Life of a PnQ Poet - Narphangu

Life of a PnQ Poet allows members of PnQ to interview the poet of the fortnight. Please keep your questions respectful and if the PnQ poet wishes to abstain from any questions, remember they may do so without explanation. Have fun and ask away!

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Let's welcome someone who has been kicking serious ass on PnQ lately with literary genius - Narphangu! She's odd, she's fun, she's orange. If you haven't seen her on the front page recently, you might have noticed she won the site contest held by Mel & Nor?
Ask away.

Last front page winner by Narph -

Musing on Muses
by Narphangu

My muse jumped ship, as I was sailing home.
I strung the lyrics of her creation into rope,
and flew them to her palm,
but desperate though I tried to pull her back,
her golden locks drifted, farther and farther
as the grey mist churned with phantoms
and spit empty shadows in my face.
When I brought the line in, all I found were
sopping words, frail and fraying,
dead as this poem, bitter with descent.

Give some examples of things that inspire you?

When and why did you start writing?

Who are some of your favourite poets?

Where in the world would you most like to visit? To live?

1. Do you read a lot?

2. Do you do other art besides writing? Your ability to balance words and use them in interesting ways seems like it would extend to other mediums.

3. How did you get so cool?

4. What's on your feet right now?

5. Do you know who I am? I'm traveling incognito.

1. What is your favorite film? Why?

2. Do you know who ^^^ that is? S/he's traveling incognito.

3. Do you like coffee? Real coffee from the hills of Columbia?

4. Did you get that reference?

5. What's your favorite aspect of nature? Do you ever meditate using it as a device?

6. Do you follow a specific doctrine?

7. We should be friends.

Colm:

That's a hard question. It's difficult to list a few finite things when in fact I'm inspired at random by a multitude of things.
I guess I'm inspired by words. I love how they string together to create meaning, how two opposing words can create a mini battlefield in a line, or how they can snuggle up against each other and roll into one when said aloud. Was that cheesy? Yes, yes it was.

I started writing in kindergarten (there were some real masterpieces about snowmen, let me tell you.) My elementary school was demonstration based, and emphasized reading and writing above everything else, so I'd complete at least 70 pieces (mostly poetry, with some prose) in a school year. Every morning the whole school would read a poem together, and every day each class would read and analyze a different poem.
I suppose I learned to love poetry there, and once I moved on to high school I started experimenting with a train-of-thought style. I stopped for a while, then started up again when I went to Greece last year. It's pretty funny, actually, if you look at the change in style from place to place.

To be perfectly honest, I rarely read published poetry these days. Emily Dickinson, ee cummings, Allen Ginsberg, and Nikki Giovanni are the ones I remember, though I have a long list of favorite poems by known and unknown poets stashed on my computer.

Haha! I want to go to Australia, England (I'll be there next week), India, Tibet(!!), Germany, France, and back to Russia. To live permanantly? I'm not sure. I'm quite fond of New England.

Dear Moderator:

1.) I used to. In eighth grade I'd plow through hundreds of books each year. I love classic literature (Wuthering Heights!), dystopian fiction (1984, Brave New World, The Handmaid's Tale, God Is Dead, etc.), and Ayn Rand. Right now I'm rereading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, because... well, it's the thing to do, isn't it? I'm also reading a book for college in two weeks, but let's be honest. Harry Potter trumps all other reading priorities.

2.) Yay! How did you get so smart? I am disgustingly artistic. I paint, I draw, I sing arias, I play guitar, I sing other stuff, I frolic, I act, I make masks, and many other art-related verbs, I do those too. I actually have a deviantart somewhere, though I haven't been on it in years. I'd send you the link, but you're a mystery.

3.) I spent a good deal of time in this little abode called TC (have you heard of it?). It seems some of the magic dust from that place landed on me (probably when Kevin sneezed) and I've been blessed ever since.

4.) This seems like a familiar question. Right now I'm wearing a pair of socks with Cindarella's face on them (the effect is a little weird) and a rather unfortunate pair of beat up grey converse. If you want to be really nitty gritty, I also have red toenails and skin on my feet. Is your foot stalking satisifed?

5.) You are a reflection of myself.

"It seems some of the magic dust from that place landed on me (probably when Kevin sneezed) and I've been blessed ever since."

:D

Hiiiiiii Jordan! :D

1.) My favorite film is A Fish Called Wanda. It's ridiculously funny and has some of my favorite actors in it. I watch it every few months. Have you seen it? I also like Clue: The Movie, and for some unknown reason, 28 Days Later.

2.) The answer is blowing in the wind.

3.) I love coffee! It's so so yummy. Pity I'm allergic.

4.) Dethklok... am I right?

