tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31209151594085149302023-12-25T00:42:49.920-08:00Poems for a New CenturyJohn Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.comBlogger28125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-78985001366684373832023-04-28T18:01:00.008-07:002023-04-28T18:01:51.783-07:00Whose Is Beauty?<p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Who owns beauty, beauty shared?</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Museums, or collectors’ wares?</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The galleries who sell, or where</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The artist pleads his case to show?</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Beauty, who has made you fair?</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The painter, or the brush and paint?</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The mother and the father whose</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Connubial bliss has thence accrued</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The spark divine of beautiful truth?</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Or was it she so pictured there,</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The damsel and her lovely hair?</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Whose is beauty? Whose the chair</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Of jurisprudence in this case?</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Have we paid enough for that?</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The beauty that the eye beholds</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">Belongs inside the last to know: </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">The audience imagines that</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">All beauty is a matter of fact. </span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1" style="font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody;">John Sevcik</span></p><p><br /></p>John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-43588601541882455212022-11-28T11:25:00.012-08:002022-11-28T11:29:46.469-08:00Beauty Is the Highest Good<div>Beauty is the highest good<br />Virtue is its own reward<br />Kindness softens every heart<br />Beauty is the highest good</div><div><br />Beauty is as beauty does<br />Nothing takes from excess much<br />Elegance returns the price<br />Beauty is as beauty does</div><div><br />Beauty is a balm in sun<br />Radiance as well as calm<br />Nothing ventured, nothing gained<br />Beauty is the finest wine</div><div><br />Beauty is the pride of place<br />How we waken in the maze<br />Like the song of mocking birds<br />Beauty is the good of grace</div><div><br />Beauty is the highest good<br />Art for art’s sake, if you could<br />Let the opening number play<br />Beauty is the highest good</div><div><br />Beauty is the highest good<br />Ring the anvil made of wood <br />Going, going, going, gone<br />Beauty glimmers like the dawn</div><div><br />Beauty is the highest good<br />Give it money for its looks<br />Build it temples, charge to look<br />Beauty is the richest good</div><div><br />Beauty is the highest good<br />In the starving rustic shack<br />Or the garret atelier <br />Beauty has us by the hook</div><div><br />Love is all that beauty good<br />Poor or rich it overlooks<br />Evolution rides along<br />Beauty is the highest good</div><div><br />John Sevcik<br /><br /> </div>John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-73527705923781167542022-07-21T11:26:00.044-07:002022-07-21T12:33:52.610-07:00Requiem over a Farm Field<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">You poor SOB.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I shot you in the sky so clear.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">You weren’t old as I,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">By 4 or 5 months not my peer.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">You’re in god’s country now.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Forget your old home town.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We’ve planted you among the plow’s</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Furrows with a furrowed brow.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">War is like this, they have said,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">That you and I are born and bred</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">From different bones in different lands. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">As we must stand for different things</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Across the sky we spread our wings</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Defending where we mewled our first,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Our milking mother’s mother tongue. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Alas, it’s all just childhood fun,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">And now we cock our guns to fight. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Beware the church they fit us in,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Our pew of place, our fifth of gin. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Now smoke is left of you, or me; </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It writes a different family tree. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We own you now, your hope, your end,</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Between the hedgerows, lost to death:</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Our measure and our test as men.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We felled you here to bring an end</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">To war forever, wars that end</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Before they’re ever thought again. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A sunny day like this seems odd</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">For death and murder high aloft;</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We both alive to fly, not fall. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">A different time, we’d have no fight;</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Between us only cheers and stout. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Goodbye, farewell, and keep me well.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Delay the airmen of the grave.</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I’ll fly along some more and send</span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">My good regards between good men. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It couldn’t have been otherwise. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We came from mothers on other sides. </span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.6px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">John Sevcik</span></p><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-13556293571904669692020-09-28T17:38:00.002-07:002022-07-21T12:01:38.438-07:00Looters<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The kingdom of Benin, palace of their king</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looted of its treasures by the British king.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">One king to another: I have looted you. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Keep on reading, to learn the IOU.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now there is nothing we have not looted:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Valuable hides, gold, human beings looted.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Slaves of no rights slavery endured,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Then of looted rights further endured.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Centuries of progress on all sides but theirs;</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looters get up looting, the guns are all theirs. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Stop the looters and the anarchists,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Though they be kings and royalists. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Stop the looters and the socialists,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Though they be Republicans and capitalists.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We have the stolen and the looted lives;</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Give them compensation: Black Lives</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Matter. Doesn’t it condemn your court</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To never catch the king at sport?</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looting, looting all the way to power, </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Even in the trickle of a golden shower. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Blast it, thieves and mercenaries, too!</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I have to know how mercy for the few</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Tramples all the looted and the loot.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Perhaps the looted catches us as loot:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Masks observe us, while maledictions hue.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We stumble onward guilty and quite blue.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looters, give up looting on your taxes;</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looters, come and loot us on our taxes.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Bring it all around to where you’re sitting.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looters there their grand loot are splitting,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Pouring over all the loot of land —</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You need some armies on that loot to stand.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looters loot the lives of those brave armies,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Loot by force the spoils of warring armies.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Even cities stood around to seize</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looters come with all their force to please</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The looters in their ranks and kings and princes:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looting is the native national business. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looters of our rights stand up and see</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">You lose those rights without an RBG.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Oh, I’ve smoked the truth on out at last:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">If you loot, loot by law, it’s fast. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.6px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12.6px;">John Sevcik </p>John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-82902871999359978822019-11-15T15:49:00.000-08:002019-11-15T15:49:56.252-08:00A PAINTING IS A PAINTING<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">A painting is a painting</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">It’s not like you or me</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Nobody gets older </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">No one ever sleeps. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">It’s a stillness made of life</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">With meaning in its air</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">You feel it as you watch it,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Even as you stare:</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">At those forever praying</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Or lying nude aware</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Not of us but God</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">And the artist never there.</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">We travel time to then</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">And then to us appears;</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Time becomes transparent</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">And what is far comes near. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Who gave their life to painting</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">That we can know life more?</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">The artist in his garret?</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">The model in her maze?</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">We think of things self-evident</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">When we observe those lives</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Frozen in the minerals</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Of pigments and the mind</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">But what of art’s intention?</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Does it think or know the way?</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">The artist isn’t talking;</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">There’s nothing more to say. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Who made a painting matter</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Then vanished long ago?</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">Who gave their life to painting</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">So we enjoy life more?</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;">John Sevcik</span></div>
John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-21377332475142294972018-06-15T15:46:00.003-07:002022-07-21T11:59:39.278-07:00We who have gone in search of beauty<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We who have gone in search of beauty</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">For ourselves, or others, on the dole</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Of what the muse abundantly provides</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">With little succor, only with demands</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">For more canvas, brushes, paint,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Or a mine of stones to chisel,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Rents to pay and transport to and from</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The hovel you would travel to in Maine,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Or all that you must eat and feast your eyes</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">On books of reproductions from the past</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Aligned with nothing they have taught in schools</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Other than “don’t now do what was done before.”</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">How have you your own time measured out</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">To mete out beauty from a stunted time?</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Just as you your measure take, it moves. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Beauty alone is not its likeness now. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It wrestled once already for its meaning</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Immortalized for others in mute form, </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Illusioned like a perfect memory and bliss. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Today there is no longer need of this. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">What you cannot afford to make your art,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">They have in great abundance; who might part</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">With millions, climb far mountains, take</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A class in art, and quit before you make</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Of them, the slave this art has made of you. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Brother, can you spare a dime of inspiration?</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We have gone after you and found</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The self-same artist on a mountaintop</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And asked him what he’s doing, what he’s painting,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">When it’s clear and we can see ourselves. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We have our iPhone camera at the ready </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And only need a block of time to edit</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Everything we didn’t look at while snapping up</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The memories of a lifetime we will share</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">On Facebook. Canvas! Brushes! Stone?</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">We didn’t come this way to fall behind</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Technology and all it’s given us to do:</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Moon at every spectacle staged for show</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">From royal weddings to our landings</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">On the moon. Who would wait for Turner’s</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Take on things; we have news and networks </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">For such things. And all the addled paint</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">That Church could scumble, isn’t needed</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As we have no interest in the jungle,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nor of global warming, nor Impressionism</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Gloating over light and color: we’ve got </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Money on the next big thing — a trip</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">To Mars! Please consider what the pottery</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Says of us: a Campbell’s soup can</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And a plastic vase of pop. