I had a lightning blot, lo a bolt, of inspiration, to begin this blog with a bit of nonsense that would somehow combine fact, prose, verse and artwork. I thought this suggestive of our new online magazine. So I shall dub today, the commemoration of the blog: Official Literary Nonsense Day. As the name itself implies we have infinite leeway, and it's in this realm -- nonsense -- that our profiled author excelled, offering some of the style’s greatest achievements.

We're talking, of course, about Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who plied the pseudonym and literary jackpot Lewis Carrol. It was in the sequel, "Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There," in 1872, when he introduced Jabberwocky. Should we just go ahead and read this remarkable poem again? I for one am often prone to reciting the first stanza at odd moments. Here it is, from chapter one in the book:
 

YKCOWREBBAJ

    sevot yhtils eht dna ,gillirb sawT`
    ebaw eht ni elbmig dna eryg diD
    ,sevogorob eht erew ysmim llA
    .ebargtuo shtar emom eht dnA

Alice says: "And if I hold it up to a glass, the words will all go the right way again."

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Somehow it seems to fill my head with ideas -- only I don't exactly know what they are!" Well, said, Alice. Indeed, is there a better explanation of nonsense verse? Oh, poor Alice.

It was in my research phase for this blog post, examining artifacts from the original "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," that I uncovered this outstanding addition to contemporary art history, a missing persons' poster from the first international rescue effort. It's documented evidence that Carrol indeed had an alternate ending in mind. Alice disappeared, leaving her sister, community of friends and family to stare forlornly into the rabbit hole.

Don't you just love and miss the story telling magic of a solid adventure combined with the dreamy visions of an opium addled mind?

In the interest of vulnerabiliy -- as this is ever my challenge as artist and no doubt, this topic will permeate the subtext of this blog -- I should tell you that I wonder about my rabbit hole and wonderland. Where do you follow your white rabbit? Mine of late has me falling headlong through the o shaped consonants and vowel landscape of this Dojo blog’s dot com world.

I think we're falling through it now. Have you recently read "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"? We've got about 4,000 miles to tumble gently to reach the center of the Earth. What we will discover in my dreams of anthropomorphized animals and objects is the vast gamut of Web connectivity in our exploration of community and information. Welcome to the blog.