The price of a candy bar in 2003 was 43 cents. The going rate at the same store is $1.65. In 1992 a 23,000 dollar a year salary Is worth a 70,000 dollar a year salary today. Amazon pays its employees about 15 dollars an hour. That is $3.20 today's money. Inflation, in the past 20 years, is at 300 percent. Worker pay has stagnated. No, actually stayed at about the same rate. People today, the average worker, is making about 25,000 dollars a year. That amount was like making 70.000 dollars a year today Back in 1992. The Stock Market is at 31,000. The super wealthy are getting more wealthy. And as Cenk said many times, That the 1950s were a good era to live in Let's go back to the tax rate of that era. 70% on those making billions of dollars. Force the big corporations out, The little business will get more business. Not to mention, There's a nasty fact that Walmart Had a local trust developed with its Local warehouses. Squeezing that same store Where I monitored the prices Out of existence. Trusts, if you don't comprehend Are illegal. Oligopolies ought to be. But, since perfect formulas exist The copyright needs to be Only in the inventor's lifetime And unable to be extended And certainly not valid 70 years After the death of the inventor. Who the hell needs the money Beside the inheritors of that wealth? And furthermore Free speech means free speech. It's the same for a Nazi or Antifa. It's the same for a BLM or KKK. That way I'm protected too.
Tag: Poem
How Can a Common Fact
How can a common fact Bring two different brands of ideology? Trying to prevent the fact from manifesting Brings the very fact repeated Over and over again. It must be because no one can Learn the truth But must relearn it Over and over again Until one day the truth stops getting learned. And on that day A trumpet will sound in the sky And there will no longer be a mankind Of which to understand.
A List of New Literary Devices
1. Ekphrastic Motabilem – Detailing the process of creating a work of art, or describing the process of skilled work. More specifically, utilizing Ekphrasis through describing the art form or skilled work in its process. Otherwise called “Ekphrasis”, but more technically called Ekphrastic Motabilem.
- Example: “Go, Ploughman, Plough” By Joseph Campbell
- Example: Jeremiah 18:4 “And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”
2. Hyperloxy or pl. Hyperloxa – An oxymoron expressed through hyperbole, to especially emphasize the last statement and make it stronger than the previous statement, which otherwise should be stronger.
- Example: “He is not very wise, but has an infinite wit.”
- Example: “Jude, he is not so strong, yet unrivaled in might.” Neifert, B. K.. Fairyland, “The Children’s Crusade”. Kindle Direct, 2020.
3. A Vulgar – When taking something that usually isn’t vulgar, or even taking a Euphemism, and making it vulgar through tone.
- 1. Example: From Wordsworth’s “Transubstantiation”: “And, while the Host is raised, its elevation/ An awe and supernatural horror breeds,”
4. Cantor – When a work breaks into a text with a voice dissimilar to the one established throughout the work, intentionally or unintentionally. Especially where it can be readily noticed. Derived from the word “Cantor” a responsive hymn, where the solo is the break in voice, and the choir is the established voice.
- Example: The Gospel of John as opposed to the Synoptic Gospels.
- Example: The Egyptian Maid or White Doe of Rylstone by Wordsworth, as opposed to the rest of his body of Work, reflects stories in the forms of Southey or Coleridge.
- Example: The Last few segments of The Riddle in the Sea, by B. K. Neifert, where the form breaks to create an added effect of suspense.
- Example: The use of “Mirkwood” in Tolkien’s The Fall of Arthrur.
5. The Objective Other – An objective characterization where an artist portrays what appears to be a specific individual, yet the individual portrayed in the piece is meant to apply generally. Not to be confused with a Character; however, some characters are examples of The Objective Other.
- Example: Anna Karenina in Tolstoy’s titular piece.
- Example: George Wickham in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.
- Example: Christian in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress.
6. Nominal Symbolism – A kind of symbolism where the name of a prominent historical figure, town or god is used to represent an archetypal story. Sometimes where the symbol relates to a specific individual.
- Example: “Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast.” King James Bible Isaiah 46:1
- Example: “Tell me, Lydia, by all the gods I beg you, why you are in such a hurry to destroy Sybaris with your love.” Horace. The Complete Odes and Epodes. Translated by David West. Oxford University Press, 2008. (pp. 32.)
- Example: Xenophanes, you poetically and surgically/Weave your origins of doubt.
More will be added to this list, as I discover them.
An Interpretation of 23
- David’s—the character in the poem—mental state is likened to Beksinski, trees and war.
- The “bellicosity” of his roots—that is the roots of poverty, which gives one the will to persevere through trial— Fragmented, therefore a complete thought. It is Juxtaposed with the “Evening” which “Descends in a sob.”
