man and me.
A visit from the
death guest
haunts our home...
This house of cards
is in a perilous state of siege.
Ruling our lives
the terrorist
plots our demise.


published in Coffehouse Poets Quarterly #12
1993

Paul A.
 
I want to add that this was a dark and scary time. Many people dying around us, very little effective treatment ( the dreaded AZT).
« Last Edit: January 30, 2007, 05:33:07 pm by OzPaul »

 


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