PR-518

The Dichotomy of Light

You read Graham Greene
And you do wonder about your Pollyanna
Idealism wreaking havoc as naivete often does

It’s so complicated.
And if it isn’t that it’s this:
The bit about the ego

How it lies in disguise
Lies in wait shining like how
Which side your bread is buttered on

Appears in hallowed light
To be and not to be
So it’s back again to that

To the dichotomy of light
And the temporary
(Is it therefore false?)

Of if a star dies was it not beautiful
Like sapphires
Or other fires in the night?
 

New PR-146

His River of Why

when god decided to invent

everything he took one

breath bigger than a circus tent

and everything began

 

when man determined to destroy

himself he picked the was

of shall and finding only why

smashed it into because

            –E. E. Cummings

 
Remember the Bridge on the River Kwai?
The Alec Guinness guy got so caught up
In the challenge he forgot that the bridge
Was for evil and he thought suffering

For its own demented fermented sake
Was its own raison d’être
And smug
Fresh from his brig he won

And then he lost when the bridge
Over his river of why
Came down with all his dreams
Like some disease
 

PR3–56

An Amazing Feedback Loop

This world is art: it’s a free museum
People complain about the price of admission
For this or for that other thing

But we’re already in the theater
And even when your play lasts only briefly:
How long does a camera take?

One exposure is all the necessary . . .
Not an art fan? A Philistine perhaps?
Still it’s an amazing feedback loop

(You can only go so far with that)
Because such is a symptom of ego
And the cure for not loving art

Is to admire at least one’s self
Look in the mirror!
Have you ever seen such a painting?

Especially when there’s backdrop lighting
And there always is
With saints I hear it gathers about the head

(The eyes are the wick for the heart’s candle)
The only trouble is:
Some people do not admire themselves