CONSCIOUS

When you ride alone,

there is time to think

between the trees

and fences on either side;

a little thought breaks free

and tumbles into another

then some more

to make a cascade

so now it's double duty

the road, and a question.

Happened just the other day.

War, prisoners, retaliation,

torture, shame, humiliation,

blood, shreds of flesh

from RPG's, my brothers

and the oxymoron

“inhumanity.”

A gust of wind shifts me

a little to the left,

I lose the train a moment,

then back again.

“Inhumanity,”

conflict.

The passionate stuff

of literature and art;

cruelty,

pain for pleasure.

I want to pull over

squeeze my eyes shut

against myself,

afraid that down deep,

where darkness sleeps

it could be me. 

Reviews

[Chris Shaw]

In the quiet moments of my sleepless nights, that’s when my mind wanders freely into the territory of the inhumanity of man. I try not to think about it but I just can’t blot it out. As I age the fear of it grows thicker and blacker and I wonder what sort of future my grandchildren will have. The world becomes more dangerous by the day. There is much in your lines which aí relate to.

Chris

[Vol]

Chris,
We should be terrified!
As beings, humans pretty much suck, and there is virtually NO argument to the contrary. Hugs help. HMMMH UG

[Chris Shaw]

Have a hug and sorry about the typos. My eyes aren’t as sharp as they used to be and I am typing in the dark on my phone.

[Vol]

Hahaha! Well, I'm tuned into some Delta 8, so same to ya...

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I have a lot of thoughts with this one. Reminds me of driving 12 hours to Carolina to visit the folks back when. And I would have music playing, usually a CD...and would be just lost in thought thinking about the past, the present and the future....lots of time to meditate on humanity or inhumanity....
and wonder where I really fit in to all this. And then when you talk about pulling over....I live for each day now being in my seventies...and get as much out of each one as possible. I also find it hard sometimes to sleep because of that feeling I may not wake up.
Somehow, I have totally related to this fine poem.
j.

[Vol]

Thank you, Jacob, you speak of the poet's burden, It is heavy, but without it, we'd be The Hollow Men...

[Lorry]

It's the quiet times that get you wondering about the side you see, inhumanity or reality of war being hell and they can call them smart bombs all they like, but it doesn't help when your trying to pick up your arm that a smart bomb did it.
Those that use the word inhuman so much just happen to be politicians that sign these orders off in their billions to wipe those "inhuman" others off the map.
War is always ugly and the ugliest of all are the scars unseen.

[Vol]

So true, Lorry. When I think along these lines, Iam often reminded of V.S. Naipaul's story, "B. Wordsworth." I just wish I could live on that Caribbean island to ponder it all...

[W. Barrett Munn]

There is no doubt a skilled writer has taken up his pen (or computer). I especially enjoyed the opening to this work,
there is time to think
between the trees
and fences

A really good use of line ending-it has a William Carlos Williams feel to it. (note, I use line ending rather than line break, as does critic and author James Longenbach in "The Art of the Poetic Line").

Nice poem, Vol.

Winston

[Vol]

Thank you, WBM!
My goodness, what a pleasant, thoughtful review! Thank you, sir.
Have you noticed how we in the west seem to have gained the whole world, but lost our souls? It doesn't matter if it's Vermeer, or Jackson Pollock, art is only as important as its monetary value, and no one entertains themselves with intellectual pursuits, nor even sits by a window with a book of poetry... We are doomed, and, I think, rightfully so... a slow suicide of the soul.

[W. Barrett Munn]

That's a great take, Vol. I hadn't really thought about it but what you say is right. I blame (to a degree) our god of capitalism. Europe has a better grasp of communal living than we, perhaps due to geography. I am not anti-capitalism, but I am anti unrestrained capitalism. Games without rules are not a healthy pasttime or way to run an economy.

Winston

[Vol]

Winston!
Capitalism is in the human soul. I make a thing, you make a better one at a lower price which makes me improve my product, and or lower my price ad infinitum. What's going on in the west has not been capitalism for over fifty years, and is as bad a communism, actually it is the same as the system practiced by the USSR, but with oligarchs instead of the Kremlin. And just as dangerous, just ask David Koresh or Edward Snowden.
Vol

[W. Barrett Munn]

Two threats to the democratic republic have joined hands, the American oligarchs and the American Taliban (fundamental Christians, both Catholic and Protestant.)

Winston