The Dragonflies'Lair~Thread XXXI

Talented poets and friends of The Dragonflies' Lair | October 5, 2006 | bentfeather/Poets of the Lair

[Soaring Feather]

My Dragon Fly and Me

If I could be a Dragon Fly
and wing my way through the sky
I would never be shy
just me and my Dragon Fly!

By moonlight we ride the wind
chase the comets tail for fun
by day we would hide from the sun
our fragile wings would come undone

On darkest nights we would use
fireflies as our guide
we would dip and we would glide
through the heavens open wide
and scatter diamonds in the night sky
my Dragon Fly and me...

And we would wing past our lovers
silent in the night...
to kiss their face in our flight
much to their surprise and delight
my Dragon Fly and me in sight...

Such a view do we share
away up here in the air
of breezes soft through our hair
my Dragon Fly and me a pair...

bentfeather©
2002

[Soaring Feather]

Fantasy

Would the touch of his hand
send me into the world of dreams

the sound of his voice
assuage my soul
cause it to smile

Have you ever felt your heart smile?
I did one day, it was an extraordinary experience.

That was not fantasy it was real.

Would the night dreams be clear
not mottled or fuzzy
or the wrinkles around his eyes fade off into
an unreal bizarre grotesque, nightmare?
Or would the wanting be any less painful?

Would my songs echo into the mountains, through
the valleys of his mind, whatever world he is in??
Fantasy, the food of life for an ethereal poet
whose esoteric life remains strong
not to evacuate the dreams of a lifetime.

Or is it all fantasy??

[Soaring Feather]

Goodnight everyone.

[tomkow6]

Good morning,

 

Ms Feather!

[Soaring Feather]

Merning, Tomkow!

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

The Torch

(to the tune of "The River is Wide")

A dream was born of hope and light,
of freedom bought in blood and pain
It is a beacon in the dark
For those caught up in tyrant's chains.

Some say the price is just too high,
Freedom's a myth, nothing to gain,
and those who were brave enough to try
are merely fools who died in vain.

Some call them fools who care to try,
stupid or evil to stand for right,
They fight to stop those who would go,
They fight to keep us in the night.

I think of those who worked so hard
to pay the price that keeps us free,
Yet some at home want us to lose
Like we don't deserve the right to be.

Some see the US as something bad,
Our reaching out an evil scheme --
They cheapen every sacrifice,
Each soul that worked for freedom's dream.

Our forebearers passed the torch to us,
Freedom's bright light from hand to hand,
Will we extinguish that bright flame
Or pass it on across the land?

[Soaring Feather]

Our forebearers passed the torch to us,
Freedom's bright light from hand to hand,
Will we extinguish that bright flame
Or pass it on across the land?

The Torch

Our brave young men and women
carry the Torch today
fighting for the right
to live in freedom land
be it desert, be it mountainous
free from murderous despots
from darkness and imprisonment
free to speak and vote and walk
without the fear of suicide bombs.
Freedom is the goal for the oppressed
educate the masses and freedom does it best.


Soaring Feather
11.06.06

[starbase]

Good morning everyone (10:03pm here!)

Well I just had a looooooooooooooooong conversation with a talkative lady of Indian descent who is a natural born and bred Dutch citizen. She was really cool, but LOVED to talk. I invited her to an Indian dinner of tasty Chicken Vindaloo (kind of spicy red sauce), and garlic bread and saffron rice. Lovely dinner by the underwater lit koi pool.

She once set up a charity to help people in Sri Lanka, but was bemoaning how people will contribute $1 million dollars to an "I spent too much on my credit cards, help me pay them off" website, but won't contribute one dollar to a worthy effort. I told her no matter what she provided as proof of the integrity of the site, many people would still think it was false.

We talked about one million different things! She said, being a woman of Indian extraction, when she traveled in Malaysia men would ask to have a cup of tea with her, then ask if she wanted to have sex and also marry them! She said, with their weird culture, they both thought they were so manly she would immediately marry them, then work to take care of them!!! She said they were all pigs who thought with their ####'s! And if she walked down the beach in India there would be 50 men staring straight at her! She said, although she was of Indian extraction, she didn't speak Hindi (or any Indian language, only Dutch and English) but had a "foreign" look, so everyone would, within two seconds, ask her if she knew someone who could help them immigrate to Holland! She said rather forcefully that they were sick of "foreigners" and now it was very difficult to get in.

