it was an inevitability
that we'd unearth the evidence
to validate Einstein's theory
of general relativity.

three cheers for the
method of science,
an appliance that
liberates and enlightens,
suffocating the miasma
of dogmatic parasitism.

pariahs can't stand beneath
the weight of empirical data.
a culture of imperialism
intoxicating inane idiots,
inundated by asinine philosophy.

ideologues instigating turmoil—
vainly believing
an intergalactic being
created the cosmos
in seven days for the
predestined elect.

to insist inanely that the legacy
of our existence could be measured
in seven millennia
is to extinguish the light
from the majority
of our neighboring galaxies.

you read the opening lines
of your holy text too literally.
open your mind to the poetry
of a reality that no deity
could ever breathe into existence.

we are not special.
our fate is tied to a
planet choking on CO2
and you deny the truth
in the same breath you
disparage any challenge
to your impotent,
imaginary friend.

**** sapiens—
mere animals
cursed with
conscience.

if you would deny
the ancestral history
of our evolutionary biology
simply on the premise
that it's “only a theory,”
then i'd invite you to put
your vain hypothesis
to the test and take a long walk
off a short bridge.
perhaps the theory of gravity
will provide with you some clarity.

☺♥☺♥☺♥☺♥

The worst will be found toward the end of the book
When you’re scanning the lines of a weighty anthology.
Centuries have shaken what works can be shook,
and what’s old is refined – and I make no apology.

Angst-ridden ramblings, so fashionably bleak
Start appearing somewhere past the middle, I fear
With those modernist psyches, whose raggedly weak
and depressing confessions sling mud in the ear.

Like the scribblers of Suicide, brimming with bile
or the autodestructive self-pitying ******,
whose quaint observations enshrining the vile
are a crime against life – and an art for the loser.

You ideologues, with your axes to grind,
propagandizing causes in militant styles
ought to  stay in the hills, where the struggle is defined,
and spare us the old dialectical wiles.

The Feminist scribe, with her *** for a mouth,
Ever pressing her case, for fallopian reasons
Grows saggingly sterile. Her muses fly south
with the passing of harvests and goddessless seasons.

Absurdists, surrealists, and nihilist mystics
whose hymns to destruction make glory of chaos
should leave the black humor to God and ballistics.
Your poems, like Judas, are bound to betray us.

The Freudian flirt (whose neuroses abound),
And the Jungian shamans (their animas, too),
ought to rest on their couches. Why should they be found
By the wellsprings of Spirit, whose guidance is true.

The art-lover’s lines gild a frame around Knowledge.
Their poems are like an art history course.
As they flit past the idols they studied in college
their name-dropping odes are a grand tour-de–force.

Sixties drug-revelers, love beads a-jingle
And brothers dashiki-clad, howling at Nixon
no longer strike chords in my soul. Not a single sitar lick
nor visions of hippie-chick *****.

You rhymers and rappers of rhythms in sample
Whose words like a kick-drum send shock through old Whitey
Now cease from your chanting. The genre is ample.
Your gangstering paeans are too fly-by-nighty.

Revived Roman legions, who relish things Latin;
Your martial convictions inspire the hero.
But while you are looking for cities to flatten,
remember – old Julius was nobler than Nero.

The theme of World Peace –  this crops up near the ending:
a desperate hope for New-Agers and liberals,
who cherish a dream of reality-bending
Through networking, magic, and energized crystals…

But what can be shaken shall perish, forgotten.
Anthologies show us that truth is enduring.
All praises and laurels shall prove misbegotten.
The Word become flesh is the most reassuring.

So I leave the anthology, closing its cover.
Three-quarters at least seemed like nonsense to me.
Yet still, I admit, I’m a poetry lover.
Let time do its work and in future – we’ll see…

They are,and aren't, like we are;
born with an extra chromosome.
They are,unlike us, trusting souls,
brave hearts, and never ideologues .
Their time is short upon this Earth.
Seldom will they reach old age.
Souls of unconditional love
who make no mark on history's page.
They used to call them mongoloids
blunted features with Asian eyes
Now they are erased in Vivo
So seldom are they born alive.
They used to be the child who stayed
with their parents until old age.
Hearts full of love, devoid of greed
Now marked for death because, you see,
imperfection is not what we need.

****** castanets -
Floors sprinkled with shrapnel
Under the dancer's skirt -
A broken guitar
Holding a flaccid hand
Midstrum
In it's hollow mouth -
Scattered sheets of unedited poems
Stained with spattered flecks of brain -
Broken bottles
In puddles of Chartreuse and Campari
Congealing onto corpses
Slouching at the bar -
Jackboots kicking the viscera from their path -
Searching for a poet's mortal coil
So it can be shuffled
Into the pyre of ideologues and deviants
Protecting the oppression of this fleeting order.

