I saw a man bound in chains,

his sentence: to be killed.

He'd been captured, called a renegade,

blamed for the crimes of his friends

and alone in being captured,

for he would not deal death

to one of his fellow men.

They said his heart was faint--

a coward, no less, was he

and with ugly words they paint

him yellow as can be.

Yet he did not yell out like a coward,

their taunts he did not heed,

and he went along with them

to his death silent, oh so silently.

I did not know how this could be,

Til he raised his eyes

and with them spoke to me...

T'was his eyes that jolted me...

Those eyes of deep determination,

colored with love and tenderness,

filled with sorrow and with joy,

with firm resolve and gentleness.

Those eyes which danced with abandon

the structured waltz of wild rhythm,

a harmony of fire and humility,

a perfectly choreographed ballet

of passion and serenity.

Those eyes which said to me:

"I am in body shackled,

but my soul could never be.

For all I know and all I do

comes from a deep wellspring

of hope and love within me--

and these cannot be shackled,

and so my soul is free."

T'was braver, I truly now believe,

to suffer for the sake of love,

to go to death and never see

the victory he dearly dreamt of--

I saw within those eyes of hope

he was convinced in mind and soul

that it would be won some day,

that the reign of violence then would fall,

and that the sacrifice he made for love,

would triumph for the sake of all.

Oh, what a lonely soul

have I

have I

have I

have I

I cry...

and the echo calls,

what a lonely soul

have I...

I wonder,

wander,

ponder,

meander...

aimlessly,

thoughtlessly,

carelessly,

painfully...

drifting into nothingness

it seems...

and hope seems

out of reach.

I wander

beset by

the nameless fiend

the crusher of dreams

the heart of apathy...

my soul screams

silently

the light wanes...

and hope seems

out of reach.

Hi everyone! Ivy here, starting a journal on Prose, the social network that has given me confidence to call myself a writer.

Nope. This isn't a challenge entry like most of my writes. Nor is it poetry or flash fiction. This is me, the woman generating words that have suprisingly led a handful of people in this great world to reach out and tell her they enjoy what she puts to paper. To those who consider themselves fans or otherwise support my writing: Thank You! You are a big part of the reason I'm still here.

Several Prosers have encouraged me to move forward with an idea to share my journey toward what I hope will be traditional publication. I hope that sharing my journey will entertain and enlighten readers who I hope will, in return, provide me with feedback and encouragement as I tread this scary, yet exciting, path. So, if you're still reading this post, I welcome you to my first journal entry...

One of the most important things to understand is that I never wanted to be a writer. That fact is important because my journey did not start as a dreamy-eyed little girl imagining life as an author. Dreams of publishing never entered my head. Not once. And the significance of this lies in the fact that I'm here because something (neither me nor anything tangible) is driving me forward.

Writing chose me.

When I was a teen (a long time ago), I enjoyed writing poems and short stories for fun. Key words: for fun. I took more English classes than necessary during my first two years as a psychology major, but stopped all creative writing when I entered junior year of college.

Ph.D. in psychology? Check.

Full-time career? Check.

Family? Check.

I'm a busy woman with age on my side (interpret that how you may). I don't have time to write. But I do it anyway and this is why...

A story fell into my head on a December day a few years ago while I was playing with my kids on the living room sofa. Characters spoke to me. Scenes came to life. I looked at my kids and said, "I have to get to the computer. A story is writing itself in my head." In the months that followed, the story kept coming. So I kept writing.

And a shitty novel was born.

In the years that followed the birth of my creation, I taught myself how to write fiction. The novel has been reworked more times than I wish to count. (Only so many hours in a day, you know.)

Third person, past tense? Check. (Didn't work. Try again.)

Third person, present? Check. (Kinda okay, but third person is shit. Try again.)

First person, present? Check. (Best so far, but it doesn't read like a story. Shit. Try again.)

Take out backstory? Check. (A little better, but still shit. Try again.)

I could go on and on.

And while I was reworking the manuscript, I was teaching myself. What is voice? What is story arc? What is character development? Death to adverbs? Death to adjectives? Sentence fragments okay? (Seriously?) Pacing. And cut, cut, cut anything unecessary, especially words such as that, the, and just. (By the way, I'm not editing this post to perfection as I would my manuscript. Again, only so much time in a day.)

And the biggest thing I needed to investigate was this: How the hell do I write a romance?

