Luxury Kills



The average American life is good

Food, shelter: all the necessities

Many can beach vacation if they would

But is this happiness’s recipe?

Things that seem to make our lives easier:

Cars, elevators & cellular phones

Seem to only make our lives speedier

But but all those devices weaken our souls

Life is better with every gadget

Technology solves all of our problems

But I don’t feel the joy of the ads yet

I’m happier when, issues, I solve them

Real human strength is built of resistance

This Friction makes “Life” out of existence

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Jose Ortega y Gasset Meets Ice T

I’m glad American’s are doing well

And we keep accumulating things

I believe this is a marvelous Hell

That we can buy such so many belongings

The toys & luxuries of the Pharaohs  

Available to sisters & brothers

Wealth & pride of material composed

These “things” that separate us  from “others”*

We now have wealth’s magic appliances

Walls festooned with numbing moving paintings

Gadgets & trinkets of alliances

Made between us & power’s restrainings

All “the [simple] comforts we demanded

[Are now] mandatory” & commanded

•In The Heart Of The Sea• (haiku review)

33. Finished history/
Of whaling shipwreck •Essex•/
(Cannibalism)/
#haiku

34. The Inspiration/
For Melville’s book •Moby Dick•/
Was a gripping read/
#haiku

35. Interestingly/
The Blacks were eaten up first/
(Not those who jumped ship)/
#haiku

36. A heroic tale/
Of 19th Century life:/
“Life” wasn’t easy/
#haiku

37. Industrial life/
Aboard floating factories/
Of cetacean death/
#haiku

38a. Wealth cheapens living:/
The search for portable oil/
Displaced men’s labor/
#haiku

38b. Before oil reading/
Required tallow candles made/
Slowly, locally/
#haiku

38c. The cost of reading/
Or any nocturnal light/
Was prohibitive/
#haiku

39a. Ingenious workers/
Industrialized murder/
To enrich a few/
#haiku

39b. Ingenious workers/
Industrialized murder/
To light people’s nights/
#haiku

40. Whale oil lit the night/
Of Victorian bedrooms/
Permitting reading/
#haiku

41. The value of light/
So widely squandered today/
Was a luxury/
#haiku

42. Fine Parlor reading/
Made necessary whale oil/
Ere petroleum/
#haiku

43. Species’ destruction/
That some few might read at night/
(Free-market logic)/
#haiku

44. Men worked factories/
Floating charnel pyres making/
Convenience back home/
#haiku

45a. Inhumane danger/
Is the skeleton of ease/
In whaling’s lamp-light/
#haiku

45b. Inhumane danger/
Is the skeleton of ease/
(Modern convenience)/
#haiku

46. Like petroleum/
Labor is concentrated/
In oily barrels/
#haiku

47. Like petroleum/
We endanger some species/
So some can get rich/
#haiku

48. The logic of wealth/
Rationalizes taking/
For some to have more/
#haiku

49. Whalers risked their lives/
On floating slaughterhouses/
For decent payouts/
#haiku

50. We risk the planet/
For digital convenience/
Fueled by whaling’s heirs/
#haiku

51. The planet marches/
Down the path oil’s wealth has paved/
(Ease “über allës”)/
#haiku

52. The Essex’s men/
Three months at sea without aid/
Lived heroically/
#haiku

53. Difficult living/
Impossible to survive/
There is much to learn/
#haiku

Spatial Mass Production of Oppression Sonnet

Gleaming galvanized mass-produced fences/
Looping concertina wire, chain-linked checks/
Assembled minimum wage defenses/
Adorns buildings old & new: the hex/

The architecture of oppression has become/
Leitmotif of modern society/
Protection of pecuniary sums/
From unwashed masses of the laity/

Grand spaces of former democracy/
Grows the mold of Guantanamo’s new style/
Easily assembled theocracy/
Detritus of oppression by the mile/

Freedom will be stolen by production/
Not some foreign uniformed invasion*/

*Not some swarthy brown person invasion/

Nirvana Lost

Nirvana: destroyed/
In a flood possessions/
Purchased to please me/
#haiku

My limitations/
Provide boundaries I need/
To make me better/
#haiku

Ev’rything I want/
Pale reflection of ego/
And paltry desires/
#haiku

Happiness requires/
Limitations’ Acceptance/
And self-denial/
#haiku

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

Sledding in Woodside Queens 2013

35. Sledding in Woodside/
With the people of the world/
Human gravity/
#haiku
http://bit.ly/V7d1pW

2/10/13

50. The snowy hillside/
In Woodside’s Doughboy playground/
Is peppered with fun/
#haiku

51. Here Colombians/
Bengalis, Tibetans as/
Americans slide/
#haiku

52. Snowy experience/
ReCaptured digitally/
Are sent to tropics/
#haiku

53. iPad made movies/
Of happy Americans/
Are sent far away/
#haiku

54. Woman with hijab/
Gucci covered iPad films/
Her smiling children/
#haiku

55. Korean father/
Roars down the tree covered hill/
Ecstatically loud/
#haiku

56. Mexican fam’ly/
Unloads children & their sleds/
Then tackle papí/
#haiku

57. Americans all/
We enjoy democracy/
Of our acceptance/
#haiku

36. Sledding with children/
Overshot my playfulness/
Collided with age/
#haiku

37. Clenching rope handles/
Spinning beyond all control/
Damaged ring finger/
#haiku

38. Regretting my ride/
Because I injured myself/
Shows a lack of faith/
#haiku

39. Staying young inside/
More important than safety/
For immortal* souls/
#haiku *eternal

40. Aging bodies recede/
To within our comfort zone/
Abandoning youth/
#haiku

41. Aches and troubles/
Of old immaturity/
Are truly priceless/
#haiku

42. Youthfulness’s worth/
Though dangerous to old men/
Keeps their spirits fresh/
#haiku

43. Adventure’s value/
Is an internal journey/
Exploring within*/
#haiku *our souls

44. The pains in my body/
Temporarily remind/
My mind I’m alive/
#haiku

45. This throbbing finger/
Beats the rhythm of my heart/
Where I can feel it/
#haiku

46. I regret nothing/
Because I’m educated/
By experience/
#haiku

47. While I don’t like pain/
It reminds me I’m alive/
Here to live for now/
#haiku

48. Wedding tourniquet/
The ring keeps my red blood in/
The heart of my life/
#haiku

49. Ring’s Symbol becomes/
An active agent in life/
I cherish it so/
#haiku