5.) Hmm... I don't quite know what you mean by aspect. I do enjoy nature. I love the trees and the mystery of forests, the vastness of the sky, and the detail in plants. There's so much to it, and we (people) always seem to be too wrapped up in our own interactions to consider nature. It's cool, actually. We're basically living alongside another world... we're looking for aliens but we don't even know what's living in the ocean? Now that's sneaky. I think nature is pretty darn snazzy.
Meditate... hmm. I've often tried to meditate, but I haven't quite mastered it. I find I'm most exhilarated/at peace when I'm sitting at the tip of a bow on a boat, breathing in the wind and watching the water pass underneath. It's a bit like flying, I think.

6.) Well, I'm not religious, if that's what you mean. I'm somewhat agnostic, as I feel there's no need to declare some vast belief to the masses, nor do I think it's healthy to categorize myself with something I can't fully comprehend. I believe in evolution, but I find it difficult to imagine how life on earth first started. I'm not sure that it's worth understanding, though. There's enough to learn without trying to know it all.
Recently I was reading about Buddhism... I'm considering it, though I'd never fully convert. I'd take aspects from here and there and work it into something unique, if that.

7.) :D (Can we have a secret handshake?)

"Dethklok... am I right?"

My respect for you just skyrocketed.

You are a pretty cool kittycat and I love your views on life. We can definitely have a secret handshake.

Narphhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
NARPHHHHHHHHHH
Narphhh Narpphhhhhhhhhhhh

I love youuuuuuuuuuuuuu!
I LOVE YOU
I love your poetry EVERYTHING about you!
you are one of my favrotie poetesses over here!
and one of my bestest friends TOO

first questions..

how you doing??

how do you write??
what inspires you?
why are your writes so damn amazing?

can you give me lessons so I can improve?? BLEASE! xD

now...
do you have fears/ambitions/dreams?
what do your friends mean to you?
what do you think of online friendships?

:)
MWAH!

Hii!

I'm doing swell! It's a nice drizzly day, and I'll be off shopping for school things. :) How are you?

How do I write... hmm! Throughout my day, I sometimes come up with a sporadic little snippet of line, or a turn of phrase or image that I like...
I try to write them down whenever they come to me, and then I elaborate on them later. If I happen to be in front of a computer, then I can write the whole poem down in no more than ten minutes... I hate editing, it always ruins the flow (and I think you can tell which pieces have had more editing and which ones were completely left alone). If I don't get to finish it soon enough I get stumped, and consequently, I have a ton of one or two liners saved on my computer that I'd love to use someday but can't figure out something to write around them.

I get inspiration from all sorts of things. Interesting words, overheard conversations, relationships, water droplets. I'm not sure what exactly inspires me. It's a mystery!

Umm. Half the time I think someone got knocked on their head for choosing my poems, lol... I see obvious mistakes in meaning or wording and it makes me cringe!

Lol... Um... I don't know how to give lessons? :/ I like your style. Don't change it!

I think my biggest fear is being unsatitisfied with life. One of my greatest faults is my tendency to think the grass is greener elsewhere. Ambitions... Hmm. I'm not sure yet! Being happy is my ambition through life. Having enough money to live well... being successful, being good at something. These are all dreams and ambitions, I suppose.

I have very few friends that are truly important to me. Those people will ALWAYS be on my mind no matter where I go in life, even if we aren't in touch.

I think a lot of the time online friendships can be much more honest than normal relationships.

(This set of responses seem so sad and negative... I'm really just tired, lol...)

SHHHHHHH....
I want to learn your style because it is......
A
D
O
R
A
B
L
E

mwa!

:)

About me? I'm fine xD

And yeah?? do you really think online relationships are true and 'real'? I do think so too...but some think they ain't that important...:/

..............hmmmmmm

Are you proud of your writes as much as I'm proud of them?? xD :P:P

Are you fearful or/and hesitant when it comes to love?

:)

NARRRRRRPH! :D
You're probably the only person on PnQ that I talk to outside of club discussions and such. and I think you're a fantastic poet. I'm pretty honored to have your name in the comment area of a couple of my works.

What is your favorite poem on this site and who is it by?

What is your favorite (posted) poem that YOU'VE written?

And, what does poetry and writing mean to you?

"3.) I spent a good deal of time in this little abode called TC (have you heard of it?). It seems some of the magic dust from that place landed on me (probably when Kevin sneezed) and I've been blessed ever since."

^ Straight up, beezy ;) You definitely have your own spark without us though, and I'm glad you're getting proper recognition these days.

Is PnQ what it you thought it would be when you first joined?

Pick your favourite sky:
1. Clear blue
2. Sunny with clouds
3. Stormy
4. Starry
5. Sunset/sunrise
6. Apocalyptic
7. Other

Also, how much do you like yourself?

