From Anandatandava

[Roxy]

I have a lot of writing stacked up, and think the only way this will work is if someone owns my writing, lock, stock and barrel, past, present and future, for self-publishing.  So, if you currently live for writing, and think you can aim my own writing in a way that serves you, please get in touch.

Roy Wahlberg 103429
MCF--Lino Lakes
7525 4th Ave
Lino Lakes, MN 55014

[Etherfish]

maybe you could explain a little more about who you are and what are you doing? Are you Anandatandava, or someone else, or representing him, and are the writings his or yours? Are the writings more of what someone has posted here, or different, and who wrote them? Just curious, and trying to clarify for everyone. Thanks.

[anandatandava]

10/01/2012

Versicle Cursicle

There once was a girl named Anonymous
who asked me to write in verse.
She thought I'd be slow
with talent so low
but look now, a brand new curse!

[whippoorwill]

quote:Originally posted by Etherfish

maybe you could explain a little more about who you are and what are you doing? Are you Anandatandava, or someone else, or representing him, and are the writings his or yours? Are the writings more of what someone has posted here, or different, and who wrote them? Just curious, and trying to clarify for everyone. Thanks.

Hi Ether!

That was Roxy, Roy's sister, posting on Roy's behalf.  Roy is interested in publishing his writing via some self-publishing venue, and he's looking for assistance with that.

[yogani]

Hi Roy/Roxy:

For paperback, I can recommend www.createspace.com (owned by Amazon) "print-on-demand" service (which means no front end printing or inventory costs) for easy self-publishing. It is free do-it-yourself set-up with distribution to Amazon's many sites worldwide. For a small one-time fee (currently $25), distribution can be expanded beyond Amazon to major distribution channels in the USA and Europe.

Of course, the writing has to be properly formatted in book form (interior) with a decent cover, with both converted to high quality PDFs. All of that can be tricky, but it is do-able (there are services  that will do it for you for $). Once you have interior and cover PDFs, it is fairly easy to get set up on Createspace. If something needs fixing, their system will let you know, and there is no cost for repeating correction uploads until it is right. That is about as easy and inexpensive a path I have seen to get your writings out there in paperback book form, and with good distribution (important).

All of the AYP books are on Createspace in updated editions as of summer 2012. The original editions (beginning in 2004) are still out there too through www.lightningsource.com (owned by Ingram, a large book distributor), which is also a good print-on-demand service, but with more costs -- about $100 to set up and proof a book, and $12 per year per title to keep it active on their system -- still a very good deal for self-publishing with worldwide distribution.

For eBook, Createspace also provides an easy path to publishing your book as an Amazon Kindle eBook, also free to set up. That is the leading ebook format. Publishing a book on Kindle is very simple, and for those not inclined to do a paperback, Kindle is the best first choice for getting a book out there. Besides the Kindle devices, there are Kindle apps for virtually all other stationary and mobile devices. To cover other ebook formats gets more complicated, and is often redundant with what Kindle offers. It is not necessary to go through Createspace to Kindle. See here: https://kdp.amazon.com

All the best!

The guru is in you.

[Roxy]

FIRST ASHRAM

In this cacophonous penal colony,
I've finally made it to my first spiritual community!
It's a house of true fraternal unity,
and though still within the walls,
sanctity rings the halls,
and I can openly love with impunity!

Yes, it's also a wellspring of opportunity.
For example: from prison, well-provisioned liberty,
and from danger, considerable immunity...
well, all but for one hook-beaked Harpy -
they don't provide any pay,
so I must struggle to stay!

It is thus that I ask you, pray,
tell me a workable way,
even by anonymous intermediary -
can it be thru my writing,
even though it's been frightening,
and it strikes me like lightning?

At least I've gained tools,
so it won't look a fool's
or so I might think,
even though it might stink. -
you be the judge,
if you won't hold a grudge.

But do please hurry
as I pace and worry
in my cell floor a groove,
for I don't want to move
right back in a jam
and lose my ashram!

.................Ananda T.

