POEMS GROUP 25: YOGA

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS I:

AS WE OBSERVE NOW THE PAIN OF THE WORLD

as we observe now the pain of the world,
see all the suffering, hear all the cries,
see how it mixes now, truth all and lies,
hurling against us that feelings are stirred,

have we now shed all the last of our tears?
have we run dry and now hide in our pain?
have we run circles to not go insane?
have we lost hope and replaced it with fears?

shall we now see here the human in all?
shall we remember to judge not lest judged?
shall we remind us that mortal we are?

easy 'tis now just to yield to the Fall,
now that our heart must for sure have been touched,
idly sit by we and watch from afar?

October 27th, 2023

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS II:

OUR ABILITY TO LOVE

our ability to love
must not be limited
by externalities
and social pressures:

it is the soul
that loves
and not
the body

it is that which is
inside the body
looking out into the world
seeing the world
trapped
in a form
so accidental
so mutable
and dying
for the rest of its life:

and yet the soul
it does not age
it does not feel
in mortal structures,
mortal coils:

so when we see each other truly
we need to look beyond
the outer shell
inside the truth contained within:

the truest beauty
is that of the soul
inside:

the truest beauty
is that of the soul
transcending it all:

and our ability to love
must then be measured
by our ability
to see
what is not immediate
to know
what needs to be believed
and to feel
that we are a community of souls
as we are looking out into the world
from deep inside
our mortal
shell

November 23rd, 2023

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS III:

MY CITY

/

I remember
I am old enough to remember
I am old now

the streets
are mostly still
the same

the houses
some of them even
resemble
what they used to be

others have
filled in
spaces where
there was nothing
or something
else

an organism like
a living thing
a city
never exists
as such:

all we know
are freeze-frames,
some moments
caught in time
and space:
to never return

//

I may think I walk the same streets
I may think I walk past the same buildings:
and yet
nothing is the same anymore,
not even I:

and thus,
with the nostalgia of age
comes the realization
that I am a stranger but
in a land
increasingly strange
to me

my time
is passing by
my spaces
only a memory

///

think I sometimes,
would I want to live
forever?

the answer
seems clear:

forever
is a nowhere
is constant change
is everything
we cannot stand
for too long

// //

my city
is a city in my mind
a space
stitched together
of the assorted presences
of others
in spaces
long gone
in times
all past

// / //

a stranger I have become
to this world,
to this life:

and worse yet:
I lack the illusion
of simplicity,
of the possibility
to someday return

December 4th, 2023

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS IV:

TIME KNOWS NO MERCY

I never used to understand
the phrase
"you cannot go home again":
for I was young
and now I am old
and now
I understand

what used to be a given
it's all gone now
what used to be accepted
it's all gone now
what used to be so easy
it's all gone now

we have fought
we have quarreled
we have destroyed
and we have built:

but now
all this
has ceded
its meaning

and yet,
ain't this the point?
ain't this the way?
ain't this what it's all about?

nothing ever
remains the same
even a graveyard
is not as peaceful as you may think:
for everything changes
underneath

old bodies go,
new bodies come,
old ones decay
while the young are still
walking the earth
thinking quite that they own the place:

and yet
we all learn this lesson
some day:

the later,
the happier
we've been

but
there is no
escaping
this:

for time
knows no mercy

December 4th, 2023

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS V:

FEAR I THE NIGHT

fear I the night
fear I the darkness
that won't let me sleep
that asks me clearly
to keep standing watch
just a little bit longer
just in case
my muse shall appear

tonight she has come
and I hadn't a choice
but to listen to her
lest she let the darkness
take a more permanent hold
over me

December 4th, 2023

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS VI:

BEYOND THE NIGHT THE DAY'S ALREADY THERE

beyond the night the day's already there
and darkest skies still carry stars within
and hope once lost our spirit can still win
if all we do is but to deeply care

too easy 'tis to sulk and sow despair
and see us all as ruled by deepest sin
but rather than to curse all human kin
must love we find for all and judge but fair

and new a world awaits us with each day
as breathe we in the innocence of dawn
and smell the earth as from her sleep she'll wake

and thus renewed, the darkness may well stay
but know we now we needn't be it's pawn
as weighed our life by differences we make

December 9th, 2023

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS VII:

WHAT KIND OF LIFE

what kind of life
is it
we're living?

what will we leave
some time
behind?

what
must we
learn

what
must we
feel

what
must we
do

in order
to
be?

