Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Daybreak birds of searching screeches
as bleak sunlight softly infuses
soaring beyond treetops’ reaches
eager flock, the new day beseeches
Where night & day intersect
her head, arm lightly rest
as nature, humans affect
on his warm, heaving chest
Not for long: Trust human’s stubborn devotion
harmony to squelch in jarring commotion
While serious enough CO2
mightily menacing Methane
rarely the subject of ballyhoo
Fearfully we minimize, feign
Lurking, patient Methane
punches way above its weight
Held in human disdain
shall seal humanity’s fate
Our human denial profane
Global warming inexorable
shown by science, nothing arcane
Damage done is irreversible
+)
-Methane = CH4, greenhouse gas 30-80 times more global warming potent than CO2; it’s current & potential release appears severely under reported in the main stream media
Upward in the crackling fire
of human commotion:
heated words flare, float in ire
howling in emotion
Prancingly they spew
ephemeral
through wide open flue
hotly feral
Swooping out like larks
from shades mislaid
burning, zinging sparks
cool off, then fade
Those cruel words of agony
stay seared in our memory
as if galloping cavalry
pounded them to emery
Every regret’s ember
dooms us to remember
Is anything found too cloying
these nifty days at all, such
as being outright annoying
or revoltingly too much?
Do they keep grabbing ever more
no longer knowing surfeit?
Is ‘missing out’ what they abhor
fearing that they might forfeit?
So let’s ignore their piercing plaint
following each indulgence
as it’s only through calm restraint
one shall assure abundance
+)
restraint = here: voluntarily restraint
As fades this day to evening
did we live fully, well
(not just burrowing, cleaving)
At peace when comes day’s knell?
If on day’s gallop we felt thrilled
were our furrow straight, deeply tilled?
Were we too absorbed to allay
to show heart or others’ plight?
Did we take pause in the day’s fray
of our misdeeds feel contrite?
Have we alighted fulfilled
so our heart now can rest stilled?
On raids ever niggling
yet again out on foray
ever jolted, wriggling
heading out among moray
Chasing for conveniency
in hoopla unrestrained
granted full leniency
to live lives entertained
You contentious consumer
on shopping paths hallow
doggedly without humor
distracted, stuck callow
You captives of rushing clatter
paying heed to ads’ slick flatter
+)
-moray = family of brightly colored voracious eels, dangerous if provoked; here: ambitious consumers dangerous if impeded
Out riding, lightly pedaling
shall still thoughts which percolate
From the workday’s din deafening
freed to calmly meditate
Shall grant rolling latitude
from our life’s churning grind
Fellowship with solitude
when gliding unconfined
Cycling tempers motorized indulgence
ushers us in to quiet effulgence
An insightful article on the Obama phenomena:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/blog/175816/
inspired this verse:
Unfounded self confidence
in pompous presumption
pretending at omniscience
while shows up compunction
His baritone oratory:
Delivery alluring
while hollow declaratory
doesn’t come across assuring
Stands with those on Wall Street
against the pitchforks
His White House found effete
fast fizzled fireworks
His bringing us cool pure fantasy
in hollow cowardly drama
“Change You Can Believe In” alchemy
darkly deepens nation’s trauma
How did we turn so immobile
erstwhile engaged citizens
indulging pursuits puerile
with baffling indifference?
Bowled over by his locomotion
hawking his brand of self-promotion?
+)
-‘change you can believe in’ = Obama’s election campaign slogan
-citizen = there can be no democracy without informed & engaged citizens
-compunction = uneasiness or hesitation about the rightness of an action
-pitchforks = I’m the only thing between you and the pitchforks”, the President told a gathering of big bank CEOs on April 3, 2009:
edited 04/17/22 0900
We keep cavorting, gushing
why should anyone blush?
Over obstacles rushing
evading Death’s near brush
Time is such a rigid knave
flows without adjournment
Continuity’s mere slave
knows not of discernment
“Saving time through efficiency
watch me, watch me, always I’m!”
Then wasted in proficiency
by rush to save yet more time
Thence such time by rushing saved
gets squandered & wasted
The still moment rarely craved
though sensed but not tasted …
+)
-knave = a deceitful scoundrel; an unprincipled crafty fellow
-proficiency = skill; expertness
Tirelessly our hapless Tongue
so recklessly wagging
Keeps hurling havoc far flung
bragging, ragging, snagging!
Our self-righteous racing Mind
contentiously nagging
How unrestrained we’ve opined
in pursuit unflagging!
Let our Hearts be more than pumps non-excitable:
The place where we live ‘tinderly’ ignitable
+)
‘tinderly’ = interweaving ‘tinder’ with ‘tender’