Saturday, May 31, 2025
Friday, May 23, 2025
River Bed
Can't find a thing without taking a look
Often I'll find sparks that remind
Of someone I should thank
Like Einstein for his useful notions
Such as relativities or photons
Speaking of sunshine it must be time
To head to the river bank
Avoiding the poison ivy
Just like my grandma taught me
Under the trees I move with ease
Until the slope is steep
Using trees as hand holds
Scanning for roots or a rock that won't roll
I make my way to seize the day
Until I need to sleep
When the sun is brightly shining
I'd rather spend my time outside in
The shade of boughs or windswept clouds
Each molecule a blessing
With new leaves to be turned
Unimaginable lessons to learn
I'd rather be where I can see
What others have been missing
A garbled screech breeches my calm
I raise my head up in alarm
What is the wind now carrying in
It seems a familiar cry
Into view a squawking pelican
Flew past the canopy opening bellowing
Letting me know a brief air show
Was passing in the sky
I see in the trees a branch that had split
And a new branch has forked off from it
Off from the stump where the old one was
A new effort grows
A swath of smooth stones line the other shore
Perhaps there was a bridge here before
With time it crumbled and pieces tumbled
Splashing in the water below
The bank is flanked by block-like rocks
That at one point must have been built up
Corners in the stream hint that these
Have not long withstood the flow
A natural formation
Or a builder's creation
Once went across this river's course
Which it was I cannot know
Unless I get lucky and perhaps
I can come across a historical map
On which an old path for the road
Is there and clearly shown
That's the only way to know
Now as I sit here with nowhere to go
I'll imagine any option
That could've created this swath of stones
Rolling down a bed slick with algae
To ever go back upstream is unlikely
A one way trip for stones that slip
Off from their original formation
Their mass resists the constant flow
But there's simply no other way to go
The momentum will erode them
Ever onward to new locations
A crumbled block got to where
It is now by just standing there
Going on slow with the flow
Scratching the bottom
River stones off tumbled ridges
And forks that split to make new branches
Caused by rain drops that do not stop
Where they've fallen
Where they fell was wet already
So with friends they started going steady
Always downhill as water will
To join up with a stream
Until it winds it's way to the sea
Either to sink down deep as can possibly be
Or be splashed from waves and evaporate
Or somewhere else inbetween
Forming bodies of water so wide
The moon's pull creates tides
That make beaches wherever water reaches
From cracks in the rocks
Expansion and contraction
Split cliffs up into fractions
Then those all fall into small small
Shards of tiny blocks
In the ebbing and crashing tides
Or in the river's course to slide
Rounding the rough square edges off
Polished smooth and clean
The bridge ridge rocks lay splayed out
As in the sky the rolling clouds
Will continue bringing rain to
Refill the rolling stream
It seems like magic that it's an
Automatically recharging system
Solar powered just like flowers
Springing from the ground
Like a tree swaying in the breeze
Pumping sap to feed new leaves
Evapotranspirating glands
Ejecting future clouds
Like a farmer gleaning fields
The trees photosynthetically yield
Both nutrients and seeds to plant
For later rain harvests
Winds direct where these cloud will be
When they've gathered moisture heavy
Enough to form droplets that pour
Down on some distant forest
Or fall as snow on a mountain peak
Or dump directly back onto a sea
Or on dry earth to quench roots thirsty
Absorbent hairs
A plant that had gone dormant
Gentle rain starts to reform it
Just what it needs to make new green
Foliage appear
The newly sprung buds receive
Solar power to grow into leaves
To soak up more sun than before
Now with more surface area
If you think of it as beauty
Science doesn't feel like a duty
If you don't want to miss magnificence
Don't let the math scare you
It might just be wrong anyway
And who is anyone in the crowd to say
That it's all wrong while playing along
Nodding in steady movement
Trends would show it's likely to be
Some sociopathic corporate scheme
With experts paid to take what they've
Been told and go and prove it
That's called motivated reasoning
Like adding too much seasoning
To hide the taste of rotting waste
That should have been discarded
But with the fallacy of sunken costs
Bosses refuse to take the loss
Trickling it down onto some clown
Who's just glad to be regarded
The clown takes it as a chance to see
How the paper ghosts avoid defeat
These ephemeral wisp criminals
Known to all of us only by name
"Nonphysical entities are people too"
There's nothing that you can ever do
To make me agree that you and me
And an abstract idea are the same
But this gives me reason to recall