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The oceans gather it in eddies </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Large as Wales, and as you paint</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The movies move about, narrating everything</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Your ancient painters couldn’t dream about. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So as to beauty, formal and relaxed,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">You have no special dalliance with the past,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But up against the great improvements of your age </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">You need to sink your sculptures into glass</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Or turn your Mona Lisa into holograms. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bifurcate the modern from the now</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And give us future art so early it is out. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Make it hard to contemplate, a gunshot</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Or an artist crucified to a bug (VW),</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Or Jeff Koons’ balloon sculptures made of chrome. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">At least they still remember classic chrome!</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And so to beauty we are now divorced</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As we cannot marry or enforce</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The rules of old to now, or to the future;</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Everything’s reduced to price and profit. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Give us new, the brand, the trademark scan,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The only one of these, the chit for wealth</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Without which there’s no beauty in the bank,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">No pampered yacht cruise to Capri,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nor fashions you can wear and fling</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">As bundles of your waste to render shock</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In others not so greedy for a frock. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Polish these, your stones of comprehension</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And mock the office, if not the sheer presumption</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Of what it means to make a work of art. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">It isn’t going to be what they call art,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">But something so well made you cannot do without. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Your age is in your phone, your tv view,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Your market bringing you the bottom price</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And capital distributing its gains</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Unevenly but thickly over all. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">What poverty? What golden age of old?</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">You’re in the middle of the latter days. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Nothing can impose itself on you,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Least beauty that might make you sad</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">You aren’t as lovely as Sargent’s Madame X. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Bring on the pomp and ceremony of your life,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Forget the past, it wasn’t all that ripe. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Effulgence wraps its languid arms about</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And drags to drowning all your sorrows out. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">A problem? Take a pill, or rather</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Wire yourself to this transductor</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And smile it out. Beauty is only</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Beauty talked about. Fame is what you need,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So get a media consultant and arouse</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The sleeping giant of our networked</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Consciousness. Sell when thus established</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">To your sponsors; everything’s a concept,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">So are you. And so I bring down curtains</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">(What are those?) on the past</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">And record the speed of change at last. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">You who think that art will wait it out</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Are parked at the rocket port</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Waiting for a pack of mules. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Surrender to your video display;</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Even that’s too old, your DVD, no!</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Your digital display! Curses, foiled again. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The old hat, hatless, will not cure</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Baldness, at least of that we’re sure. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">John Sevcik</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Questions </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span></span><br /></span></div>
<ol>
<li style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">In this poem that questions old forms of art as irrelevant now, the poet slips in and out of an old-fashioned meter and rhyme scheme, as well as affecting a need to satisfy a British audience. Why would this be an effective strategy? Why not?</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Is the poet’s mockery out of place? Should there be a micro-aggression warning before the poem, or in the margin every time it occurs?</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Are your feelings hurt by this attempt at poetry? Would you read this poem a second time for meaning, or rather write a poem of your own in response?</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Should this even be included in a course on poetry or art? What are your feelings about how the teacher presented this material, and should he be granted tenure, or simply let go to teach in an art center somewhere else?</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">The invisible administrators who generally have less qualifications than they can confer on you would like a raise. Would this course material justify, in your opinion, a raise, or firings across the board? </span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Please submit your answers in the envelope on the side desk, return your pencils, and have one of your (micro-aggression warning:) “class-mates” return the surveys to the marketing representative at the front desk?</span></li>
</ol>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span></span><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;"><br /></span></div>
John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-17871050734587350002018-05-11T18:53:00.000-07:002018-05-11T18:53:28.558-07:00The starry night<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 17pt;">Turn on the lights</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 17pt;">And we don't see the stars!</span><span style="font-family: ".SFUIText"; font-size: 17pt;"></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">So bright is our home. </span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">But that makes us forget</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">When we fell in love;</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We were rapturous as the stars. </span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And that was before</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">We needed reassurance of our strength:</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Four corners staking out our yard</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And a bright electric light</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">To frighten new lovers away. </span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">No. Turn out the lights,</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">And let God light our way</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">From every point of view</span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">With every intensity of flickering pulse. </span></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div style="color: #454545; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-size: 17pt;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">John Sevcik</span></span></div>
John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-50620951895276959262018-04-07T20:50:00.000-07:002018-04-07T20:57:59.487-07:00The Illustrated Man<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<h4>
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">From Manhood Lessons of My Youth</span></h4>
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">It was a magazine book about astronomy</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">For earnest amateurs — a black sky</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Constellation map you could cut out,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Glue to a round cardboard </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">And affix an oblate window with a sprocket pin</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">And turn to any sky at any time of year, </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">At any time of night,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Or even in the day you'd see</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">What wasn't visible because the sun's</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Blanketing sheet of day-sky blots out</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">All rivals but the moon and clouds. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">It was in there how to build a telescope,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">How to grind the mirror out of a round </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Pyrex blank, against another round</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Green plate-glass beveled blank</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Up through the carborundum numbers</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Ending at the finest emory dust;</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Then on to pouring a pitch lap</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">And polishing with jeweler's rouge</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Till it became a spherical pond of clear glass</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">That still needed deepening with rouge</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">To bend into a parabolic form —</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">And this was called figuring. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">That's all I thought about, because</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">A grown man was illustrated,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Sleeves rolled up, polishing and figuring</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">His telescope to be. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Eventually I did the same as he,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Though only in 8th and 9th grades. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">I didn't realize how much the illustrated man</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Was guiding me to manhood and quiet work,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Like my pal Joey's dad two houses away </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Who never spoke, but sometimes</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Coming home from work would shoot</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">A basketball in his driveway</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">In a grace of repetition at the hoop. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Men's work, I found, could be</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">imitated,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">But not manhood. Not just yet. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Manhood was the giant whose role I played. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">My mirror in its frosty curvature</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Celebrated graduation as a hazy past;</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">A new school, a new beginning —</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">The ladder up to manhood extended,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">And then, when I attained first light</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">The summer after freshman year</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">My wonder at the moon's bombarded texture,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">And the rings of Saturn, or the nebula of Orion hunted down,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Or M 11 and the myriad Milky Way </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Stunned me into childhood for life. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">The illustrated man had grown younger</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Until we met — the amateurs of science,</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">Forever in the transport of those stars. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;">John Sevcik</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17pt;"><br /></span></div>
John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-65826816624323906222016-06-28T20:14:00.001-07:002016-06-28T20:28:09.140-07:00Manhood Lessons of my YouthI was little when I watched<br />
The older black boys, men to me,<br />
Playing basketball two blocks away.<br />
Through the air of parking lots unused<br />
Their quiet motion spoke<br />
Of leisure and assembly,<br />
The languid grace of plays<br />
They drove their fellows through:<br />
Ballet of men, cordial, by the rules<br />
They all up kept. Merit only<br />
Was their measure and their sport,<br />
So purely unlike the unfair world<br />
That had no job or school for them.<br />
They had all been prospects once.<br />
To themselves they were the gold of things.<br />
To my eyes they were the gods made men. <br />
<br />
John Sevcik<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-43739231470918145222013-11-05T08:41:00.003-08:002013-11-05T08:41:34.841-08:00Unknowable Things, Some of Them Numbers
<o:p> </o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
How many trees make a city?</div>
How many oil wells pour out the plastic?<br />
How many mines disgorge the steel?<br />
How many phone calls, with how many listeners?<br />
<st1:city><st1:place>Venice</st1:place></st1:city> was built
on an island of pilings,<br />
Steadily sinking.<br />
How many mothers have peopled it?<br />
How many men worked how many hours<br />
Building it?<br />
How many teachers taught in it?<br />
How many foreigners knew it?<br />
Where are the graves of the dead<br />
Who defended it?<br />
Where are the seasons that blessed it?<br />
Only the stars its permanent ceiling,<br />
And the sun and the moon roaming<br />
To number its days and its nights.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
John Sevcik</div>
John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-86602167024067368492012-12-01T13:09:00.000-08:002012-12-01T13:09:05.587-08:00Art in the World<br />
Art in the canvas before you
<br />
Art in the field of life
<br />
Art in the trees and the sun
<br />
Art in the melody of cicadas
<br />
Art in the blue of the sky
<br />
Nowhere the same
<br />
Art in the painter’s hands
<br />
Supporting and moving
<br />
Art as the dance of the eyes
<br />
Art so we see together
<br />
Art that brings day into night
<br />
Art of the magically inspired
<br />
Art of the stumbled upon
<br />
Art that doesn’t yet know
<br />
The name it will own
<br />
Art never made for the money
<br />
Art without parents or friends
<br />
Art as the world is given us
<br />
Art in the shadows and light
<br />
Art in the color of pigment
<br />
Art when you cannot imagine
<br />
It will ever come through you again
<br />
Art as a privilege of living
<br />
Art as an illness
<br />
Art as the thing held apart
<br />
Art that no one understands
<br />
Art after school after work
<br />
Art for the other in you
<br />
Art in the mystic order
<br />
Art that includes all of us
<br />
Art that finds the human
<br />
Art that is soul
<br />
Art, free and of freedom
<br />
Art given up as a gift.