Nanoooo:

I think there has to be a balance. Online relationships can have an immediate intimacy/connection that can be hard to gain face to face... on the other hand, that means things can get too personal too fast. And it's never good to live your life through a computer. So, I guess while I think they're real, I think it's important to comprehend the distance that's involved in them, and keep friends offline, too. :)

Hahah! Umm. I'm proud of some of my pieces. I always feel accomplished when I finish them, though I look at some of the ones that get all the attention and go... "huh? I was going to trash that one..." I guess I see them differently, hmm.

Blahh. Love. I'm not good at it. I'm not good at friendships (I'm lazy about staying in contact), and romantic relationships just... don't happen for me. I suppose if I'm hesitant/fearful about them, it's because it's uncharted.

Woot! Nevi!

Wow, thank you! You're a pretty fantastic poet, too, lol, don't sell yourself short.

Seeing as how I haven't saved pretty much any of the poems I used to read on here, and I haven't been reading them nearly as much as I should've...
I can tell you that I quite like Grapefruits by Kelsea, Kilimanjaro by Temps, and Ostentatiousunrise by Sibs. I guarantee you I'll like anything by Sibs, Abby, or Jane any day of the week.

I was wondering when that would get asked! Hmm. I like Orange Contemplation. It just popped into my head while I was on my computer, and the rest just followed. I don't think I've ever written anything so directly train of thought that tied itself together so nicely for me.
Beyond that, I am pearls, Love: a Definition, Definition of Movement, Identity, and Siriusly, I'm Gonna Miss You, Potter, are probably my faves.

Poetry and writing is... an art form that allows me to use my love of words? Lol. I guess I spend most of my time thinking and observing life... rather than participating. So, I end up internalizing all these thoughts and feelings and "would be's" that poetry lets me express. Did that make sense?

Janeotopia... Pretty sure I just spent a good minute coming up with that... be happy, you were nearly Jane-the-dame, Flamin' Jane, or Jane-is Joplin. :)

I miss you guys. Wish I could be in more than one club. :/ Where are the parental visiting rights? Can I come visit every other weekend?

That's a good question. When I joined I'm pretty sure I was a loud mouth high strung high schooler, who really wanted to play with the big girls. I remember being really excited when you let me into TC. Maddd crushing on Kevin, lol. If you remember, I'm pretty sure it was right around the time of the Warring Club Era (read Mods vs. TC: epic showdown). I thought it was pretty exciting.... probably egged it on from time to time.
I guess the nice thing about PnQ is that for the most part, I feel like the mentality of the site has matured like I have... from time to time there are still a few tiffs, but overall, it's a pretty good fit... I definitely love it here. :)

Top 5 favorite poets on this site. GO!

Abs-of-steel:

For looking at? Stormy, with gray clouds pressed against green trees.
For being outside in? Sunny and grassy.
For dancing in? Other: confetti.

I like my intellect. I don't like my physical appearance. On a scale of one to ten I rank my overall self-lovingness an eight.

...I rank my overall you-lovingness a nine, though.

Monster... Hahahaha!

Uhhhhh...
Abb-stinance
Sibsational
Janeebop
The Prince
Mera Luna

(I took some liberties there....)

Good choices. :)

I'm glad the name makes you laugh. Hah! It IS sort of funny. That's the partial beauty of it!

Dawh :) Thanks buddy!

I favorite stuff that I really like......so I do it a lot.
out of all of those, I've read Kilimajaro. But I've read a couple of things by Sibs and Jane, although I haven't made it to Abby yet. Don't kill me for my lack of comments! lol

I also like Orange Contemplation, it's really whimsical and fun, and just totally random. Which made it even more fun.

I understand how you feel about writing. I'm sure most everyone who writes on here does.....I'll have to think of more questions for you later, but I have to go to class!

Any pets?

I have two cats, Sebastian and Gandalf; a cockatoo, Guinevere; five ducks, Drambuie, Cosmo, Tristan, Cocoa, Java; four geese, Fiona, Soki, Sauna, and Fitch (Abercrombie was eaten...).

Those are just the ones that are still around. I've had loads and loads of pets over the years. Of the ones listed, Sebastian, Cosmo, Tristan, Drambuie, and Fitch are specifically mine. :)

That's awesome. :D

Are your ducks and geese raised for food, or was Abercrombie's ingestion accidental?

Just pets. There are a lot of foxes, hawks, fishers, and other weasels around. Pretty sure we had twelve ducks last January.

Oh good. I mean, it's not good that he was eaten, but I've known some people who have adopted, named, and raised ducks only to have them end up on the table. I just couldn't do it!

New question: How is/was your most recent traveling escapade?