Phrases.
We speak in phrases.
Catch-phrases but never release phrases,
And phrases whose meaning are yet unknown.

When in Rome, you do as the Romans do.
Conquering, pillaging, living above the crowd,
Or something like that.
When asked what I mean by what I say,
I've long since learned to stop pretending,
That people will ever understand.

An ideology will forever only be as strong,
As the ideologues and the actions they make.
I dream of a world based in love,
Rather than the pain and suffering it sustains itself in.

Perhaps your entrance back into my life is convenient,
And even a bit over-expecting of me.
But it means a whole lot to me,
That the banner from which you ride forth,
Is white, bearing the mark of peace.
You approach with the intent of love.

Many people in this world expect protection,
From forces yet unseen.
I just as irrationally expect my actions to guide me.
But rather than leave it all to the feelings I hold,
I'm learning that a selfless love is all that will ever set me free.
You give me hope.

If it requires me to be patient,
I plan to see this one plan through.
For far too long I've been flaky,
And afraid to commit to challenges I don't yet understand.
So long as at the end of the day all that remains,
Is that I'll be there, holding your hand.

No explorer ever found anything new,
Until they took that very first step into the unknown.
You are the only person who has yet made me believe,
That blind faith is any kind of virtue.

When ignorance goes running rampant
And fools run amok,
And the measure of success is strictly
The almighty buck;

When logic and reason become suspect
And fakesters are thought wise,
And people relish living in
A fool's paradise;

When false news is the word of the day
And many people choose
To get their news from stations where ratings
Are more important than news;

When lies masquerade as truth
And facts are seen as perverse,
And the lack of consideration for others
Goes from bad to worse;

When science is known as the enemy
And metaphor as science,
And blind acceptance and misunderstanding
Form a tight alliance;

When bold and brazen ideologues
Make it their primary mission
To push their will upon the people
And crush the opposition;

And when world leaders have the potential
To leave the world in rubble,
And some of the leaders are buffoons,
WE'RE IN A HEAP OF TROUBLE!

- by Bob B (12-17-16)

Lawrence Hall, HSG
[email protected]

             Never Mind the Guns and the Fentanyl; Seize the Books

          By 1938, the Nazis had banned eighteen categories of books,
          4,175 titles, and the complete works of 565 authors…

                 -Molly Guptill Manning, When Books Went to War

Ideologues search libraries for ***** books
Because reading might give people ideas
And encourage them to think for themselves
Tyrants are threatened by words and ideas

Censors search Mary Poppins for ***** words
Because a wide vocabulary might give people ideas
And encourage them to think for themselves
Tyrants are threatened by words and ideas

In an era when even mere literacy is suspicious
Tyrants are threatened by words and ideas




How conservative and liberal book bans differ amid rise in literary restrictions - ABC News (go.com)

The Spread of Book Banning - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Film censors aren’t protecting children from Mary Poppins – they’re protecting themselves (yahoo.com)

States Tell SCOTUS That Social Media Censors Conservatives : The NPR Politics Podcast : NPR

List of banned films - Wikipedia

https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2023/12/22/police-officer-searches-middle-school-library-after-complaint-abo­ut-concerning-illustrations-in-lgbtq-book/

Someone is cutting down free little libraries in a Chicago suburb and police are searching for the suspect (msn.com)

Over 170 books banned from Florida school libraries following new education reform - CBS News

The police officer who searched for a book in a Great Barrington classroom also used a body camera. The ACLU has ‘deep concerns’ | South Berkshires | berkshireeagle.com

Not what I claim to be
amazing, the level of hypocrisy
even in mundane conversation
lies roll of the tongue
in rhythmic beats
scripted sheets
pre-written dialogue
spit like *****
out of the mouths of ideologues
preaching ignorant unity
and pro-rated conformity
catching the youth
at alarming rates
and so quick it's done
from the first yarn spun
conversely the idea
of total honesty
has toyed with me
but I couldn't
couldn't continue
too much to lose

Not what I claim to be
amazing, the level of hypocrisy
even in mundane conversation
lies roll of the tongue
in rhythmic beats
scripted sheets
pre-written dialogue
spit like *****
out of the mouths of ideologues
preaching ignorant unity
and pro-rated conformity
catching the youth
at alarming rates
and so quick it's done
from the first yarn spun
conversely the idea
of total honesty
has toyed with me
but I couldn't
couldn't continue
too much to lose

Shakespeare in the Pork

Is this a protest which I see before me,
Clichés to abuse the script? Come, let me meme thee.
I have a master’s degree, so hold still.
Art thou not, sign waver, a Democrat?

