Thursday, January 24, 2013

Inspiration Wednesdays--belated

Still getting over a flu, so when I got home yesterday, I conked out and didn't touch my computer.

Today's inspiration is poetry.

The theme: death, or the romanticization of death, or, the moon

BRIGHT STAR, WOULD I WERE STEDFAST
By John Keats

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art---
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors---
No---yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever---or else swoon in death.

1819

THE WAY I MUST ENTER
By Izumi Shikibu

The way I must enter
leads through darkness to darkness ---
O moon above the mountain’s rim,
please shine a little farther
on my path.

And for an added bonus, because this came up as I was searching for the above (I wanted to double-check my phrasing), and it sounds lovely:

WATCHING THE MOON
By Izumi Shikibu

Watching the moon
at dawn
solitary, mid-sky,
I knew myself completely,
no part left out.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Inspiration Wednesdays

Although, this could just as easily be called "Let's Take a Few Moments to Look at Pretty/Neat/Awesome Things", but there is the goal of hoping what follows inspires you in some way.

May it spark an idea, or offer a twist in a story, or give you to urge to create something new.

That's what I hope for myself.

Theme for the Week: Steampunk


A steampunkified keyboard


A steamy version of Cinderella's carriage


Is that a steampunk Cheshire or are you just happy to see me?


A miniature steam-fairy. (I don't even care if this is completely Photoshopped, because it looks awesome.)



Note: If anyone has credits they'd like to me add to any photo, please just let a comment. I just do a lot of Google Image searches, and mean no harm other than to promote these wonderful visuals.