Category: Poetry

Jul 08 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed his grace on thee

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

–Katharine Lee Bates

–1913

It’s a great song. But times have changed…

State of the Onion XXIV

America the Ugly

I do not set aside

the grace of God,

for if righteousness

could be gained

through the law,

Christ died for nothing!”

–Gal 2:21

Shedding Grace

God’s Eye

God sheds grace on us?

The shedding of grace

has a human face

We are graced with hunger

to measure our sense of charity

We are graced with poverty

to challenge us

to solve economic

inequity and despair

We are graced with pestilence

but also graced

with the scientific curiosity

necessary for us

to defeat disease

We are not graced with war

That is our doing

it is our responsibility to end it

We are not graced with greed

which is rather a byproduct

of the rotting

of human souls

We are not graced

with the false profiteers

who use religion

to tear us apart

when its purpose

is to bring us together

to give us common bonds

under our separate roofs

God sheds tears for us

tears of frustration

of shame and contempt

of anger and outrage

of pain and disgust

at what people have done

in God’s name

God sheds no grace now

America Amerika

We have spurned

the grace of God

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 30, 2006

Jul 07 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

–Katharine Lee Bates

–1913

It’s a great song. But times have changed…

State of the Onion XXIII

America the Ugly

Fruited Plains

Food?

At the edge

of forests healthy

for everything

but animals or trees

lie the fruited plains

blistered with toxins

alchemically nurtured

in a liquid

roughly water

strange brew

what’s inside of you

America Amerika

Groves of blemished trees

bearing produce

invisibly bruised

dripping venomous juices

like Snow White’s apple

We are fashioned

into laboratory mice

to ascertain

how much poison

we can consume

and remain vaguely human

while we are forced

to pay exorbitant fees

for what passes

as our health

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 29, 2006

Jul 05 2008

Waves

By Nightprowlkitty in Poetry

Oceans separating land masses and in long ago times it could seem the world had many worlds, so far away, separate from each other.

And so there were villages and then towns and cities and finally nations with powers and governments and national customs spread across all the neighborhoods.

Here’s a poem about what I see as the wave of now.

And some made-in-America music as lagniappe

Complicated Life with Clint Maedgan & The Preservation Hall Jazz Band:

8 comments

Jul 04 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

–Katharine Lee Bates

–1913

It’s a great song. But times have changed…

State of the Onion XXII

America the Ugly

Purple Mountains

Gold in Them Thar Hills

Purple mountains

or any color

once majestic

now leveled

rock crushed

for oil

or hollowed out

emptied of coal

except where it burns

or blown apart

in the search

for fancy stones

America Amerika

The weapon

that destroys the mass

is fueled by the lives

of men too poor

badly educated and so ill-treated

lubricated by the greased palms

of partisan self-interest

and naked incivility

of so-called servants

and dangerously driven

by the avarice

of men too rich

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 24, 2006

Jul 03 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

–Katharine Lee Bates

–1913

It’s a great song. But times have changed…

State of the Onion XXI

America the Ugly

Amber Waves

Amber Waves

America, Amerika

Amber waves the grain.

I’m just not sure

what’s saying

goodbye.

Maybe it’s the grain

genetically modified

monsantofied

at least gone

from the bellies

of too many

of the people

of this once great land

from Gulf Coast

to Appalachian valley.

Possibly it’s the nation

deserting the greatness

the fertile land

deserves

and its founders

intended.

In forcing democracy

on others

we have lost

our own.

Probably it’s both.

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 21, 2006

Jul 02 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

–Katharine Lee Bates

–1913

It’s a great song. But times have changed…

State of the Onion XX

America the Ugly

America, America

We’ve sung this song for you

America, America

We’ve forgotten if it’s true

Spacious Skies

Sky Eye

Spacious skies

once so beautiful

now soot-stained

filled with fumes

molecular soup

brewed in a cauldron

too globally warm

chemical change

America, Amerika

a nation turns its

reddened eyes from you

Tears flow

from those eyes

as air once clean

becomes clean only

by act of a government

that has lost the meaning

of words bathed

in the acid of corruption

so that the nation

loses its purpose

and our way

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 22, 2006

Jul 01 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XIX

Art Link

Landscape of the Mind

The Candy-colored Clown

In my dreams

the eagle transforms

into the dove of peace

every soul is sparked

by precious pieces

of Martin and Coretta

their essence permeates

the landscape

of my mind

fairness prevails

people are kind

nice caring helpful

human warmth flows

toward everyone

through everything

replenishing the fabric

of this mortal coil

There’s always fair weather

where justice reigns

the justice that Martin

saw from the mountain top

Then I awake

let out a gasp

and cry out

in despair

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–February 17, 2006

◊ ◊ ◊

I could not stop before publishing this one. Some of you have made your disdain for me quite plain. If you were trying to harm me with your words, you accomplished your goal.

