“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
Psychology
All posts tagged Psychology
“Everyday Deception” by Agnieszka Bloch
unguarded moments
shibboleth fears of
vestpocketed minds
concealed from the
stars self-embarrassed
self-loathed and preferring
to please under pretense
what waste what ordeal
in denying the world
edge and contour of truth
as if judgment lacks eyes
to see through the disguise
be yourself save the
time and the pain
erecting false fronts
maintaining deception
you are worth so much more
than your fantasies
From my book Bohemian Scents
“Alter Zeitgeist” by Susett Heise
is the poet a man of his times
channeling culture
stroking his page with a populist pen
conventional wisdom affirmed
if so then I cannot in conscience
consider myself of the class
call me something other than poet
I brook no convention
a poem should surpass the mundane
if it has any art it should contravene
culture should shake it or break it
or take it to thoughts wildly new
it should fly on surprises of language
not mire in idioms
pull truth through metaphors
rich with provocative notions
the best poem is never self-evident
rather it leads to discovery
readers will find their own meanings
unaware they’ve become its coauthors
should a poet achieve such success
that his work becomes
part of the zeitgeist
it’s time that his readers move on
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“A poet’s work is to name the unnamable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.” – Salman Rushdie
From my book Ephemera
“The Id” by Zsuzsanna Ardo
lash of lightning
tree split to its roots
critters quiver
fear strikes
in the heart of
the dinosaur brain
nothing rational
lives in such deep
primal creases
reflexive behavior
swift action reaction
necessity making it
hostile to thought
here’s where man
and beast share in
a feral neurology
some men disposed
to enjoy it too much
psyche fractured
allured by sheer
weightlessness free
from the burden of
even mere modestly
complex ideas
metaphysical concepts
as foreign as cinders
that blighten the eye
right or wrong
existential
concretely
self-evident
such are the views of
the men who from
time immemorial
shame our humanity
From my book Ephemera
“Balance of Opposition” by Ibrahim Savas Pekdemir
serenity suffers
standing on scales
of off-centeredness
leans to the drag
of a lopsided life
out of plumb
lost of level
deprived equanimity
too much of this
leaves too little of that
without balance
no temper can
modulate tones of
emotional swings
without tug from
dependable keels
every journey
tempts hazard to list
without equipoise
character never stands
upright and virtue
cannot offset vice
cannot neutralize
random embrace
of an ethical drift
overloaded by heft
of an unstable culture
caught up in the speed
of the sweep of some
popular thrill or another
its flywheel stopped
dead in the heart
From my book Small Noise
“Addiction” by Howard Lancaster
neurochemistry
twisted and kinked
ropes of darkness
hang brains from
powdercoat gallows
transmuting the
psyche disabling the
organs of dreams
choking choice
freely burning all
natural identity
down to black ash
here the predator
heat of ferocious
scaled cravings turns
tissues to sopping
with alien moisture
the sweat from a
grim peristalsis
biology bent to
enslavement of
merciless purpose
destruction not
damage sheer
utter destruction
its ruin apparent
just look in the eyes
vacant pods sunken
sallow and sightless
all trace of a man
hidden fetal and deep
cowered under dead
layers of life from
the past wrapped
in skin of what
once was a womb
From my book Small Noise
“The Crow Tree” by Isabella Shores
whoever called
fight or flight
impulse
instinctive
misunderstands
fear it’s not
neurochemistry
rather it’s mind
overwhelmed
by sixth sense
that alerts
from a burn
in the belly
or the bite
of a cold
that shivers
the soul
From my book Pieces of Wine
“Scattered Destiny” by Joseph Kobina Prah
anger panic and fear
speed from
stranger to stranger
like flames match-lit
race along fuses
of volatile neurons
to leap across gaps of
magnesium mindlessness
horrid with consequence
masses corrupted in
white hot sparked unison
here is impenitent man
irresponsibly fractioned
burned whole
soul reduced and adapted
to feral behaviors
black acts
of a wild
human herd
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“Truth always rests with the minority … because the minority is generally formed by those who really have an opinion, while the strength of a majority is illusory, formed by the gangs who have no opinion.” – Søren Kierkegaard
From my book Pieces of Wine
“Color Study 5” by Carol Nelson
some eyes would see trees as weeds
bothersome rather than beautiful
lost to an indifferent lexicon
these the disconnected
disaffected souls drifting
through life feeling
little to nothing of why they are here
how their place in the scheme
corresponds to a purpose
deliberate not predetermined
no story of destiny
rather a tale of design
willful choice to engage with the vibrant
invigorant features of nature
to join the esthetic community
drawn into compact with all living things
shared of that quickening spark
what man loves or demeans in himself
he will love or demean
in his fellow creations
such is the power possessed in each heart
absolute in its truth
that will render this world
filled with trees or with weeds
From my books Ephemera and Legacies (vol. 2)
Illustration from Psychology Today
the human spirit
emerges from resentment
shriveled and scorned
From my book Ephemera
Poesy plus Polemics 