When Philosophy Lost Its Way

What was it doing wandering around
These halls? Were painted cement blocks the place
Where one could enclose wisdom? Was it found
In labyrinths where none could find its trace?

Should it be in an institution, cut
Away from life, society and human action?
Perhaps the string it dropped would help him shut
The door against its present life of faction.

What happened to the sun, the open courts
Where one could question everyone and goad
The dozing wide awake. The soul aborts
When empty halls is all it's ever showed.

Surround yourself with children who don't care
And it's no wonder foul is thought as fair.

True to You

You never have to worry I will leave
You never have to worry I will stray
Our love is something you won't have to grieve
Our love is something I promise will stay

The most important thing that you must know
Is I am so in love I'd never throw
Away our life -- no, I would not let go

You know my loyalty runs deep and true
My loyalty will tie me to your side
My loyalty belongs only to you
And always acts as my unerring guide

The most important thing that you must know
Is I am so in love I'd never throw
Away our life -- no, I would not let go

You know that I'm a social nightmare -- how
Did I get you, my beautiful, dear wife?
You really think that I would try to wow
Another when you are my complete life?

The most important thing that you must know
Is I am so in love I'd never throw
Away our life -- no, I would not let go

You never have to worry I will stray
My love for you will always, always stay

Artistic Problems

Originality or relevance
Or self-expression -- none are relevant
To poetry or any of the arts
Than swim trunks are to Asian elephants
Or poems are to any elephant --
On art they leave their stench, like mental farts.

Leviathan

Look to the coldest monster in the sea
For your salvation -- look to it and plea

For life and livelihood -- then sacrifice
Your wives and daughters to its tongues of ice --

Then sacrifice your lives to all its lies
That it will satisfy your endless cries

To satisfy your envy and your hate
That you mistake for justice while your fate

Is having all your flesh sheared by the knives
The monster's maw bears -- blood will flow. He dives

To depths below your worst and first despair
And leaves your bloated bodies floating bare

For fish and gulls to pick the severed flesh --
And all because you thought a tangled mesh

Would finally assuage the guilt you fish
For in your depths -- you finally have your wish

You never understood to be your lust
For punishment -- you feel the balmy gust

Of putrid air the coldest monster breathes
And blame the warrior whalers with their wreathes

They throw you in the sea -- your monster soul
Is rolling limp upon the stony shoal.

Uprising

Behold the evils hatred of mankind
Brings -- envy is the hatred of mankind

The youth have razors, slicing eyes to blind --
They do it in their hatred of mankind

They seek out virtue, seek its bones to grind,
Devoured in their hatred of mankind

They make divisions ever more refined
In tribalistic hatred of mankind

They'll take your tongue and make sure that they've dined
On critics in their hatred of mankind

Their progress looks much more like a behind --
Illiberals all have hatred of mankind

They'll feast upon your brains and spear your mind
Unless you love their hatred of mankind

Injustice forms the minute they have wined --
Their wining shows their hatred of mankind

Illogic, anti-reason both have vined
Their mindless, protist hatred of mankind

Authority is where crybullies find
Support for all their hatred of mankind

These racists against racism want kind
From kind split off -- that's hatred of mankind

They can't be happy -- hate seeps from their rind
To make to justice hatred of mankind

When you're disarmed, they'll make sure that they bind
You with their lustful hatred of mankind

And when you're weak, they'll make sure that you're lined
Against the wall with what was once mankind

To Leslie Marsh

I raise a drink to Leslie Marsh, my friend
And my supporter -- you ask, I'll lend
My pen to your endeavors on the mind
Within the model Hayek once defined
To help make sense of order emergent,
Evolved and natural. A turbulent
And stimulating time, a mental match
That's liberated -- each fermented batch
Will lift our spirits, make our nonsense sing
Its silliness so sober we can bring
A lightness and delightfulness when truth
Is sought in serious discussions. Couth
In uncouth jokes, the paradox of life
Is found in all your love and lack of strife.
New England British friend in Canada,
You live life like a Latin comeda
And bring us all along in your delight
With drinking, talking, minding through the night.
With hours of sleep, a conference the next day,
We still find energy enough to think and play.
There's nothing I can say that's slightly harsh --
And so I raise a drink to Leslie Marsh!

Seeking Dreams

I'm keeping it surreal. Not dripping clocks
Or walking rocks hard fast upon your heal.
The dream will seem to come in cream that tops
The milk can poets lift among the crops.
The crops are fruiting stop signs in long lines
To harvest in the winter when designs
Descend delightfully in dimpled flocks
That not even the Spring would dare repeal.

I'm sure this network field will yield, or merge
With plastic prairies sprouting poppies pure
As coal. Our only goal should be to toll
The walkers and the bells upon the knoll
Until we cannot hear the snowflakes grow
Upon the wind. We've surely sinned to know
And overflow with every mental urge
Until by seeking we become unsure.

