Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Let up on the schlepp:
Unclasp handrails
find spring in your step
Check wind, set sails
Clamor for an upgrade:
Transcend life’s travails
in its daily charade
Forge upwardly trails
Do not indulge in sour grapes
on Life’s short promenade
and above all never traipse
in its penny arcade
Each moment in its brevity
mere blip imperceptible
no doubt throughout eternity
flashes insusceptible
In mechanical traverse
circling on lonesome trek
in apparent Universe
planet Earth just a speck
Nonetheless could’ve proved ample
if we wouldn’t rush & trample
but instead us fleeting flecks
messy guests soon Earth-less
us humans of modest specs
create own mess mirthless
When we use up what is essential to our very survival we shall perish. No distractions shall save us. To ‘consume’ (Latin ‘consumere’) is to take wholly or completely destroy, i.e. to use up.
Consumers don’t just squander
they do obliterate
now and right here and yonder
they do annihilate
Humans are now consumers
of what remains on Earth
we’re the malignant tumors
assuring planet’s dearth
Plainly turning it all unlivable:
The ultimate act unforgivable
We’re wilting in complacency’s shades
lost in gutless conformity
On frequent refrigerator raids
indulgent of deformity
Lassitude has kept us callow
from solidarity strayed
Each morning’s fresh hue turns sallow
by torrid crassitude swayed
We’ll be found too light when weighed
our erstwhile souls debased
Surely this whole jam self-made
with gone sour aftertaste?
Outlook darkly fossiliferous
of restraint we’re belligerent
In our pursuits carboniferous
of the future indifferent
No mere hubristic vanity
this despairing dissonance
but ’round the bend’ insanity
from which no deliverance!
While Icarus just didn’t watch the wax
we’re giving our whole species the axe
+)
Icarus = the classical hubris poster boy
My poor heart’s own share of weltschmerz
abates by writing each day
While measured still in kilohertz
keeps disquietude at bay
as well when on bike rides
or admiring a flower
then restlessness subsides
dims futility’s glower
Absorbed in a calm pursuit
in and of its own end
whether in itself minute
ain’t that when we transcend?
When replacing what’s factually known
with what’s been determined Fantasy
ain’t it Reality we thus disown
fawningly falling for Fallacy?
In earthly strife of opaque spec
we’re escaping on each day
our noses in gadgets high tech:
Tap keyboard ballet, ole!
While on screen devices we’ve binged
human life has gotten unhinged
When Spring blossom releases
with inexorable mettle
bit like coming to Jesus
amidst bursts of finest fettle?
Unfolding petals lustrous
bursting in anthesis soundless
Contrasting humans blusterous
in their nauseous noise boundless
Ethereally endowed
each staunch bantam blossom
grows eternally unbowed
fulfills presence awesome
While Nature stays in full control
mere arrogance the human role
+)
anthesis = the flowering period of a plant, from the opening of the flower bud
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
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