Simple Truths Sonnet

Simple Truths
The simplest truths obscure the best lies/
If you think the meaning is obvious/
Look up at the happy blue summer skies/
& know how it covers the blackness of space/

In life what is apparent is rarely/
Even vaguely materially real/
With work and introspection we barely/
Understand the selves we love with such zeal/

Simplicity is the strange, cruelest trap/
That, mesmerized, we willingly fall in/
Like glistening amber, when it’s still sap/
Easy answers delude the strengths within/

So when “simple” is the “best” solution/
Excavate beneath ease’s pollution/

Gatsby Haiku Review

#Baz #Luhrmann’s #Gatsby/
Was surprisingly pleasant/
A pretty good #flick/
#haiku

Production design/
& DeCaprio’s #Gatsby/
Were well worth watching/
#haiku

Fantastic Costumes/
& faux aged New York City/
Were interesting/
#haiku #gatsby

Clever impression/
If not true fidelity/
In this new #Gatsby/
#haiku

#Race’s clever use/
Added a new patina/
On segregation/
#haiku #Gatsby

Ubiquitous #Blacks/
Reminded viewers of #race/
Without preaching much/
#haiku #Gatsby

Desire Sonnet (all 4 drafts)

(revisions in reverse order)

Desire Sonnet
draft 4.
How intoxicating human desire/
Imaginations and passions inspire/
All-encompassing, these needs created/
By which nothing real* can be abated/

Desire refocuses human vision:/
Within, our souls surrender decisions;/
What we want to possess, possesses us/
We are controlled by our uncontrolled lust/

Within all living beings there exists/
A primitive saboteur who then twists/
Our selfish wants into eternal needs/
Without conscious awareness that it’s greed/

Our deep lusts, fantasies, (& tiny wants)/
Are fruits of our subconscious Ego’s taunts/
*true

Desire Sonnet
draft 3.
How intoxicating human desire/
Imaginations and passions inspire/
All-encompassing, these needs created/
By which nothing real* can be abated/

Desire refocuses human vision:/
Within, our souls surrender decisions;/
What we want to possess, possesses us/
We are controlled by our uncontrolled lust/

Within all living beings there exists/
A primitive saboteur who then twists/
Our selfish wants into eternal needs/
Without conscious awareness that it’s greed/

Our deep lusts, fantasies, & even needs/
Are flowers of our Ego’s little seeds/
*true

Desire Sonnet
draft 2.
How intoxicating human desire/
Imaginations and passions inspire/
All encompassing, are needs created/
That nothing mortal can at all make sated/

Desire refocuses human vision:/
Within, our souls surrender decisions;/
What we want to possess, possesses us/
We are controlled by our uncontrolled lust/

Within conscious human beings there is/
An enemy spy with a trite “pop-quiz:”/
Biological or cultural? What’s/
That which overrides or undermines thoughts/

Our deep lusts, fantasies, & even needs/
Are flowers of our Ego’s little seeds/

Desire Sonnet
draft 1.
How intoxicating human desire/
Imaginations and passions inspire/
All encompassing, are needs created/
That nothing mortal can at all make sated/

Desire refocuses human visions:/
Within, our souls rescind decisions;/
What we want to possess, possesses us/
We are controlled by our uncontrolled lust/

Within conscious human beings there is/
An enemy spy with a trite pop-quiz:/
Biological or cultural? What’s/
That which overrides or undermines thoughts/

Our deep lusts, fantasies, & even needs/
Are flowers of our Ego’s little seeds/

2 Sad Sights

In the last couple of months I’ve seen two of the saddest things. The first was the paralyzed squirrel that had spent part of the fall scampering around outside of Building 7, pulled only by its front legs. I guess someone must have been feeding it, maybe the nice lady who feeds the cats also brought something down for him to eat, because he was there for a few weeks or a month. The next to the last time I saw him was right by the service exit. He clawed his way out of the bushes and looked up at me as I was heading out with my bike to work, He paused and looked straight at me and I thought, “hope it gets better, you’ve been scrambling like this for a while.” I got on my bike and pedaled off, hoping I’d be able to stay un-paralyzed.
When I was walking Lucky later that day I saw the squirrel about 20 yards from that door pulling autumn leaves up around himself. It was like he was making a little bed by one of the trees he could no longer climb. I guess I knew he was dying then. But why the cover of leaves? DId he want to stay warm? Did he know he’s soon be somebody’s dinner? Did he want to avoid being dinner? The wind blew and exposed his nonparalyzed upper limbs and head and he quickly pulled some leaves back over him. I said goodbye, because I knew this was his end. I was kind of sad, but also happy that I was aware of this struggle for life in nature.

