July 21, 2012

• ElectricPoetry: New poem sadly presented

  “A Dark Night is Slowly Rising”
  Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
  7/20/12 6:24am pdt

  Awaking to the morning
  After a night of clear, bright dreams
  We never know what to expect anymore
  As Father Sun rises around the world

  Terrible news instantaneously presented
  As soon as we tap our touchscreens alight
  Connected calamity indented
  Terror happens right here in plain sight

  Can a day ever pass without strife?
  Can a night soothe in safe slumber again?
  Or did days and nights always bear burdens
  Of bad news, bad taste, evil sin?

  Something is dreadfully wrong
  Something so powerfullly strong
  A strong wind is blowing
  And no one is knowing
  The terror is lasting how long

  Controls and restraints not the answer
  The righteous will pray to the sky
  But the evil ingrained in our nature
  Causes us to ask the eternal why

  I shudder for humanity again
  To the Universal Consciousness I pray
  The day’s just beginning for this simple soul
  But it’s a mystery and common sense may stray

  If we awake, we are safe so it seems,
  We breathe, perhaps a sigh,
  As we cry, and others die
  Terror lurks in both shadows and light
  And it hurts as it screams,
  As calamity sets in it’s sight

  The evil in our nature turns the common
  insane
  The quiet kids and the bullied
  The intelligent and the sullied
  Has it always been like this?
  Perhaps it has.
  Instant news cycles compound
  terror’s message,
  And that message is loud and clear.
  What do we as a society do here?

  And are we a society,
  Or a bunch of conflicted souls without direction
  Or somebody to listen to our problems?

  Evil begins as misdirection, misapprehension
  Mistakes of mammoth proportions
  And grief stricken collateral residue

  Once the trigger is pulled
  Once the mind sheds all common sense
  Once the other voices start to babble
  All is lost for those involved
  (And oftentimes the victims are innocent)

  The smoke clears
  As it always does
  And we open the door and begin the day
  And as always for humanity I pray

  ---

  BEHIND THE POETRY: It’s the start of Ramadan, Islam’s holy month, and somehow, because I am a student of world culture and a news junkie, I somehow suspected to be reading stories in the news this morning about strife and terror. For instance, there were bombings in Thailand. This kind of news upsets me greatly, but it seems I’ve been reading this kind of news for a long time. Another story completely knocked me off guard. Yet another lone shooter (in Colorado, a state that never seems to get a break, it’s the state where Columbine High is located) went on the rampage last night, as I was safe in bed, opening fire in a crowded theater in the town of Aurora showing a midnight showing of the new Batman film, titled “The Dark Knight Rises” (hence the title of my poem).

  My heart sinks. My life is full and wonderful, but it can get cut down at any moment by the terror of evil. Like any other. My prayers are directed toward the innocent as always, in harm’s way whether they know it or not. My prayers are also directed to the poor lost souls who are triggered somehow by something so terrible that they feel they have to perpetrate such evil. I don’t believe the individual souls are inherently evil. I don’t believe Satan is wispering in their ear. Humanity is inherently evil. Obviously our spiritual leanings and common sense don’t seem to help. We are reduced to tribal skirmishes, and acts of instant terror are abounding.

  As I have written so much that I could possibly just copy/paste the phrase into my entry. I don’t know the answers, but I think endlessly about the questions.

  It’s a beautiful day here in sunny California, but my heart is as dark as the night that rose in a darkened Colorado theater last night. 12 people were murdered and 50 injured by the 24 year old shooter, who is currently in custody. On the Yahoo posting of the story (to which I link above) at least I didn’t see any snarky comments like usual (To tell the truth I didn’t look too closely, cause I DIDN’T want to see the usual terrible jokey comment strings I usually see on Yahoo stories.) One commenter did remark that if “it were legal to carry our guns, someone in the theater would have put a cap in this guy’s a**” or words to that effect. This disturbs me too of course. When Wyatt Earp was sheriff of Tombstone (which was in Arizona, not Colorado, but both states qualify as the  (wild) “West” he collected the firearms of all those who entered the town.

  Michael F. Nyiri, poet, philosopher, fool

  Originally posted July 20, 2012 7:11 AM

  • 10:10 pm
  • 5 Comments