So I read some more. And more. And more.

And I learned.

And I reworked that manuscript. A. Lot.

And I still am.

But now, after all that learning and reworking, I've got something I'm quite confident I can query. (If you don't know what querying is, start researching. Now.)

This leads me to today's question for you: If you want to achieve traditional publication, what have you done to teach yourself how to write well? Have you been working on refining your craft?

Unpublished writers must acknowledge a grim reality: They don't write well enough. And tomorrow, they need to write better. (Actually, this holds for all writers, including published ones, as it applies to anyone who holds a profession. Make tomorrow's work better than today's.) Anyone can put some words on a sheet of paper. The trick is to arrange the words and punctuation marks in such a way as to draw readers in and keep them in your grasp. That's what I've been working on, which is part of my reason for joining Prose. The challenges are an excellent place for me to practice skills I've been teaching myself.

Whether my novel is solid enough for traditional publication is yet to be discovered. I'm working on it and hope to find out this year. Through this journal, those of you with interest will be able to see how this goes for me (and I'll give more history, too). In the end, we may find I don't have what it takes, but I'm enjoying the journey and that's what matters.

If interested, please consider visiting my website (ivyblackwater.com) or finding me on Twitter (@IvyBlackwater). If you like what you see, consider following me there, too. And, by all means, let me know what you enjoy!

Until next time, be well and be happy. (Don't forget to comment below. :-)

Have a beautiful day!

Ivy Blackwater (IvyBee)

I kind of wish I was born a rock.

Not really alive, but still existent.

Able to see everything without feeling it myself.

No pain, no suffering, no nothing.

Just observation.

I could sit on the bank of the river.

And I could enjoy the cool breeze and and fresh air and shit.

And I could watch all the rednecks get drunk and fight on the weekends.

Or I could be somebody's pet rock.

And I could watch them grow and develop as a person.

Or I could notice all their insecurities and shortcomings and keep track of them.

Because rocks don't really have morals.

I could be shooting through space at millions of miles per hour, seeing and experiencing everything in the universe.

Or someone could throw me at the police.

I would never love.

And nobody would ever love me.

And you know what?

I'm okay with that.

When life gives me lemons,

I thank life for the donation to my lemonade and lemon cake fund.

And I will gladly accept your lemons too.

You may donate them in whatever way you wish. I hear some of you prefer to throw them, and I accept this form of transaction. I also accept lemons by the bushel, basket, or carload.

I have only one request to make of those who choose to donate their lemons to my stock:

When I have gathered together all the other ingredients (at no cost to you, my friends, for I will gladly shoulder that cost myself), I only ask that you share with me the victuals (alternative non-lemon treats will be available as well).

Then, if you walk away with a smile and a content belly, I will rejoice.

If I can take your bitter burdens, sour sorrows, tart tribulations, acerbic agitations, or caustic confrontations, and make of them something dignified and sweet...if I can do just one thing to give you joy amidst your suffering...

I will gladly accept all of life's donations, and any you offer as well.

And I will be grateful for them too,

(I might even send you a thank-you note)

for every lemon I receive is a seed of compassion.

I sow each in my wintery heart, and water them faithfully with my own tears.

And then together, I hope, we can enjoy the harvest: lemonade and lemon cake on a warm, ever-so-hopeful, spring morning.

I wish I could tell you how I needed the same things. How it sucks that you did what you did, and even said what you said. I wish I could tell you how shitty it is that you get to say you still want this, but need space, while I’m possibly the most hurt I’ve ever been. I wish I could tell you how many times I could’ve done that to you, but couldn’t. Still can’t even in hindsight. I wish I could tell you even though I’m a man and I am somewhat stoic and passive, that I wish you would fight for me, instead of acting like it never happened. I wish I could tell you that your need for things, and acceptance, and fleeting momentary pleasures will be your greatest source of unhappiness. There a lot of things I wish I could do or say right now and before. But I am this person, I am who I am in this, not just for me, but mostly for you. Because you need me to be. I wish you could see that.

Because

and then it was

an oozing out

of the source

not an open sore

but a Sorcerous

bits of synthesis in

to microcelluloses

confetti morphing

oragami planes as

fossolized remains

in cyclical rains of

aurora borealis

hemorrhaging

in two by two

a cleaving of

life forms

temporal

within

eternal

cosmic

spin

inn

in

n

'

#TheGreatBecause #Creation

Yet again I've reached another milestone on Prose. I have come to my 150th review. Once again it has been a great honor and pleasure to serve as Prose's unofficial reviewer as well as one of the top writers here on Prose. Everything that I have reviewed over the year has led me to this foretold moment.

