Arguing with the Inarguable

[dr_con]

Arguing with the Inarguable

 

When the inevitable moment comes

and the suffering is done

how will you justify your Bargain?

 

Will you claim you were Human?

Will you claim allegiance to the Dead?

Did you put away childish things like Fear?

Did you write poetry on Rocks and Sticks?

 

Never to be found

Never to be found

 

Did it Matter?

Did you dismiss Right and Wrong?

Did you align with Mystery?

 

If only for a moment

If only for a moment

 

Dashing everything you were told

against rocks and raptors and running water

echoing into where the ancients rest

 

Past clouds scuttling across your heart

Past the calculus of vacuum

Past the infernal splits of atoms and energy

And yes past

Meaning and bargains

 

It is of no substance

But did You?

 

 

 

[JoelJosol]

This poem reminds me of the musing of the writer of Ecclesiastes. Everything is vanity and a striving after the wind!

 

The message, for me, lies in the couplets - 'never to be found' and the desperate 'if only for a moment'.

 

(Glad to have my IP address get through :-))

[Gatekeeper]

"Resistance is futile" the Borg would intone . . .

 

What do we do when we encounter the recognition of the futility?

[David W. Parsley]

I, too, hear the voice of The Preacher in Ecclesiastes, seeking to know "the whole duty of Man," in modern dress turning the question inside-out: "Did you?" Without stepping too far aside, I also resonate through an old poetic narrative of my own, concerning "questions he / had not sought true answers for."

 

Thanks Doc,

- Dave

[fdelano]

As a penance to Doc Juris, I admit to struggling with this one, but it is of no significance that I take away so little. I grew up in the southern Bible belt and was once ingrained in the King James version, but, except for childhood longings, I do not live with the scriptures daily. To me the beautiful pages exist is thousands of books I have devoured and likely many thousands more that I will never know, filled with thoughts that could change another's life forever. Some few have done that for me--in shaping my thinking. We who post most often, sometimes do not communicate well, but that to me is the beauty--what the open-minded readers takes away and the things left behind. A living artistic gathering around the literary campfire. Hey! That's my marshmallow!

[dr_con]

Thanks All who commented! One of the 'voices' who drives some of my poems is the 'preacher' and he did drive this one, although any resemblance to the Bible is just coincidental and part of the structure of that voice. Interesting that it was taken as a poem of futility by some, I certainly did not intend that outcome, but that's one of the many fascinating things about poetry. Also a friend on another list said: You should hook up with a Heavy Metal band, I can hear the electric guitars in every line. It had not occurred to me before, but once said, seemed soo obvious: The link between Hellfire Sermons, Pulpit Pounding and Heavy Metal! Many Metal Heads were raised in churches where I'm sure they got the shivers during the orations on hell, and as they grew older Heavy Metal is a natural outgrowth of that childhood fear/thrill;-)

Most of the references come from Zen although both CS lewis and a poetry con who wrote lovingly of Birds and Rocks;-)

 

Many Thanks All! (and just having come back from 5 days of daily campfires, the marshmallow comment made me smile;-)