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vircapio gale Dec 2015
on the way
to return sociology
to the library
i couldn't read the parking signs
so ended blocks away
at a salvation army

the kind with no books for sale
but an elevator shaft
running up, down
behind a drum-set altar
and a stage i didn't buy.

half-expecting 'the war room' ads
posted here as well
i let a stranger lead me to my muse
saying none would mind

Chuck asked me if i 'needed to pray this morning'
before unlocking -
i said, 'every day'  but thought
  not in his way
- i'm just begging him to play.

i read a psalm and kneel to test hypocrisy.
lotus palms connote release from suffering
wellness for all beings

and then  
i am here now
at the keyboard again
playing music i will never forget
even when my chainsaw body stiffens  creaks
the keys a saving home still  though shy
they hammer heart strings
broken, born -again again again.

praeludium, goldberg, well-tempered
minuets conjure Bach
in his stone church
and i cry for lost souls
my own lostness found
though convinced there is no static single 'self'
no 'soul'-rewarded other-life to justify our own
no 'god'- or science-demolished mystery
no metaphysic causa sui to separate
contempus mundi from the mundi...
no tidy verbal 'beyond beyond'
but that of Thales  Sappho  Gautama  
Laotse  Yeshua
Nagarjuna  Shankara
Duns Scotus  Hume  
Blake  Whitman  Darwin
Nietzsche  Du Bois
Tolkien  Stein  Merleau-Ponty  Sagan  Jong

but i will say we've sung the music of the spheres
in host-guest handshakes
stranger  xenophilic tunes
my earthling family hums my heart anew
as i begin  again
to sing my being into fingertips

skyward breath to lid-closed harmonies of hell redeemed
in Peter's vacuuming
request for 'Dixieland'
and Stacy's parting thanks
for 'we three kings'
Ruth's morning-making compliments and invitation back
my wish to share with them the love i feel
- from them, Gaskell's book
from deep within where no words win
authentic ownmost ocean depth of
less contingent love
historically embracing love
of errancy and freedom in our different loves
an atheist in love with vacuums
saucha and the music of human kindness
receiving gifts in giving thanks








.
10.26.15
saucha is a sanskrit, yogic term for purity/cleanliness

'contemptus mundi' is a medieval concept meaning 'contempt for the world' integral to religious escapism and ecological dominionism

chapel-soup-kitchen-center

he said i had 40 minutes
before the cleaning begins

my mother used to use the vacuum to put me to sleep

the puritanical element, cultural currency/status symbol of driving a recycled prius (totaled and rebuilt); ecology as the new global "religion" the cons of which are hard for me to digest, let alone admit, being an environmentalist, and of an ecological mindset

the first ad i saw for "the war room" was on another church's double-door
Anais Vionet  Jul 2023
the 4th
Anais Vionet Jul 2023
It’s a firework holiday,
so let’s light up the night,
wave the stars and stripes,
eat barbecue and drink bud light.

We’ll celebrate the liberties
that SCOTUS says we’ve got
it appears they’ve all been bought
and before their terms are over
they’ll resurrect Dred Scott.

Watermelon, hot wings
we’ve even added new things,
like smash & grab lootings
and frequent, random shootings.

Some Republicans want to break away
to form a less perfect union
can you form a successful nation
based on the politics of illusion?

There used to be parades
I’m told, that featured local
things, like firefighting brigades
I guess we’re just to fractured now,
to sashay in such displays.

I bet those were the days.
BLT Marriam Webster word of the day challenge: Sashay = proudly walk in confident display
Francie Lynch  Oct 2018
Prophecy
Francie Lynch Oct 2018
POTUS
SCOTUS
Halitosis
By the pricking of my thumb,
Something wicked this way's come.
A big nod to Will
The regressive Supreme Court decision
hustled, proclaimed, and voiced
June 24th, 2022
immediately quashing pro choice option,
struck down constitutional right
(upheld for half a century -
formerly allowing, enabling and providing
the muliebrous population
access to secure and safe abortion)
and sent a chill into the air.

A woman of childbearing age
within the United States trade
risk seeking abortion if she
unwittingly finds herself pregnant
resorting to desperate measures
sans mortality written
courtesy blood and gore costly paid
for ownership of body electric
autonomy usurped to choose abortion,

especially females representing
low income statistic,
whose chaotic, frantic, hectic..., existence
quite unlike bucolic, idyllic, poetic
lifestyle exemplified, exhibited, and exuded
by Thomas Kinkade
impossible (aery) mission
to buzzfeed another mouth
hence unlucky gal
now faces criminal charges,
whereat strong arm of the law
one lass unable to evade.

Despite being an older
long haired pencil necked geek male,
(a genetic product
of the baby boomer generation)
albeit one dazed and confused man,
whose body resembles
a miniature lead zeppelin
I a baby boomer guy
always inclined toward
remaining aforementioned gender,

nevertheless can empathise
with red hot poker anger
fecund women most likely experience,
when in the heat of passion
birth control measures vehemently
even non verbally overruled,
when an aggressive partner
thwarts such rational precautions
exerting patriarchal *******
loosing abundant seminal fluid
with deliberate intent to impregnate.

Many instances abound,
(since time immemorial)
whereby linkedin couples
ardently, fervently, maddeningly
strive to beget offspring
and thus shuck off
the application regarding
accessing, kickstarting, wielding
invocation of divine spirit,
thus their ****** relations

forfeit applying prophylactics,
oftimes feeling down and out
when biological fertilization
breeds despair, grief, mourning...
yet no sooner does adoption
appear as the last best hope
the maternal hormonal gonadal
secretion agency, propensity, viscosity....
and quirky unpredictability,
where unsuspecting latent virility
to procreate ironically occurs.
Big Virge Nov 2020
Now It's Clear That I’m...
A... Creative Dude...
But I REFUSE To Choose...
To Let WILD Talk Loose... !!!

