Maps of Mind

 

Painting by Antonio Dias

 

his sins made his map

vivid stains like so many

unlovely small continents

upthrust impertinent

blots upon blessed

blue oceans of grace

mental landmasses

shaped by intemperate

memories marked by

impetuous footprints

his telltale of days

as a prisoner of

personal credos

caught up in the

secular worship of self

egocentric religion

exposed disavowed

by the wisdom of time

all those ill-conceived

places abandoned

in late-rising shame

when a touch from his

newly lit elderly torch

put his map to the flame

all those badly made

journeys consigned to

a past best forgotten

no need to revisit

re-find nor remind

those locations befouled

by such utter contempt

from an ignorant heart

maps of mind

seek and serve

to guide souls unaware

of the virtuous path

no small irony that

it’s within the gray smoke

of this burned

graybeard conscience

in willful destruction

in guilt-driven

self-immolation

inside of that map-smoke

lay the path to the truth

God’s conviction for man

now plainly revealed

Bone Tree

“Landscape with Gnarled Tree” by William Lester Stevens

 

wood shot through with knots

gnarled by labors of conscience

limbs weakened by guilt

too many storms took their toll

too little time to earn grace

Futurepast

 

“Warp Speed” by Thomas Woolworth

 
if I could fly faster than time
beyond reach of tomorrows
I might just recover my yesterdays
live them again with more grace
recast my old age with some dignity
passion and pride once so fierce
given over to patience and modesty

faster than time is a speed that needs
magic momentum of mind
special powers of dreamscape
creating remarkable visions
behind sleeping eyes from the
yearnings of penitent conscience
to make the impossible possible

Three Fingers, Three Rocks

“Bourbon Whiskey” by Aleksey Vaynshteyn

 

it squats on the floor

at my feet

staring up at me

taunts me with

heartbeats and whispers

that force me to listen

it shows up at hours

I find inconvenient when

nothing but time and

three fingers three rocks

should be mine all alone

in my savor of earned

blissful mindlessness

damn this intrusion

this arrogant animal

sticking itself to my

carpeted shadow

its all too familiarness

quashing the peace

of an evening

my solitude ruined

indulgence in sweet

meta-ethical unity

dashed by discomfort

of prickling reflection

brought on by its

mad grinning presence

enjoying its powers

of torment

beyond polite reason

 

 

(From my book Ephemera)

A and/or B

“Things Go Either Way” by Don Gray

 

(an homage to Søren Kierkegaard, inspired by friend and fellow poet Peter Notehelfer’s thoughtful recent piece on “Conscience”)

 

we are that binary substance

the stuff of the A and the B

philosophically either and or

the aesthetic and ethic

dissimilar twins of existence

who struggle for primacy

whence lay the higher-most calling

the predicate path to perfection

profound are the quandaries

begging the questions

that tantalize radical choices

defining our reason and purpose

the back and forth testing of truths

that by turns and by time

against backdrops of faith

renders clarity giving distinction

to how moral lines

come to conscience

converged in perspective

revealing the ultimate portrait

that is and remains our real self

Conscience Never Sleeps

“Conscience” by kharlamov

 

it happened in a dream
I became king of the world
but the world didn’t care

so I stepped from the throne
and a monster took my place
then the world was afraid

I painfully pondered
what my conscience commanded
while the whole world suffered

could I kill the monster
without becoming one too
thank God it was a dream

 

 

(originally posted March 2013)

Conscience

“Sphinx” by Lou Bermingham

 

like the stern couchant sphinx

whose stone leonine paws

left no prints in the sands

or the muds of the Nile

you sit watchful with secretive

maddening patience

knowing the sinks that

hide tombs of the pharaohs

and all my unuttered

raw motives and fears

just watching and waiting

for sands to give way

exposing the meal

you will hungrily make

of my weaknesses

 

 

(originally posted April 2013)

Dispositive

 

“Falling Shapes” by TheChariot77

 

 

you sling my shoulders with your grapples

climb the back of my legs with your barbed-wire toes

coming higher and closer intent

for the unguarded portals that lead to my brain

I can’t reach behind me to swat you away

my arms just don’t work that way anymore

so I do the one thing I can think of

to keep you from reaching my vulnerability

with a rush I leap backwards and heave myself

crashing the window

for an instant I feel your fear crunch against glass

that explodes as we fly through its showering shards

you still cling for your life as we sail through the air

for seconds or centuries

deafened by the updraft our downfall creates

I’m surprised to see others are falling beside us

people who died in the near and far past

escorting our flight as they reach out

and yank you away from my flesh

overwhelmingly soothing relief floods my senses

I see you in pieces below on the ground

and notice the wind in my ears growing softer

I’m slowing

more floating than falling and find

I’m embraced by the ghosts who still love me

who judge me unworthy of punishment

not so much innocent

moreso not guilty

deserving to live yet another new day

invested with trust of their faith

that I’ll make good their gift

of my soul saving rare

second chance

 

 

(originally posted May 2013)

Sotto Voce

 

“Conversation with Dusk” by John Shanabrook

 

 

whispered hatreds
rise in the steam
born of dreams
recondense into tears
that drop stains
upon conscience
softly burning small
holes that in time
reveal truth in the
shape of the heart
where all wordless
emotions congeal
into congeries good
men would rather
disown and deny them
their audible voice

 

 

(originally posted December 2013)

Polarities

 

“Asunder” by GJ Gillespie

 

too many me’s

overwhelming the we’s

civic mass

pulled apart

social weight

of collectable conscience

summarily split

reassigned into

either/or status

the force of division

has driven

recalcitrant egos

ipseities

mindsets

to one or the other

far opposite end

of the axis

its middle abandoned

no longer considered

hospitable

void of wise compromise

mortally weakened

of robust consensus

destabilized

reft of intense

counterbalancing reason

subjecting the world

to a shuddering wobble

that threatens extinction

cataclysmic

are the physics of

deeply divergent morality