Regarding the Poems

Thank you for reading the poems!

The poems are often not in the best of shape when I post them.  They go up because they get more editing that way.

Recently, "Poppies" has been a lot of trouble.  I don't know if it's fixed.

When someone reads an older poem, I can sometimes see the history.  I then go back and check it again.  Of course, it's too late for whoever clicked it, if I make a change, which I often do.

Some poems will never be ‘good’, due simply to my lack of ability. 

I am glad, though, that some readers find a bit of impact.

Fly Well In The Dark,

 OWL

owlwholaughs@gmail.com

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Poem: Homeless and Penniless

 

Homeless and Penniless

 

words.  they are Diogenes' lantern

looking for one honest ear.

they are fugitive:  grief-weakened fragments of

of a dismantled hearth

strewn across hungry days,

lost in uncertain quest.

 

one sentence could take months,

only to get thieved by a cave swallow.

twisted into a long, knotted nest

of mud-and-twig under an overpass.

 

a single word can be  

a murmurous, mellifluous sitar of touch

which nestles for a mere moment 

to strum a lover's nape.

 

but!

--to sail on skis of contrails,

above birds-of-paradise that nod to kiss in breeze,

if that might be what it takes

for a drunk to look up from a jail cell of drinks ... 

and yet no no no 

all that means nothing.

the soul scrabbles after unchained moments,

unsullied newborn joys,

instantaneous togethery-nesses.

too low to be noticed.  and yet so high

above the truth of the fall.

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

10/14/24

7/20/24

This is another poem where I really don't know what I am talking about

Poem: A History of Rain

History of Rain

 

the sky is dying

in ditches and puddles,

leavening the streets

with emotions recycled from our crimes.

drainpipes moan like didgeridoos,

vibrating with the same water

that fell on mammoths, stegosaurs,

and before that, the howl

of youthful volcanoes.

 

when water first fell

it played phoenix without fire,

a rainforest of phoenixes every day--

then came the humans and their faces

and the collisions with tears.

 

there’s been no escape, since then,

from the happy-sad, stressed, vain cheeks,

and the gutters below their fitful melodramas.

torrents have become histrionic.

storms a soap opera rife with gods.

rain rages, wails or chortles now.

no innocent praise,

no rising up with the dignity of fresh angels.  

no celebration

in the vibrato of puddles anymore,

only little theaters-in-the-round,

microcosms of the lonely.

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

Poem: Poppy

 

Poppy

 

species

come and go without a tomb,

tracking cordilleras

which shrink into puny moraines.

 

supernovas paint millennia of sky,

and yet bullets from outer space,

meteoric in their brief blazing bright,

never silence the planet’s breath.

 

and a single poppy,

 

eager orange-yellow globe,

eye of molten dinosaurs,

it opens sometimes, for a moment, 

to guzzle down millions of gone years--

 

years frozen for the ages and gone,

even though they burn from a friction of eons

for the poppy.

 

millions of years, yes,

compressed into a brilliant fresh moment of sight.

and then they simply explode, so fast,

into a bloom.

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

7/18/24

Poem: Not So Hidden

 

Not So Hidden

 

the dawn turns slowly away,

puzzled as a curse

by what lurks in its flaws:

 

a paradox

which ants and worms and even highest birds

and playful children 

never see:

 

a vast beauty 

whose eternal flame fascinates even as it brightens-- 

and yet awakens harm.

 

comets 

strum starry harps and lyres with their plumes,

and yet the sweet night too falters, 

 

swinging its sidereal crown,

silver candelabra in hand,

past so many scarred ghosts.

 

like that, just so,  

above those down below them

broken on the unforgiving earth,

the precious day and the treasured night 

move on.

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

Poem: Wealthy

 

Wealthy

 

blue marries green,

a consecration of rebirth,

shoots rise to raindrops,

one perch meets another,

a land so lush and petalled:

blossoms not coins,

gold without vaults, 

easygoing as breeze,

life beyond pavement.

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

Poem: House Life

 House Life

in detergent, dishwater, cups and plates,

or when i make lemonade,

gremlins bubble up,

 

too many to appease,

neglected and miffed.  they are

the resonance of my dormant cello.

 

i hide

when they peep from my apron,

or frolic in the travertine shine

of the kitchen countertop.

