“Internal Conflict, Eternal Enemy” by Candace Fong
right brain left brain
crease to crease contest
intuition takes on logic
faith is the referee
From my book Bullets from Bones
Logic
All posts tagged Logic
“Occam’s Razor” by H. Whitver
we like simple things
simple rationale for war
simpler yet for peace
reductionist thought
shaves away all the puzzling
hard metaphysics
but problems arise
when the simplest formulas
turn out to be wrong
“no” is so easy
while “yes” affirms commitment
entailing some work
beware the straight line
without testing his razor
may lead you to doom
(originally posted April 2013)
“Van Gogh Howls on the Road” by Pierre-Jean Maurel
clever dragons
breathe logical
casuist fire
char credulous
minds with too
simply expressed
complex truths
so beware the
enlightenment
born by the
beautiful burn
of insistent
illuminant flames
(originally posted December 2013)
Image from pinterest.com
(My first attempt at the Jorio form)
right brain left brain
crease to crease contest
intuition takes on logic
faith is the referee
“Into the Light” by Theresa Paden
(This was my first attempt at a Villanelle about 5 years ago.)
Right and Wrong simply will not remain still
Judgment is stripped of its power to sway
When we deny we possess a Free Will
Conscience will stiffen in cold Logic chill
Scruples will suffer disuse and decay
Right and Wrong simply will not remain still
Virtue will slip from its perch on the hill
No more will Merit substantiate pay
When we deny we possess a Free Will
Urges want no Moral tempering skill
Choice bears no Consequence, no need to pray
Right and Wrong simply will not remain still
God and Soul artifacts of the mind’s mill
Ethics will no longer stand in our way
When we deny we possess a Free Will
Wages of Sin present no further bill
Crime a dead concept, no Law to obey
Right and Wrong simply will not remain still
When we deny we possess a Free Will
“Steampunk Clock”
Painting by Luis Cruz
From art.ekstrax.com
the automaton
sleeps in a leather valise
aboard coal fired
wagon-lits exiting
Paris for Zurich
where Boole
surreptitiously waits
in the garish
pooled gaslight
that puddles his
well disguised lab
grown impatient
with checking
rechecking
his bold philosophical
specs for the final
adjustments
the strokes
that will transform
intelligent worlds with
a lifelike machine-driven
self-thinking man
as the nearing train
mounts chugging groaning
steep Swiss elevations
he opens his pocket-fobbed
quantum clock geared
for the measure of logic
and smiles with a
mathematic knowledge
that soon will arrive
his inchoate invention
prepared to receive
its mechanical mind
what the future will hold
will be told
by new means
of computing
the physics and abstracts
that ever have challenged
organic gray brains
told by gleaming gold
ratchets and pistons
of new jewelried genius
the clatter of horsecarts
on cobblestoned lanes
makes his waiting
unbearable watching
from under the
ancient hewn eaves
of his retrofit garret
he finally spies
his reliable teamster
and rushes to take hold
the precious valise
wildly eager to usher
the Boolean offspring
of what will have been
the industrial age
“Logic”
Illustration by Teal Eye Print Store
From fineartamerica.com
how to recognize truth
when deniers are legion
absurdity reigns
inconsistencies poison
propositional logic
peculiar with formula
all substitutions of values
achieve the same outcome
a calculus yielding conclusion
equivalent to premise
necessities Wittgenstein
found to be senseless
linguistic mathematics
bereft of truth’s benefits
how one will recognize truth
is to think for oneself
adhering to faith
when the formulas fail
“City on Fire”
Fiber Art by Lynne Brotman
From fiberartblog.com
embrace the conventional wisdom
sing songs of the populist throng
feel affinity for the agendas of slyboots
neglecting the coolness of intellect
favoring heat of the passionate impulse
the clever linguistics of sophistry
lead to a counterfeit logic for framing
the wrong overweening assertions
that set institutions ablaze leaving
men of good will to sift ashes
in search of the reasons for ruin
“Coffee Cup”
Painting by Madelaine Fedorowich
From squashedtoad.ca
contention between good and evil
keeps moralist truth in upheaval
logicians will syllogize thoughts
whose truths often tally to naughts
philosophers toil after truth
in the vineyards of mental vermouth
theoretical physicists sing
of some truly grand unified thing
while I imbibe truth from my mug
every time I give Keurig a tug
From “Confessions”
By Augustine of Hippo
faith transcends logic
pours into human spaces
empty of wisdom
momentous assent to truths
unreached by the intellect
Poesy plus Polemics 