“I saw the heaven

when it makes

a gloomy sense in the blues sky

I felt the heaven

when I wander

silent in your sleep

Moon in the outside

reading your dream

And I’m searching

the piece of poetry

that supposed to be

the higher sense of the heaven

In my head,

I’m watching the clouds

rolling over in my sight

In my vein,

I’m pushing the torment

feeding the hungry blood

I can’t be the spurious mind

I would be a ramble silence

Moon in the outside

Reading your dream

And I’m looking for free highway

that supposed to be

Freedom footing above the heaven”

Written on: 24 May 2017

Tribute to Chris Cornell 

I scour the internet regularly for writing tips. Anything to sharpen the skills and get better, you know? In the interest of spreading the wealth, here are six quick tips for improving your writing.

1. AVOID REPETITION.

2. LESS IS MORE.

3. STEER CLEAR OF USING PASSIVE VOICE.

4. MAINTAIN THE TENSE AND PERSPECTIVE.

5. OVER-DESCRIBE AND THEN REVISE.

6. USE AS FEW ADVERBS AS POSSIBLE.

...

Stay tuned for the full article by returning guest writer Kendall Bailey (@KBaileyWriter), with detailed examples and more, later today on The Official Prose. Blog at: blog.theprose.com.

(Header image via Huffington Post.)

This week’s featured Proser says that she no longer identifies with her birth name.

She made the decision to disconnect from it more than ten years ago. “We don’t say that name anymore,” she says. You all know her here as @another_proser but, outside of Prose, she is known as Remmy Ar’emen (pronounced “are-m-n”). She plans to make this official, legally, as soon as possible.

She lives in Melbourne Beach, Florida, and works as an artist, “teaching painting classes to people (primarily women) while they nibble on snack plates and drink wine.”

P: What is your relationship with writing and how has it evolved?

RA: Sometimes it’s like sinking or swimming with an ink blot road map stained with question marks and scribbles of indecision. I started out as an elementary kid who told her teacher, “If someone held a gun to my head and asked me to spell a big word, I’d die.” It was actually online, text-based RPGs which taught me the most as far as spelling and grammar go. (No one would play with me until I got it right.) I think the storytelling part just comes natural to me, but the two together has been an evolution from cringe-worthy to inspirational and provoking, perhaps cringe-worthy for the content more than the execution. That, for me, is a win.

P: Briefly discuss the value that reading adds to both your personal and professional life.

RA: Personally, reading reminds me about the words whose existence I may have forgotten, and introduces me to new ones which I often question. Are they event real? It’s an adventure that both puzzles me and inspires me. It’s never been my strong suit (I was a math junkie) but, when I find the right book or encounter the right poem, it sinks into my soul like blood to a sponge.

Professionally, reading has allowed me to break stereotypes. It enables me to have a business meeting over the phone and give someone an image of me, through my words, which contradicts what I actually look like. Reading has improved my writing and comprehension abilities to the point that I’ve spent half a decade in corporate positions. I may never have been hired were it not for those skills.

Ultimately, reading is like breathing for me now. I read signs when I walk by, even ones that have nothing to do with me and are of no real interest. Reading has become a necessity for me, a compulsion.

P: How would you describe your current literary ventures and what can we look forward to in future posts?

RA: I’d describe my literary ventures as impulsive and otherwise non-existent. I aim to make people think, regardless of what I’m writing and how I’m writing it (rhyme, prose, etc.). More often than not, I have a hard time picking something to write. My interests are so diverse that I almost want to write everything: political views, religious exploration, random opinion writing, short stories, novels, screenplays. I’ve started half-a-dozen of each variety but it seems that I never manage to get much further. Too many distractions and other thoughts about other writings I want to put down. So, in the future, expect more of the same. Any and all kinds of writing.

I write because I enjoy the way it feels, thoughts to my fingers and onto a page, but I post it publicly to provoke thought and get feedback. The feedback I enjoy the most is the kind that comes out as an instant reaction. First thoughts, initial interpretations, or feelings. Sure, I also enjoy the critique and breakdowns, but I’m a human behavior junkie, so I like reading about the ways writing effects people.

P: What does Prose. mean to you?

RA: Prose. has been an unexpected diversion from reality with uplifting vibes and such diverse writing that I sometimes get overwhelmed with all of the material to read from. I don’t really do the smartphone thing, so I can’t say that I’ve even seen the app, but the Prose. website has been extremely easy to use. I love that you can comment on anyone’s posts regardless of who is following who. Love that. I also really love the challenges because of my previously mentioned trouble picking what to write about.

