Not Poetry. Quatrain Verse in English & Swedish. Dagsverser. On the Mundane & the Arcane.
Prior to restored eyesight
was bumbling benighted
had felt anxious & contrite
with outlook unsighted
I just couldn’t envision
the light beyond cataract
before the incision
had seemed remotely abstract
Since as if by Kliegs enhanced my eyesight
would that next my soul shall fill with insight!
+)
Klieg = an intense carbon arc light especially used in film making
Feeling ignored, down in the dump
whether you by mere dumb luck
have gotten famous rich & plump
or by own persistent pluck?
Case you still feel neglected
not having chump minions like Trump
try not feel too dejected
imagine you’d been a sump pump:
You’d gurgle & clank in cellars wet, dark & dank
doomed underground regardless of how hard you crank!
Since the Romans has echoed the jingoistic cry ‘Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patria Mori’ or ‘It is sweet and right to die for one’s country’:
Awash in gushing
about what’s ‘sweet & right’
while not much blushing
of others’ dead end plight
While some ‘laid down’ their lives
at home Jingoists grandstand
keep slapping their high-fives
while just The Dead know first-hand
But why bother taking time to reflect
when easier just accept or reject?
On the wildfires in Australia
Parts of continent turning tinder
looks from space like single ember?
How long til residual cinder
what shall be left to remember?
Fear some day out in lonesome space
in their space craft explorer
homeless without an earthly base
will be watching in horror
Then peering out and down forsaken:
Much too late did humans awaken
Comes dawn am wakening up
next to my wondrous wife
then sipping first coffee cup
still spared from thoughts of strife
At nighttime reading in bed
til nodding off, dropping the book
vigor to stay awake shred
dropping off to sleep in our nook
Fleetingly these life’s highlights
shields my heart from what benights
Truly it has been achieved
be it much belated
existentially relieved
by breakthrough elated
Been presumptive in perspective
each stodgy, rigid mistake
but since woke up, turned affective
much quicker now the uptake
This moment in this lifetime
whether in role calm or aghast
here & now is my showtime
in the part which I have been cast!
Long overdue to start my true role
old one been taking horrid a toll
Finding true peace of mind while with zest
hoping to show off how we’re ‘blessed’
struggling intensely to stay abreast
with those most elegantly dressed?
Are we lacking in discernment?
Won’t silly life usurp us
mire us in mundane internment
oblivious to purpose?
While acquisitive restraint much maligned
perhaps a journey of most wondrous kind?
How are we expected prescient
about all that’s devolving
when of context sorely nescient
whilst most values dissolving?
But who needs knowing
can’t we just keep going
conning, elbowing
pushing, and then crowing?!
Still ain’t there unsettling sense it’s bugling taps
that nations, environment are near collapse?
When was the most recent time
looking in a mirror
that whistles blew, bells would chime
when viewed ourself clearer?
For in its reflection
on close inspection
we shan’t see perfection
or mass affection
So what, in creation’s aviary
few get to sing like a canary
therefore being a bird ordinary
might perhaps prove most salutary?
Came across these lines from a late-Elizabethan era madrigal ‘Now is the Month of Maying’:
“The Spring clad all in gladness
doth laugh at Winter’s sadness”
which inspired the following verse – though pretending that ‘Madrigal’ is the last name of a woman called Elizabeth, who is rather the one feeling gladness & sadness:
While flawless crisp days did excite
on frozen fields bucolic
since then worn thin Winter’s delight
in melting snow to frolic
Patient, fickle & demure
thus arrives next season
to brim with its own allure
clouded from all reason
Dear Elizabeth Madrigal
clearly the most innate thing
for such a thoughtful lovely gal
to join in laughter with Spring!