words – radical druid

Once Upon a Time

Published on April 7, 2026

That once upon a time that never comes:
a world still yet to come that stays unborn,
its waking breath caught up in too young lungs,
not more than just a sigh of sad could be’s.

What would you have the world do unto you,
to pique your interest and keep you engaged?
Is not a chance to breathe the air enough?
Is there still more you think that you deserve?

If words could become wishes, after all,
what good if they are never spoken out?
And further, how much can they really change
a world that grows more deafened by the day?

That once upon a time we think is past:
what if it is some once and future time,
just waiting for us all to rise and shine
and simply take initiative, for once?

What would you want the world to give you next?
It’s not like you’ve exhausted every choice
or followed every starting point to ground.
it may be that the fault is in our stars.

If you believe a thing is true, it is;
at least, until some proof shows otherwise.
But how much more convincing do you need?
You’ve been awake for hours now today.

07 APR 2026

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Talking Heads: sonnet (Sicilian)

Published on July 7, 2025

Who in the world do we believe we are,
imagining our words alone suffice
to change the future’s course or shift our stars?
How much can you expect for that small price?
So little fuel will take us just so far.
What’s worth achieving takes some sacrifice;
the answer is never a lower bar,
unless your goal is a fool’s paradise.

There is no evolution of the mind
without some kind of action made out loud.
It’s not enough that a thing is conceived,
a mere equation with all terms defined.
So you can talk – no reason to be proud.
It’s only by your acts you are believed.

07 Jul 2025

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The Echo Cages: rubai

Published on June 27, 2025

You can twist and turn them round
and then pretend they are profound,
but words are just like prison bars
constructing cages out of sound

we carry with us, though we are
fine specks of dust from the small stars
flung out and free in space and time.
We dare not travel quite that far.

We seek the edges, so we climb
until no longer in our prime,
and then, collapse back into sleep,
almost like death, but more sublime.

We use our words to laugh and weep,
and waste them, thinking they are cheap.
By this illusion we are bound,
just echoes in a boundless deep.

27 Jun 2025

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The Vocabulary Lesson: qasida

Published on June 18, 2025

If the words we choose are merely tools
that separate the wise men from the fools,
what sort of workshop is the kind of school
where any passion in our hearts is cooled
and what we learn is just a set of rules
and reasons why our lives are base and cruel,
an endless search to find some precious jewel
that uses our own hearts and minds for fuel?

18 Jun 2025

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Tell Me Anything

Published on May 8, 2025

In the silence coming down
at the dimming of the day,
something whispers on the breeze
and it takes my breath away.

Does it tell me anything
that I don’t already know?
Is it more than could have beens
and a couple told you sos?

In the silence of the night
after the sun has gone to bed,
something sings a simple song
that just echoes in my head.

When the words come on the wind
do they tickle in your ear?
Do they brush away the clouds
in the evening sky, so clear?

As the hours slip away
does the music slowly fade
into memory and myth,
ancient stories and charade?

In the silence, when you breathe
in the taste of new day,
something rests upon your tongue
but you’ve got nothing left to say.

Does it matter much at all,
what you mean and what you do?
Will the day continue on
without making much of you?

So the hours come and go,
yet the song still wants to play.
In the end, who really knows
whether it should be that way?

08 MAY 2025

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Dictionary Gloss: the E’s

Published on February 13, 2017

ebullient exuberant, bubbling over with high spirits

Beware the fool, whose loud ebullient laugh
jumps back and forth, like a cracked phonograph.
It’s not a truly happy sign at all;
more like the echo of a cattle call.

éclat conspicuous success, general applause or acclaim, elaborate display

Most public piety, with grand éclat,
convinces fools, while real saints turn away.

ectoplasm a substance supposed to be exuded from a spiritual medium during a trance

we paid our fifty dollars for a reading,
but got no ectoplasm, despite pleading.

emolument a fee received, a salary

What great emolument my service earned
in living costs and taxes was soon burned.

encomium high praise given in speech or writing

Leave off encomium, my cheering thralls;
hard cash seems much more useful, after all.

endogenous growing or originating from within

true moral strength, they say,
must be endogenous;
receiving it through discipline,
it dodges us.

ennui boredom

If you would fight ennui, don’t overtire,
else you just bore yourself ’til you expire.

equivocal able to be interpreted in two ways, ambiguous

Yes, truth and guilt can often seem
equivocal – part fact, part scheme –
designed to trick us from both sides
and leave chaos where they collide.

ersatz serving as a substitute, especially of an inferior kind

Wise men and fools alike believe
themselves led by the truth in things.
One sees a world that cannot be,
while one accepts an ersatz king.

euphemism a mild or roundabout expression substituted for one considered improper or too harsh or blunt

Don’t shuffle on or pass away,
give up the ghost or fade to gray.
Let euphemisms such as these
just die, expire and soon decease.

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Tag: words

Once Upon a Time

Talking Heads: sonnet (Sicilian)

The Echo Cages: rubai

The Vocabulary Lesson: qasida

Tell Me Anything

Nothing to Say

Dictionary Gloss: the E’s