The Writing Workshop

Parallel Lines (draft three)

2006-12-11T20:09:00.000Z

We were put into a room for thirty minutes
To come across something

The conversation was like two parallel lines
Two lines were with adamant great walls
Two lines had difficulties to conversation on same point at the same time

One sentence was threw out
Another voice was adding footnotes
Cloze tests are here and there
Misunderstanding took place in-between every second
Chaotic conversation deafen the real discussion

It was not even started
The time was up
I was frustrated

Once again, 30 mins was in vain.
Unskillful verbal conversation as I am
Makes culture boundaries be naughty again and again

I still could not figure out how wide the gap is
I still could not work out how I could build a bridge to cross.

Maybe all of these were wrong at the very beginning.
Maybe mixing parallel lines is a fault.

Maybe being simple is beautiful
Maybe keeping distance is amazing.

Maybe discussion is not needed
And maybe listening is needed.

Parallel lines should be continually paralleled
The gap should be understood

Parallel Lines (draft one)

2006-12-11T20:07:00.000Z

What is the point to discuss
if we are in two parallel lines?

How can you expect from me for the building the bridge
if I am not qualified for the brilliant communication skill and you are not helping me out?

I thought I have already grown from the relationship between you and me,
And I would have never suffered the pain from it anymore
However, while you said that to you I made effortless.
My emotion can not be hold anymore.
The tears are breaking the dam
Falling cats and dogs

Today I knew what so beautiful about the beach is the graceful parallel horizontal lines that they are keeping the peaceful distance and have never came across.
Water is water
Sand is sand
Air is air
There is not a matter in between the two.

Yeah, it is my fault.
A fault puts me into this odd situation.

It is impossible to discuss if we stand at two parallel lines.
The distance is the most beautiful thing.

Parallel Lines(draft Two)

2006-12-04T00:03:00.000Z

What is the point to discuss if we keep walking in two parallel lines?
Two lines are with a great distance and never come across.

How could I build a bridge to communicate you and me?
While your walls are so adamant,
There is not even a window or a door
There is no sign or guide
There is
Nothing

How could I knock down your wall to communicate with you
if I am not stronger
Smarter
More articulate than you?
I am not qualified the better condition than you and you are not helping me out?

Yeah, how could I hope that you are helping me out since you are not even aware there is a great distance between us.

I thought I have already grown from the relationship between you and me,
And I would have never suffered the pain and be hurt by you anymore
However, while you are even denying my attitude,
I could not calm myself anymore.
The tears are just breaking the dam
Falling cats and dogs

Today I knew what so beautiful about the beach
The graceful parallel horizontal lines which keep the peaceful distances between each other and have never came across.
Water is water
Sand is sand
Air is air
There are not any matters in between the two.

Yeah, it is my fault.
A fault puts me and you into this odd situation.
Our meeting is an absolutely fault.

It is impossible to discuss if we stand at two parallel lines.

Keeping distance
is the most beautiful thing.

The Greatest thing

2006-11-01T00:03:00.000Z

As I expected; the only certain is uncertainty

My name is Serene
Like sand that you can never hold and feather that blow by the wind

We all reagant to one another
Is almost like reward for being with each other

It comes and goes.......
We can never know
What other hold, to you

Smile will never cost you a thing
It will only sing inside of you

Chapter Three: A WORLD WITH ONLY MYSELF

2006-10-16T12:09:00.000+01:00

In the border of culture
I chose to shut my door too

In a world with only me
At least I could get some peace.

Everything follows my concious
Ordered by my dream

In a space of 99 square feet
I built my little Kindom inside chelsea dream

A phone call from home
School fee, the bills, the rents are asking for my
Gains?
Achievements?
Commerce?
Reflections?

The fancy dream is drying out.
The peace is falling apart.
Empty is the only thing left.
And now the room is like a ugly chain, a infine black hell

Where is my way out?
Somebody please help me out?
?
?
?
?
A world with only myself.