[anandatandava]

The Inconvenient Earworm

10/01/2012

I write to live -- in you --
... It's true!  For nowhere else can I exist
... other than in the one who beholds.
Yes, my dear, you most certainly do hold me;
... and such a Big imagination you have!
... I should know.
For mine is not a face that's jot on watery thought,
... and forever retraced lest I dissolve.
No! -- for I write with Flame hewn
... direct from the burl of a burning heart
... that brands you permanent,
... a singing, not stinging wound,
... my abiding mark within you,
... so you can't forget -- that hot little earworm of mine,
... crawling around on your mind -- just try knocking me out!

But still your silent question I hear:
... "Who are you, really?"
Dearest, haven't you been looking and listening all this time?
... Perhaps stuck at the crossing, your mind all a-tossing,
... for tho you I see here, indeed crystal clear,
... my face in your mirror -- bah!
... still has a smear.

[anandatandava]

Song of Songs

10/01/2012

I have a problem -- tho surely you've noticed several --
... but this one the doctors call hyperacusis
... and say I hear too much.
I say no, that's far too little,
... for I still don't hear your voice.
How is it to be so Cherished
... for something you give away for free
... to everyone -- but me?
Having lived with yourself so long
... you've forgotten the Wealth you hold --
... that which you unearthed as a babe and joyfully
... flung out like golden baubles to an adoring audience.
But you are a music box, richly inlayed
... your repertoire not yet fully played,
... the sounds beyond all others' ken
... that would for me all Heaven unpen.
Yet here I am, a shamed-faced conjoined beggar,
... two pleading ears extending their bowls --
... perhaps even less -- a starved listening only,
... staring into the Void where your voice should be.
I feel like a frustrated thief,
... prehensile ears reaching boldly out --
... straining -- like hands in the darkness.
... Where are you, my Nocturne?
Oh, don't speak too soon!
... Wait for me.
... Let's not drop a precious note...

[anandatandava]

Love Whisperer

10/1/2012

Gelded by chosen path and plight,
... my Love glows pure as sun's own light.
You raised me as a foal well-favored,
... rocked me in a new-moon manger,
... nectar-nursed me sugar-lump kisses.
Don't leave me now in desert fastness;
... and arid herbage won't stem sadness
... nor thistles make a good provision
... for softened hearts in hardened vision.
An unled bridle bites so grievous
... among the fanged and slavering beasts
... I'm famine-lamed at peril's verge --
... e'en one lost colt would wound the herd!
So open wide your heart's rich pasture,
... your clovered vale of loving rapture;
... my thirsting ear tilts 'round to hear
... your whispers washing thru the air.
I'll trace that brook to find the Source
... then in a dream will come the Horse
... to nuzzle you with gentled mane,
... and urge you take my moonbeam rein.
My flanks a-shine with glorious Fire,
... we live but once and join the Pyre,
... so mount this Horse and burn entire!

[anandatandava]

Flipping Birds

10/01/1012

I don't write for fame or acclaim;
I prefer to remain yesterday's news
... and stay here to write for you
..... in tears on the breasts of birds
..... (they weighs not a grain, causing no pain)
... then send them to beat against your casement... pane.
But still you don't answer.
What have you against birds?

[anandatandava]

The Crucible

10/01/2012

Oh will you, won't you be --
... wet to my water
... cherry to my cream
... flesh to my bones
... heart to my body
... spring to my seasons
... reason to my living?

I tell you, Beloved,
... we are bonded ecstatic -- numinous numismatic --
..... like two faces
... with but a sole Dervish coin between them
..... but also a singled untarnished Soul.
... This brightly-spun beauty -- Circulated, Very Fine Grade --
..... who's to tell heads from tails
..... in such gold-struck Holy Poverty?

Flicked by God's finger, we landed
... in life's crucible together
... for a highly refined reason.

Melting with Love
... we turn face to face...

[anandatandava]

Rug-Rash Epilogue to Most Every Poem

     With the prison breathing down my neck, trying to throttle off what little external contact I have, my writing voice has taken on an even more rebelliously brassy timbre here and there. It could be my, "Take that, you scoundrel - I will no longer let you see my fear." Yeah, I'm tired of being treated like a political prisoner in a 3rd-world country. I'm tired of all the lies told of me, and AYP has taught this mute autistic to talk back. So, how d'ya like me now?