<br />
<br />
John Sevcik
John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-17243293330744485802012-11-25T13:05:00.000-08:002012-11-25T13:05:26.538-08:00The Bones of the Dead<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In 1937, Amelia
Earhart and Fred Noonan<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">attempted to circle
the earth in her twin-motor <o:p></o:p></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lockheed Electra airplane,
<o:p></o:p></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">but vanished enroute.<o:p></o:p></i><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
This poem propitiates by praise</div>
The god of incompetence,<br />
A saint later named Murphy:<br />
Kilroy who was there,<br />
But never came back,<br />
Would be his accuser.<br />
In any war there are dead<br />
Flung from the sides of plans,<br />
Unplanned for, idiotically lost,<br />
Kinder perhaps than the intentionally<br />
Killed, the maimed, the limbs<br />
Amputated needlessly.<br />
Where have you gone,<br />
Intelligence that seeks an intelligent star<br />
Somewhere else? Who would believe<br />
You are sane in your self-assessment?<br />
The bones of the dead shine at you<br />
Resplendent with teeth,<br />
Gleaming of your cunning,<br />
Needless death, early death,<br />
Death found in poorly made planes,<br />
Or plastic that chokes, or bottle<br />
Caps that have suffocated playwrights<br />
Of infinite talent.<br />
How can we package ourselves<br />
On these armatures of memory,<br />
These instant fossils that mock<br />
The transgressions of sense, or logic,<br />
Or care? Amelia Earhart<br />
Flying with navigator – a man – <br />
Trouble enough, and one with a flinty<br />
Look, a small potbelly;<br />
Neither of them well-fed,<br />
Skinny in the best of times,<br />
Boney in appearance,<br />
Saddled with our watching them,<br />
The gods of celebrity and daring.<br />
He in her shadow, what was he,<br />
The star spotter, the one with the sex-<br />
Tant, pointing at the sun, the one<br />
Measuring the temperature of heat<br />
On the waxy oiled face of Icarus,<br />
Who has two engines and a shiny<br />
Aluminum skin, made to round<br />
The round world at its fat girth.<br />
And they only bone and flesh after all.<br />
Talking like gods in radio waves,<br />
Not able to hear the earthlings talk back,<br />
They only hearing some garbled words,<br />
The words overheard of the passing of <br />
Strange publicity. Oh, to only read,<br />
And hear at the short wave set,<br />
No cell phone, no mobile, no inter-<br />
Net, no net at all, just a plane and the <br />
<st1:place>Pacific Ocean</st1:place> and a map drawing
itself<br />
Into zones for war. Idling forward from<br />
Lea, on <st1:country-region><st1:place>New Guinea</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
something gleaming<br />
And modern and safe, of course, <br />
Yet sun, blinding sun, <br />
As an ancient warning rises in their eyes,<br />
As they rise into tropical <st1:time hour="12" minute="0">noon</st1:time>,<br />
<st1:date day="2" month="7" year="1937">July 2, 1937</st1:date>,
<br />
Jews already in danger<br />
All over <st1:place>Europe</st1:place>, bones <br />
Rattling with the prophecy of engines, <br />
Their hunger, their odd parallax <br />
Like searchlights that show <br />
Only the fury of forward motion. <br />
Progress, it must be,<br />
Progress is what is before us, <br />
Wherever we go. Dolts<br />
That we are, forgetting the past,<br />
Used to it, sick of it, not good enough<br />
Of it, just the next thing, the next objective,<br />
The compass pointing mechanically,<br />
We going toward the flash of camera lights,<br />
The signing of book deals, the betrayal<br />
Of value for money. Rising<br />
On air buoyant with the wreckage <br />
Of the Great Depression, rising<br />
Over the islands of ancient, pre-<br />
Antiquity, rising into blind ambition<br />
To be all the way around the course,<br />
The first woman to do so, the first up<br />
The hill of achievement, and so, the first<br />
Risk of everything for a moral purpose.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Down some water and a cracker or two.</div>
Not too much, as it will fatigue,<br />
Not too much work down there in the gut,<br />
Keep it hungry, keep the head up, don’t<br />
Listen to that idiot too much, he has a drinking<br />
Problem – alcohol, I mean – tanked up<br />
Most days he’s not flying. That’s the way<br />
The liver likes it, and the kidneys. So<br />
What, it’s the fashion to be fast. <br />
The other one admired the Nazis, and their planes.<br />
What became of him? They stole his baby,<br />
Wrecked his life for him. Another set<br />
Of bones, found broken-skulled in a roadway<br />
Ditch by a truck driver relieving himself.<br />
That is what you get for opposing <st1:place>Roosevelt</st1:place>’s
War.<br />
I am not quoting the FBI or the government,<br />
Only that god of incompetence, Murphy, who<br />
Went along with Lindburgh through frozen wastes<br />
Of air, trying to drop him into the <st1:place>Atlantic</st1:place>,<br />
But the young man was too daring and plunged<br />
Willingly, dared all to melt his wings<br />
And survived long enough to see <st1:country-region><st1:place>Ireland</st1:place></st1:country-region>,
<br />
And alight in Paris, but Murphy, god,<br />
Along for the ride, saw more chances, every day<br />
A chance, once the die is cast and the star is so <br />
Bright that millions dote on the spectacle.<br />
Are you following me? Of course, we all<br />
Have our little Murphy after us,<br />
But how much do we tempt him? Not a lot.<br />
Here, though, propellers churning before their<br />
Wasp engines, affect obedience to the pacifist<br />
Amelia, and all her good psychic chic,<br />
The soul not turned to dust just yet,<br />
But more splendid than an aviator who sympathizes<br />
With the Boche, this one is like Swiss Cheese,<br />
Neutral, not aware she is really <st1:country-region><st1:place>Belgium</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<br />
This cannot go well. Murphy wants to have<br />
A war, and all in we must go, for there is <br />
Folly foretold, and all in we must go.<br />
So thus the radio doesn’t work as planned.<br />
Either they hear you, or you hear them, but not<br />
Both. Talking at cross purposes. The radio<br />
Direction finder like the headdress of Hathor <br />
Above the cockpit, what good is it? None.<br />
The antenna below the fuselage fell off on takeoff.<br />
Who needs that? The fuel they need just barely enough.<br />
And so a needle in a haystack will be found,<br />
Thanks to a man named Noonan. Murphy<br />
Is his second cousin. He swings the sex-<br />
Taunt up to the window in the waist of the plane,<br />
And spots clouds, clouds, clouds. Who can predict<br />
The weather? Nobody can, if Murphy can.<br />
Murphy, the regulator of fate,<br />
Turns the hands of the clock forward,<br />
Minute by minute, Longitude by longitude.<br />
Seems the refueling island should be near.<br />
<st1:place><st1:placename>Howland</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Island</st1:placetype></st1:place>
and the Coast Guard ship<br />
<st1:place><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Itasca</i></st1:place>.
