Spiders On Drugs

[Magpie]

Is this right?

Giving innocent spiders drugs.
Studying their subsequent webs of woe.
Poor little minds blown to pieces.
Who speaks up for the spiders?
Don't spiders have rights?

We must put a stop to this cruelty.
We must stand and...

Wow!!! Look what the little fella on LSD did.
Hey, where can I get me some of that stuff.

Making Spiders Take Drugs.
It's Sick & It's Cruel has possible potential, it's harmless fun

[Keith]

Spiders on drugs
Its the future
just think how many joints they can roll at once.

[Magpie]

Spiders on drugs
Its the future
just think how many joints they can roll at once.

I like your way of thinking Keith 
We just have to remember to keep them away from the coffee, as we can see from the picture the results can be catastrophic. 

[rayheinrich]

[heslopian]

Is this right?

Giving innocent spiders drugs.
Studying their subsequent webs of woe. When a poem uses dramatic phrasing I think it needs an element of style (rhyme, meter, even visually striking free verse) to back it up, or it just seems clunky and pretentious, like Star Wars prequel dialogue. That sounds much harsher than I intended it to be. It's really just a passing thought
Poor little minds blown to pieces.
Who speaks up for the spiders?
Don't spiders have rights?

We must put a stop to this cruelty.
We must stand and...

Wow!!! Look what the little fella on LSD did. I really, really, really hate it when people use more than one exclamation or question mark to end a sentence. To me it looks so damned scruffy and illiterate. But I'm so anally retentive The Little Book of Calm couldn't fit up my arse, so feel free to ignore me
Hey, where can I get me some of that stuff.

Making Spiders Take Drugs.
It's Sick & It's Cruel has possible potential, it's harmless fun

A sweet comic poem, which makes me think of Spike Milligan for some reason. (Probably the abstract humour.) I enjoyed it a lot, and I think it reads almost as well without the visual accompaniment, which is always a good sign (Perhaps, though, you could do a Stevie Smith and produce a doodle to accompany your poem.)

[Magpie]

Is this right?

Giving innocent spiders drugs.
Studying their subsequent webs of woe. When a poem uses dramatic phrasing I think it needs an element of style (rhyme, meter, even visually striking free verse) to back it up, or it just seems clunky and pretentious, like Star Wars prequel dialogue. That sounds much harsher than I intended it to be. It's really just a passing thought
Poor little minds blown to pieces.
Who speaks up for the spiders?
Don't spiders have rights?

We must put a stop to this cruelty.
We must stand and...

Wow!!! Look what the little fella on LSD did. I really, really, really hate it when people use more than one exclamation or question mark to end a sentence. To me it looks so damned scruffy and illiterate. But I'm so anally retentive The Little Book of Calm couldn't fit up my arse, so feel free to ignore me
Hey, where can I get me some of that stuff.

Making Spiders Take Drugs.
It's Sick & It's Cruel has possible potential, it's harmless fun

A sweet comic poem, which makes me think of Spike Milligan for some reason. (Probably the abstract humour.) I enjoyed it a lot, and I think it reads almost as well without the visual accompaniment, which is always a good sign (Perhaps, though, you could do a Stevie Smith and produce a doodle to accompany your poem.)

Thanks Jack, you are totally right in every aspect and I give you permission to sound as harsh as you want. I'm a bit annoyed at myself and it's not the first time I've done something similar. To be honest, after I edited the pic with photoshop by putting the castle in I was so happy with it and the child in me wanted to post it as soon as possible and subsequently the poem became more of an after thought without the thought. Like I said it's not the first time I've done something like this, so I am glad that you were straight with me and although this is in miscellaneous I will go away and write the text again.

I suppose in some ways it was worth it for your "Star Wars prequel dialogue" comparison which is spot on accurate and also hilarious... It has actually given me an idea which I will try my best not to bring to fruition, but I can't make any promises.

