Only a Stone
how dare i kick it.
chuckle while it rolls.
me of crass flesh,
immature toddler
who slaps an old man’s crotch.
it’s true.
i tease this immortal scone,
toss it with my toe.
a hobo’s kind of roulette:
which face ends where,
which will look up,
gnaw on a fallen moth,
or kiss a tigerlily’s paw?
i need this.
something.
anything.
imagination.
persistence.
survival.
a decent bet.
==========================
Chronic
the pains in my body
have been many creatures.
some with poison.
some with teeth.
they’ve done their best
to slay patience,
ensnare the wings
of my mind;
and my tendons
have struggled in their webs,
my nerves gnawed
by their scorpions and widows.
i’ve lost many times,
pinned down by sobs,
surrendering to hate.
when i can walk,
how different life’s moments are.
how naïve--
the little smiles and frowns
of the ordinary,
childlike in the gaps
between the knives.
=====================
Longterm chronic gout, took many years just to get the correct diagnosis. I've spent about four full years of my life on crutches with active gout flare ups. Sometimes in a wheelchair. Lots of related atrophy, injury and arthritic issues. These days I can walk a fair distance with a cane, no active flares.
For one injury, I waited a year to get treatment, because in America, medical treatment is not a right, and I would've had to pay $9000 before the insurance company even began to help out. I didn't have that money to spare. I had to wait until I could figure out some better insurance. This is how we live in the USA.
Americans who vote for Republicans continue to vote for this system, and more and more tax breaks for the wealthy, and less medical assistance for everyone else. They were completely enspelled by the demagoguery of radical right politicians, even before Trump brought charismatic fascism on board, further tattering a tattered, broken democracy.
One thing our mainstream newspapers still get right (New York Times): democracy is, at best, moribund when over 70% of the total wealth is owned by .1% of the population.
The sad story of America is great wealth and power after WWII, and then that wealth and power causing greater and greater corruption and decline, the moral fabric of the people degenerating d into cheap hedonisms, petty envy, pernicious bickering and decadence for the wealthy. That said, there was an awakening, too, of values of equality and Earth-awareness, a counterforce to the corruption, and the longstanding climate of vicious racism, which originated in slavery and only intensified in the South after the Civil War to end slavery.
Vision
a moth
slices my skull like a spade,
digs up maggoty pasts
which split into ribs, maws, spines,
jumbling
as they clatter down
into pupils of ooze,
seeds of vision.
i lick a ditch
where life pools,
nothing but ambitious jelly.
i fizzle among microbes
that die in sparks
to prompt a circus
of evolving hides.
merged
with hyperactive goo,
i not only rot
but strip back
to the ferment of the first broth.
i bleed not blood
but the slime in all life--
what we came from, what we are,
what makes us babble and coo,
create, love, believe, devour,
desecrate.
==================================
Apple Tree
mobile of the delicious,
making me a marionette,
even does and cubs
tugged from the theater of
the forest for a taste. so alive,
August’s living golden buzzing robe,
winesap- and pixie-dappled,
cox’s orange and dorsett.
the honeybee-drenched orbs
blush toward evening,
more buxom than twilit Venus,
or a lunar floribunda.
who wouldn’t fixate
on the gifts of dance
arrayed over the decades,
centuries, too!
are we not swept up
by the minuet of airy seconds,
graceful boughs
in waltz with arms of breeze?
does it not captivate us,
lend our hearts to whirl?
===================================
8/13/25 added a "the"
8/11/25 ... more mods, struggle
8/10 ... hvy mods
8/9 .. changed last phrase
changed word, shortened a phrase
added a "the"
Faraway
happy clouds,
a white glove party
which laughs and points fingers.
they float over
a cherry soda sun,
sugar in their bellies. safe.
just like that, they change:
behold a pale crowd,
pockets bulged with stones.
a swoop of nighthawk
and throats of nameless frogs
frame the stage
as the victim waits,
watching many a vee
of northbound geese.
always, she thinks,
that same letter
V V V …
flying off,
swift with hope,
to chase some faraway home.