People have asked me before why not review something that I like for one of my specials. The truth is that I can go on and on about a movie that I love, but honestly it's more fun talking trash about a movie that, in my opinion, I believe is absolute garbage. And I do believe that this film that I've saved for my 150th special is absolute garbage. I've officially delved into controversial territory for this next review.

I've been wanting to talk about this one for a long time now, and now it's time to get down to business. No mercy, no censoring, out for blood. The time has come for me to review a movie that I've dreaded and despised at the same time: God's Not Dead.

Released in 2014, God's Not Dead marked the uprising for more Christian themed movies. The film centers around a young Christian college student living in a stereotyped world where some "atheist" professor proposes God is Dead. So the student takes a stand and settles in a strawman agrument debate against said professor in front of the philosophy class. And that's it. Well technically not because there are subplots thrown in to make the movie longer but I'll talk about those in a bit.

Before I begin this review let me make one thing perfectly, abundantly clear: although this review is going to cover topics about religion, bare in mind that I'm going to judging this as a film in general. I will be discussing the film's problems in full detail, which will likely be going over some problems with various religious factions too and how the film poorly handles/addresses them, as well as my opinion of the matter. And yes I am an atheist too. This review isn't a personal attack on your beliefs. This is just a review and breakdown of what I believe is a shitty film. So please spare me any sort of negative commenting or any comments about how big God's nutsack is compared to mine and follow these three guidelines:

1) I don't fucking care!

2) I don't believe in God (or any other deities)

3) Please don't shove your beliefs down other people's throats

Now that is out of the way, buckle up because this is gonna be a long-ass review, and there will be major spoilers throughout. You have been warned!

And there will be more cursing than usual in this review. If you don't like curse words, deal with it. Freedom of Speech. You're an adult, you've heard or said some swears before I'm sure. Grow the fuck up. Or go watch fucking Teletubbies if you're so offended.

First problem: the writing is shit.

There's just bad writing all throughout this damn movie. The movie is plagued with multiple subplots that get in the way of the main plot. There's one about a left-winged reporter getting cancer, another where two priests (one of them is played by 'hey Scotty' David A.R. White) are having car trouble just to provide pointless comedy, and another where a Muslim girl is thrown out of her home by her father for converting to Christianity. BTW, isn't that just a nice portrayal of Muslims that this film offered to the audience? To have the father beat the everloving Christ out of his own daughter?

Actually that's something I'll get into right now. These writers have no idea how Muslim culture acts in reality. They're people like you and me. Are there strict families that may behave like this? Maybe, but that's no excuse to show that to an audience. I can guarantee that their are Muslim families that are pretty chill like Christian families. My know how on Muslims may be very, very slim. But even I have a better understanding of their culture than this shitty film, which is one of the reasons why I wrote in the character of Malaika Katan in my Sins of the Father series. Also I like how she has to wear a hijab around her face when her strictly conservative father is present, yet he's okay with her wearing sleeveless shirts in public.

This Movie: "Duh, Logic? I don't what you mean by this logic you speak of? ENGLISH MOTHAFUCKA! DO YOU SPEAK IT?!?!"

Some of these subplots never get resolved. Muslim girl is still homeless and the liberal reporter still has cancer... but at least they're Christian now. So that's good, right? Right?

I'd also like to point out that the arguments made in this movie sound like they all came from someone who has never heard an atheist speak before, or never paid attention to actual debates between a religious person and an atheist. This is shit that would never have been said in any philosophy course by any professor or student. On the first day of college the professor starts lecturing instead of handing out a syllubus and discussing what topics will be addressed through the semester, like how a normal first day lecture goes. I'm surprised all the students didn't leave because their time and money was being wasted to sit and listen to these two blowhards present their strawman arguments.

Second problem: the characters are shit.

These are some of the worst, one-dimensional characters ever written for film to a point that I can't really call them characters. They're more like caricatures, or stereotypes. The atheist professor Radisson (played by Kevin Sorbo) is an asshole, the liberal reporter is in-your-face, the Muslim dad is abusive, a business man (played by Dean Cain) is an even bigger asshole, and only people of Christian faith are the only good people on the planet. The film introduces one too many characters that it is honestly hard to keep track of them all. So I'll just focus on our two main characters: Josh Wheaton and Professor Radisson, the student and the "atheist".

