image by slowrabbit, on Pixabay, modified
The Delusionists
They cannot see
What a handshake means,
Nor why the nightingale sings
Yet they’re sure, certain
Their minds will ring true.
And when they discourse
On an empty universe,
They are sure their words
Must speak science, free
Of myth and hope and
Any sense of divinity…
They take a way of learning
And make it a way of knowing,
Scornful of right and wrong,
Contemptuous even of play…
They live in a world of only
Black and white, yet know
Not they are color-blind…
For life, all life, is radiant,
More variegated than any
Rainbow, more profound
Than any mind could be…
Life will never be caught,
Not in test tubes or words,
And never in our thoughts.
*
When the Soul Forgets
When the soul forgets,
We do what we regret.
When the soul forgets
We shrink and tremble,
Fearing him and her,
This and that, hating
All that is different,
Everything of the other.
When the soul forgets,
We march off to war.
When the soul forgets,
We leave love alone,
Shrinking ourselves into
Small hard balls of ice.
When the soul forgets,
We leave God alone, or
We smirk and mock Him.
When the soul forgets,
We poison life itself, as
We turn songs of peace
Into diatribes of hatred.
When the soul forgets,
We fall, first into the gray,
Then in time, we fall more
And more into the deep,
Deep blackness of hell…
And perhaps there your
Soul will at last remember
And call out, and call out.
If so, it will be heard—
It will always be heard...
_____________________
Nolo Segundo, pen name of retired teacher (in America, Japan, Taiwan, and the war
zone of Cambodia,1973-74) L.J. Carber, became a published poet and essayist in his 8th decade in over 200 literary journals in 16 countries on 4 continents. Cyberwit.net
has published 3 poetry collections in paperback: The Enormity of Existence; Of Ether
and Earth; and Soul Songs. These titles reflect the awareness he gained when he had
a near-death experience over 50 years ago whilst almost drowning in a Vermont river.
(And no, his NDE was not of the "white light" sort but then his near drowning was not accidental; still, he is grateful for all of it.)
November 2024 issue
Thought-provoking poems.