Poem: Driftwood Journey

 

Driftwood Journey

 

sinewy flute

salted and stout,

keys and stops

squatted by shells,

 

once a bough,

then brined by waves

 

when a gusty birth sailed you

off a fare-thee-well cliff,

 

christened you flotsam.  and then 

the sea adventured you, forged you

 

bolder than birch bark,

the smallest of kayaks, you

 

wrestler of stormy gallops 

and frothy manes, you

rider of so many rearing rolling  

dragon necks, you  

wizened and raw wizard,

so long lost, you--

 

until a final glide of whispery sheens

established, once more, 

this earthen world.

================

8/28/24 eds

Poem: Taken Pebble

 

Taken Pebble

 

quartz-laced pebbles

roll to and fro

as bully waves leave wet bruises

and, oh, how they shine.

 

but the slow bleed of stubborn minerals

doesn’t care.  won’t distinguish

forces gradual and murderous

from a windowsill.

 

taken, then,

 

from comber to trinket,

perched close to a desk,

to hobnob with fossils

and a few shells.

 

once harried and fretted,

now a staid ornament,

embossed over steady seasons

with all-too-human dust.

=====================

Poem: Boulder In the Woods

 

Boulder in the Woods

 

slumped and shabby and

lopsided with lichen

over a puddle of brown water

where larvae jackknife

among rotted flecks,

 

you chronicle and sentinel,

for the forest has deputized you,

not the rubble that litters sterile planets,

or a stone delitescent in the abyss,

no,

you are entrusted

with the last remains of trees and leaves and

bushes and berries in windy sprays

and rain and feathers and bones and 

nests in mossy beds. 

 

there’s a hint of warm-bloodedness

when morning slips through,

braving a gauntlet of serpentine limbs

to preen your medullar cape.

===============================

Poem: Turnoff

 

Turnoff

 

stumbling through what i was,

challenged by the pretentious beast,

i knew full well,

without even eye contact,

the riddle had no puzzle.  

the quest lacked results 

beyond the trick.

 

there were wings, yes, but no flight.  

there were teeth 

but they could not chew on substance.

what confounded could not hear.

 

i turned away, into the cold,

even though god stayed lukewarm

and said he could forgive

this lack of faith.

============

9/1/24 ...changed pronoun to first person from third person "she" ... other mods

4/12/23... cosmetic mods

My Thoughts and Feelings Right Now

 

My thoughts and feelings right now.  With the ransacking of the Capitol, we enter a new phase of the fascist uprising.  Awareness of the threat--finally--seems to have sunk in with the mainstream.  For years, the mainstream normalized Trump.  There is still the foolish  use of “conservative" to describe his followers.  This needs to be changed to an accurate adjective.  Say, “authoritarian.”  Immediately.

In all my 57 years, nothing ever like this.  Capitol not ransacked since 1814, and then by a foreign force (the British).  My initial elation that the traitorous mob was repelled (also, of course, the Democrats won the Senate, and Trump lost the election) has given way to a deeper realization that one of the most hallowed buildings of the United States Government has been defiled.  I myself am a victim of sexual abuse; and so I feel I can say, with great sincerity, that this feels like a rape.  I've been triggered.  Everything I thought was solid--my moor, my trust, my basic framework--now violated. Rendered ugly.  Destabilized.

A scary, scary time ensues.  Because the fascist mob successfully penetrated the Seat of the People, and hasn’t suffered that much for it, not yet, they will try again.  Next time they will be more organized.  Bolder.  Guns.  And thanks to the internet, attacks can be planned anywhere in the United States.  The odds of this escalating into lethal-weapon skirmishes are high.

I don’t think anything will quell this mob mentality now except, at minimum, incarceration or very heavy sanction/fines.  En masse.  Also, it is extremely important to shore up the loyalty of the police and military. 

A good, honest message:  Defend freedom, or descend into anarchy, destroying the greatness of your 214-year-old republic.  The control of thousands of nuclear weapons is at stake.

My prediction is that the republic will survive, but wounded.  There will most likely be a split in the GOP, leading to the existence of a White Nationalist Party, such as exists in at least 19 European countries:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36130006

This is sad, indeed.  The best way to counter fascist fanaticism is (a) therapeutic education, (b) reduce corruption through Robin Hood-style governance (take from the rich, spread the wealth through the people).  How much the USA can do this will determine, well, probably the fate of civilization.