====================
8/2/25 ... some mods throughout the day
Fox Tale
the yellow of the grasslands flexed:
a stretching gush of lions
speckled with manes of raspberry thorns.
they greeted the bay with a stark whip,
leaping into nowhere,
past a pure of azure and a few sparse ribs
but no sun.
far from the lions,
spruce in spotty acres
might have been reaching up
proud and exhilarant
or convulsed by rage.
axes of wind, swung by
northeastern cold, had splintered
flanks of the evergreens
and tumbled them to the ground
where
the cracked trunks attracted a fox,
rusty yet warm of tangerine,
a vibe as plush as it was sleek,
curving through a whirl of pounce
to pluck a squirm of gopher.
off then, quick as a flirt,
smudged by the terre-verte
of the madcap groves.
===============================
7/29/25 same day mods... all day .. mods
A look at Down East Maine before some of the significant global warming effects, when there were more spruce and few maples.
Today, the New York Times front-paged an article on the genocide taking place in Gaza. The title is, "In a First, Leading Israeli Rights Groups Accuse Israel of Gaza Genocide." . The article is a step toward global mobilization and moral awareness. It starts off:
Two of Israel’s best-known human rights groups said Monday that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, adding fuel to a passionately fought international debate over whether the death and destruction there have crossed a moral red line.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/world/middleeast/israel-genocide-gaza-rights-groups.html
First of all, it is appalling that an "international debate" is taking place. There's nothing to reasonably debate here. Great evil is soul-stingingly evident in the malevolence being inflicted on the Gazans. The presence of an international debate, in and of itself, shows that we live in barbaric times.
It is never morally acceptable, and always utterly loathesome, to reduce the homeland of two million people to rubble, fence them into that rubble, and continue to bomb and starve them. Hospitals gone. Schools gone. Fertile land gone. Potable water gone. Everything gone. Via social media, the world watches scenes of starving people reaching through IDF fences, begging for scraps of food, reduced to dog-like instinct out of inflicted levels of extreme hunger. This is never acceptable. Never. Again, no reasonable debate is possible here. None.
What if the two million people reduced to homeless, fenced into the rubble of their homeland and starved to death weren't members of the same racial, ethnic or religious group? Technically, it wouldn't then be genocide, but it would still be utterly unforgivable and ultimately wicked. Again, there is no possible reasonable argument that treating two million people this way is morally acceptable. Never. None.
We live in a primitive, dysfunctional time, far below the level of ethics technology we are capable of achieving as a species, This is no excuse. It is the opposite: a catalyst to change and grow. We have the brain plasiticity and the cultural plasticity to move forward, to someday, even fairly soon, achieve a non-barbaric and minimally decent civilization (1).
Anyone who is reasonably and morally aware--and we all can be educated to this level of perception, if given a chance--can see that this is genocide. And it is very very very hard to watch. It is loathsome, disgusting, reviling, abhorrent ... I could pile up futile words and it would never capture the horror of genocide. Yes, it is hard to face. But that is no excuse for putting one's head in the sand.
Humanity can move forward. We have moved forward. Even long ago, there was some incipient progress when, for instance, the Romans banned crucifixion. In the 19th century, slavery was made illegal. In the 20th century, women attained the right to vote. All they needed was an opening in the rigid, enforced social mechanisms of ignorance- and fear-based governance.
In general, there is a slow yet generally positive momentum observable in the trek of civilization, from the times of ancient Sumer to the present. Much of the positive change has happened in the last two centuries.
So, in conclusion, there is hope for us. For humanity. We don't have to be barbaric, cruel twisted versions of wolves. We don't have to take the worst in nature and magnify it into heartless, rancorous malice.
