The Lonely God - a cycle of 42 poems within the cycle (TH & MS)

H

The poet wonders
to his doubtful lonely self
if he can be God.

S

God is lonelier
than any poet
and even he doubts
if he is God.

H

His writings ignored
or misread by the masses
like confusion at Babel.

S

God can’t remember
if he gave poets free will
in what they create.

H

Do we create God
with our free will so there is
something to obey?

S

surely all that kindness and consideration too...

did God make us do these things?

H

Is the Muse fluid
through the poet’s whole body
or an outsider?

S

the Muse

a concept for poets
to blame
if no one likes their work

and a concept for poets
to be falsely modest about
if people love what they write

H

Kicked out of Scotland,
the McCools saw Ireland
before crossing the Atlantic.

S

Kicked out of everywhere

Adam and Eve saw Ireland

drowned by the Atlantic.

H

It is said that cats
can sense when your death is near.
That’s why I have two.
One can say my days are few;
the other yawns and goes to sleep.

S

cats have nine lives
so that they can
force you to do their will
in rebirth after rebirth

it's a kind of cat
vicious circle

H

If all literature is
simply a remix,
then we must create
a new language.

S

if all literature
has already been written
then perhaps
we should all stop writing

H

When a poet fails
after much frustration
and lost inspiration
to shape words into verses,
it is a time of darkness.

S

God doesn’t care what religion you are.

God has a whole universe
to look after
not just a rather petty single species on Earth,
the one we think is of such great importance

God doesn’t even know
if you are Catholic, Protestant, Jewish or Muslim
or none of the above

H

Religion is for men.

A way to bend wills
while the Creator watches
and wonders why the world
has gone to Hell.

S

Prayer

If this is what free will
makes us do, Father
please take that
poisoned cup from us
and render us robotic but good.

H

Almost eighty years
since the Holocaust occurred,
and still,
we must treat it as if
it happened yesterday.

S

The Holocaust

It happened yesterday
and the day before
and probably today
and certainly tomorrow
and the day after.

We are a genocidal species
each of us potential victim
each of us potential perpetrator.

It is not in “never forget”
that holocausts will end
but in changing.

H

Each day,
I hear the screams
from the innocent people
who were left clawing
each other
in the gas chambers.

Their tired voices
plead,
Never let this happen
again.

Looking at past and current events,
with my head down,
I’ve failed.

S

How long we live for
is not the point.
Did we actually live?
That’s what matters.

H

How much do we have
to die
before we decide
it is time to live?

S

How much will you give me

if I decide to let you live?

These are hungry times, my friend.

If you are my friend, you will give me much.

H

A man desires
both the knowledge and uncertainty
the world can offer.

Learning is a life-
long process for curious
minds that shouldn't be finished.

S

and yet
the mind needs peace
calm amidst the reality of uncertainty

the restless mind seeks novelty
the zen mind lets go of all

 

H

An asymptote of sorts,
wisdom is like godliness.
No matter how close
the old road takes us
we never can touch.

One cannot be a master,
but that is not the point.

S

a young man said
the kingdom of heaven
is within

not a
holiday resort
for the pious
recently deceased

there is a path
"the old road"

masters walk it
- but we are not masters
so let's walk close by instead

H

If the books were burned
like in Bradbury's novel,
which would I memorize?

Hell, I can't even
remember my own lines
let alone the epics.

S

if every book was burned
and none survived
what would we do?

write new ones
that's what we'd do

 

 

 

H

And when they burn us
in the abandoned alley,
may the flames waken

all dormant persons
who did not heed the warning
of death to culture.

S

Death to culture

said the vulture

looking to pick the best lines

and finest images

for a much-needed snack.

H

after William Stafford

As I travel the interstate
linking the capital
to my southern town,
a maroon Rorschach
paints the concrete with blood.

Buzzards circle overhead
with their prey dying
or already passed.

The black ahead of me
hides what may hinder my course;
I imagine the fawn
in its stiff mother’s abdomen.

A decision to be made.

S

I do not like to travel

preferring the journeys inside.

There are buzzards there too, it's true

but in the darkness

I see well enough

I am used to the darkness

H

Paperbacks and hardcovers
hold the spirit of the one
who forged a pen to paper
long after the final exhale.

I, a collector of spirits,
order for more givers
of oxygen
to be chopped
for this purpose.

S

Pen meets paper in secret conspiracy,

against what? against whom?

against the paper, the pen, the holder of the pen

H

Today, I mourn the loss
of one from many people
I knew not from years ago.

Seventy-seven
since the slow starvation stole
another mother.

May you be at peace.

S

It is good to rest in peace.

Better to do so before you die

than after.

H

All the gold pieces
the consumers can offer
can never outweigh

being remembered
positively for the words
you did and did not say.

S

It's good to be alone.

But it's good to have company
if the company is good
and the company is good
so it's all good.

Some other time
it'll be good to be alone
when alone is good
and then being alone will be good
so that will be good.

H

And if being alone
does not equate
to loneliness

& cleanliness
is godliness,

I must be
a devil
content
in his own filth.

S

It is good to be clean

good to be good

the trouble is knowing

 what cleanliness is

what goodness is.