- There is a colorless chill—imagery invoking an action shot, or dramatic scene, drawing its image from movies. And a “Gelid Whisper”. Making the imagery that of bitter cold being carried by a light wind. “All of it”
- “Is Whispering and whimpering”—juxtaposed with the former character trait of strength, given to him by his roots. The character is on his own, and is fluttering on his own.
- He speaks of home again. The home is likened to a “Moraine”, with phonetic similarity to “Murrain”. He’s home sick. And Home is like a towering Geological Structure.
- “Imagery”
- “Imagery”
- “Imagery”
- “Imagery” The following four lines give imagery of a Moraine, an ancient geological formation, something natural, old, timeless. All of the descriptions are of Moraine structures, which can produce beautiful colors and patterns on the layers of their geological strata—Poem will further allude to this pattern when it likens David’s homesickness to the “morphology” of the rock layers.
- “Thoughts wince into vision”, an allusion to one’s complete vision of the Mind’s Eye fading into sight. Then what’s seen are “Starlings” breaking the moment with “Jocose Murmuring”. That is to say the bitterness is being disturbed by the “Starlings”. Starlings are a type of blackbird.
- The image of the flock of starlings “Tears” at the sky and one is reminded
- “In a state of subtle sadness.” The image invoked is that of the sadness invoked by the image of the Starlings. Their nonchalance elicits a response from David of, what is perhaps, his low estate.
- “It takes years to digest”. There is a slow decent into becoming, oneself, trivial. It is slow, and methodical, and it turns oneself into a background like character, rather than the central focus of the story. The feeling is being minimalized, and finding oneself unimportant.
- “It takes shape within oneself”
- “To gain contour and morphology” relating the feeling to the set geological foundation of Moraines. Settled against the abandonment from home, and the recognition that one’s place in the world is minimalized.
- One being reminded—by the moraines—of “David fluttering on his own.” The unforgettable
- Nature of “Otherness.” Which the poem meditates on. The somber feeling of the Moraines in their geological form, cold and splendid. The moraines elicit the same kind of feeling, which is analogous with the briskness of the moraine. Related to the nature of there being other things, and being cognizant that we—our own ego—are not the only ones occupying this world. We find ourselves barren by the realization. Yet we lose it—kind of like how a child grows into an adult, and no longer needs the parental guidance to survive. However, the poem analyzes it in relation to the moraine.
- “We lose ourselves gladly.” I don’t think people want to meditate on the rumination, to have that awareness that they are alone, or are not central to the world. It’s an eerie feeling, recognizing we are not central to the movements of the world, and when we’re left all alone, it can be cold.
Thoughts: I think the poem expresses the notion of recognizing we are not central to the world, and that other wills and forces exist, which are out of our control. Much like the geological forces of the glaciers which create the Moraines. The notion is an eerie feeling, which separates us from our ego, and gives us an outside perspective, minimalizing us. I commented on Joao-Maria‘s blog, feeling the emotions of the poem, but not really understanding it. So I decided to do an in depth analysis of it, and this is my take from the poem.
João-Maria. “Poetry Without a Place, 23.” WordPress, 2020. https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/143826840/posts/2482. 6/16/2020. Web.
Odes of Strangers XV
The Savanna is rubicund With delightful golden grains. Most gorgeous are her valleys With the hills among the rolling veldt. I, the animal, enraged By Serengeti hunger Am driven into mindfever Where I cannot perceive Nor understand; No, I am crazed by possibilities. If I had you, your plains would be mine And I would be the lion Within his Pride. There would be only nature and I. It would be of no use For only the air of the veldt Could satisfy me Should I be satisfied by you. I would desire nothing more And would never wander from my bounds In the safelands, Where poachers could not find me. For I would stay upon your plains And meander among your hills.
Odes of Strangers XIV
Gahanna was shrouded in mystery As the Styx flows through the Acheron; Descended into the deep Son of a king, you trifle there. King of the scouts The minstrels sing of you In the woven dreams of Morpheus. The gum of Acacia is upon your thigh Yet I rejected it, for such is the disease Of mind, which your magic spun Through dirt and vulgarity. You sought me, and you found Cyrus. You found me, yet you were but a boy And our lives crossed on the banks of the Susquehanna. I do not know what powers are over me... Only that an Acquaintance, a man my equal, So says David, Whom I had counsel with in the LORD's house Will betray me. Forsooth, such a strange thing to be That it was a happy accident Which brought you to my humble life; Yet you should be one plotting against me.
I believe in God Because I see good is inherent. I believe in Christ Because He is inherently good. I believe in the God of the Old Testament Because there is evil. And I believe evil needs to one day be punished.
