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Don't settle for less
How do we do it? How do we do it?
Volume! Volume! Turn up the volume! . . ."
GOOD STUFFS
F IS FOR “FIRST EXORCISM . . .”
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Yesterday I told y’all that back in my late teens and early twenties I used to write this stuffs that I referred to as “poetry.” I also mentioned that, by and large, I only wrote this stuffs while in states of depression, and I suppose that’s pretty normal. I mean, a teenager who isn’t depressed is bodysurfing at the beach, chasing after girls, playing Wiffle Ball or Over-The-Line (forms of baseball) with his friends, or trying to find a Chinese liquor store owner who will sell Boone’s Farm wine to underaged boys. Well, that’s how it was with me anyway.
If you find a teenager (boy or girl) all alone in their room writing poetry, it’s a good bet that he or she is bummed out. Otherwise they’d be out and about having fun doing teenager stuffs. Kids don’t sit in their bedrooms writing about how the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and everything’s okie-dokie.
So, I guess it’s not so unusual that most of my “poems” had a dark edge to them. If I was writing poetry, it was because I was trying to exorcise the depression demon within me by expressing it on paper so I could then let it go and get on with chasing after girls and Boone’s Farm wine. However, it seems that I was conscious of the reasons I wrote these poems, and even when I was sipping Blues and snacking on Angst, my sense of humor never fully abandoned me.
Today’s poem, written when I was 23, has a humorous title (maybe the best one I ever came up with) that scarcely relates to the words that follow. Although it was already April, this happened to be the first “poem” I wrote in 1984, and so I titled it “First Exorcism Of The New Year”. With grey hairs comes wisdom, and I find that there are a couple of lines in this piece that I would now have to take issue with, but in my idealistic youth, I thought like this . . .
FIRST EXORCISM OF THE NEW YEAR
When? When will he let go?
When will he let go of the fear that strangles him day and night?
That choking denial of oxygen.
The personal attack upon himself...
An assualt of anger, then sadness, then
Grotesque self-pity.
When will he let go of his fear of fear?
Of his shameful thoughtz of self-importance
And shameless lack of self-consideration?
Let him GROW older, lean on the faith he pretends to have
And trust that his every action, every thought,
Good or bad, right or wrong...
Is right.
God, when will he stop his downward, horror-stricken stare
And leave the diving board with a frightened yet exulted leap
Into the uncertainty of sky and water?
And know that it is divine wisdom and superior thought
To DO instead of think?
Let him learn to live for the moment and die
For the past.
Laugh or cry spontaneously and without any measure of regret:
The beautiful purity of mind triggering emotion.
And, God, help him to close the door on that stifling, degenerate doubt.
Help him pry loose his fingers from his throat
To fill his lungs with the crisp pleasure of renewed life.
When will he let go?
When will he KNOW those things that he presently believes
And realize that success is not the path to heaven
Nor failure the path to hell?
Let him attempt to fly with a desire and need
And should he plummet to death,
Let it be because he could not fly,
Not because he THOUGHT he couldn’t.
When? When will he do what he must?
When will he?
BAD STUFFS
F IS FOR “FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM” :
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Based on the things I’ve been posting on this Blog recently, it might come as a surpise for some to learn that, in fact, my greatest areas of interest, and therefore the areas in which I am most knowledgeable, are in spiritual and political matters. While many people think of these things as being divorced from each other – and I myself once made that mistaken assessment – the truth is that religion and politics have a symbiotic relationship that has to be understood.
Mayer Amschel Rothschild is purported to have said, “Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.” The reason for this should be obvious: the issuer of currency can buy off the lawmakers.
There are millions of Americans, both Republican and Democrat, running around thinking themselves to be politically astute and yet they haven’t the foggiest idea of what the principal problem facing America today happens to be. America’s very biggest problem today is the same problem it’s had for almost 100 years. The creators of money (i.e., the controllers of wealth) are not the The Peoples’ representatives in Washington D.C., as the U.S. Constitution states they must be, but they are private bankers who dictate the entire nation’s economic conditions and who pay off the politicians for doing their bidding.
I am providing you below with a link to a full-length magazine article published one year ago by a man named James Perloff. “Our Monetary Mayhem Began With The Fed” is one of the three finest and most educational articles pertaining to politics that I have thus far found anywhere on the Worldwide Web. When you have a little time available to do some “serious” reading, please peruse Perloff’s piece. (By the way, “peruse” is often mistakenly thought to mean “skim” or “read quickly.” Actually, it means the opposite: “to read through with thoroughness or care”; “to survey or examine in detail”.)
Even if you think you are politically savvy now, you will be over 100% more informed after you’ve perused this article. Yes, I realize my statement is mathematically impossible, but I’ve already told y’all that my math STINKS! But no kidding – this story reveals what is truly the United States of America’s most pressing political problem. And to think, you never even knew!
Link: “OUR MONETARY MAYHEM BEGAN WITH THE FED”
Le McQuote Du Jour:
I don't know - I guess maybe it’s just the booze or something.
~ Terry “The Toad” Fields
~ Stephen T. McCarthy
Doggtor of Semiliterate, Half-Naked Blogological Studies
Stream O’Consciousness University in Froglegs, France
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YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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Wow what a poem, I thought it great. The line about FEAR struck a raw nerve but saying that the message of the poem came across so very clear, Thanks for sharing it with us. Now to the Federal Reserve I am afraid I don't know much about the English Politics let alone the American, Thanks for a superb blog. 6 down 20 to go.
ReplyDeleteTake care.
Yvonne,
Ahh, thanks so much for the kind words, YVONNE.
ReplyDeleteTruthfully, I've never had a lot of confidence in the "poetry" I've written. I guess I've always wondered if it was so personal that it wouldn't affect others at all. As a result, only a very small number of friends and family members have ever seen any of it.
I'm a little uneasy posting it right out in the open like this; unsure if any of it really has anything going for it at all or if it's just teenage and young person ramblings. Just tryin' to make it to "Z", even if that means making an ass of myself.
But thanks for easing my mind about it a little bit, because I know you write "real" poetry.
20 to go?!?! Sheesh! Wish you hadn't said THAT!
;o)
~ Stephen
"As a dog returns to his own vomit,
so a fool repeats his folly."
~ Proverbs 26:11
I'm surprised that such depth came out of such youth. I'm with Yvonne and think you write excellent poetry! As for the politics? I have no interest in them at all, so avoid all discussions of same. Still love your blog, though. (wink)
ReplyDeleteLisa
LISA ~
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot! Hmmm... Maybe I'm not going to totally embarrass myself after all, posting "poetry" and whatnot.
No, not deep - fakin' it. Ha!
I'm outta time for today, but I'll have to make it over to your Blog tomorrow and see wha's happenin' there.
Thanks again, and Yak Later...
~ "Lonesome Dogg" McStephenboy
I loved this first part with the poem. Very nice job, I love dark stuff like that. AS for the second, I don't speak of politics much. It offends too many people, but you're brave for posting about it. :)
ReplyDeleteI knew you would choose the fed for this piece. Oh, and a fine choice it was. Hand well played sir, well played.
ReplyDeleteOh and yes I knew you were just joking in the other blog piece.
Thanks, MODERN DAY DRIFTER!
ReplyDelete>>"I don't speak of politics much. It offends too many people, but you're brave for posting about it."<<
Brave? Not really. I'd say that I'm "Patriotic" for posting about it.
BR'ER MARC, and I thank you, too!
Yup, you knows me well, man.
~ "Lonesome Dogg" McMe