“Enlightenment” by Vladislav Tchevtchenko
history is rich
with contention for laurels
the race to the swift
the spoils to the victor
success to the persistent
From my books Ephemera and Riverthink
Success
All posts tagged Success
“Diligence 1” by Neukam Kinder-Harris
ordinary gifts
turned to exceptional work
secret of success
Scene from “Citizen Kane”
(Regarding “Citizen Kane”)
end of innocence
imprints its tragedy
under the skin
upon lips in extremis
failed man of great
worthless success
in mad grip of
insatiable wants
all alone in a crowd
of dead lovers
forsaken by friends
held forever in pity
he deeply despised
bitter irony
ever remembered
as less than
he thought of himself
crystal snowglobe
of dreams
fallen shattered
a boyhood sled
source of his
long absent joy
now consigned to
indifferent cold
plebian flames
“Uptown”
Painting by Tommy Buell McDonell
From fineartamerica.com
the motionless swagger of limestone façades
fringed epaulet shoulders guard citadel luxury
intimate supper clubs cater to gilded sensibilities
here where the splendid grandiloquent dwell
high above asphalt moats in their capital keeps
working levers of commerce and rum aristocracy
why is success a disparaged degenerate quality
when admission is discriminately priced by due
measures of merit and providence winning is not
some mean character flaw wealth and power have
neutral morality motives and methods however are
certainly worthy of judgment in all parts of town
“Out of the Woods at Walden Pond”
Painting by Rita Brown
From pixels.com
was a time
when I thrived
among men
and machines
of free enterprise
traveling continents
backing development
building new industries
giving to laboring poor
paths to middle class stature
I did my job well
with great pride of success
until time and debility
turned me for home
and the tools of my trade
knack for numbers
a nose for the telltale of risk
became specimens
artifact memories
sconced in museums of mind
now I write in seclusion
removed from the fight
for the wheel and the deal
I create with new tradecraft
arrangements of words
molding metaphors
fabricate stanzas erect
upon pages of commerce
exchanging new coin of this
notional literate realm
“My life has been the poem I would have writ
But I could not both live and utter it”
– Henry David Thoreau
“Man Thinking”
Painting by Alex Grey
From gestaltreality.com
wanting more than he has
always hungry unsatisfied
flowers and shrubbery and weeds
overcrowding his landscape
a house full of rooms full of stuff
from incessant collecting
material wealth both ambition
and constant frustration
a bottomless belly corporeal
in its seductive desires
possessed of the trappings
endowed by success and yet
nary an object or artifact seems
in the least worth the having
no meaningful friends nor
relationships touched by affection
acquaintances numbering hundreds
up down and across every map
he’s experienced peripatetic
with travel designed to defeat
the uncomfortable stillness
that scares him the mere
passing thought of just settling
in quite alone with himself
stirs a panic his windows must
only look out never in
he must keep on the move
with a focus on everything anything
other than what lies within
those defining interior spaces
where spirit is deeply afflicted
with mortified motives
his heart and soul blackened
by seething self-loathing
a man all the world sees as gifted
a wretch in reality worthy of pity
———————————————————-
“Let no one underestimate the need of pity. We live in a stony universe whose hard, brilliant forces rage fiercely.” – Theodore Dreiser
“Life is a Maze”
Photo by Jez C. Self
From fineartamerica.com
first and foremost
remember
success is no sin
but is failure refused
and refused and refused
until eggs of fear crack
pouring forth with
their stillborn yolks
dead to the purpose
of stubborn persistence
who strikes up a
timely acquaintance
with luck and walks
patient laid steps upon
well-chosen lanes
up and back the chicanes
of a maze that deters
all less resolute hearts
from its prize
“Life Satisfaction”
Painting by Vladislav Tchevtchenko
history is rich
with contention for laurels
the race to the swift
the spoils to the victor
success to the persistent
“Surrealist Man” Painting by Cristiano Siqueira From deviantart.com
he used to hang from the moon
stuff stars in his pockets
chase night from the face of the earth
hurl lightning bolts back to the cosmos
men clamored for his bold imprimatur
angels sat on his shoulders
together they gave righteous escort
protecting the driven and noble
he had powers electric invincible
wielded success like a truncheon
to instigate oomph in the abjectly timid
the dullards unblessed by ambition
then came cold reversal of fortune
disabling his ego with frissons of fear
felled by silence that amputates glory
prosthetic humility simply won’t fit
nothing sadder more tragic
than losing great pieces of self
nothing gladder more suiting
than hubris when brought to its knees
Photo from
dressedlikea.com
I used to carefully tend to the
look of success tailor-made
groomed and stylishly dressed
trompe l’oeil baron of business
urbane with the glib edge and
crease of sophisticate finish
while all the while knowing
my torn tee-shirt scruffy self
someday would step out
to stand in the comfortable
soft wrinkled truth of a
countrified soul far removed
from the trains planes and
boardroom existence that
fooled men and women on
four separate continents
into my custom sewn pockets
Poesy plus Polemics 