Although I predict survival of the republic, I could well be wrong.  What happens in the near future depends on vicissitudes and dice throws.  If factions of the military or police defect, full-on civil war looms.  And then doomsday scenarios are possible (again, thousands of nuclear weapons, from submarines to silos).

The best way to deal with the stress is to focus on day-to-day.  Find beauty, find happiness, in specific moments.  Isolate and be in those moments.  Make time to shut out all the noise and just retreat into your own recreational, meditational or relaxation mode, whatever that entails.

There are miracles everywhere.  For instance, when I am washing dishes, I sometimes marvel at the amazing properties and lovely fluid magic of H20.  Simple water.  

Immersive activities are good for longer escapes.  For me, this is writing, reading, gaming, hiking, or other exercise.  And yes, Netflix.  Do your thing.

However, everyone should take this seriously.   To US citizens:  Your freedom and republic are in peril as never before, since the civil war.  Take care of yourself, but FIND SOME WAY TO FIGHT.  I don’t mean physical battle (though if you are law enforcement, yes).  I am not advocating violence.  Use your words.  Use your status in society, your job, whatever it is, to send messages, whether blatant or subtle, whatever seems best.  Pick your battles and strategies.  But strive.  Do something.  Fight.

This is it.  Step up.  If you don’t, your country, the USA, will become a fascist dictatorship under Donald Trump.

Fly Well In The Dark,

OWL

 

=============

Poem: Conversion

 

Conversion

 

within a blizzard of faces,

somewhere in a catacomb of rectangles,

another when erodes into a financial if.

 

a conversion.

another two-legged sort of the six-legged slog.

columns, rows,

 marching in bottom lines.

 

an obit haunts the manicured face.

the cheekbones now tombstones,

firm in the garden of compromise.

 

this whole city, long ago,

celebrated when petals 

starbursted into now extinct plants.

 

today, just another pair of drained irises,

bobbing and crushed

in the Coliseum of Clocks.

 

outraged, maybe,

 but strait-laced and calm

over a heartbeat that is a riptide

sucking the anger back down.

 

a cringing thought 

rises for a single breath:

a middle class beggar

in a pressed wool yoke.

=======================

Margaret Sullivan, of the Washington Post, Gets It Right: the Trumpists are NOT conservatives.

Some of the key points in my blog entry on 9/24/20:

Owl Who Laughs: Stop Calling Republicans Conservative. It's Totally False PR

closely match an op-ed in the Washington Post yesterday (1/4/21), by media columnist Margaret Sullivan:

Stop calling Trump?s enablers ?conservative.? They are the radical right. - The Washington Post

 

Sullivan suggests the term "radical right" to describe those who, following Trump into darkness, claim that the recent election was rigged by Democrats (it wasn't, as 50 court cases, brought by Trump, have shown).  

I use the term "authoritarian."  Better would be White nationalists.

My piece engages in a lot more conceptual analysis, at the philosophical level, resulting in a broader indictment of the GOP.  Sullivan, though, hammers home the point that the radical right gets a comfy ideological shield, a "free ride" when the mainstream media refers to them as "conservative."

Look at the definition of conservative, as I do in my blog entry.  They are NOT conservative in any sense.  

I find it so frustrating that the media continues to use the label "conservative" to effectively coddle a cadre of traitors.  The label is contradictory and denialist.

Face the music:  This is one of the most dangerous times for democracy in the history of the United States.  

I am not alone in saying this.  On Morning Joe, for instance, the Lincoln Project guest commentators (Republicans who fled Trump's leadership) have been making this point for a while. 

 Fly Well In the Dark,

OWL

============

Poem: Ice Play

 

Ice Play

 

peppery on naked oaks,

tadpoles of feisty sun.

they scamper off,

boisterous in their bevies,

renegades amok, mischief ardent,

through swaying gales 

frozen of primrose and goldenrod.

illimitable landscape of glassy whips.

 

dawn.

dawn comes seraphic and gossamer.

noon a mortalized bliss.

and yet the finale, the red horizon,

succumbs to purple nightshade.

 

onyx in the end.

onyx haunts the crystallized branches,

fashionable as the hairdos of hydras.

these lolling creatures, they only half remember

the drama of their sauvignon tears.

moonless now 

now so moonless …  

 

no, a pomegranate moon,

goddess of brittle tongues in a basin of wind.   

if they could only taste a scintilla

of that castaway glimmer, they might ... 

stars!

so brief the stars, 

wish seeds, nubilous,

above the frosty grounds.

what oasis the darkling dome?

what desert?

===============