Community Spirit in the Digital Community

I believe that people
have valid feelings,
no matter where they may be.
Whether in person,
by the telephone,
or hidden behind
the digital veil.
We have a responsibility
to be ever mindful
that what we might see
as merely a harmless game,
is something more to them.
This is why I cannot
countenance online trolling,
because I cannot be a witness
to a wrong and do nothing -
to my way of thinking
that is no better
than being the villain
that commits the crime.
So don't tell me
not to get involved
when I see someone hurt,
because I will not,
cannot, listen to something
that is anathema to me.

(c) Tortured Cyclone 2016

In Search of Poetry's Soul

What is the soul of poetry?

A deceptively simple question, for most people (myself included) would probably be able to come up with an answer within moments. The answers would invariably be subjective and, as such, have much more to say about ourselves than this form of expression.

As is frequently the case with other questions that lead to subjective responses, many of us have a tendency to view our answers as the right ones, to the exclusion of others. So we tend to exclude ideas that contradict our own, because if we're right, they can't be, right?

Wrong.

For some, poetry is about the cleverness of the writer. How the poet uses her knowledge of language to entertain, to demonstrate their intelligence, independent of emotional context or even comprehensibility.

For others, poetry is all about capturing an instant, creating an image that the reader can be captured within. Using their words and placement to convey an image that is undeniable in its clarity.

Yet others see it as a medium to express the emotions that wrack our psyches, and the ones that make our spirits soar. The language of the passions.

Yet others see it as a dogma where the rules of a specific form are all-important. Where it is necessary to harness the words to the mastery of rhyming and meter, stanzas and couplets.

In truth, poetry is all of these, and more. And we are the ones who choose to limit it by perspective, saying only our vision is "good".

So, if we create in different ways, can we at least respect others for following their particular vision?

After all, the artist is only half of what defines poetry. The other half is the person who reads it.

(c) Tortured Cyclone 2016

About Misuse of Resources

Recently, in the Twitter world of online poetry and activism, I heard a criticism made about my conduct and my focus. In short, the critic stated that I should not be doing what I am doing on Twitter, because I was being derelict in my duties towards my offline family. I was too busy being a Dom instead of being a provider.

I wanted to set the record straight, pulling back the fourth wall to give you a glimpse of some of the choices that I have had to make with my responsibilities and with my career and my lifestyle.

My spouse of 14 years is terminally ill. She has been on kidney dialysis for almost 10 years. Four years ago she had a stroke. Since then her health has been in a steady decline.

We have two children together. Our eldest is 13 years old, and is on the autism spectrum. He is high-functioning and his particular form of autism includes ADHD and Oppositional Defiant behavior.

Our 10 year old, fortunately, is not on the Spectrum and is basically healthy. However, he has begun modeling his behavior off of his older brother's, in order to get attention.

With my wife's worsening health, I have had to make some difficult choices. I work overnights full-time, but in response to her increasing illness, I have found it necessary to cut back on my hours at work. In fact, I have cut back so much that I have worked basically 20 hours a week for the last 7 months.

In this same time, we have made several difficult decisions, to ensure that were able to make ends meet. This includes eliminating satellite television, Internet service, private supplemental health insurance for my wife, and my pride. It has been necessary to put my ambitions as a writer and as an activist for the polyamorous lifestyle and as a Dom aside as secondary in order to take care of those responsibilities.

Many of you may be aware as how I have cut back on posts to this blog. Also I have eliminated all prompts that I was running through Twitter, including a prompt that was supposed to have resulted in an anthology that would have been published this summer.

To raise additional funds for my family, I have had to pawn my equipment for writing. Not once, but multiple times. In fact the computer has spent more time in the pawn shop then in my possession since the beginning of 2016.

As a result, I have just last month finished my second book of poetry which would have been released by my birthday this year if other things had not pushed it back. Additionally, I have had to push other writing deadlines back.

I have also cut back in my involvement within the Twitter writing community. I used to post approximately 5 to 10 poems everyday, if not more. And I was also active in the community fighting to protect members of the writing community, instead I have taken a secondary role in most cases. The one case where that has not been so, has been in a situation where I have been targeted directly by a group of harassers because I spoke out in defense of someone who was being tried in the court of public opinion for something that should never have been a general flame war.

My primary involvement now, within the community is in the recognition of a writer everyday by shout-out and a writing prompt every week by shout out to draw attention to others in the community because they deserve that attention and because with all the followers I have I should be doing something to let them know that there are a lot of other people out there who are worth taking a look at.

I have not been derelict in any duty offline. I have, in fact severely been absent in my duty to the online community to respond to offline demands.

It is not because I care less for the online community. It is because I have had to take care of my primary responsibilities.

