("The Mothership", 2024, original encaustic photo collage)
The Programmed Mind
Riding our brain waves
What we do and say and think
Finds a lasting home
At whatever level
Those vibrations take us.
Do we remember our dreams
What we did, said and thought
As the relaxed state of REM sleep
Molds us, solidifying or disrupting,
Our daytime persona?
Do we consciously seek out
Our own reprogramming
In deep prayer and meditation
Establishing familiarity
With primordial zero-point awareness?
Or do we simply
Follow our impulses like a dog
Basking in the pleasure
Of comfortable routine
And operant conditioning?
It is our mind after all
To have and to hold
Or rather as the case may be,
To reclaim and rewire,
Program and heal for ourselves.
(4/16/25)
Categories:
programmed, health, introspection, psychological, spiritual,
Form: Narrative
Our environment has programmed us not to think things out. The information onslaught has rampaged into our lives, hurrying us to the next task with no time to consider what it is what we are actually accomplishing.
Categories:
programmed, science,
Form: Prose
Our environment has programmed us not to think things out, the information onslaught has rampaged into our lives, hurrying us to the next task with no time to consider what it is what we are actually accomplishing.
Categories:
programmed, introspection, perspective, philosophy, psychological,
Form: Carpe Diem
Awaking I find with a click of the eyes,
Little rectangles all colors floating,
Floating and waiting suspended in my brain, so I
“Choose morning duties” – there’s an app for that,
A rectangle lights up, “Feed the cat.”
“Put on your shoes,” a link I click,
“Go walking,” my eyes blink “, and I get my coat;
“Arrow down to ‘music,” blink (an app for that)
Scroll to “Vivaldi, Hum and be happy,” click.
Internal am I as I jog by and by,
I see you--the eyes click “Greetings,” “How are you,”
How did I arrive in this awful tech state?
Trying to know all and be bright as you?
If I’m really smart, I’ll return to my heart,
Blink “delete all” and be free, and be true.
Categories:
programmed, humorous, satire,
Form: Free verse
"Smile and laugh when necessary,"
Was what the program said,
"Innocent bliss must be apparent,
But add strictness if needed."
And so around the class that she
Was put to study in,
She was a bouncing ball of fun
With an iron core within.
"Be polite, never talk back,"
The code this time meant,
"Be prudent, and be practical,
Be modest and yet intelligent."
So when at home she was,
The good yet strong-willed daughter
She followed orders and allowed
Herself to be made 'better'.
"Now be sarcastic, be sadistic,"
Was the next instruction,
"Smirk at pain and mock joy,
And prove it through your actions."
So around her 'friends', she was
A cold, merciless evil:
Conforming to the darkness and
Unafraid to kill.
Yes, she lived by a set
Of rules she coded, bit by bit.
She chose to forget her true self
Just so the glass slipper would fit.
Categories:
programmed, identity, image, self,
Form: Ballad
I was born here.
You were born there.
I was raised here.
You where raised there.
I was educated here.
You were educated there.
I have my beliefs.
You have your beliefs.
We do not agree.
We may go to war.
If I were born there.
If you were born here.
Things would be the same.
We are twice programmed,
genetically at conception and socially by the culture
we are born into.
Categories:
programmed, art,
Form: Prose Poetry
dense clouds cuddle
third dimensional
incarnations
free of birth and death
immortal we exist
evolved beings
colored bugs
expansion of self concept
harvesting white smoke
sky opening in silent
symphony
we are programmed
Categories:
programmed, allusion,
Form: I do not know?
Rolling along like a stumbling tumbleweed,
Programmed youth respond like robots.
Social norms are tightening tourniquets,
Restricting the flux of creative flow.
Wiggle room is considered a luxury.
Churches corral and prod like cattle.
Spoon-fed youth shackled to fantasy
Are taught to rebuke science as fraud.
Rebellion begins with autonomous thought.
Logic tramples faith based dictation.
Live like Jesus, but know that the Bible
Was written by man with ungodly agendas.
Freedom is found in the life of a Sheperd,
So stray from those who foolishly smite.
Jesus, the liberal, rallied the desolate
And turned his cheek at the mention of war.
Categories:
programmed, social,
Form: Free verse