It's cold here sometimes. Sometimes it's vacant and bare. The air stings the surface of a battered face that stares into nothing. It longs for a point of focus, its eyes marbleized by frozen tears and forgotten dreams. The gray ash of doubt collects around his chest and only the stripes of half hearted attempts to remove it show that there was something beneath. The hope has been beaten, the ambition was drained long ago, broken before he could know, the lonely passenger continued through this land without a second glance or a hesitation to the shift in the surface. Now his outside is as blistered and calised as his insides, so he no longer feels the wind on his face, the cool refreshing feeling of change on his lips. He is frozen. He has poured everything out, leaving nothing to give. He is frozen. Standing alone motionless in a land as barren and cold as he is. They stand motionless longing for one another. They are frozen.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
About Me
- J.L. Copeland
- I have been writing for years, but never knew that I was a writer. The expression itself was and has always been such a personal adventure that it never crossed my mind to allow others to partake in my work. I still don't call myself a writer or a poet, those titles go to the published or established, but I hope to obtain such entitlement in the very near future. But over all, I hope that I can spark some sort of discussion. Whether it's about my work and the emotions or thoughts that it has provoked, or even just about how pitful and weak my writing just might be. Either way, it is discussion and forcing some kind of thought! I hope you all enjoy! Feel free to email me at jlcope77@yahoo.com for any reason. Enjoy.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011
I think the perplexity of friendship, or relationship is something that we don't spend enough time focused on as individuals. One could perceive, with the right train of thought, that this is an utterly, outlandish statement, or assessment as you might have it, given that each of us is engrained with an inherent desire to please and to be accepted. One might conclude, if they were so inclined, that relational issues, in fact, would be of utmost thought and concentration.
Back to my opening statement; there is a gregarious perplexity within the world of relationships, be it one of intimacy or just good ole' fashion bff's (as the "cool" kids say). I mentioned that the need for acceptance and appeasement of others and the inherent desire for both; every bit of what we do, in some way, is tied into that need. Be it our jobs, where we hang out, what football teams we like and dislike, what sports we play, what books we read, or even the cars we drive, they are all tied into what we deem a necessity for our social setting. But what we do not place in the forefront of our actions is what those relationships mean to us. Here is what I mean; if a friend loans us money when we are in a time of need, this is an action of friendship that is blatant. This act is a symbol professing the importance of the relationship between the two parties. It tells the two this, "we are good enough friends that I want to do this for you just because I care." In this act of good faith and monetary assistance reaffirmation of the bond is confirmed. But this is a tangible act and doesn't necessarily put a solid value on the relationship.
What I'm looking for is the intangible in the relationship. An intangible is this; the ability to be around a person and not say a word, to sit in a silence without awkwardness. It is also a friend that will listen to an error a friend makes without passing judgment that is unnecessary and/or one that would belittle the, already misguided, friend. Instead the information is gathered and understanding is derived from the error in an attempt to move past it without creating the same error in the future.
I must say that I'm fortunate enough to have several people in my life that fall on that side where the intangibles are far more important and understood than the tangible. These friends act in a way without ever expecting or desiring any reciprocation for their efforts. I have come to understand that what I value most in their friendship is the little moments, just being around them is what I find most rewarding. I draw from them and the character that they display and the attempts that they make to be who they are without wavering under any circumstance. They value what is most important to any of us; they do not care what car I drive, or what the size of my house is, but instead value my intangibles.
My belief is that it's these things that make our relationships so complex and simplistic at the same time. It's understanding those moments that are beyond a value sign and appreciating them while they last. We can't always say that we're fortunate enough to have these kinds of people in our lives at all times, so we must pay attention so that we may display the utmost appreciation to these kinds of relationships when we have them. This will, ultimately, deter us from every taking them for granted -the people or the relationship. Know that being able to laugh, cry, get angry, or to communicate with another person without fear of criticism doesn't come around that often. Hold on for dear life to that person and make sure that their actions ARE reciprocated through your own.
