There are those who are not celebrating today. There are hysterical protests founded in lies and distractions, in stunningly ridiculous attempts to gaslight the entire world into seeing the calling to account of a disastrously anti-American administration as a bad thing, an unfair thing. They thought they had this in the bag, that by twisting …
Author Archives: Ciel
THRESHOLD: preface
I wrote this several years ago, in 2005, about the time I began to worry about climate change. It was meant to be an invitation to literary visionaries, to write stories of the world this preface described. It could still be that, the beginning of an anthology of the times during, after, and long after …
Tolkien Tribute: Queen Beruthial’s Cats
A shade in the shadowlurking;A purr in the darknesssmirking;Softness against a bare legleaning;One with shadow againleaving… Fire of green in the nightgleaming;Flame of gold in the duskseemingageless and cannybeyond scheming;Cats of Beruthiel smile,dreaming… These cats are spoken of only once, a mention made by Aragorn in an off-hand way… an idiomatic reference: “He is surer …
Tolkien Tribute: The Rangers
1–LURKERSStorm and ice howling through the winter passes…The bellies of the scudding clouds, glowing dull and fitful,reflecting back the desperate firelightfrom which all warmth is blasted by the winds…Alone is better, the huddled traveler thinks,Than the company he knows is lurking in these peaks…And he shivers only partly from the cold… 2–BROTHERSBrisk chill breeze of …
Tolkien Tribute: Gimli in Valinor
a monologue addressed to his axe Was a time I thoughtI could not get my boots soon enoughonto good firm rock again…And yet,here I sit,upon a kegonce full of Middle Earth’s best ale,with ye, my trusty Axe,leaning here against my knee–choosing the gentle rocking of a deck,over the fair and solid land I seeshining just …
Tolkien Tribute: Blue Istar
So many ages he’s wandered, so many roads his footprints mark,in lands of many men and few, of hottest sun and deepest dark,He seldom speaks a word aloud, gives no greeting nor farewell,sings not, nor prays in any language any living soul can tell… Midnight-indigo, his old cloak is bound around him tight,a shadow in …
Tolkien Tribute: Melian’s Song
There’s magicin the musicthat dances on the air–Melian is singing!Maid and music,both are fair! A stranger,in the greenwoodpassing,hears,and pauses… Enchanted,Elf-lord reachesfor her hand…and theyat onceare one. There is magicin the meetingin the musicin the song… The worldis changedforever…andThe Songcontinues on…
Going Underground Again
The Subway Experience in New York City is, nowadays, quite different from the one I wrote about previously here. The cane-seated cars are gone, and I don’t think you can open the windows anymore as you could in those old cars. But they have air-conditioning in some cars. The outsides–well, graffiti has moved from vandalism …
Cult-Proofing
More and more parents & teachers are coming to understand this: Kids at every age need two things: connection and education. Because they will find them, and follow whoever gives them a sense of connection, and they will believe whatever that person teaches them. Cult recruiters know it. They have always exploited this dynamic: finding …
Disconnection
I dreamed a house… bright within and filled with folk,their happiness and quarrelsand blessings and trials,laughter and tears,and all the things of life as folk live it,and though I sought around,front and back and sidesseeking a door, even a window left ajar, no way in was therethat I could find. A feast I dreamed,lavish and …
LOOSELY SPEAKING... 