RESONANCE

       Each poem aspires to become a meme,
       Being unforgettable its fondest dream,
       Grappling to some cranny of your brain,
       Indelible as any inky stain
       By virtue of its theme’s veracity
       And rhyme and meter’s sheer tenacity—
       Or so it was in palmier days than these.

       Now poets are afflicted by disease,
       Believing it is better to be freed
       From antique strictures of an outworn creed,
       Declaring that the death of prosody
       Releases them from lockstep tyranny.

       What they forget is how verse locks in minds
       A resonance that only music binds.

*

MAGIC IN THE WEB

    A poem like a sonnet in set form
    Might seem to keep the poet’s mind constrained;
    Ironically it makes new notions swarm
    As if by supernatural means ordained.

    There’s magic in the web of the son-net:
    The rhythm of the tight iambic line
    Combines with where each line-end rhyme is set
    To weave a spell of mystical design,

    The poet—all the while enthralled, enrapt,
    An instrument of powers beyond his ken
    Revealing how his subject may adapt
    To the exigencies that lead his pen—

        At last is freed from this engaging charm,
        Feeling sweet ecstasy and not alarm.

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Nemerov # 8

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FLOURISHING

"Wisdom is the realization of what is of value to oneself and others."

—Nicholas Maxwell    

    The cosmogenic process has brought us
    Into the Universe so it may see
    Itself benevolent, not ominous,
    And eminently bound for majesty.

    Though eons in the making, we now view
    And with our growing science comprehend
    The origin of mass, the residue
    Of energy toward which all photons tend.

    The greatest revelation yet still lies
    Ahead, and it is ours to manifest,
    Which we may do if only we grow wise
    And realize those values that are best.

         What Mother Universe took pains to nourish
         Our careful tending now must help to flourish.

*

REALIZING VALUE

"Wisdom is the realization of what is of value to oneself and others."

—Nicholas Maxwell    

      What is of value more than being good,

      And what is goodness rightly understood

      Unless it be to treat all others well

      So they may live as they would wish to dwell:

      In health and safety, well provided for,

      Content with quite enough, not craving more,

      Appalled by wasteful superfluity

      But satisfied with just sufficiency.

      Such souls as these are generous and kind,

      Their motives altruistically inclined,

      Knowing that they themselves can never thrive

      If others fail while struggling to survive.

          It’s not just that the fittest ought to win,

          Since justice without mercy is a sin.

*

  THE HUMAN FRONTIER

      The human frontier most imperative to cross
      And territory to at last attain
      Is that one which our ancient fabled loss
      Of Paradise requires we now regain.

      Serenity, sufficiency and love,
      What well-nursed babies feel in infant bliss,
      Is what we lose and feel least certain of
      In later years, confronting the abyss.

      Yet death itself, our dreaded, destined fate
      That casts its pall on joy and innocence,
      Can still inspire those able to create
      A surrogate that’s equally intense.

          What came at first unbidden and bestowed
          We may now freely give, because it’s owed.

*

WHAT IS WISE?

to Nicholas Maxwell, philosopher

     If wisdom is discernment as to what
     Is of most value to be realized,
     You, being wise, please say what makes the cut,
     For we, the foolish, need to be advised.

     Please, sir, we pray you be particular
     In all the thorny matters, great and small,
     For we would gladly rather make than mar,
     Yet without counsel shall most likely fall.

     Pray tell us what is best in governance,
     And what economy most serves the world,
     And how to make our hearts and spirits dance
     And other secrets apt to be unfurled.

          We promise we’ll endeavor to grow wise,
          But meanwhile, kindly say what you advise.

*

CONCINNITY

      For me the sonnet’s the epitome
      Of elegance and careful craft in verse,
      Best illustrating what the term concinnity
      Implies: well-joined, harmonious and terse.
      It’s much the same, of course, with other forms
      Of measured poetry in patterned schemes
      Of rhymes, adhering to their metric norms,
      Like artful acrobats on balance beams.
      Yet like those athletes there is something more
      A sonneteer must demonstrate to win
      Acclaim: it’s sprezzatura we adore—
      Doing with ease what we’d not dare begin,
           Making what’s classical appear like jazz—
           Spontaneous, impromptu—with pizzazz.

*

HUMANKIND

     Whoever thought to call us “humankind”
     Was likely unobservant, dense or blind
     Or was toward absurdity inclined,
     Having an oxymoron in his mind.

     But that’s too harsh, for we were first designed
     For Paradise and with good grace may find
     Our way again and thence be realigned
     To Kindness, where our souls may be enshrined.