Knowing this, that we can improve and advance toward the Good, makes it even harder to watch what is going on now. I try to remind myself of the wrenching strength it takes to be ethical, to fight for what is right. To seek the Good. It is painful to face the truth. It takes courage and strength. But it is, yes, an ultimately meaningful fight. One can feel the Light of truth.
I try to remember that not so long ago, about 160 years ago, not so distant in the scope of things, slavery was legal in the USA. Brave abolitionists fought the good fight, despite the 'debates' that were taking place at the national level. There is no reasonable argument that slavery is acceptable. None. And yet, still, 'debates' took place.
We ended legal slavery. This took thousands of years.
There is hope.
Not only that, honesty can feel wonderful. Honesty engenders deepest meaning by its very nature. It is a gift and a virtue, but it can also be miserably painful, especially in these barbaric, primitive times where people 'debate' whether depriving, fencing, torturing and starving two million people is acceptable. Over sixty thousand killed outright. And many more wounded by bombs, guns and the inevitable riots and thuggery when food becomes scarce.
Whatever pain I feel is nothing, the puniest picayune, compared to what the people in Gaza are suffering. I have to deal with my pain, and I try to do it in healthy, cathartic ways that keep me aware and active. In this sense, my pain, and all my emotions, are front and center in my life. Every day can be adventurous.
The only way to defeat Evil is Good. Honesty is a great step. A Pact with Honesty is hard and demanding. And yet it enriches and lifts the soul, nurtures growth and wisdom. The opposite of a Pact with the metaphorical Devil.
=========================
(1) https://owlwholaughs.blogspot.com/2025/05/draft-intro-of-my-book-better-angels.html
8/3/25 fixed typos
Overturn
does it rain when
the night-flesh of the city seems to sweat?
small glistens of spells
in the streets?
for even a moment,
could the wet dissolve our dry?
and in so doing, overturn
what seems like centuries?
maybe our skulls
could still hold water.
a tongue to sprout in each lonely cavern,
giddy with the truth, playful
as a river.
you’d think it was Eden,
this outburst of succulence,
humans seduced once more
by the fruit,
yet better off for it,
no longer starved
for the dances of empathy
which would brim our eyes
as we leapt in remorse, breaking
into the freedom of joy.
might we then proclaim,
to no one god, an
exultant
hallelujah?
but no one here,
despite miles of peopled space,
will celebrate something
that has less-than-occurred.
the wind takes a drag
on sparse weeds in
the cracks,
and the old dust
wrapped around gutters of trash,
and i look up, just
to pretend,
and, yes, the water that
dared to speak
is gone.
=======================================
I Watched it Happen in Hungary, Now It's Happening Here
David Pressman, Ambassador to Hungary, 2022-2025
After years watching Hungary suffocate under the weight of its democratic collapse, I came to understand that the real danger of a strongman isn’t his tactics; it’s how others, especially those with power, justify their acquiescence.
Take the judiciary. I met leaders of Hungary’s sole independent judicial body in October 2022 to discuss their work. For months afterward, their faces (and mine) were plastered in the papers, branded as traitors and foreign agents, just because they had raised concerns about the rule of law in Hungary. The response from other powerful judges? Silence.
Or take the private sector. Since Mr. Orban became prime
minister in 2010, the state has awarded billions in public contracts to his
son-in-law and childhood friend, a former plumber named Lorinc Meszaros. What
have Hungarian business leaders said? Nothing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/opinion/hungary-viktor-orban.html
=================
Most of the poems seem really bad, especially when I go back and look at older ones. I can sometimes see what poems readers have 'clicked' and I have been editing those a great deal lately. Thank you for your patience!
It is a dismal world right now. Genocide is occurring, full screen on the global stage, courtesy of TikTok and Instagram. Fascism is rising in the USA, under the malignant Trump. He is attacking and degrading universities and cultural centers ("I love the poorly educated," he boasts), which is leading to the sad conclusion that humanity will do little to nothing to prevent global warming, and no doubt other environmental crises as well.
