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[Epic Poem] Part 14: Nietzsche and the Didgeridoo

[Epic Poem] Part 13: Utopia!

Anna recovers quickly, though her head hurts bad

From eager Mary’s incessant profound chatter,

Her nurse’s bedside manner, makes Anna real mad
Anna cries, “Stop, just stop! Can’t bear this mind batter,

Weltanschauung, sine qua non, sensu strictos and propaedeutics, prima facie and otiose percipi!!!
If you’re not going to read me the Three Musketeers

Then let’s go out, I need to get off my sore derriere!”

Mary acquiesces, with one final “a fortiori!”

They set off to see Shorty, the cowboy philosopher

Rival of Demosthenes, the Demagogue whisperer

“Shorty knows everything about…oh, everything,”

Mary explains, “He’ll tell you why we’re here better.”

They pass by Merlin, a greybeard on a young face
Who lifts his pointy hat, with grace, finesse and zing
They nod their heads to his very polite howdedo.
Anna is quite fascinated, watching the passersby
She stops to watch Plato argue with Thoreau,
She could watch this forever she thinks… Until
She sees nude Nietzsche playing the didgeridoo

 

[Epic Poem] Part 15: Fastest Rhetoric Gun in the West

 

(I don’t know why, but I’m fascinated with didgeridoos… and hurdy gurdies!)

[Poem] Second guest post from Anonymous Tim

Cosmic dance changes tempo

Stars don’t care that man isn’t ready

New epidemic on the horizon

 

We must learn to cope and not give in!

Weather through this destructive hail storm

 

Persevere, or all hope is lost

Rapid genetic mutation

For the ones who don’t drown

In the river of blood

 

Survivors stained with sorrow and guilt

Don’t let trauma capture your soul

PTSD will kill you

 

Keep moving! Keep thinking! Don’t let yourself slow down in the horror

Bright dawn awaits, but that’s much later

 

Planet’s wrath unleashed

Re-examine our priorities

While magnetic flux plummets

And sun’s skirt twirls low

To the tempo of the cosmic dance

 

Don’t give in to acute pangs of the heart

Slow yourself down to the sun’s tempo

 

Slowly now… Breathe in… Breathe out

When you’re slowing down to a halt, move faster

When you’re moving too fast to see, slow down.

 

 

(I love how Tim explains astrophysics. The Sun twirling her skirt in a dance is so much easier on the ears than plasma fields, Dynamo theory, and such. I think he’s talking about heart attacks near the end, but I’m not sure. Cancer and rapid, disruptive evolution in the beginning, that I could get…because he goes on and on about it. Jeez, he is not a cheerful guy even when he’s trying to sound hopeful!)

 

 

[Poem] The Demise of Tamilakam

A long time ago, in the land I write in

There were once four great kingdoms

The Chera, the Chola, Pandya and the Ay Velir

 

They used to elect two kings to reign

For eight year terms, senior and junior

Until one day the senior kings decided to stay forever

 

They warred against each other. They were vain

The banners of the bow, the fish, the tiger and the elephant

 

In battle they consumed each other

Driven by their pursuit of power

Making their kingdoms easy pickings

For foreign invasions

And indoctrination

Their clocks had stopped ticking.

 

 

 

(I would not have added the Ay since they started off as vassals, but seeing as how they survived from BCE times till 1950AD, I thought it would be a mistake to leave them out. Also… Chalukyas, Kadambas, Chirakkal, etc I have considered as Ay, but all the dynasties are so intermingled through marriage by this time it doesn’t really matter any more.)

[Poem] On Matrilineal Society and War

Matrilineality makes sense in a society of warriors

Inheritance passed from a sister to her daughter

Pragmatism at its best, estates preserved

From  war’s chaos, order is conserved

Women look after the affairs of the land

While men venture forth to fight in battle

Free now to think of metal and not cattle

No ties to hold them back to their estates

Only keen to show their prowess and demonstrate

 

In my ancestral land, girls and boys would learn to fight

In martial schools until the age of fifteen

Then the boys would, with sword and spear, ride

To battle, glory, and usually early deaths

Husband joined his wife’s household

Not wife her husband’s

The king’s nephew was heir apparent

Not the king’s son

No female infanticide over here,

queens (king’s sisters) prayed to birth daughters

To preserve their bloodlines from Time’s slaughter.

