Add-a-Poem

[aims]

Can the soul be measured and weighed?
vilified, canonized, or dated?
deprived, or sated?
can any space and time descriptors
be made to fit
do we really see
or do we not get it?
Ah, who knows,
we can only speculate
too bad there's no "Cosmic-Facts"
wouldn't that be great?!

[phantasm]

Wouldn't it be great
If we could see a perfect map of the future?
You could hop online and go to the mapping site,
plug in your point of origin and your destination,
and the Net would tell you everything that will happen to you
if you embark on this particular course of action?

This app would be more than divine.
It would be more addictive than wine or crack
and we could all permanently avoid panic attacks,
planning out our lives down to the millimeter.

Would it make you free-er
Or would it destroy all possibility of choice?

Blessed are the ignorant,
For they shall attain perfect knowledge.
Too much knowledge can lead to paralysis,
Too much planning can make your life brittle.


Life isn't for planning.
Life is for living.

[anirbas]

Life is for living.
Living is for the breathing.
Breathing isn't for the dead.
The dead feel nothing.
Nothing, but, worms a-gnawing.

A-gnawing at me is a desire to live.
Live to love and be loved.
Beloved to me is breathing.
Breathing is for the living.
Living is life.
Life is for living.

[aims]

For living
I must face triumph and defeat
moments both bitter and sweet.
I have loved and been loved
hugged, shoved,
praised and razed,
supported and hazed;
and have yet to meet the end of days.

[phantasm]

We have yet to meet the end of days
The fight has not yet been won
The angels stand poised, at the ready with the bowls of wrath
Asking themselves, "Do we really have to do this?"

We grapple the enemy, twisting and wrestling
We gain the upper hand only for it to shapeshift.
The enemy, so real and before us, becomes a wisp of a shade
And yet we keep fighting.

Sometimes the fight is so intense
we melt, lose cohesion, the brain downshifting out of 'I'
like a driver feeling like he becomes one with the road
and we're in danger of forgetting what it is we're fighting for

Civilizations are not judged by their ability to make war,
they are judged by their capacity to build civility and avoid war
But sometimes we run out of options

Why do the nations rage?
Why impose your will on others?
What is to be gained?

Wrest control of someone's life out of their hands,
You face the hazard of the same thing happening to you.
Instead of fighting in the battle of Armageddon, we could be building Heaven.

What do you live for?

[aims]

"What do you live for?"
An open door
an escape from war
from being poor
a threshold
that is not old,
an unblemished slate,
that would be great!
no do overs, so,
a new line of credit in the books of life
starting out clean,
with good health,
not sick in bed,
not in the red,
in the black
everything firm not weak
not slack,
save that which might be cut for me
instead of an attack.

[anirbas]

Instead of an attack, I'd suggest
you rain kisses upon my face.
For I am not a sheep
though I smile
like a looney
jack o'lantern
and giggle
at the random
hilarity to be found
in life and the living of it.
None the less, beneath this smile
lurks a black hearted bitch
that's not been out in awhile.
She'd love to take a turn
at you...Attack me...
I bite back. Ripping
your throat out
with a smile.
Then, return
to what I was doing.
Straightening picture
frames laughing at the pattern
your blood splatters left
on the sofa...Look!
They're shaped
like a douchebag!

[phantasm]

damn, that's a rough one, nir............

[aims]

Shaped like a douchebag!
story of my life. . .
or is it!
perhaps my self-deprecating half
said it for a laugh!
a grandiose exaggeration
a hot air inflation
a humorous flagellation
a comical exacerbation!
Oh, whatever my exclamation
it's time I stopped this explanation!

[anirbas]

It's time I stopped this explanation
I can't focus upon the hocus pocus
of forming a thought as I'm to busy
giggling me arse off at Phant's reply.

Yet, look. What yonder light is that I see?
A maiden pure of mind and spirit conquered
the ending line as it t'were nothing.
Nothing, I say, save a wink of her eye!