P: Where else can we find you and your writing?

RA: You could find it on tumblr, and in a few cities on craigslist, but why bother? I like it better here, and you can comment and like here without having to follow me. Maybe one day you’ll be able to find my work at a bookstore or acted out on the big screen. Until then, enjoy this homey nest of interactive literary goodness with me here, on Prose.

__________________________

This #FridayFeature blog series is designed to help you get to know your fellow community members better. Would you like to nominate someone for interview? Have a question you’re dying to ask of someone on the platform? Send us a private message here or visit our contact page to get in touch: theprose.com/p/contact.

I lay down I my bed

It's always around 12:30

And I feel my heart falling out of place

I feel my skin wishing yours was there to warm it

I feel my bones crack.

I close my eyes

It's always around 1:15

And I see you.

I see your hand in mine

I see your sunshine smile

I see you and I.

I fall asleep

It's always around 2am

And I dream of you to get myself through the night.

You always kiss me right before I wake up.

But then the earth tilts

And my heart goes back to its palace of bones

It's always around sometime

That I am always wanting you here.

-AshleyAnne

The man known to the world as Pancho Villa,

my great-grandfather, invented feng shui.

Or was it kung fu?

Doesn't matter.

They both taste like fried rice.

Mama says Pancho used to swallow a bullet at breakfast,

bring him immunity to death in the afternoon.

It worked for many years,

until they caught Grandpa Pancho at an intersection

in a small town in Chihuahua, aerated him with many a .50 cal.

Pancho bled all over his beautiful expensive car,

a 1919 Dodge something or other,

which is on display at the museum that honors him.

Dunno why the Mexicans would honor my grandfather.

Pancho was a gangster.

One of the originals.

Fuck P Diddy and Jay-Z:

Wannabes, all.

Pancho left me his guns and 36 diaries,

which no one else has ever read.

I'm still translating them.

Pancho and I have long chats over cold cerveza

when the sun touches down.

Global population is roughly 7.3 billion humans. Global circulation is roughly 1.33 trillion USD. Global debt is roughly 57 trillion USD. Global stock is roughly 33 trillion USD. Therefore, the average human is worth roughly 10,958.91 USD. However, this number is neither accurate nor relevant in a debt-free, gift-based economy. The value per human in such an optimal system would result from the following relation of ideas:

L = (C+D+S)/P

– wherein “L” signifies “Human Life,” “C” signifies “Global Cash,” “D” signifies “Global Debt,” “S” signifies “Global Stock,” and “P” signifies “Global Population.” Applying this equation to determine L or the value per human life outputs “18,767.1233.” This number does not mean USD or any other global currency. It means the value of a human life at any time at any place on Earth. Value or “V” is a product of both quantity and quality. The number 18,767.1233, in this case, represents quality of V. This number must be interchangeable metrically with what can only represent quantity of V: the average human healthy life expectancy. Today, that value, signified by “Y,” equals roughly 60 years. Thus:

L = V = (C+D+S)/P = Y

In order to prevent inflation, the quantity of V in global circulation would always be determined by the quantity of P (Global Population) or humans presently alive on Earth. For instance, if there are 8 billion humans alive on Earth, then there are 8 billion V in circulation, and if the average human healthy lifespan in this case is 75Y, then the system in its entirety would be worth 600 billion Y and 1V would equal 75Y. Humans are more familiar with conventional metrics of time than they are with this new, abstract concept of Value as defined, so imagine in this optimal economic system that Value is exchanged through voluntary gifting of “Years,” “Seasons” (.25Y), “Utilities” (.1Y), and “BitLifes” (.01Y).

Rather than a credit score, members of society have a “Reciprocity Score” determined by the ratio between Value given and Value received. In this radically open and advanced economy, everyone’s Reciprocity Score would be publicly visible, as would be their “Value History,” or a timeline of that person’s Value transactions receivable and payable. Social security and system fairness would be enforced through thumb authentication or some other reliable means of control. Accuracy of Value would be enforced through tracking and correlating the present global fair market demand for all major resources, including currency, land, water, and energy.

More economic metrical synchronicity yields more economic metrical accuracy yields more economic metrical prosperity.

In short, the present global economic metric system is poorly accurate with regard to what “Value” even means, which again is a matter of average human Life quality and quantity.

We are quite far from living in this utopian economy - and yet so close.