 

 

 

 

[Poem] 1200 BC, when civilization collapsed

Rewind! Three thousand years ago,

Bronze age! Trade in tin and copper

Egypt, global superpower

Beaureaucrats there maximize manpower.

Every harvest is recorded

Every tithe marked by savvy scribes

Super specialised citizenry

For maximum efficiency

Hitites, Minoan Greeks, Babylonians

Indus(?), Elamites, Assyrians

Are some of the other big names

In the international trade game.

The Hittites even build a city near no water

Getting rich on trade, conquest and slaughter.

Then the rains stop, earthquakes real bad

Tsunamis of rock. Mother Nature goes mad.

Famine and drought!

The people shout!

Diseases spread!

Industry dead!

Trade routes disperse!

Complete systems Collapse

Many scribes die!

Heiroglyphs mean nigh!

Knowledge is lost!

Such great cost!

Cities burn!

As Time turns.

Administrations crumble!

And kings bumble.

Enter The Enigmatic Sea People!

The historian’s nighttime terror

Traders turned pirates!

Or into migrating conquerors!

Welcome to the Iron Age!

Assyria are now the world’s number one

They go on a manic killing spree

And are hated by everyone.

Until great king Cyrus, from out of nowhere,

Puts them in their place.

(Technically, the Medes conquers Assyria, and then Cyrus conquers the Medes. Empire wise, the Assyrian is replaced by the Persian, which is what I was going for here.)

[Epic Poem] Part 13: Utopia!

[Epic Poem] Part 12: Ritual Magicks and a Colicky Bird

The Yggdrasil is summoned! Its branches swallow

The adventurers like a matador’s “Toro”.

Their destination reset by the bird’s outburst

They disembark far away from Valhalla! “Curst

Curst curst curst demon bird!” growls Thor, spitting out sand,

“Look where you’ve brought us, this vile and deserted land.

(When we reach there, Sæhrímnir’s food you’ll share)”

From this scene let us move to one quite contrary

And witness the happenings of Anna and Mary!

 

—-fade out—

 

—-fade in —

 

Scene: A colourful Parthenon, surrounded by

Arguing philosophers and yellow brick roads

Beautiful princesses and existential toads

Dueling dualists and material reductionists

Platonic caves filled with luminosity inherent

By stony induction. “Welcome to Utopia!”

Mary says to a newly arrived Anna.

[Epic Poem] Part 14: Nietzsche and the Didgeridoo

[Poem] Ancestral Truths

The average person is made up

Of three generations of subjective truth

You, your parents’ and grandparents’

Coz your folks are less likely to lie to you

 

You drink from experience’s cup

120 years of history’s soup

The narratives flavoured by traits inherent

Memories like a safari, uncaged zoo

 

An example:

Granddad a Jacobite exorcist

Dad a lapsed company executive

Demon spirits real or psychological trauma?

You hear both sides and make your own conclusions

 

Grandmother a Red Cross nurse

Seen a world war waged in Africa

And partition of Pakistan and India

Mother a doctor in the city

Helped fight a war against leprosy

And still battles the System’s apathy

 

I am shaped by their subjective truths

In my mind, their eternal moots

Their lives have shaped me, whether I like it or not

To my nephews and nieces I’ll pass on these 120 years of thought.

 

 

 

 

[Poem] Maveli

Great Asura king, noble and just being

Mahabali grandson of Prahlada

Astute student of sage Shukracharya

Let Onam ring with beautiful singing

Remembering your days as king.

 

You conquered the three worlds, Chakravarthy!

You administered with great sagacity

Pride in your good works was your only sin

You repented of your hubris and undertook penitence.

In three steps Vaman disrobed you of all worldly attainments

You did not forget your people, even when exiled to Patala

Great king, Indra of the New Age, after samsara,

You will rule the three worlds again.

 

[Poem] Dragon Phones

Pay heed when using a Chinese built phone

Their censorship laws change the graphics

Certain emojis can make you accident prone

Your phone deceiving you, with cutesy antics.

Especially beware the head explosion emoji

In Chinese OSes all cutesy rainbows and confetti

But it transforms into something very different

Once you’ve pressed sent (to someone off the mainland!)

(This is a problem with the OnePlus at least. I don’t know about the others)