Chapter Two: Fence

2006-10-11T19:42:00.000+01:00

I’ve never be part of it.
And yet, never will be, no matter how hard I’m trying.

Closing windows
Closing doors,
Closing gates
Closing fences

Boundaries are getting clear and clear
I’ve been kept outside from the very beginning, and I’ve never realized.

I could only watch
Picture
Copy
Imagine
Dream
The world I wanna be in.

Chapter One

2006-10-08T21:47:00.000+01:00

I arrived at a world fill with my dream
Like a beautiful bubble
Fly

None Sense

2006-10-05T00:19:00.000+01:00

"Do I know what you expect?"
Are you expecting from me?
I didn't hear you say that to my ears
I'm not your property and I'm not listening to you
Will you like me anyway?

It's okay to be afraid, I feel it too.
mighty more than you...
percolate through yourself
and you shall see, it will be all over again

refuse your desire, refuse to believe, refuse your mind
can you have total control of yourself
can you become immune to your instinct
and still be you?

2006-10-03T19:19:00.000+01:00

My world loose gravity.
I was avalanched by identity.
Weightless in a river.
I cannot control the way, and yet, cannot stop.
I've already been on the way, drifting across the cultures.

I’ve been pushing by the waves
Lost completely in my space.
I’ve been a stranger to the world
The world is very strange to me.

I am crying to land
Therefore, there is no way
I am a faint weightless fish
Flowed, drifted, bitten by waves.

2006-09-23T15:52:00.000+01:00

I stand at the border of the two worlds.
I don’t know how many doors I need to open
How many I need to shut?

I stand at the border of worlds
I don’t know how many I have to receive
And how much I need to give?

I’ve been stopped outside the fence
And I also have been locked inside my world

How many we need to modify?
How many we need to keep?

When should I need to listen to others?
When should I need to listen to my voice?

How long I have been watching
How long I still need to imagine?

I’m walking around the border
I don’t know how to speak
What to do
Where to go
Who should I listen to?

Once

2006-09-06T17:36:00.000+01:00

Once I was small
Once I had a black helmet
Once I listened to tapes before bed
Once I seized the moment
Once I was small...

Nom I am grown
Now I don't have a helmet
Now I watch TV before bed
Now I worry
Now I am grown...

Why?

2006-07-29T00:42:00.000+01:00

By hearing the news of the war from middle east rescently,
I have been really painful.
My heart have been weeping everyday
So many questions flow into my mind make me hardly breathe.

Why people can not realize killing people is not the way lead to peace?
Why people can not understand having a war just make people to hate each other even more??
Why people can not listen to the voice different from them?
Why people can not stop representing the others in theirselves projection of fear?
Why people can not stop being so superiority, and think from the other people's position?
Why people can not stop having the desire of controling the other people?
Why people can not see the oppression rised because of the unfair world?
Why people can not see how they trample down the other people and always ask why other people always angry at me?
Why people can not see themselves might be wrong?

Why people can not let the world be equal?
Why people can not let the other be themselves?
Why? WHy? WHy? WHy? WHy??

Why people can not learn, and always let the blood run over the earth?????
Tell me why?

Night Light Sight Up

2006-07-26T12:12:00.000+01:00

Every morning the summer light wake me up!
I feel sick of light 'cause it never shine me up

Two cups of coffee,
Two jugs of juices,
I still not wake up

I felt nothing from summer light
'cause I came from where it comes up

Two things I like more than a coffee cup
one is night, another is perfect sight
Take me to the kindest night
and I will be in my summer light

2006-07-14T20:08:00.000+01:00

chair/table/lamp/on/paper/in front/
read/got/nothing/coffee/cigarette/back/
read/more/confuse/stop/clean/plates/yesterday/
think/sit/sofa/TV/nothing/DVD/old/remembering/
nearly/stop/walk/shop/coke/sweet/try/not to smoke/
sweet/finish/thinking/no/smoke/fail

Recording at 10:43 13July06
Using one word to what is around you and what you are doing
lets other imagination flow

.

