[In all the other coronas composed by the unknown poet of the Third Galaxy, the concluding, 14th stanza is always followed by a denouement in a 15th poem having a thematic relation to the corona itself.
This is not the case with "Our Common Insanity" -- however, I believe that I have found in the 2nd level footnotes to the Absolute Truth, 21st Edition a poem he intended as a denouement, "The Desolation Before Us". Just as the William Blake of our world omitted "A Divine Image" from his "Songs", he found the poetic vision of "Desolation" too dark.
My opinion is that both Sweet William and the unknown poet were in error. Whether my opinion is mistaken is something my colleagues who also research the Absolute Truth will have to decide. It is a fact, though, that "Desolation" is extremely dark and bitter. It has a vague resemblance to the kvad form which the unknown poet experimented with now and then, with varying success and is written in several voices. Thematically, it is very close to "Ghosts Who Wraith", including the refererence to the Question.]
With the desolations before us now,
and the ruins of the great glory which was
once ours not so long ago -- how?
How could it have happened and what was the cause?
Such questions as these must be asked for sure,
but the answers may be hard for us all to hear.
On the other hand, we'll never find a cure
if we once again give away to our fears...
The fact is that we are orphans you see,
who were lost in a Wilderness of Time.
It all began when we fell from a tree,
and having lost the ability to climb,
began to make up stories about
"Mom" and "Dad" and the great times they had:
"Mommy! Daddy!", we often shout.
We hear answers sometimes and they're rather sad!
"Do you belive in 'Gawd' they asked me once.
"Spare me your idol talk", I replied.
Did I change my mind when they cut out my tongue?
I forget because, soon afterwards, I died.
The wars we've fought over religion,
over land and natural resources
and over the access to fertile women...
It was all a hill of beans, of course.
Somewhere, along the way we forgot
the important thing, the eternal Question,
"What is it all really about?",
and so, this is how it finally ended:
On the evening news one dreadful day,
between the mudlines the speakers said,
as flags waved and martial music played:
"Our enemies will all soon be dead!
The decision has been made by the powers that be!
We will attack them with all that we've got,
early tomororrow at a quarter past three,
our frontline commandos will fire the first shots!"
"We will win this war in a day or two,
returning home within a week at the most!
Our rewards will be great and our casualties few!
Our fires will turn the enemy to toast!"
But the war, it lasted longer than a week.
Far, far longer than that...
The bombs dropped like rain and wreaked
so much death that rivers of melted fat
flowed down the streets of empty stone.
A Terrible Time of Sorrow it was
with monsters sucking soul from bone!
Once again we wondered, "How did it happen,
and what was the cause?"
Indeed, what was the cause?
Perhaps is was when we forgot
the roots of our common humanity
which then mutated into a common insanity!
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2 comments:
I think the word "Hope" can be slowly phased into the lexicon of the near-future, and your well-written missives can take their place in the present.
That's the title of one of the songs on the CD. There are 8 now.
1.) Magic Heart (Title track)
2.) Hope
3.) Sacred Circle
4.) Prayer Without Words
5.) Mythic Angel
6.) Technomania
7.) CiCient
8.) Individuation
Here's hoping you'll do the same kind of morphing my wife is doing: you know, learning that taking a nap isn't sloth, working on the computer can be fun, and marriage can be new and fun every day.
I had a discussion with a friend of mine who lives in Georgia, she took me to task because I stressed the importance of hope over faith and charity -- you know, St. Paul maintained in one of his letters that charity is greater than faith and hope.
Her argument was an anecdote about a fellow who had a terminal. disease and made his and his family's last time together miserable by maintaining he was going to survive in an unrealistic manner.
My reply was that it was not hope he was showing it was a insidious form of despair. Real hope recognizes that failure is possible. That is where hope leans up against love (charity). But hope continues to hope and that is where hope leans up against faith.
I did a post on this here
It's great to hear the CD is coming along fine!
The guys at work gave me a H2 Zoom digital recorder and it is real cool for what I want to do -- much better than the H4...
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