”A sad contemplation of the current undermining of basic human rights and human decency, as well as the blatant distortion of truth and the outright contempt for the rule of law. This seriously jeopardizes the hard-won freedoms for which many have struggled, even died, and which most in this country have long embraced.”
from the great orb
of unquestioning fate
that spins in the spaces
of destiny’s light and dark
days of falter and fear
in this great void approaching
that moves
unsteady in orbit
of unquenchable doubt
what your mind must conceal
from the spirit
of joy and forgiveness
that which is pure
tested by time
and the wanting hands
of the waiting
who cower
yet smile
singing truth
through the hail and barrage
‘cross the bow mast
of freedom
seeking broad measure and berth
as all that you seem to desire
slips slowly away
like rain down a spout
and nightmares plumb deep
the sphere of black dreams
such is the slag-shattered
glass orb of the future
that moves slowly
through the arc of the ages
who’ve waited and watched
‘neath the promised moon
of deliberate ancients
that revolves
in the void of the others
that seek what we know
to be ever
the voice of the lost
in the light of the dark dawning
that heralds the word
of this time that’s upon us
that holds us fast
in the fear of bleak visions
and of longing
for all that we desire to be
here in our heart
so elusive
in this moment
that slips
like a squandered teardrop
forever away from
our loosening grasp
Hi! I’m Edgrrr, rob’s shih tzu.
WOW, Rob! A stellar write! I so resonate with “the dark dawning of the time that’s upon us”. In fact I never thought I could see this again in my lifetime. Never say never. I so feel “the longing of all we desire to be”, and the “elusive moment… like a squandered teardrop slipping away”. Sigh. Just wonderful writing! Thanks for writing to the prompt. We need men’s voices – now as never before.
Thank you so much Sherry. I cannot personally tolerate an attack on anyone’s freedom, with regard to the health, safety, and security of themself, or their loved ones. I have rallied behind peace, love, and freedom since I have been old enough to understand the concepts – and it has not always been easy, or “fashionable”…
It’s beautiful… but I just don’t see what rights women are in fear of losing (only the one … and that is controversial) But, you write of losing and such beautifully.
Thank you Margaret. My daughter, my wife, and other women in my life think that’s a big one. This poem, at its core, is motivated by the larger issues of what is going on in this country regarding the disregard of human rights and human decency under the Trump regime, as well as the distortion of truth and of the outright contempt for the rule of law. There is an attack of our long held basic American values underway.
This speaks what I have been feeling, but haven’t had your eloquence to express. It breaks me heart, angers my soul to see what our country doing. I hope we call be pulled back from the breaking.
It could certainly be done Susie, it could be pulled back. But at the moment, people are shocked, in denial, confused – and still unwilling to call out, en masse, the megalomaniacal liar in the oval office. The good decent, intelligent folk contuinue thinking someone else will certainly take up the task to drive down this perverse injustice. But no one is willing to go through the struggle again, like back in the 60’s and 70’s. But the struggle must go on to keep the dark-schemed, bloated, monied minority in check. We can’t use polite, honest, humame tactics, carried out through traditional channels to stop this mad, would-de dictator and his squad. He did not commandeer his power that way, and he will not reliquish it that way. We need a hero. WE THE PEOPLE need to seeth and boil to a level of righteous anger, that will drive us to rise up, in an organized unified effort, in the halls and streets of protest, to take this country back to where it had struggled so to get to — just prior to this disruptive soulless puppet, and his dark cronies, the tools of the very wealthy, siezed control. But at the moment, the decent folk are frightened, impotent, distracted, and growing resigned. Like I said, we need a hero(s) – and best from the Millennials, who have the youth, strength, endurance, and are gaining the economic market penetration, to generate impact. We just need them to elevate above the apathetic, wine-of-the-week, Siri/Alexa, smartphone, Netflix-and-chill, Facebook flacidity, video game, Amazon-Prime “malaise” – in which they are ensconced, through clever social media marketing and manipulation. “BUT — That’s just this one man’s humble opinion”.
One word describes this … epic. I agree with Susie, your words express what so many feel. Thank you.
Thank you Helen! You perhaps should read my comment below to Susie.
Rob, this is such a perceptive write- I agree you express what many feel. Bravo!
Thank you Linda! I was in a very strong metaphorical mindset writing this. I was seeing it in my mind as a dark prolonged unfolding of a tense SciFi scenario – like a growing, almost overwhelming evil descending. The outcome for the good forces unknown.
I fear that a lot that I value is slipping away… I fear that it’s happening and we are not even noticing it.
I think we are held in denial Björn, not believing that this could possibly be happening on the scale and to the degree that it is. In this way, good people are disadvantaged in the face of true evil. It is difficult for people of integrity to conceive of such pure evil, which makes it hard to accept. And until you can truly accept it, you can’t fully understand it, know it. And until you can grasp the depth of evil, it is near to impossible to defeat it. Look how long it took the majority of the world to finally wake up to the magnitude of the evil that was the monster Hitler and his regime. Evil always has a head start over good, but good can certainly rally – if a hero, or heroes will lead. Do you know any heroes Björn, because I nit convinced I see any right now?
“Loosening grasp” indeed. It’s alarming and disheartening to say the least.
Missed you at The Muse this weekend!
I saw the cat Shay, and tried to get my head into it, but I was swept up in a wonderful surprise visit from my daughter for Fathers’s Day. She is up from San Francisco, and still here! 🙂
What a wonderful thing! Enjoy her visit and i hope to see you at Muse in the future, Rob. 🙂
I will always take in the Sunday Muse Shay, and I’m most likely to be inspired by the more surreal, more avant-garde, even sci-fi visual prompt… something I can find an “edge” with, especially if it can be deeply introspective, even wonderfully dark… I am strange that way. I am a warm, melancholy soul.