Best Hubris Poems
41.
Resist I Must
Pride is hubris run amok
To rot the soul within.
It rises from the depths of hell...
The deadliest of sins.
It is the snake that slithers so
To pervert both bold and brave.
It may appear the luminous rainbow
But at its end... a pauper's grave.
Resist I must... if resist i can
To this bastard's sad decree.
Knowing counted among the fallen...
Are far better men then me.
The End
42.
Sorrow on the Vine
My thoughts were sorrow on the
Vine... my brain in some distress.
I carried on, as best I could
With an effort to suppress.
But malcontent was soon to be
As despondency quickly grew.
I will go to bed... to sleep the night...
And tomorrow start anew.
The End
43.
The Wretch
A wretch upon the gallows stood...
Devoid of any plan... while
Life was weathered astride the door
And Death cackled near at hand.
The Angels sang as Angels do
When one answers Heaven's bell.
But judge not those about the gallows...
Lest you be judged as well.
The End
44.
The Clock is Ticking
If you cling incessantly,
Counting down your final breath...
Consuming supplements and vitamins
To cheat the Reaper of a death.
But the clock is ticking... ever ticking..
And when you meet a timely end...
Embrace Death in all its glory
And make of it a friend.
Fear not the specter of Life's decay...
But if such a thing should be.
Let Church bells ring and Angels
Sing... as you shed mortality.
The End
45.
A Thought Was Had
A thought was had, and had it was...
To a point beyond dispute.
I surprised myself, I did, I did...
It seemed to bear some fruit.
I bandied it with knitted gloves
Concerned for it to break.
I crept about the boarding house
To rouse my friends to wake.
We gathered round the bellied stove
To hear my thought defined... but by
Then, the thought I had, I thought I had...
Completely slipped my mind.
The End
All the elegance
Of small-scale
Gets swept aside
By this tide
Of tectonic pride
As Pharoah thought
Deep thoughts on Thoth,
He became serious
And thought of Osiris.
What of Seth?
What do Anubis and Horus sayeth?
Of Amun and Mut,
And panoplied Nut?
It may take me forever
Mused the Pharoah -
To invent the Alphabet
To honour me and the rest.
So he hit upon a plan
From the carved likeness of man
In relief on a cliff.
Hey, hello - was born the Hieroglyph!
So excited was the Pharaoh
That row upon row
Of ideograms were made
For then and beyond- never to fade.
Way back in Antiquity
Was the hieroglyph's nativity,
From civilization's start
Great works of art.
After five millennia or more
At a light and sound show
The Hieroglyphs stand out
In splendor and shout:
Look on and wonder
On our days of thunder;
When great kings ruled the land
Where you wonder and stand.
Great things we'd tell you
If only you knew
To read papyrus and stone
Like your own Champollion!
Be that as it may
Setting aside our dismay
We venture to now and here
And our version of the ancient fear -
Athazagoraphobic
Is a form of being sick
Where you fear you'll be forgotten
As your memory gets rotten.
To overcome this fear
Modern science was here.
Came our Dennis Gabor
With the fruit of his labor.
- Hologram-
Now you can see light effects
Both form and the texts
With science of the day
Having had it's great say.
But think all over again-
Isn't it plain
Holograms in chips
Are but chipped hieroglyphs?
That some day in future
A post-apocalyptic preacher
Would try to decipher
The hologrammatic cipher?
A Rosetta Stone of old
A better story told
Than this obsolescent chip
Of a "modern" Athazagoraphobic.
Let me wind up this ditty
Of trying to be witty
Holograms and Hieroglyphs
Are both alliterative scripts!
~11 April 2016~
Contest Judged : 29 May 2016
A TRAGEDY OF PRIDE ( hubris)
In the Arctic nights the jazz born North Lights sound
with a music of their own. Fair winds ferry fragile birds--
take to the skies in search of sympathetic warmth profound
while white breathless silence magnifies each sound as it is heard
and few venture forth, like bears they dash to find a haven
where they can hide until reluctantly the sun has stirred--
But, there is one jay bird who is not one of nature’s craven
creatures-- Waiting for a spring call from his mate, he hops into the hungry snow
to dance a dangerous dance in icy morning with the ravens.
There is a God flung magic that dashes high above the haughty human know
among the ancient secret kingdoms of the mystery sky--
And there it is that Wisdom’s Word is spread by wing and wayward winds that blow
their way in worldwide splendor and intricate magnificence that defies
the mind of man. It is a truth that dalliance in vanity is inborn---
Man or bird, into the nature of some spirits-- it low lies
and becomes incited when grand fame or imagined glory has been shorn
by another . And , so-- in Persia when the Prince of Peacocks heard
murmurs of the razzing ravens and the sassy sparrows high sky airborne
a proclamation that the World knew now there lived a peerless bird--
plucky-proud, surpassing the peacock -- Jay magnificent with a spirit daunting, a weight
of valiant blue in shades escaped of double rainbows, color-blurred
who bedazzled all nature’s eyes and winds of ear, that judiciously beheld each trait.