I Choose To Use...
Wordplay That’s Shrewd...
When It Comes To News...
That Fuels Our World View...

But Many Choose...
To LOSE Their SCREWS... !?!
When It Comes To Issues...
That Nowadays RULE... !!!

Like Corona Moves...
That Clearly Confuse...
Using Common Sense...
With... Using NONSENSE...
To Serve And Protect...
Or To EVEN ELECT...
... New Presidents... !!!

Whose Views UPSET...
Politically... Correct Heads... !!!

Or Those On The Left...
Who Choose To Refuse...
To Join Right Wing Crews...

But... Is That TRUE... ?

I Choose To Refuse...
Their Claims of Truth...
When It Comes To Reviews...
of... Political Feuds...

Like Those Likely To Ensue...
Because Biden’s Proved...
That He’s Refused To Lose... !!!
To Trump And His Crew...
of Minions... Who...

Choose To REFUSE... !!!

That This Election Defeat...
Is Just A BAD BEAT... !!!

Like Those That Come...
When The River Card Shows...
That A Straight Ain’t Enough...
To Beat A Royal FLUSH...
And Leaves You BROKE... !!!

I REFUSE To Play DUMB...
When It Comes To This Stuff... !!!

These Days I Choose...
To Peruse What’s Viewed...
In News That Skewed... !!!

So REFUSES To Choose...
To Deal In The TRUTH... !!!!

But Has Clearly STUMPED...
Any Chance of Mr. Trump...
Returning To The Whitehouse...
As The... President... !!!

But As I’ve Said...
It Ain’t Over Yet... !!!

Because Don And His Chums...
As Well As A... CERTAIN...
Amy Coney Barrett... !!!

May Choose To REFUSE...
This Election Result... !?!

So Now It May Prove...
That To Push Her Through...
May Indeed Have Been Shrewd... ?!?!

If Her... SCOTUS Job...
Helps The Don To Refuse...
To Leave Whitehouse Rooms...

It’s A World That’s Confused...
Since Corona's Run Loose............ !!!

And Donald Trump Has Run...
The Land of... America... !!!

But What of Mr. Biden... ?!?

Will Right Wing Crews...
Choose To... REFUSE...
To Accept This Dude... ?!?
And LOSE Their Cool...
And Go For Their Guns... !?!

And Will Blacks Become...
... New Age Victims...
of Supremacism And Violence... ?!?

Because of BAD LOSERS...
PULLING OUT SHOOTERS... !?!

Or Will It Be LOOTERS...
Who'll Start To Make Movements...
LACKING Prudence... ?!?

Well THAT's ONE Thing...
That Within My Writings...

That I REFUSE To USE... !!!

... Views That Confuse...
That Clearly Aren’t Shrewd...

But When It Comes To Newsrooms...
And Modern Day News...
About CORONA Issues...

What’s Really Your View...
On What’s Being Pushed Through... ?!?!

Do You Believe It’s ALL TRUE... ???
And Will SUBMIT To New Rules... !?!

Or Will You Be One...
..... Who’ll Simply.....

... “ Choose To Refuse ? “...
There may be quite a few choices ahead, that will warrant such a question ???
Lawrence Hall Feb 2024
Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

             Never Mind the Guns and the Fentanyl; Seize the Books

          By 1938, the Nazis had banned eighteen categories of books,
          4,175 titles, and the complete works of 565 authors…

                 -Molly Guptill Manning, When Books Went to War

Ideologues search libraries for ***** books
Because reading might give people ideas
And encourage them to think for themselves
Tyrants are threatened by words and ideas

Censors search Mary Poppins for ***** words
Because a wide vocabulary might give people ideas
And encourage them to think for themselves
Tyrants are threatened by words and ideas

In an era when even mere literacy is suspicious
Tyrants are threatened by words and ideas




How conservative and liberal book bans differ amid rise in literary restrictions - ABC News (go.com)

The Spread of Book Banning - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Film censors aren’t protecting children from Mary Poppins – they’re protecting themselves (yahoo.com)

States Tell SCOTUS That Social Media Censors Conservatives : The NPR Politics Podcast : NPR

List of banned films - Wikipedia

https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/12/22/police-officer-searches-middle-school-library-after-complaint-abo­ut-concerning-illustrations-in-lgbtq-book/

Someone is cutting down free little libraries in a Chicago suburb and police are searching for the suspect (msn.com)

Over 170 books banned from Florida school libraries following new education reform - CBS News

The police officer who searched for a book in a Great Barrington classroom also used a body camera. The ACLU has ‘deep concerns’ | South Berkshires | berkshireeagle.com
the recent decisions of SCOTUS
show the mind of the previous POTUS
who’s stuck in the past
and cannot but blast
everyone who belittles his SCROTUS
Francie Lynch Sep 2020
POTUS
FLOTUS
VPOTUS
SCOTUS
A tip of the cap to my good friend, Homer.
Francie Lynch Oct 2020
Potus fallin'
Flotus stallin'
Scotus appalin'

Kim's cryin'
Vlad's lyin'
Donnie's dyin'

Joe's soarin'
Dems scorin'

God's in heaven,
All's right with the world
(Almost)
Finding level again

— The End —