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Howl-for-Land</i> it is called in the
wind<br />
Of the plane. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I-TASK-A</i>,
reads the plaque<br />
On the steel ship’s prow. <br />
Two earnest seamen only yesterday<br />
considered the birds on the island,<br />
And the runway built only for this flight<br />
Stopover, and hurried ashore with guns,<br />
And boxes of ammo, unlocked the safeties and<br />
Slayed in staccato an entire migration of terns,<br />
Rudy turnstones, frigate birds, curlews,<br />
And assorted sea gulls. Blasted to blood <br />
A sacrifice on the runway altar<br />
To the aluminum choirs of angels<br />
Blessing Amelia and Noonan<br />
With feathers and popsicle-stick bones<br />
And the heat of a tropic night,<br />
So they smell right away. Unlucky <st1:place><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Itasca</i></st1:place><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i><br />
Rides downwind, and now there is also<br />
A portable radio-direction finder<br />
And an inexperienced seaman on the flat<br />
Skillet of island, wondering how and when<br />
He should start wasting its battery power,<br />
And how it even works – where to point it,<br />
What button to push and when. <o:p></o:p><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Now comes the rendezvous with history.</div>
She, the goddess Amelia, pilots through night<br />
Into second dawn, while Noonan must scuttle back<br />
To the waist of the plane, between the tanks<br />
Of extra gasoline, to shoot the stars (clouds),<br />
Or now the rising sun, and pass his findings<br />
To her through an opening over the fuel <br />
With a pole that ends in two wooden<br />
Finger sticks that tweezer their position<br />
On a paper note. She at the radio<br />
And direction finder can yoke and yaw<br />
And utter the words of search,<br />
Calling, announcing, to whomsoever can hear,<br />
That they are unable to see the water, or island,<br />
Or <st1:place><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Itasca</i></st1:place>,
or the bloodied runway,<br />
Only clouds, but that they are on a line<br />
Passing northwest, then southeast, northwest,<br />
Then southeast, who knows which way,<br />
Somewhere near <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Howl-for-Land</i>.<br />
The others below bray back unheard<br />
That she should use Morse code, like<br />
They do in the old days, because it is <br />
Easier to fix the plane’s angle of direction,<br />
And real men don’t like to talk,<br />
But prefer to imitate the ticking of clocks.<br />
Neither Noonan, nor Amelia, nor Murphy<br />
Know Morse code. Too modern for that. <br />
Every half hour they and <st1:place><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Itasca</i></st1:place> <br />
Talk past each other. <br />
Who knows from where to where?<br />
She leads them on to think she is north,<br />
Because that’s the first thing she says <br />
Every time. Never mind<br />
Nothing is north of <st1:place><st1:placename><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Howl-for-Land</i></st1:placename><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i><st1:placetype><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Island</i></st1:placetype></st1:place>,<br />
Nor is nothing North of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I-TASK-A</i>.<br />
What is north is an empty ocean of water,<br />
Miles deep. Eventually silence.<br />
The untrained seaman <br />
Returns to <st1:place><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Itasca</i></st1:place>
<br />
With the radio direction finder:<br />
<st1:place>Battery</st1:place> spent, antenna wires twisted,<br />
Strangled and useless as a dead shorebird.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p>T</o:p>he Coast Guard panics. It calls the Navy.</div>
Everyone steams north looking for Amelia<br />
And Noonan and Murphy and the great waste<br />
Of miles-deep water, unrelieved by any sense.<br />
Transmissions from Amelia resume after a few hours,<br />
Hours after she must have run out of fuel.<br />
These signals come from the south,<br />
But Murphy is riding to the rescue going north.<br />
It is all going to work out, Murphy assures<br />
The press, who tally up the cost, and blame<br />
<st1:place>Roosevelt</st1:place>’s Navy, informing the
taxpayers,<br />
Causing nervous constriction of budget strings<br />
Everywhere. <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Somewhere, Amelia Errorheart</div>
And Noonan and Murphy sit stranded on <br />
A coral atoll, on a reef in sight of a shipwreck<br />
From 1929 – the <st1:city><st1:place><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Norwich</i></st1:place></st1:city>, also known<br />
As the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">North Witch</i>,
who caused the stock market<br />
Crash. There they sit, alone,<br />
Except for a little fuel and radio battery<br />
That needs the right engine running<br />
Next to the booming surf,<br />
Whereupon nothing is audible anyway<br />
On the infernal radio. (Perhaps the entire problem,<br />
Right there.) Eventually messages heard world-wide<br />
On July 2, July 3, July 4, July 5, July 6, July 7,<br />
July 8, and July 9 are passed off as hoaxes, <br />
Strangely emanating from a transmitter<br />
Southeast of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Howl-for-</i><st1:place><st1:placetype><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Land</i></st1:placetype><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i><st1:placetype><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Island</i></st1:placetype></st1:place>,<br />
In the <st1:place><st1:placename>Phoenix</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Island</st1:placetype></st1:place>
group. <br />
<st1:city><st1:place>Phoenix</st1:place></st1:city> they
would be, indeed, if someone looked,<br />
But incompetence is the rule of everything<br />
In this part of the century.<br />
Not like us. Not like true post-modernity.<br />
Nothing like this ever happened to us.<br />
We are perfect. Just that old-fashioned group<br />
That built the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Titanic</i>
with Murphy,<br />
And strained at every limit. We go limitless.<br />
We don’t strain, we give up rhyme and meter,<br />
And the breaststroke for the doggie paddle.<br />
Whatever works. We need all the help we can get.<br />
Support staff. Essential waste. Don’t go it alone.<br />
Bring up the rear. Simply unknown then.<br />
There they explore, looking for water,<br />
And a meal. There it is, a date on a desert island,<br />
Beguilingly covered in trees and brambly bushes.<br />
There are coconut crabs that leave foot-tall mounds of
tailings,<br />
And steal your food;<br />
There are rats in the millions, hungry for you;<br />
There are strawberry hermit crabs anxious to bite you.<br />
There is nothing that can sustain a person,<br />
Only heat and dysentery and scrounging.<br />
Castaway. Truly cast away. Forgotten.<br />
Psychics call her husband and hold séances.<br />
He attends some of them. They answer questions.<br />
She herself on the radio put their position at <br />
Nearly the point they were – <st1:place><st1:placename><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gardner</i></st1:placename><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i><st1:placetype><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Island</i></st1:placetype></st1:place>.<br />
Garden this: It is absent of fresh water.<br />
And nobody looking, nobody coming to get them.<br />
Except maybe the Japanese. <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Here we diverge into two stories,</div>
Since we don’t actually know either one,<br />
But in the magic of poetry we combine;<br />
As the two endings of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oedipus
at Colonus</i>,<br />
As the two endings of Moses,<br />
We will splice them together for you.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Although they put down on the west of the island,</div>
There is an infernally hot land breeze.<br />
It is normally 100 degrees in the shade,<br />
And this is the sintering sun with a land breeze.<br />
The prevailing Easterlies only strike an ocean breeze<br />
Across the wretched lagoon and impassable bramble.<br />
Noonan and Earheart make to the southeast<br />
Where the food flocks in the manner of bird<br />
And fish, some of them poisonous.<br />
They use a pocket-knife, perhaps to fashion<br />
Spears to spear fish. They eat with their fingers.<br />
They catch birds too trusting to the touch.<br />
They use an eyepiece from the sex-<br />
Tent to light campfires. They carry the sex-<br />