December 14th, 2023

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS VIII:

MEMENTO VIVERE

torn I am
between a past self that was
and a future self to be:

what I am;
how does it connect,
how do I connect
these parts
on opposite ends
of my life?

we all have dreams
we all have desires
we all see our selves
in ways
all so strange:

how queer a life this is
how strange and filled
with wonder
with pleasure
with promise
with life:

and then

how cruel a life this is
how dark and crammed
with horror
with pain
with suffering
with death:

the pleasure and pain all

it's all interwoven
it's all this or nothing:

how now, dear child,
am I to tell you
of all this,
and truthfully?

how now, dear old one,
am I to remind you
that joy must have lurked
in this ocean of pain-filled time?

but what am I
but in the midst
of memories and dread:

marked I once
the decades
by loved once that died:

mark I now
the years
the months

and soon, they will become
weeks
mere days

and hours,
finally,
my own:

thus I remember my death
as a reminder
to live
while still there is time

December 14th, 2023

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS IX:

CAGEY BEE

(Melody: Thunderball theme song)

I.

you always watch
but are not seen

you plot
and lead your stealthy scheme

your game
is as twisted as they come

and you sting
and you poison, and it's done

II.

your past
spells N, K, V and D

the one
called of steel has set you free

you thrived
and the party said you should

and survived
when no one thought you would

III.

your name
may be spelled F, S and B

but still
it is yet the same old game

your friend
the old leader has gone mad

he may lead
but you cannot be led

IV.

you're
only loyal to your own

deceit
is what you've always sown

those
who put trust in you are dead

even if
they don't know it yet

V.

there's not a window
that's too low

they jump
because you told them so

you sin
but there's no one left too judge:

as the cloth
has fallen to your touch

VI.

you don't fear
president nor czar

your reach
is close and it is far

your prey
may well tremble but can't see

so you watch
like a cagey bee

December 18th, 2023

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS X:

NEW OLD YEAR

as the year ends
the new one begins
and so it goes
and so it goes
till you forget
and all the hopes
and all the dreams
of newness
will turn
eventually
to the sadly emerging truth:

there's nothing new under the sun
but maybe
there's some comfort
in the eternal return
of all the pain
and all the pleasure
in strangest union
this life has to offer:

as old turns to new
turns to old yet again
all too soon

December 31st, 2023

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS XI:

MY FINAL YEARS

in these,
my final years

what do I want
to be,

what do I want
to still become,

what do others
need me to be?

in this
my final beginning

January 11th, 2024

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS XII:

THERE'S ALWAYS TOMORROW

there's always tomorrow
there's always
another chance
at hitting the mark
at doing it better
at making it work
at letting your self
discover its path
in this journey through life

at least,
that's what we keep telling ourselves

time flies
much faster
than we would think:
and the end
may be closer
than we had hoped:

not our end yet,
necessarily,
but that of family and friends,
each loss another cut
into our very own soul:

with all that are lost
diminished we are
and in the movement of time
the memories of yesterday
becomes more attractive
day by day
in the torture of today
awaiting the apocalypse of tomorrow

and when the nature of tomorrow
will be finally revealed,
will we still be able
to change
what needs changing,
to do
what needs doing,
to indeed
have another chance
at making it right?

yes,
there's always tomorrow

but then,
there's today

right here
right now

wake

January 13th, 2024

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS XIII:

COME WHAT MAY

live we
in the constant anticipation
of what is still
to come:

and sometimes
it's more than that:
it's apprehension,
even dread:

and yet:
as long
as we're still alive
there's hope, always hope:

there is no formula to life
there is no way to know, to see:
the future is a mystery
the present though is all we have

so come what may:
shall conscious be I
of what is here
and what is now

January 25th, 2024

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS XIV:

DISRUPT ME

disrupt me
and show me
the world
as I need it

disrupt me
and show me
myself
as I need it

disrupt me
and show me
yourself
as you need it

disrupt me
and show me
the world
as you need it

February 9th, 2024

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS XV:

WE ARE ALONE

I am alone
close the ending of the day
at this time of strangest worries:
strangest thoughts and darkest fears
are hounding me
surrounding me
and troubling me
away from sleep

we're all alone
at the ending of our days
at this time of strangest worries:
time runs out and thoughts get darker
and the morning nears with dread:
shall we make it, shall we fail?
or shall we do
what must be done?

we are alone
and yet, the same,

in all our worries, all our fears,
should see we not we're all alike?
should see we not
that darkness, light,
reside in all of us
at once:

we're not alone
we've never been:
in this community of life
in this community of strife
we'll have to learn, we'll have to grow,
we'll have to know, we'll have to show:
forgiveness, grace, humility
are all it takes to once be free

February 9th, 2024

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS XVI:

ANOTHER BUD OFF THE ETERNAL TREE

another bud off the eternal tree:
are we allowed to peak behind the blinds?
are we designed or grew off different kinds?
is this the birth of immortality?

are we the apex of what will be known?
are we the future that will brightly shine?
are we the past but and a warning sign?
are we just steps on ladders yet unknown?

this far we've come, shall get we further still?
the prospects now, admittedly, seem dim,
and should we fail, succeed but others might:

now, shall I still believe that rise we'll will,
that once we'll overcome our faults, our sin,
and join all planets having seen the light?

April 22nd, 2024

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS XVII:

WHEN HOLD I YOUR HAND AT NIGHT

when hold I your hand at night
all shadows disappear
and illuminated
is my darkness

now found I am,
no longer lost
in this brooding loneliness
of these cruel sleepless hours

may then this moment
filled by your presence
last forever
and bring us peace

May 24th/26th, 2024

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS XVIII:

THE LARGER SCHEME OF THINGS

if
in the larger scheme of
things
discover I should
that things
are not
what they're supposed
to be:

should react I
surprised?
would panic I?
rejoice but even?
accept what's real
and what is not?

for all too often
closed we remain
to the possibility
of possibility:

and now
I sense
that this may be
my greatest fear:

that my mind could be closed
to all the mysteries
out there

June 2nd / July 18th, 2024

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS XIX:

BE THE LIGHT - UT SIS LUCEM

fac
quod potes
ut sis lucem
quae lucet in nocte
illuminatque tenebras
quae omnia circa nos
et in nobis

ut tenebrae et lux
sublimarentur
in fide, spe et caritate

nunc
et per omnia saecula saeculorum

do
what you can
to be the light
that shines in the night
and lights the darkness
all around us
and inside of us

so that the darkness and the light
sublimated shall become
in faith, hope and love

now
and world without end

June 16th / July 18th, 2024

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS XX:

THE INNOCENCE OF TIMES LONG PAST: AN ELEGY FOR THE OLD INTERNET

to meander I went
into the days of my past
seeking
remembrance,
nostalgia,
my life:

back then,
as it were,
the excitement of the new,
the discovery
of a world
still enticing:

how miss I this feeling
this freedom
this joyous frustration
of years
of experimentation
and playful invention:

found I
some old computer
some old software
some old messenger
all now defunct,
mostly,
and some old e-mails
still breathing the energy
of newness:

when e-mail was new
when online meant
a voyage of discovery
instead of a more corporate world,
a predigested landscape
not of creators but merely of users:
a sense of an era
where it wasn't cowboys herding their flock
on the trek through the so-called wild west,
but instead,
nerdy explorers herding bytes and bits of code
before everything became streamlined and dead:

yes, I celebrate my nerdy self,
I yearn for those days of lines of code
typed out off a magazine,
where Basic, Turbo Pascal and the like,
and later, HTML, JavaScript and CSS
would lead the way
into electronic self-fulfillment!

