Category: Uncategorized

Joy Fades

Joy fades, under the solemn breath of spring.
The microbursts throw the trees in raging waves
And the sleet falls in such a way, that is grey.
A man's wedding is but a day, and perfunctory
When the true sweetness of it, is laying at her breast
On the way home. No lust, but exhaustion.
For, boundaries were kept through life strict
But after that day, you can lay your weary head
Upon nature's comforting hills, and there rest.
Yet, the sorrow of the day, like so many,
Is it is an awkward day for all, and strange.
Joy should exist, but only angst. Though I've never had been
I understand it through literature, and see
The purgatorial affect of modern day
And wonder where joy has gone?
Some time ago, there was life in these bones
And friendship was deeply felt in my heart.
Then, I sinned---or at least the world knew of it---
And it shamed me... thus I walk with the knowledge
Of having sinned. Like many, I assume,
The gross abnormality of our purgatorial lives
Is met solely by the affect wrought by stained consciences.
That is why we no longer feel the deep joys
Or the deep sorrows, or the deep loves
But everything has a melancholy affect
Of neutral peace; except when moments come
They swell, and one wonders what it is...
This new feeling, but old feeling, this shared feeling
Though I've never been married.

The Work of a Comedian

I critique paradise,
But I understand Wallace Steven's metaphor---
What does that say?

A false happiness---I never said I was happy---
Those are my thoughts.
What paradise can be made here?
Truly? If you made bad decisions like I have?

Sure, I am contented with poetry
And musings---
Would great riches or fame appease my desire?
No.
Would a womb?
Yes, partly.
Would the very paradise which your comedian critiques?
Hopefully so... for this life is vain and hollow
And though the mind's eye is the great thing
That has given me respite in this life---
Imagining the great game I could conjure
From my books, which men would be steeped in like real life---
I know a game supplants imagination
For now humans create their own stories
Through their games, and all knowledge
Is to exert willpower over  others
And win their games and cheat.

This Age

The Christian, who waited thirty years
To marry, and therefore have love,
Doesn't wear his wedding band
In front of the audience of Circus Maximus.
But I, being the fool I am, expecting one Christian
To have consistency of character,
Thinking, "No man, who prayed
"Every day to have this good thing,
"Could be a fool enough to do this."
I had to shut my mouth, and the wicked were validated
In their beliefs. For, one man did not have consistency.
In fact, I thought I had lost my mind
And that time had warped me between two 
Points between the present and future
Rather than dishonor this man's character.
I'm sorry friend, but I witness it
That even the man of God is unfaithful.
What more to say about the billions of other men?
Repent.

Death of a Poet

Little words in my Seamus Heaney book
Handwritten in the margins...
I had thought you kindred spirit
When you had said, "Poetry is the expression of Say."
But, upon reading the ancient cursive--
Which I both read and write--
It says, "The expression of Self."
Then I say, I do not write poetry but something new.

The Master Morality

If a man does anything wrong
Pound them into the dust.
What is wrong, is the milieu
We know, there is no objective "Right or Wrong."
Only what we make it.
Thus, we create, and we demand
Obsequious to the morality we created.
Which is to strive with all for the scraps
And to come out on top at any cost
So long as it does not break our laws.

My Generation

I find myself so happy
I grew up with my parent's music.
I have youthful memories
Of Journey and not Nirvana.
There was something so real
About it... Also Sinatra
And Duke Ellington in my Twenties.
It's like I'm timeless,
As I have fond memories of old TV shows
And really could care less about modern ones.
I have no generation...
I am a little youthful
A little geriatric
A little middle aged.
I don't listen to Hip-Hop
But Elvis and the Eagles.
I don't even know who the modern bands are.
My generation is one man's
And it is mine...
I have no peer.
Maybe that is why I am a poet?

Seek and You Shall Find

Every sincere expression of faith
Has been devoid of religion.
Even Christ Himself, came and shook the Pharisees.
Remember that, brothers and sisters.
The Orthodox Faith is a faith of poetic expression
Nuance, and not simply simplicity.
It is an expression of all of man
As man tastes the fruits of the Divine.
There is only one LORD, and that is Jesus Christ;
But so many poets have touched Him
Never knowing He was the gate.

