Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Om när stapplar emot en spegel
glimtas en ‘malbiten’ figur
väl som andra ser mej som regel
om överhuvet, eller hur?
Grunnar sällan på himmelsk lycka
för lönlöst förstås att vädja
Mens jordelivet, får man tycka
har lyckats att tidtals glädja
Kan ej dröja länge nu till fullt stopp
på livets dåraktiga banor
Tills dess ett trött sinne i krasslig kropp
kan finna ro i gamla vanor
Flows impassibly
the eternal refrain
stains irascibly:
Life’s suffering & pain
How we seethe
in temptation
How we breathe
for redemption
Both fear & hope us urge
in unyielding distinction
back & forth on the verge
very soon now: Extinction
Life let’s us fleetingly think we have won
while it controls when each of us is done
Taking off for way up there high
Sleekly winged global bullies
their ‘spreading Freedom’ gone awry:
Creating more enemies.
Fuselage & uniforms gleaming
still each plane a deranged scorer.
While patriots cheering & beaming:
dropped bombs tear off limbs in horror.
The Nation Indispensable
turned the most reprehensible
+)
-winged global bullies = here: B-52 bombers
I did not become that leader of men
that mighty lion roaring in his den
Not pumped up enough my ego
or perhaps lacking gumption?
Feeling too stiff in tuxedo
or bothered by compunction?
Feeling guilty of indulging
while others ail & tumble?
Loath to proclaim with chest bulging
while trying to fake humble?
Too deficient a Philistine
to travel by limousine?
Too concerned with the unforeseen
bored with intrigues Byzantine?
Or perhaps, putz
just lacking guts?
Why flailing in futility
when beckons the other way:
Of living in tranquility
not succumb to racking fray
Why persevere in mimicry
when beckons the other way:
To live in authenticity
not just in escapist play
Why upbraid in ubiquity
when beckons the other way:
Living in equanimity
gathers up Life’s full bouquet
Back then had seemed remote, unknown
would seem like fatuity
when up on to these shores tossed, blown
but since turned fortuity
By winds, were they happenstance
brought me in disaffect
On waves, were they circumstance
in life I was shipwrecked
Back then I was downed, almost drowned
Since then blessed on dry steady ground
+)
these shores = here: the US Pacific Northwest
Tell, has our Species ever met
someone that so hogs our time?
Anything like the Internet
that so dominates our prime?
Anything as facile as the Smart Phone
enticing indulgent seclusion?
where we are never & always alone
in such tantalizing collusion?
The hapless Post-Millennial Centaur
gallops wildly in oblivion
arrayed in alienation’s splendour
til crashed in future obsidian!
Having found Gothenburg pedantic
I had since childhood quested West
hence peered over the edge of my nest
on to horizons romantic
Clearly I inclined to manic
so sailed off to The New World
but turned no trip Magellanic
merely cruised in restless whirl
Stranger in Reality
so when I did arrive somewhere
never in finality
rarely found a tangible ‘here’
‘Far away’ may not endow
this I can sadly avow
+)
Gothenburg = the major port & industrial city on the Swedish West coast
Late summer rain
in moonlit night
Flawless quatrain
kindly polite
Lightly splatters
agony smoothed
Softly patters
restive hearts soothed
Flows off eaves
warm gently mild
Drips off leaves
in shades beguiled
Just dismiss those with an accent
every one a malcontent!
Let’s pathologize their dissent
never justly they lament
As accountable to no one
no need to be acquitted
Does not matter what we have done
accomplished or omitted
Americans don’t apologize
nor are we ever to be blamed
We always prevail, don’t compromise
Patriots are never ashamed!
Let’s always take this stand
against all critique:
Dismiss it out of hand
or bespeaks we’re weak
+)
-apologize = “I will never apologize for the United States. I don’t care what the facts are. I’m not an apologize-for-America kind of guy” – President George H W Bush
-we = here: patriotic, jingoistic Americans