[aims]

A wink of her eye,
a twitch of her lip,
an eyebrow raised up really high,
try, try,
not to laugh sly,
try not to laugh until you cry!
a chortle, a poke,. . .
you look about to choke,
watching the fire smoke,
I think it needs a good stoke!
Simmer down and settle too,
but you will remember to breathe . . .
won't you?!

[phantasm]

You will remember to breathe, won't you?
As the sea levels rise
and greenhouse gasses in the air rise
and the farts of cattle rise
and the cost of gasoline rises

Right? Right???

We're bombarded by constant messages about this or that behavior
and we mentally scream "Oh my God!" It causes us to panic.
We rush out our doors in terror or hunker down in our houses in anxiety

But the truth is, all we need is a nudge.
The slightest course correction can have an effect on your trajectory.
Make small adjustments every day and they will start to stack up
Like the pile of magazines on the floor beside your favorite reading chair.

Even the seemingly insignificant act can be meaningful.

[anirbas]

Even the seemingly insignificant
act can be meaningful.
The empty beer bottle you threw out
on the service road yesterday...
...became a flat tire this morning
for the widowed mother of five boys
trying to make a living making ends
meet on a Wally World paycheck.
Tires? She can't afford no stinkin' tires!
Even the seemingly insignificant
act can be meaningful...

[aims]

The seemingly insignificant
act can be meaningful...
or inanely absurd
barely worth a word,
that's why life is for rumination
meanings take consideration
on a case by case basis
but the act that includes violence. . .
save when it is in self defense,
is always pathetically meaningless.

[aims]

Meaningless,
or meaning more
so just tell me what's the score?!
do i rate
do I skate
or am I out in the garbage crate?!
Oh don't hate
don't be irate!
oh forget it it's too late!
I've grown bored
waiting,
to not be ignored!

[phantasm]

Ignore distractions
Entropy marches on, no matter what we do
Love your life as best you can
Even in the midst of profound difficulties.
Diversion can be good, but it's so easy to get too much
Especially in our day.
Bolster your spirit and go do what you were made to do.

Life is too short for hesitation.

[aims]

Life is too short for hesitation
so dive right in, no procrastination!
feel the freeing sensation,
don't call it alienation,
call it your peer's constipation!
You want progress!
not degradation,
leave them in the dust. . .
with their no-imagination!

[phantasm]

With their no-imagination
They never conceived of obelisks or pyramids
They didn't build it
Someone else did.
Weather it's holy writ
Or a trombone
Someone began by picking up a stone
Or some such thing
And did something interesting.

So here's to the weird, crazy, insane, confusing, lame, cheesy, the deliciously greasy, out-in-left-field, ideas.

May your life be enriched by the unexpected.

[aims]

Enriched by the unexpected
diseased by the infected
saddened by the rejected
blinded by the reflected
scrutinized by the inspected. . .
what a day!

[vulture]

what a day!
I heard you say.
was it a struggle
to hold the monsters
at bay kind of day?
then, may I say?
I feel your pain.
Working only to gain
an even break
for the sake
of making ends
meet in the middle.
some days the slayer
usually the slain

[phantasm]

Usually the slain simply die.
What do you expect from people, after being worked to death, bludgeoned, and skewered
by embarrassment, humiliation, losing face and dignity in a search for decency in this wide world?

We are told life is work
We are told life is socializing
We slap the bookworm in the face and say, "Get a life!"
A life of vapid partying, getting drunk, singing karaoke, of jockeying for position in society
by buying new shit all the freaking time-- the latest car, the latest fashions, the latest buzzword.

Sometimes we look on a social existence with longing.
Other times we couldn't care less.
Our lives are not dependent on being surrounded by people.
But it kills us when we hear others insinuate that our lives are not worth living.
Like Abel when he was killed by Cain, our blood seeps through the bludgeoned skin,
drip drip dripping on the rock beneath our feet

The blood cries out to God, each droplet splattering in its' own unique way
You may only hear the rustling of the trees, but God can hear the blood dripping.

But we don't have to stay dead. We can get back up. Our lives are still worth living
even though we aren't partiers.


Life takes many forms.

