The Story Place - In Poetry, Fiction and Images
Pages
- Introduction
- Written and Spoken Word
- Published Works
- The Book of Books
- Selected Short Stories and Poetry
- Stories and Essays - Audio Versions
- Poetry Audio Versions
- Readings from Original Works - Video Versions
- Video Poems
- Original Sculpture
- Original Art
- Art's Panorama
- Nature's Wonders
- Flickr Photostream
- YouTube
- Contact Author
Thursday, December 21, 2023
Remember the Children
crushed and obliterated
under the weight of 2000 pound bombs
screaming from the sky
dispatched by uncaring machines of death.
Remember the children of
Israel and
Somalia
Yemen
the Sudan
Nicaragua
Honduras
victimized by
insidious bigotry,
religious differences that
seem so oblivious
to the suffering they engender.
Remember the children of the present
and the future
who live in a world
that offers no relief,
no respite
from the cruelty of their captors,
from endless punishment
over which they have no control.
Remember the children
suffering needlessly
for no good reason.
Remember the children
denied the capacity to thrive and grow
for they are our lost treasures
consumed by the raw power of hate.
Remember the children for
they hold in their feeble hands the
ultimate fate of humanity.
Remember the children
to forget is to
consign ourselves to an abysmal future
devoid of compassion and love
leaving us with an uncaring and brutal world.
Saturday, October 28, 2023
Ode to Existence Revisited
As the hours and days and weeks and months and years move me along life’s relentless journey, I have been contemplating during those precious moments of solitude the nature of existence.
Ode to Existence Revisited
Enmeshed and so often, entrapped
within this human world
distraction the norm,
conversation distilled into
a kind of relentless babble
born on the wings of bits and bytes,
joy equated with pleasure
and childish excitement,
happiness to be forever
pursued and hoarded like treasure,
a synthetic world of trinkets
and idle possessions,
heirlooms acquired,
building vast fortunes
of synthetic and finite illusions,
all with no consequence
all with little meaning.
And yet,
the reality of existence
moves along its
indefatigable path,
within the boundaries of
the wondrous cosmos.
Surrounded by the matrix
of the living world,
passengers aboard this fabulous spaceship
Earth,
caressed by capricious winds,
greeted by morning mist,
tossed upon perilous water,
enlivened by sunlight,
subdued by nightfall,
intimidated by fearsome storm,
forever surprised by the intrinsic beauty
delicate intricacies of nature’s tendrils
that reach into every corner and crevice,
every delicate spring blossom,
every blade of undulating grass,
every tree no matter how massive or
diminished,
every creature within its domain,
every idle thought that triggers
perception,
every substantive or meaningless dream.
Surrounded by this most amazing
universe,
this most fabulous galaxy
decorating the heavens with
innumerable stars,
witness to the dance of the planets,
subtleties of light and dark,
to the wild configurations of
shape and form and texture and color.
Blessed with this most awesome capability
of the sentient mind
to uncover the mysteries of
the nature of things,
to explore the vast and inner terrain of
self,
to find meaning,
to explore possibilities,
to appreciate detail and
discover function,
to search for truth
and find it,
to know peace
and appreciate the essence of love.
Life is a voyage and a journey,
bounded by explosive birth
and the finality of death,
constrained by the
vagaries and vicissitudes
of unfolding time,
life is to be affirmed
by wrapped attention,
life is to be possessed
from moment to moment and
neither squandered nor abandoned.
Tuesday, October 17, 2023
Shadows of War
Darkness once again falls
heavily upon this tiresome human
world.
Shadows of war
propelled by ridiculous dreams of
dominance and empire
sustained by minds
unable to see the horrid future they
project,
unwilling to embrace the pain and
suffering
they inflict,
unreceptive to the laments of mothers
over the children forever lost to the
shrill
call of bombs and bullets
as explosions rip through the fabric
of neighborhoods,
unrepentant for the death they distribute
to the innocent like candy,
for all the blood and bones and
carnage,
for all the wrecked lives and
distorted hatred
injected into the future,
unable to embrace all of humanity as
equals,
ever ready to crawl into bed
with hollow and pointless death.
Shadows of war,
a long and tiresome story
revisited again and again
the litany long,
the dark foreboding song always the
same,
the list seeming endless,
stretching back
to the very beginnings of
civilization.