          For since in me the drive won't drop,
          there's just no need for us to stop;
          so if you find you're feel'n froggy,
          we'll next get down and do it doggy!

I wonder: when they push me up thru this stalag chimney, will the sky grow ashen with this lost boy's passion? Catch that snowflake in your mouth, if you will...

[anandatandava]

Scanning...

I just learned that updates to this topic pop it back to where casual browsers might see it. I immediately thought of those poor innocents who come traipsing along only to run into my shocking drivel. Oh! - I am so sorry! I assumed I'd long ago scrolled off into a digital backwater.

All this made me realize just how much I have in recent times been chronicalling the long-term effects of loneliness. Much writing is in the pipeline, but you'll see why I had to stop writing poetry in particular, it becoming a transmogrification of my increasing mutiny against pain. For good reason the Cherokees considered loneliness to be the depth of degradation, worse even than death.

Things just have to change, so I first contacted the Innocence Project, who for good reason immediately re-opened my case. If the DNA evidence still exists, it'll crush age-old impressions; if it's been lost, the effort may well implode on me here instead. Ah well, love makes one reckless, for what really matters without it?

Then I heard that there are free inmate penpal websites, but still have no idea where. I could possibly write to other inmates, but am afraid I've never learned the language.

I feel myself to only exist when I can write for at least some small amount of purpose. But since typing my posts is a burden to others, I may be forced into a venue that supports scanned images, if even just to store me. Why? It's a primal need. Sad. Google's little search spiders will miss me.

[anandatandava]

Stifle Yourself, Dude!
(Just one way yoga makes you smarter)

Given how aggressively I approached complete breath-stoppage in the beginning, I used to wonder if I was damaging my brain (further) in favor of kundalini kicks. Well, science to the rescue, for new research shows that many aspects of the brain and body actually require hypoxia (low oxygen) for optimal growth, maintenance, and function.

Celeste Simon at the U. of Penn looked particularly at the hippocampus, the key memory processor in the brain, also now thought to be important for healthy mood. Stem cells there are busily engaged in “neurogenesis”, creation and replenishment of hippocampal neurons. The key point, though, is that these stem cells are most active in areas of low oxygen, the hypoxic response acting as a growth stimulant, similar to how it triggers the release of human growth hormone and muscle/blood vessel development during exercise, and is also important to embryonic and fetal maturation.

Simon next wants to determine if the oxygen debt caused by physical exercise contributes to improvement in brain function via the same process. If so, then pranayama and asanas help our brains in ways that add to the already well-known protective value of meditative stress-relief.

[anandatandava]

Rendered Unto God

Ananda, please rein your galloping verses;
.... clumsy foal, you couldn’t sound worse.
Sorry I am, my Splendid Friend
.... your ear so round to twist and bend.
But you see how helpless that I’m driven
.... and tossed about in metered thought-rhythm.
For words they ride a rocking saddle
.... when lips are tangled and Love-addled.
With drunken Muse as certain sire
.... the o’ertopped cup can never tire.
And verse trots out what must be said,
.... not some jockey in my head.
Why must you drive me so, my Lord
.... to canter on ‘til all are bored?
Learn to kiss the whip, my child,
.... For Rapture takes a touch of Wild.
Then is felt a searing crack,
.... bringing in just what I lack
To open wide a Vedic dream:
.... dance with gods and drink the cream.
Each finger now a burning candle,
.... nearly more than I can handle
To comb profusion from confusion
.... and from the Presence, draw its Essence.
A timeless catch comes in the breath,
.... snatching ego to his death:
Light the Fire!  Burn the Pyre!
.... Feed base root to Flow’ring Fruit!
As life it swoons from cold to Heat
.... and tears they run from salt to Sweet,
Prayers and praise I mean to gift
.... are why this pen doth fly and lift;
And Love to farther outward fling
.... is why this soul doth rise to sing!
To melt himself right thru the Portal
.... and truly know the Life Immortal
This horse is off to be full-rendered
.... and pour into the Many-Splendored!

--Ananda T.