Tant box with them like a meal locker,<br />
Because sometimes there are leftovers,<br />
But many mouths and claws clawing for<br />
And over them. To say there is sleep<br />
Is nonsense. To say there is sleep is to be<br />
Eaten in bites at a time. They must romantically<br />
Sleep in shifts, watching over each other<br />
With a switch to ward off the crabs.<br />
Maybe they use the pole with tweezers<br />
That used to pass notes between them.<br />
They wait and wait for rain. This doesn’t <br />
Always come, but when it does, they sop it up<br />
With some raggedy gauze cloth, and spoon it up<br />
From little hollows where it is left, using<br />
A broken bottle bottom, or anti-freckle ointment<br />
Jar part. They sip like they once sipped champagne,<br />
Not even like shots, though these are shots of water,<br />
And full-time thirst. Not out of mercy the Japanese<br />
Come in a fishing boat, or tug boat, something<br />
Inconspicuous. They load up the plane on the northwest <br />
End of the island, then search the brush for the<br />
Aviators. Now around the bend of beach Noonan<br />
And Amelia Earheart spy the Jap boat, lugging<br />
Their skunk-works, ultra-modern, all-metal plane<br />
With two motors rated at 600 Horsepower each,<br />
Riding astride a Japanese ship with the red dot of blood<br />
Flag, and what else to do but hide in the scraggly brush?<br />
Imagine, Murphy asks, to hide from sure rescue!<br />
But this isn’t rescue, nor hiding.<br />
Thwacking through the lagoon behind them<br />
Is a Japanese skiff, overhead rumbles a scout plane,<br />
Noonan is nothing if not angry for a drink,<br />
Even Saki, but here is the problem: this is not<br />
Quite what they bargained for. <br />
A Japanese soldier, barefoot, steps from the brush<br />
And seizes Amelia by the arm, a bayonet<br />
About to skewer her hollowed out stomach.<br />
Noonan spears him with the pocket-knife<br />
Fish-spear, right into the carotid, thinking<br />
Crazily of eating the man straight away,<br />
But that is not possible. They push their attacker<br />
Under some bushes, and steal his clothes.<br />
Delirium makes them throw off their shoes;<br />
Now they look Japanese!<br />
One of them will make it out of here,<br />
But not on this boat. Others come after them.<br />
Run, but of course, without shoes on, <br />
It’s all a great pain, a folly, a Murphy.<br />
Coral beaches cut western feet into ribbons.<br />
They are hauled into custody.<br />
They are taken aboard the ship with their plane,<br />
And go to their pacifist war all the same. <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p>First, I admit they are actually fed and given water.</div>
The ship goes northwest over fathoms they are thought <br />
To be dead in. They are surprised by the length <br />
Of their trip to <st1:place>Saipan</st1:place> in the <st1:city><st1:place>Marshalls</st1:place></st1:city><br />
(The comfort of flying, versus the tedium of boating).<br />
There is a tarp over the plane to conceal it from spotters.<br />
There is a cabin they share as a cell. <br />
They are bones with some bitten flesh draped over them.<br />
They are interrogated often, and beaten,<br />
Especially Noonan. They begin to confess <br />
That they bought the Japanese clothes from a passing<br />
Freighter, or that someone was with them,<br />
Or they killed one of the sailors. They confess<br />
They are hungry and thirsty. They are strangely<br />
Left alone to rot, until they dock and are taken<br />
To internment. This happens across several islands,<br />
For the length of the war, which breaks out<br />
In 1941, and ends, and by then a number of people<br />
Have seen them, and their plane in parts,<br />
Last in <st1:city><st1:place>New Britain</st1:place></st1:city>,
where the <st1:country-region><st1:place>U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
marines<br />
Are ordered to burn the plane. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hard to burn aluminum,<br />
But that’s what I read;<br />
They both already dead,<br />
Executed by the Japanese. <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
A year and three months after Earhart and Noonan </div>
Had landed on the reef with their Lockheed Electra <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
Settlers came to <st1:place><st1:placename>Gardner</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype>Island</st1:placetype></st1:place>,<br />
Which had been named by Captain Joshua Coffin,<br />
Of the whaling ship <st1:place>Ganges</st1:place> <br />
out of <st1:place>Nantucket</st1:place>,<br />
To commemorate his ship’s owner, <br />
United States Congressman Gideon Gardner<br />
In 1825.<br />
The settlers, however, were Gilbert Islanders,<br />
And they named the island Nikumaroro, <br />
Which is the home of Nei Manganibuka, <br />
Their tall fair-skinned goddess<br />
Who came from <st1:place>Samoa</st1:place> to teach
canoe-craft <br />
And the lore of ocean navigation. <br />
These islanders colonized Nikumaroro for <st1:country-region><st1:place>Britain</st1:place></st1:country-region><br />
Under an Irishman named Gallagher,<br />
Whose first cousin was also Murphy.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
These settlers knew of some plane parts on the reef,</div>
Something round was sticking out of the water, and there <br />
Were some broken parts on land, which Noonan<br />
Had tossed aside when breaking out the windows<br />
To make a still, and in deeper water,<br />
Where the Japanese struggled to crane up the plane<br />
To their ship by first winching it through the shallows<br />
Out through the surf, and floated it up onto their deck<br />
From pontoons of some sort. Everything<br />
Being secret, since they were spies spying on spies,<br />
That’s what it felt like to the Japanese, <br />
And the murder of their sailor was proof. <br />
Suffering, there is suffering and war,<br />
And folly in plenty, and the bones of the dead<br />
Are hidden from view, but still witness<br />
The past and its god Murphy,<br />
Who sits to this day on atolls <br />
Casting hexes on Cruise ships.<br />
How can one person like Amelia Earhart,<br />
Reach so high, only to be averaged out <br />
By an ignominious end?<br />
While another, say Van Gogh, can be a ruin<br />
All life long, a failure, only to burst <br />
Like fireworks after he’s dead?<br />
The gods envy if any person should be great<br />
In his or her own time. They scorn those<br />
Who might be that threat to them,<br />
And send us the little god Murphy:<br />
Murphy, who knows just which end of the glass<br />
To hold, when drinking a pint,<br />
So the beer goes straight to the floor,<br />
Without passing through the Kidneys.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
Do not attempt to be a god, nor be pacifist,</div>
Nor an immortal poet, for that is sure death.<br />
Fight when the fight comes to you,<br />
And only be sure to be on the side of right<br />
And good. Spit in the eye of all false and evil<br />
Authority. Do not let anyone make a flattered sop<br />
Of you. (That includes elections).<br />
Spurn glamour and glitter of all sorts,<br />
Especially gold and any abundance. <br />
Keep your feet on earth, and your soul in<br />
God’s house, and if it is not God’s house,<br />
Get the hell out of there.<br />
Love all as yourself, and be as tough on yourself<br />
As the others. <br />
Remember the rich are already dead<br />
And the poor are the hope of us all,<br />
For they have more fortitude than all the twits<br />
Who gladly walk over the bones of the dead<br />
To stand on <st1:place><st1:placetype>Mt.</st1:placetype> <st1:placename>Everest</st1:placename></st1:place>.<br />
There the lost fliers also belong, ever to rest,<br />
With the bones of the dead.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p>John Sevcik</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p>For a fascinating account of the mystery of Amelia Earhart's doomed flight, as well as its possible solution, you can try the following sites <a href="http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/conspiracy/q0299.shtml">http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/conspiracy/q0299.shtml</a></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><a href="http://tighar.org/">http://tighar.org/</a></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p><a href="http://www.elgenlong.com/index2.php">http://www.elgenlong.com/index2.php</a></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-58673594501511252892012-07-31T11:05:00.001-07:002012-07-31T11:05:43.331-07:00Life-Saving Drill<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">In
empty waves the lifeguards drill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span>The entering with craft.
