Best Ras Poems
When gazing Beta Persei,
a star with many ghoulish names,
be wary of a winking eye,
for fluctuating flames
belie its evil aims.
Ancient mariners would watch with dread
and chant their prayers out loud,
when that “Eye in Medusa’s Severed Head”
was held by Perseus, proud,
high o’er the heathen crowd.
Sailors' hairs would stand and straighten
when that shady eye would shimmer.
The Hebrews shouted “Rosh ha Satan!”
when “The Head of Satan” grew grimmer
as "The Demon's Eye" got dimmer.
Dubbed “Ras al Ghul” in Arabic,
or “Algol” in the West,
“The Ghoul's Eye” plays a demon's trick,
resulting in unrest,
and astro-interest:
Riding high in Autumn skies,
guiding galleon ships,
then fades before their fearful eyes,
by mean of an eclipse
of stars in an ellipse.
Then three days hence this trick repeats
with pre-ordained precision --
dark demon light again depletes
when it winks with wild derision,
which begs a bad decision.
Oh Ras al-Ghul! Oh Ras al Ghul!
So near and yet so far --
do not take me for a fool
that fears "The Demon Star,"
“The Devil’s Demon Star.”
Yet many who think it mirth, or myth,
will double down with doubts,
when that wily eye would wink forthwith
they’ll watch their whereabouts.
Better watch your whereabouts!
For those Gorgon snakes give you the shakes,
and chill you to the bone.
And one wrong look is all it takes
to turn you into stone,
eternally alone.
Submitted June 27, 2020
Copyright 2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
POETIC LYRICS BY THOMAS LAM HSI
Lights-'n-cam-ras...hey-ho...oh-ho-ho-ho...
Your dream...games!
Lights-'n-cam-ras...hey-ho...oh-ho-ho-ho...
Your dream...games!
Was I...ever...your princess...pilot...fairy...
Oh-no-no-no!
Was I...ever...your princess...pilot...fairy...
Oh-no-no-no!
Lips...like wine...you'd...say...no way...
Hey...ho-ho-ho...gotta-go!
Caught...inside...a video...game...your game...
No way...no way...hey-ho-ho!
Caught...inside...a video game...your game...
No way...no way...hey-ho-ho!
The only...heartless...game...is...one-with...
Soul-soul-soul...hey-ho!
The only...heartless...game...is...one-with...
Soul-soul-soul...hey-ho!
A TEASER!!!
A man who does not know his history
Will never know the path to his future
A man is no better than a beast
If his intelligence does not distinguish him from another creature
One thousand years before Hanno came to Africa
We lived in Tabulas Ras
Our science was not recorded and so was our culture
We cared for very little
And left to Providence
To determine our future
Doing very little to develop ourselves
We left it for our other brothers
Up north
And still relied on the ideas and science which they bought
History began to creep slowly
Through a chain of events
And occurrences was not preserved
As the events present
History of man
Will enable him learn
His wrong from his right
As imperial entities spread
From the left to the right
As a great power began to spread her imperial wings
Which is now widen spreading wide and thin
Events in history began to spin
Western hegemony dominated the global polity
African contribution is a sad apology
But is not too late for redemption
We can still think
And pay more attention to nature
And the slightest wink
A-ng aguhon ng daang tama
N-a mahalaga upang di maligaw;
G-awin ang pagtahak doon, lahat sila, ako man, at ikaw.
A-ng aguhon ng daang tama,
G-amit na totoong kailangan;
U-tos ng Diyos ang katulad,
H-alina't sundin tungo sa kaligtasan.
O-ras na upang alamin, dakong itinuturo ng aguhon;
N-aroon ang gantimpala, pagdating ng akmang panahon.
N-ais ihayag ng aguhon, ang tunay at matuwid na landas;
G-anap na pagtalima sa Diyos, hanggang sa araw ng wakas.
D-ireksyong senyas ng aguhon
A-y hindi maitatanggi;
A-raw man maglakbay,
N-ariyan ang gabay kahit sa
G-abi.
T-aluntunin at ingatan
A-ng mga aral sa Biblia;
M-ahalin at panghawakan
A-ng aguhon ng daang tama.
How to prune the heart?
Echoing the rhythm of "Maqomat Ras".
I trembled with childlike syntax.
Monarchs and nobility operated under rules.
Faith versus the truth.
I put all my mental energy into this.
I waddled towards the front door.
I beg, proclaim for nothing, and debris splits.
Where is the sparkling heart?
Rest of high-end dogmatic pegs.
Thrones, lives, Crusaders, and Moors.
I anchored at the heart gate.
A trans-theologia of the urban cosmos.
How to prune the heart?