For my part, I had an amazing blast from the past. Many years ago I lived with some other foreign friends in Taiwan. Life was much harder back then, at times, having left my unhappy family home at an early age, I was very poor, though I kind of liked it as a growth thing. At one point I had an "ear phone wire" belt which I wore, it was the wire from some earphones that I used as a belt, showing it to everyone we had a big laugh about it. A while later I asked a couple of those friends (most of whom had some family members to rely on), for a small loan, but they laughed it off. OK, whatever. Still later I was nearing completion of my degree in the smallish town this one friend had recommended. While small, it was also popular, so housing was expensive, so I worked full time and went to university full time (others did this too). After a few years this friend showed up in that town and immediately moved in with his relatives, who give him this sweet deal on their extra basement.

I was kind of disgusted, since all the while I worked hard to make it in this town he recommended, but he never offered me the cheap finished basement. Thanks. One day we stopped by my apartment for something, the apartment I had built up for 4 years, it was rather nice at that point. He had this dirty scowl on his face when he saw my nice things. I thought "Oh, I see, so the 'ear phone' belt laugh was really laughing AT me, but when I end up with nice things, now that's not funny at all."

Finally, with my shiny new degree, I was headed back to Asia, while he was just starting on his belated degree, and was heavily into the big emu fiasco (remember the big get-rich-quick sensation of emu meat that completely caved in?). He finally whined for me to help him sell emu meat in Asia, but I wasn't interested, and didn't really like him anyway, with withholding that finished basement deal, plus laughing at my poor belt but scowling at my comfortable apartment, and also declining any assistance when I asked for it, he was no friend of mine.

Well, when I went to the Taiwan consulate today and put in my visa application, guess who I saw? That same guy!!! He was with a new wife, having not seen him in ten years, I guess his first one didn't work out. He didn't even talk directly to me, he made this 'pained' expression and looked away. Years ago, when I was too nice for my own good, that would have made me come over and try to find out what was wrong. But that was ten years ago. These days I let a grown man or woman talk to me or else just sit and be quiet. He chose to be quiet. I didn't bother saying anything to him, like I said, he was never anybody's friend. It's not so strange seeing him in the Taiwan consulate, since we both have strong Taiwan ties, but just happening to be in Bangkok at the exact same time and place was definitely unusual! He looks like a pretty transparently nasty person these days, so I'll not say anything to him. Still, that's something you don't see every day, isn't it?

Oh, and I took some cool snaps on a day tour to the ancient abandoned capital. I'll post them before I leave Thailand.

Cheers,

starbase

[Soaring Feather]

Good evening to you starbase. Interesting story you've told. Isn't it strange, or is it -your meeting up with the snob again, small world really.

You're a far richer person in terms of personal growth and understand than that guy will ever be. Kinda like you have grabbed one of Aurora's bands of color to shine on your won. YAY for our FRiend.

Interesting woman you dined with, very upbeat and down to earth woman. ;) I love your description of the koi pond, man we have bare trees and cold. LOL

Oh great, more pictures! Love the tours you take us on and thanks so much for sharing the pics and your adventures with us. Your stories help expand an other wise stationary world for me (at present that is.) *GRINS*

[Lady Jag]

Fascinating experiences, Starbase, thanks for sharing it.

How did you get from here to there?

[Lady Jag]

Good morning!

[Soaring Feather]

Lovely picture Lady, thanks.

Looks like home to me. ;)

[Lady Jag]

You have a beautiful home.

[starbase]

Oh it's my pleasure. I place stories like that under "Philosophy", which is definitely Muse-related, and hence fodder for the Lair. It's also fun to share strange experiences!

Well let me load up some of these pictures, they're pretty cool, centering around temples (but this time ruined temples), which in addition to beaches and rivers, and forests, is what pictures of Thailand often seem to focus on: Buddha, beaches, forests and rivers!

[starbase]

How did you get from here to there?

I'm not sure I understand the question, do you mean how did I get to that personal story from the topics being discussed on the Lair thread at the time I posted it?

Well I didn't, really. I just had the experience and thought it would fall under "philosophical considerations", like our analysis of that rude guy up in Chiang Mai one night a few weeks back. I figure poetry, philosophy, visual art, music, and others, are all Muse related interests, so I try to toss in some philosophy from time to time both for interest and to shake out any related stories from others from time to time! :-)

You know, yesterday I gave the consulate my passport to put the visa stamp in, and today I'll go back and pick it up (then fly off to Taiwan the next day). I wouldn't be surprised if I saw him again, he'll probably be picking his up today too!

Well if he says hi then I'll say hi, but I'm not too interested in the guy. He has what I guess is his kid with him along with his new wife. I was sitting on the main tourist street last night drinking a glass of wine, and they walked by. That's actually very normal as most people who come to Bangkok also go down that touristy street sooner or later. When he looked over and saw me he started bouncing his kid up on his shoulders saying "Wheee, woo hoo!", with way too much energy for merely walking down a street with restaurants on it, no doubt to show me how great his life is, but doing rather the opposite instead. I pity him a little, but that adversarial attitude is so obvious now, I can see why being friends with him (and with some others from that era of my life), died a natural death on its own!

