Artist Versus Entertainers
Philosophically well educated
Obfuscation methods in placement
Evolution from their predecessors
Thought induction with language
Interpretation may vary
Subjective and misinterpretation
Hopeful to make changes
Unleashing words as weapons
Mental landscape vivisection
Anomaly amongst the lilies
Nature appointed tether
Ideological meaning hidden
Thunder before the rain
Yugen laced Ya'aburnee
"mush" means go to the sturdy huskies in the Yukon
mush made of cornmeal I fry up and slater syrup on
mush is great to use in a poem, a chameleon without a blush.
she rhymes with hush, shush, gush, lush, and definitely rush.
Modernland has legalized murder, they roll these streets
Billyclubs in tow, those weak are taped and tortured
Throw'em a gun and a bullet grinning through glass
As those who suffer pull the trigger, bang
Darkness isn't evil, the real monsters are people
Art is rebellion, they want Armageddon, life isn't Christmas
They decide who gets presents, I'm number one
On the naughty list, then, some call it divine intervention
Others say entertainment, I say sacrilege to the manes
(“The Night Sky”, 2014, original oil)
Lila, at Play
The world conforms to the wishes of those in it
Not necessarily to what we want
But certainly to what we need
Mirror-like in reflecting all we bring
Yielding to all we project.
And so cultures throughout history
Create their own world view paradigms
For the next to build on
Or tear down.
The modern world is still the age of reason
Ruled by logic and mechanical processes,
But it hasn’t always been so
And it won’t always be so.
The world as it is
Conforms, mechanically or playfully
And that depends on us.
I don’t know about you,
But all things being equal,
I’d rather live in a playful world,
Not one devoid of reason
And immersed in magic and mystery,
But one in playful balance.
Where plants can talk and animals listen
Where sunlight heals and sings
Its ancient song
Weaving lattice bridges
To distant stars
Across time and space, mind and matter,
Linking then and now, us and them
Together.
(9/14/25)
There once was a woman named Mabel
Who lived in a house with a stable.
She wanted a horse,
But since her divorce,
To afford one she just wasn’t able.
She had an idea for a cable
Which might bring enough cash to enable
Her life to change course
And she knew just the source,
So she laid her plan out on the table.
She contacted Julian Schnabel
And asked if perhaps he was able
To help her endorse,
By using his force,
Her product, which needed a label.
He agreed and how lucky was Mabel
When Amazon offered her cable!
She purchased her horse,
Which sounds crazy, of course,
But this story is only a fable.
THIRSTY PEACE WALLOWING
In life’s wet streamings–
Sweat, tears, and painful peeing–
Peace wallows in thirst:-
Today’s warring wet waters,
Quenching greed’s evil thirstings:-
hedgehogs, happy birthday hats and hamsters have a holiday
having hand-held hoes has highlighted Harry’s heavy Hanover hay
hellacious heavy thunderstorms hasten the hedgehogs away
leaving birthday hats and hamsters, who happily decide to stay.
will it up
grill it up
fill it up to brimming
swill to still those silly cells
drowned in what they’re swimming
press ‘em up
mess ‘em up
dress ‘em up with practice
a hoarder in its order
and thorned as any cactus
mock it up
talk it up
chalk it up to neurons
firing with mis-wiring
the receptors that they were on
hike 'em up
strike 'em up
spike 'em up your coursings
joy's in that sweet poison
tho it's life that you're divorcing
burn it up
churn it up
turn it up to 'leven
bursting drums, but first it comes
and lies to you like heaven
smoke 'em up
toke 'em up
choke 'em up a-breathing
red, the mud, as thin as blood
to leave your angels seething
tighten up
whiten up
lighten up and torch it
melt the moon into the spoon
and soon you'll swoon to scorch it
wind it down
bind it down
grind it down to fill you
you won't miss
amidst your bliss
the sweetest kiss ... to kill you …
her sweetest kiss ... will kill.
Copyright © 2023 Gregory Richard Barden
( photographic art created copyright-free by the poet with GALA AI software )
Sit and buy me a pale ale
while I regale you with
a tale written in braille
by a man stale in jail with
no avail to raise bail.
Curtail the detail ~ suffice it to say
how a frail male whale wailed when
again and again failed dislodging
a rusty nail impaled in its tail.
Not to derail but meanwhile
across the vale, a snail and quail
hightailed it but strayed off their trail ~
Once all were put up for sale,
t’was the female who tipped the scale.