Back to my opening statement; there is a gregarious perplexity within the world of relationships, be it one of intimacy or just good ole' fashion bff's (as the "cool" kids say). I mentioned that the need for acceptance and appeasement of others and the inherent desire for both; every bit of what we do, in some way, is tied into that need. Be it our jobs, where we hang out, what football teams we like and dislike, what sports we play, what books we read, or even the cars we drive, they are all tied into what we deem a necessity for our social setting. But what we do not place in the forefront of our actions is what those relationships mean to us. Here is what I mean; if a friend loans us money when we are in a time of need, this is an action of friendship that is blatant. This act is a symbol professing the importance of the relationship between the two parties. It tells the two this, "we are good enough friends that I want to do this for you just because I care." In this act of good faith and monetary assistance reaffirmation of the bond is confirmed. But this is a tangible act and doesn't necessarily put a solid value on the relationship.
What I'm looking for is the intangible in the relationship. An intangible is this; the ability to be around a person and not say a word, to sit in a silence without awkwardness. It is also a friend that will listen to an error a friend makes without passing judgment that is unnecessary and/or one that would belittle the, already misguided, friend. Instead the information is gathered and understanding is derived from the error in an attempt to move past it without creating the same error in the future.
I must say that I'm fortunate enough to have several people in my life that fall on that side where the intangibles are far more important and understood than the tangible. These friends act in a way without ever expecting or desiring any reciprocation for their efforts. I have come to understand that what I value most in their friendship is the little moments, just being around them is what I find most rewarding. I draw from them and the character that they display and the attempts that they make to be who they are without wavering under any circumstance. They value what is most important to any of us; they do not care what car I drive, or what the size of my house is, but instead value my intangibles.
My belief is that it's these things that make our relationships so complex and simplistic at the same time. It's understanding those moments that are beyond a value sign and appreciating them while they last. We can't always say that we're fortunate enough to have these kinds of people in our lives at all times, so we must pay attention so that we may display the utmost appreciation to these kinds of relationships when we have them. This will, ultimately, deter us from every taking them for granted -the people or the relationship. Know that being able to laugh, cry, get angry, or to communicate with another person without fear of criticism doesn't come around that often. Hold on for dear life to that person and make sure that their actions ARE reciprocated through your own.
Friday, October 28, 2011
The Art of Write and Pretend
It's amazing how disciplined one has to be to carry the weight of a blog. Never mind a blog, writing, in general, is one of the ultimate disciplines one can attempt to master. It's easy for one to be opinionated, this is something I am devastatingly, annoying at to a fault. My brain never shuts off, as I'm sure many of you experience that just because you're horizontal on your sofa or in your bed does not mean your brain is ready for sleep.
On the contrary, this is when my head decides to lift off into the utmost atmospheres of my thought. Dissection of the hours, days, and weeks gone by begins at an overwhelmingly laborious rate; leaving my eye lids glued to the undercarriage of my eyebrows. This is when rehearsals begin as well. Conversations that I have had are finished, or conversations, issues, decisions are all played out, all while my body rests. I've also found that this is the time that writing becomes more fluid, it has more bend and shape to it, my mind frees itself of doubt and true art is allowed to take hold.
This feeling is most comparative to being on the brink of awakening while dangling a toe in the land of dreams. The haze of creation knows no bounds and runs free through endless thought and imagination. Capturing these thoughts are the trickiest portion of the process - how to illuminate, in words, the pictures the mind displays.
The most effective way I have found to do so is this; with my eyes wide open, write as if my eyes were shut. Allowing the back of my eyes to be the canvas for the story I'm attempting to illustrate. It becomes a slide reel of picture and sound with words running through the scenes like a pressing breeze over a body of water. It moves and flows together, guiding my thoughts to an end result. But the unnatural, confusing part for writing is that it has to be made an precedent over your time. Writing and emotional thought, or storytelling is usually sporadic - the thoughts or ideas come and go as we mosey through our days. So wrangling them up, finding the importance of making it a mandatory portion of our existence to sit and write our thoughts is the key. We train our brains to be ready for ignition once we sit in front of our pad or keyboard, to open up and let the life that is living inside of our minds free for awhile. As children we were masters of pretend, we lived in other worlds all while coinciding in the reality of this one - this mastery slowly fades with age and corrosion of time to an utter non-existence, for some. However, as we write we are free from these shackles and we can live within that mastery we once knew as children and express the worlds we see behind our eyes.
