Tag: Verse

Word Salad

If one looked at the work which solves
An equation like: 3x^2+26x-12=0,
The calculation would be very long
Very tedious, and frankly, only a select few
Educated men could even understand it.

Yet, everyone wants an answer to life's
Most complicated questions with simple math.
Thus, the most complex question,
"Does God exist", or "Is life meaningful",
Is to be answered with a simple addition problem?

The math I presented is very difficult
Yet, it isn't even the most difficult
As Calculus and the higher principles of Geometry
Are far more complicated.

It is true you can make an elegant case for God
Such things as "If there is Good, then a god must exist;
"Jesus is Good, therefore He must be God."
Yet, the skeptic will say, "Well, God told Israel to destroy the Canaanites."
To which, one would need very complicated explanations
For why this is: Simply stating the solution
That the Canaanites were Devil Worshipers
Who practiced ritualistic cannibalism and pedophilia
Is, to an Atheist, "Word Salad".
For, they want to understand the entirety
Of the ethical equation,
Which is far more complicated than Quantum Mechanics.
For human morality is something---
If tried to understand on our own---
That even the most intelligent men 
Have found bits and pieces of.

Which is why the simple Morality of Christ
In Matthew Chapters 5 - 8
Should be the basis of our calculation.
For, if Christ's words are applied
As functions in a calculus equation,
The equation solves itself down 
To the nitty-gritty of the harder to accept commands.
For if Christ is God Come in the Flesh,
As He claimed to be, and He preached such a perfect
Moral system, like calculus we can calculate from there
That the entirety of the Bible is true.
Because other moral sages have found only parts
Of the complete moral teaching of Christ
And those same sages had severe flaws in their doctrines.
Christ, however, had none.
Which is why I can be certain He was truly
God made in Human Flesh.

Lao Tsu

To understand Lao Tsu is to first empty all preconceptions.
For, all have preconceptions.
Then, understand that Lao Tsu is speaking
Of the certainty of truth.
He is speaking of the truth behind perception
The truth that is alogical
And unable to be touched or measured.
Yet, it remains certain and ever present;
It guides human lives throughout all generations
And through all times and space.

In the Christian context, we call it "Faith"
Or as St. Paul said in Hebrews,
"The evidence of what's unseen, and the substance of things hoped for."

In the Platonic context, we call it "Word"
Or the actual meaning of what's been said
Rather than the artifice of literal interpretations.

And since both East and West have discovered it
Often multiple times,
We can be certain that it is true.

Mind Over Matter?

It was told to me once that our witness
Has power over the physical world.

To me this is something like Romans 
Looking at a flock of birds
To determine whether their flight
Pattern is sufficient an omen,
Or a Babylonian throwing his bone
To see if the lot falls and answers a prayer.

The fact is the mind does not create its own
Reality, but rather picks up on
Subconscious cues built within memory
Which disposes it to believe.
In a sane mind, the thing believed is true.
We know this because some men do not believe
Yet what they don't believe in persists beyond their own awareness.
For they too are beholden to an external world
Which is not subject to perception.
For reality persists despite our objection or ignorance of it;
For, reality is confirmed by witnesses.

The Myth of the Wakening of Brahma

This myth consoles me.
I don't believe it,
But rather it reflects
The way in which my delusions work.
That somewhere in my subconscious
I believe I am asleep, 
Upon a table, near death,
And I am meandering through this purgatorial cosmos.

That I lay there, like Brahma,
And this world is my dream.

The fact is all of my delusions can be rooted
In something like this.

And I find that's what bad religion does
Is play upon those subconscious fears;
Rather than confirm the material world
It tries to find ways to cause doubt.

The Death of St. Jude

St. Jude was nailed upon a rod
And a bird had nested there.
The Prince of Tyre and Ephraim
Made a god of him, despaired.

Prufrock had then busied himself
And could earn his loathsome lot
From St. Jude, whose poetry,
Was called Apollo's, a god's.

Prufrock lived long, loved his life
And dreamily thumbed his belt;
He wore suspendered trousers
But did drown himself in hell.

He lived with pleasure; "his" songs
Had won him beautiful wife.
The pleasure of her soft skins
Greatly eased all of his strife.

Yet a third had watched it all
Wondering oft when the throngs
Of merry mischief makers
Would then listen to his songs.

For the Godmakers had made
St. Jude their blasphemous rock.
Yet when they crucified him,
He said, 
"Cursed be all who call me God!"

Making Candy

I see the candy first
And seeing it is blue
And pink, and red and green
I am offended by 
The sweets. I say, "I can
"Make candy just as sweet."

So I do, and seeing
The inlays of the strings
Of hardening sugars
And the filling of true
To form flavors, drawing
Out the long sugar strands
In their colorful dough...
I then see the process
For my self, and respect
It---But, I like cooking
My roasts, cauliflower 
Heads and risotto filled
With wine, cheese and creamy
Lathers of tradition.