There is a Crushing Amount of Weight on Me

There is a crushing amount of weight on me

To think, “I had spent this whole time

“On something that hasn’t worked.”

I spent an entire lifetime trying to work at this art.

It has not earned me much.

 

Yesterday,

I realized that nobody is stealing from me.

Rather, nobody wants my work.

The hardest pressed thing in my heart

Is to find that my best isn’t good enough.

But, this is all I can do.

 

I feel like I’m trapped in a cage,

Where every time I try to leave it

I am shocked.

So, I am trained not to leave the cage.

I feel sad, and confused.

I feel slighted and cheated.

 

Did I prophesy for gain?

Every prophecy I’ve spoken

I have not earned money from.

I will not.

I do not prophesy for gain.

I do not believe I do.

 

Rather… I am tired and confused.

I am broken and undone.

I have looked for the first ripe fruit

As Micah says,

And behold, “Woe”.

When will I eat from my work?

Soon I hope.

Why will nobody liberate my work?

Why does none purchase it?

I do not know.

I feel like I am not a prophet.

I do not feel like a prophet.

Rather, if I waiver, it is because I know by saying

It does not establish.

No, the LORD establishes,

And if I speak, it does not happen.

Then it was not the LORD.

 

Men will into existence their success?

If wills were what gave us success,

Then I would be twice over a billionaire.

It is not will that gives success

But the honor and blessing of the LORD.

I do not doubt Him,

But rather doubt myself.

If I were to doubt,

It is better that I doubt myself.

 

Fan Lore of Magic the Gathering; Nothing Serious

White Magic was always the magic of purity,

The element of surprise.

It dealt with simplicity,

The workings of a Planeswar,

It used the simple sway of arithmetic.

 

Blue Magic was always the magic of reflection,

The element of mirroring.

It dealt with knowledge.

The workings of a Planeswar,

It used the opponent against himself.

 

Green Magic was always the magic of nature

The element of strength.

It dealt with brute force.

The workings of a Planeswar,

It used overwhelming power to win.

 

These were the three good magics.

 

Red Magic was always the magic of rage

The element of speed.

It dealt with lightning speed.

The workings of a planeswar

It used the overwhelming force of numerical strength to win.

 

Black Magic was always the magic of decay,

The element of destruction.

It dealt with killing.

The workings of a planeswar

It used the power of decay and death.

 

These were the two evil magics.

 

Colorless magic was always the magic of beginnings.

Its element was mechanical.

It dealt with supplementing.

The workings of a planeswar

It used the power of suplmenting the other magics.

 

This was the neutral magic.

 

Purity. White.

Knowledge. Blue.

Nature. Green.

Rage. Red.

Death. Black.

Beginning. Colorless.

 

I Feel Goodness Winning Today

I’m watching wholesome programming,

I’m feeling an uplifting of good.

I hope Trump is not guilty

But I also hope that this situation gets dealt with.

 

There is a feeling that good is winning.

An uplifting spirit in the earth,

That the good are winning

And that the wicked are being defeated.

I feel, quite truthfully,

A wind like truth has won

A great victory today.

2.8.20

Why I Think

Why I think the ashes fall

And the smell of sulfur

Of the bones burnt into lime…

There is a scent like death hanging over our country

Deadly, devastating,

I smell it twice a week.

I walk out, and the stench offends me.

 

I will not praise a dictator.

I will be wise, and hold my tongue.

The trains are dying, and being put to death,

But there is nothing that can be done.

For one man covers up the sins of another.

 

So, when the blood of patriots is spilled,

When the colors of our flag bleed,

I will stand, and say, “Look,

“Your cause was all in vain.”

Interpolation

One of the joys of reading poetry, though,

Is putting ideas into the poem

And dreaming a life along with the poem.

Reading a poem like it was written today

Can give you insights into our modern time.

 

Because my poem of the same subject

Would not have been written,

Where I did make the blackbirds poets

Not revolutionaries.

 

Poetry needs to be both interpreted and interpolated.

Interpretation

When interpreting a poem,

One must read the poem

In the context of the year it was written in.

It might seem too intuitive

To be harping on,

But there are methods which wouldn’t do this.

 

Because if I did not know that Blackbirds

Were Irish revolutionaries,

A certain poem would be illegible,

And I would have thought it was about poetry dying.

 

All Philly

Eagles,

6’ers

Phillies

Flyers.

 

I love my Philly teams.

 

In the eagles,

Carson Wentz is injury prone.

He always gets taken out of the game.

We made it to the playoffs by the skin of our teeth.

We like our O and D lines in Philly,

One of the few team bases who make the linebackers stars.

 

The 76’ers

Ben and Joel are good players.

But, they don’t like each other it seems.

They always do better when not playing with one another.

Tobias Harris is good,

But we need someone who can shoot more consistent threes.

Ben makes a good layup

And Joel, when he’s not injured,

Can shoot pretty well,

But the team is never right in the chemistry

When they’re all together.

 

Phillies, Bryce Harper was overpaid

But, he did a decent job this year.

Rhys Hoskins was a bust.

We had a good base runner in McCutchin

And a good first at bat.

But he got hurt.

 

In the Flyers,

There aren’t any shining stars

But they win some games.

Hart, their goalie,

Is alright,—

But Voracek

Giroux and Lindblom

Are decent.

We had a lot of shoot outs this year

That I saw,

And a lot of games won or lost in overtime.

Our Stripes

II

 

The old mantra is this:

“Take your stripes now,

Or take them in hell.”

We’ve forgotten this part of our religion.

 

I would love to be happy,

But it seems like the prophecies of Christ are coming true.

The world is rejoicing,

Are happy and filled with good.

Meanwhile, the shepherds are idle,

The prophets are prophesying a lie.

 

What I want more than anything,

Is a wife and children.

I might not get it.

So… what do I have to mourn for?

I mourn for the unforgiveness

Of our modern era.

How men are given swift and harsh rebuke

For petty crimes.

Meanwhile, great men murder,

Take a bribe, and wrap it up.

Nature

I

 

Nature destroyed

And in place there are statues of bronze,

The trees garish

And in place men read my poetry,

The trees bud in the winter

And in place we get plays,

The animals die

And in place we get democracy…

 

I will not make a prediction.

The trees might live,

But they are budding in January and February.

Something needs done.

The world will rejoice,

While we Christians will mourn.

That is the prophecy.