Exotica

“Vanitas Still Life” by Pieter Claesz

 

I am drawn to fabricative vestiges
odd artifacts orphaned by culture
castoff heirlooms of clever-bent candlewax minds

melting visions of handsome arcanum
subliminal beds of mathematics
for whose formulas priests and engineers vie

curious handiworks rigged of small use
save to elevate medieval cells
of profligate mundane cerebral existence

unrepentant assertions of sophists
caught in autocrat teeth by poor students
of Machiavellian critical thinking

decorations I hang from sagged roofbeams
and mount over friable mantels
where they’ll burn when the vanitas torch paints my house

 

 

(originally posted April 2013)

Insight

“The Premature Burial” by Antoine Wiertz

 

philosopher poets
never shy from prying the lids
off history’s coffins

 

 

(originally posted April 2013)

What Price Ignorance?

 

“Eye of Ignorance” by Alina Mar

 

 

what price ignorance
wretched unschooled
who number in billions
no continent free
despite our technology
interconnecting
live communication
where the teachers
where the classrooms
where the outrage
how did it happen
how does it resolve
how can we help
when lessons lost
when concern blunted
when hope dashed
why pay attention
why give a damn
why dream of more
which ideas unimagined
which talents untapped
which thoughts unheard
what cures undeveloped
what books unwritten
what histories unread
mean circumstance traps
too many young minds
in merciless jaws
of vicious illiteracy
will it end then or ever
will it end now or never

 

 

(originally posted April 2013)

Tuscan Meadows

 

“Tuscan Countryside” by Rosanne Kaloustian

 

 

gold flecks warm subtle umber tones

where sunsets breach copses of cypress

brushing haloes on grainy weaved canvas

wearing portraits of culture reborn

to poets and painters and patrons

civic humanist theories

rear genius from medieval darkness

theological intrigues surround

anatomical ethics ensculpted in

stones of vernacular science

adorning the crenels that crown

philosophic entablature plastering

palaces built amidst commoner masonry

gardened with scholarly grasses

wild-flowered riverbanks channel

swift currents of sparkling ingenious ideas

watering fields of esthetic ambrosia

casting their scent across white marble cities

unhinged of their doors, dismantled of gates

thrown wide open to eagerly hail

intellectual throngs of posterity

 

 

(originally posted May 2013)

Waterfall

“Mountain Waterfall” by Linda Olsen

turgid and tumbled

perpetual flowing

ideas of great men

churn in rapids of history

crash against rocks

of hard validation

rechanneled by judgment

through fine pebbled sluices

that filter impure bits of

unsound reason and

abject presumption

these freshened

clean clarified waters

of potable truth

converge in a cataract

pouring their wisdom

over high ledges

to slowly erode these

last skeptical edges

then plunge headlong down

into deep shaded pools

whose location will

ever be hidden from all

but inquisitive minds

of determined persistence

thirsty for knowledge

*     *

(originally posted May 2013)

Leap of Faith

 

“Leap of Faith” by Tiffany Davis-Rustam

 

small fluid dynamics

the barely perceptible

nourishing nuances

gently enmeshed in

the ebb and the flow

within delicate tissues

an aqueous breathing

of crystallin lenses

miraculous organs

enlighten the brain

taking into one’s ken

form and function

of all that exists

in the visible world

concrete insights

admitting of knowledge

and yet despite all

that is seen remain

deeper realities ever

invisible mysteries

vital insensible truths

that may only be reached

by one daring enough

to suspend the mechanics

of cognitive vision

shirk safety and

step from the edge

of that rational ledge

direct into the

ungrounded air

of a brave

leap of faith

Sparks

 

Light Painting by Simon Berger

 

 

reaching backward
through sparks of
umbilical memory
seeking the source
of disturbances
plaguing the peace
of an age-advanced mind

reaching backward
through sparks of
confounding cosmology
seeking the source
of continuum
time curving space
in philosopher minds

reaching backward
through sparks of
progenitive affection
seeking the source
of sweet sentiment
free from the harsh
cold mechanical mind

reaching backward
through sparks of
enlightened epiphany
seeking the source
of the godhead faith
that nourishes
famished indigent minds

 

(originally posted January 2014)

Old Souls

“Series Infinity” by Irfan Mirza

 

that old man
was the man
who was me
long before
I was born
spent his youth
as my son
till he grew
to become
my own father

wisdom chased
across arcs
around loops
by fleet folly
faith and
knowledge
bended back
on themselves
giving life and
death sacred
dimensions
of circles
and time
the atomic
momentum
of wheels
turning turning
returning with
infinite speed

(originally posted January 2014)

We Are What We Read

Unknown Artist – Image from pinterest.com

we are what we read
the facts and the fictions
that spring from the
soul of a writer
attach to our genome
adsorb to our helices
polymath layers that
coat our identity
dressed to step out
into civilization

we are what we read
a literate essence
whose worth all depends
on the worth of the thoughts
taken straight off the pages
we choose to believe
pages run with the
ink and the sweat
someone else spent
enriching our ken

* * *

“Reading is an act of civilization; it’s one of the greatest acts of civilization because it takes the free raw material of the mind and builds castles of possibilities.”
                                                               – Ben Okri

Case for an Open Mind

“Open Mind” by Barbara Van Rooyan

 

(originally posted here February, 2014)

 

assertions of truth
stem from one of two roots
knowledge or belief
both are equally sworn
either one can be wrong