This is my level 5 writeup. That is, unless you downvote it all to hell to such an extreme that it drags my rep down. That would be kinda funny.
It's also quite funny (in nearly all meanings of the word) that I still write on this website. It's just a website, and yet for years I can't help but stay away for more than a week or so. I've run through the range of my emotions wandering the nodegel. I've expanded my knowledge, and even wisdom. On my journey I've encountered brilliant writers of all shapes and sizes. It has accepted my meagher attempts at expression, at education... and there have always been friends along the path. I have read many a classification of just what E2 is and even tried to give one myself, but I think it is best left to the realm of digital poetry. Its subjective experience, often a collective one, dances wildly around any concrete definition like a mutant squid-monkey high on soy that has serious issues when it comes to self-love and bathtubs.
I think of that age old philosophical argument about benevolence; whether one can ever truly be benevolent, or if there is always a hidden agenda. One feeds the poor because they are hungry, but it also allows that person to feel good about themself. This writeup is traveling that gray area. Am I writing it just to get to level 5, or I do I truly have something to say? Do I ever?
To the world as a whole, probably not. But as I said before, E2 is a collective. We give and we get, treasure and pablum alike, and while this writeup most assuredly can be classified as the latter, it is an offering nonetheless.
God once told me that I should hold my arrogance in check. Be ever vigilant of ego, and serve others with humility. Well, I thought, I must be pretty hot shit if god is taking the time to offer me advice.
Chastisement is often riddled with benevolence, or at the very least worry. And what the hell is everyone so worried about? They must surely have one hell of an opinion of themselves if they think they can control another's destiny.
And around we dance. Priceless.
And if I might quote myself, revelant if only for the fact that they are my words:
WHEN I WAS YOUNG THE WORLD USED TO DANCE IN MY WAY
I HAD TO PLAY THE FOOL, SPIN, AND THEN LAUGH IT AWAY
TILL I ROSE UP ON INSPIRATION - KING OF THE MOUNTAIN
AND BLOODLET ALL FIVE SENSES - SPILLING SINS A FOUNTAIN
I would make up for it by quoting someone much better:
I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING OUTSIDE OF WHAT IS INSIDE ME
AND THAT, TOO, IS DIM AND CONFUSED.
I IMAGINE A CLOUD SOMEWHERE
AND THAT'S WHERE THE ANSWERS LIE.
THEY ALWAYS LIE, ANSWERS.
...