Cheers for the crit it was perfect,

Mark

---

Mexican spiders seem to have all the fun.
At least the spider in question didn't go and steal a quote from William Blake to use for the title of a book about his trip in which he uses lots of highbrow art and philosophy references as comparisons to what he experienced, but then eventually many years later pondered deeply the question, "Why are precious stones precious?"
Or did he?

[rayheinrich]

Mexican spiders seem to have all the fun.
At least the spider in question didn't go and steal a quote from William Blake to use for the title of a book about his trip in which he uses lots of highbrow art and philosophy references as comparisons to what he experienced, but then eventually many years later pondered deeply the question, "Why are precious stones precious?"
Or did he?

He didn't, but that's beside the points. Huxley's ok by me, but if
I wanted to get trippy down Mexico way, I'd vote for Castaneda and Don Juan.
It's bullshit, but it's really good (IMHO) bullshit (the 1st book, after that it gets
tiresome).  Up U.S. way I just gotta love Lilly and his sensory deprivation tanks.

Off topic sensory deprivation tank ramble:

I had a friend who 'built' one out of 2x4's and plastic sheeting in his dad's barn
way the hell out in the country. I tried it a few times and it was pretty cool as
you could have real hallucinations. So this time I had been floating in the water
in absolute darkness and silence for about 4 hours (not that I had any idea how
long or short it had been)  and I started smelling nectarines and thinking WOW,
there can't be nectarines in here so I'm finally having an hallucination, a pretty
damn dinky one, but what the hell. Then the inside lit up a bit (something else
I knew was impossible) and this slightly glowing nectarine came floating into
view above my face. (I was floating on my back looking straight up.) I could look
at it straight on and it seemed totally real. This was REALLY cool. And THEN a
small green fairy of some sort flew up to the nectarine and pushed it away.
Double wow! After that everything went back to black silence. Then a while after
that I felt something brush up against my back in the water. Then I felt a few
more brushes and I realized I was going to have some fish hallucinations. Only
they turned out to be sea snakes, LOTS of sea snakes slithering up against me.
Then some of them started crawling up on me, and then LOTS of them started
crawling up on me. I knew these were hallucinations and told myself to stay calm,
this was what I came in her for... then I started screaming and thrashing about and
broke the hinges off the door as I crashed through it deeply and absolutely terrified.  
Ah, the good old days.

[Magpie]

Mexican spiders seem to have all the fun.
At least the spider in question didn't go and steal a quote from William Blake to use for the title of a book about his trip in which he uses lots of highbrow art and philosophy references as comparisons to what he experienced, but then eventually many years later pondered deeply the question, "Why are precious stones precious?"
Or did he?

He didn't, but that's beside the points. Huxley's ok by me, but if
I wanted to get trippy down Mexico way, I'd vote for Castaneda and Don Juan.
It's bullshit, but it's really good (IMHO) bullshit (the 1st book, after that it gets
tiresome).  Up U.S. way I just gotta love Lilly and his sensory deprivation tanks.

Off topic sensory deprivation tank ramble:

I had a friend who 'built' one out of 2x4's and plastic sheeting in his dad's barn
way the hell out in the country. I tried it a few times and it was pretty cool as
you could have real hallucinations. So this time I had been floating in the water
in absolute darkness and silence for about 4 hours (not that I had any idea how
long or short it had been)  and I started smelling nectarines and thinking WOW,
there can't be nectarines in here so I'm finally having an hallucination, a pretty
damn dinky one, but what the hell. Then the inside lit up a bit (something else
I knew was impossible) and this slightly glowing nectarine came floating into
view above my face. (I was floating on my back looking straight up.) I could look
at it straight on and it seemed totally real. This was REALLY cool. And THEN a
small green fairy of some sort flew up to the nectarine and pushed it away.
Double wow! After that everything went back to black silence. Then a while after
that I felt something brush up against my back in the water. Then I felt a few
more brushes and I realized I was going to have some fish hallucinations. Only
they turned out to be sea snakes, LOTS of sea snakes slithering up against me.
Then some of them started crawling up on me, and then LOTS of them started
crawling up on me. I knew these were hallucinations and told myself to stay calm,
this was what I came in her for... then I started screaming and thrashing about and
broke the hinges off the door as I crashed through it deeply and absolutely terrified.  
Ah, the good old days.