*

A FOOL’S PARADISE

     That World Wide Web of information now
     Available at your own fingertip,
     That even on a pauper can endow
     Such knowledge that the Prince of Serendip

     Would envy him—such knowledge is a boon
     To all humanity within its reach,
     And one might think there’s coming very soon—

     Enlightenment, for all it has to teach.

     But humans will be humans and thus use
     Encyclopedias to prop up broken stools.
     There’s nothing lofty that we won’t abuse—
     The wisdom of the world is lost on fools.

          But not on you, I hope, who in this trove
          Will savor fruits from Academia’s grove.

*

21 DECEMBER 2012

      The Mayan calendar predicts the End
      Is nigh, this very week—Apocalypse!
      Two days from now an asteroid may rend
      Our fragile planet with a force that strips
      The atmosphere off from this globe and wakes
      Volcanoes round the world to spew despair,
      While every living organism quakes
      Before its final breath of toxic air.

      Or not.  Another understanding says
      It’s not breakdown we face but a breakthrough,
      The dawning of a higher consciousness,
      The birth of an awakened species who
      Can understand at last how we depend
      On loving one another: that’s our End.

*

A GOOD DEATH

   It’s not how someone dies that’s bad or good,
   But whether one has lived as humans should—
   Humanely, with a care for the well-being
   Of others in their needs, since that is freeing;
   While otherwise—self-centered, clamped and cold—
   Reveals a soul like Faustus’ that’s been sold
   To purchase vain delights and fickle pleasure,
   Imperiling a person’s only treasure:
   Our precious essence of integrity,
   That holy wholeness we are meant to be.
   The end of all our race is to be well,
   Yet failing that high goal, we end in hell.

*

LAST THING BEFORE BED

      Wherever Gypsy finds to plant her pees
      Depends on countless subtle vagaries
      Of scent and sensibility beyond
      My reckoning, to which she may respond
      And do the curtsy she’s gone out to do.

      My job’s to urge her on and to pursue
      Her random amble through the night-lit yard
      Stalking behind her as if keeping guard
      Trying to anticipate just where she’ll squat,
      Never the same place in the whole back lot.

      At last she dips and does her destined chore
      Then plainly pleased she gallops to the door
      Knowing that I’ve in hand her final treat
      For which she has performed this nightly feat.

*

 

 

TWO PERSPECTIVES

        Expanded, elevated consciousness,
        The surest sign of human beings’ success,
        Eludes, so far, all but a favored few,
        The avatars of what may yet ensue—
        Unless our avarice and enmity prevail,
        Causing our misbegotten race to fail.

        Dean Swift predicts calamity is sure
        And wonders how we’ve managed to endure
        As long as this, atrocious as we are,
        Yet knows in his cold heart our end’s not far.

        Ralph Waldo Emerson begs to dissent:
        While recognizing our ferocious bent,
        He sees in us the power to transcend
        Beyond our folly, finding a blissful end.

*

THE POSSIBLE HUMAN

for Jean Houston

       What is our task but striving to become
       The best of our potentiality—
       To fly to our grand heights and then to plumb
       The depths of wisdom in our latency.

       The spectrum of humanity is broad,
       Though typically constricted in one’s life
       By failing to acknowledge there’s a god
       Within transcending storm and strife.

       This deity or spirit is a guide
       Intent to lead us to our human goal,
       Urging us to take the longest stride
       Required of us and finally grow whole.

            That wholesomeness we seek essentially
            Is bonding with our inner deity.

*

ALAS, ALACK

         It used to be the salutation “Dear”
         Began a letter penned to anyone.
         Its complimentary close bid a sincere
         “Farewell” when all your courtesy was done.
         But now a brusque “Hi there” is all you’ll see,
         While “See ya” ends an email breezily.

*

AFTERGLOW

   My grand breakthrough to Cosmic Consciousness,
   My mystical debut, came long ago
   When I was just eighteen.  It came to bless
   Me with a sense of how I ought to grow,

   And ever since, my memories of that light
   And warmth, that purple glow, remain,
   And when I’ve strayed, they help to set me right:
   May that illumination never wane.

   I heard no angel’s voice, nor saw a scene
   Of heavenly beatitude and grace,
   As stories tell; I simply felt serene
   And keen at once, suspended in that space—

          Until that glorious evening was through,
          Though even now I feel its residue.

*

 

THE KNOWN UNIVERSE

    That we are here is miracle enough
    To prove the universe is more than stuff,
    More than just matter, mass and energy,
    But some informing consciousness that’s free
    From physicality, the ghost behind
    Appearances, the soul of matter: Mind.