First off, Josh. What the hell is up with his name? Josh Wheaton? Are they trying to reference Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy and director of The Avengers? What they couldn't name their character Jack Snider? Did Stephen Speelberg sound to Jewish? Or was calling the character Mical Moore too controversal? Personally I think that the real reason is that they weren't allowed to name their character Mel Gibson.

Any who, Josh is just too bland for anyone to get behind. He's uninteresting. Why would I want to support this guy as a protagonist? Why would I want this guy to be my protagonist? We don't even know anything about this guy. All the film gives the audience is that he's a Christian, and apparently that's all the characterization the film has to offer for him. I mean what else outside of preaching does he do? What makes him so innocent from everybody else? I bet you he's the kinda guy who builds pipe bombs to plant inside abortion clinics and protests near an LGBT Pride parade. That's probably a better description of his character than this movie ever gave.

And now we have our antagonist, Professor Radisson. I need to know right now what sort of blunt object is shoved so far up his ass. He is a jerk to everyone. He tries to humiliate his student, he's more egotistic than the protagonist, and he's verbually abusive to his girlfriend, who is also a Christian. I'm gonna drop a fun fact to you guys. My sister is a Christian and sometimes we do get into debates over religion, but it's more for playful banter than what they portray in the movie. I even have Christian friends, it's just how life goes. If I ever said or did any of the shit this guy said to his girlfriend or his students directly to any of my friends or my sister, I would cut my own tongue out.

It's interesting to note that Radisson reveals in a conversation to Josh that he became an atheist due to the loss of this mother from cancer. I can understand that argument because sometimes that does happen to people. I even have a friend that became an atheist due to loss. However, a person becomes an atheist because of different reasons. I became one simply because of there is no factual evidence that supports the existence of a god, and I just can't get along with the numerous contradictory teachings of all religious texts.

There was even a moment where the professor shouts that he hates God. So clearly he does believe in God; however what he is portraying isn't atheism, it's misotheism. There's a proser here that wrote a great post about the difference between atheism and misotheism which you can check out here (https://theprose.com/post/141853/atheists-don-t-hate-god). The point is that clearly the writers don't know the difference between these two terms so I'll sum it up nice and neatly: atheists don't believe god or deities exist but misotheists do.

And for some unexplained reason the Robertsons and the Newsboys make an appearance in this movie. Come on, not even real Christians want to see these people.

Third problem: the situation is illogical.

All of this could have been avoided if the Josh just dropped the course and took it with a different professor than Radisson, something that I've done in the past on a couple occasions. But if he didn't want to drop the course then Josh should have reported Radisson to the Board of Regents and the professor would have been fired because he was persecuting a certain group. Hell, I would have reported this asshole.

Also am I seriously to believe that Josh was the one student that was Christian in that whole lecture room? Aren't there other students who are Christians too, considering that Christianity makes up for more than 70% of American citizens? How come they weren't standing up to this guy? What about some Jewish students? Where's their voice?

Fourth problem: the film's message is a terrible one.

I know this is ironic when I state this but this film is way too preachy. This film clearly wants everyone to believe that the only way you'll be happy is if you're Christian, and that's just not true. Happiness comes from doing what you love most in life and experiencing it with others.

Towards the end of the film Radisson gets hit by a car and Reverend Dave (played by David A.R. White—which by the way, I think it's lazy writing when an actor and character share the same name) does nothing to help the guy. He doesn't call an ambulance or something, he makes the guy convert to Christianity as he slowly dies, which Radisson does at the end. And apparently all the good Christians are celebrating at a Newsboy's concert. What the actual Jesus Christ on a fucking cracker?!?

On top of that the fact that the reporter lady I mentioned earlier got cancer and was cured of it in this film's sequel (yes, I can't believe there's a sequel either) all because she converted and started praying is beyond batshit fucked up. Don't try to defend the logic of this one because that's like sticking your dick inside a great white shark. It's not gonna end well for you.

