Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Poems in English
Clearly too powerful a pastiche
of the stolid Kingdom of Sweden
to persuade itself to unleash
from seeing itself as an Eden:
Where was that Swedish predilection
for well ingrained circumspection
when joined NATO without election
in untoward genuflection?
Swedish deliberations may seem esoteric
to the surrounding, less advanced, world barbaric
Now’s the time to be strong minded
While the past always matters
when by flashbacks am reminded
I mustn’t drown as it splatters
Rather stretch to my boldest stance
in each new moment’s fraction
am offered yet another chance
with short time frame for action
as resolve tends to fade too fast
never known to loiter & last
Underneath our ‘witticism’
on occasion it seems
lurks unkindly criticism
even lies & grim schemes?
As long as we don’t bore
or taking purloined pity
on those hapless we gore
what’s wrong with being witty?
Have we not learnt that life is unjust
so why do we still react nonplussed?!
She finds nothing so minute
that it shall not require
a response as if acute
like if it’s all afire
Yet again our poor wretch
keeps up her agitating
in most bountiful kvetch
that just knows not abating
As she feels powerless not to emote
right away to the non-urgent footnote
We stop & go & turn
for hours bumper to bumper
tempers flare as we churn
Minds melting, bodies plumper
Showing for others slight concern
for fear of us being scammed
Can’t learn from what we don’t discern
with hearts chilly & minds jammed
Thus we hide away in lives silly
taking dead-end paths willy-nilly
Originally written after just returning from a visit to my country of birth
From a privileged voyage
over distance, in quiescence
amidst confounding buoyage
slid right back in to senescence
Took from fantasy’s cup a quick sip
now just back from yet another trip
‘Lack time’, we lament
but distinctions get lost
when much time misspent
searching for lowest cost
It’s such sad inertia silly
by choosy Ace Consumer
descendant from Ancient Philly
lacking vision & humor
They keep chasing all hell bent
just can’t slow, pause or relent!
+)
Ancient Philly = the area of Philistia. These days a ‘philistine’ is a person who not only ignores all conditions of life which are not her own but also demands that the rest of humankind should fashion its mode of existence after her own
Aren’t we obstinate slouches
when try hide from our deepest fears
on Life’s pillows & couches
where we’re sinking down to our ears?
Are we thoroughly deflated
or effectively effete
or only sadly stalemated
lacking courageous heartbeat?
Why not bravely pursue what’s life-giving
rather than consume mired in misgiving?
Brittle leaves, yellow, cerise
swirling, sailing, glowing
in boisterous chilly breeze
mischievously blowing
Flashing sun rays dash around
lightening Fall in dance
Intrepid trees soon ungowned
below sky’s swept expanse
In windblown farewell leaves leave worn
bare branches left to stretch forlorn
“It didn’t take long for researchers examining the tiny sea snails to see something amiss. The surface of some of their thin outer shells looked as if they had been etched by a solvent. Others were deeply pitted and pocked. These translucent sea butterflies known as pteropods, which provide food for salmon, herring and other fish, hadn’t been burned in some horrific lab accident. They were being eaten away by the Pacific Ocean. Scientists have documented that souring seas caused by carbon dioxide emissions are dissolving pteropods in the wild right now along the U.S. West Coast. That is damaging a potentially important link in the marine food web far sooner than expected.”
– Seattle Times, April, 2014:
http://apps.seattletimes.com/reports/sea-change/2014/apr/30/pteropod-shells-dissolving
As long as us humans are ‘evolving’
so what if other ones are dissolving?
Generational abdication
by humans turned the crisp ocean
through acute acidification
into soup of toxic potion
The mollusk pteropod
in translucent shell
now by CO2 flawed
Chimes food chain’s death knell
No longer just a notion
effects ubiquitous
No longer mere slow motion
collapse precipitous
By humans running roughshod
the shells now pocked, softened
of the hapless Gastropod
Grandkids’ future coffined
By killing the pteropod
we’re denying Pterogod
+)
-gastropod = mollusk comprising the snails, whelks, slugs, etc.
-mollusk = a large group of animals (such as snails and clams) twho live in a shell
-pteropod = a small mollusk with winglike extensions for swimming
-‘Pterogod’ = (by license) that of God in Everyone and Everything