Waters Of Life, From a seeker of knowledge

Wow! What an interesting project. With both of your talents combined, I'm sure it will be well received. Good luck!

I've finally done it. Several months ago I ventured into the world of dip pens and quills. This being a small venture away from my normal tools of ballpoint and keyboard. For those of you wondering, yes, the quill in my avatar is very real, and perhaps a little too modern. Indeed, it's hard to write with since the brass tip won't stay on well. My Calligraphy pen is much easier to use

I've been aiming for a while to scan some of my work and post it online. A recent E-mail asking to see it reminded me I'd been aiming to post it, so I've done so.

http://www.aaediwen.com/Calligraphy/

Thats beautiful Aaediwen. May I ask where you learned to do that? Is there anyway I can down size it a bit its huge on my screen.. or may be you wanted it like that.

Slainte

Most browsers have the ability to resize or similarly zoom out I wanted to keep as much detail as I could. I don't know if the document I learned from is still online. A long time ago I decided I wanted to learn old script, so I found an SCA middle kingdom document online with examples of several old scripts, including Irish Insular. I ran off a copy of the PDF and studied it. Middle Kingdom Scribes' Handbook, I think. I've still got some of the pages in my writings folder. I also found some other tips elsewhere online, but that was my main source.

Dare I scan a page from my draft book to give a comparison with my normal handwriting?

Aaediwen please do.. I would love to see it..my mother used to do this.. I always think of it as such an art. Very nice..

Slainte

I was thinking the same thing. It's great to see the strokes at large detail, but the overall impression you get from seeing the page all in one is a good part of it too.

I think you're brave to use a quill and dipping ink. I'm not too much of a calligrapher per se, except with chancery italic, which resembles my own handwriting enough so the transition was not very hard. But I've done music manuscript copying, and putting in the little written musical directives with the "crow quill" is the worst. I think it sputters over little paper irregularities way worse than the flat nibs.

So -- how does your calligraphic hand relate to your handwriting? I'd like to see too.

None of these samples were written with my quill, I'm sure my hand would have been hurting by the end had I tried. I used my calligraphy pen for them.

I added draftbook.jpg to the directory, you'll find it at the same place as the calligraphy samples. It, of course, is done using a normal ball point pen (I'm partial to R.S.V.P's myself)

Very nice work, as always, m' friend!

I was looking at this thread the other day and thinking how sad it was that I've not posted anything new in a while. Despite all the new material in my draft book, I've not polished anything in quite some time. So here's a piece originally drafted this past August that I decided to work with a bit.


"Crimson Tears"

Listen to her weap

Crimson tears stain alabaster folds

As she weeps

in the evening's dimming light

The day's events

they're but a memory now

Listen to her pain

The pain of a wounded world

she carries this always

She carries it deep

deep within her soul

Her being -- bleeds

Her immortal soul -- weeps

as she cries

as tears of blood

on pristine satin, they rain

I was introduced to poetry about 6 yrs. ago and I write when the mood strikes me. I really do enjoy the imagery and flow of the poems you posted.If I may ask, how long have you been writing poetry?

Exactly how long I can't be completely sure. When we lived in Winchester, by the creek, I remember one summer being quite fusterated with how my mind would wander on a bunch of various things. When I had someone to talk to it about, I was fine, but when there was noone around it drove me nearly to madness.

I finally started writing some of it down. What I wrote was crap, but it didn't matter. I've lost most of the material prior to the year of death, starting halfway through my Junior year of High School. (I'm C/O 1998). The darkness during that time found its way onto the page and that is when I really started writing enough to ammount to anything. It's some of these pieces that are the oldest surviving and oldest to be found online. Examples being "The Hallway", and "Kinsmen Immunity". I lived by the former for a year or so before I wrote it down, and I still live by it today. I'm still convinced that it's the only thing that got me through part of my high school years.

Thank you for your opinions on my work

Ah, Aaediwen, Crimson Tears caught my mood of the morning. What adjective to use. None seem sufficient. So, I will say I resonated. Probably better than an adjective anyway, right?

I find it so comforting when you can connect with your roots like that. It's quite liberating in a sense even if when we look forward, the message we seek is not always clear. It provides the ballast necessary to bring us back from the edge. "The Hallway" speaks volumes. Although I always wondered what you meant by "counting the days?"

Always a pleasure, Aaediwen. Truly.

how long would you have to think about your answer to the question, "How old are you?"
how often do you say. "Thank God tomorrow's Friday!"

Sis E: I can only hope that my words, in striking a chord with you, have proved medicinal instead of opening a wound further
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Blessed are we, who have the oppertunity to create. And then again with the oppertunity to share with others and be appreciated. The sharing made that much easier by modern technology.

Many thanks, I tried to put a large ASCII art smiley in here, but the board only further mutilated my poor attempts at ASCII art

This is beautiful! I can't think of a more perfect piece of prose to memorize. Good one to recite when blessing a friend or loved one with protection.