Poetry Lives On

Have A Nice Day

How could you do this?

A partnership is a sharing of decision making

What has happened to trust?

Weighing up of consequences together?

Not to have a voice in planning defines your insignificance

Creates a fallacy of importance

That leaves the outsider mangled and in disarray

Words can be the difference

A caring token of recognition

At times the surest proof of love

Not so here

Your silence has shaken my bones

Here I am, ignored

Yet continuing the inequity

Helplessly floundering in irrelevance

Wondering, no searching

For reasons to find strength for both of us

Indeed survival

In vain alas

Finally you speak

Your last words are an echoing elegy

Ending forever what once was

Nothing left for me but to thank you for the past

And wish you well with your new partner

Some deeds cannot be undone

Anyway

Have a nice day

But I See What You Do

Against stupidity the very gods themselves contend in vain.

Friedrich Schiller

I can’t believe what you say because I see what you do.

James Baldwin

So there you are

Intolerably stupid as usual

Spreading fake details of your virtue

Like cream on a jam sandwich

You imply that your thought processes are working

You claim to be a pillar of towering virtue

Fixing this

Correcting that

Achieving unprecedented heights of excellence

While the rest of the world crumbles

Under the influence of fools

It’s because of you 

You allege

The market is surging

Employment is rising to pleasing levels

Overseas trade is booming

And loyalty to tried and true friends is strong

I hear what you say about your success

But I see what you do

Your injustice to refugees

Will bring shame into the annals yet to be written

Drought fire flood and vengeful storms

Will be potently recognised 

As your global warming curse for our future

Control of our destiny by the few

Your lobbyist cronies

Will be analysed as disaster in the history written tomorrow

Ownership of our land

Will be auctioned out to the rich 

In the ruthless markets you create

In these ways you have aroused my anger

Without my respect

And please note: you will not get my vote

O Wisdom

Wisdom knows

The difference between right and wrong

It judges not for self interest

Or in search of power

But respects the inevitable reality of truth

And the value of evidence

Wisdom is not distracted

By the chatter of people speaking without listening

Or the beating of drums on parade for vested interests

It denies

The mythology of the rich and powerful

With their endless misleading patter to gain advantage

It does not work for personal gain

Unless the gain is shared by all

It will not condemn

Unless supported within the halls of justice

To protect the innocent who suffer in the present

It does not repeat the follies of the past

It is not simple or black and white

Not the end of a journey

It is instead a work in progress

A continuing mission

That leads to a destination you cannot know

In advance

If you would be wise

Ask yourself why you want to know things

If your answer is to discover reality

You are on the right road

And your journey can begin

Go then into the realm of awareness

Read every book

Run your mind critically over all media

Listen to the voices of experience

Reach out for the power of wisdom

It is a light

That shines amidst the infernal darkness of ignorance

And will show you the way

You may not have company on this excursion

As you will travel an unfrequented path

The Perfect Man

It’s quite a search this one

I’m seeking the perfect man

Not a figment of the imagination

Not an advertisement for men’s clothing

The real thing

Carefully based on criteria from appropriate authorities

Guidance that will stand the test of the ages

I seek it here I seek it there

I seek perfection everywhere

From the tax agent for example

His perfect man will have a vast array of excuses

For the banker 

The perfect man will borrow, repay and then own an estate

The captain of industry’s perfect man

Will do more work for less pay

The shock jock’s criterion for perfection

Will be power to abuse in response to abuse

And the spouse will simply demand

A perfect man about the house

Or take the politician 

No problem for him

His perfect man will turn the big lie into votes

What about the soldier?

That’s simple too: the perfect man will obey orders

And the lawyer?

That perfect man will pay you even if you are wrong

And the surgeon will operate

As long as the perfect man can afford the fees 

The policeman’s

Perfect man will be arrested without a struggle

The car salesman’s

Perfect man will believe the spiel

And the pressman’s

Perfect man will still buy the paper in spite of the lies

I must tell you here, there is no space

To discuss further the vox populi 

But let me end with this

At last I have found the archetype of the perfect man 

He is in fact dead

Death has a strange way with reputations

So presume the funerals to scan

If you would seek to find the perfect man

From eulogies you will make your selection

For there and only there will you find perfection

Diogenes

Well here I am carrying my light

Holding it high in the broad daylight

You will recall I have a plan

To throw its beams on an honest man

Ah here he is; I think I’ve found him

With a multitude of friends gathered around him

But no that is not a valid test

It’s the friends you don’t see who are under arrest

What about this one, with lots of power

He’s a pedophile working the children’s hour

It’s false respect he is receiving

And we must talk justice for his victims’ grieving

Look here now I’ve found another

Waving to me like a long lost brother

There he goes blithely through a diplomat’s door

No, he’s no good as he started a war

And so the search goes on

With many a soul to look upon

There’s a very famous business man

With extremely high status and lots of élan

On a desperate search for survival

By selling his soul to a rival

So we can’t choose him but this one may do

He’s got an award for the chosen few

He knew the right people to promote nomination

Though his true nature’s an abomination

What a job this is but I must not give in

I keep finding people who are troubled by sin

But wait, there’s one last honest man to find

It’s a Prime Minister who has just resigned

Beauty

Beauty stands supreme

Among routine deserts of ugliness

It radiates harmony

Amidst a cacophony of discord

It casts aside irrelevance

Like foliage falling off poison ivy

It speaks with its own logic

Explaining things

In a universal language that radiates awareness

It has its special peace with the world

Beauty rejoices in its own significance

Unafraid of time

It is powerful because of its intrinsic worth

That belongs to the ages

Its energy is self-fulfilling 

Beyond moments of fleeting fame

Its influence is irresistible 

Transforming,

Creating responses

That change the very nature of human existence

There is no simplistic formula

That leads to beauty

It does not appear on request

Or obey the orders of the powerful

It is not the wanton child of fashion

Not the transient whim of the greedy

Not the illicit consequence of self interest

Above all

Beauty transcends the commonplace

The passing mundanity

That tends to drain away the human spirit

During industrialised existence

It has an enchanted voice

Inviting, inciting, challenging

It exists for us all

As a true triumph of human life

royciebaby