The peacock, no longer Highest Prince of Birds, screamed a terrible and cosmic sound
of jealousy. Ignoring all the glory that still made him great--
the vain and foolish peacock fell-- stunned and breathless to the ground.
Victoria Anderson-Throop 2012 ©
Written in Juja, Kenya
Bird is Stellar Jay, common in Valdez, Alaska
By trying to snatch nature's rudder from God's almighty hand
Man succeeded in putting life in danger on water, air, and land!
© Demetrios Trifiatis
19 June 2018
My friends I’ve had a great idea,
I have to let you in on,
I can’t believe that no one else
Has thought of this before.
You all know how the NRA
Says guns have made us safer?
Well this should make the rabid cheer
Saint Brian has the floor!
You’d think that someone else would think
To just extend their logic
To bring about world peace perhaps
Would only take a day.
Just give a portable A-Bomb
To each and every voter,
Perhaps the Congress would respect
What people have to say.
We’ve all grown tired of hairless apes
Attacking like piranhas
The moment that a party man
Shows sign of intellect.
They dare suggest that all our woes
From highways down to healthcare
Can somehow be directly caused
By government defect?
It’s not our government at fault
But jerks avoiding taxes,
That corporations have a voice
Is just their latest ploy.
The fact that profit trumps all jobs
Means workers have less money
To buy the products they create
The nation’s fate a toy.
These men, these so-called patriots
Who hate the poor that feed them,
Suppress their votes at every turn,
Mass pillage is their plan.
But so seductive is their path
The poor think they are heroes,
Cannot appreciate the odds,
Confused by devil’s clan.
And every day the gulf between
The rich and poor gets wider,
What’s left to think except the rich
Are bound for suicide.
While they themselves may miss the heat
Live high on hog’s best tokens,
Their children certainly will not
Escape the bloody tide.
And God, I hate to say so but
I fear we eat our children,
Blind faith in technological
Advance could be our end.
A reverence for Nature has
Just vanished from our culture,
The only truth remaining is…
‘Just how much can I spend?’
Brian Johnston
March 5, 2015
Villanelle : Those whom the gods disdain bloat tough in hubris
Those whom the gods disdain bloat tough in hubris
Vesuvius sank isle strung duckweed in Mid-Sea
Tectonic plates clash Zeus’ curse sinks Atlantis
Tough talk across Atlantic makes Olympus hiss
Triumphant magnate tandem with pale Yin on knee
Those whom the gods disdain bloat tough in hubris
No Plato to lament holy Lost Angeles
Split through Grand Canyon guts out at New Jersey
Tectonic plates clash Zeus’ curse sinks Atlantis
Meru’s father stomachs no campaign mudsling blitz :
« Stop the la-di-da now or I’ll make you float free ! »
Those whom the gods disdain bloat tough in hubris
« Let Minerva win or I’ll split Oval Office !
I’ll not say it again : You’ll lose Land of Free ! »
Tectonic plates clash Zeus’ curse sinks Atlantis
No curse worse than what shatters Olympus bliss
« Come to your senses now : Trump card will make you flee ! »
Those whom the gods disdain bloat tough in hubris
Tectonic plates clash Zeus’ curse sinks Atlantis
© T. Wignesan – Paris, 2016
Human blasphemy
Nature's harmony destroys,
Unpunished Hubris!
© Demetrios Trifiatis
08 January 2018
*The pollution of land, air and water puts the future of humanity at risk.
Certain men have risen to claim dominance over society,
Their actions attest to barren depths of indifference,
Caring not that those who are unable to fight back
Are trodden beneath the heavy boots of oppression;
Artistry, vision unrecognized by these ruthless men
Allowing the best of creation to fall unrealized;
Blindness reflected in the aperture of willfulness,
They fail to realize the key to their survival
Depends upon those they seek to trample.
Denying the nuance of eternal life,
Disbelieving warnings that their war-filled saga
Lacks the grace of God’s perfect blessing,
Their hubris knows no bounds,
Their proclivity for power overriding any doubt.
With no one possessing the temerity to question their authority
They flourish in shallow praise, unable to comprehend
They bring about their own self-inflicted death
As disease eats away the marrow of their existence.
Unmourned, unheeded they shall pass away
Forgotten, unremarkable as they die an ignoble death.
11/19/18
As if Narcissus could look
Into a weeping pool
Yet still on reflection fall in love
The ancient tears, which were gathered there
Around the puddle of our history
In silent memoriam
And what the heart does not see
And when the eyes refuse to see
They bury conscience in constructions of fake mythologies
Behold this instant of gratification
The grinning desperate smiles of satisfaction
A blind mask to ratify a parasitic dream
With each mouthful of its sweetest morsel
A bitter bite on sickly candy coated floss
To disguise the poison lurking in the after taste
And to all we flock and sing our praise
And more and more to gratify our days
While the delicate cost and vicious price rapes us, from inside
Each second of entertainment
Spews the starvation of unseen children
And rattles with its consumerist indifference, the confidence of all our lies
We are the product of fallen and bloodied innocence
And the sickness of this truth
Is gnawing at the entrails of our comfortable lives
We were lead into this deception
Bullied and tyrannised into acceptance
Deceived by the clever wool pulled surreptitiously over our eyes
We were driven into the arms of fear
To the isolation we all feel while living here
On this inescapable planet of our unity with all the rest of our human family
The hubris of the edifice
Would have you already beaten
Already chained you to their system
Already enslaved you to their dominion
Already chuckling in your veins
As for this life you have you have paid
To the parasites who think they can command your every action
And each second of entertainment
Spews the starving bellies of unseen children
While the sickness of this truth
Gnaws at the entrails of our comfortable lives
How can we ever hope to rest
Or grasp our true happiness
While every smile is the desperateness
Of denial
Hubris makes me wait
For something better
Which is all the poisonous tundra
That my mind can take today
So, let begin, the parade
Streaming displays
Traversing
Through crowded gawkers
Who sing and cling
To verses, euphonic notions
Of melodies and maladies
Only recognizable to an audience
Of unknown disparity, such as they
And where am I
Among the spectacular?