and now,
my children,
behold:

inherited you have
a world all predigested,
all streamlined, charted, shiny and dull,
a world that has lost its innocence

a previous world
where you had to learn
the means of production,
the tools of creation,
and basic new freedoms,
which has now ceded
to the emptiness
of consumerism:

where no longer
do you get to type a line of code
on your own:
where no longer
do you get to have
this sense of ownership, of understanding:

no, gone are the times
of the utopian promise
of cyberspace
as something better
something bolder
something good
and something fantastic:

instead,
as we so often do,
we have removed play,
have removed all personal touch

so why
now
this elegy?

this day
the day of death
of ICQ: the oldest messenger
which finally now
is put to death
in Putin's Russia: the land where progress dies

so, yes,
it's a shame,
and it will all
be forgotten
all too soon

and even the mere idea of hopeful innocence
must feel like an illusion so utterly naïve
in this new, cruel age of cynic consumption
and stream-lined productivity

June 26th / July 18th, 2024

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS XXI:

LAND OF DREAMS

am called to enter I
the land of dreams
this realm
of alternate realities
of promises strange
and terrors too familiar

just once
I would truly like to rest
but I guess
my rest will come later
and will be unwelcome as well:
and irreversibly quite so

thus shall I give in
and yield
to the entertainment
of the night,
of the unconscious mind
unleashed

and maybe
it is a gift
to be a semi-conscious traveler
in this landscape of insanity
where dreams deep down
allow my self to be most free

July 5th / 18th, 2024

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS XXII:

JUST PICTURES WE ARE IN THE END

just pictures we are in the end
and maybe, some thoughts of us survive,
some fragments, some memory,
but not for long

shall I complain here now and whine?
for maybe there is liberation
in the thought
of being forgotten:

for this enhances
the presence of now
and the uniqueness
of this moment right here

and maybe
a picture of ours
shall be looked at
sometime in the future:

an enigmatic shape
of yet another human being
lost in space
and lost to time:

and once we then fade
we shall allow others
to repeat the cycle again,
freed from us specters from times past

July 17th / 18th, 2024

योग (YOGA) - REVOLUTIONS X XIII:

(based on Prolog zur Zukunft, Prolog keiner Zukunft, Prolog einer geretteten Zukunft)

EXPOSITION:

INTRODUCTION: THE PLANET
PART I: THE ILLUSION OF PROGRESS
INTERLUDE I: TERRA
...

/

in the vastness of space,
its emptiness all,
this little blue planet
is slowly turning
displaying all
it's brought forth so far:

the green of the woods,
the yellow of deserts,
the blue of the seas,
the stars all around:

and see you as well:

the paths of the roads,
the dreams then of gardens,
the dreams but of cities,
the shadows of ruins:

and sense now
the teeming of life
all in between:

//

slowly, it's turning
in the vastness of space
an ark in space
a space of life
amongst the cold death
of the nothingness
all around

when we now
turn our eyes skyward
mistake the sky we for heaven?
should we not see,
in looking skyward,
we're looking spaceward,
not toward life everlasting,
but death all assured -
or a future of promises to come?

if Earth was Gaia
and Gaia could listen
we'd hear her pleading, urging, warning and all:
knowing
the ark is damaged
and we
are the cause
and we
are the tyrant
destroying it all
in our path

shall ask we,
yet why?

