
Welcome to Blackbird Poetry Pack #1
August 1994 - August 1995
*** CYBERPOETRY FOR THE MASSES SPANNING AN ENTIRE YEAR ***


Dear Readers and Poets,

	Welcome to the my first poetry composition pack. In the following documents, I 
have enclosed my complete works of poetry since 1994.
	First, I should explain how all of this came to be. I am a CEGEP student at Dawson 
College who happens to write poetry in my spare time as a hobby. In the beginning, my 
poetry was a very private, personal affair to me. I never thought my writing, whether prose 
or poetry, was any good, until I showed my girlfriend at the time some of my works.
	Upon reading them, she was favorably impressed and persuaded me to publish 
them, but humility still held me back. However, the positive feedback I got encouraged 
me to continue writing and gave me the courage to show others and obtain a second 
opinion from those wiser than I, such as my parents and my English teacher. My parents 
were surprised that I had hidden such talent from them for so long mainly because I had 
never demonstrated anything worth being proud of to them before. They encouraged me 
to explore my potential even further and helped with their useful criticisms and helpful 
pointers. In the end, this improved my overall outlook and allowed me to take things a step 
further.
	I handed my first attempt at serious poetry in as an important term assignment for 
English class, putting my marks at risk on the slim chance that my teacher would love it and 
endorse me. Sure enough, my hard work and dedication paid off, for I returned to class 
the next day to discover that I was marked 100% on that assignment. The teacher even 
commented that I should publish the poem in the school newspaper, but I refused 
because I felt the "Student Eye" was an irresponsibly written newspaper exclusively 
dominated only by the snobby students. These so-called "advanced" students wrote 
boring, typical articles and poetry that didn't show an ounce of sincerity. Moreover, they 
rarely permitted those from outside their petty social circle to publish in the paper unless 
you "sucked up" to them plenty. I was not about to kiss their feet simply for the "privilege" of 
putting my poem in their ditty paper.
	I continued to write more poems, straying even further from prose, and continued 
with new support to draw from my life experiences the inspiration necessary for composing 
good quality poems.
	As you can probably tell from reading them, I have a very distinct, gothic style to 
the way I compose with a touch of manic depressive. This comes mainly from the fact that 
I am indeed a manic depressive. I don't mean to go on about my horrible life, but society 
hasn't exactly treated me fairly on many accounts. A lot of this resentment translates into 
misunderstood hatred toward all world religions, our political and economic systems, and 
our social system. This is all presented in an articulate, but gothic manner.
	My constant obsession with gothicism has to do with my background and what 
prose influences I had as an early adolescent. DragonLance and Star Trek had a hand in 
making my poetry the way it is today, however I hope to eventually break the pattern and 
master other forms of poetry someday.
	What gave me the idea to put together a poetry pack stems from my love for 
computer music (or wave music, as I prefer to label it). I figured if computer music packs 
can be done, then so should poetry. After all, poetry and music share a lot in common. For 
one thing, they are both part of what is called "The Arts". Also, musical lyrics (though you'll 
never see any in computer music for it is largely instrumental by nature) are often simply 
converted or modified poems. Therefore, this makes my project a logical endeavor, 
doesn't it?
	Each poem is virtually months of work, although the rough draft is usually 
completed within the first two hours of composition. The refining process is what takes 
forever: changing sentence structure, substituting words through the use of a thesaurus, 
adding new passages, changing the form presentation, etc. All of this is a LONG process, 
but the final product is usually something wonderful, unique, and dynamic. At least, I'd like 
to think so. I certainly hope you do as well, gentle reader, after all once you've read this 
far, there's no turning back now.
	Please send any feedback (comments or criticisms) to one of the below addresses. 
I really would appreciate your opinions, so that by targeting a wider audience, I can find 
out if I've got some poetic potential or I can get one with my life and pursue my studies in 
Social Science (and stop wasting my time writing poetry packs!). If there is sufficient 
demand, I will publish another poetry pack. If I do publish another pack, it will include 
different styles of poems rather than the same format. Please write to the following 
addresses for comments/criticisms:

INTERNET/UUCP E-MAIL ADDRESS:
	blackbird@myth.org

FIDONET/UUCP E-MAIL ADDRESS:
	Blackbird at 1:167/133.2

	Thank you for your support. I know we can make the concept of releasing poetry 
to the masses a popular one by far. None of the poetry is free to exploit without permission 
of the author in oral or written form. The poems included cannot be modified or 
exchanged without permission from the author. Thank you.