Odes of Strangers XIII
Cyrus, I understand you The way you think. I know you from the inside How you have petulant doubts Yet rage at the heathen. I know you rage against God And seek to destroy Him. Yet I also know you secretly wish To use his laws to exact vengeance on this world. You do not believe in God You do not... But His laws are enticing as an engine To siege the Capitol And to tear down walls and bulwarks; To stir Media and Persia Against Assyria and Babylon. I know you from the inside And your rage which burns toward the infidel. Religion to you is a tool The Messiah an engine which you will use To usher in your reign. Alas, I stand here Arguing with you for the second time As you tell me, "On your death bed "You will say as Jesus said, "My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?" Yet you take slaves While you dash the infants upon the rocks. Christian you do not hate--- No, you love God's people. For it is in you to love God's people For the law which burns in our chests; Yet you rage against God as Satan himself And you move upon your holy quest to purge Sin's temples from the world. I see you in my thoughts and visions And I am like you So it disturbs me greatly. I am gentle, and meek; You are a warrior Believing in the law of my God Right down to the tittle--- Yet you do not believe in God. Such a strange doubt in you That I feel in my chest But I do not understand why you believe in my God's law But not God Himself? Is it, like so many Jewish men You like the burdens of lamb stew and drink oblations? I say to you, You will be used to purge the land of its idols. That is what you wish. Yet it is I who shall prosper in the LORD's Name For I will declare my portion That your rage may be just But it is not a wholesome intention to Desire to fix the world.
Odes of Strangers XIII
Cyrus, I understand you The way you think. I know you from the inside How you have petulant doubts Yet rage at the heathen. I know your rage against God And seek to destroy Him. Yet I also know you secretly wish To use his laws to exact vengeance on this world. You do not believe in God You do not... But His laws are enticing as an engine To siege the Capitol And to tear down walls and bulwarks; To stir Media and Persia Against Assyria and Babylon. I know you from the inside And your rage which burns atoward the infidel. Religion to you is a tool The Messiah an engine which you will use To usher in your reign. Alas, I stand here Arguing with you for the second time As you tell me, "On your death bed "You will say as Jesus said, "My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?" Yet you take slaves, While you dash the infants upon the rocks. Christian you do not hate--- No, you love God's people. For it is in you to love God's people. Yet you rage against God as Satan himself And you move upon your holy quest to purge Sin's temple from the world. I see you in my thoughts and visions And I am like you So it disturbs me greatly. I am gentle, and meek; You are a warrior Believing in the law of my God Right down to the tittle--- Yet you do not believe in God. Such a strange doubt in you That I feel in my chest But I do not understand why you believe in my God's law But not the God Himself? Is it, like so many Jewish men You like the burdens of lamb stew and drink oblations? I say to you, You will be used to purge the land of its idols. That is what you wish. Yet it is I who shall prosper in the LORD's name For I will declare my portion That your rage may be just But it is not a wholesome intention to Desire to fix the world.
Odes of Strangers XII
Xenophanes, you poetically, and surgically Weave your origins of doubt. You find God to be cruel More like man than actual deity. I see the traces of wisdom in you How you want an origin of God's being And callously say, "Christ is only two thousand years old." Yet, ancient was the deity Who gave Moses Law, and more ancient was the deity Who gave some of which to Abraham Hammurabi's law; El is Hebrew for God And El is traced to Mesopotamia To be worshipped at the time of Melchizedek and Abraham. El, it turns out has a Son. The Scholars at Oxford and Yale Say, "It is the cult of righteousness." Yet, I say it is not so. What cult of righteousness springs up in China? What cult springs up in Greece? As if this God's truths were universal Found throughout West and East And firstly discovered in the Middle of the world? Greeks found Word, Charity, Agape Chinese found Tao, Filial Respect, and Universal Love. Jesus is the Word, is the perfect picture of Filial Respect and Charity and Love. How cultures found morality independent of one another. Yet, there are those who contest it. And Xenophanes, you find them Secreted in your doubt that man had anthropomorphized God. And that is what causes you to doubt. Yet, I see the same notions springing up in separate cultures Meaning there must Be. What is there? What can be found? If it's there to discover Who put it there? And these my God answers When He took on Human Flesh. No other satisfies it; Yet predicted at the beginning of human civilization--- When one man and another agreed upon their social contracts And thus forth bore rule--- Is the fingerprint of my God. That El, the nameless deity Had a Son And from this sprung what academics call "The Cult of Righteousness." And then I find philosophers discover those same truths. I say to myself, "The evidence is overwhelming. "And then add to it the Heavens and Isaiah's scroll;--- "The stories written in the constellations." I find one hundred percent proof that God is the Hebrew's God And that God's Word put on the Flesh of Man.