Things are likely to get worse, and the situation is sliding fast. It is a hard time in which to find purchase, in terms of direction or meaning. The media pretends the evil things all around us, present to our immediate senses, are not occurring. So does many a zealous citizen, a good portion of whom will viciously attack, if their ignorance is pointed out to them.
The New York Times Magazine just published a piece called "The Trouble With Wanting Men," by Jean Garnett. She makes good points about how men have low emotional competence. Most men have "normative male alexithymia" (can't identify let alone talk about what they're feeling). Recent social awareness of sexism has apparently made men feel awkward at best, for they lack the skills to psychologically deal. This awkwardness, again, at best, contributes to men wobbling and waffling on simple things, like verifying a date or whether they want to meet again.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/21/magazine/men-heterofatalism-dating-relationships.html
The most-liked comments on this article were not positive. Indeed, they viciously attacked the author. For some reason, the New York Times chose some of these comments to be featured as a "Times Pick." One of these is by "Incel Q Lonely," who simply attacks the author over her candid self-disclosures:
lol taking a guy home home on the first date after the legal ending of an open marriage. Yup the problem is completely and totally with men
This kind of hateful, angry reply is ancient. It ignores the arguments that are put forward--a complete lack of respect or philosophical skill--and uses a fallacy, formally called an ad hominen, to attack the author's character,. What's more disturbing is that this comment got over 2500 likes. More shocking, still, is that the New York Times decided to feature it.
If a Black person wrote a piece discussing how White people have trouble relating to Black people's needs, based on a lack of awareness, I doubt the Times would feature a comment that mocks the author, especially by someone whose screen name plays on a hate group.
In case anyone doesn't know, "incel" is a word associated with a misogynous movement.
So ... what I'm saying ... is that human stupidity is utterly draining. And it tends to hog center stage. Given opportunity, it violently takes over, as we have seen with the fascist movement here in America.
This kind of draining and stupid behavior, a full capitulation to violence and anger over reason, is something that anyone who wants to promote ethics, that is, the Good, has to face. When I myself am frustrated and furious, I try to think what it must have been like to be an abolitionist. Imagine protesting against slavery, only to have slavers mock and jeer you, beat you up, if they have a chance--or tell you things like, 'because of you, I'm going to go home and whip some N--."
How awful evil is. And how sad that we have to normalize it and deal with its barbs and cruelties, or worse. Telling the truth shouldn't be so hard or perilous. But it is.
Note well: By truth, I mean that which does not fly in the face of what is empirically verifiable. Science should not be dismissed. I am not, in seeking truth, pitching a religion. I am talking about global warming. I am talking about women being as human and capable as men. It is also a truth that no religion is the best and only religion. And that any religion that is against equality is going, not only against science, but the dignity and fairness at the core of human rights.
One can embrace god, and there's nothing wrong with that, not necessarily. As well, it is natural for many of us to celebrate and feel awe for nature and the universe. To dance in mystic abandon. To rhapsodize and express our awe in variegated personal ways, such as poetry. But none of that is to necessarily choose a religion.
Whatever the full complement of reasons for my fixation with poetry, part of why I write is to seek a release valve. The beauty and depth of poetry provides a means to express painful emotions and moral outrage in a way that is, more or less, healthy.
It's not quite that simple. If writing a poem leaves me in tears or full of hate, I still have to deal with it, explore the why, and try not to freak out. But the beauty, the reach, going deep in the soul, it is like an utterly honest conversation at the most intimate level. It is soulmate-level stuff, but within yourself, your muses, your inspiration, however you frame it. It could be god. Or one of the gods. It could be your spirit partner, who might be a witch. Or not. What is your spirituality? Your passionate voice has its own unique expresison.
Subconscious forces--maybe I should call them spells--are at the helm when I write. Where they take me, I can't fully know. It's difficult, scary, dangerous, wonderful and exhilarating. It can be sublime, this mutuality. It can feel good. And it is good to break out of the denialism of evil.
=====================================
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