pf8 thinks I can still be an effective communicator even after the damage that some of you did to whatever respect and credibility I may have earned. I’m extremely doubtful.

Consider this an attempt to help foster unity and aid the healing. At least that is my intention.

Be excellent to one another, for their sake.

Jun 30 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XVIII

Speaking of ethics and morals…we were doing that, yes?…here’s a poem that was written in a most serious mood about an interaction I had with someone who believed that the Bible was the source of all goodness in the world. But I suppose it doesn’t have to be that precisely directed. The graphic is my effort at a stylized yin/yang.

Art Link

Not Quite Balanced

Stories to Tell

We both believe a story

(and so do they

and these and those…)

We both have a book

It’s just that you believe

that everyone should

worship your book

word for word

without context

while my book teaches me

that I must create

my own story

based on my principles

my ethical nature

my moral judgment

my basic goodness

as a human being

and laugh at the thought

that one person would seek

to force their thoughts

or beliefs

on another

I’ve read your book

You fear mine

And you claim

that your belief

is stronger?

You jest

I chuckle at your joke

Really

You slay me

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 23, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

Jun 27 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XVII

One step at a time. One person at a time. That’s how the world changes. And for some of us the changes are monumental.

Art Link

Seeking Enlightenment

Steps

One step

at a time

sometimes forward

sometimes up

Forward as I move

through my life

even if some wish

to pull me back

Perhaps they

sense the peril

of the new

Upward is harder

as I lift

the burden

of proceeding

to another level

up the staircase

of human evolution

beyond the mundane

They do not like it

that I have taken

this step

or even that

I have shown them

that this place exists

Their screams of pain

anger and terror

will not – can not

bring me back

This place

once conceived

cannot be erased

and cannot be denied

Ideas cannot be unthought

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–February 7, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

Jun 26 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XVI

In the end, it is really all about the ways we can be divided and the people who benefit when that happens, rather than the ways we can celebrate or similarities together, in spite of our differences. And celebrate those differences as well.

Art Link

Inside

Slices

Each time

a class of people

is defined

humanity is divided

hewed like an old log

Just like that log

destruction occurs

at the point

where the axe strikes

But the damage done

to the people

in the path of the cut

is much more serious

than the harm done

to some old wood

Race cuts like a saber

through individuals

of mixed ancestry

Can you feel their pain?

How feels the slice

of the katana

of ethnicity

to someone

whose grandparents

hail from four different cultures?

Blood spurts

from the laceration

of the gender scimitar

through those

not exactly

men or women

I live

on the edge

of that blade

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–March 30, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

Jun 25 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XV

Developing a message is one thing. Getting other people to the place where they can understand it is something else.

Art Link

Wallpaper

Flames

The fire

that may burn

in the belly

or on the tongue

slowly smoulders

in the mind

over the kindling

of traditional thought

Progress begins

when I flambé

the tissue of my brain

over the white hot flame

of new perspective

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–February 8, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.

Jun 24 2008

Muse in the Morning

By Robyn in Art, Community, Poetry

Muse in the Morning

State of the Onion XIV

I’m not sure why I’m including this particular graphic with this particular poem. I’m sure there is something deeply psychological involved. It seemed appropriate, for some reason.

Art Link

Satin

My Label is not a Slur

My label is not a slur

My label does not mean

repulsive or obscene

should not induce

revulsion or hatred

I am not subhuman

Different, yes,

but not less than you

I am not “really” anything

except a human being

There are more of you

so we live in your world

rather than one

of our own choosing

Do we threaten you?

Do you fear us?

How did we earn

the ridicule?

How did we earn

the hatred?

How did we earn

your silence?

–Robyn Elaine Serven

–January 31, 2006

Please join us on the inside to celebrate, venerate, regenerate and/or motivate our muses.