"Existence precedes essence"

Crazy Poems

Painful feelings, crazy thoughts -

Is this insanity?

Not when my imagination

Dominated me.

Years ago a cretin said

His brother was psychotic

And the poems that he wrote

Were crazy. That is all.

Even Merwin makes no sense

And he's the Poet Laureate.

Is he crazy too? He scribbles

With no punctuation.

Punctuation gives your writing

Purpose. He's the man,

A poet for the USA.

Yankees have no purpose.

Will they lock me up like Pound?

My poems have some talent.

1-22-14

 

“Existence precedes essence.”

Everything that Sartre said

Was silly or insane,

That is except his magnum opus.

It just baffled me.

What are genes if not the essence

Of the personality?

And if Freud is still considered

More than just an artifact,

Certain structures are innate

In every animal.

Nonetheless I dote on Sartre,

Fascinating, warm, not wise,

Interesting. And he lingers

Like an echo in my head.

1-22-14

 

Sartre

Existence before essence.

That's what Sartre had to think

To support his thought

Of total freedom.

Like every other Christian

And philosopher, he parred

Reality to suit his
Master plan.

One emotion doesn't matter.

Lob it off and limp away,

And say, “Behold!

The person I imagined!”

But he had a gift for writing

(There's an essence he forgot),

And so he ranks

Above the common man.

1-22-14

 

Talent

Are these poems better?

Or perhaps they're merely older.

A magic I have lost

Or had forgotten.

I long to come upon a date

From several years ago.

It makes me think

The poems will be better.

Does talent ebb?

Lloyd Webber's did.

And even Rodgers faltered,

But after he was

Very very old.

A chromosome. A single gene.

Perhaps a hateful mother.

No one knows,

But soon somebody may.

1-22-14

 

Like My Mother

Very understanding. I'm a fool,

Beaten to submission by my mother,

To whom I said “I love you”

When she cried.

To find a girl who loves me like my mother,

The same devotion and tenacity.

Christ! She'll put

Cordelia in her grave!

She'll take me til I'm dead

Then go away.

Nothing moves her. With a ready smile,

She can talk and whisper like a lover.

A spine of steel.

Like god, she is eternal.

And when she is old -

What happens then?

1-23-14

 

Vengeance

Tell a man he's crooked and he'll hit you,

Even though it's absolutely true.

Call a cop or soldier to defend you.

With mace and guns and sticks he'll hit you too.

The world was never moral, just religious.

Greed and vengeance. That's what god has sown.

However I am weak. If I were stronger

I would seek some vengeance of my own!

1-23-14

 

The Strong & Weak

Only weak men wind up homicidal.

Republicans say, “Give them all a gun.”
No defenses. None of them. They take it,

And never answer back, say “no” or run.

The strong stay strong forever, or expect to.

When they're older, what do they do then?
Do other strong men gather to protect them?
Or do they pee their pants like babes again?

Are weak men really weak? That's the impression.

Are strong men clever? They know how to play it.

To get his way with someone who is stronger,

There's nothing any man can do but to say it.

God was only made for acquisition,

And vengeance for the weak. And old men die,

Weak or strong. Is solitude a fortress?

The weak and strong put angels in the sky.

1-23-14

Brave Men

Brave men tell the truth and don't regret it.

Cowards slough in dread of a reprisal.

Freedom was created for the brave

To love in. Cowards live in fear of love.

The wars continue. Who will be the victor?

No one after all of them are dead.

Priests and preachers try to be forgiving,

And tell the masses what they want to hear.

Brave men play at treachery like children.

The confused are very easily misled.

A coward sells his soul to please the devil,

Forgetting everything he once believed.

Cowards live in fantasies and die there.

Brave men take the earth and burn it down.

All of them expect to go to heaven.

Love in lonely hearts is not extinguished.

1-23-14