    That metaphysics should return today,
    Though long repressed by Mechanism’s sway,
    Owes to the power of Einstein’s quantum views
    Which put uncertainty back in the news
    And hinted that intention underlies
    The evolutionary enterprise.

         The Cosmos has a purpose of its own.
         And we’re the knower by whom that is known.

*

ORIGIN STORY

     At first, God clapped and angels sang,
     Then: Mother Universe—the whole Shebang!

*

STARSEED

    The world-wide web of knowledge being spun
    Around the globe, connecting every node
    To every other, joining us as one,
    Exalts our species to another mode.

    A global brain awakens here on Earth,
    Collective consciousness that can transcend
    Our ignorant antipathies and birth
    A being who’ll avert a tragic end.

    Homo noeticus, deep in our genes,
    Is being evoked by some Akashic beam
    Providing us the necessary means
    To realize an ancient mythic dream:

         A starseed was once planted in Earth’s ground
         That only after eons would be found.

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LEARNING OUR LIMITS

We human beings are marvelously malleable and cultivatable, by virtue of our distinctive intelligence, compared with any other animal.  Our evolution as a species is not only natural but cultural, as we are molded and remolded by the urgings and constraints of our societal values, norms and institutions.

Just now appears to be a time when a major cultural transformation is necessary to reshape human behaviors worldwide, lest our current materialistic motives further overwhelm the Earth’s carrying capacity and disrupt vital natural systems.  From one perspective, humanity, with its burgeoning and ravenous population, is a blight on the planet, a cancerous growth within the Gaian ecosystem.  Can that threat be changed intentionally?  If so, how?

My observation above is the premise of my inquiry into the topic of “Human Frontiers.”  Think of a frontier as both a border and a gateway, a perimeter that either encloses and protects a territory or that opens onto new lands and opportunities for advancement.  This second interpretation is distinctively American, given our history of westward expansion toward the Pacific Ocean.  That same perspective also informs the Star Trek motto: “Space—The Final Frontier,” implying that outer space is to be explored, conquered and colonized as a natural next chapter of the human adventure of quest and conquest.

What’s imperative now, though, is not conquest but making do: recognizing the limits of our Earthbound species’ growth and expansion, and learning to be as frugal as astronauts living in a space ship must be, lest our whole enterprise come to catastrophe.

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HOMO NOETICUS

     Homo noeticus will be our name
     Once we’ve grown more illumined, and evolved
     To realize that sapience is our aim
     And of our foolishness we’ve been absolved.

     Such gnosis has lain latent in our genes
     Although made manifest in harbingers
     Wiser than we (who still remain as teens):
     What’s evident in them, within us stirs.

          The only hope for earth’s futurity
          Is man’s advancing toward maturity.

*

 

"Every last kibble, I told you!"

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BECOMING YOU

There are many ways for human beings to be—as many ways as there are human beings.  That’s the special thing about our species: we each get to make our self up uniquely, with far more latitude for expressing individuality than any other species owns.

Just as our fingerprints are unique, so are the characters we craft, ever more definitively throughout our lives.  Some patterns and proclivities seem to be innate, as functions of our singular neuronal constitutions, but even more individuating are the unique shaping forces of each person’s environment and the formative events befalling him or her.

Creative self-individuation, however, is our implicit goal as human beings, growing into who we might become or, some would say, becoming who we are essentially, realizing the Self or soul enfolded in us at our birth, which time and cultivation can unfold.

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OF GOVERNANCE

    Concerning governance and sovereign rule,
    The question is not mainly how but who’ll:
    Which spans from king to corporatocracy
    Throughout the course of modern history.
    Despite our dream of democratic sway,
    It’s still the plutocrats who rule the day.
    The wealthy and the powerful command
    From ornate offices and mansions grand
    The world’s resources for their corporate schemes,
    Leaving in tatters democratic dreams.
    Their theory is that wealth will trickle down,
    A few gauds falling from a gorgeous gown,
    To elevate the hopes of underlings,
    While magnates garner all the precious things.

*

 

STILL HERE

      
       I cannot wholly miss our little Dear
       Because I feel her presence still is here.
       It’s something more than wishful memory
       Imagining the ways she used to be,
       Although those images are lingering,
       For what I feel is more inspiring:
       Her spirit still infuses both our lives
       And in our hurting hearts she yet survives
       And will live with us always through the years
       Along with all our other cherished Dears.

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