God may not be dead in the views of some, but He's gonna wish He was after this film. This film isn't just bad, it's offensive. It is offensive to both believers and non-believers. This is basically a film about how some Christians (specifically Evangelicals) view non-Christians and it caters to that target audience. A film should be made to cater to all audiences, not a select few. This really can't be considered a movie. No, this is propaganda. It's some sort of backwards thinking that Christians are under the false delusion that they are being persecuted. My reasoning for why some Christians actually believe they're persecuted is because their right to persecute others for not following their life style is being taken from them. I did a little research in the supposed cases this film (and its sequel) are based off of, and half of them are about Christian business refusing to service homosexual couples because "it offend their beliefs". Maybe if they weren't assholes to begin with they wouldn't be put in that situation.

Sadly because this film was a box office success (garnering over $60 million in the US) that it paved way for the studio (PureFlix) to make more films that proselytize to their audiences. And, like I mentioned before, it got a sequel titled God's Not Dead 2, with a third in the works. Yet making the dough isn't enough. The film was heavily panned by both critics and audiences alike, most of them are Christians. Hell, look online at IMDB and you'll read written reviews by religious audiences stating they hated the film and found it offensive too.

I can just imagine my characters from Sins of the Father just sitting around watching this movie like:

Lu: "Well there goes two hours of my immortal life I'm never getting back."

Carmen: "Well it was... I mean, it was... eh, I got nothing for it."

Rosemary: "This movie sucks."

Regan: "I didn't understand any of it."

Mike: "Do mortals seriously call this entertainment?"

Lilith: "What the bloody hell was Hercules doing in this movie?"

Lu: "I don't want to put up with this film anymore. Scrugs, get the chainsaw!"

Scrugs: "Right!" *revs up chainsaw*

Prosers, do yourself a favor and just don't bother with this one. It's not worth your time. I really can't think of anything positive to help give it some redeeming qualities. It's just a really awful experience and I cannot believe I put myself through that. I need to cleanse and absolve my sins by being baptized in a river of Blue Moon beer. I mean just... fuck!

Positives:

-None

Negatives:

-Bad directing

-Bad writing

-One-dimensional steorotypes

-Illiogical situation

-Terrible message

-Super biased

-Offensive to everyone

-One of the worst

Final Grade: F

Now it's time to get serious with you prosers. I understand that I have a wide range of followers, all apart of various religions. Don't take this review as an attack against your beliefs because I really couldn't care less about them. Take this as a moment to critically think about your life. The harsh truth is that being religious doesn't automatically make you a good person, and the same can go for being atheist doesn't make you a good person either. What makes you a good person is your actions. By going out in the world and giving compassion to others shows that you are a good person.

I don't know any of you personally outside of this website. Maybe you're a better person than me, who knows? But I want my religious readers and followers I'm gonna preach to you to think everything you know in life critically. Don't be so blinded by your faith that you mistreat everyone else for being different. Otherwise what's the point of teaching the 'Love Thy Neighbor' part of the Bible, huh? Being different is honestly the best part of being human. I want you to have an open-mind on the world around you. I want you to embrace the wonders of what science has to offer, and to embrace others for their beliefs. If you already do that, good. You're proving to the world how much of a better person you are than the rest of the assholes who use their beliefs to persecute others.

And to my fellow atheist readers and followers, don't go dissing people because they believe that a deity exists. You're just proving that you're just as an asshole as the ones who use religion to persecute people. Have a listening ear but also provide rational arguments and factual evidence to help defend your position.

Every time I write up one of these reviews I don't just say please be kind just because it's part of a catchphrase. I really mean it this time. If you feel like commenting I don't want to read about how you think my review is bullshit, or spam me with hate comments, or spam others with hate comments because they aren't align to your opinions. If you do that, I will block you. No excuses! The only comments I want are congratulating me on making another milestone, and your thoughts on the film if you've seen it. If you do like this film, please tell me why. I'm really curious why you're willing to give this bullshit film a pass. Just leave out any negativity or spam you have against me or my review.

On that note, thank you again to all my followers and friends on Prose. I could not have reached this milestone without your support. You are truly the best readers and critical thinkers out there. Thank you everyone. I'm proud and honored to be your go-to guy for reviews on this website and I hope to keep on doing so later on. I think I can do that by following up with a review of Justice League and Punisher this coming weekend. Check them out when they're posted. Until then keep reading and writing, prosers!

Peace out!

Best Quote:

Reverend Dave: "It's not easy. But it's simple."

#harrysituationreviews #150threview #special #religion #atheism #thismoviesucks