Category: Art

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XVIII

Speaking of ethics and morals…we were doing that, yes?…here’s a poem that was written in a most serious mood about an interaction I had with someone who believed that the Bible was the source of all goodness in the world.  But I suppose it doesn’t have to be that precisely directed.  The graphic is my effort at a stylized yin/yang.

Art Link Not Quite Balanced Stories to Tell We both believe a story (and so do they and these and those…) We both have a book It’s just that you believe that everyone should worship your book word for word without context while my book teaches me that I must create my own story based on my principles my ethical nature my moral judgment my basic goodness as a human being and laugh at the thought that one person would seek to force their thoughts or beliefs on another I’ve read your book You fear mine And you claim that your belief is stronger? You jest I chuckle at your joke Really You slay me –Robyn Elaine Serven –March 23, 2006

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Soooo… Friday nite I did what I almost always do that night. I go down to my music room and play music.  

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XVII

One step at a time.  One person at a time.  That’s how the world changes.  And for some of us the changes are monumental.

Art Link Seeking Enlightenment Steps One step at a time sometimes forward sometimes up Forward as I move through my life even if some wish to pull me back Perhaps they sense the peril of the new Upward is harder as I lift the burden of proceeding to another level up the staircase of human evolution beyond the mundane They do not like it that I have taken this step or even that I have shown them that this place exists Their screams of pain anger and terror will not – can not bring me back This place once conceived cannot be erased and cannot be denied Ideas cannot be unthought –Robyn Elaine Serven –February 7, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XVI

In the end, it is really all about the ways we can be divided and the people who benefit when that happens, rather than the ways we can celebrate or similarities together, in spite of our differences.  And celebrate those differences as well.

Art Link Inside Slices Each time a class of people is defined humanity is divided hewed like an old log Just like that log destruction occurs at the point where the axe strikes But the damage done to the people in the path of the cut is much more serious than the harm done to some old wood Race cuts like a saber through individuals of mixed ancestry Can you feel their pain? How feels the slice of the katana of ethnicity to someone whose grandparents hail from four different cultures? Blood spurts from the laceration of the gender scimitar through those not exactly men or women I live on the edge of that blade –Robyn Elaine Serven –March 30, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XV

Developing a message is one thing.  Getting other people to the place where they can understand it is something else.

Art Link Wallpaper Flames The fire that may burn in the belly or on the tongue slowly smoulders in the mind over the kindling of traditional thought Progress begins when I flambé the tissue of my brain over the white hot flame of new perspective –Robyn Elaine Serven –February 8, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XIV

I’m not sure why I’m including this particular graphic with this particular poem.  I’m sure there is something deeply psychological involved.  It seemed appropriate, for some reason.

Art Link Satin My Label is not a Slur My label is not a slur My label does not mean repulsive or obscene should not induce revulsion or hatred I am not subhuman Different, yes, but not less than you I am not “really” anything except a human being There are more of you so we live in your world rather than one of our own choosing Do we threaten you? Do you fear us? How did we earn the ridicule? How did we earn the hatred? How did we earn your silence? –Robyn Elaine Serven –January 31, 2006

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Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XIII

I have learned, over time, to celebrate being Other.  The boundaries of human existence are the frontiers of our possibilities.

Art Link Eggstraction On the Borderlands The land on the border is fertile The people are kind gentle content for the most part until of course the patrol comes by to force everyone to move to one side or the other That causes great turmoil on the borderlands so sometimes we move the border when they aren’t looking –Robyn Elaine Serven –March 3, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XII

It has taken years of learning and self-examination to come to an understanding of myself and gender as it applies to my experience, tentative though they still may remain.  According to some, it was unnecessary labor.  Everyone is an expert on gender.  Without any study…or even very much thought.  They know so much more than I do, to the point where they can so easily invalidate my existence.  

Art Link Shades Uncommon Wisdom “Gender is ENTIRELY a social construct” How easily is my existence denied my experience dismissed squashed like a bug my motivations questioned in front of everybody How different are testosterone and estrogen? I know –Robyn Elaine Serven –March 7, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

This is an open thread.

When you despair, as I do, frequently, of what will become of you…

When you are out of work and have no money to pay the rent…

When your boss is a tyrant and you don’t know how you can last another day…

When the politics finally has you beaten down because the idiots outnumber you…

There is an answer.  Albeit a temporary answer…an answer nonetheless…

And her name is Connie Willis.

Connie is one of the most brilliant people I have ever met…and I consider it an incredible privilege that I was able to meet her at all…at a few cocktail parties, years ago.  She probably doesn’t remember me, but that’s all right.

She is a brilliant writer.  That’s all that matters.

More below the fold.

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XI

Sound bytes have their uses, but can be quite limiting as well.

Art Link Knot Personal View Born in the wrong body? Bunch of crap in my opinion The one I have is the only body I was given Nobody else has the one I was supposed to have Born in the wrong culture definitely in the wrong time period most likely on the wrong planet quite possibly But it’s not like I had a choice in the matter –Robyn Elaine Serven –February 3, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.  I’m hoping to instigate something more appropriate.  

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion X

So what was I going to say from that forum I tentatively occupied.  It was painfully going to be about me much of the time, but I had to have an underlying message.

One learns.  One teaches.

Art Link Red Neon On Gender extraordinary – weird unconventional – odd exceptional – queer peculiar – strange gifted – outlandish outstanding – bizarre special – eccentric curious – atypical unusual – abnormal Why is “normal” the objective? There is a broad horizon of possibility for the human condition. Rather than circling our wagons to protect and defend only one or two or even just a few acceptable ways of living, shouldn’t we begin the exploration of those other possibilities? Why isn’t it possible to expand  the definition of woman and expand the definition of man, while simultaneously allowing people to claim neither or both or even to develop whole new categories of gender? What does society have to lose? What does society have to fear? Once again, I  ask: Why is normality the objective? –Robyn Elaine Serven –November 9, 2005

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.  Currently mine is a little constipated when I would prefer it be syncopated.

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion IX

Ultimately, being invisible doesn’t help anybody, especially not yourself.  Visibility comes back when one develops one’s voice.  If you speak up, people stare.  While they stare, it helps to have something to say.

If people are going to give you a podium, you should put it to use.

Art Link Colors People I don’t know exactly when I became one of us if I first decided I was or maybe it was when someone called me one of “those people” but I can’t deny I have a people I belong to We all do whether we deny it or not As one of my people I can not sit idly by while my people are disparaged degraded humiliated dismissed We are not jokes Our lives are not jokes What we have to put up with from other people vicious other people is no joke My people are teachers are artists are thinkers are lesbians are writers are gender-variant and so much ever so much so god damned much more my people all my people I cannot be divided against myself –Robyn Elaine Serven –February 15, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.  Currently mine is a little constipated when I would prefer it be syncopated.