Between them<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">A
vessel white as surf and blind,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Dumbly
buoyant as they race beside.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Muscle
of youth weakly points the hull<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Into
the green biceps of the wave;<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Then
the white chaos of its crash<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Drives
them back, the girl and the boy. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Once
again, as lowering sun makes gold<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Of
them, her lunge aboard will tip<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
prow above a wave. A clack <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Of
oars, another running heave,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And
he is on with her, but she falls out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">His
hand outstretched lifts her into him.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
dumb boat only dances back<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">To
shore. They clamber out and haul it round.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Again
they run their golden dash<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">And
ply the waves. Both aboard,<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">They
then commence to rowing. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">This
summer their youth is what they save. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">They
reach and pull in tandem. Far<o:p></o:p></span></div>
A<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">way
they wait and turn for shore.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Next
summer they will be the same;<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">The
boat alone will age.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">John
Sevcik</span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-23022569534131659162012-07-01T11:42:00.002-07:002023-04-28T17:47:50.459-07:00New Found Land<br />
To <st1:city><st1:place>Arcadia</st1:place></st1:city>, to
Giverny,<br />
<st1:city><st1:place>Fontainebleau</st1:place></st1:city>,
or <st1:country-region><st1:place>Arles</st1:place></st1:country-region>;<br />
To <st1:state><st1:place>Brittany</st1:place></st1:state>,
or <st1:country-region><st1:place>Fiji</st1:place></st1:country-region>,<br />
The Marquesas, or <st1:country-region><st1:place>Morocco</st1:place></st1:country-region>;<br />
To <st1:state><st1:place>Maine</st1:place></st1:state>, the <st1:city><st1:place>Hudson</st1:place></st1:city>,
or <st1:place>Cape Cod</st1:place>,<br />
<st1:city><st1:place>Truro</st1:place></st1:city> or the <st1:city><st1:place>Hamptons</st1:place></st1:city>
call . . .<br />
Perhaps to <st1:country-region><st1:place>Mexico</st1:place></st1:country-region>,<br />
<st1:city><st1:place>Columbia</st1:place></st1:city>, or <st1:place>Yosemite</st1:place>,<br />
To the distant-most outlandish<br />
Place, keep a bowl of soup,<br />
A glass of wine, a <st1:city><st1:place>Key West</st1:place></st1:city><br />
Of the heart and mind,<br />
Where art can grow on half<br />
The cost, and half again,<br />
Or less than that.<br />
Or better still a newfound land,<br />
A sandbar off <st1:country-region><st1:place>Belize</st1:place></st1:country-region><br />
Or <st1:city><st1:place>Cannes</st1:place></st1:city>, to
while away, to paint,<br />
To plan, the art utopia<br />
No one can achieve in life,<br />
But hanging dreams of it export<br />
The beauty to which all resort.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
John Sevcik</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<br /></div>John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-69039227891634591082012-06-21T10:24:00.005-07:002023-04-28T17:50:45.594-07:00Blame the Sun: an Ode<br />
Oh, Sun, you fickle star,<br />
Not even star, but coin of gold-shine,<br />
Now near, now far,<br />
A season-maker as you climb the sky,<br />
Or drop Dow-Jones-like<br />
Into your depression.<br />
What’s with you, Sun?<br />
Van Gogh and you: <br />
Who else likes to stare<br />
So wildly at the world?<br />
Give me an intensity break.<br />
Soft, and pray you:<br />
Meditate and find<br />
The moderate path.<br />
Not everyone has air conditioning,<br />
Or heat when you’re<br />
Philandering at night.<br />
Where’s your mom<br />
In all of this?<br />
I mean, God –<br />
Who do you think<br />
You are?<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
John Sevcik</div>
<br />John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-50125982250689861662012-03-28T17:28:00.024-07:002012-03-31T10:20:31.153-07:00There Is News of the World to Tell<strong></strong><br /><div><strong></strong> </div><div> </div><div><strong>Kind Voices in Evening Light</strong><br /><strong></strong><br />January 6, 52°, evening in my front yard garden<br />Looks down the hill of Wingohocking Terrace, </div><div><em>A good place to plant </em><em>terrace</em>, </div><div>According to its native pre-Columbian namers,<br />And I am hoeing a row for winter arugula, the ground soft<br />And dark, under the waning blue glow of the sky, in the<br />Shadow of a rising waxing gibbous, when up the hill<br />Climb two figures, one in the roadway, one on our sidewalk,<br />Who calls “Hello, John” in a kind voice – my neighbor Olivia,<br />A young grandmother, who leans over the fence and asks<br />Whether I am turning the soil over to help it fallow,<br />And I explain my purpose, and she goes in like starlight<br />Passing by through trees as one passes,<br />And after a while, as I dig, and sprinkle out the tiny seeds<br />From husk envelopes that look like tiny, crisp, pale bananas,<br />I hear “Hey, John” from the downhill side, closer, as Nate, Jr.,<br />Rises up his steps across his yard to home, even talking on<br />A cell phone, and these kind voices that know my name,<br />Even in the shade of a warm, winter evening, and whose names<br />I can feel as well in that situational way,<br />In that sensing of the voice and its timbre,<br />And the kindness of it neighbor to my heart. Then<br />I go out back and cry at the moon’s sweet light, and how<br />It reminds me also of my old mother’s hair, as did<br />The bunch of Queen Anne’s lace that leaned over our table<br />And sat with us for a few meals after she died, and which I<br />Stroked as kindly as her hair, thinking it was her<br />In another form, the form of soft soul kindness, as are these,<br />My neighbors, still with me.<br /><br />John Sevcik<br /><br /><br /><strong>Happy Birthday Morning</strong><br /><br />There is news of the world to tell, at 6:00 a.m.,<br />After wind has lashed the rain against the house for hours<br />And the moon looks out at last through torn clouds,<br />The silence raising me from sleep alongside you,<br />To find why this silence, why the stillness of the dark?<br />I enter your studio and watch at the windows<br />How street lights pour their apricot hue<br />On your unfinished art,<br />And the finished pieces,<br />And how blue the moonlit clouds are above,<br />And how yellow the all-night living room lamp is at Karma’s,<br />When one car nudges darkly down the road,<br />Looking for a parking space,<br />Backs up the hill with reverse lights gleaming. Then a train<br />Passes though the yard space next to Mr. Boyd’s,<br />Gleaming green windows like the frequency of an oarfish,<br />Then slows on the line of Wingohocking Station to a rest.<br />The black auto tries another impossible space, comes to rest<br />Tight next to the parked cars below Carina’s.<br />Its amber emergency lights begin a silent alarm,<br /><em>Be careful, be careful, don’t hit us,</em><br />And a figure unfolds from the door,<br />Circles behind the trunk, opens the back door, raises<br />Something invisible and climbs the stairs<br />Toward a porch light colder than the moon,<br />Cold as a refrigerator light, and it appears<br />To be a mother delivering her child in a blanket,<br />To a nanny, or relative,<br />In the midst of sleep, while the car waits warning, warning,<br />In the lonely, silent street.<br />The high moon looks down from the heavens.<br />The quiet street waits with the flashing car. The sky<br />Moans a low note of wind somewhere just above our roofs,<br />But careful not to ruffle a hair in the street,<br />Nor wake rudely a little person left<br />and looked back toward, as the mother<br />Descends to the waiting car, turns,<br />And waves goodbye to someone<br />In the window or door, in the hesitating guise of someone<br />Sweetly missing already the one borne into the world,<br />Before driving on. The car calms its lights, just once<br />Shining red at the corner, like two partners, two hearts.<br /><br />John Sevcik</div>John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-82578664514241660732012-01-23T08:03:00.000-08:002012-01-23T08:10:33.168-08:00The solidarity of freedomIn Chinatown, once Little Italy, <br />Until Marco Polo brought all things foreign<br />To New York City, I had on its periphery,<br />Say, Lower Anatolia, an unfurnished<br />Apartment share with some other editors, actors, and writers,<br />Not quite a cold-water flat, just a refrigerator (empty)<br />And a mattress I dragged in off the street<br />And a pillow I bought and carried across the Village<br />In winter or something cold like that<br />And barren – well, the sun wasn’t near.<br />There were roaches that ran on the lips,<br />Wide-awake noticing of hurried shapes<br />Darting, horrid self-slapping, un-sleep.