An ancient lie
controls the world,
its flag unfurled
before the eye:
that might is right;
the mystery
of history
is that what light
the meagre flame
of truth reveals,
the winner steals
in a rigged game
won by a cheat,
claimed before birth,
so that true worth
seems like deceit.
06 MAY 2017
Posted in Poems
Tagged #BookofForms, cheating, deceit, defeat, illusion, poetic forms, tawddgyrch cadwynog, victory, Welsh verse forms
This note may be dark,
but it reflects the weather.
Besides, too much light
fades color from everything.
What a gray world that would make!
Rainbows and sunshine
do not help the whole world grow.
There must be dark storms
to fuel life at its deep roots,
build jungles out of deserts.
Seeing only good
is merely self-hypnosis;
dark and light exist
in equal measure out there.
Why persist out of balance?
05 JUN 2017
Posted in Poems
Tagged #BookofForms, balance, dark, illusion, Japanese verse forms, light, perception, poetic forms, rain, sunshine, tanka
It makes no sense to soldier on;
the dusk looks so much like the dawn
that even should the sun eclipse
there is no cause to do backflips
or celebrate the coming day.
But come, let’s toast life, anyway!
Each day begins and ends the same;
with no specific cause to blame
except that living tends to drone
and carry on. You’re born alone,
and by exception find your way.
But come, let’s toast life, anyway!
You buy and sell each moment’s art;
it can’t survive, if split apart
from what creates it, the bruised whole
that struggles to maintain control
and tolerate each passing day.
But come, let’s toast life, anyway!
In vain, we seek to understand;
inventing myths, and gods, and man,
as if we had creative strength
except to measure, width and length,
the box we’ll fill, returned to clay.
But come, let’s toast life, anyway!
What is the point of this charade?
Just prancing horses, on parade,
whose blinders lead just straight ahead
and walk until they fall down dead.
We know this, but walk night and day.
But come, let’s toast life, anyway!
05 JUN 2017
Posted in Poems
Tagged #BookofForms, alcoholism, death, illusion, life, poetic forms, positivity, purpose, stave
Underneath the skin, a single notion
supports how life unfolds from start to end.
Beneath the bustle of the world’s commotion,
it floats in just a whisper on the wind.
In quiet moments, it can be detected,
first here, then there, and then it’s gone again.
This song speaks to the lonely and infected,
the disenfranchised and the left behind.
To listen is feel far less neglected,
to find relief to ease a troubled mind;
and in the falling darkness, light a candle
that saves the world from stumbling on, blind.
If you sit still and listen, you will hear
a music that transcends both hate and fear.
02 JUN 2017
Posted in Poems
Tagged #BookofForms, music, overtone, poetic forms, relief, silence, sonnet, sound, terza rima
A private notion turns to public act
when it is witnessed by someone outside
your circle; once unloosed, it won’t come back.
These days, it quickly wends its way world-wide.
Your signal will of course be amplified;
within a moment’s span, your words extend
forever – an opinion, glorified
no matter whether real or let’s pretend.
A single line of text can make a friend,
or spawn a heartless legion filled with hate;
and no apology nor logic can defend
your thoughts, undo your speech. Too late,
expression, like an arrow through the air,
seeks out its target and is buried there.
02 JUN 2017
Posted in Poems
Tagged #BookofForms, celebrity, consequence, Edmund Spenser, free speech, poetic forms, privacy, public life, sonnet, Spenserian sonnet
There is no time to lose, soothsayers tell us;
Make hay! The sun will shine just for a while,
and once it’s gone, the world will turn to rust,
deprived of motive power, warmth, and style.
All things depend on endless solar power,
that radiating energy that fuels
the moments of our lives, the days and hours,
the actions of both conqueror and fool.
While artificial light may serve its purpose,
there is no life without organic heat
extending far beyond the simple surface
into the core, where being’s heart must beat.
Such darkness none on earth have ever known
like what will come when the sun’s fuse has blown.
1 JUN 2017
Posted in Poems
Tagged #BookofForms, apocalypse, English sonnet, life, light, poetic forms, power, Shakespearean sonnet, sonnet, sunlight
Wake up! The dawn is rapping at the shutters!
There is no time to lose, nor waste away;
you must begin to clear out all this clutter
that gives you an excuse to sleep all day.
Believe this: if the end is really coming,
you won’t hear marching feet or feel the drumming.
Defeat will slip in silent, like a thief.
Your struggle will be pointless and kept brief.
Remember that you asked for this convenience:
demanding automation of all things,
expecting everything be had for free.
Forgive the mindless drones; they know no lenience,
nor any song except the one they sing.
You know the words: we wrote them, you and me.
01 JUN 2017
Posted in Poems
Tagged #BookofForms, awareness, convenience, dawn, machines, poetic forms, resistance, sonetto rispetto, sonnet
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