It’s not much of a tale but
thanks for the ale, it was tasty.
Inhale ~ now let's enjoy an upscale cocktail.
Lineku: 3 stanzas of 5-7-5 lines ~ each line has 5 or 7 words
the blinders rest with ease—
seams seemingly gaunting;
haunting whispers crunch like teeth,
seekers left to guess
pestering what comes next
be a kiss that is gentle
or bent with tiles filing
finally laying—rather lying;
dying to look you
hook right between the eye
lend the heaven, tongues that speak.
though weepy,
deep and soundly they hide
behind masks clasping dearly
refraining to reclaim their faces
places they’ve felt love.
people they’ve once known—
sewn behind is their truth
and truthfully their pain is plain
written in bold
holding bruises
whether you choose to see it
or be it amiss.
wishing well feels like rope
we can feel it doping us
hoping that our next breath
is the last one to give less.
but living session after session
their weapons once sharp dulling
full hands weaken with tire
and wiry sighs leave the senses
why?
because we weren’t just prizes
disguised to heel blindly
or crawl without first running—
we are not sick and lowly farm animal
simple, dirty, managed to be manageable.
AN ALLEGORICAL MATH LESSON
(Rational And Irrational Numbers)
1.
Rational numbers,
And irrational numbers,
Teach many lessons:
Allegorical lessons,
On the living of our lives:-
2.
We must live rationally;
Living irrationally sucks:
Swallowing life’s goals:-
That teasing “pie in the sky”,
Must be assessed by squaring
With God’s sage divine wisdom,
And His repeating guidance:-
3.
Thus, always strive to be
In logical reasoning
With ourselves, and with others:-
With deception all wiped out,
And all wrong things put aside,
Always seek to do what’s right:-
She believed in love at first sight
was deluded and double-crossed
one more time put her heart on the line
everything she once had now is lost
never knew no one who'd dissemble and lie
stab her in the back as he looked her in the eye
made the mistake of giving him her trust
now she's all beat up broke down battered and bust
she who had the faith love conquers all
was duped deceived taken for a ride
if she knew then all she knows now
there'd be no heartbreak she'd be dry-eyed
what a charmer come to no harmer
he enticed her then sliced and diced her
he's a two-timing four-flushing freak
if anyone ever was the perfect portrayal of one
living on a diet of deception and betrayal
he's a true Casanova a real Don Juan
The Tower was engineered
by Monsieur Eiffel in Paris
the Wheel was favoured
by Mr. Ferris
Michelangelo in Rome
contributed St. Peter's Basilica dome
Eddystone Lighthouse the first
was constructed by Winstanley and
in St. Paul's Cathedral
Sir Christopher Wren had a hand
the seated Thinker
was carved out by Auguste Rodin
the Taj Mahal (Mumtaz') tomb
commissioned by Shah Jahan
all roads lead to the Colosseum
started by Emperor Vespasian
Borglum executed Mount Rushmore
while Hadrian gave us the Wall
and Ferdinand de Lesseps
secured the Suez Canal
in Byzantine Constantinople
Justinian I built the Hagia Sophia
in Italy Bonanno Pisano began
the (later leaning) Tower of Pisa
the Egyptian Pharaoh Khafre
inspired the Sphinx
but in Scotland who designed
the Musselburgh (golf) Links
To Americans, July 4th
is Independence Day,
with; barbecues, concerts, fireworks,
picnics, parades, patriotic festivities,
(a.k.a., Freedom Day).
Despite the star-spangled banner's,
red, white and blue,
to that of the British Union Jack,
being identical in hue,
flag-waving they're compelled,
or conditioned, so to do.
The U.S. Constitution does define,
'Treason' as... the only crime
consisting of levying war
against them, and/or,
to their enemies adhering,
with comfort and aid
by all means conveyed.
To those in England,
considering, in 1776,
colonists went their own sweet way,
it's the ultimate 'Treason Day'.
And, altho' the U.S. touts
'Separation of Church and State',
yea, verily I say,
is it not hypocritically unjust
of them to print on their money,
'In God We Trust'?
With two left feet
he's clod-hoppery
tho' her little white porkies
are quite whoppery
as he thinks aloud
she's merely frippery
meanwhile she knows
he's really foppery
but slinking around
slippery-sloppery
in sandals she found
flippery-floppery
she came a-croppery
a total eye-poppery
yet flummoxed
gob-stoppery
he refrained
from quippery-flippery
remained on toppery
and maintained
ever chippery
Related Poems