Please be aware of that, before you make any accusations of dereliction of duty.

(c) Tortured Cyclone 2016

Look Deeper...

This discontinuity,
the demarcation
of "real world"
and Internet,
the insidious persistence
of the damning idea
that the non-physical
is less significant
due to the absence
of the tangible.
Look deeper...

For our reality
is defined
by our perceptions,
ultimately,
the product
of neural stimuli,
perceiving the shadows
on the walls
of a Socratean cavern,
with no basis
or proof
of the accuracy
of our perceptions?
Look deeper...

We create "reality"
out of the stuff
of our perceptions,
not knowing,
but firmly believing
the shadows
are real.
The digital realm
casts shadows, too.
Look deeper...

What if the shadows
we perceive
are our own?
Myriad reflections
and eclipsing occlusions
of the light
of consciousness?
Look deeper...

And what if
what we call
our consciousness
is merely a shard
of the fractured psyche
of an infinite universe?
The nightmare tormenting
a mad Creator?
Look deeper...

Then all are
interconnected,
distinctions
of offline/online,
Brexit/EU,
Trump or Clinton,
culture, creed, race,
gender identity,
sexual orientation
do not matter,
what affects one
has fractal ripples
that touch all.
Look deeper...

Perhaps all this
is only obfuscation,
discussion of matters
that don't matter
at all...
But the only way
you can ever discover
the truth or falsehood
of my words
is to look,
deeper.

(c) Tortured Cyclone 2016

Who Am I?

I am not a good man.

There is no virtue in me that is anything but accidental - a mishap of incidental proportions. My flaws are myriad and manifest, and the weight of my sins make the earth groan beneath me. If I say I do good, there is no truth in me, because doing good is counter to my deepest self.

What right do I have to say I am virtuous, when all I do is driven by ego and self-interest? When forced into self-reflection, it is all I can do to not vomit in disgust at my paltry efforts at virtuousness. Naught I do, but it comes to ill and harm.

I cry to the heavens - where is the justice that I have health, when better people do not? Why should I have prosperity when worthy folk go without? Why do I possess these gifts of understanding, of artistry, of wit, but have naught of worth to create thereby?

After all, what am I but another fallen soul?

Why Do I Speak Out?

More than once, I have taken heat for my willingness to take a stand against people who harm others within the online community. There are those who have stated that I start drama, and seek fights. I have been accused of intolerance to viewpoints that differ from my own.

My issue is a simple one. In the offline world, it would not be right to allow an assailant to rape a woman, and do nothing about it. Or see a store being robbed and decide it is someone else's problem. Or a man being gunned down in the street.

In all of those instances, it is the civic duty, the ethical duty to stand forth as at least a witness, if not to intervene to try and prevent the crime from taking place. Doing nothing effectively makes the bystander an accomplice in the crime.

Although the online realm is a non-corporeal world, I argue that the civic and ethical duties of the offline world carry over. Correspondingly, it is not right to stand by and not react in some way.

We teach our children that it is not right to let bullying take place unopposed. The digital realm is rife with such bullying. It makes sense that our lack of tolerance for bullying would extend online, in social media, for instance.

The act of catfishing people online is as dangerous as any form of offline imposture. Consider the phisher who seeks information for identity theft through social engineering. Or the con man/blackmailer who coaxes information from a vulnerable person, in order to gain influence and/or sexual favors from them. Both of these are acts of rape that are no less heinous than physical rape.

None of these things I would want to happen to myself, or any I care about. By extension, if I don't want these crimes to happen to those I care for, it is logical I would not want them to happen to anyone.

Because victimization of people is Everyone's Problem, I get involved. I speak against it. I report it to authorities when I can prove it. I speak out, warning of people who harm others.

By my understanding of both ethics and morality, this is the right thing to do.

(C) Tortured Cyclone 2016

Improvisational Harmonies - Sneak Preview #2 - "Danzig Tryptych"

I:

Mothers,

keep your daughters from me,

for I will lie to them,

I will seduce them

with promises of pleasure

and romance,

and when I'm done with them,

when their innocence is gone,

and I'm bored with them,

I'll leave them behind

without a second thought.

II:

Mothers,

guide your sons away,

lest my words they heed,

and my lessons they obey,

to abandon conscience and love

for cruelty and lust,

and should they follow me,

they will be driven forth to ravage,

or to bleed out, savaged

by my cruel fangs.

III:

Mothers,

most of all, stay away from me,

for I will teach you the lessons

of madness and passionate extremity,

driving you to forget everything

as I make you feel alive again,

only to leave you for another

plaything, returning

when I grow tired of her,

to twist you even further.

Inspired by “Mother” by Danzig

(c) Tortured Cyclone 2015, 2016