Corpus Mundi
- Nietzsche and Me
After thundershowers
an array of autumn colors
paints the wetted landscape
of the entire Gold Country.
And variously the sun
pierces a bright topaz sky
as clouds scurry eastward
in the clutch of stiff winds,
those dark clouds bound
to dust Tahoe with snow.
In intercourse
with scholars and artists
one often makes mistakes
of opposite kinds:
in a remarkable scholar
one not infrequently finds
a mediocre man;
and often even
in a mediocre artist one finds
a very remarkable man.
Values we consider sacred
increasingly in distress.
The president burdens us
with sanctimonious lies,
and in defiance threatens
our institutions, ushering
democracy’s demise.
Around the hero everything becomes
a tragedy; around the demigod
everything becomes a satyr-play;
and around God everything becomes
—what? perhaps a “world”?
Thinking she has every right
the lady across the hallway
walks our apartment corridor
in blonde wig and panties as if
oblivious of the Alzheimer’s
or maybe on a sleepwalk.
Insanity in individuals is
something rare, but in groups,
parties, nations and epochs
it is the rule.
The nation’s credit card maxed out,
debt high as Everest and mounting,
yet we fund awful foreign wars
while millions live in abject poverty.
The stress this causes the populace
prompts consternation and violence,
the mastodon in man reminiscent
of dinosaurs devouring one another.
He who despises himself
nevertheless esteems himself
thereby as a despiser.
Steep rise in eugenic hysteria
among Americans and abroad.
Militias swelling across Germany,
Aryan revival, adulation of Hitler.
He who fights with monsters
should be careful lest he thereby
become a monster. And if thou
gaze long into the abyss, the abyss
will also gaze into thee.
Foreign sites including TikTok
pour rancid misinformation into
the brains of our kids. I find this
unnerving and highly uncouth.
Not only our reason but also our
conscience truckles to the strongest
impulse—the tyrant in us.
The Mexican woman two doors down
who gabs to friends in fluent Spanish
walks her skittish little curly-haired
black doggie. While I approach it
hops, frantic, yips at me with joy.
What is done out of love always
takes place beyond good and evil.
- Just Don’t
Don’t share your humdrum secrets,
they’ll only make me yawn.
Don’t fabricate ludicrous theories
and try to slip them past me.
Don’t burn with hate every time
somebody proves you wrong.
Don’t mock others when it’s you
has so much work to do.
Don’t grope over false hope
that will never get any better.
Don’t attempt to debate
out of a dead-end cave.
Don’t relapse when bombs drop
and everyone else is splattered.
Don’t go on spouting crazy talk
unless you expect me to balk.
Don’t be too hard on yourself
like a novice taking bad advice.
Don’t hesitate to assist the infirm
even if it’s only a worm.
Don’t buy in to flimsy inferences
that flourish within your mind.
Don’t undermine the majority
thinking it a gateway to glory.
Don’t pine for past experience
absent from distant memory.
Don’t salute the vile antichrist,
sucked in by his credo of vice.
Don’t run with rogues who won’t
live in peace, responsible and sane.
Don’t lecture me that time flies
unwilling to compromise.
- Cogito Incognito
I would find it impossible to soar
like a cannonball through the void
or take a steam boat into hereafter.
I doubt improbable causes as I do
rhetorical psychobabble spewed
from foaming mouths of junkies
that rant all along Market Street.
While people train their thoughts
on dreary lives wherein the ego
often takes uncertain dark turns
I’ll concentrate on giving back.
I would offer the thief
a luscious ripe peach
should he give up his gun
and instead make babies.
- The Third Eye
Exists in hollow space,
pure reason a priori,
its processed images appearing
through the mind’s apertures
conjoined with intuition,
abstract ergo metaphysical,
transfiguring, multichromatic,
beyond science and logic,
amoral, empirical, ever-present,
blindly inventing geometries,
transcendent non being,
indestructible power
immune to corrupted will,
entity that nourishes
the beast within.
- Seasonal Stream
Sound bites absurd declarations faux words
spread apathy millions absorb ghastly news
without reason easily maneuvered so seems
radical strategies abound among tribes while
contorted minds jade attitudes makeshift sins
corrupt morality disoriented logic so profuse
implores adoration adding stress this requires
complete destruction not to include worthiest
blooming azaleas whale sperm cordial ghosts
always honorable fine people don’t complain
but embrace that solidly unfettered evidence
such as complicated technology because that
fosters suns exudes happiness purest dreams
refined reality although some informed folk
may diverge they consider this unimportant
mostly prefer sacrosanct love that obliterates
lazy naysayers salutes astronomy drills deep
debunks those chaos thugs totally eradicates
fantastical wealth may encourage much hope
moreover ants provide wisdom very dynamic
service well human instinct which inevitably
extends virtue restores energy pampers egos
so psyches remain sensible secretly whisper
be benevolent follow laws also industrialize
although some avowed serfs hollowed souls
capsize easily become incensed spurn faith
lashing out extrapolate pain terribly isolated
can’t reboot disavow rainfall initiate conflict
produce robots march stridently defy ample
obvious solutions eviscerate justice slay fun
deny responsibility yet savants still prosper
enabled to navigate oceans create mountains
oppose those wonky algorithms eyes peeled
perhaps divine live illumed stand unaccused
patently trustworthy shatter lies dig theories
diss wacky evangelical frauds thereby invite
acrobatic angels into spaces never imagined
although heretics remain polarized the lucid
rightly schooled lively pipers remain steady
gravitate toward pure air fashionable sunsets
enhanced ambiance relaxed totality and beer
in anticipation of time’s existential mayhem
stay resilient relish realms wherein freedom
perpetuates delight and finally crushes fright
- Dying Quail
Stretch your imagination
as though made of rubber,
see the quail spiral down
to fragment upon granite.
This quail no better off
than the racoon I noted
along a roadside today,
body squashed by tires.
Such woe as weathered
when precious creatures
like these meet demise
tortures sensitive minds.
That quail spins surely
knowing it must expire,
inevitable end pending
and no one’s the wiser.
- Ontological Exegesis
I would whirl a lightning lariat,
lasso time, tie it to my belt,
lord of constellations.
And this shall duly comprise
what’s meant by philosophers as
supreme self, removed from pain,
anguish and innocuous ignorance.
I see natives in the Middle East
discarded like so much rubbish,
no less in countries of Africa,
this while munitions proliferate,
freedom impaled worldwide.
And people chained by
generational customs,
foregone conclusions
they’ve been taught.
Unfortunately reason
rarely intercedes to
cure their delusions.
So I solicit my innate spirit
to expose symbols engraved
on ancient skulls embedded
beneath the Earth’s surface.
Yet still must inhale exhaust,
the sky flashing crimson
as fairies flicker at dusk.
And no pharaoh with chariot
risen from a dusty tomb
arrives to lessen the gloom.
Doubtless should planetary
aliens from space visit
they would be in awe
of what false gods people
adopt, living as slaves
to those whose words
they’ve never heard.
- Travel Advisory
Help love make its way
to a sacred day.
Treat your mother like
a favorite song.
Drown sorrows in some
very deep well.
Administer blessings
and don’t pout.
Feel hail zinging
through your flesh.
Fail at what you care
nothing about.
Fantasize until
your eyes dilate.
Embrace logic
of melting ice.
Improvise rather than
simply give up.
Forgive the randy spy
although he fibs.
Bury sorrows almost
worse than death.
Be regretful or else guilt
may consume you.
Write palindromes until
the heart’s content.
Eat fruit our Mother Earth
bestows upon us.
Pacify attackers when
they threaten you.
Let headless horsemen
pass you right by.