<br />Follow that without dawn like February,<br />Cloudy and dark like Dr. Zhivago<br />During the Revolution, and no palace<br />Or snow in sunlight, but I was<br />Hungry and cold and found<br />A hovel of a Chinese restaurant:<br />One small room filled with men<br />In Red Chinese uniforms, slate gray,<br />Cold, huddling round the few<br />Connected tables in Amish seating,<br />In other words, arranged regardless of<br />Group, one group, all of us having soup. <br />I settled into one bench, accepted <br />Without glance or comment, between<br />Small men whose bodies held their <br />Warmth on either side to me, and I<br />To them, and as I hunched closer to the<br />Leveling table we shared, I felt myself<br />Resorting to that Peasant memory my father<br />Transmitted into me from long ago in Europe,<br />Even as I ate with hurried relish<br />In the steam of our mingling breath,<br />It felt like some painting of suffering,<br />Though all around me there was more<br />Of it than mine, and more comfort<br />Because we were all there was of it, together.<br />For this I thank all of China,<br />Marco Polo, and the Revolution,<br />Including mine, in my green Army coat,<br />And my father, who climbed<br />From scholarship to engineer, then married <br />My mother, a landowner and landowner’s daughter,<br />Then dispossessed by Communists<br />As these lunch companions in my circle<br />Perhaps lost their own farm, or freedom,<br />To the want of history and its resentments.<br /><br />John SevcikJohn Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-40861096844853812972011-12-19T14:42:00.001-08:002012-03-04T09:24:15.794-08:00Greed Suite<div>This cycle of poems looks at greed from a number of sides. Does it exist? Has it been seen? Where is it?<br /><strong></strong><br /><strong>The Statue of Greed</strong><br /><br />A statue of greed, if it could be made,<br />Might be of a fisherman, when the fish are<br />Biting, after the second and third have come in,<br />Or the seventh is on the line.<br /><br />It could be of the fisherman at the pier,<br />Looking for takers, the village that might redeem<br />His insane catch as an act of Providence.<br /><br />A statue of greed would have a human face<br />Of glee, the boy who has scored a hat-trick,<br />The girl with three boyfriends, or just the old<br />Man with three gloves, none of which match.<br /><br /> John Sevcik<br /><br /><strong>What is Beyond Greed?</strong><br /><br />If greed is an addiction, what is success?<br />After success comes greed. Or come before?<br />Is the present-day economic system founded on addiction, conformity, or the sense of insurance? Assurance? Perhaps all. Fictions function as conduits for money. Write your business plan. If it makes a movie, all the better. Numbers don’t lie.<br />The numb move en masse. Greed is another’s problem, not mine.<br />There is a vortex in the sun. Other stars, too.<br />Stars earn more than their keep. In the keep of their un-use.<br />I would like to buy and sell, what to sell? Sell-out.<br />The position of everything is worth, even not recognized.<br />How is this perception of recognition? How is it to open<br />its eyes? Nothing can shock, if only a movie.<br />We are standing in front of the television.<br />Both sides. The mirror is wide-screen, high definition.<br />Nothing of truth seems to matter with those tattoos on the screen,<br />tattoos on the skin, the Dow Jones, the Davy Jones, the Jones’n.<br />Low-high, high-low. To the woodshed we go.<br />Something doesn’t believe we are in this jam.<br />Winning is forward to fail. Flail if you must.<br />Somebody serve the few. Everybody. Make yourselves useless.<br />Scurry out of the way. The giant is near and the mouse must away.<br />Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, heigh-away.<br /><br /> John Sevcik<br /><br /><strong>Greed:</strong><br /><br />Psychotic God of gold abound with me,<br />Inspire me to plant my Lobby fees<br />Behind the doors of power in the vestibules of war;<br />High five hundred billion dollars overtime my palms;<br />Cross me with the crucifix of no reform;<br />Believe in me and not the others who must pay;<br />By death and killing mutilate their souls;<br />By poverty arrange their apathy and vote-less No.<br />I am for the rush of everything turning into my<br />Possession, into me, replacing me,<br />Into the vacuum of the universe blown up<br />So long ago and lonely and so filled with dark<br />It absorbs the lightness of absurdity and woe.<br /><br /> John Sevcik<br /><br /><strong>Mendicant Blues:</strong><br /><br />Emolumental truths align against me, envious<br />And disturbing as I’m driven, in my window-tinted car,<br />My jet of private overflight, my private stateroom,<br />And my private glee. No one to associate with,<br />Except to scorn from my own height of heights.<br />Buddha of the broken marriage, Buddha deadbeat-dad,<br />I pray you be the Buddha of banking nirvana.<br />Fiscally sound, middle-brow mendicant-lite popularizer<br />Of enlightenment and compassion: Feel sorry for me,<br />Until I begin to feel it, too, and then in a universalizing<br />Instant, feel the same for every one of you. Instead of greed,<br />I read the truth of each of you, needing more than me,<br />Needing while I while away my time at the mill of money<br />You can’t have. Oh, how I feel above the common need.<br />Needing only to feel and be felt about, I need community<br />Of spirit, and not only property. How much does compassion cost?<br />“Everything they own,” the Buddha whispers in my ear.<br />“And if they own nothing, it is free.”<br />Freedom is in the spending of everything,<br />The granting of everything, the everything of life.<br />I have made the masses free. I am the robber Buddha.<br />I am their enlightenment from greed.<br /><br /> John Sevcik<br /><br /><strong>The Beggar’s Sonata:</strong><br /><br />If you support me in my 501(c)3 non-profit tax bracket,<br />And I come on-air to interrupt your favorite underwritten shows,<br />Can’t you see compassion in my eyes for you alone?<br />I am executive so as not to offend you with rags. Square<br />In the square of public opinion. Please let me have pennies,<br />Or if you want this mug, and tote-bag, and a handsome calendar,<br />AND a DVD of this show, all for 29.95, you can help underwrite<br />With your compassion my compassion, and all I care about is you,<br />Even though I again make a nice six-figure salary, it is begging<br />That is earning, all of us begging and earning. This is the truth,<br />Whomsoever we serve the opportunity for compassionate giving.<br /><br /> John Sevcik<br /><br /><strong>And So, What Is Greed, After All?</strong><br /><br />When we die we are rich and then poor, or is it<br />Poor and then rich? When we are no more, we can’t take it<br />With us, yet some did, in their pyramids of wealth, and yet,<br />Power stayed behind on earth and went to others, so what is<br />Wealth, or the feeling of greed that has it, or wants it, or goads<br />One to get it? Over and out. Candles at the dinner table go out<br />Once the meal is feasted in their golden light. Away<br />It goes and what is left behind is grief – before or because of,<br />It doesn’t matter. Grief is neurotic that way, as crying at weddings<br />Shows the grief of waiting, or losing, or mistaken choices, or what?<br />Back to the story of greed and why it forgets to become immortal.<br />It is because anyone paying attention to it will probably not have<br />A better idea for anything else. It keeps one busy with nothing that lasts.<br />The telephone wasn’t discovered for greed, nor the wheel, nor the car,<br />Though fortunes were certainly made at some point, by someone.<br />Greed, simply put, is boring.<br /><br />John Sevcik<br /><br /><strong>Imagination</strong><br /><br />Envy imagines greed.<br />Greed imagines envy.<br />Together they tie the world in knots of injustice.<br />This injustice is both real and imagined.<br />Thinking a free thought, you can escape it,<br />Even invent your place in the sun.<br />May you have good visions.<br /><br />John Sevcik</div>John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-36492452897651409552011-12-17T12:24:00.000-08:002011-12-17T12:51:22.385-08:00Thanks to a past art teacher<div>This is a poem about an old instructor of ours at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. </div><div>He was a remarkable and wonderful painter. Mr. Remenick often comes up in conversations among his past students. We remember his humanity and teaching with fondness.<br /><br /><strong>And Then, Seymour Remenick</strong><br /><br />And then he wandered through the Louvre<br />Putting out a cigarette in Paul DuSold’s studio<br />And then lighting another, and then remembering<br />Walking up to a Rembrandt and wanting to know<br />How the other did it; how did he make those paintings<br />Like pure feelings and humanity fused?<br />And then he had also gone to the Academie<br />Des Beaux-Arts on the GI Bill<br />Right after his unit’s demobilization in Europe,<br />And then he told me in my studio<br />Of how he wouldn’t go to classes, only walk<br />In Paris in Spring and in Summer and Autumn<br />And in the Louvre, and then he would inhale<br />As he did then, to pull life into him,<br />Its very life and spirit, he would intoxicate<br />Himself and need a cigarette, and then<br />He would light another. We weighed crits<br />By the empty shells of Lucky Strikes<br />He left in a row, from the bandolier of pleasure,<br />And then Paul thought of Seymour in an American uniform<br />Getting girls in Paris, and I didn’t think so,<br />And then I said he was one of the soldiers<br />Eisenhower sent through Birkenwald or Auschwitz<br />To witness and remember, and then Seymour<br />Only told most of us of living, and then living,<br />And then painting the living of that time he paints<br />And notices, with the rapture of the world of the living,<br />Living even more, perhaps, for those refused their lives.<br /><br />John Sevcik</div>John Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-3972958147443124242011-12-02T10:06:00.000-08:002011-12-02T10:25:07.209-08:00How Is the Eye to See?How is the eye to see, or hand to move,<br />Charcoal burning into what is mind<br />As cave painters long ago brushed<br />The ends of their lit torches into line?<br />How does the hand walk into the eye,<br />Talk to the ear, dance for the heart?