Why Paisley Turtle?

May 3, 1988. I know why I remember this date. It was the day I wrote "Rainbows of Red" and was the morning after I had this really crazy dream. "Rainbows..." was one of my angst ridden, nihilistic poems that composed my entire catalog at the time. The reason I remember it is that I signed and dated everything back then, as if it had some significance that the ages would eventually reveal to the world. It was also the first piece to have the moniker "Paisley Turtle Music". My poetry has almost always been metered through music in my head.

The Paisley Turtle was in the dream I had the previous night. I’m not sure if it was before or after midnight when I dreamed the turtle, so I’m not sure if the turtle was born on the second or third, but that’s irrelevant. What I do remember is that there was a race. Six turtles, all marked with numbers except the last, who had a paisley swirl on his shell. I was that turtle, and everyone was betting on me. I knew I had to win. I don’t remember if I won or not.

The poem is now long gone, but the turtle remains.

I have had many incarnations since then, using such names as Wanderlust (point of reference: a particular favorite Paul McCartney song at the time, meaning the desire to travel... stop that.), Lemmingmesiter (a title I acquired after a particularly grueling round of Psygnosis’ game Lemmings. I later abbreviated this to Lemmi), and Mr. Mouse (which was a full blown concept name. My home would be "The Mouse Pad", Poetry would be "Fresh Cheese", Prose would be "Kitty Letters", and my car would be "The Ratmobile". My signature was /\/\r. asno\/\/. (asno\/\/ being /\/\ouse upside down, with /\/\ in /\/\r. directly above the \/\/.)

Why the names? Well, two years after becoming the Paisley Turtle, my best friend (who, I can only assume was impressed by the feel of the name) became Tartan Chameleon. Before I knew it, others in the online community started accusing me of riding his coat tails and this bothered me. I knew who I was, and that was all that was important to me, but I changed the name anyway, just to maintain individuality, but other names did not feel right. In an effort to get this back, I changed to Pæzli Tyrtl. This explains my e-mail name of ptyrtl. Of course this had another benefit. I found no one else had ever been using this letter combination for ANYTHING. This made me easy to find, and I had my name back. Only one drawback, though. No one could pronounce it. So, I came back to my roots, but whether I am Paisley Turtle or Pæzli Tyrtl, I’m still me.

More than a number I’m a paisley turtle in a green turtle world... and that's just the way I like it.

Back to the shell.