A lesson learned from taking a fall
Is harder than words from a friend
But easier to remember
So I'll listen when a teacher speaks
But still I'll try to climb for the peaks
The miles earn the lessons learned
With theory and practice together
Saturday, May 17, 2025
Carrara Marble
How could you even find the time to
Fairly address the mess it would cause
If members of the average public saw
The radiant glory of you
I'm betting at
This point you're confused as to why I'm
Obsessing
Why is this weirdo trying to
Teach me a lesson about the defense
Mechanism I have built to defend
Against anyone extending a compliment
Because it's programming reinforcing a spell
That you tell yourself every time you
Get complimented which from the
Looks of it is probably quite often and it
Seems from an outside observer's
Perspective that you choose to hide
From attention that would act as
A detriment to your humility perhaps
Because that's where your ability to
Connect and reflect in meaningful ways
Stays rooted so your humble shrine
Of inspiration stays protected as any
Effort to note your beauty is rejected
Which then leaves your ego feeling neglected
All for the sake of the love of your art
And then that right there is the part that makes
You ascend beyond the reach of mortals
And carve your own identity in stone
Your every effort is defining where the
River of civilization flows winding
Your
Legacy and the frequency with which
You can produce works fuses history with
Your essence letting the record know
Of your presence in the time line
Where humbly and nobly you define
The boundary of what is understood
About beauty
So even if it's rude of
Me to point it out to you I feel like I
Might be able to help diffuse the magic
That you've bound yourself to in tragic
Ways in order to make your days bearable
And perhaps you never felt it was sharable
But yet the other day in such a casual way
You chose to say to me that you'd been
Bullied about your hair by boys who couldn't
Help but stare and had to make up a lame
Reason so that they didn't get harassed by
Their chump friends about having a crush
On you but of course you were talented
And intelligent so you went about your normal
Routine but now with a barrier between you
And the chumps too dumb to understand
Why the very thought of you was driving
Them mad to the point where they
Felt the need to mention you as an
Anomaly forcing you to defend your
Sanctity by retreating and in doing so
Generating an animosity to those who
Can't help but notice your exceptionality
So you disguise it and instead choose
To lead with your personality and
It's fantastic
If I could go back in time
And find those bullies before they insulted
You I wouldn't because without them you
Couldn't have developed to exactly what you
Are now
Endowed with the wisdom to know
How to protect from overexposing your
Audience to your mesmerizing perfections
The sweetest of all of the finest confections
Can't compare to a smile that freely you share
And Carrara Marble is the only material
That bares a chance at capturing your
Ethereal image
Friday, May 16, 2025
Existential Potential
Come across a contraption sniffing me
A machine designed to judge my potential
Gladly
But keeps the results confidential
Behind a pay wall for all to see
But me
Can I score more than I can handle
Do the fashions of the time define me
Badly
Will algorithms imagine what I can be
Studying past samples and examples
For me
Civilization's history
All that's known and what's wrote
About it
Compiled to a style I want
From origins of no mystery
To doubt it
Ploddingly onward it continues to swindle
Anyone hungry enough to be tempted
By bait
Putting in prompts the account is empty
Pump in more to imagine a new angle
I can't wait
I have to know how many bottles
Of water it takes to change the stakes
For humanity
How many comments do I need to make
To break through institutionalized walls
Of insanity
Calculate it now robot I need to know how
Yoshimi defeats you with vitamins
Untragicly
Tell me what the plan will be to end
The last episode of your show now
Dramatically
Don't be mad at me for asking it's a joke
I'm just saying we're already praying
To you
So while eyes in the sky are prying
At least we get cool apps with which to scope
Through you
But giant servers for intelligence services
Programmed to calculate my value in seconds
Without a doubt
Determining from the available records
The very insecurities that'd make me nervous
If known about
Scoop me up like Terry Gilliam's Brazil
Zip up my hood with no questions answered
Like professionals
Spreading dread in heads when it suits their fancy
With sweat in their eyes they do not see
Who they put in jail
Swinging blind without a mind to control
On the payroll is all it takes to make them loyal
Participants
Bashing in well read heads for the price of oil
Then go to church to pretend to have a soul
They're missing it
Sunday, January 19, 2020
Galactic Love
in your gravity
with my magnetic wind
in a cosmic ballet