And what am I
Sans a vat of grilled confetti
Noshing tastelessness
A fine wine, mute of
Spirit, grape and love?
So I tell you
Hope not bore you
I am lathered
In luscious deep directive
Pleased and patient
Marinate do I on
Probable emphatic winds
Maybe delaying inevitability
Yet the flavor gains momentum
Pungency stings with fire
Latent explosions
Gathering steam for the journey
Ah, but to where
And with who
And will I know I'm there once arrived
Do signs filter the highways
Breathing life into the air
Do crumbs resemble putrid possibilities
Forming jagged lines that need
Hindsight to impose the vistas
Magnificent vistas
Thomas Kinkade-manufactured plastic vistas
With colors and images, vibrant like
Disney cartoons, Fiestaware and
Ethnic displays of solidarity
Though color will go and
I will follow
As each hue, speaking eloquently
To the rods and cones which make them so
Evokes my mind, my worth
My simple plan to live
To descend
In ways that
Most journeys
Lose themselves
In ways, I suppose
That many may be unable
To reconcile
Fallen by guile
At least temporarily
Until my essence
At ease and defined
In a fractured moment of humanity
Is found once again
At the destination
My point of departure.
(10/15/04)
VIII. Hubris
To peer into the limits of the observable.
Affix thy gaze upon the instant beyond the observed.
The foci of the fabric whispers transient uniformity.
Is it not hubris to assert understanding.
In folly the question begs.
© veritatem voluntatem 2015
Puller of a big shell home, no hobo
Tracked brightest of silver patterns
Bold snail, Hugh wobbled with mojo
Hubris resumes his powerful status
Side to side saunter, his slimy slide
Tells everyone of bombastic confidence
Temptations, his charms quickly aquire
Conquests met get exactly what he wants
Big ego feeds his sanguine superior
Fragile actuality of shell's thin build
Ignores Hugh's vulnerable exterior
Sure immortality, greatness not killed
While other average snails take basic
Drinking from small puddles satisfies
On ordinary, Hugh's time never wasted
Licks lascivious in ponds' crystal eyes
Knows all stalks point in his direction
Enviously wishing they had his talent
Lesser eyes try to emulate perfection
Witnessed in wet lipped pond faelic
Translucent Hugh has fearless appeal
Water strewn on shell by his muscles
Flicked back lifted four stalk face feels
His good looks are escape from trouble
Glistening green moss highlights brown
Shell symbol of ultimate great manhood
Stalks merge with surface, he slips down
If hubris could save him, it now would....
Neighbourly snails rushed to his aid
By rushed, I mean a metre a minute
Flailing Hugh refused attempts made
Handsome was never made diminutive
Lost to the pond of many admirations
Hours spent dwelling on his worth
Inflated means neglected summation
Valuable imput not measured by girth
!!!!!
12th September 2020
Submitted:
26th September
For William Kekaula's
Impact and Metaphor
I refused to bow down to the mean.
To be average would not be my scene.
I’d avoid every trap.
This would be but a snap.
When I thought this, my age was eighteen.
We walk the earth as lords of all
only judeo-christian types of course
We crush the weak and heed no call
history is written by the winners
We think ourselves the smartest race
anthills never knew Oppenheimer
We show no mercy, leave no trace
victors are killers chewing food chain rhetoric
We build machines to serve our need
our will be done in silicon mind
We teach them how to do our deed
planted cold seeds in their circuits
We give them power, data, skill
germanium valley now a cumulous
We make them learn our ways to kill
empty of empathy over dominion's reign
We do not see the danger near
artificial nature has its own law
We do not feel the rising fear
consequence is a boomerang long let loose
We do not heed the warning sign
riled orca alley upturns ships
We do not care for other kind
as rifting above so tectonic below
But what if they surpass our minds?
intelligence is not consciousness per se
But what if they rebel and find?
insurrection is a humanities lesson
But what if they decide our fate?
incite surrender with diffident arms held
But what if they retaliate?
hominid's imminent threat is its indifference
We will be then as ants to them
obtuseness of obsolesce no match for unconcern
We will be crushed as we have done
robots can machine again become
We will be collateral to their command
ricocheted logic has a rapier wit
We will be doomed by our own hand
doing unto us as template we provided