[aims]

Life takes many forms
no matter societies norms!
the elite self-flatter
but it's really just so much chatter
just a little pitter-patter
of a little worthless splatter!
Let's touch on the heart of the matter:
no one controls the herd of humanity,
all attempts are either pathetic
or ending in senseless violence,
violence that does not, in the end,
achieve it's goal.
People are going to be
who people are going to be.

[phantasm]

People are going to be who people are going to be.
You can't change me
No matter how much time you spend with me.
You can't change me
You look for your own reflection in my heart and are disappointed.
You can't change me
I will not conform to your expectations just because you're my family members
You can't change me
Just because we share DNA doesn't mean we're the same.

My life has had a unique trajectory.
I am my own man.

[aims]

I am my own man,
well if you ad wo
in front of that man
then yes I am!!
An independant thinker from a very young age,
I've got some good ideas,
if not a regular sage.
if you don't like what you've read so far turn a page.
If not it's ok,
I've no time for rage!

[aims]

Rage,
it's a self-imposed cage,
definitely displays nothing remotely sage.
Turn a page!
Quit reading that same old ugly knarled story
it's so metaphysically gory
let go,
stop dragging dead weight
by it's barbed wire tether;
and don't look back,
not ever!

[phantasm]

Don't look back, not ever
The past happened, that can't be helped
Life is one thing after another
Don't be distracted by all that lies behind you.
Nostalgia and pining for the past
may feel good, but what does it do for you?
It takes your eye off the prize,
the shimmering hope in the distance of a better life in the future.

Enjoy the good things from your past every so often,
But be the master of your past, not a slave to it.
Those that live in the past can accept neither the present nor the near-future.

Don't just stand there, by the bank of the river.
Get in and let the current carry you ever forward.

Life is for living.

[aims]

Life is for living
Love is for giving
not getting?
rather self-forgetting?!
that is its nature in it's purest form!
Certainly not the norm,
because this is a world that blends
the realm of the intangible with the concrete
the whole ball of wax . . .
complete!
tainted
beautifully painted
the oak in the acorn
the two-sided coin
when pure sparkling light
and dirty roots
join!
the whole kettle of fish. . .
bloody,
smelly,
and oh, so nourishing and Life Sustaining.
So Love, in its purest form,
it's like the sky without the sea or solid ground,
a circle that's broken
that doesn't go all the way around!

[phantasm]

A circle that's broken that doesn't go all the way around
Is the ultimate symbol of hope
Not everything is perpetual
Not everything is eternal
It is neccessary for some things to come to an end

Every beginning is another beginning's end.

In the space that breaks continuity-- that is where hope lies.

Nothing is perfect.
Nothing lasts forever.
There is decay and death,
But there is also birth and resurrection

There comes a time when you want to get off the merry-go-round.
Life can feel like one day after another, same shit, different day.

Sometimes, we need something radical to happen to rock our lives.

[anirbas]

to rock our lives
we require a cradle
and a sweet lullaby
to lull us to sleep

as adults, this means
we'd need a cradle
to large to imagine
so we must settle
for a pair of arms
to rock us, instead

turns out that's a good thing

[aims]

a good thing. . .
There are times in life we wouldn't know it
if it hit us square in the head!
There are times in life we don't know we already have it,
or rather there is an absence
that is not a negative,
as we suppose it to be!!!
Funny in my life I have run up against two such instances
in opposite form.
Firstly. . .
it was never my intention to have any children in this life,
but I did,
by a late life accident,
and she has been my greatest blessing!!!!
Secondly . . .
I thought and longed for,
for most of my adult life,
a partner, a soul-mate,
this I was sure was something I needed
something I was sure my life would not be complete without,
then menopause happened
and lets just say the lack of hormone surges
relieved me of urges
of the romantic, emotional, and sexual kind,
and I find myself quite relieved
not to have ever found my better half. . .
nor the drama that can accompany such relationships.
After living with this tragic miserable dramatic undertone all my adult life,
I was finally free. . .
and happy to be!
So here I sit. . .
waiting for the next revealation!

_{of course this is just my reality not at all the experience of every post menopausal woman}