Thanks

Often when we've asked for help with a task
We need to express sincere thanks.
So please now take heed of my passionate need,
Which you can take to your favorite banks.

I am genuinely happy, though seeming unflappy,
Having found my relationship treasure.
To use intuition, bring thoughts to fruition,
Deeply stirs my emotional pleasure.

So thanks be to God that I've settled my bod
Midst the likes of you, each one a donor.
You gave, now receive, and quite surely believe
I give thanks I'm no longer a loner.

A Man's Muse

So why do I think
A man's muse is a she?
He's seldom emote
Or write poetry.

But seldom's not never;
He's human it seems,
And thus not immune
To well-shattered dreams.

And if his strange muse
Is a definite she,
She's the internal part
Of his external he.

He might try retrieving,
And opening the gift,
Once put aside
In a long ago rift.

Here's to unwrapping,
Taking down from the shelf,
That long hidden treasure;
And enjoy the whole self.

A Riddle

What strange mysteries surround
Our mere existence!
The thought that God is someone real
Prevails, and in persistence.

But what's He do, She if you like,
As we contend with Life?
We oft take credit on our own,
But with Him share our strife.

One strain of Christian worship
Says He's part of everything.
Through prayer they conjure up His will,
In all His praises sing.

It's their belief He's in control
Of health, of love of sin.
Evangelistic stories flow
That lives are changed within.

Another group in search of faith
Aren't sure it always works.
To them, less sanguine possibly,
Life's full of puzzling quirks.

And then there is the Devil's deal,
The wicked one, the bad.
To some a concept, to some He's real,
To some He's just a fad.

On the other hand some people feel
That Life is accidental.
To them a god is quite unreal,
A concept purely mental.

In Life's affairs I usually find
Extremes are hard to trust.
Inevitably they polarize,
Proclaiming, "Think like us!"

My experience and my mind
Make room for compromise.
If something is one-sided
It's rare, and a surprise.

I've built my life around this,
To seek the middle ground.
It's often quite rewarding
and bridges gaps I've found.

But no so with religion.
The in between is out.
It seems that one must take a stand,
To something be devout.

The riddle is outside of Life
And baffling to my thought,
Since intellect seems useless;
It simply goes for naught.

It's hard for me to understand
That, given all our senses,
We must decide without their use;
Our minds are only fences.

The Riddle goes unanswered
For me, I must confess.
The only progress that I've made
Is God is there--I guess.

Separation Symphony

The opening strain proclaims the theme
Of startling emptiness
From overpowering sense of loss
Which can't resist its press.

It settles in, a haunting friend
As variations start;
So every part of Life once shared
Is cruelly pulled apart.

Then enter strains which salve the wound,
As Time repairs and starts
Creative thought of future plans
To entertain the heart.

The final movement, classically,
Sings of triumph in its claim
That love will once again feel light,
A welcome last refrain.

Rain

Rain, gentle or heavy
When I'm alone and in thought,
Is pleasing and friendly,
Helps imagination be caught
By heaven knows what.
It really won't matter.
Just rain and my thought;
On mind's window nice patter.

Is it Crisis Overload or Challenge to Would-Be Presidents?

I thought it might be interesting to make a list of what is being reported in the various elements of the the media, whether it be print, Internet or Cable News.

Here is a list of topics I compiled from reading the media's above the fold front pages, on their recent real and virtual offerings.

Torture
Iran
Schip
Health Care
Spending
Budget
Taxes
Signing Statements
Executive Privilege
Blackwater
Climate Change
Halliburton
No bid Contracts
Faith Based Funding
Religious Influence on Politics
Veterans' Health Care, Walter Reed
Patriot Act: Security and Privacy
Katrina
The war in Iraq
The War in Afghanistan
The War against Terrorism

How do react to this list? Do you see a pattern which suggests a point of view, do you see each item as a topic to be discussed and debated, are you turned off by the list, do you care less?
If nothing else you can use the list as check points if and when you consider someone to vote for.

