[Poem] Nursery Crimes

Conditioned to believe in ‘us’ and ‘them’

Pavlovian dogs awaiting the bell

There’s no longer a man at the helm

We’re marching to the tune of a death knell

‘Never give up’, ‘Success is everything’,

these constant refrains are brainwashing

Centralized systems heralding ruin

Necropolises conjuring illusion

Are porsches and mansions your only objects of seeking?

What happened to the holy grails of Truth and Understanding?

Kids committing suicide because they can’t succeed

No… Murder! We, society have committed this deed

Economic madness, crazy civilization of endless consumption

Currency is valued now on human perception

World Wars, Bretton Woods, Nixon shock

Companies commit genocide to stop tanking stock

And we sully our souls for little bits of paper

Fooled by a ‘democracy’ substituted with oligarchy

[Poem] Lost Religion, Renewed Faith

Dear mama, I know my loss of religion scares you

How can it not? I know the way you were brought up

Granddaughter of a Chevalier of the Cross, true?

You cannot go a day without drinking the cup

Of the sacrements of Grace.

 

We were Eastern Orthodox before Catholic

And before that… Buddhist, Hindu, Jew, Jain, who knows…

The Church destroyed our past identity, septic

Cross, corrupted by the temporal power shows

Of the Renaisscant Holy See

Looking for Prester John

 

Look now, at the orgies in the Curia

Look now, at the abuse of children

Look now, at the emptiness of rituals

Whose meaning the priests have long forgot

Or perhaps never knew.

 

Dear mama, don’t despair, for I have not lost faith

I still seek Grace, communion, salvation, penance

Just without the priests as intermediaries.

 

 

 

[Poem] Mentor… Rival!

Old man, I still look up to you

Despite your venomous spew

No respite you show, and I am glad

Though your rigid mind makes me sad

 

Why did you want to make everyone you knew:

Think like you? Walk like you? Talk like you? Rhyme like you? Dance like you? Sing like you?

Was it a clone you were looking for, or something whole?

A frail Dolly, or someone with his own mind and soul?

I know that I’m young and naive, my mind’s a new sieve

Unclogged potency… Sure, I engage in idiocy,

petty drivel, base and low… I let it flow

I’m a sinner, a dolt, a street magician lacking flavour

You’re Houdini, grand magical shows the masses savour

I, a parlour tricker, look for new Magic wherever

 

I looked to you for guidance, you gave me poison

But never mind…

 

I still look to you for guidance, not as a mentor but as a rival

Call me a peddler of drivel. Call me anything you deign, don’t refrain

Because, your mind that is so unbending I still find utterly fascinating

Abuse me all you like. I am honoured and delighted

I hoard every curse y’throw my way like precious treasure.

 

 

 

[Poem] Odin and the Noose

(Warning: Don’t try this at home. You’re not Odin and your house is not the Yggdrasil)

I hang from the branches of the Yggdrasil

At once both alive and dead

I watch from the branches of the Yggdrasil

From high above the well of Urðr

 

The Tree sustains me, the Tree maintains me

My fear contains me, Fenrir’s grin revolts me

Cannot escape my destiny, the Tree understands me

I see my death, I accept. And then I hear all Life.

 

 

Poetic Edda:

Veit ec at ec hecc vindga meiði a
netr allar nío,
geiri vndaþr oc gefinn Oðni,
sialfr sialfom mer,
a þeim meiþi, er mangi veit, hvers hann af rótom renn.

Við hleifi mic seldo ne viþ hornigi,
nysta ec niþr,
nam ec vp rvnar,
opandi nam,
fell ec aptr þaðan.

I know that I hung on a windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows from where its roots run.

No bread did they give me nor a drink from a horn,
downwards I peered;
I took up the runes,
screaming I took them,
then I fell back from there.

[Poem] Darkest Night Finale

 

[Poem] Purgatory

Heaven/hell, light/darkness, don’t know

Where this path goes, really don’t care

Feel nothing… void, numb, a mute crow

After my journey in Satan’s cold lair

 

A frosted reflection on an icy lake

Shows me someone I can’t recognise

Tattooed, after he sat in the rake

Python on his right arm, Leviathan leftward lies

A Mongoose and bird over each

What do these signs teach?

Too cold to ponder, too cold to wonder

After the saunter. Have I made a blunder

Coming here? A mistake? Too cold to care

 

Am I empty? Is that why I’m now frozen?

That would imply there was something there to fill

Cannot feel a thing except rage. Now even that anger’s molten

Could I ever feel? Long ago perhaps, I once felt a thrill

Long long ago, long forgotten ray.

I’m done with this place, but I don’t know the way out

 

Don’t really care if I stay here forever cold

I’d just sleep, but my eyelids were plucked out

Nothing else to do but to walk this shadowy road.

Torture me, jeer, whatever… I’ll just keep heading south

Because there’s nowhere else to go.

 

(If you want to start from the beginning here’s a link [Short Story] Shrink Zero )

I thought I was ending it with this, but I guess I was wrong. [Poem] Dawn

 

 

 

 

 

[Poem] Purgatory

[Poem] Nightmare, What we’ve become

Demons claw my skin, pierce bone

‘Paradise’, ‘Hades’: these words mean nothing now

Light is faltering, crazed and alone

Gehenna screams, “witness the madness I now sow.”

 

‘Reward’, ‘punishment’: these words mean little

I must walk the path set before me, but I can’t help question

I am human, I am frail, spirit is weak, my arrogance so gross it leaks, pride in my spittle

I may be tiny to You, but am I not at least an inch taller than ‘them’ in my understanding?

Still this arrogance, still this pride, I just can’t get rid of it.

Need to burn it away. Let the demons keep scratching…

Let them drink my blood and marrow, my angry pride until I can again see the Light

I understand but still, my mind and soul can’t help fighting

The pain of purgatory.

Oh, my Lady of Perpetual Succour

Why can’t my eyes see you?

[Poem] Darkest Night Finale

 

 

[Poem] A prayer for metamorphosis

Let the wind clothe our bodies

Gently sweeping through the cotton without static

Let moonlight cocoon us

Let fire run through our veins

Let our flesh turn to water

Mingling with the cosmos

Until starlight beckons us

…

Our hearts race, sweat breaks, we asphyxiate

Psychosomatic… Don’t panic

…

And in the morning may we burn with the light of understanding illuminating new eyes

Which in turn will lead to empathy for all

And absolute samadhi

As we see the universal fractal everywhere.

 

(Inspired by something I read a long time ago,  but I can’t remember what. I’m not sure how to explain samadhi. A rough translation would be peace and joy. )