 

gremlins, yes, invisible 

but gnawing and cloying,

the same honey lathered on every smile,

like plunging my tongue into lard.

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

7/19/24 ... mucho more changes. .. this is a projective poem, based on what I've listened to, read, movies, etc.  I don't know if it's ethical for me to take this perspective, but I didn't think about that when I wrote it.  Maybe it's okay, because, say, novels are, all the time, having to create and behaviorize characters of various genders, ages, orientations, nationalities, etc.   Maybe it isn't okay, maybe it's like a White writer lamenting from the perspective of a Black character ... which also is questionable ... ugh ... confused

10/29/23 ... I tried to make this poem a little more engaging, changing a couple phrases.

Inspired by The Feminine Mystique

Poem: Happy Couple

 

Happy Couple

 

devilish of smile,

we laugh with no change of tone

from straight-lipped frowns.

 

we hold hands,

warm from hibernation,

to exit each other’s icicle spiderwebs.

 

guilt and guile

wax to-and-fro

in the comings and goings

of relatives and friends.

 

you caramelize what i am,

while i sugarcoat your moments.

no despair or rapture

in our peccadillo kitsch.

agile as geminis, 

we share a face across quadrilles 

of ongoing astrological flanks. 

 

pain, it comes round.

we entertain it 

and each other all the while,

not looking too close,

but saying hello, once again,

every once in a while.

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

7/19/24

Republicans are not stupid: they are ruthlessly logical

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NOTE:  if you like this post, you might like this one as well:

The Ultimate Test

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Someday, let us hope, history will look back at this time objectively.   When it does, it shall conclude that the GOP has abandoned truth in major ways, with devastating consequences.  And yet, they have not done this out of ignorance.

 

Caricature, lampoon or otherwise deride them, the Republicans are using a highly effective rational strategy to gain and maintain power.  The strategy involves the creation of a base of followers so committed that they are completely loyal, regardless of the truth.

 

The GOP project is all about gaslighting.  It claims to be good and righteous, while labeling its opponents as evil.  Despite the rhetoric, it intends to destroy democracy.  It champions White heteronormative patriarchal supremacy.  It rewards blind obedience and punishes decency, empathy and ethics.  It replaces human rights with might-makes-right. 

 

This project requires immense deceit, part of which is denying that there is any deceit.  It holds up the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen.  It is, at the deepest level, dedicated to hiding what it is.  Hence, the GOP path, in general, has become the Maximum Lie.

 

This is evil.  But it isn’t stupid.   Calling the GOP stupid and ignorant, in fact, reveals the liberal side’s own ignorance and vulnerability.

 

Again, Donald Trump is often called stupid.  But he is no more stupid than a cunning crime boss.  He currently leads a movement that has forever changed America.  It may gain complete control of all three branches of government.  Given the goal, the strategy has been wildly successful and is completely logical.

 

Trump may already have reached the point where his sheer power completes his metamorphosis from the greatest con man of our times to the most powerful leader, someone who could in the near future, be discussed as widely and reverentially as, say, Napoleon.

 

If that conclusion seems absurd to you, or repels you, my response is this: Wake up.  The Republicans are not foolish.  An organized, impassioned zealous minority, united behind a charismatic authority, can defeat and control a disorganized and internally divided majority.  This is a simple fact, demonstrated over and over through time.

 

Fear and hate can--and have--defeated science and unpleasant major truths.  An example of such a truth is that the covid vaccine reduces death.  That is obvious.  But it doesn’t matter.   It won’t stop a populist movement with momentum on its side, and a magnetic leader who can herd a sizeable minority of citizens into cult-like fawning.

 

Death, economic ruin, the decline of the American Empire, these accompany the fall of democracy.  None of that matters, if your goal is a less vibrant, less decent, less competent country under your thrall, a country whose primary goal, above all else, is to protect and preserve the power of its leader. 

 

Why would intelligent human beings throw away freedom for this?  Fear, first of all.  But also because their own fortune, as they define it, is tied to their leader.  A charismatic takeover works for those who can ride the coattails of the nascent autocrat.  They get more money, more attention, more ego-pampering. 

