Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
The Latin ‘vincit qui se vincit’
(‘he conquers who conquers himself’)
frees us only when we evince it
as won’t just happen by itself!
When of risk-takings we may be lukewarm
let others take’em should they care
If they need so badly to transform
then let change take place – but ‘out there’!
While we of course retain the right to reprove
those, who imply that we should need to improve
Åter en dyngsur dag i dystopi
för de många som lider slitsamt
medans en utmärkt dag i utopi
för oss som livet handlar skonsamt
Om vi har det väl förspänt
mänskligt att söka förklara
med att’verkligen förtjänt’
Svårt nog förstås att försvara …
… så vi får oss noggrant akta
att inte luras av fakta!
Images careening off keel
out-of-breath pitches twisted
in frenzied & frantic appeal
Any restraint resisted
Our attention usurped, wrested
in hugely bumped up gumption
Their vapid claims unattested
brought on in slick presumption
These ads of billions of dollars
bring neither rhyme or reason
just keep pouncing in crisp colors
Dance or consumer treason!
When speech & image
vile, while opaque
still pounce & scrimmage:
Time to awake!
otillräckligt förtegen
missar ibland på dansstegen
fast med annat en seg en
Förorsakat månget misshag
med sina löjliga misstag
Tragglig å knagglig hans livsstig
med påhitt beklämmande
I meningsutbyte munvig
om orätt fördömande
Liksom klentrogen av samhällsstegen
saknar han nu tro på Himlastegen
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” – H.L. Mencken
If Mencken is right then democracy has by now been perfected in the U.S., thus:
Screen-augmented monomania
White House megalomania
Crass corporate kleptomania
Pervasive mythomania
Narratives declarative
the abnormal dressed up formal
while outright imperative:
Such is the glassy ‘new normal’
Swallowed in mindless frivolity
amidst decaying life quality
Blev gamla tiders folkvett
så väl använt att det tog slut?
Med nya käcka synsätt
vet vi kanske ej längre hut?
Passar ej att bry sej om
(i uppumpad självsyn)
stort sett annat än dotcom
i trist brist på hänsyn?
Kanske är mitt eget synsätt bristfälligt
mitt gamla skick å tal grinigt å gnälligt?
Such snide, pied words
by hunched techies riled
Their screen-filled worlds
by jargon jaunt wiled:
Nattering net nerds
in their self-fenced herds
Once we begin to label
people, situations
they’ll turn simplistic fable
drawing allegations
An opinion in a blink
demands our chiding or sainting
without bothering to think
could prove indelibly tainting
‘Evil’ found irreversible
seen as beyond redemption
while ‘Good’ always traversable
fragrant without exemption
But at times don’t ‘good’ people seem buffoonish
while ‘evil’ people benignly cartoonish?
Behind plush home compound’s locks
stacked portfolio of stocks
and in the driveway
a monstrous vehicle
true to the cliche
monomaniacal
Enthroned sitting high up
me, entitled little elf
on my cell, with my pup
looking well after myself
On path unswerving
how well deserving!
That citizens sleep on sidewalks
engenders but little compassion
while belligerent China hawks
are in exceptionalist fashion
To send our young crisply uniformed
endowed by ‘defense’ budget bloat
amidst cheers by public uninformed
to sally beyond our own moat
Billions squandered sparring in the South China Sea
by a ‘civilized’ nation … how can it still be?!