How long can Homo sapiens endure?
how long can the natural world
upon which we depend
sustain us?
when we choose
chaos over harmony
needless death and unimagined
suffering
over love and life,
darkness over light,
stupidity over real intelligence
over and over again.
Darkness once again falls
heavily upon this tiresome human
world.
Ode to the Elusive Peace of Mind
I wish to say farewell
to all trivial considerations,
all venal and self-serving dreams,
all of ego’s darlings
piled up like so many useless
magazines
cluttering the thoroughfares of the
mind.
I wish to terminate the leases
of all the shabby and unwanted
tenants that
occupy the precious real estate
within
my neuronal wonder.
I wish to finally release all the
hostages
reminiscent of bygone desires and
missed opportunities,
they take far too much succor to
retain.
I wish to welcome all of
life’s truly wondrous aspects,
of nature’s magnificent presence
and finally let all of existence
consume me
within the grasp of perfect peace.
Saturday, December 31, 2022
A Hopeful Dream
guns and all weapons of
bad intention or ill feeling
reduced to their base metals
and fashioned into implements of healing,
all who are hungry
are fed,
all who are afraid
are reassured,
all who are pariahs
brought into the human fold,
all who are filled with the bile of hatred
cajoled with sweetness and caring,
all who suffer needlessly
from their own lack of faith in themselves
see the blazing light of true wisdom,
all who have hearts weighted by greed
free themselves from the onerous weight of possessions,
all who love ignorance
witness the rapture and wonder of learning,
all who usurp themselves and others with power,
come to recognize their own impotence,
all who are crippled and torn apart by disease
see their true worth,
artists and lovers of knowledge and thought
are finally appreciated,
all without homes
find shelter in the heart of humanity,
all who are fractured
made whole,
all who are obsessed by race or creed
are freed of their limitations,
all limited and pernicious ideas
fall to oblivion from their own weight,
all who are demagogues
find a life of true service,
all ideas born of avarice and rooted in war
are finally dead,
all embrace all
as members of the human family.
Sunday, December 18, 2022
Pathetic Emperors of Greed
At this moment in time (the winter of 2022) as the year nears its end, certain individuals of the male persuasion - supposedly worth billions of dollars - are regularly depicted in the news. These individuals are particularly vociferous and manage to project their personalities into the public consciousness with a stunning regularity. This has inspired me to create the following piece entitled,
Pathetic Emperors of Greed
Within the formidable shadow of
accumulated wealth
these two bit emperors
surrounded by their phalanx of
bodyguards and
sycophants ever ready with
meaningless phrases and shallow praise,
inject their toxic venom into the
public space to perpetually remind us all
of the rarified space they occupy.
From shallow mind to
slimy tongue
they elaborate lies
implausible fictions
deleterious conclusions
based upon nothing of substance,
designed to foster hatred
upset balance
foster confusion
incite turmoil.
These preposterous idiots
enamored of themselves
forever admiring their
reflections in silver mirrors
their constant companions,
bathing in their own stupidity,
emersed in the chaos they engender,
murdering empathy
compassion and
the common good
with utmost precision,
suggesting violence,
inciting hatred in
confused minds.
These pathetic emperors
of their shallow kingdoms,
embrace an image of themselves
within their tortured and
infantile minds,
without real substance
frantically attempting to
smother their desperate aloneness,
and the perpetual fear of their
monumental inadequacies.
These pathetic emperors of greed
steeped in the fallacy of their
exaggerated importance
carry the insatiable urge
to constantly remind us all of their
inspired presence,
like hapless juveniles they
insinuate themselves into the public space.
preceded them
they demand unequivocal attention
threaten the peace and
should be thoroughly and completely ignored.
Thursday, October 6, 2022
A Window into Existence
sun and moon and stars and night
into mother’s sweet embrace
upon an ever-spinning and wondrous planet
servant to its parent star,
expelled from the womb of darkness
and transformation
in a state of sweet oblivion.
Born into the prospects for love and hunger
laughter and grief and
ceaseless adventure
with a unique genetic imprint
yet simply another member of
the human race – Homo sapiens.
Born into family and tribe and nation
yet forever alone with the
wonder and burden of self.
Born into a kaleidoscope of
emotions,
a labyrinth of escalating ideas,
the enigmatic world of dreams and
the wonder and enormity of
consciousness.
Born into
a living world,
a reality devoid of guarantees,
filled with the many textures
and surprising dimensions of
the unexpected.
