Shigir Idol

Shigir Idol – 12,000 Year Old Icon Discovered Preserved in a Russian Peat Bog in 1894

towering totem
larch older than stone
burnished skin
browned by tannins
from deep earthen sleep
in an ancient embrace
by the bear of the bog
a most curious effigy
primitive sculpture
who bears seven faces
who’ve watched across
twelve thousand years
even into my life as I live it
a carving quite eager
it seems to communicate
covered complete with
arcane graven glyphs
no one living today
can decipher
and yet I would bet
they bespeak some
primordial wisdom
some omen of warning
some mesolith lesson
of human existence
a message of
feral philosophy
had I but known
might have given me
cause to live differently
better perhaps
for the knowledge
that laid itself down
in heroical sacrifice
secret and safe beneath
terrible eons and
miscarried eras of men
all in hope it might
come back to light
just in time to
recover posterity

Progress

“Catalyst” by Tara Baden

 

earthquakes tremble

beneath mighty mountains

the landscape evolves

rearranges lives of men

compelled to abide change

 

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“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” – Winston Churchill

 

 

From my books Ephemera and Riverthink

Rasennae

 

Decoration of Etruscan Tomb in Tarquinia

 
Etruscan gold primitive bones

raised up iron-age shoulders

lords of the sea tall as Greeks

proto west Europeans

whose women held privilege

a civilized city-state culture

of warrior merchants

in league of its talents for trade

master architects winemakers

metalwork artisans blessed

by exquisite refined ken

of function and form

a Tyrrhenian people who

thrived in the unwritten mists

of Italic prehistory

long before Gaius Octavius

undertook schema for empire

taking significant parts

of their models and myths

for the canons of Rome

a material people whose

ruins and relics still tantalize

all but mere gleanings of tombs

lost to conquest by time

life and language and liturgies

left to meticulous guesswork

of erudite dons who like me

share this bloodline of mystery

veins running sweet with

enigma and echo of origins

favored by warmth

in the whispers of

bronze Tuscan sun

Fatal Conceit

“Reformers” by Dana Schutz

reason does not inform ethics
ethics moving as it does
along lanes between
instinct and thought
a spontaneous product
of action not intellect
living experience
spurns being codified
carries no truck with
philosophic design
moral systems rely
on assumptions
about human nature
assumptions refuted by
anthropological history

vying contentions
between man and tribe
between tribe and society
spur an experimentation
a trial-and-error approach
to morality tweaks
right and wrong as they
trundle through time
these contentions need
balance on ethical fulcra
a faceoff of equalized truths
to preserve vital justice
for persons and groups
lest the frail social contract
collapses in ungodly dust

some would say
that describes the world
passing from us
to our children
our fatal conceit
that we better than
all those good souls
who preceded us
finally got it all right

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“Our moral traditions developed concurrently with our reason, not as its product.”                                                                                            – Friedrich Hayek

Tears of Glass

 

“Tears” by Niki Katiki 

 

 

were I chief
you would know me
as Broken Wing
sad from the anger
of brave crippled souls
of a sudden
black moment
denied of their
custom and means
to fly free
over thousand-year
landscapes brought forth
from the womb
of the sky when
proud eagles were young
swart warriors strong
when the horse
and the buffalo
chased the fleet winds
across limitless ground
when my sacred
glass tears
were reserved
for my fathers
instead
of my sons

 

 

From my book Pieces of Wine

Anasazi Vision

“Anasazi Ruins 3” by Sally Bills Bailey

cochineal and indigo

infused warp and weft

bursts of uncursed colors

in mystic geometry

supple tapestries

pendent on portals

cut high into sheer rock

whose outcrops supported

adobe pueblos

where surefooted

earthen skinned

cave-dwellers

climbed to make

contact and compact

to reshape society

join disparate tribes

in confederate worship

of southwestern sun

 

 

thriving peaceably

during dependable eons

of arable seasons

their ambient range

expanded by systemic

engineered roads

over hundreds of miles

connecting their sacred

mesas and canyons

this unlikely ideal

example of civilized

culture stood proud

till that sharp argent dawn

when one woman awoke

stunned to find all across

her familiar wide vista

that she was

completely alone

 

 

(originally posted April 2013)

Anthropology

 

“Frienemy Dance” by graphicanthropology

 

moral compass gone awry

true north in declension

dragged southward

by weighty exertions

of culture in conflict

rebellion against social mores

communal consensus

of right and of wrong

turned from credos to whims

pulled from underneath

once secure ethical pins

upside down inside out

customs mortally wounded

lay bleeding their wisdom

in clash with fierce armies

of personal paradigms

leaving tomorrow uncertain

the journey unguided

each choice a new agony

Latin America

 

“Spanish Village” by Rhodes Rumsey

 

terracotta skies

a warm roofing for

modern humilities

privately plagued

by repentance of

uneasy histories

conquests of empire

throne upon throne

cut through seas

to indigenous suns

of new continents

heritage residues

language religion

eclipsed ancient

cultures with layers

six centuries deep

stealing ritual magic

from fortified temples

converting the pagan

subduing the savage

released from the

rapture of jungles

consigning to mystery

secrets of seeming

improbable intellect

complex mathematics

prophetic astronomy

fine architectural

methods of monument

oh so much gained

against oh so much lost

an accounting elusive

of ultimate cost

there’s no science of

what might have been

Zenith

“Culmination” by Nadia Minic

here we are

feeling ever

so modern

so civilized

still a mere

stone’s throw

in time

from the clans

of the cave

just a blink

of the eye

since the mind

crawled from

under the pall

of dark ages

so pleased

with ourselves

with our highly

evolved sense

of progress

and purpose

so proud of

our human

creations of

cultured society

here where we

stand in our

warrior’s pose

at the zenith

still counting

the corpses

on which we

have climbed

Ingenium

Atlatl

 

slender leverage
on deadly ballistic darts
could fell mastodons