This is the beauty of the craft. This is the elegance of the discipline.
On the contrary, this is when my head decides to lift off into the utmost atmospheres of my thought. Dissection of the hours, days, and weeks gone by begins at an overwhelmingly laborious rate; leaving my eye lids glued to the undercarriage of my eyebrows. This is when rehearsals begin as well. Conversations that I have had are finished, or conversations, issues, decisions are all played out, all while my body rests. I've also found that this is the time that writing becomes more fluid, it has more bend and shape to it, my mind frees itself of doubt and true art is allowed to take hold.
This feeling is most comparative to being on the brink of awakening while dangling a toe in the land of dreams. The haze of creation knows no bounds and runs free through endless thought and imagination. Capturing these thoughts are the trickiest portion of the process - how to illuminate, in words, the pictures the mind displays.
The most effective way I have found to do so is this; with my eyes wide open, write as if my eyes were shut. Allowing the back of my eyes to be the canvas for the story I'm attempting to illustrate. It becomes a slide reel of picture and sound with words running through the scenes like a pressing breeze over a body of water. It moves and flows together, guiding my thoughts to an end result. But the unnatural, confusing part for writing is that it has to be made an precedent over your time. Writing and emotional thought, or storytelling is usually sporadic - the thoughts or ideas come and go as we mosey through our days. So wrangling them up, finding the importance of making it a mandatory portion of our existence to sit and write our thoughts is the key. We train our brains to be ready for ignition once we sit in front of our pad or keyboard, to open up and let the life that is living inside of our minds free for awhile. As children we were masters of pretend, we lived in other worlds all while coinciding in the reality of this one - this mastery slowly fades with age and corrosion of time to an utter non-existence, for some. However, as we write we are free from these shackles and we can live within that mastery we once knew as children and express the worlds we see behind our eyes.
This is the beauty of the craft. This is the elegance of the discipline.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Blog number 2....
For those of you that are into working out, attempting to stay fit, I have another blog site; www.justinlanecopeland.blogspot.com where I chronicle my workout and diet in the system that I have been turned onto in the last month.
It's called Crossfit (www.crossfit.com) and the workouts are amazing! Jake Dickerson (www.jakedickerson.blogspot.com) is the one that made me aware of said system. The diet that I'm on is called the "Paleo Diet" or the "Caveman Diet". It's amazing, and not like most other diets - I'm not counting calories, I'm not drinking lemon juice/olive oil mixes for a week straight. The diet is anything one could hunt or gather, in a nutshell.
I get the workouts from www.crossfituv.com which is the gym that Dick works out in. It's like having my own personal trainer because they post Workouts of the Day (WOD) so that you know what you need to do each time you enter the gym.
Anyway, check it out see if it's interesting enough for you and if you have questions, feel free to ask!
It's called Crossfit (www.crossfit.com) and the workouts are amazing! Jake Dickerson (www.jakedickerson.blogspot.com) is the one that made me aware of said system. The diet that I'm on is called the "Paleo Diet" or the "Caveman Diet". It's amazing, and not like most other diets - I'm not counting calories, I'm not drinking lemon juice/olive oil mixes for a week straight. The diet is anything one could hunt or gather, in a nutshell.
I get the workouts from www.crossfituv.com which is the gym that Dick works out in. It's like having my own personal trainer because they post Workouts of the Day (WOD) so that you know what you need to do each time you enter the gym.