2006-07-11T08:52:00.000+01:00

time just snails by really slowly,

but the days fly by without even leaving traces.

how is that suposed to work?

I've never wana be alone

2006-07-10T23:36:00.000+01:00

I've never wana be alone.
But I need to be alone.

........ to be continued ^_^ (Just feel so strongly about these two sentences recently)

2 hours on my way home

2006-07-10T16:30:00.000+01:00

9/7/06
22:01 I'm in a pub in Covent garden
Italy beats France 5-3 in a penalty shoot-out win the world cup of 2006
The aura soon reaches its peak through every corner in Cental London.

22:45 I'm in Piccadilly circus with my friends.
Here is full of the sounds of cheering.
flags are flying.
Horns are sounding.
London is vivrating.

My friends and I am woodenly standing there,
shareing the moment of joy.

23:01 I don't wana go home
But my friends are leaving
I walk alone along Piccadilly
Trumpeted cars block it
Lots groups of friends cheer out on the street
Somehow I feel fullfilled by just watching all these
Their passion makes me so excited

23:17 I don't wana go home
I am in front of Green Park
I make several calls to friends, and express my thrill
Nobody feel the same as me.

23:27 I don't wanna go home
I am in Hyde Park Corner
I walk through xxxxx
The sounds of cheering start drawing away from me
Few passerbys also walk alone like me

23:30 I don't wanna go home
I am in Knightsbridge
I see three ladies and two gentlmen dressed nicely walking into a posh door
The archetecture looks like some embassy, but there is no flag
I glimpse at the lordly door for few seconds
Wondering what is the party going on in there

23:37 I don't wanna go home
I am passing by a quiet cafe resturant
The light diffusing through its gauze warms my heart
I stop my steps as my mind dither

23:44 I don't wana go home
I turn into Sloane Street
My bat is far away from me
I can't barely hear any cheers or horns from the street
What welcome me is a beautiful bright full-moon
The moon is taking me home

The street is so quiet
I pass by a private garden near my house
In between the bushes is a double bench lounged under the vivid street light
I missed him so much

At this cool summer night
After flaming passion
What leaves me is myself alone again

00:01 I don't wanna go home
I am at my home.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
p.s. "xxxx" is the arch in the middle of hyde park cornor. Anyone knows the name of it?

indulgence

2006-06-18T11:46:00.001+01:00

Something that I love... almost more than life itself.
It's when I get the chance to indulge myself to sleep and sleep... and sleep until I just have to wake up with a mild headache because of sleeping too much.
Sometimes I wake up with a broad grin on my face,
but still with my eyes closed,
stretch my body like a cat does on a nice and sunny day,
drink some water out of the big plastic bottle,
then curl myself back and seek to fall asleep again.

I just love Sunday mornings,
don't you?

soundings

2006-06-16T11:41:00.000+01:00

radio homely down to cut of cutlery which cuts through my ears.
constant traffic makes me feel more inert.
fan keeps time overhead.
waiter changes the saucer, the cup of coffee was too full.
There was no measure in it. my energy feels like this, agitated,
I need a bigger cup or less coffee.

dictionary

2006-06-16T11:35:00.000+01:00

I tried that thing whereby you choose random words and place them in a composition. I took a selection randomly and spent about 10 mins structuring them.

At a glories edge
no substitution, a volatile balance
it holds the anticipation of a punctuated joke
parts repressive, a comedians deliverance
marbled the expectation of the hit
jojobah go the plants in waiting for the punchline.

What do we put in our work (?)

2006-06-15T19:21:00.000+01:00

Something we can share
Our style
Our role
Immediate communication
Honesty (peanuts and sausages)
Emotion
Something we like
Obsessions
Men with long-haired armpits
Tradition
Memories
Laugh & Care
Ugly, dark, disturbing and grotesque
Me and now
Love and Time

Where am I now

2006-06-05T14:25:00.000+01:00

I am not actually in the cafe but what is a function of a cafe is
It is the same as where I am now,
here is no coffee cup,
here is not a pub with a music and sound
but here are many people around
everyone hunger for their style
where am I now......

