Various Images related to one of my favorite pastimes – READING!!!
Category Archives: Inquiring Minds
My introduction page as a writer trying to get publsihed and a collection of posts showing who I am through ancetdotal musings about my life or how I am inspired to write or why I write and how I write in my own wierd little way.
Mr. Pancake – A Poem an Ode to People who annoy the hello out of you
Mr. Pancake
You are a walking pancake in my way!
A brainless angry flapjack in my otherwise
glorious day.
My eyes roll up,
as you talk your stupid pancake talk.
Stop!
…Talking!
Mr.Pancake…Just stop!
I know you think you have something
important to say.
But I don’t live inside your thin
bulbous blueberry head.
Sooooo…
Go…
Away…
and I will put my fork down.
by Philip Wardlow
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter – A Poem (inspired by a novel of the same name)
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
I am but a dark silhouette back-lit
by your imaginings of what I must be.
My frame of reference is not yours,
nor is your own mine to see.
I cannot hope to know the true depth
of the strangeness that lurks behind those eyes;
the sadness, the desperation, and the longing
cannot be accurately defined as simply measured
by a ruler or thrown upon a scale like a piece
of meat.
Think me misguided, corrupt, or lost?
Think me a friend, lover, or a hero?
You would be wrong on all accounts.
I am simply a solitary soul cast adrift,
striving to find a good home to lift
me up from this cold stone floor and prop
me up next to a nice warm fire and hold
me tight.
by Philip Wardlow 2013
Stuck in the In-Between – A Poem
Stuck in the In-Between
You are trapped in the
world of what-not, what-ifs,
and wannabes.
Top at the time may be the bottom
tomorrow, a smile a slap in the face.
Your core is courageous, wrapped in a
layer of boundless denial not looked
at too closely.
The hot sun beats down as the rain
falls in a deluge to sink deep and cold
into your bones.
Reason cannot be reasoned with on a
night when the day won’t go away.
A borderlander without a home, a foot in
the door to life, dusk and dawn
juxtaposed.
But still you fight, you push and rail
against the unseen that seeks to hold
you in this dark realm of broken dreams.
Soon…Soon… you say they will see,
as you continue to climb, run, and claw
your way out of the in-between.
By Philip Wardlow 2013
WORDS – My Poetic Definitions for Certain Words in the English Language
A while back I made a list of certain words that had meant something to me personally throughout my life. With this list of words I decided to apply my own definition to them in a poetic sense to really convey what the word means to me in a more concrete but at times abstract way.
These new definitions would not be what you would normally find, say when you are flipping through a reference book such as Webster’s English Dictionary or some such book of extensive boring knowledge that you have to begun learning from the very start of Kindergarten all the way to college.
Of course it doesn’t end there, one day when your the Father of energy zapping kids and your relaxing back in bed with a hefty book in your hands you may have to keep one of those stupid dictionaries next to you on the nightstand at your bedside because some pompous arrogrant ass of an author had to pick a word no normal person (or abnormal) would ever use in their own mind let alone in casual conversation. At times I revel in the English language and at other times I hate it simply because I believe words shouldn’t get in the way of what you are trying to convey to the reader, especially on a contstant basis as some writers like to do.
So here is brief list of the not-so definitions of words:
1. Apathy – A smile in your direction which never quite reaches the eyes with a sharp snap of the head away.
2. Dreams – Dim images of lost desire, a quest for innerpeace that travels on a slow runaway train
3. Friends – Pillars with which to hold onto in a raging storm where some are stronger than others.
4. Enemies – The unseen predator which lurks along the edge of life waiting to pounce.
5. Life – An endless array of patchwork on the soles of feet worn down and dirty.
6. Time – A number measured by emotions and circumstances of the day.
7. Envy – A spark which turns into a flame soon to engulf the entire forest.
8. Justice – A rock thrown back at an unseen hand whose only intent was grief.
9. Poems – A collection of organized to disorganized words which have no meaning unless you say they do.
10. Woman – A mystery behind a locked door where a thief must apply all his talents to get through.
***I am a word/idea collector so do YOU have any definitions for ME. I would love to hear them….:)***
Aspects of Her – A Poem
Aspects of Her
A sunshine smile
dipped in a psychedelic rainbow
of colors that don’t exist
in the spectrum that
physics would allow.
Slide your hands down your hips,
feel the silk threads float over
your soft cashmere skin;
you always liked touching yourself
more than me.
Eyes look away when I speak to them.
I can’t quite catch their color; evasive
as a fish in a warm running stream.
Sad, reflective, in denial of your
desperation as you try and fit into
a dress that’s just a little too tight.
You are a free spirit that confines
herself behind a waterfall of wishes
that will never see fruition.
This is you, all the aspects, all the incarnations,
All the pages yet to be written, all the pages
torn out and tear stained and written over again
then forgotten..
This is you and I have known
them all.
By Philip Wardlow 2013
“I would…But” A Writing exercise and my little stab at humor.