Signed,
Blackbird (1995)


Poems in BLACKBIRD POETRY PACK #1

NIGHT.TXT :		"Night of Spiritual Enlightenment" (1995) 
	This collection of brief love poems was inspired by the powerful love I felt for a 
girl I was tutoring in my graduating year. Some were meant ONLY for her and others 
were the offspring of her tenderness toward me. Tukasie, may your beauty prevail the 
ages.

ESSENCE FROZEN IN TIME
TUKASIE'S REWARDS
RESTLESS TEARS
THE INTIMATES

SPRING.TXT :	"Solitudes of Spring" (1994) 
	My debut poem that launched my poetic obsession was also my personal tribute 
to adolescent loneliness. An incredible woman entered my life and I sought to captivate 
her heart. Alas, that was not so, and my heart remained in shambles for a long time. This 
poem was the outpouring of my tears.

PRINCESS.TXT :	"Enchantment of the Dark Princess" (1994-1995) 
	This poem was originally meant to be my first love poem and I started writing it 
because I was involved in a relationship at the time and the bond between us was very 
strong. However, halfway through composing the love story, we parted under painful 
circumstances and I was left with the task of completing the poem with a broken heart. In 
the end, it became the chronology of my entire relationship with her, including the details 
of the messy breakup. Melyssa, I may have felt emptiness at losing you, but I will 
treasure our time together because you gave me a gift more valuable than I will ever 
deserve: joy.

RAVEN.TXT :	"Mind's Eye of the Raven" (1995) 
	This poem was a test to see if I could indeed write a good poem without the usual 
context of my other gothic poems. I think it worked out pretty well for my first try at a 
less-scriptive story. This is my chance at playing the social critic and depicting modern 
humanity in a brutally honest manner. The prelude was thrown in much later, but it is 
merely there to ease the transition between this poem and my other previous works for 
the reader. That same night, I also thought it would be interesting to try my luck at 
composing a brief French love poem. For someone like me who is really lousy at French, 
I think it turned out pretty well. The only problem is that the end result was a typical 
French love poem.

OPTIMYST.TXT :	"Exhilaration -- An OptiMystic Experience" (1995)
	Finally, the real love poem has arrived!! Yes, I decided I was going to write an 
optimistic, innocent romantic poem about love. Despite very little inspiration or expertise 
in that area of life, I managed to put together something memorable (I hope!). The style 
is distinctly different from the confines of my obsession with gothicism. You'd better like 
it, because it took me the longest amount of time to finish. See, I'm not that much of a 
manic depressive, I can write love sonnets just like the rest of them (whatever that 
means).

SPIRIT.TXT :		"Spiritual Destiny" (1995)
	This is yet another compendium of poems written in the "New Age" style, so they 
will make very little sense to any archaic poetry lover. As for the truth about what the 
poems touched base on, the truth is that there is no actual subject matter. I decided to go 
entirely on instinct alone, because some days that is all poets have left to fuel their 
inspirational fire. The first poem is about my drunken experience and conveys the 
message that youth is meant to be wasted on folly, for it is a time of growing. Growing in 
the sense of maturity and reasoning. The second was a poem I discovered having written 
a while ago and then lost temporarily. Fortunately, I rediscovered it and harnessed it 
into something workable. The second poem is one of my early attempts at writing a love 
poem, unfortunately I was not inspired at the time and again worked purely on instinct 
alone...

MURDER OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT
"UNFINISHED POEM"

	Well, right now, it's summer or, as I would most likely say, the end to the solitudes 
of spring (alas, if only that were so!!). I'm taking a short break from poetry until December 
1995 to enjoy the final days of my youth before passing before the gates of higher learning. 
Don't worry, I'm actually on an educational crusade to improve mind and body. The reason 
for this being that I want to learn the poetry of the ancient prophets (classical poets), so 
that when I return to writing the scriptures, my creativity will be refreshed and enhanced. 
Enjoy my poetry, face my reality...


Special Thanks and/or Greetings to the following people for their support:

Melyssa McCowan (my Dark Princess, for believing in me from the very beginning)
Tukasie Brown (for being my inspiration, which began my love poem crusade)
Laurie-Ann Kerr (the woman which first inspired me to begin writing poetry)
FORCE TEN & NOISE (whose music influenced me to strive for a higher fate)
Mrs. Barrett (my English professor, also for believing in me and marking me fairly)
Michel & Susan Anctil (for their support and cooperation to a future in literature)
My closest friends and my fans (for their enthusiasm and undying support)

