When I Was, So Long Ago

When I was young I thought that fame, the famous
Was and were to aim at:
Constant, stable, durable and permanent.
Never dreamed fame came and went.

At the end of Grable* films,
The musicals in Technicolor
Leading ladies got the part
They thought they’d never get;
The men they disliked at film’s start
Became ‘the one’,
Love, applause and confirmation!

illusion, fantasy, appearance, dream!
Any/all the synonym.
Yet the young are out there
Sharing all the four above.
Five years later most shoved aside,

The false dream but delusion,
Forced by fame’s real pain,
Groom, bride divorced
To glide into a normal trade.

When one is new and in-the-making,
Ipod, tv, thousand apps,
Mental processes taken over
By the ‘happenings’ competing for
This so-called glory, popularity and stardom -
Oh, my goodness, time will come
When what and who
Is young and new
Will have, like me, a ‘long ago’
To refer to.  Then they’ll know.
Like me, they’ll know.

When I Was. So Long Ago 11.21.2019
Circling Round Ageing; Circling Round Reality; Arlene Nover Corwin

*Look up Betty Grable

Mysteries That Never Cease

There are mysteries that never cease,
Will always be:
Because of, not in spite of.
Look at progress:
Despite progress, we are more at risk than ever.
I fear, not ‘in spite of’, but ‘because of’, progress never
What it seems,
All the reams of information,
New advances, dancing in our eyes and ears
Dependant on who sees or hears,
Every positive a dormant negativeDependent on whose hands it’s in.

Then the secrets of infinity:
What, where, how, why and when;
A mystery most definitely.
And music, art
The part that improvises and creates
Out of a place inscrutable,
Wondrous, wonderful.

To never understand?
Dependant on whose hand it’s in,
Whose talent, aptitude, inborn mind
Is interested at all to find
The answers.

Mysteries That Never Cease 11.21.2019
Nature Of & In Reality; Circling Round Reality; Arlene Nover Corwin

Sifting Through The Dross

Fire, flood,
War and blood -
It is no wonder I can’t stand
The papers and TV,
Those apps aimed right at me,
The dearth of quality,
The deprivation, loss of lives,
The angst it gives.

Preferring comedy,
Cartoons by Disney…
Am I cowardly?  
Maybe.

Fixated on the negative but well aware
Of heroes all around each day, each year,
Deeds of goodness and devotion,
Yet, there is this bleak emotion, yucky fear.

Another factor is the greed:
The pressured need for growth and profit.
Prophets sow salvation’s seeds.
Many listening, few that heed.
With much to win and much to lose,
One mostly feels the costly loss.
But sifting through the dross with trust,
Stably doing what one must,
One gets a glimpse of tunnel’s light,
Decides it’s worth a willing fight
And pushes on through restive night.

Sifting Through The Dross 11.15.2019
Our Times, Our Culture II; Arlene Nover Corwin

Stumbled upon this one while collating my next book "Circling Round Ageing”. Seeing ‘ deficiencies',  I’m revising it,  the older version already in my book “Pure Nakedness” (page 30).

                    Ascetic Youth

When I was young and immature I took a ‘no’ as absolute,
Not understanding that
A ‘no’ implies alternatives.
I lacked perspective.
Who looked for alternatives;
A complement, a supplement?

Without a doubt,
I gave myself deficiencies
Of every sort.
The diet that said don’t drink milk,
Did not say don’t get calcium.
Who knew?
Who knew the wrong side of obedience Is ignorance.
And so I’m thinking,
That’s how despots do their thing!
Ascetic Youth 6.1.2010 I Is Always We Is You; Pure Nakedness; Arlene
Corwin

I was thinking about all the misinformation that we walk around with in our heads, taking it as truth.  

Putting on my lipstick and feeling silly.

In answer to those who might not get the hang of it.