Great Poetry

[energizer bunny]

No Self is True Self

The man in whom Tao acts without impediment
Does not bother with his own interests
And does not despise others who do

He does not struggle to make money
And does not make a virtue of poverty.

He goes his way without relying on others
And does not pride himself on walking alone.

While he does not follow the crowd
He won't complain of those who do.

Rank and reward make no appeal to him;
Disgrace and shame do not deter him.

He is not always looking for right and wrong
Always deciding "yes" and "no."

The ancients said, therefore:
"The man of Tao remains unknown.
Perfect virtue produces nothing
No-Self Is True-Self
And the greatest man is nobody"

Chuang Tzu

[Brian37]

 If You Would Only, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB and @Brianrrs37 on twitter)
 
"If you would only",
Is the same line
Used by the majority
Of the religious worldwide
 
"You didn't pick
The right sect
Follow the right holy person
Or interpret it correct"
 
But funny that
Look at ants
Cooperate fine
Without worshiping that
 
Funny how
Elephants mourn
Protect their young
Without folklore 
 
If I'd only
Buy those things
Without scrutiny 
Without question?
 
Isn't that really
What causes our problems?
Buy the car
Without an inspection?
 
"If you'd only
Do it my way"
Is not an argument
Based on reason
 
We know far more
That was then
Today's data
Got us to the moon
 
It is never too soon
Never too late
To give up on old claims
Proven to be out of date
 
Scrutiny 
Neutrual objectivity
Observation
Exceedingly likely
 
Likely to pave
Our future with facts
It's time to leave
Myths in the past
 
"If only you'd be
Intelectually brave
Willing to be wrong
Not be a slave
 
Not be a slave
To falacious appeals
Those of traditions
Of things not proven
 
If only you'd see
The world is less frightening
When we see it through nature
And not superstition
 
Appeals to emotion
Are not an argument
You don't have to buy
The religion of your parents
 
In poems prior
I have stated before
There is lots of wonder
And good in the world
 
But there is no magic
To any of it
To human behaviors
Be they good or bad
 
No super hero
To punish you
With a earthquake or tornado
Nor cancer too
 
I've heard it 
From every label
"If only you'd pick
You'd be able"
 
My response
In every instance 
Regardless of
The club they argue
 
"Maybe you
Need to consider
It's all made up
By fallible humans"
 
It's not frightening
To me in the least
To skip the forever
Accept the ride ends
 
What matters is now
Not a fantasy future
There has never been
A utopia forever
 
I do find comfort
In the love of friends
In support of family
And beautiful sunsets
 
None of that
Requires a god of the gaps
Nor reincarnation
To accept facts
 
I find joy
in silly jokes
Spending time with family
And friendly folks
 
In gentle surf
Caressing the beach
In knowing the moon
The tides do reach
 
In the bright contrast
Of the Monarch butterfly
Or the hump back whale
Breaching water to the sky
 
I cannot nor will not
Allow my brain
To think all this
Is due to a magic man
 
If you'd only
Think of it naturally
You could see
Nature's vitality
 
Even with
Disaster and death
There is no need
To explain it with myth
 
We are a blip
And that's ok
It won't hurt humanity
To think that way
 
"If only you'd
Do it my way"
Is a dangerous distraction
Ignoring we're not at all different.
 

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Parsley 
Is gharsley - Ogden Nash

Boru

[Brian37]

Parsley 
Is gharsley - Ogden Nash

Boru

Huh?

[Mr.Obvious]

To get us in the halloween spirit. An old piece of mine.

A night of masked horrors

Once a year fake fears and plastic pretence
decorate, demonize and destroy my halls,
even silicone spiders, I spared no expense
in cobwebbing my beautiful concrete walls.
For during one spin around our very core
in every spin around the light of our lives
we mock our despair, fear and more
via boundless satire in a night of guise.

Dread does disappear in these darker days
which teach us to put things in perspective.
We at last leave the daily minotaur’s maze
and due desperation of the grey collective.
We leave duties and mortgages behind,
for who can care about such trivial dangers
when ghouls at every corner you find
and children accept candy from strangers.

This year I might become a vicious vampire
and leech life lost to claw from the undead.
Perhaps a zombie would make for great satire
if I didn’t think it might be utterly misread.
For one night let’s join nightmares and scare
and roar in laughter at each other’s costume.
Let’s transcend monstrous mankind with flair
to bask in joy for our meaningless daily gloom.

[Brian37]

That was great Mr Obvious.

[Mr.Obvious]

Fighting Fossils

I shan't please imposing apostles
herding people with their chime,
who waste lives fighting fossils
worn out by the sands of time.

Unaware they are, that an empty shell
bereft of flesh, blood and even bone
can not speak but certainly does tell
more than commandments in stone.

Behind the frames of who came before
there lie ideas unable to pass away;
Even when heroes fade, are no more,
their truths and legacies forever stay

[vulcanlogician]

"Faces" by Kahlil Gibran

I have seen a face with a thousand countenances, and a face that was but a single countenance as if held in a mould.

I have seen a face whose sheen I could look through to the ugliness beneath, and a face whose sheen I had to lift to see how beautiful it was.

I have seen an old face much lined with nothing, and a smooth face in which all things were graven.

I know faces, because I look through the fabric my own eye weaves, and behold the reality beneath.




*****************




"A Hand-Mirror" by Walt Whitman

HOLD it up sternly! See this it sends back! (Who is 
    it? Is it you?)
Outside fair costume—within, ashes and filth,
No more a flashing eye—no more a sonorous voice 
    or springy step,
Now some slave's eye, voice, hands, step,
A drunkard's breath, unwholesome eater's face, ve-
    nerealee's flesh,
Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stomach sour and 
    cankerous,
Joints rheumatic, bowels clogged with abomination,
Blood circulating dark and poisonous streams,
Words babble, hearing and touch callous,
No brain, no heart left—no magnetism of sex;
Such, from one look in this looking-glass ere you go 
    hence,
Such a result so soon—and from such a beginning!

[Brian37]

"Faces" by Kahlil Gibran

I have seen a face with a thousand countenances, and a face that was but a single countenance as if held in a mould.

I have seen a face whose sheen I could look through to the ugliness beneath, and a face whose sheen I had to lift to see how beautiful it was.

I have seen an old face much lined with nothing, and a smooth face in which all things were graven.

I know faces, because I look through the fabric my own eye weaves, and behold the reality beneath.




*****************




"A Hand-Mirror" by Walt Whitman

HOLD it up sternly! See this it sends back! (Who is 
    it? Is it you?)
Outside fair costume—within, ashes and filth,
No more a flashing eye—no more a sonorous voice 
    or springy step,
Now some slave's eye, voice, hands, step,
A drunkard's breath, unwholesome eater's face, ve-
    nerealee's flesh,
Lungs rotting away piecemeal, stomach sour and 
    cankerous,
Joints rheumatic, bowels clogged with abomination,
Blood circulating dark and poisonous streams,
Words babble, hearing and touch callous,
No brain, no heart left—no magnetism of sex;
Such, from one look in this looking-glass ere you go 
    hence,
Such a result so soon—and from such a beginning!

THANK YOU for posting the Walt Whitman poem. By doing that YOU inspired me to write one, based on one of the words he used in that poem. LOOK for credit in my next post.

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HEY somebody post something so I can create a new separate post.

[vulcanlogician]

Something