The other calamity I saw was on recycling day on the Upper East Side the day I went to the Whitney with Linda and Mary from California. I was running to the cafe that Lennox and Chandler were sitting at to bring the Calvin and Hobbs book I was carrying to them. On 76th street between Park and Lexington I came across a jumbo clear recycling bad that was full of maybe 30 Kodak rotating slide carousels. I had to know what the photos were of, so I tore a small hole in the bag and pulled out two slides from one of the slide-show carousels that people used to give slideshows before the internet made sharing and collating images so east. (I remember when one of my parents hippy friends came back from some exotic trip (Dan Deitz to Germany? Judy Geisman to India?) and we were all dutifully assembled to see one or two carousels of that trip with their commentary (as the adults got high and drunk). It was boring, though the images were interesting, as they got high and drunk the adults were less and less interesting.
The two slides I got were of Sofia Bulgaria. One was of the “Church Alex Nevsky” (that looked like a mosque), the other was titled “rush hour, Sofia” Both were lettered in sloppy fountain pen writing. I would imagine that the 10,000 slides in those thirty carousels were all also titled in fountain pen. Someone spend their life visiting Eastern Europe (& other places), taking photographs and editing them into slide shows. After each slide was viewed, labeled, carouseled the photographer-traveler, tourguide and slide-show purveyor would invite people to live vicariously though his travels.
Alas, he dies and someone put these slides to the curb to be recycled. What treasures of a life were in those bags? What treasures am I saving for Mason or Chandler or Lennox to throw to the curb some day? Nothing so exotic as a trip behind the soviet Iron Curtain. Sigh.

Forward

36. I struggle with fear/
Doubting my abilities/
& accomplishments/
#haiku

37. Fear keeps me from life/
Scaffolds insecurities/
Paralyzing me/
#haiku

38. I can do this job/
It is not beyond my skills/
I WILL push forward/
#haiku

39. Worst that can happen/
Is I look a bit stupid/
I should care less/
#haiku

40. Dawn’s iridescence/
Blends today’s optimism/
With yesterday’s fear/
#haiku

42. Poems together/
Inspiring myself on/
A #haiku pep-talk/

http://bit.ly/XxoInV

Contented Sonnet

Contented Life Sonnet II
[RErevision]

I have scaled the dizzying heights in life/
Where style’s premiums don’t matter/
Enjoying simple pleasures with my wife/
Make youth’s sweet conquests trite anti-matter/

Garish achievement of modern excess/
Burnished by wealth & youth’s pneumatic curves/
Are distractions, mere possessions tasteless:/
Undermining dignity and reserve/

Life’s simple common everyday pleasures/
Companionship, comfort, community/
Are destroyed by modern drastic measures:/
(Disgusting excess’s impunity)/

So I will enjoy what I’m enjoying/
Though to wanton desire it’s annoying/

Contented Life Sonnet
[unrevised]

I’ve attained the high plateau in life/
Where style’s premiums don’t matter/
Enjoying simple pleasures with my wife/
Make youth’s competition seem like blather/

Garish achievement of modern excess/
Burnished by wealth & pneumatic youth’s curves/
Those distractions, of possessions tasteless,/
From the straight and narrow will make you swerve/

Life’s simple psychological pleasures/
Companionship, comfort, community/
Are consumed by modern drastic measures/
(Disgusting excess’s impunity)/

So I will enjoy what I’m enjoying/
Though to consumerism:* annoying/
*capitalism

10a. I wrote a sonnet/
On middle aged contentment/
Because I’m happy/
#haiku

10b. I wrote a sonnet/
On middle aged contentment/
To convince myself/
#haiku

Ambulatory Surgery

2/19/13

12. Ambulatory/
Hand surgery with hardware/
I’m a bit afraid/
#haiku

13. Pre-surgery fast/
Difficult because I eat/
Habitually/
#haiku

14. Waiting room TV/
Game shows: American greed/
Fight for un-needed/
#haiku

15. Loud television/
Drowning out humanity/
Easing their function/
#haiku

17. Stripped of belongings/
Ev’rything vouchered like jail/
Sit waiting for Doc./
# haiku

18. Climb to the table/
Painful IV under skin/
Drift off to warm drugs/
#haiku

19. Post-Operation/
Dizzy nausea from drugs/
Confused and cold/
#haiku

20. Nurses & Doctors/
At your most traumatic times/
Are simply workers/
#haiku

21. I am in some pain/
It is the pain of healing/
Life keeps improving/
#haiku

16. Surgery went well/
Discomfort is unpleasant/
I will be just fine/
#haiku