What I heard and interest me is not as loud
there only a little virbantion around my ear
why can't I catch what I want to hear
maybe that sound is not here

O how could I be near to you
that would make my ear will listen to....
You......... the uncommon sound

Three for one

2006-06-05T14:12:00.000+01:00

I have 2 eyes 2 legs and 2 hands like you

We see and create different things each day

Where we go is totally different, but in the end we all end the same way

Three

2006-06-01T14:53:00.000+01:00

I don't feel like doing this
I didn't plan, I took an alternative
It takes me a while to assimilate the experience

me...

2006-05-31T03:40:00.000+01:00

having neither intellect nor feet
i adapted to the unique lifestyle
of an enhanced relationship
with my customers
not necessarily meaningful
an expression of dependence
on a masqueraded network
when part of the definition of love
was a migration to pacific islands
in what was meant to be the future
of a calculated withdrawal

sound of the night.. 12:10am..

2006-05-31T00:14:00.000+01:00

what do i hear..

my brain is beating, not my heart..
it is running so fast and im afraid it will one day trip over and never be able to run again...

what do i hear...

somebody is keep shouting at me.
"Wake up"..
i am awake..
and that is what makes it very painful for me..

I need to write

2006-05-30T23:41:00.000+01:00

I draw... mostly to communicate to myself..,

but it seems to reach only half way of the path..

I need to write.. to complete another half..

it's good to be ill.

2006-05-30T01:03:00.000+01:00

it's good to be ill,
it make me appreciate more
the rest of time.

it's good to be ill,
it make me realized that i still can feel.

it's good to be ill,
cause you will get it soon or later.
why just stop complain,
just enjoy the time being.

illness is not a bad thing after all.
we flet, experience,hurt...
and we become stronger.

ps:just a little something to make myself feel better
about my running nose and itchy eye...
also it's for these who r struggling with the flu....

Depressed house

2006-05-29T22:13:00.000+01:00

Since I couldn't found anybody to talk to,
I kept walking around the house.
The space was as quiet as always.
Its quiet was like acquiescence to my behavior.
Something behind the house seems desperate to be found.

I stood by the window in my room.
The houses outside seems so lively and warm.
And I wondered inside that skin whether it would be the same?
Or the houses are also another wall that people built to hide themselves

Lonely, sad and depressive
Were full filled the house in everywhere,
the corridor, the chair, the bed, the window, the plants, even the dog and cat.
It was like after a horrible storm
Though everything all cleaned up and new arranged,
Fears, anxious, depressed, sad crawled over everywhere.

Ticket, the dog,
guarded the empty house as regular everyday,
from morning to the night,
was immured in lonely and depressed.

lonesome affection

a waving house

If you lose something,

2006-05-29T10:16:00.000+01:00

you suddenly start to say

"Where are you?"
"I need you!"

When you kept the item,however, you had probably rarely used or even never used.

How selfish can you get?

When somethihg disappears from you,It's not time to cry.
It's time to regret your lack of cautiousness of the value.

Then, without the thing, you recognize a real necessity for your life.

3 "sound" briefs

2006-05-28T15:23:00.000+01:00

If you don't know what to write about, try these three easy exercises, to be done possibly in the same day, but at some hours distance one from the other... Give yourself 5 to 10 minutes for each exercise. Have fun!

Morning: sit in a very noisy cafe or anywhere loud. Write down all the noises that you can recognise. Start with a list and then try to describe some of them, the ones that are more interesting to you. See what effect they have on your feelings and write about that too.

Afternoon: sit somewhere less noisy, like a bookstore maybe. Do the same as above: write down all the noises that you can hear. Start by making a list and then try to describe them, the ones that are more interesting to you. See how they affect your feelings and write about that too.

Night: in your room, alone. That should be the quietest of the three places. Hear the sounds of your house and your neighbourhood. Describe them. Concentrate on the sound of your pen on the paper. The sound of yourself breathing. Can you hear that. How do you react to that?