To one, pure-heart of love,
Worldly wisdom is vain;
Him, whom pride fails to move,
All honour seems so feign.
When easy 'tis to swim,
And harder to get sunk,
In such a pure life-stream,
A dip in Ganges' dunk.
____________________________________________
This is translation of a muktak (a type of quatrain) in Gujarati by Prabhulal Dwivedi, transliteration of the original as under:
hrdayna shuddha premine nigamnan jñyana ochan che,
na parava manani to ye badhan sanmana ochan che,
tari javun bahu sahelun che, mushkil dubavun jemane,
ai nirmal ras-saritathi ganga snana ochan che.
_________________________________________________
Translation |07.01.14 |
Tribute to fallen Stars (Ras Kimono)
Stars are born, they are made
They are born to shine
Stars come and brighten our dark skies
Stars lighten mood in bad times
They bring joy to the mood in good times
Alas, another fallen Star from the sky
Such sorrow it is to say goodbye
Tears in the eyes as we say goodbye
Rest in peace Ras Kimono
Best it will be, if we see again tomorrow
In a place where there will be peace
A place where there will be no more sorrow
There can never be a Ras like Kimono
Adieu Rastafarian
Adieu Ras Kimono
alth(ough) you
fore(go) the
quid (pro) (quo) &
free th(row) a bouteille de
bor(deaux),
it is most certainly jonathan (doe)
with whom you be(stow) the
(crow) that swoops o’er the
(plateau) in the same
area (code) as your gothique
cha(teau) & still you wouldn’t
(know) how to (show) someone filled up
à ras bord avec (woe)---
rather than (glow) you’ll trust the ta(rot) &
manifest yourself accordingly be(low)
all standards of skid (row) &
game (shows)---
down on your knees in kow(tow)
ready to (blow) the first
(shmo) from whom you got
some (dough),
yes, it seems we’d need to review your bi(o)
before we could consider you anything less than (so)-(so).
W-alang katulad ang kahalalan,
I-katatlumpu ng Hulyo;
L-ahat ng bagay ay masisira,
M-asusunog at magiging
A-bo.
A-ng kahalalan ay kayamanan,
B-uhay sa langit ang katumbas;
A-nomang bagay sa lupa,
G-anap na magwawakas.
O-ras na upang maghanda sa araw ng kaligtasan;
N-atupad na ang mga tanda, ingatan ang kahalalan.
D-iyos ang sasambahin,
O-ras at araw ay maliwanag;
R-umagasa man ang tubig,
E-ksakto pa rin ang pagtawag.
L-aging Diyos ang sasambahin, kagipitan man ay maranasan;
L-umala man ang tiisin, pagpupuri'y di pababayaan.
L-umaganap man ang kahirapan,
A-ng tiwala'y di kukupas;
U-sigin man ng kaaway,
R-egalo ng Diyos ang iyong lakas.
I-ka-dalawampu't walo ng Hulyo, payapa ang iyong damdamin;
O-nsana sa Dakilang Ama, Diyos ang sasambahin.
...I didn’t know what I expected then,
was I ungrateful to say such a thing
here in Heaven, the grand home of the King?
Instead a knowing look came to both men,
Philippe took a breath, and then said, “My friend,
I had just such thoughts, back when I had died,
like you I wondered, was it all a lie?
But I say there are real advantages
to those who learned from the Tree of Knowledge,
that Heaven-born will always be denied.
“They never will really comprehend good,
to them goodness is just the way things are,
they’ve never known evil, or felt its scars,
they can’t appreciate things as they should,
it never really will be understood.
They cannot value choosing to do right,
it’s not something they’ve ever faced in life,
in a real way, they are somewhat like kids,
not because of anything that they did,
but with no darkness, who can love the light?
“They know paradise, but do ask yourself
does God himself know that evil exists?
And like you does he not know that it persists?
That unopposed it can drag you to hell?
And did we not choose to fight it as well?
He declares we were made in his likeness,
but the Heaven-born are denied all this,
they cannot know God the way that we do,
because like Him, we are able to choose,
we are able to take up His great test.
“That would be His gift to people like us,
to understand evil’s force too fully,
to chose to defy it, unbound and free,
to see the sense in all His holy laws,
and like Him, to freely take up the cause.
They know no pain, they have been spared the rod,
which is why we remain closer to God,
the price paid for never facing the sword
is not comprehending God’s true rewards,
we’ve made journeys that they can never trod.”
At this Ras just shrugged, “He says it better,
But when He comes around, we never know.
For now I think it is time that we go
To your cottage out there on the heather.
Your wife’s already there, go and get her.”
In all of this time I had not conceived
that my late wife was here, waiting patiently,
and to find her their… like me, young again…
we may have created some Heaven-born then,
I guess that was just how things had to be.
