A walk with my father

I step out into the mist,
my memory replete
with adages of old.
I walk by dim streetlights
grudgingly caged in fog,
hindered in their only charge.
when you walk my son,
the timbers will shake.
An ambulance passes me,
smashing the silence of evening
with a cacaphonous howl of sirens.
For a passing moment, I think
of the man inside the box of flashing lights.
A tear wells in the corner of my eye
as hiswife clings to his lifeless body.
Dead on arrival:
we should carve it in stone.
Living in the past is regret,
Living in the future is fear.
I push the man away,
my stride never breaking.
So this is way:
right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot.
What enemies will I face in life?
Is it within my power
to make my existence what I will?
And Theseus spoke as he faced
the great monster "his shoulders
are broader, but mine are stronger."
The sky continues to spray its mist,
profligate with the water
so essential for life.
It gives equally, falling in
rivers, on trees, on streets,
on wandering sons whose own prodigality
is reason enough for pause.
Your light wil not be dimmed
like these lamps that line your path.
Your charge in life is to shine my son,
What blinding light you'll be.

religion and stuff

Just some thoughts on religion...not poetry but still really interesting.


So Blaise Pascal is really smart. About 350 years ago he comes up with this chart that basically says this. we have four choices : either we believe or don't believe in god, and there either is or is not a god in reality. If we believe in god and are correct, the reward is great, while if we believe in god and there is none, or likewise if we don't believe in god and there is none we have sort of a wash, no loss on our part. the last scenario however is the most intriguing. If you reject god and are wrong, then the eternal fire awaits you. We see that simple logic can be persuasive in the theist's cause. To show that I am not engaging in mere sophistry here and employing specious arguments, let us look at some evidence. Albert Einstein, most likely the greatest scientific mind ever, said this "I believe in God. there comes a point where you're mind can only take you so far, after that, the only explanation is God." You will not hear that from any college professor today; nor in the hooplah surrounding racially charged events when the image of Dr. Martin Luther King is called upon will you hear of the phenomenal presence of faith in the life of that great leader of men. Modern secular scholars like to treat religion as though it were transient, changing always to meet the capricious demands of the people in the moment. They fail to see the unity between a group of southern baptists praying in the aftermath of Katrina and those Christians who held prayer vigils when the great Saint and church father Paul was held for execution under Nero. Even before that Abraham called out in the wild to Yaweh, I am that I am, the same as I do when I undertake a long journey or feel lost in the great maze of my existence. What takes more faith, investing all in science, in reason, in the capacity for man to justify himself, or in accepting that that there are things out there so great and powerful that we will never understand them? As for me, I take the path of per solam fidem. There are truths in this universe that cannot be undone.

The Ineffability of Esmeraldas

Hold pen, do not write "love."
Do not write "beauty" which is
To insult her name.

Be still and quiet, word-locked clichés,
And bow before she who
Would not be described.

Away all these liars:
"Graceful" and "Lovely,"
And "smile like the sun" or "cheek like the rose."
These all lie in soft repose,
Not even dreaming of transcribing
The wonder of Esmeraldas.
And her name stands alone,
Untouched and unshaken by trifling metaphors .
She outshines all names, all names but one:
Esmeraldas, Esmeraldas, mi esperanza, mi amor.