Read everything the next day and choose 3 sentences, as if you were writing a little poem, to publish on this blog. You can choose a sentence from every moment in the day or whatever you want! Just write! I'm looking forward to reading your next contributions!

Not really sure about this...

2006-05-26T16:35:00.000+01:00

... but anyway,

my google emailbox, which is usually precise with spam mail, has mistakenly put in my inbox an advertisment for viagra pills. When I read the mail I didn't notice it was an advertisment. I actually thought it was one of you guys on the workshop! It was so poetic... it actually doesn't make much sense but the way some words come together and create fantastic images is quite amazing. It's really a shame that it was just some spam!

Not really sure about this, as I was saying before, but I've decided to publish it because I think it's a "nice" and creative misunderstanding.

Let me make this clear: this doesnt' mean that we can publish spam mail on the blog from now on. However, I think this one works as an example of how - sometimes - it is enough to through words in the mixer and press the button to create interesting stuff, which is the way these spam texts are originated.

I'm sure it can stimulate someone's creativity. Just pick some words from the dictionary and put them together in a line. Do they make sense, can you give sense to them, can you help them become sense, or let them have sense?

Any takers?

There it goes, the spam mail I've received!

***

tomorrow sorry east wood among the years a wonderful lot
somewhere allowed twenty-one seven of them work
nothing benefit why commit discuss the arms
morning telling off second commitment
occasions and times forty captains.

different note

2006-05-26T00:07:00.000+01:00

Hurried reality, now calm leaves from wind settled in this moment I project average.
I imagine asserting a viewpoint, creative for the good, surprise.
Stagnant confusion, annoyed at trying to fill up pages, constant stopping point.

tin cup

2006-05-26T00:02:00.000+01:00

today I liked the tin cup.

It reminded me of a story my dad told me when I was a child.
after the second world war, he had an old sargeant as a teacher, who in his eccentricity would boil soup over a primus stove in the classroom, drink it from a tin cup and look with binoculars out over the school playing field. Much to the fascination of the hungry classroom having to do their maths.

A Warm Dinner?

2006-05-25T23:36:00.000+01:00

I was expecting a big warm welcoming dinner tonight.
Therefore,
7:49pm
It is still an empty kitchen…
Coldness is instilling my heart.

Touched

2006-05-25T23:30:00.000+01:00

I touched,
as I was so anxious to explore it
The stories of the house

searching...

2006-05-25T22:39:00.000+01:00

I searched everywhere,
not sure what was I looking for...
It is a very quiet old house

coward

2006-05-25T16:14:00.000+01:00

I don't really feel like doing it.

Time and reality are eating away my dreams.

But I'm a coward to not fix it properly.

About my feet

2006-05-25T15:55:00.000+01:00

My feet hurt.

They're new shoes.
I like shoes.
I bought them off ebay a couple of days ago.
I bid them pretty earlier on in the auction because I didn't think I'd be able to see it finish.
I don't think I really wanted them in the beginning. But I wanted to see if my bid wins 4 hours before the end of the auction.

Yeah, so my feet hurt.

I've got pretty wide feet.
The sizes of both of my feet are different. One's size 5 and the other's size 6.
When I try size 5, my right foot hurts, and whenI try on size 6, my left foot's kind of playing in the shoe on it's own and sometimes it slips out.
Yeah, and that happenned this morning in the park on the way to college.

Part of my writing during AWW 18/05/06

Oscars tube English

2006-05-25T04:17:00.000+01:00

There is a young man sitting a few seats and a door down from me in the tube. He's sitting and conversing with a friend in a language I can't understand. It sounds a little rough in the edges. I think they might be from Holland.
I've been sitting here for a little while now. It's humid and the long walk through Heathrow, although light in travel, didn't help the moist building up under my armpits.
The first thing the young man and his Dutch friend did upon sitting down a few seats and a door down from me was to open a couple of bottles of beer. Actually the young man couldn't handle the lighter trick as well as he used to could, so his Dutch friend had to open them both. And he was only delighted to do so. They were friends after all.
How I envy them.
Only seven stops, a change, three more and a free bus. Then I'll be home.
I see now that they have finished their beers.
Only three stops, a change, three more and a free bus.
Then I'll be home.