Huxley is ok by me also although "The Doors of Perception" was way over my head when it came to all his references to art and certain bits of philosophy, although I was only 19 when I read it so it serves me right. "Heaven And Hell" the companion book to "The Doors of Perception" was excellent, as were his lectures soon after. At least by then he had realised his potential for being a better teacher by using more universally relatable ideas like "Why are precious stones precious?" And he refuse refused a Knighthood, so he must be cool.

As regards your flotation tank story, as I was reading the beginning I presumed that it was leading up to the fact that someone outside the tank was just playing a trick on you. So for it to develop they way that it did was a shock. Not only is it a scary thought but also I wasn't aware that such vivid hallucinations could be achieved in just a flotation tank. I presume you must have seen the Ken Russell film Altered States which is based on Lilly's research into flotation tanks combined with taking mescaline and LSD. It's a very interesting and scary film. 
I can relate to your thought process of telling yourself that it is just a hallucination and therefore doesn't exist, I've been to a similar place on a few occasions. I also think that if you happen to cross the line where your mind has accepted the hallucination as a physical reality the chances of getting back across as the same person that started the trip are very slim indeed, if at all.

Interesting stuff, cheers.

Mark

[rayheinrich]

Huxley is ok by me also although "The Doors of Perception" was way over my head when it came to all his references to art and certain bits of philosophy, although I was only 19 when I read it so it serves me right. "Heaven And Hell" the companion book to "The Doors of Perception" was excellent, as were his lectures soon after. At least by then he had realised his potential for being a better teacher by using more universally relatable ideas like "Why are precious stones precious?" And he refuse refused a Knighthood, so he must be cool.

As regards your flotation tank story, as I was reading the beginning I presumed that it was leading up to the fact that someone outside the tank was just playing a trick on you. So for it to develop they way that it did was a shock. Not only is it a scary thought but also I wasn't aware that such vivid hallucinations could be achieved in just a flotation tank. I presume you must have seen the Ken Russell film Altered States which is based on Lilly's research into flotation tanks combined with taking mescaline and LSD. It's a very interesting and scary film. 
I can relate to your thought process of telling yourself that it is just a hallucination and therefore doesn't exist, I've been to a similar place on a few occasions. I also think that if you happen to cross the line where your mind has accepted the hallucination as a physical reality the chances of getting back across as the same person that started the trip are very slim indeed, if at all.
Interesting stuff, cheers.
Mark

More tank talk:

Lord knows we took enough mescaline and LSD back then, and we were quite interested in using
it in the tank. But it didn't work out for us. We'd take it and go into the tank before it came on
in the hopes of having a birth experience like we'd read about (along with all the usual heightened
whatever ). The problem was the tank required a lot of patience. You needed to be centered,
meditative, and to really and truly have gotten lots of sleep...

Aside:
For safety reasons we had a microphone (a Radio Shack wireless mic) inside so someone outside
(we never did it alone) could listen. Their were many times George, I, and others would be sitting
outside the 'hay pile' (it was inside of a cube of hay bales inside his dad's barn, about 15 bales
thick on all sides) reading, writing, drawing (always something that didn't make noise) and after
about an hour or so we'd hear SNORING. The 'doors of perception' require a good night's sleep.

When any of us was on acid, waiting 4 to 8 hours in the tank for something that may or may
not happen was impossible. We weren't THAT centered. Jeez, let's go watch a movie or try to
find where we'd put the finger-paint for two hours (bad trip) or play with the dogs (cats are
scary as shit on acid), or something, anything that moved! So, no, for us at least the tank
didn't work well with drugs.

I remember seeing Altered States a few years after the hay pile had been eaten by cows.
I was quite envious. On the other hand, we'd had no major actors, our budget was 1/10,000th
of theirs, and while the movie had some scary parts, it was 1/10,000 as terrorizing as those
sea snakes.