///

aren't able
to see we?
certainly, it appears so no longer

aren't able
to act we?
but we confuse difficulty with impossibility

aren't able
to care we?
some, indeed, have that luxury

for now

// //

slowly rotates the bluest planet
pleading for all
its passengers
its creation
its children
to join
and grow up
and protect
and live
and bring life
to the lifelessness
out there:
while protecting still
what is right here

I: COMFORT  ·  II: DENIAL  ·  III: POWER  ·  IV: DELUSION  ·  V: DEVS VVLT  ·  VI: PINNACLE  ·  VII: DISTANCE  ·  VIII: DOMINION  ·  IX: TWILIGHT  ·  X: PECCATA

I. COMFORT

sit we here
in our complacency
in our well-deserved and well-imagined
perfect world with perfect control
and perfect distance
to nature, to anything really alive,
to anything untouched by us and free:
sit we here
in all our artificiality
and comical sense of superiority:
sit we here
in all our comfort
our heat-controlled houses,
food so easily procured,
safety, overall, for granted
as we have
cocooned
ourselves
removed
ourselves
set apart
ourselves

deem more important
our selves
over the lives
of others:
the trees and plants
the animals
the land
and the planet:

deem we then
we could remove ourselves
from this quite complicated an equation?

deem we then
that we, as "sapiens", are smarter than nature,
throughout all of time?

tell me, please,
but you may not want to think about it,
how will we have food without nature?
how will we have air without nature?
how will we have land if all is polluted?

we may see our comfort -
and surely, we're loving it -
but we tend not to see it
as a gift, strange achievement,
as the grand aberration it is:

but how can we keep it
if keep we destroying
what makes it all possible?

II. DENIAL

we see:
and yet, we don't want to see

we hear:
and yet, we don't want to hear

we know:
and yet, we don't want to know

scisne?
audisne?
vidisne?

don't you know?
don't you hear?
don't you see?

III. POWER

are we not powerful?
are we not sapiens?
are we not special?

have built we not cities?
have built we not roads?
have built we not gardens?
have mastered we not
the woods,
the desert,
the sea?
are grasping we not
at the stars?
have left we not paradise to build it ourselves?

(respice post te)
(look back, behind you)

and yet,
there have been,
and will be,
some ruins

(hominem te esse memento)
(remember, you're human)

we easily have
the power
to destroy the world over and over

we believe we have
the power
to rebuild it all better and better

(memento mori)
(remember, you're mortal):

(some believe we'll fix this as well)

death walks behind us
for death we have brought
and death we will bring
and dead we will be:

and yet
cling we
to life
cling we
to hope
cling we
to belief
in mind over matter
in man over nature
in life over death

and the power
to cheat
the system

IV. DELUSION

God like we are
with powers unmatched
and almost almighty:
creators we, originators,
unencumbered
by the burden of hindsight:
forge we forward
forge we ahead boldly
forge we a new future
for all to see:
for we
have made God
in our image:
we have created
more,
so much more
than just one calf made of gold:
we've made cities
of marble, gold, brick, steel and glass:
and concrete
always concreteness:
for the material
reigns supreme
and we
are the makers
the creators
who, pray tell, could ever stop us?

V. DEVS VVLT

how can we claim to know
what is unknowable
how can we claim to hear
what is unhearable
how can we claim to see
what is unseeable

want we to know
what we to hear
want we to see:

and yet,
in all our desire,
all our yearning,
all our most desperate moments:

project we
onto the ephemeral
onto transcendence
onto divinity
only our selves:

we pretend
that we can hear
we pretend
that we can see
we pretend
that we can know:

and yet

that which is hidden
shall stay it hidden
that which is mystery
shall stay mysterious
that which is greater
shall always transcend us

that which is parable
still shall it teach us

and yet,
we seem to refuse this:
refuse we to learn
refuse to accept
that there is something
that will not bow
to our will
for power

and so
we still scream
deos vult:
God wills it:
as we've mistaken
phenomenon
over substance:
symbol
over truth:
ourselves
for that which is greater
always