 

The psychology of this is intricate, and varies from follower to follower.  Anne Applebaum brings this out in her chilling, meticulous piece on collaborators in The Atlantic [1].  The bottom line is this:  conscience will not stop people from knuckling under.  And yes, some will eagerly abandon ethics for power.

 

Note that many Republicans might not even consciously know the path they are following--even though it is blatant in their actions.  If you want to get Biblical:  The tree is known by its fruit.

 

Denial is useful for those who have chosen evil.  It removes the shackle of guilt in the rush to destroy equality and erect a throne.  Total belief in a false worldview has advantages for the plotters of a coup.  For instance, if you adamantly claim you are not doing what you are actually doing--with convincing body language and delivery--it can stymie and slow the opposition, while assisting in the recruitment of more followers. 

 

If you think denial cannot partner with effective goal-seeking, then you are not doing justice to the complexity of the human mind.   Is this rational?  It is within a framework of seizing power.  The logic of the Maximum Lie is efficacious for usurpation.

 

The price of a GOP takeover is absolutely devastating.  Equality, empathy, freedom of the press, indeed, freedom to express, all gone--and so much more.  Worse of all, an all-powerful narcissism invites war; and in the nuclear age, war is global doom. 

 

The best defense is to stop calling Republicans stupid or ignorant.  Accept that they are fearless in their realpolitik.  Be honest.  Call them authoritarians, not conservatives.  Stop pretending that the threat isn’t real.

 

Remind yourself, too, that ethics, empathy and compassion are wonderful things.  We need them as torches to light the way as we stumble into the future

[1]   https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2020/07/trumps-collaborators/612250/

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

Ethics Review: Sketches of Five Netflix Shows: Marshall, Birth of the Dragon, Paradise Hills, No One Gets Out Alive, and Midnight Mass

 

SPOILER ALERT ON ALL SHOWS

There are a lot of movies/series that I’d like to ethically review.  The focus is the deeper cultural messages they implant.  However, I just don’t have time.  I am trying to finish up my novel and send it out before 2022.  I also need my poetry for spiritual survival.  The catharsis keeps me sane and connected to my spirit guides. 

 

Given lack of time, I am reduced to sketches.  Here are five of them.  Four movies and a series recently featured on Netflix.   The only one I really liked was Midnight Mass (see 5). 

SPOILER ALERT ON ALL SHOWS

 

(1) Marshall (2017)

Marshall is a fictional account of the early legal battles and brave brilliance of Thurgood Marshall.  It does a great job showing why he is deservedly considered a true hero and leader in the fight against racism.  It advances the rights of Black people, especially men, and to a lesser degree Jewish people, and maybe White women.

The movie has a significant ethical flaw.  It embraces sexist myths about rape.  Namely, that if a victim doesn’t yell or fight or use any opportunity to flee or call the police, then it saddles them with the legitimate suspicion that they weren’t really raped, or that it was all their own fault.

In the movie, the defense team, which includes Marshall, argues that the woman on the stand wasn’t really raped because she had opportunities to scream to a police officer, and also to use the phone to call the police. 

Hence, the defense argues, because the woman didn’t speak up, she is lying.  This has been a standard generic argument, used to protect rapists and sexual abusers, probably forever.

As Alanis Morrissette said, “Women don’t wait.  Our culture doesn’t listen.”

It is a common psychological response to freeze up during threat or violence.  The victim simply can’t move or make decisions, out of fear, shock, and other complex emotions and factors. 

Freezing up doesn’t mean the victim should feel guilty, or in any way deserves blame.  Nor does it mean they (female or male) were not raped, the conclusion drawn by Marshall's defense team in the movie.

In a dramatic scene, the lawyer working with Marshall is gagged by him in front of the jury.  He does this because the women on the witness stand says she was gagged.  He then lets out a huge scream, one easily heard throughout the courtroom.

This super-loud scream is meant to shame the woman on the stand, and to prove that she couldn’t have been raped.  Why?  Because she was in the back seat of a car, when a police officer pulled over the alleged perpetrator.

First, to repeat, yet again:  no one is to blame for freezing up when assaulted or threatened.  Fight, flight and freeze are all common responses. 

Second, note that women are taught to be silent, and not complain or make a fuss, as part of a traditional sexist culture. 