<br />What is the timing of pure art?<br /><br />In academies, since the Renaissance,<br />Refining measures were the near objective,<br />Discovery of nature further on.<br />Later in Rococo time, how was the prim<br />To be addressed, or the melancholy,<br />Or how to draw the person who has flown<br />By psyche to another place and time?<br /><br />Or after Realism and Courbet,<br />Renoir, Eakins and Monet?<br />First the masses: how to weigh<br />Their slim recumbency, or say<br />How is the model older this week – <br />Can you tell? – or younger to an Age<br />You will not know? And how to draw<br />The blithe completeness of her form<br />In times both analytic and assured?<br /><br />Along with central heating, and<br />Fluorescent lights<br />Skin is not pallor, only temperature.<br />So much about us medicine<br />And ill, we have to draw beyond,<br />Or long ago. Empirically we know,<br />Subjectively we draw – though how we think<br />Is too much only us.<br /><br />To feel the other standing in a space,<br />Waiting to be seen and understood,<br />Remains a vestibule of intimates;<br />How the vulnerable model charms<br />By her quiet surprise of grace –<br />These are some infinities of space.<br /><br />John SevcikJohn Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-11738903611062906462010-11-23T12:43:00.000-08:002010-12-05T13:07:29.362-08:00Nobility and CivilizationTwo poems concerning civilization and the notion of self-sacrifice, which forest and human communities rely on for their furtherance.<br /><br /><strong>The Nobility of Trees</strong><br /><br />The nobility of trees<br />Is something we imagine,<br />If they were us. We think<br />Their stillness order and their stands<br />An army at attention;<br />Or, in the breeze their costumes<br />Turn to skirts, or summer dresses;<br />Or the forelock of a bough<br />Seems the happiness of gentle play;<br />Or, if they green through snow, immortal,<br />Or if they shed their glory unto death’s<br />Brief sleep, or if they show their limbs<br />And fingers raising up the sky like host,<br />Or if they cast a shadow in the heat,<br />Or loom above as living monuments,<br />Or hide us in our childhood climbings<br />As the nesting birds,<br />Or if they wait for miles along the road,<br />Boring to us in their endless sloth<br />Of vegetation milling out the air,<br />And we forget them long enough:<br />If this were not enough and they<br />Some spark of revolution find,<br />They set the air to burning with their hair<br />And standing still advance upon our homes<br />Breathing into one combusted sun<br />Their stolen joists and timbers,<br />Plywood, pulp and paper, trim and molding,<br />Into one consumption with our books<br />And curling even photographs for fuel<br />Implode in great cremations<br />Like a war for oxygen,<br />Which it inhales<br />After all its giving out of human breath.<br />How we, surprised, proceed<br />Through its charred expanse,<br />The cinders and the spokes of its nobility<br />A ruin as magnificent as Rome.<br />So to this we turn in our great stillness,<br />In our life, our sweetness and the rage<br />That settles everything by sacrificing all.<br />The nobility of trees<br />Imagines us.<br /><br />John Sevcik<br /><br /><br /><strong>Civilization</strong><br /><br />We, the custodians of nature,<br />Who weave together parts of her,<br />Elaborating on her fragile arts<br />The aquaduct, the cloverleaf,<br />The spires of St-Michel;<br /><br />We, who found our natures hers,<br />Who gardened patterns on the lawn,<br />Who studied deer and planned our jousts,<br />Who livened life by costumage and plume,<br />And heraldry and shield and home;<br /><br />We, whom the carapace and fort defend<br />In our most magical prayers<br />Of love and service and our brotherhood;<br />We, who entrusted trust,<br />We road-builders on the errand of trade,<br /><br />Who met across the oceans on the winds,<br />Who made our own, our order and our graves;<br />We who kept to tenderness our own<br />And fought to raise a temple to the light<br />Of inspiration, courage and God-dread;<br /><br />Who feared the acts and rages of blind chance<br />And on the marbled palace floor<br />Inlaid our fragmentary and mosaic sense<br />Of a room fenced off by waves,<br />A trance of blue, and dolphins<br /><br />At the center, in the happiness of play;<br />And from the yards of plenty there returns<br />A nature so transfigured by our own<br />That we and nature clearly do embraid<br />The trellis and wisteria,<br /><br />The painter and the subject,<br />The farmer’s arm inside the apple tree,<br />And the round, sweet fruit<br />They both know and hold.<br /><br />John SevcikJohn Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-30287353606372350182010-10-10T09:38:00.000-07:002010-10-18T19:03:18.316-07:00Eternal TruthPart I<br /><br />Lost, as under a heavy sea,<br />We glide, aware of others in the dark.<br /><br />The platform to a train is like a reef,<br />And noise – and noise of steel<br />Resounds from subways, as if man<br />Were being mined from darker depths,<br />Deeper still than oceans. We go down in them;<br />And up in space we boil ourselves away.<br /><br />And all these things, transparent and opaque<br />To eye and ear, to hand, to heart, to sense.<br /><br /><br /> Part II<br /><br />I was born in Brag, New Jersey.<br /><br /><em>Wait</em>.<br /><br />Held twenty lines of red-eye<br />To the forehead of a muse.<br /><br /><em>Wait</em>.<br /><br />She had a fever<br />And she could not speak.<br /><br /><em>Wait</em>.<br /><br />Patience, counseled she,<br />And <br /><br /><em>Wait</em>.<br /><br />When I am ready I shall write<br />Again.<br /><br /><em>Wait</em>.<br /><br /><br /> Part III<br /><br />Breath is consonant to voice –<br />Invisible word.<br />Breath speaks nothing,<br />Yet says all.<br /><br />Wait.<br /><br />Before the kiss, the breath.<br />After one’s first cry.<br />The breath.<br /><br />Wait.<br /><br />After everything is over<br />Heaves and falls<br />The breath.<br /><br />Wait.<br /><br />It is absent.<br />It is found in spring.<br /><br />Wait. <br /><br />In summer’s breeze<br />I take the pulse <br />Of breath.<br />I lay to rest.<br />Breath as of ocean<br />Salt.<br />Breath as of lilacs<br />Sweet.<br /><br />(Wait.)<br /><br />Wait that you hear me,<br />Soft on your ear.<br /><br /><br /> Part IV<br /><br />Longing is like billiards.<br />A bet rides on it.<br />Someone bumps into you;<br />Somewhere you are touching.<br /><br />Why are they like that – the gods?<br />They poke at us with sticks;<br />They know how we reflect<br />Across the village green.<br />Chance to us, design to them. <br />And then dispensed of into dust,<br />In rattling boards,<br />In silent pews.<br /><br />Longing is the bet I have,<br />Strong enough to bend the world,<br />To bleed the cow as white of milk,<br />As I shall be bled white as snow.<br />And for the bones that wheel and click<br />Down some long eternal row<br />I have their promise they shall raise<br />The whole lot up to live again:<br />Longing unto, after, death,<br />Like billiards, <br />Like an unpaid debt.<br /><br />The velvet green as though brand new<br />Waits for children fresh from school.<br />For what I wait, they wait anew.<br />Eternal truth eternity renews.<br /><br /> <br /> John SevcikJohn Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-57317987269434768152010-02-15T10:43:00.000-08:002010-02-17T15:25:50.100-08:00LoveSnow doesn’t cover it,<br />Nor water, nor the land masses,<br />Nor half the world in sunlight, half in night.<br />It isn’t rumbling by in the great wagon of stars,<br />Nor singing in the birds’ throats when it’s warm<br />And they can sing. Nothing ails it<br />When the world’s a plague,<br />Nor is it poor, it just doesn’t have money.<br />It is the thing that chooses what will happen,<br />Of who with whom will spend the sweetest hours, <br />And weave a store of memories together,<br />All the better for their lucky struggle.<br />Neither news nor poems cover it, nor books,<br />Nor dancing, or the movies, or a children’s tale.<br />It isn’t sayable, like joy and gravity,<br />Like holding together when the world holds apart.<br />Only it can hold the sweet regard we seek<br />And satisfy us in the prospect of demise. <br /><br />John SevcikJohn Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-18190293903808640252010-01-12T16:15:00.000-08:002010-01-12T16:17:40.814-08:00The Neighboring StateToday Vermont came to visit.<br />Sometime in the morning, when all was dark,<br />it took over from Maine, which was here<br />yesterday afternoon. Today I think<br />of going into the village for a cider or hot soup,<br />of sitting with friends in flannel coats<br />who know the woods and when the maple<br />gives, and have a friendship with the world<br />around a stove. I would go there today,<br />if only I had gone before. They do not know me<br />in the village; I do not know the village.<br />And yet it visits in the cold its warmth<br />of cloud, its humid gray of snow.<br />Tomorrow maybe Maryland will come,<br />with secret lore of clamming and of crabs.<br />I will adjust my sail to dream of that.<br />Wandering is what the weather maps.<br /><br />John SevcikJohn Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3120915159408514930.post-73341581915414490112010-01-12T16:09:00.000-08:002010-01-12T16:12:38.000-08:00The Found ToolThis pencil<br />found at Tinicum<br />does it remember<br />that warm day<br />or even earlier<br />when we saw<br />an old-timer<br />following a muskrat<br />along Darby Creek<br />remembering his hunting<br />days? Or does<br />the soft pencil think<br />only of its cedar town<br />and the mill that cleaved<br />it off, the gray graphite<br />shot into its spine,<br />or school-bus yellow paint?<br />So much to think about<br />laying on the path:<br />of someone’s knife whittling<br />the point, and a <br />lightly used eraser.<br /><br />John SevcikJohn Sevcikhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01771570848659431520noreply@blogger.com0