"avaritia" poems
Luxuria (Lust)
Asmodeus demon of lust
carnal manipulator
****** captor
Castitas (Chastity)
Embracing virtue
honorable wholesomeness
not through one’s weakness
Gula (Gluttony)
The egocentricity
with which the Lord of the flies
upon us relies
Temperantia (Temperance)
practicing restraint
prudence to judge with regard
remaining on guard
Avaritia (Greed)
The Mammon demon
controlling the warmonger
with vows of power.
Caritas (Charity)
Crave unselfishness
give unreserved empathy
love and sympathy
Acedia (Sloth)
Deny grace and God
so evil shall become fact
when we fail to act
Industria (Diligence)
Fortitude is a must
persistence in conviction
zealous for passion
Ira (Wrath)
In its purest form
presents violence and hate
Satan’s fate
Patientia (Patience)
mercy to haters
receiving the grace to forgive
rewards are massive
Superbia (Pride)
Lucifer’s downfall
for excessive vanity
destroys humility
Humanitas (Kindness)
Sympathy without bias
belief without bitterness
inspire kindness
Invidia (Envy)
resentful passion
an insatiable desire
potent cause of dire
Humilitas (Humility)
think of yourself less
and not think less of yourself
don’t exalt oneself
Apr 6, 2013
Apr 6, 2013 at 3:36 AM UTC
*Like the sin of lust, greed, is a need,
however unlike my need for you
greed turns my desire for your touch
your kiss, your caress to lust, to a greed of more.
Lust and greed are twins in the land of sin.
Sins of excess.
Rapacious, covetous, guaranteed to
succeed in tricking you into conceding them as a need.
Dante's, penitents were bound and laid face down on the ground.
Perhaps my greed of you exceeds the sin itself,
inordinate desire feeds my greed, that in turn
changes to lust*
May 17, 2014
May 17, 2014 at 6:27 PM UTC
GULA
Castor and Pollux
joined forever at the hip.
I could split myself
into two halves just
so they could each get a taste.
I will etch into
both their ribs and lungs
so when they exhale, it’s my
name that warms their breath.
ACEDIA
I have done nothing
but consult oracles to
find a solution
and like Oedipus
I will sit here on my throne
to repeat fathers'
sins. Dear God, am I
the miasma that reeks here?
Would I change, if so?
LUXURIA
Eros and Psyche
have yet to match us, dear boys.
In confessional,
I speak of the flesh-
bruised like rotting fruit, marks
of desperate youth.
Heads bowed in prayer,
this is Dionysiac
ritual madness.
AVARITIA
Will Hades greet me?
If I spit coins from my mouth,
will the ferryman
take pity on me?
He must know my odyssey.
This is déjà vu,
a fable passed down
by generations. A hymn,
Homeric and worn.
IRA
Adonis river
runs red like veins filled with blood.
The anemones
for my two brothers,
a crown for each of them to
decorate their heads
before guts are spilled.
I know this will end in war,
no glory for me.
INVIDIA
Heroes never die,
they say. So was Heracles
jealous of Linus?
To know forever,
to escape the throes of death
sounds like Hell to me.
What lives on except
curses and their tragedy?
I am no hero.
SUPERBIA
I will take my fire,
let it blaze until I die.
Prometheus would
have been proud of me.
Maybe from this, I will kindle
something from the heat:
Write poems in ash,
for the ones I have scalded,
or the ones I love.
(Maybe those two things
are not unlike after all.
Maybe so, maybe not.)
Mar 26, 2018
Mar 26, 2018 at 1:35 PM UTC
You are smoking clouds
Craving what belongs to me
I want myself back
Apr 6, 2015
Apr 6, 2015 at 2:36 PM UTC
exquisitely righteous to have the embodiment
of each and every one
standing before me
for all to see
packaged up (I can't say neat and tidy....but all in one place anyway)
it seems reasonable that one person has one or two
but to find them all in one place....
astonishing
I see you
*Superbia
Avaritia
Luxuria
Invidia
Gula
Ira
Acedia*
they all ring true as they emanate out of you
we all know what happened to Ursula
Mar 5, 2014
Mar 5, 2014 at 11:38 AM UTC
Acedia
My god it's 3 in the afternoon
And still I have yet to move,
My slothful torso
Curling into a comma
To hide my face from what rests
Beyond my maroon sheets.
Avaritia
I want to enjoy this moment
Without feeling guilt
For letting the sunlight
Filter through my black curtains
Onto my fuzzy, outstretched legs.
Superbia
There are some days
When I refuse to let myself
Have this
Peace.
Today is not that day.
The knowledge makes me smile.
Softly.
Gula
I rose only once
To make orange spice tea
And to eat sugar cookies
With lemon frosting.
They're delicious, and I can't be
Brought to care
That I won't be burning
Them off later.
Luxuria
I sometimes wish,
Fleetingly,
That I had someone to share
This feeling with.
Someone to curl into
Quotations with.
I sigh into my pillow,
Slowly.
Ira
I grow upset with myself
For wanting something -
For wanting anything -
I see red,
But only for a moment.
I couldn't have this peace,
I knew as much,
So the heat quickly fades.
Invidia
Still, the people who
Allow themselves such
Simple pleasure,
Such halcyon,
Are who I wish to be.
Feb 5, 2014
Feb 5, 2014 at 10:21 PM UTC
Tethered to an illusion
He'd rather sink than swim
Abandon all six senses
Rather than feel desolation again
Tis' no crime to trace one's edges
But falling off is a different matter
Shame is a seaworthy vessel
Sailing on oceans of greed and clatter
He rappels from throne on high
Storms heed no man's command
An avalanche of fears behind him
Ahead, a bleak and lifeless wasteland
But seams don't tear unless they fray
Utopia costs more than infinite gold
Ambition built this city of avaritia
But he watches it crumble beneath the soul he sold
May 1, 2016
May 1, 2016 at 8:00 AM UTC