Or art thou but a pale Republican
Proceeding from the heat-oppres’sed drain?
     (that swamp metaphor, remember?)
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As a 1950s fraternity boy

Civility thickens, and threatens life’s play
So all ideologues, just
                                           go
                                                      away

There was a song from not so long ago, the self righteous chanted four dead in Ohio. Now the same ideologues have gained power you see. They sat idly by with stark indifference as four were killed in Benghazi. Where have the protest gone, where did the moral outrage go. Where did the righteous anger get to when in Benghazi hero's blood did flow. So in Ohio it was a righteous day, but in Libya they chose to look the other way. Oh how they change their ways when it is a different kind of war. When the blood flowed, they just didn't care anymore.

She took a deep breath,She counted to three,
A picture in her head Of who they wanted her to be.

They wanted her to be normal,Happy and kind.
They never thought That this girl would be blind.

Not blind by the meaning,
But blind in the heart Blinded by pain,Blinded by dark.

She walks around lifeless, heart beating but dead.
A walking corpse lost inside her head.

Standing on the edge,she has nothing at all,
her body's frozen,she lost her soul.

She knew it was a sin,but that didn't deter the jump,
seeking the creators forgiveness,she did it,she's numb.

She did it,straight and fast,
and became a memory that will not last.

If only ideologues don't bruise,she would've had so much to give,
stigmatize those who let people die not who struggle to live.

An ideology hinged on a majoritarian belief

Upon a diverse pluralistic society impinge

To despots, this hideous exploit alone shall bestow relief

While the nation is in a state of singe


Around plots woven to demolish or lynch

Were thoughts steeped in, blasphemy and intolerance

Yet the rightist ideologues never did wince

As the end justifies the means in their parlance


Exuding triumphalism over electoral gains

Shrouded in patriotic fervour evoked

Promise of a shrine on the agenda reigns

To be built, on a rubble of communal passions stoked


Riding roughshod over mass sentiments outright

Legislating a law, never was so facile

Constitutional tenets confront an obliteration fright

In the face of an opposition docile


Ever since voices of dissent got typecast

Imperative it is to wear patriotism on the sleeve

Stakeholders of an erstwhile state were bypassed

In comatose lies the valley, by the regime deceived


A surge of compassion for persecuted from distant shores

With the exception of Islamist, all shall naturalization gain

A parochial Act causing a nationwide uproar

Hope this uprising restores democratic checks and balances again

Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis
Are leading the lemmings into the fire.
The two governors are throwing more
Wood onto the funeral pyre.

Each is hoping that voters will give him
Praise for his cringeworthy COVID response,
Which was never very aggressive
And always displayed more nonchalance.

Partners in carnage, they hope to score
Political points while people get sick.
And people are dying. Can't these two
Numbskulls do their arithmetic?

COVID numbers are rising again.
The delta variant is spreading fast.
And yet the two behave as though
COVID is a thing of the past.

Banning mandates for masks in schools
When numbers of cases are rising? What?
Their irresponsible, heartless, and thoughtless
Behavior is a punch in the gut.

It's all about choice, DeSantis says,
Which shows his reasoning's not so keen.
Kids don't have a choice in the matter,
For kids under twelve can't get the vaccine!

The two Republican ideologues
Do not want government "intrusion."
They are entrenched in hypocrisy
And have abandoned truth for illusion.

Patients are filling the hospitals
In both of their states--an indication
That they have a serious health crisis.
What a frightening situation!

Younger people are losing their lives
In greater numbers than before.
It makes no sense to abandon reason
And common sense as numbers soar.

DeSantis and Abbott have blood on their hands.
But, obviously, they don't care.
I'm glad they’re not my governor.
Floridians and Texans beware.

-by Bob B (8-11-21)

Lawrence Hall
[email protected]  
https://hellopoetry.com/lawrence-hall/
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

                                 The Ballot Lay Before Me Like a Snake

The ballot lay before me like a snake
Or like a Klansman predatory in white
Slithering across the official page
That same old roster of the same old

Democrats
Republicans
Greens
Libertarians

That same old Unwanted List of ideologues  
Of plotters, scroungers, graspers, creepers, oafs
Aliases, scofflaws, incompetents
Poltroons

(I’m not sure what a poltroon is, but they are poltroons anyway, so there)

Ignoramuses, bigots, and bubbas in bad wigs
Best fitted for those old post office walls
Incapable of self-government, not to be trusted
With firearms, sharp objects, pointy scissors, or glue

(But those topics were not on the ballot)

The ballot lay before me like a snake
Or like a Klansman predatory in white
Slithering across the official page –

I gave it back as blank as the candidates