[WayzataJOHNN]

Your insight is true, and that guy will always believe your having a life better then his, even if you were not. His antics were a sad attempt at oneupmanship and likely transparent even to himself. You've come a long way, and he stalled somewhere back along the road.

So. we're about to go on yet another guided tour! Outstanding! Love the pictures and captions, they show us a different place then the travel shows would give us.

[starbase]

Well the theme of this photo essay is the destruction of Thailand's ancient capital city at the hands of a Burmese invading army. The ancient capital Ayutthaya, was at one time bustling and wealthy. It was Thailand's capital city from around 1350 to around 1750, at 400 years making it the longest serving capital city. But in the 1750's the Burmese invaded, and while there was a dramatic fight between the Thai king and the Burmese king with spears on elephant-back (where the Thai king killed the Burmese king) nevertheless the Burmese army was too powerful to be defeated. It besieged the Thai capital for two years, and finally won, then utterly destroyed the huge rich city, burning and breaking everything, killing anyone who couldn't run away, burning houses, and melting down a giant (40 feet tall) gold Buddha statue and carting everything off to Burma.

After that the Thais set up one temporary capital they used for 15 years, then built Bangkok, which has been the capital for about 250 years now.

So they take you around the modern city of Ayuthaya, and all around it are vast brick ruins of the great temples and palaces of which only foundations and scraps remain. So here are the pictures!:

Here's the runious, yet restored looking entry way to one of the original important ordination temples:

1. Ancient Entry Way


2. Ruined temple stupa
Here's the huge remains of the stupa built after the Thai king killed the Burmese king:


3. A Restored Reclining Buddha (a little overexposed)
At one main temple, there was this (now restored) reclining Buddha (sorry the photo was a little over exposed with the morning sun shining right on the snow white statue. In picture #1 you can see the Buddha's golden leg through the side window.



4. Ducks and Geese

I took this picture of people feeding some ducks and geese just for kicks!



5. Buddhas, Buddhas, everywhere. There's no shortage of Buddhas at this ruined temple. It's right up there with "Is the Pope Catholic?". These grounds must have been glamorous back in the day, eh? I'm standing on top of the stupa in Picture #2, see the brick stair case in front of the stupa? I was up there for this pic!



6. Up Stupa Way Here's double big Buddhas in front of a ruined stupa, I'm still up on the huge stupa for this one:



7. Massive Stupa Closeup And to wrap up this installment, here's a view of the back of this grand stupa, with a little placement of very new white stone buddhas and adorers at the base. Quite huge, isn't it?



Well that's it for now. I must get all these pics uploaded before tomorrow because as you may recall this website is blocked from Taiwan (it says "the country you are in has failed to abide by our posting rules, so it is blocked!" when I'm in Taiwan!).

But that's OK, it's only 9:00 am right now. I will post some more this afternoon, and try to finish them all by this evening. The next group is another vast ruined site, pretty moving, I thought. Then finally some elephants who did little tricks and I got to ride on for 15 minutes for five bucks!

And at the very end is a picture of one of these ancient style temples that the Thais fully restored in the ancient style. It looks pretty cool, and quite a bit different from the more modern styles (it is more angular and blocky than temples of today).

Well I'm off to walk around, drink coffee, and then head over to the Taiwan consulate.

Cheers all!

starbase

[WayzataJOHNN]

Thanks for the tour, another bit of the history shared with us homebound. ;^)

[WayzataJOHNN]

A sight I saw today inspired this.

On the Backside of Madison Ave.

Tattered raggedy man in a dumpster littered world
Alley Land King, with an orange poncho for a robe
a stolen shopping cart for a shiny silvered scepter
and a watchful eye for hardcases and local curs
often lost in his meditation on the stoplight strobe
his majesty on a can hunt, ignoring insults hurled

A cardboard castle without a drawbridge or moat
and the cruel song of the city with no damn pity
a concrete kingdom in a narrow world gone crass
not a blade of living life, nothing of green grass
he’s a weed in the glittering garden of the city
his life all his cart can hold, and all he can tote.

Brother Ishmael, of the lost tribe of man
scouring for treasures of mostly empty cans
buying one more day here in this grey paradise
Can’t find anyplace to wash, home for the lice
hunted by kids with bats, breaking all the bans
dreading winter, hating rain, dodging cars and vans

[Soaring Feather]

Vivid poetic writing of human tragedy.