Aught Authors

Aught authors begin as dreamers
But then, when poesy tames their tongue,
They begin to stop dreaming, and see.
Thus, they cross the threshold into immortality.
For no program is found upon their tongue
But rather truths for all peoples, in every clime.
They shed their politics, and religion, and seek.
And then, if they are tamed, they find.

My Deconstruction from Atheism

I actually deconstructed from Atheism. Most people deconstruct from Christianity, but the one thing that makes it hard for me to be an atheist, is the fact that you have to accept the fact that there are no universal values. It's just a consequence of being an atheist. You can have preferences, but as soon as you come upon a person or society that doesn't, it challenges your claims to objective knowledge. But I don't observe ethics being that way, so it's hard for me to accept that antecedent that there are no objective truths about morality. As the saying goes, if you see the square has four equal sides, it's therefore a square. If I see objective knowledge about morality, but quantifiably, nobody can prove it, but it just is, then I have to assume there's a higher authority than man Who does.

Sure, you could build a perfect morality through Game Theory, and I'm sure it'll be done at some point, but I find that will ultimately reflect what's in the Old Testament, and therefore, be extremely harsh and cruel. Meaning people will ultimately reject it, and then there will be lawlessness. And say they do neither, you still rely on the fallibility of human judgment, and who knows what they'll get wrong.

So, Hume's argument is actually very flimsy--the argument used by most atheists--that milieu determines morality. I find that not to be possible. And I find whiffs in ancient philosophers of a divine order, that seems to make sense, and appeal to a greater sense of truth than simply human understanding. And that's generally God, or Elohim. Also called "The Way" or "The Word."

And simply put, the argument right now is that we have a better world than we did with religion--and I can quantifiably say that's unjustified. Religion made people compassionate, and taught people the right way, and tempered peoples licentiousness so they could all have a portion. Without it, it's a free for all, both sexually and materially--as is what my friend Jonathan would say, the Neo Liberal way--which isn't resulting in more compassion or human growth, but is actually having the opposite effect, and turning everyone into sociopaths, or at the very least borderline narcissists.

***

 To make a perfect world would be a crime. Because humans are fallible. Hence, we need God to judge. And generally, we come prewired knowing right from wrong, and it's built in us, but we don't follow it. And that's why there's suffering in the world.

I mean, generally, the issue is ethics are universal, and there is a way to promote perfect peace. It's just humans cannot follow that way. But, we need to be encouraged to try, and that's why the Gospel is so important. The Old Testament condemns sin, while the New Testament forgives it. Justice needs to be a balance of both.

And you're never going to eliminate human greed or corruption, so basically there's always going to be injustice. And that's why God needs to make Heaven and Hell, so people's lives aren't all that matter. Cause at the end, if it were, it'd be the worst of all possible worlds, as everyone would strive against one another to get whatever they could.

But generally, the point of Confucianism is that there is a right way, that humans understand perfectly, and we're supposed to walk according to that way. It's kind of a relevant philosophy, and it's certainly not Western. And that's also the Bible's too, but it adds that we fail, so we need to be forgiven.

But do you understand what I mean? Of course people understand what's right from wrong. They always have. And they always will. It's just that we fail miserably at doing it, and that's why we need the Gospel. For no other reason. If it were just a matter of defining morality, we have 100 sages who do a great job at it. It's that we need to be forgiven, too. From Pythagoras, to Plato, to Aristotle, to Mencius, to Confucius, to Marcus Aurelius, to Lucretius and Ptahhotep. We have thousands of religions, too. It's that we need Christ's blood, to wash us. That's all it is. As far as human morality, it's been said the same way over a thousand times by a thousand philosophers. It's not that we need. You may, but that's the result of sin, having your conscience seared. It's not that way originally.

And then we have the psychos who do know it, and try to reshape the world through the sword. And those are probably the worst. Which I'm not trying to create a perfect world, just to help people understand that's not possible, and why we need to really pay attention to what our Sages in history had said. As the world we came from was better in many ways than the world we're going to.