You don't get it, do you? You still think your money
is your merit, your mansion is high fashion, your limousine
the only car you'll never have to drive , your wife only a
trophy. These falsehoods are like thick pieces of prime rib;  
you suffer from emotional and physical gout. I shout, but
you don't hear me. You are spiritually deaf. Your worth is
deep within you, but buried by layers and layers of fat
and fatuous values. At the Country Club, you are not
bothered by blacks and latinos and Jews. Your only tenet
is to keep your left arm straight. You consecrate Red Label
instead of red wine. You cheat when playing poker, but it's
OK because no one notices. You take a shower, but use
no soap. What the ****! Who cares? I am above all
others! I'll take a Mulligan on that last shot. Boy, get
me another ball!

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

In Plato's description of Socrates' "Apologia," he describes the latter's defense during the trial of Socrates. Socrates says he is the wisest because he knows nothing about anything, an astute defense. Nonetheless, he is found guilty and sentenced to death. Socrates receives this sentence with equanimity.

In contrast, **** Trump, like Socrates, knows nothing about anything, but unlike Socrates, **** Trump is so ignorant that he is not conscious of his stupidity;  rather, he thinks he knows everything about everything, which not only tells you how deluded he is, at best, but also shows you what an existential threat he is to our nation, and indeed, to the entire world.

I wish Plato were still alive so he could record **** Trump's lunacy. But we still have The New York Times and The Washington Post.

What a Greek tragedy we are living through! But where is the deus ex machina?

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Sleep, my child, sleep.

Let love be your blanket and keep you warm and safe.
Dream dreams that color your mind with coruscating joys,
abundant pleasures, everlasting happiness. You are not only
mine, but also a child of the Cosmos, and have an infinite
number of brothers and sisters, friends of all different races
from galaxies galore. You will never be alone. You will be
befriended for eternity. The speed of love is even faster
than the speed of light.

Sleep, my child, sleep.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Those who remain silent in a democracy are complicit in its destruction.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

I have just finished reading many of my poems.
I do not do this often, but when I do, I am amazed
at their singular beauty, their eloquence, their exquisite
insights. You may think me solipsistic, self-centered,
egotistical. Go ahead. I don't mind. Actually, I
don't care what you or anyone else thinks. But
I do care what I think, because every poem I
have ever written is a real part of me, and if I am
not real, I am false to myself and to the Cosmos,
my ultimate anathema. So many of us believe that
what matters is not truth, but the antithesis thereof.
So many actors and writers and artists and poets
care only that others applaud them, award them
prizes that, for them, validate their creations, their
performances, their poems, and their paintings.
Sadly, these are all collectively grand illusions.
Hemingway wins the Nobel prize, then later
shoots himself dead in Ketchum, Idaho. I have
written that "the poem is the prize," because I
think and feel and believe that is truth. There
will be no opulent ceremonies for me in Oslo,
no Pulitzer Prizes, just as there were none for
William Blake and Walt Whitman and Emily
Dickinson. But each wrote their truths that,
in time, others finally discovered, and while
their poems won no prizes, they became increa-
singly beloved and embraced and treasured.
Truth is the most precious gift you can ever
give to anyone, to everyone. Truth alone is
immortal. Give it to the Cosmos.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Four letters, one syllable, one Truth. LOVE. Until we come to understand,
to feel, to embrace, to become LOVE, we shall remain in the Dark Ages.
We shall continue to war against each other, to **** each other, to torture each
other, to hate each other, to abuse each other, to discriminate against others.
LOVE is not only the only way out of this hellhole, it is humankind's destiny.
We must first be able to LOVE ourselves to be able to LOVE others. Those who have been loved must begin to LOVE all others. The good news is that once loving becomes the new paradigm, replacing false notions of our worth being "rich and richer," LOVE will spread around the world like a divine virus not killing, but healing. And as LOVE heals us, it will heal Earth. LOVE will finally be realized for what it always has been, the one Truth.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Literally within 30 SECONDS--not minutes, not hours, not days, not weeks, not months, not years--when **** Trump denigrated Rosie O'Donnell before a worldwide TV audience during the first Republican debate of 2016, I realized instantly the **** Trump should be immediately disqualified from holding any political office at any level in the USA. Within 30 seconds! But for over 3 years now, we know categorically that **** Trump is a pathological liar, a cheat, a ******, and, worst of all, a virulent racist. And--I'll say it again--anyone who votes for a racist is also a racist.

Now comes the pandemic. First, **** Trump called it a "Democratic hoax." Then he said there were only 15 cases in all of America, and within a week, there would be zero. Then he called the governor of the state of Washington "a snake" for trying to contain the coronavirus in his state. Then he said there was nothing really to worry about because everything would be fine by April. Today, when he said all this would be over by July or August, the stock market dropped 3,000 points, thereby erasing all the gains for which **** Trump personally had taken credit for during his ignominious three years in the Oval Office.

My most recent assessment of **** Trump as a human being is that he is, and always has been, a dumb ****. I'm very good in sizing up people. I should have realized this over three years ago, within 30 seconds.

(When I'm not so enraged, which obviously I am, I know why **** Trump is the human being he is today and has been every moment of his life: **** Trump has never been loved during his entire life, so he unconsciously compensates by accruing lots of money, political power, ****** pleasure with **** stars and the like, and fatuous fame. His problem is that he is trying unconsciously to fill an emotional abyss, a Greek tragedy if ever there were one.)