Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Saplings needn’t travel the world
they grew in place & peace
while men in youth’s folly whirled
in impatient caprice
Tree and man now old, flagging:
while thick foliage, man’s hair thin
Both bent & sorely sagging
tree still a tree, man mere has-been
Do tell why pursue & rush around
when at perfect peace in our own ground?
His life’s edging catastrophic:
Seldom hoisted a trophy
Spouted but faux philosophic
Wrote no endearing strophe
Field of ‘talents’ left too long fallow
guts now weak, motivation shallow
Still calls for resuscitation
tries stagger ahead full bore!
No time for procrastination
tries charge with a last gasp roar:
As better a bullet in one’s heart
than fleeing and shot in one’s rear part!
Of rosy hued vigor drained
off course veered, dropped anchor
‘Just’ causes no longer feigned
subsided rush, rancor
Hearing himself he cringes
pompous in the arcane
Laboring on the fringes
struggling with the mundane
No longer plagued in the throes
of fables lastly shorn
About nothing much he crows
gray, worn – but not forlorn
Drilling by heedless fracking
oil is pumped emetic
keeps refineries cracking
in a race frenetic
Now, not until 2030
spills and plastic clog our gills
Earth’s water supply fouled dirty
leaves us sipping noxious spills
Now, not only by 2080
in climate catastrophe rife
comeuppance merciless & weighty
Humans left to horrific strife
Unreflective on how affronts amass:
Hubristic Humanity so crass
keeps making the inappropriate pass
Mother Earth is a virtuous lass
+)
-2030 = read: twentythirty
Withers life when nears the end
fades its rosy bouquet
What was once a stirring blend
now a sagging souffle
Sensory life squall after squall
tiring & worn from the grind
while pretenses mercifully fall
fleetingly we find peace of mind
Leaving behind the mundane
saved from banality
heading into the arcane
welcome finality!
Some found driven to exert control
to pile up goods, to hold power
Others languish in more modest role
for just more time in the shower
While our own mole a mighty mountain
other’s mountain a measly mole
Clogged many a compassion’s fountain
merely sprinkles the beggar’s bowl
How come we keep hoarding excess
and coldly transgress for ‘success’?
She: “Recently been thinking a little about the Meaning of Life …”
He: “Honey, why we don’t we google it?”
Boundless affinity for distraction
in vain attempts to handle it all
knee jerks to superficial attraction
one click away or found at the mall
But to lessen Life’s steady pains
must we not all squarely face
how helplessly our vigor drains
caught in Reckoning’s stern gaze?
while our lives us increasingly perplex
by hi-tech growing evermore complex
Splurging on carbon speeds global warming
in solipsistic cupidity
Indignantly we waive off all warning
thrashing in torrid acridity
Earth’s plight worsens with rapidity
as we hide behind denial’s fig leaf
most arguments mired in quiddity
While turpitude bolsters beyond belief
… as we indulge & betray
what our children can’t defray
By diffidence tormented
midst misgivings flurried
Absence of peace lamented
for own comfort worried
In life he turned ‘marshmallowed’
swam only where shallow
In cowardice had wallowed
thus aged while still callow
While guilty of many a faux pas
so at least he doesn’t expect applause
Had hoped for another dimension
of roaring and soaring ascent
trying to stand up to convention
been dreaming of dashing dissent
By now I’m better versed:
found species mainly slighted
Human existence cursed
on plundered planet blighted
While the situation seems hopeless
grant me be courageous and mope less!