Chaos is sown
when history is disowned.
Hiding past hurts
may reduce pain
but allows confusion to reign.
Disinformation presses lies
against the closed eyes.
Tit for tat news myths
play fast and loose games
for ratings and sponsor’s gains.
Hold tight to truth
and the lessons of history.
In chaos, our story will end
unless we know and defend
all we have been
and could become
Filed under POETRY
The lonely artist is not a fiction but a prediction
of the lonely lover
awaiting to discover
who we are.
I do not know you, do I ?
How could I when I do not yet know myself?
I see you. I hear you.
You are there.
In your eyes I see myself
as a reflection,
with it inherent loss of my full energy
and being, lost in your gaze.
This leaves me lost and dazed.
All you give me is a reflection of myself.
It is not enough.
It lacks your energy. Your being
you keep for yourself,
leaving me alone, grasping air.
Perhaps this is why we choose
to love only those who appear
most like our selves.
Disenchanted when all we are
able to embrace
is the reflected self.
Give me your true self.
Give me your art
not something set apart,
but different from me.
This is the value of diversity.
This love beyond self
only comes when we see
more than our own reflection,
are given new energy,
the energy of you.
Fear keeps us apart.
We fear knowing who we are.
We fear knowing who you are.
Fearing if we love you,
we will only see
our lessened selves.
Filed under POETRY
Saving face
By creating truth
Is the only means of escape
From harsh reality
For those whose core
Is thinned and weak
By lack of moral exercise.
Bread and circuse
Did Rome in.
History ignored
Is repeated evermore.
Distraction through attraction
Diverts the gaze, the ear, the tongue.
This is who we live among.
Doing what is correct
Does not reflect the Right
Constantly claiming false
It’s moral might
Over those whose outrage
Threatens their control,
Their wealth, their privilege.
New faces in new places
Where they were not allowed before
Distort the world view
Of the autocratic few.
It takes strong core
Muscles to stand tall
Before the attack of falsehood
Destroys us all.
Filed under POETRY
What light becomes
most fashionably bright
to rid us of the shadow of night?
Who decides
the cast, the angle
shining upon each bead and bangle?
Are we so transparent
no shadow shows,
willing to follow anyone who glows?
How have we not learned
that the light of day
best shows the way?
Fireflies dance around the darkness
distracting us from what matters
while truth lies shattered.
Talking points flicker
all day and night
while truth hides out of sight.
News becomes entertainment,
bread and circuses
to detain us.
News streams the highways
with fast-moving high lights
missing the truth by inches along the way.
Such roads cannot be safely crossed.
How do we get to the other side?
By stopping traffic at our own loss?
Filed under Uncategorized
Need is alive and well
clumped, clutching the belly
where it often dwells.
Need rises heavily
and steadily
devours the will
posed on the tongue
fearing disclosure
until the body is wrung
out.
Out of time.
Out of strength.
Out of courage
to speak one’s mind.
Then, Need sinks below
The threshold;
travels down the spine
all the way to one’s toes
which curl against the road
before starting to run
away with thoughts.
Need circles around
and around
and around
Need cannot be out-run.
Need always finds a way
to be heard.
Filed under POETRY
Will you write to me
Of fallow fields
Or bounteous yields
Of herb and spice
To brighten the palate
Or bury the dead?
Which is better stated
In a letter created
To satisfy the need
To get a bead
On where we are headed?
What would your words mean to us?
What would it matter?
Keep your words off the page
Or I ‘ll be mad as a hatter
Before all is said
And I am done.
No letters, please.
No promises.
No warnings.
Better to believe it all
Will look better tomorrow.
Filed under POETRY
Out with the old.
In with the new.
Throw away society
Is nothing new.
Long lines of history
Started this brew.
Custom is not custom made
When everyone agrees.
No person better than another
If we could truly see.
Celebrations followed time
In its global rounds
Until the ball with all its hopes
Dropped roaringly to ground.
I wish you Happy New Year
Both with joy and dismay
That too many doors will shut again
On this new year’s first day.
Across the globe
We hear the whoosh and slam
of shutting doors and clicking locks
where too few give a damn.
On this day I resolve
To open wide my doors
And to welcome in with grace
Those seeking a safe shore.
One day is all it takes
for Autumn to blow away
on ice-laden winds
that shock lawns
with frost as thick as thieves
robbing us of long walks amid the trees
which shelter us from too strong a breeze.
Our path is no longer clear
of the detritus of Fall,
of our fall from grace, putting us in our place
inside the hidden thoughts of our minds;
until the sun shines strong and deliberate,
with a design to clear the mind.
For now, we wait in hope
for longer days and shorter nights
until we can alight guided
by a Stronger Light
until Spring returns
to awaken our sight
and warm our souls.
Filed under Uncategorized
OUT OF THE PIT
12-18-2021
We yearn to turn corners
while we burn
for familiar faces
and easy spaces
where change is paced
and we can remain sedate.
But, transformation
of a dying nation,
shaken to its foundation
can never feel safe
by standing in place,
while violence and fear
obscure all we hold dear.
Using both brains and brawn
we must soldier on
crossing boundaries beyond
those we set long before the big con,
like filibusters and indictments
of former president’s incitements;
until our path is no longer blocked
by those who should be locked
up.
Up, look up!
It is the only way to climb out of the pit.
Climb, even though Republicans sit
on their hands, hands out for any bit
of coin, or power, unwilling to admit
failure. They only look down, sit down,
lock down the march to save the crown
jewel that is the republic where world-wide freedom is sown.
This is not the time to count the cost
of what it takes to regain what we have lost.
Up! Up! Look up!eoublican apart
Filed under Uncategorized
OUT OF THE PIT
12-18-2021
We yearn to turn corners
while we burn
for familiar faces
and easy spaces
where change is paced
and we can remain sedate.
But, transformation
of a dying nation,
shaken to its foundation
can never feel safe
by standing in place,
while violence and fear
obscure all we hold dear.
Using both brains and brawn
we must soldier on
crossing boundaries beyond
those we set long before the big con,
like filibusters and indictments
of former president’s incitements;
until our path is no longer blocked
by those who should be locked
up.
Up, look up!
It is the only way to climb out of the pit.
Climb, even though Republicans sit
on their hands, hands out for any bit
of coin, or power, unwilling to admit
failure. They only look down, sit down,
lock down the march to save the crown
jewel that is the republic where world-wide freedom is sown.
This is not the time to count the cost
of what it takes to regain what we have lost.
Up! Up! Look up!
Filed under Uncategorized
annarino writes 