Third, leaving the above aside, research show there are good evolutionary reasons to freeze up in dangerous situations.  It seems to be built into us as a survival mechanism. 

In the past, if you tried to run from or fight a pack of wolves, or a nearby lion, chances are high you would die.  If you remain still, though, the predator might not notice you, or might think twice.

In the movie, if the woman screamed out, the driver could have overpowered and killed the police officer who stopped the car.  It was a rural deserted road, late at night, and the driver was alleged to have a knife.  A knife is actually better than a gun in hand-to-hand combat, especially if the officer is surprised by the adrenaline-hyped attacker lunging out of the car.

A better tribute to Thurgood Marshall would not have emphasized the power of sexist myths to impress a jury.  Yes, in the movie, the woman wasn't actually raped.  But that doesn't mean you should attempt to sell Marshall's prowess by spotlighting the defense's use of such myths.  Culturally, these myths protect rapists and thereby encourage rape and sexual assault.

In effect, the producers make a statement against racism by hugging sexism. 

#TributeFail

 

(2) Birth of the Dragon (2017)

 

This action & adventure movie about Bruce Lee’s early life is amazingly sexist.  It boils down to a simple formula.  Kung fu fighters are all male; and the best kung fu fighter is also the wisest spiritual leader on the planet, and other males should adopt their approach to gain wisdom and rule. 

In short, the more people you can beat up, the better you are in all ways.

Women, so this worldview goes, can’t do any of this, and so they are natural followers.  There are zero empowering roles for women in the movie.  There are only two female actors of note in the whole thing.  One is the evil antagonist, the stereotype of the wicked whore, who runs a sex trafficking and slavery operation.  The other is the passive, all-good angel, who is also the romantic interest of a secondary male character (yes, he is going to save her).

As with many sexist movies, the few women are either cookie-cutter whores, goddesses, or mother-types, who support males that have the power and adventure.

The two greatest kung fu fighters in the movie are Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man.  Each is in effect a god at beating up other men .  Many scenes are shown of gatherings where these awesome men demonstrate their physical superiority, and hence their right to lead and demand fealty.  For most of the movie, Bruce Lee acts with the arrogant, taunting machismo of a bully, a bully who says he loves capitalism and power.

Making the egregious ethical message worse, neither of these great enlightened masters cares about ending the slave-traffic.  Their spiritual enlightenment, derived from their ability to kill with their hands, doesn’t concern itself with the lowly fate of imprisoned women. 

At the end of the show, almost as an afterthought, Bruce Lee does end the slave trade in Chinatown.  But it never was his primary goal, and he does it by offering the Madame, and the men who control her, lots and lots of money.

Movies like this send a sad, primitive message to their intended target audience of young men.  They promote a macho ideal, one that has led civilization down the path of war for twelve thousand years.  If male chest-thumping continues to be our masculine norm, we are a doomed species. 

It is happening now.  Huge-ego men are rising up as leaders around the world (Trump, Modi, Xi, Duterte, Orvan, Erdogan, Jon-un  … ).  As has happened before, for thousands of years, the saber-rattling of these sorts of males will lead to war.  The war will, at some point, expand to become a World War, which today means nuclear annihilation.

Despite the very real implications, the trajectory of real doom, our entertainment industry continues to promote and make money off selling poisonous masculine norms to young men.

 

 

(3) Paradise Hills (2019)

This is a movie about rich teenage girls who are sent away by their parents for therapy.  The heroine finds out that the therapy involves a Stepford Wives-like transformation, one that creates conformist obedient servants who happily obey their powerful families and future husbands.

The movie succeeds in making a strong statement.   Women and girls in every society on the planet face control techniques, similar to those in the movie, from birth.  When that tactic fails, sheer violence is the ultimate arbiter.  Paradise Hills taps into that, and sends a message of rebellion against the norm.

Despite the effective slam of oppressive techniques, the big focus is on ‘first world problems’ faced by the middle and upper class--though not entirely.

The worse part of the movie is that, though the protagonist escapes, she never actually challenges the system.   As with Birth of the Dragon, ending slavery and mind control isn’t the goal of the heroine.  She doesn’t bring down Paradise Hills (though she kills its abominable administrator), and we can presume she lets it continue to destroy the minds of innocent girls who are sent there.