Born into the living world
moving inexorably
along time’s arrow
tied to the cosmic symphony
ultimately destined to the finality of
the joy molecular.
Eventually to discover
there is no
singular solution to the
enigma of existence,
no one way to live a life,
no escape from
life’s ultimate conclusion,
no mysterious rescue,
no salvation from the
tenacious grip of reality
and the forward movement of time.
Ultimately to learn
the art of surrender
to the ultimate truth
that promises no alternative outcomes.
A magnificent and wildly haphazard
trajectory from birth
to death
within the rhapsody and dance
of the cosmos.
On occasion, my mind careens through my past and collides into the sweet and bitter taste of memories of friendships come and gone. Over the years I have experienced the deep loss associated with the death of many friends. The names that occur to me are Beatrice, Samiha, Najma, Warren, David, Bill, Chris, Robert, Nina, Noburu, Philip, Michael, Robert and others.
I imagine that they have all gathered, both living and dead, in one place as if summoned to a sumptuous feast filled with color, and light and erotic and sensory images of the fleeting past. At this gathering, I envision a continuous slideshow displayed on a big screen in an endless loop – you know the kind I am thinking of as on display in the memorials of the recently deceased. Such displays rarely if ever display the individuals involved not at their best and most gracious selves. At this imagined slideshow, there is no such inhibition.
All the beds slept in both luxurious and mundane with erstwhile partners. All the exquisite and banal couplings with organs engorged and engaged at the beckoning of love’s insatiable fever. All the anticipation realized or diminished. All the passion spent or eroded by circumstance. The dance and inherent rhythms of bodies in their thirst for both substance and pleasure.
All the friendships accumulated in idle remembrance and fond recollections over the years. The bond created with childhood friends on the block outside the tenement apartment (1E) in my Bronx neighborhood. Visions of sultry summer days with the neighborhood fire hydrant spewing its content, and the bitter cold of winter sequestered in our fortresses of snow and ice as we staged joyous assaults upon our manufactured enemies with our hastily made collections of snowball weaponry.
Friends and enemies intertwined within the web and matrix of all things past. All the intense conversations of youth; all terribly meaningful at the time, but more reminiscent of that self-absorption so characteristic of adolescence.
At this spontaneous banquet, the guests awaited an erudite statement of some significance from their host regarding why they were all summoned. With a great deal of embarrassment, I realized that I had nothing either cogent or significant to say to them. I was speechless. What I finally uttered was pathetically inadequate: I said, “You are all here by pure happenstance; how this came to happen is a mystery to me It seems to be the physical manifestation of one of my exotic thought dreams.” This comment was met by an agitated state of annoyance and confusion.
My dear friend Beatrice, who died many years ago at the young age of forty-one, was never one to mince her words, spoke out, “Are you kidding me, This is why I came out of my sweet repose!”
In a hurried attempt to rescue some semblance of respectability I then said, “Beatrice, I am sorry; I did not mean to offend. I have such fond memories of you. To all of you, my dearest friends, gathered here, my sincerest apologies. I just didn’t know what to say – I was overwhelmed by this amazing gathering. Since you are here, please enjoy yourselves.” For some reason, this pathetic explanation was considered plausible enough and the party continued. Many of those present had no connection whatsoever with anyone else. I did my best to introduce as many as I could to others. As a result, many stories were exchanged that provoked uninhibited laughter, surprise, amazement and sometime disbelief. It turned out to be a wonderful event.
I noted that of those in attendance, a preponderance were women. This reality reflected the fact that I have always felt more comfortable in the company of women than with those of the same gender. However, regardless of their sexual orientation, they were all kindred spirits to me. I have remained in contact with some of these friends, but many have moved on with their lives. I wonder about them and where there lives have taken them.
In life, we accumulate friends, lovers, companions, acquaintances and colleagues. The experiences that are associated with them are all stored in long-term memory – to be called upon later. In life, one is born into a family of one kind or another, a locality we recognize as place and a tribe or nation. Bundled with all of these intricate and interwoven facets are a particular language(s), culture and an unwritten code of acceptable behavior. In this way norms are established that are viewed as natural to young and innocent minds filled with enthusiasm and excitement in the mere and daunting prospect of living. It is only later in life that these imposed values are subjected to scrutiny and questioned within the elaborate matrix of the thinking brain.