Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category

Circle of Hate

June 1, 2014

line people

Strangers sharing all their troubles
Actors living inside bubbles
Lucky, privileged, pampered babies
Make me foam like I got rabies

I got a list inside my head
Of all the people I want dead
I focus focus all my spite
On other people day and night

And I could torture all the swine
Who don’t decide when they’re in line
Chatting up the checkout gal
Like she’s their oldest living pal

I got a list inside my head
Of all the people I want dead
I push my anger far and wide
Cuz I don’t wanna look inside

I ruminate with all my might
On every slander, every slight
The lineup is a mile long
Of all the folks who done me wrong

I got a list inside my head
Of all the people I want dead
I try and try and try and try
To swallow hate until they die

by Richard W. Bray

apologies

May 25, 2014

heatherhowell


so many times
so many ways
i hurt you
for what I am
and who
i want to be

i devour
i disrupt and
i endure
my hunger
slashes you
it nibbles me

a thousand times
i can say
i’m sorry
but that’s
a stupid song
i sing for me

by Richard W. Bray

Money and Bullets and Boots and Blood

May 25, 2014

Afghan men search for the bodies of people killed in a NATO airstrike in Logar province

We have what it takes to set you free
Money and bullets and boots and blood
We’re everything that you want to be

The model of modern society
Wash away fossils in crimson flood
We have what it takes to set you free

Inside you is a another form of me
We’re putting our values out to stud
We’re everything that you want to be

We’re the glory of all humanity
So embrace your liberation, Bud
We have what it takes to set you free

Steaming hot piles of Democracy
Fashioning our dominion of mud
We’re everything that you want to be

Bombs build dreams like factories
Shimmering cities on a hill of crud
We have what it takes to set you free
We’re everything that you want to be

by Richard W. Bray

Many Medicines: The Devil’s Delight

May 11, 2014

Sorrow seems more general than it did, and not the estate of a few persons, since the war began; and if the anguish of others helped one with one’s own, now would be many medicines.


Devil-307138.svg

Suffer, squirm, and die
I hope your life is hell
Your hurt is my elixir
I’m doing pretty well

Your torment is my tonic
Your pain is my success
I pray for mass affliction
I feed on your distress

Your agony refreshes
And fills my world with joy
The cure for all that ails
Is to damage and destroy

Misery rejuvenates
It whitens every stain
All of my misfortune
Is abolished in your pain

by Richard W. Bray

In the Dirty Grubby Grime

May 7, 2014

aaaimagesF5HIRP8O

In the dirty grubby grime
Is where I like to spend my time
Nothing feeds the living blood
Like sloppy teeming murky mud

I genuflect and praise and bless
The sullied sloppy sultry mess
A boggy swamp rejuvenates
The muck is where life germinates

Terrified of nature’s touch
Are folks who like to bathe too much
You’ll be inert and none the wiser
With too much soap and sanitizer

Deliver me from points pristine
The antiseptic and the clean
Spotless dreams cannot console
The barren sparkling stainless soul

by Richard W. Bray

Non-Apology Apology

April 17, 2014

bad manners

I ate your lunch, but don’t you see?
You left it right in front of me
I’m sorry that you’re feeling cross
I’m sorry but you’re not my boss

All my friends thought it was funny
When I dipped your phone in honey
I’m sorry you can’t take a joke
I’m sorry you’re a stodgy bloke

I’ll raise some hell and make a fuss
I’ll fart and belch and shout and cuss
I’m sorry if you think I’m rude
I’m sorry you’re a silly prude

As long as everyone is free
I’ll be the man I want to be
I’m sorry you’re hung up on rules
I’m sorry you were raised by fools

by Richard W. Bray

The Little Toil of Love

April 13, 2014

new-zeland-zealand-the-free-spring-meadow

I had no time to Hate—
Because
The Grave would hinder Me—
And Life was not so
Ample I
Could finish—Enmity—

Emily Dickinson

The human mind is capable of generating rational thoughts, but thinking is not a rational process. Our thoughts are the fruit of our emotions. The poet Theodore Roethke points out

We Think by Feeling

Our perceptions are limited and transcendence is an illusion. Wallace Stevens reminds us

Your world is you. I am my world

It’s not my task in life to figure out who the good people are
. There are people that I admire; there are people that I enjoy being around; there are people who annoy me; there are people that I don’t enjoy being around. But people are not what I think about them. And whatever fraction of my life I spend evaluating the overall worth of particular human beings is a waste of my precious time on earth. Life is not a contest, and even if it were, no one appointed me judge.

We see others through the prism of how we wish to perceive ourselves. W.H. Auden explains

A friend is the old, old tale of Narcissus.

It is easier to feel compassion for others when I am feeling good about myself. And forgiving myself for my imperfections makes it easier to accept the imperfections of others.

My cruel and petty and spiteful impulses are the excrescence of my inadequacies. I cannot make these impulses go away. But I can endeavor to check myself whenever I fantasize about seeing bad things happen to other people. It’s a perpetual struggle.

by Richard W. Bray

Hate is My Rock

March 16, 2014

devil

Hate is compass
Hate is my staff
Anguish and squalor
Just make me laugh

Hate is my heart
Hate is my rose
I build my existence
On what I oppose

Hate is my harvest
Hate is my seed
I live to disfigure
And see people bleed

Hate is my passion
Hate is my hope
I bathe in its glory
It cleanses like soap

Hate is my raiment
Hate is my gear
War is my mother
My father is fear

Hate is my Rock
Hate is my creed
My faith is dynamic
It grows like a weed

by Richard W. Bray

Perhaps

February 22, 2014

Love enemies

Those people loved their children too?
Afghanistan and Viet Nam
Pardon me; I never knew

Now they’re just a mass of goo
Or cinders left from firebombs
Those people loved their children too?

Lives destroyed and bodies strewn
Interrupting morning calm
Pardon me; I never knew

They’re savages, what can you do
But kill them all with robots bombs?
Those people love their children too?

Are they just like me and you?
Earnest dads and doting moms?
Pardon me; I never knew

I’ve been told; it must be true
They’d kill us all without a qualm
Those people love their children too?

Perhaps someday we’ll have a clue
Perhaps we’ll send them love and alms
Perhaps we’ll love their children too
Pardon me; I never knew

by Richard W. Bray

Valerie Victeema

November 30, 2013

victim

Life is out to get her
It happens all the time
It can never be misfortune
It has to be a crime
Never try to tell her
That pain is all around
Her suffering is special
She wears it like a crown

Everything is tragic
For Valerie Victeema

She had a bad day
It was worse than Hiroshima

The trouble she’s seen
Everyone must know
She’s fishing for some pity
Everywhere she goes
Cry, complain and whimper
Grumble, bitch and groan
Valerie’s existence
Is a never-ending moan

Everything is tragic
For Valerie Victeema

When her toilet overflowed
She reported it to FEMA

by Richard W. Bray