Leave a comment to let me know what you think.


Thirsty Muse

Immersed or Washed Ashore?

If you take pride in and belief yourself to be a member of the Republican party, you won't agree with much of those things I write from a politcal point of view, unless you, like many people who believe in the value of a conservative view and approach to life, have decided that the current administration is conservative in name only.


Recently, I put my thoughts about that on another blog, http://www.capecodlighthouse.blogspot.com/.


Those thoughts were about my reaction to David Brooks' piece in the NYTimes on why the Republican party is coming apart. In that post I mentioned that I considered myself more aligned with the Republican point of view for many years, just as dad and mom did. But I declared myself as an Independent for voting purposes when the words Republican and Conservative came to be only labels and names, like the empty shells one finds on a beach. That which once annimated it, its substance, flesh and blood, and the spirit which moved it are missing, gone, dead, nowhere to be found.

I realized that searching for a home in the Democrat or Liberal group was like looking for another empty shell to inhabit. None of those fits either, and they all had a bad smell left over from their previous inhabitants.

Perhaps the Great Spirit, that Higher Power, which embodies the hopes and aspirations, as well as the pride and satisfaction which springs from the struggle of doing one's best, will once again inhabit, add substance to and annimate a yet unidentified creature. One will be able to encounter it only by becoming immersed in its habitat, taking the chance to dive in without knowing the depth, temperature and potability of the water in which it thrives.

In Whom Shall We Trust?

It's not likely that whatever I write here will settle anything about the question I posed as the title of this post.

I have established two blogs, this one, The Thirsty Muse, and the other one, Cape Cod Lighthouse. The first is about what I feel about stuff and the second about what I think about stuff.

Often my attention is grabbed, you might say hijacked, by input of stuff uninvited. I experience something like the static one gets when trying to adjust the dial to get a clear signal on the radio.

The Poet and the Pendulum

I set up this blog as a place to publish some or all of the content of my poetry collection, The Poet and the Pendulum, but also a place where I can share what I feel about stuff in contrast to what I think about stuff. If your confused leave a comment, and I will respond with some clarity.

It's kind of a second chance to share, and as such I expect that I will re-think what I published before, and pick and chose what I will publish here. I might also make changes to some of the poems, for literary improvement, meaningful improvement, error correction or whatever. As a Second Chance it offers the best of options for an author: a blank slate, an opportunity to improve and a chance to edit and proofread one more time. Such are the benefits of Second Chances.

On the off chance that anyone actually reads this post, and in the even more off chance that such a reader wants to find the original work, here is its ISBN: 0-9712356-0-0.

I also write on another blog, http://www.capecodlighthouse.blogspot.com/, where I try to express my rational and logical thoughts. Some who know me fairly well tell me that I am at least two persons, confirming my own suspicions. Some of them point to my birth date, and tell me that I'm on the cusp of Taurus and Gemini, the Bull in the China Shop and the Twins. That would be a convenient explanation for my admitted dual tendencies; to say what I think, employing logic at the expense of feelings, arguing as a lawyer, as my father used to observe, and to write what I feel as my mother used to observe.

For years these aspects of my being have been confusing to me, much like trying to tune into a radio station hoping to get a clear signal, but getting only static.

Even as I write this I'm wondering whether I should exclaim that I've made a decision about how I should live, hang the consequences, or hold back unsure of the validity of what I think and/or feel; and the accompanying fear of unintended consequences.

If you have read this far, and in any way feel some identification with what you have read, perhaps you will return to this site, where I will be posting some of my poems.

A further observation; What I plan to publish here will not withstand the scrutiny of rationality and logic. It will be intentionally of a different nature. It will be personal, and not in the mold of the well educated, hard driving, success oriented, task oriented and competitive male.

Should you be sufficiently interested to read what I have written, coming from the thinking, logical, objective side of me, go to:
http://www.capecodlightghouse.blogspot.com/.