June 18, 2010

• ElectricPoetry: The Outline for Existence

  

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  BEHIND THE POETRY:

  In 2003 I began the ambitious poem cycle called "The Outline For Existence." (posted on this blog HERE.) It was to encompass a total of six epic poems, "A Beginning Again" , "Evolution and History" , "Religion and Dogma" , "Politics and Society", "Conflict and Power", and "Happiness and Understanding". Links provided above are to the poems which I wrote as they appear on my poetry website, ElectricPoetry. I wrote "A Beginning Again" in 2003, and the next two poems in the series in 2004. I never got around to writing the final three.

  This morning, while thinking about the BP offshore oil rig disaster, I came upon a theme for the fifth poem, and I came in here to my computer room with most of the following stanzas already in my head. I've skipped "Politics and Society" for now, but at least I've finally written another chapter in this series, which I wondered for years whether or not I would ever do. So below, I present for you "Conflict and Power", another in the poem cycle, "The Outline of Existence." As usual, if you wish to read the poems written before it, follow the links above, and leave comments below.

  Thank you, Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

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  "Conflict and Power"
  (The Outline for Existence)
  6/18/10
  4:30a.m. pdt

  Creative cogitation
  Territorial thought
  Reach that exceeds grasp
  Conflict of interest
  Wider field of vision
  Fuel for vehicles
  Domination
  Subjugation
  Power

  Mankind creates a need for power
  Fuel for his ever expanding knowledge and ambition.
  He needs electricity to keep the light in his head on forever
  as he initiates inventive ways to control the globe
  on which he lives.

  The concept of home grows with ambition
  Home is where the pocketbook takes one
  Out the opening of the cave and into the night
  guided by the ever shining light in his head.

  His gods granting favor, mankind expands his universe
  Sadly ignoring anyone or anything in his way
  Manifest destiny awaits him
  His intellect allows him to create vehicles from which he may travel
  to unguarded and unknown areas of existence
  His search for power allows him to attempt to find fuels
  with which to power those vehicles
  and as the light grows incredibly brighter for him
  the hopes of mass tolerance and hope for humanity dim.
   
  Where one group of humankind tills the soil of his homeworld,
  Raising his animals and enjoying his bounty,
  the soil is soon bloodied and sullied with the energy
  exacted by the intelligent travelers
  who dominate and subjugate their way into the ranks of peace
  inventing war and conflict
  guns with interchangable parts
  and bullets with a purposeful ending for peaceful coexistence.

  The vehicles, powered by the fuels of ignorance and carelessness,
  trample the lands, carrying the denizens of the new world order.
  Once conflict allows the dominant lifeform to not only survive,
  but completely disintegrate the subdominant culture into itself,
  It sets about to find more fuel
  to fuel more conflict,
  and expand it's empire.

  Trade and money,
  Goods and services,
  These are just some of the lies
  Which power the dominant force of mankind
  As he wields his influence.
  Once settled into new lands,
  His grasp exceeds his reach again,
  Reaching and grasping at length
  Pulling anyone down and out in his way
  As his vehicles, powered by pride, trample and traverse
  even more territory.

  The light doesn't go out for him,
  As he fights stranger, neighbor, and brother.
  As he foils his fathers,
  And turns his back on his own faith.
  He looks around his newfound lands and says "it is good".
  The weak perish and the strong survive,
  fueled on power.
  Power, conflict, power, conflict

  Once ensconced in his new digs, mankind searches through the
  rubble of his conquests for new fuels to power new vehicles.
  He strips the land of it's trees, and digs down through the
  geologic infrastructrue
  venturing farther and farther from reason,
  in his quest for these fuels.
  At some point his quest obliterates his intelligence,
  and he cannot rectify his mistakes,
  so he blames someone else. 

  Still his light burns bright, if only for a
  geologic moment.
  Geology and weather laugh at his inconsistence
  at his ever increasing hunger for power
  and his ever obliterating need for conflict

  In the end the light will go out anyway
  whether or not man is there to flip the switch
  to the "off" position.
  There might be a cosmic punchline to the joke
  yet mankind won't be around to laugh.

  • 8:26 am
  • 34 Comments