VI. PINNACLE

oh
what a piece of work
is humanity:

the pinnacle
of evolution-creation:

the undoer
of all

have we become death
the destroyer
of our world:

shall carry destruction we
to others as well?

how we have learned
to destroy
that which nurtures us

how we have learned
to create
that which destroys us

how we have learned
to unlearn
what we've learned

how we have learned
to unteach
what was taught:

us
the pinnacle
of it all
have we forgotten
that pinnacles
are very fragile things
and can easily
break off

VII. DISTANCE

have removed we ourselves
from that which once made us?

from nature we are
and from nature we've fled:

and surely
who wants to be eaten
by hungry anymals:
or corrupted
by disease:
or undone
by disaster:

so now
we have replaced the savannah, the jungle
with deserts of concrete and steel
beasts of flesh
with artificial monstrosities:
and instead of the intelligence of nature
seek we that of an artificial kind:

just how much distance
from where we have been
to where we are going
will prove to be a step too far?

VIII. DOMINION

shall hold we dominion
over the Earth:

alas,
once we are done,

shall hold we dominion
over nothingness?

IX. TWILIGHT

stand we here
in the twilight of our might
stand we watch
and see it all
go up in flames?

the universe
is watching
and waiting
as it has probably
seen it all
before:

as I imagine
other planets
have seen their children
destroy themselves:

have freedom we
to be
like the gods of old:
who have all been as well
masters
of their own destruction
as they've invited
their death
by their creations:

maybe
one day
we can say
we've seen the world's end

or maybe
one day
we can say
we've come close
but grew up

the future
lies within us

X. PECCATA

superbia

sit contently we
proud of all we have achieved:
our fall has just come

avaritia

look at all the things
enthralling our desire:
how empty they are

luxuria

your beauty we see:
and all the plentiful ways
to violate you

invidia

look at all your things
enthralling our desire:
how shiny they are

gula

from deep inside us
a hunger that never will end
how empty we are

ira

if hurt us you will:
for eons we'll pursue you
till wrath kills us all

acedia

and now it is done:
and even yet if it weren't:
we just do not care

/

this home of ours
this bluest of marbles
illuminated
in the darkness of space
by our small yellow sun,
accompanied
by its greyest sister, the moon,
oh, what a marvel to behold!

pretend I, of course, to be able to see this
from anywhere but a mere photograph:
and yet, some of us
have been able to see
and been able to show
both the majesty
and the fragility
of this here planet
upon we are allowed to live

//

this planet
of ours

is it
of ours?

is it our spaceship
hurtling around the sun?

is it our habitat
sheltering and nurturing us?

is it our egg,
and we'll have to eat it and break it to leave?

is it a garden
for us to tend in perpetuity?

or is it a zoo
holding us for others' amusement?

or is it a prison
and we are its inmates?

or is it a paradise
and we are the serpents?

or is it just
what it is?

///

what is plain to see
is the majesty of it all:
or at least,
it should be plain and clear and urgent
to see how special
how magnificent
a place this is:

one planet
only one
circling our sun
which can hold life
as we know it:

an oasis in space
an ark of life
the only place we know
within the deepest depths of space
to allow us all
to live our lives
and be it in complete ignorance
and defiance even
against the very wonder
sustaining us all:

for every single human being
every single cat and dog
every single dinosaur
every single common house fly
has lived right here
and only here, probably:

this is not simply home
it is the only home possible
within what is known

a cosmic oasis
so unique to us
that it deserves
to be protected
most of all

(even if merely
for self-serving reasons)

// //

wait for inspiration we
as so eager we to see
what will emerge
what needs be done
what can be done
by us mere mortals
to shape a future
out of this our present, past
a future
whose prologue
we'll need to write first -
not sure I'd be
whether our story continues
far beyond
these mere preliminaries:

as future's prologue will unfold
our history may reach it's end still,
though hope we can
and act we must
that our salvation
may still be
achieved

(to be continued)

December 31st, 2022 / ...

Image: Earthrise. Credit: NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University.