The Magic Ring

The Magic Ring

(7/24/1986)

Unto the poor country of Drake
  Came a traveler to see the king.
“Lead to gold your wealth to make
  With the aid of my magic ring.”

The Kingdom Drake is so poor,
  It yet has not any lead.
“Then it should be the first chore
  To dig it from its bed.”

The word went out to the county
  To start to mine the ore.
Peasants would receive a bounty
  When the kingdom was no longer poor.

“We need to smelt the ore to metal
  And gather it all here.
We need to build the smelting kettle
  And roads which reach to there.”

So roads were built and foundries founded
  To draw the metal from fire.
The din and noise of industry sounded
  From every village and shire.

Commerce grew and, with it, trade
  With all the nearby neighbors.
Extra lead into trinkets made
  Brought gold from workers' labors.

Rich grew the Kingdom of Drake
  Ere lead to the traveler they bring.
“Lead to gold your wealth to make
  With the magic of industry's ring.”

The Chain of A Life

The Chain of A Life

Reflection on Reflecting

As I grow old, before I am cold,

And look back along my chain of life,

The twist and turns, the joys and burns,

Will I embrace both bonus and strife?

When put to task and Sphinx does ask

Whence four, two, three, or none,

How to divide in parts all the starts

In a life, portion by portion.

By place, by love, by stars above,

What measure best fits the chore?

Where, why, or when life takes a bend

To catalog the ground I explore.

How to explain links in the chain,

Passing from one phase to the next,

Might well depend on who will listen

And provide the ramblings context.

Since nobody queried my life to read

Is it to myself I speak?

For audience of one this job is done

With poetry as my corny technique.

Poet on the Loose

Poet on the Loose

Who is this man with rhymes in mind,

Intent purpose his thoughts to bind

In knotted puzzles for you to find

To free ideas he has entwined?

Why can he not in plain speech say

Messages that he has to convey?

Instead they dance in quiet ballet

As he frolics in his word play.

Why does he hide in twists and turns

In that dark maze of his concerns,

And plays as a wee Robbie Burns

To lure you with images he churns?

He will not yet answer you here,

As he beats the drum in your ear.

Follow that trickster to his bier

Only to watch him disappear.

The Declaration of Interdependence

The Declaration of Interdependence

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one person to accomplish more through social and political bands with others than those individual persons can achieve alone, a decent respect for the tribulations as well as the benefits of such a cooperation requires that they should examine and declare the causes and boundaries for their union.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all persons by virtue of birth are endowed equally in Rights to their Life, their Liberty, and their Pursuit of Happiness, that they are not inherently endowed with Rights to others' Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness, and that, alone, a person's achievement in these goals is limited by his own innate abilities and resources, but, in society, the means and actions for one's needs or desires may depend, compete, or conflict with another's. Thus, to secure and resolve these collective Rights, Agreements are instituted amongst People, deriving their just power from the consent and the concession of those agreed. To enforce the common protections of these Agreements, Societies and Governments enact and establish rules and structures to serve all the People. To support the collective Rights, the People assume Duties that place boundaries and require restrictions upon the full freedom in the exercise of their individual Rights for the interest of the common protections of everyone's Rights.

The conflict of Rights and Duties of an individual is an inevitable consequence of the social contract as Duties are extrinsic, mandatory, and subtractive from the inherent Rights we may voluntarily choose to exercise or not. When tradition and governance make apparent and fair the balance of benefits from the assistance and support of others with the losses of opportunity and choice for the individual, the obligation of Duty can be easily justified and borne. But sometimes we must draw our assurance from systematic faith in the justice of these same rules and structure when the diminishments of Duties seem to overweigh the personal benefits derived from others' contribution and support, such as when the fortunate with little challenge to their comfort, health, and pleasure are called upon to assist those with greater challenges or when a Duty seems to fall selectively or more heavily upon only some of the People.

Prudence dictates that Society and Government long established should not be changed for light and transient causes, but that forbearance be coupled with efforts to redress complaints within those systems. The strength of governance draws from its ability to earn compliance with its rules, but such obeisance as is compelled by inflexible force may more likely be confronted by inflexible and destructive resistance. Consent and concession are not granted only once to empower Agreement, but must be an eternal compromise, open for examination, interpretation, and negotiation peacefully to reinforce our bond. People must commit in consensus to community if the value and combined might of their union is to be preserved. Rules and structures may change, but the personal acceptance of both obligation and prerogative as constituents of an individual's role in an interdependent society is essential.

{My gratitude to Thomas Jefferson for providing the start to several of these sentences and thoughts. I accept the blame for how they may have wandered from his message by the time they reached their ends.}

Sisyphus at Work

Sisyphus at Work

Upon the rocky country slope,

I met with Sisyphus on his descent.

How can he so endlessly cope

With the unfulfillment of his torment?

He is not now a pleasant man

And it is likely he never was one.

There is naught in his present plan

To give value to anything he has done.

“This is a punishment, you fool;

One of the Gods' little allegories.

It is pointless not to be cruel

When squeezing lessons into life's stories.

“You want a triumph in this task

To earn some reverse of its purposed aim.

To cast me in the hero's mask,

Who will not be overcome by the Gods' game.

“Forget your useless optimism

And your attempt to retell my doomed fate.

Eternal hope is mere dogmatism,

Unreality in a perfumed state.

“Do you think I could this refuse?

To sit down here not to resume again?

To allow my body to snooze

And from my destined labors to abstain?

“I do not work for joy nor fear,

Not from any choice that I can command.

My muscles never volunteer,

But dance on strings pulled by an unseen hand.

“In life, I schemed to get my way,

To always be the one at the control.

Twice I met Death with tricks to play,

And I would break any rule to reach my goal.

“And now, helpless, I watch this show

In which I am the only performer.

Without end, up and down I go.

Was ever a hell made any warmer?”

Sisyphus resets in his world

And lays his shoulder to boulder anew.

His task is not in fact absurd,

But the planned worthlessness that is his due.

Do not find yourself in his shoes

When your boring job yields little success.

He repays those he did abuse

With a mighty hubris much in excess.