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Tag: acceptance

An Epitaph

Spent his life exposing anyone he could to his art, until he went broke and died from doing it.

Worth every damn minute and every single penny. There’s no Nothing better. And if there was, no one could afford it.

So what’s the point of worrying about that? All that does is pay for a bigger stone to chisel words into like this, so people you don’t know or who don’t really remember what you were like most of the time, can read about you when you’re dead, in one of the few places on earth you can still go and find a little quiet.

And even then, somebody or something is always singing.

19 APR 2025

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An Actor Prepares

At what point in your life do you look back at what you’ve been doing up to that point and say to yourself, “Man, that shit we just went through was the worst thing that could happen to a person. And it was completely and absolutely our fault. It’s there a really bad actor in this scenario, you’re it. No excuses, alibis, justifications or obfuscations. Tag, you’re it. There’s no way to talk, walk, dance, sing, shimmy, wiggle, slide or slither out of this one. If you try that one again, you’ll end up dead.”

And how many times have you seen or will you watch that movie? Make your friends or lovers or kids or grandkids or work associates or teammates or even mortal enemies watch it with you? How many times will you switch the channel to it if it’s on? It’s your favorite feature film. It’s the greatest story ever told, because it’s about you. And you’re the star, the narrator, and the director. You picked the music, the scenes, and the lighting. You got all the best lines, had the best pieces of business. Looked like you owned the set, the scene, and the show. It must have made money, right? Because we’re all still here. Oscar worthy, that’s for sure. And since as they say you are always your own worst critic, you’ve really no worries about your rating or star power. It’s in the bag. If there was a better, higher budget, better marketed film out there, you’d be in it. And have a piece of it too.

But whose film is it really? How many of your supporting actors think it’s their film, or have agents and friends telling them it should have been theirs? More than you’d like to think. If you do think about it.

At the end of the real film, the final reel, will it really matter whose name came first or which was in the larger typeface?

19 APR 2025

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The World’s a Mess: balada

The world’s a mess, some folks will say –
at least, it often seems that way,
the lines are blurred and hard to see
sometimes, and we may disagree
on what we should and ought to do,
what’s plainly false, and mostly true.
Oh, let us chart the proper course;
First put the cart behind the horse.

The world’s a wonder, others state,
it’s our own fault, we can’t blame fate
for what effect comes from our cause;
we choose the fools who make our laws,
and have no right to kvetch and whine,
you on your side, and me on mine.
Oh, let us divvy up the blame,
and likewise share some of the shame.

The world’s is magic, true enough,
beneath the petty surface stuff
that helps us want to disengage
from wonder, and rely on rage
to fight each other without end
and win – at least we can pretend.
Oh, dance the dance until we die;
that’s all there is unless we try.

The world’s a mess! That may be so,
but life goes on, and even though
we seem to love to fume and fuss
there is still hope for all of us.
Pick up your broom, right here and now,
and clean what you can reach, somehow.
Oh, to begin you need to start;
and each must try to do their part.

16 APR 2025

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Learn to Sing the Blues

Nothing to choose:
only new ways to lose;
learn to sing the blues
retweeting evening news.

And in the end, the ruse?
That life’s a pleasure cruise
and not a dog that chews
through everything of use;

that every cut and bruise
and all your worn-out shoes
will be sufficient dues
to get you passage through.

What victories excuse
our sink back to the ooze?
No matter what your views,
each of us stands accused.

Somebody’s fault, but whose,
when misery ensues?
Don’t waste your fire or booze
on a few old statues.

What method will you use
to propagate your views?
When suffering’s old news,
we all just sing the blues.

08 APR 2025

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The World is Broken: skeltonics

The world is broken;
Cassandras have spoken
their tales of woe.
Let teardrops flow;
and as fear grows,
watch kindness dry
and those who try
to counter lies
with trust and truth
lose friends and youth.
As our illusions
die, confusion
fills our dreaming,
leaves us scheming
more on winning,
our minds spinning
to control
mind, body, soul,
and seek no answers.
We are dancers
in a maelstrom;
there is no music
left while we lose it,
no symphony for cursing
the headache we’re not nursing.
What good is more nay-saying?
What is this game we’re playing?
The world’s not slowing;
we’re not growing.
No point guessing
where we’re going.
You have to choose
to win AND lose.

30 MAY 2017

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Like Nothing

There’s no thing quite like Nothing;
and so much of it around.
It fills the nooks and crannies
and absorbs the smallest sounds,
obsessed with taking over
and with being something more.
It wants to be the ocean’s deep,
the shallows, and the shore.

There is no thing like Nothing;
how can anything compare?
It’s hard to feel superior
to something not quite there,
that whispers from the shadows,
or drops such subtle hints
that seem to come from nowhere
in our own experience.

There’s nothing beyond Nothing,
except in let’s pretend.
No yesterday, tomorrow,
or up just around the bend;
yet we would cast in concrete
or immortalize in stone,
build monuments to Nothing
just to decorate our homes.

There’s no thing quite like Nothing –
and yet most of us believe
in some illusion we imagine
out there to achieve;
and once it is completed,
this vast Nothing, great and wide,
what will be left for us to do?
More Nothing, ’til we die.

06 DEC 2016

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No End of Days

The world has not yet made its final twirl
around a sun still managing to burn;
the seasons, although changed somewhat of late,
continue with their ceaseless promenade.

Both wise and foolish prattle on no end,
with new results no different from before;
the civilized maintain the status quo
their barbarous ancestors stumbled on.

The end of days is always almost here;
soothsayers find new suckers without fail.
The young, in spite of things, still become old
and stop all their pretending at some point.

So put away those funeral shrouds for now.
There will be no apocalypse this week.

16 MAY 2016

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