The future fades to fact in foamy dreams
Where certainty is certain to succeed --
Poetic lies of pies and plums and pain
That won't refrain -- the dreams of the insane
Bewildering the present to present
A present of the prescient who all went
To where the certainty has turned to seems
And all the dreams are realized in deeds.

Merry Krampus!

The jingle bells will tinkle
To let you know he's here
To feast upon your naughty children's fear

On Christmas Eve the Krampus
Will come and get your kid
And put him in a cage and shut the lid

The jingle bells will tinkle
As cruelly he will laugh
As he pokes at you with his wooden staff

On Christmas Eve the Krampus
Who knows of all your tricks
Will beat upon your backside with his sticks

The jingle bells will tinkle
And he'll say with a grin,
"Be good or I'll come back for you again!"

On Christmas morning Krampus
Drops off the girls and boys
Who needed discipline instead of toys

Santa Claus and Krampus

As Santa sleighs across the sky, the snow
Clouds drifting in, the Krampus trails along
To punish all the children who don't know
How to be good, and for them sings this song:

I come tonight collecting boys
And girls who are bad
They're put in bags and beat with sticks
I'll beat them mad or sad

And Santa sings along as well -- he sings
A song of joy that echoes out above
The towns as soft as smooth angelic wings --
To everyone he sings this song of love:

I come tonight, deliver toys
To children who are good
I bring my bag of presents which
Bring joy to those I should

And thus the Krampus travels through the air --
A long-tongued, dark-hair trail of Santa's sleigh --
The two together ensure life is fair --
The bad are punished, good allowed to play.

The Pigeon in the Park

I love to watch the pigeon bob her head,
The sun refracting off her neck to shine
In purple-free, deep colors rich as wine.
She stops to fill her breast with my white bread
I broke to bring her here to keep her fed
So she can make a milk that is divine
That only in her breast can she refine
And feed to those who languish in her bed.

She stands upon the concrete corner, cool
And cautious, ready any time to fly --
She always wonders if this is a trick.
She bobs her head. Is she a feathered fool?
And yet, her stomach's full, she can't deny--
And so if there's a blow, she hopes its quick.

In the Magical Land of Ohio

I want to run away one day
To fields and fields of corn
Perhaps a city's where I'll stay
Where factories adorn
A land in winter covered in snow
The magical land of Ohio

I want to go where cities rise
Like weeds among the fields
I know that I will find my prize
Where all the flat land yields
Such fruited grains, where everything grows
The magical land of Ohio

I want to discover myself
Under a cloudy sky
I want to get off of this shelf
And no one can deny
There's no place like this place I don't know
The magical land of Ohio

Ode to the Loris

The loris lies along the limb, each leaf
A light and limber living love of brief
And fleeting things, for each will fall and float
From limb to litter, acting as a coat
Of green to brown so death does not bring grief.

Can one adorabled by wide eyes, round
In round head, have a reputation found
Among the sloths and serpents? You know "slow"
Is in his name. Some say a venom flow
Ought to be feared from every bite inbound.

Our cousin doesn't deserve such cold shade
Beyond that given by his trees that braid
A home, protection, food, and place to sleep.
He only wants to live and slowly creep
To food and love and where his bed is laid.

These loris lies do not deserve the least
Attention -- just believe your eyes, the feast
Of traits that make a mother of us all --
And in the evenings you can hear them call --
Their whistles fill the woods in the far East.

Mature Love

Hispanic lass
Upon my bed
This silver glass
Shows youth has fled

And in its place
This beauty lies
Within your face
And to your thighs

In middle age
Your bud has bloomed
My hormones rage
They're not entombed

Each year that goes
My love just grows

Love's Chakras

Beloved, you're a spirit of renown
That sprouts my wings and makes me dare to fly --
You tempt me with your spirit's filmy gown
And blind me with the diamonds of your crown.

You're always on my mind -- I can't deny
Electric flows and all that they denote,
Cliche or otherwise. You bring me high,
And I just have to look you in the eye.

The words I speak, the loving words I wrote
Since you embraced me have made up my art,
Are for your ears, are meant to gently float
From mind to mind and heart to heart from throat.

But if you were to make a map or chart
Of who I am through every when and what,
Then you would find there in the central part
A home for you in my warm, woken heart.

My instincts are to touch and love you, shut
You off from all and keep you in my noose
Of warmth, my very navel. I would cut
Off all for you -- I feel it in my gut.

The depth of creativity's let loose
When I am gazing on you. I'm no brute --
You turn on my love, art, poetic juice --
Because you make me want to reproduce.

My love transcends and dives below my boot --
I love your gold and red and gray and brown --
I want to be your sacred magic flute,
And each of us can be the other's root.