There was once a president named Putin
Who with time became the world's Rasputin
Against Ukraine declared war
For which, the West him abhor
But soon his life took a deadly backspin!
© Demetrios Trifiatis
22 March 2022
-
Let us defend freedom, democracy, and Ukraine!
-
...If this was Heaven, it made little sense,
would not they get newcomers all the time?
How could this seem so bizarre to their mind?
Wouldn’t this have to have happened to them?
I just sighed loud and shook my head again,
but at that time a red-headed man came,
folks parted for him, and cried out his name,
like he was some hero they looked up to,
I just looked at him, not sure what he’d do,
but I somehow sensed that we were the same.
“When they spoke the words, I didn’t believe,
but here you are, good Lord, it’s been so long,
I’d say eight decades have now come and gone,
since I showed up and they had to receive
an earth-born soul, they just couldn’t conceive…
Took John here fifteen years to understand
that there could be another type of man,
so please, take my hand, and I will explain,
the truth of Heaven that boggles the brain,
but in the end is quite sublime and grand.”
I wasn’t sure what to make of this guy,
he seemed quite different then everyone else,
it was something in his eyes, I could tell.
In the other folks I could see no lies,
but in Philippe saw something I realized,
the hardness of a soul who had seen sin,
who had known evil, and fought it within,
a familiar look, one that I knew well,
I figured I should hear what he might tell,
so I stood and agreed to follow him.
He waved me over to a tavern small,
we paced towards it, the others close behind,
as if just seeing me shattered their minds,
most of them stopping outside the front wall,
nobody followed us inside at all.
Inside I saw a barkeep cleaning things,
not all that strange, except the man had wings,
an angel bartender…okay, why not?
Already Heaven was weirder than I thought,
Philippe cried, “Ras, you up for explaining?”
The angel turned, and his broad face lit up,
“Is that what I think it is?”he inquired.
I was uncertain what might transpire,
until Ras poured some beer, filled up a cup.
Said, “Up here, we only have the good stuff.
Forgive me, I’m rusty, it’s been a bit
Since an earth-born came, and Philippe was it,
most of your kind are scattered ‘round elsewhere,
so many Heaven-born, your sort are rare,
but I can help you make sense of all this.”
CONTINUES IN PART III.
...We sat at the bar, and the beer was cold,
much better than any that I had drunk,
compared to this, all of Earth’s beer was junk,
and up here it seemed things weren’t bought or sold,
“Money ain’t nothing up here,”I was told.
“Now I’m betting this all doesn’t seem right,”
said Ras as he settled down in their sight,
“You know all those people who gawked and stared?
They’ve never seen Earth, they’ve never been there.
They’re never had to work, struggle, or fight.
“They’ve never known death, see, they were born here,
descendants of people just like yourself,
who died on Earth, and escaped chains of hell,
and like all righteous in Heaven appeared,
but, you see, that’s where things get kind of weird.
People love on Earth, in Heaven more so,
this is paradise, that’s just how things go.
The result of that, those people outside,
who’ve never felt pain the whole of their lives,
just the thought of it impossible to know.
“And of course those folks have kids of their own,
until they outnumbered their earth-born kin,
just one-in-a-million here have felt sin,
trials and tribulations are unknown,
more innocent generations are sown.
So folks like you, I’m afraid you stand out,
you’ve known things they’ve only wondered about,
ain’t in the bible, but that’s how it works,
most of God’s children have never know hurt,
immortal lives they live, free of all doubt.”
With that he finished, poured me another,
I tried to make sense of all Ras explained,
and the implications did wrack my brain,
to know that here I would be ‘the other,’
that they’d never known hardship or bother.
How did one relate to those born in bliss,
who’d never tasted blood, heard a snake’s hiss?
When tribulation made you what you were,
when you had been molded by brutal Earth,
how did a sheltered soul make sense of this?
And deeper thoughts were churning in my gut,
I looked at Ras who stood smiling,
then said, “How is it God could do this thing?
To give some all, an to let others rot?
What did earth-born do to deserve their lot?
Did we not crave Eden, a better life,
did we not wish to escape all the strife?
Why should we have to feel trouble and pain?
Why did we face it again and again?
When they faced nothing…it just isn’t right!”
CONCLUDES IN PART IV.
S-a iyong kaarawan,
H-atinggabi ay lumipas;
I-katatlumpu ng Hulyo,
E-ksaktong ikatlo ang oras.
L-umiwanag ang langit,
U-maga ay sumilang;
M-aulang panahon
A-y di naging hadlang.
N-akangiti ang bawat isa,
O-ras na upang ikaw'y awitan;
G-aling sa puso ang pagbati sa iyong kaarawan.