All in all, the movie makes a good statement about how women are expected to knuckle under and accept social stereotypes and masks, with nary a squeak of complaint.

 

(4)  No One Gets Out Alive (2021)

If you can look below the brutal misogynist plot, which invokes the bloody BTK treatment of dozens of women and girls (the true number is never revealed), there is a trenchant allegory here, one that is so painful because it damns how we live today in the real world.

The protagonist is a young undocumented immigrant woman.  Although she is a good person, she is met with cruelty, false kindness, and backstabbery at every turn.  Her only true ally is a relative who cannot save her from a horrible fate.   

White American men, benefitting from their privilege, are at the forefront of belittling, abusing and deceiving her (but they are not alone).  Money is used to coerce. At other times, simple brute force becomes a very physical bludgeon.  

This movie is so brutal and violent, focusing on predation of young women, that I couldn’t watch it all.  I read the summary on Netflix. 

I don’t see how it is entertainment, except for callous people who are numb to the obvious allegory and indictment.

Truth is, in our society today, undocumented immigrants, especially women, are treated violently and viciously in great disproportion.  It is also true that, in parts of Mexico, especially around the maquiladoras, murders of young women take place in large numbers with relative impunity.

This movie might succeed, through its shock power, as a way to generate empathy.  It paints a dismal, depressing picture of what an undocumented woman might face, coming to the USA.  It portrays White privilege in total, honest ugliness.

 I do have some doubts that the producers of No One Gets Out Alive even noticed the ethical potential of this gruesome story.  It has the ability to make us think.   However, the slaughter could also desensitize viewers, rather than open minds to greater empathy.

There is no ‘moral of the story’ built into the script.  All that the audience gets is:  the world sucks for immigrants, too bad, and if you’re female without the protection of a man, expect to be beaten down, one way or the other.

Again, it is disgusting that this movie can be marketed as “entertainment.”  This isn't entertainment, it is an exposé.  Of course, we lap this stuff up, and that only makes us look worse.

 

(5) Midnight Mass

Fresh from watching this, I think this is one of the best Netflix series I’ve ever seen.  It succeeds in demonstrating how evil can assume the role of good, and how it can convince a lot of people that they are righteous, even while they perpetrate great horror. 

In the series, the majority of the island dwellers are seduced and deceived.  How?  Through well-spoken rhetorical statements, and psychological manipulations, by powerful personalities.  And yet that wouldn’t be possible, except for the people’s own biases, vanities, and self-deceits.

This movie contains one of the greatest villain portrayals I have ever seen.  Not because she is mighty like a Maleficent, but because she is led by her prejudices to twist everything into a conscience-breaker of convincing lies.  She speaks so well, so seamlessly, without ever questioning herself, that her silver tongue swiftly recruits and dominates the weak.  Never once does she question her own motives.  The actor excels in this dark role.

Even at the end, when everything is ruin and blood, the islanders don’t face their seduction by darkness.  The progression of their delusion is realistic.  There’s no magic spell or ancient evil relic that renders mind control.  The debauchery proceeds through nothing more than believable psychological process.

Miraculous events do occur, ones without logical explanation, and there is a monster lurking beneath it all.  However, this creature relies on a certain zealous follower, who insanely believes he is doing good while he proselytizes, recruits and controls the others for his secret master.  On its own, the monster has many vulnerabilities and weaknesses.  It cannot even speak.

This tale realistically shows how the masses can be misled by a charismatic personality, in this case a male, backed by a codependent yet sinisterly competent female worshipper.  The people of the island sacrifice everything, even the lives of their own family members--and they still don’t get it, even when they themselves burn. 

Midnight Mass, perhaps more than any series I’ve seen, calls out how vulnerable we are to evil.  And yes, evil can become so manifest in our daily lives.  Consider fascism.  When fascism rises, those opposed to it are good by default, if only because they embrace some modicum of reason, fairness, and respect for life, while rejecting a cult mentality.

Sans actual monster, the transformation in Midnight Mass can happen in the United States, or in any country in the world.  It is hard for me to believe that Trumpism didn’t somehow influence the producers (apparently it didn't, given the timeline on wiki).

Excellent acting.  Fantastic writing by Mike Flanagan and others.

 

 

 

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