An Ode to the Still Voice

I've never ceased to hear the voice that called
Me to the Muses' realm--it's sometimes mute
Or muted, melancholy, maddening,
But always seeming welcome all the same--
I named my firstborn son the name it called--
I learned by then I must obey--I learned
To listen to the smallest voice, perceive
The smallest curt command it gave--the goal,
The destiny remains unclear--my wife
The voice commanded me to marry--she
Was walking up to me, the first her flesh
Was present to my touch--the voice sent me
To Mississippi, then to Texas, sent
So I'd diversity my mind's contents--
It's made me wise and foolish, ignorant
And full of knowledge, ugly, beautiful,
A madman and most sane--it made me know
Myself and hide myself and show myself,
Transform myself to become who I am
And truly was--I heed its call and dodge
Its call and pay the price for every slip
Off of the mountain trail it leads me up--
Behold the vistas it has shown me, darkness
Unveiled by it, lush valleys dense with trees,
Wide mountain meadows pointillist with flowers,
Sequoias on the slopes, bare rocky peaks
That rise into the clouds of thought and meaning
And scatter and collect before the front
That chills it all to senseless sounds that stream
To torrents of tales, then to waves of verse
To pour into the oceans that surround
This land that lifts into the peaks where I
Am led up to proclaim apocalypse--
Behold the house and debt, suburban life
That tame the voice that drives me on and on,
The voice that only sometimes speaks--I catch
The voice in random silences that swell
Into the ceaseless chatter, noise, and music
That now define our lives so we won't listen
To still and silent voices that could transform
Our lives--we like the hot and humid places,
The swamps and the mosquitoes draining us
So we don't have to hear the voice that drives
Us to distraction, creativity,
And innovation, art and madness, love
And new technology and ways of life--
The debt, the chatter, politics and strife,
We choose anxiety before  before we'd choose
The voice revaluating values verse
By rhythmic, often-rhyming verse to raise
Our thoughts to music echoing across
The valleys we make fertile with our songs.

Hermes

Your reign is over, Dionysus. Man's
Descended into nihilism. Zeus
Lost his divine throne to you--time for you
To ceded so all the earth can grow and change,
Emerge into a brand new world and leap
To newer heights from off the mountain peaks
You raised, but which erode beneath man's feet
As your divine enthusiasm fades
Into mere relativity and art
Without a touch of beauty, social life
Dissolving--atomistic collectivism
Now breaking down society. A new
Enthusiasm must take hold so man
Can rise anew, refreshed, complexified
To brand new heights--I'll bring a new old art
And revolutionize their science, help them see
Just who they are, or who they were, and who
They're destined to be when they follow me.
You have grown old within the minds of men--
Your powers dim, you're left with drunkenness
And nothing else. I am rejuvenated,
A younger god, and if we fight, I'll win.
But if we fight, mankind will be brought low
Before I raise them up again. Resign
Yourself to this transition both our fates
Have brought us to. Please spare our love, mankind.
Please spare them a transition that's traumatic
And let them rather ease from god to god
By hearing what our prophets have to say.
Relinquish now your throne for all the love
You harbor for mankind. I wait, my king,
For your decision, praying it is wise.

The Order of Things

I sit and watch as mankind blindly gropes
Its way to patterns that the cosmos found
Itself, self-organizing wish to hope
And placing everything on patterned ground.

Did life, like mankind, fight against the trend
Within the cosmos that gave rise to it
And all it needed to survive and bend
Environments to thrive, not merely fit?

Release yourselves into true personhood,
Become unique by showing that you flew
With others and rebelled to do your duty.

Release yourselves so that you do the good
In a society that now is true,
Emerging to the just and sacred beauty.

A Better Time

We all are searching for a better time--
It drives the restlessness of feet and mind--
It is the reason that creators find
The newness in the world that is their crime
And on whose wooden steps the world must climb
Even as they are burning it and bind
The makers and discoverers, unwind
This complex world and return to grime.

A world of beauty--that is each one's aim--
Some want a Rothko world, so simplified--
Some want a Dali world, a nightmare scene--
Some want a Michelangelo to flame
The world in deep complexity denied
By those who fear what isn't pure and clean.

Values

Important are the fleeting things--
Enduring things we leave as nought--
More gossip in our ear will sing
Our souls to do things that we ought
Not do because we think our friends
And enemies have us in mind--
But honestly, we're not their ends--
Peak at their thoughts, you will not find
You there when you are out of sight.
Yet we neglect the work we do,
For few will learning dare delight--
And almost no one loves what's true
But only listen to what feels
To them supportive of belief,
Ignoring medicine that heals
In favor of a lying thief
Who tells them what they want to hear--
Why do you want to believe hate,
Embracing those who peddle fear?
Why do you think destruction fate
When all the evidence is clear
That life is ever everyplace
Rejecting all that you hold dear--
That is what lifts the human race.
Important are enduring things--
The fleeting things, please leave as nought--
Allow the truth to always sing
Our souls to do things that we ought.