3times3

2006-05-25T03:22:00.000+01:00

Nice Pub Architect,
serious ADHD,
simultaneously somewhere else.

I might not have ADHD, I don't think so but it's possible.
I fucking love kids, they're so cool, weird and small.
I fear that I won't have any.

It´s time to get serious, to start working, that's why I'm here.
I have no simultaneous capability! Every word seems really hard.
It's like trying to sing a certain song when your listening to another.

three sentence

2006-05-24T19:32:00.000+01:00

There is difference between the image of myself and my real self.

I know the definite purpose.

My structure of thought resembles my habit.

A Waving Room

2006-05-24T11:25:00.000+01:00

26/3/06
My first night arrived at my homestay,
At Biarritz, France
The room is painted in sky blue.
As I lay down on the bed,
I almost felt like lying on the sea
Waves agitate my head and mind

do we believe what we see, or do we see what we believe?

2006-05-23T12:25:00.000+01:00

people have faith in the strangest things - at the periphery of vision
and we all share our convinctions with a sort of illiterate charm
protecting ourselves against alternatives

***

Ariel's Comment:-

the eager to be "right" is always the victor of the true. But what is true? Everything is just defined by people. Yeh we see what we believe all the time.

***

now

2006-05-23T00:02:00.000+01:00

afterchocolatewarmth is in my mouth,
living a dream i had some time ago.
careless bycicle riding.

Ken's comment on "now"'s photograph

2006-05-19T13:48:00.000+01:00

This was posted as a comment by 莘莘學子, but I'll republish it un-edited as an article because I think it makes sense to be able to see it immediately!

:o)

***

莘莘學子 said...
Obviously, the picture was not taken in a London tube as it's so clean and spacious. (haaa haaa ... ....)

As a non-native English speaker, starting my journey in English writing is just like travelling in a completely strange environment (an unsafe territory). And this writing workshop is like a clean, spacious and comfortable train which I can relax and try to enjoy my fear of English writing with lovely passengers around me.

{{ : )

MAKE sense...

2006-05-19T11:58:00.000+01:00

About what we said yesterday...

In the English language, people make sense of things, and things make sense -- when they do, of course!

I like this use of the verb to make because it focuses on the sculptoreal, or constructive side of creativity.

In the Italian language, things are said to have sense, and the expression is that you give sense to something. I think this is less indicative of what actually happens when people create communication.

To what verbs is "sense" -- or rather "meaning" -- associated in your languages?

***

gwen said...

We said, become a sense or be a sense in Korean. :)

***

Ariel said...
I can't think of a proper verb that we use for "make sense" in Chinese. I think it might be more like let it have sense

***

I think that become a sense is a fantastic expression! So now I want to learn Korean!

Hey, look at that picture...

2006-05-18T16:37:00.000+01:00

There are two things that I really like about the picture posted by "now".

The first one is that most people in that train are reading something. I think it fits our group very well, because it combines the idea of writing/reading with the idea of the journey. I like to think of writing as the exploration of a(n unsafe) territory. Who knows where we all are going... there's no way to know it because you can't see it from the window. You have to travel to know.

The second thing is that there's a kid, just after the threshold, holding a colorful toy in his hands... Creativity is a playful colorful journey!

I think these are two powerful images to start a story.

I think we should all try writing something that starts from this photograph!

hello everybody

2006-05-18T16:16:00.000+01:00

let's see !

Welcome to Andrea's Writing Workshop (AWW...!)

2006-05-17T15:28:00.000+01:00

Hello,

This is Andrea's Writing Workshop (AWW...!)

You're all welcome to contribute to the blog by posting your own articles.

I hope you will enjoy your presence here,

The first image is going to be the official banner of our blog, until one of you doesn't design and post a better one, of course! The second one is your host for tonight!

a