“We must love one another or die.” ― W.H. Auden
All of us, thrown into the slaughterhouse of history, thrown into a world of assassinated Caesars and crucified Christs, into a woeful world of bombs and mayhem, a world one madman away from nuclear annihilation, a world of rich buffoons and censored truthtellers, a world where cancer eats the flesh, and inflation eats the earnings, and progress eats the soul. I emerge from a grimy dive bar on E 4th Street and sit on a gratified bench in the 3pm hot sun to watch the frantic folks babble on phones and walk with an unholy detachment on the sidewalks of an evanescent empire. Everything is noisy and zooming by, fast fast fast, the great symphony of modernity — cheap amusements, diversions, billboards of smiling stooges, steel and cement and wifi, guns and knives and needles, conmen, thieves, and murderers, fat wallets placed in the back pockets of adderall-souled bigshots looking for the kill, but hey, I just sit here half-drunk in the golden afternoon and admire the girls because the world is ugly and they’re still pretty in their rustling skirts, and their lavender smiles make me smile as they stroll by my saluting eyes. O America America America what have you done to your children, these cogs in a relentless wheel, these nervous news-watchers, these swollen toads of bitterness and anxiety who wage war on their own lives. Goddamnit, this place reeks of mediocrity and madness, I say let us burn burn burn the hollow creeds and the bureaucratic rules of this waiver signing society and let us revive the Promethean fire of the dead poets. Whitman Lorca Rimbaud Verlaine Hölderlin Rilke Ginsberg Hesse Baudelaire Auden have more to offer than any of these pathetic media folks who have a vested interest in keeping you and I “adjusted” to the soulless status quo. Let us burn burn burn the headlines of treachery and the flimsy thrones of all these pallid-hearted politicians, and let us do away with the life-negating dogmas and all the stupidity corruption greed war murder and the childish delusions that sustain these idiotic inanities of a belligerent world. Luckily the ravens still flutter in the demented wind and the lilies bloom somewhere far off in spite of the murderous affairs of the world, and here I am, sitting in the golden afternoon on the incomprehensible streets of mankind half-drunk with a 4 day beard thinking of nothing valuable, nothing special, nothing revolutionary, just sitting there in the golden gloom of the afternoon dreaming about pine forests and jugs of wine and old trains slicing through prairies while quietly awaiting the next lavender smile to pass by.
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A sober observation of society today. Generations of people, kids, are glued to their iPhones and social media, rather than reading about world affairs, news , politics and the discovery of world history, great authors and poets. I still believe there are many young students who are in tune with reality and spend their time trying to accomplish their goals. Will we ever achieve world peace and “One Love, One World” as Bob Marley sang while he as alive? Probably not because there will always be those who are greedy, self consumed, and narcissistic, who want ultimate power and control over others.They are devoid of the ability to have compassion, empathy and love for their fellow men and women. They live in their own reality. The masses are seduced by those with ulterior motives. They have blind faith. There are, however, good people in this world who are ethical and moral. We must strive to evolve, to make the world a better place.Societies all over the world are authoritarian, tyrannical and refuse to acknowledge basic human rights. Even democracies seem to be devolving. The poem is raw and insightful. However, without hope, we are destined to miss the simplicity of the beauty of nature, the unconditional love of animals, our loving pets, and the loving kindness of strangers, friends and loved ones. Pass it forward.
Henry James - “Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind - Kindness.” It is also very satisfying to help and support others when the opportunity arises, despite the world in which we live. We have been given free will to choose between good and evil. Let us choose wisely, let us choose goodness and love.
Erik this is a brilliant poem.
Thank you for sharing it.
....lavender smiles