When I am in a rut like I am right now with my writing I often try to jump-start my brain with a Writing Exercise or two. The next few posts will be focused on breaking past that block and showing you the results of my own exercises that I am trying. As I have said in the past in my other posts there is no such thing as writer’s blocks just more of what I would call a writing malaise if you will. So here is one of my first attempts to get out of it and start being more productive with my Novel and Short stories…
I like to often challenge the brain by forcing me to come up with a solution. Be it a short scenario or situation to get out of, a cause/affect, or an if/then kinda thing. I wanted to have fun with that concept a little so I decided doing it in a joke format called ” I would …But” … so here goes my little stab or stabs at humor. They are in the order in which they were created first btw. My goal was Ten..my brain was hurting a little towards the end. Hey its hard to be funny! I hope I don’t make you suffer or groan out loud too much…:).
1. I would call you an ass but you’d take it as a compliment.
2. I would say I love you but you might hold me to it.
3. I would say my ships about to come in but I just found out it was called the Titanic.
4. I would love to have sex with you but the sign above your head says now serving No.4 and I’m holding No.99 and I just can’t wait that long.
5. I would say you are the most beautiful woman in the world but I just had a sex change so I would be lying.
6. I would give strippers more money but they hate it when I try and make change for a five.
7. I would say the state of the world as a majority is mostly apathetic to the causes that face our planet on a daily basis and that we as a human race need to stand up and say enough is enough, let’s fight for what we believe in and have the guts and determination and discipline to stand behind our principles to forge a better brighter tomorrow for ourselves and our future posterity but then again I don’t really care to leave my couch much.
8. I would like to thank my esteemed colleagues,co-workers, and friends who I climbed over and stomped on that helped make this all possible but for the life of me I cannot remember any of their damn names.
9. I would be a junkie but I am afraid of anything going in my nose, or needles into my arm, I would be a prostitute but I’m afraid of committment for cash, to much pressure to perform I guess, I would be an alcoholic but I may be forced to go to AA one day and I just hate crowds and public speaking.
10. I would like to write a book that at least half the world would gush over and ooh and aw at it but I’m thinking I would have to kill about 7,640,000,011 Billion People to make that happen…dammit make that 7,649,000,012…I missed one!
Well there you have it…hope you enjoyed it as much as me…and I didn’t really enjoy it all that much myself…I’m just trying to jump-start myself as I said….
I will do another post soon to jump start my brain called Toilet Tuesday….its where I go into my bathroom at work with a pad and pen, push the button on the exhaust fan for 10 minutes and see what I come up with for a quick short story…and yes.. I am serious I will be seriously doing this…just you wait and see… I hope it’s something good. ( and no I am not actually going to the bathroom while I’m in there…I’m just using the timer function….sheesh what do you take me for)
Till next we meet…:)
Ivory Towers – A Poem
Ivory Towers
A thousand ivory towers sit clumped
tight together.
They fill up the valley below and
spread over the plains of grass as
the river cuts through.
The tops reach higher than the birds
can fly,
Deep into the clouds they pierce
until they scrape the moon as it slowly
passes by each night.
Standing next to a tower
I look up from far below.
Alone.
With a hesitant hand I reach out
And touch the ivory wall.
So smooth and slick like glass as
my fingers run up its length.
Not a crack, not a crevasse
To reach a finger into.
This wall cannot be climbed.
Who dwells in such a high place?
Do they converse across the way,
or do they ignore each other as much
as they do me every day?
Such a lonely place to call home.
These towers seem to me more
like an escape from the life below.
Where I stand.
If they only understood.
Fortune favors the fool.
by Philip Wardlow 2013
Hiddin Within – A poem
Hidden Within
He watches her. She watches him.
The dog , he watches nothing.
Their eyes can’t hide what lies beneath.
A tilt of the head, a downcast look tells
me all I need to know about their inner
Lives.
They hate. They love. They lust. They laugh at
Life.
Is there sadness behind that smile they
Give.
Some hide from each other.
Some hide from themselves.
Some hide simply because they can.
I wish I could see all the dreams buried
deep within their heads.
Dreams which they’ve never fed;
maybe a doctor, a lawyer, or a whore,
maybe a pretentious pious little bore.
Their thoughts are hidden;
a landscape of dark shadows and fog banks hung
Low.
I watch it all unfold.
They can’t keep it hidden long,
for like a cauldron bubbles, spews, and spits so
does their mind emit a gurgling of regret, a wisp of
weakness, or a hiss of hysteria in its’ attempt to lament.
I watch and I wait for it all to unfold,
for the hidden to be found and the found to be told.
I’m a spectator to the grand affair which is hidden within.
So know that when I look at you or you at me,
I will see you, see you indeed.
By Philip Wardlow 2012
Memory of Light! My Book has ARRIVED!
Memory of Light – 14th Book in the Wheel of Time Series by Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson
That’s me holding the FINAL volume of my most favorite EPIC fantasy series ever written. The First book of a total of fourteen books was first written in 1990 when I was just a wee lad…well just out of high school anyways.
This was a delayed Christmas present pre-ordered on Amazon. It had a release date of January 8th. It just came in the mail……oh yeah..
Ever hear of Lord of the Rings? Well this Story rolls over that with a Steam Roller then backs up and rolls over it again….and then over…and over…you get the picture…
If you like fantasy stories and you haven’t read the first book in the series then first you need to slap yourself. Then next put your head in a bucket of cold water, and then go to the library or scrap up some money, or fence some jewelry and go get it!
It has every thing you could wish for destiny, engaging epic characters, awesome battles, and a heart most of all…
So go check it out …nuff said beacause a movies a long time coming you lazy bastards!