Anyway, check it out see if it's interesting enough for you and if you have questions, feel free to ask!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Sight with No Eyes
Sometimes the smallest things in life can be the most difficult. They creep up, without warning, without notice, and in time it spreads like a cancer without our attention. The struggles of life are the one constant we can count on, for each and every moment of happiness we are bombarded with one hundred more minutes of stress, disdain, inadequacy, insecurity, anger, confusion, etc.
But these are the moments that add the definition to who we are, the character that, some use to identify themselves by. It's a reckoning that each and every breathing soul must accept, except that each and every breathing soul chooses in their own unique way on how they deal with these ebbs and flows of this world. We hope, we pray, we meditate, we contemplate on the idea that here has to be more, there has to be something better, oh what it would be to not be stuck in this world, this life of black and white, of ups and downs, highs and lows, positives and negatives, withs or withouts. We constantly wish, dream, and search for something that we cannot hold, that we can not touch, see, or smell.
The issue for us is not the level of difficulty that each of our lives may or may not bring. It understands what we have with us everyday, what is around us in every fleeting moment of anxious want and need. Those, visible, tangibles are all around us, they live with us, they eat with us, the cry with us, and they are in us. It is the loved ones we bed, the loved ones we raise and teach to place one foot in front of another as they feel their ways through this journey. Ah, but the journey itself is wrapped up in the people around us, it is concealed in the wind that sways the trees, and it is the scent of a cool summer morning after a night of rain, and it is the sunrise that symbolizes so much more than a brand new day.
We put everything else around us, we fill our emptiness with paper possessions, which in the smallest of shifts, would crumble and fall away, they can't be taken with us, we can not be measured by them in the end. But we work so hard for these things, for these things that have no feeling but emptiness and compounds on our selfish needs.
The correction is to open our eyes, open our senses, therefore opening our lives to something so much more than status, fame and riches, or titles. Instead, we begin to see without our eyes, we feel without the dexterity of our fingers, and we hear without a single noise reverberating off a single wall. We end up outside ourselves and just appreciating the journey we are on, the ones that we share it with, and not looking for an outcome, not looking for the destination.
Change how you measure yourself, what is your worth depicted by? What are you worth to those around you? What are they worth to you? Can you see the moment and stay within it? That is life that is living.
But these are the moments that add the definition to who we are, the character that, some use to identify themselves by. It's a reckoning that each and every breathing soul must accept, except that each and every breathing soul chooses in their own unique way on how they deal with these ebbs and flows of this world. We hope, we pray, we meditate, we contemplate on the idea that here has to be more, there has to be something better, oh what it would be to not be stuck in this world, this life of black and white, of ups and downs, highs and lows, positives and negatives, withs or withouts. We constantly wish, dream, and search for something that we cannot hold, that we can not touch, see, or smell.
The issue for us is not the level of difficulty that each of our lives may or may not bring. It understands what we have with us everyday, what is around us in every fleeting moment of anxious want and need. Those, visible, tangibles are all around us, they live with us, they eat with us, the cry with us, and they are in us. It is the loved ones we bed, the loved ones we raise and teach to place one foot in front of another as they feel their ways through this journey. Ah, but the journey itself is wrapped up in the people around us, it is concealed in the wind that sways the trees, and it is the scent of a cool summer morning after a night of rain, and it is the sunrise that symbolizes so much more than a brand new day.
We put everything else around us, we fill our emptiness with paper possessions, which in the smallest of shifts, would crumble and fall away, they can't be taken with us, we can not be measured by them in the end. But we work so hard for these things, for these things that have no feeling but emptiness and compounds on our selfish needs.
The correction is to open our eyes, open our senses, therefore opening our lives to something so much more than status, fame and riches, or titles. Instead, we begin to see without our eyes, we feel without the dexterity of our fingers, and we hear without a single noise reverberating off a single wall. We end up outside ourselves and just appreciating the journey we are on, the ones that we share it with, and not looking for an outcome, not looking for the destination.
Change how you measure yourself, what is your worth depicted by? What are you worth to those around you? What are they worth to you? Can you see the moment and stay within it? That is life that is living.
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