To Frederick Turner

To Frederick Turner, Homer of our time,
The man who taught me rhythm, form, and rhyme
Belong to poetry at any stage
And age, there's few whom I would love engage
On any topic, every topic -- wise
Man that you are, to read you is a prize --
Philosopher and poet, you transcend
Them both, and both you therefore do defend.
My praise for you, I ask, do not dismiss --
You helped to bring me up from the abyss,
My mentor, mage and sage, my wedding guest
And Muse -- because of you my life is blessed
With wisdom and with poetry, with plays
In verse. Though nothing that you taught me pays
In one economy, you've helped me see
The profit other orders make. I'm free
Because you grounded me in time and verse --
There's no way I could ever reimburse
You for your leading me up from the cave
And seeing that all life should not be grave,
Or just a place where we should, sadly, cope,
But rather is a place of joy and hope.

Oedipus Tyrannus

With care I limp along in blindness sight --
Oh, too much sight! -- developed in my soul.
This limp was given to me by my father,
These children given to me by my mother,
These empty sockets given to myself.
I leave behind the pestilence I brought
Because I sought to seek a pathway home
Away from my mistaken home, to flee
Into my mother's arms, away from mom
And dad, protecting them, I thought. I ought
To wander in a circle -- circles sought
Me out to bring me home from home, womb
To womb, and now near Athens is my tomb.
This cane, my curse -- it gave me sight to step
Before the Sphinx, her wings outstretched, her tail
Twitching, her lion legs low, crouched, her breasts
Wet-streaked in blood from victims she had killed
That very day, her face as beautiful
As it was awful, and answer her words,
Her riddle I in doubleness could answer.
I saw her fury press her wings down tight
Onto her body right before she threw
Herself onto the craggy stones to die.
I saw her simply lie. In triumph I
Marched into my new torture I mistook
For pleasure gardens and my just rewards.
I knew I knew and, knowing, knew I knew
How to be king -- appointed if not born --
How to be ruler over man. A wise
And sober king -- with brightness I would blind
Myself -- in too much light I could not see
The plague in front of me, that I had made
Because my virtue was a shade to hide
The outcomes of my choices. I had bound
All those I loved, who perished by my fate.
The weakest of my line is all who'd live,
My brother-in-law uncle left alone
To rule an empty city, empty home.

Running in the Park

Stroller and mom rollerblading
Behind the wide as pie eyed child
Never having gone so fast
Cool air through his hair tuft
Matted plaited ratted on his head
A child's mess
Mom's best success
Now having gone awry
He watches pass green leafed sky
And never wonders why
It's not textured green
Now flatted blue and white
When feathered movement catches his eye
For but a moment before
His mom and speed
Send it out of sight
To sudden forgetfulness
Mother turns a sudden curve
Sharper than she has in past
He feels it lean
Then straighten out
And continue his rush
Down the broken regular sidewalk
The rhythmic ticking
Sending him to sleep
Despite the joy of speed

The Attack on Paris

The great Enlightenment began in France --
It's there that liberalism took its stance
Against the darkness, let the spirit dance.

There ignorance gave way to seek the true
And every man would one day get his due --
The mind of man would rise up to the blue.

Our path to liberty was given light --
We'd know the way and know that it was right
And virtue would turn every soul to white.

These ideals far too many learned to dread --
Nazis, communists, haters came instead --
They lost, as will those who turned Paris red!

Demon Worship

Descending from their paper tower
The coldest monsters hug their power
They love it when it's feeding hour
It's their own souls that they devour
They hate you but it's they'll decide your fate
And you will beg them, Don't deny
My every want, my every sigh
I'll swallow up your every lie
Declare your truth is not up for debate
And you will worship everything
They say, demand they be your king
Then cut your throat so they'll enjoy their hate

A Tale of Two Prophets

I.

The tribe surrounds him, listens to his words.

I hear the voices, voices of the birds --
The gods have sent their messengers to me --
They spread their wings and sat upon my knee.
     The spirits up above
     They send their love
     And say that you must live
     Your life to give.
The gods are angry at our wives
Whose thighs are cold and tongues are knives.
At husbands god is angry, too --
The do not love, give what is due.
You leaders, power's not for you to take --
     Don't be a fake,
     Live for our sake --
All this commands the spirit of the lake.
The fruits will  rot before they're ripe
And worms will wriggle from your tripe.
     If you do not obey
     Beginning now, today.

The tribe beheld this holy man and trembled --
His words commanded all who had assembled.

II.

 The crowd walks past him, each ignores his words.

The voice of God is speaking to the herds
That He is coming soon to punish all
Who built around their hearts a concrete wall.
     The angels up above
     Say God is love
     And therefore you should give
     Your life to live.
Our God is angry at you wives
Whose thighs are not for men at dives.
At husbands God is furious --
They cheat and lie, are cruel and cuss.
You leaders seek in power evil deeds,
     Like noxious weeds
     You spread your seeds
Of wicked envy for your needs.
The institutions that you made
Will crush you all before you fade
     If you do not confess
     Your sins so God can bless.

The crowd ignored him -- all but one, whose call
Brought men to silence him behind a wall.