A Strange Statue in a Park in Budapest

The adjective anonymous,
Although we know its origin,
Is like a hippopotamus
Submerged in the Nile.

A lovely park in Budapest
Displays a hooded, faceless man
A sculpted shrine, quite statuesque
Awe-full in its style.

Its name is St. Anonymous
Which is to say it has no name—
And yet it’s holy, ponderous,
Piercing, all the same.

It seems there are a host of saints
Displayed throughout the christian world,
Though faceless, nameless, without taint,
Foreigners to fame.

Like hippo nostrils, all we see
Of their good works and pious zeal,
Is art. Faith, anonymously,
Drove bulky submerged love, concealed
By saints without a name.
                       (10/15/08)

Posted in Religion

Being

I always taught: avoid “to be,”
In all its forms: “is,” “are,” and “was.”
Be active, take control, let’s see
What direct discourse does.

It all began when Man with dreams
(Hard working) grew that first surplus.
Mere sustenance gave way to schemes:
Wealth, not life, his purpose.

Investment became sovereign—
Complexity made Men of Boys—
Greed taught them how to twist and feign—
Success measured in toys.

And though each cent’ry spawned a crash
(Or two), investors never learned
To curb the greed that flamed to ash,
Avoid the painful burns.

Perhaps we should embrace “to be,”
Invest in primal things, shun wealth—
Return to plain humanity—
To “Being” trust our health!
                      (10/6/08)

Posted in Greed, Poetry (What is it?), Words

Affliction

     For E.L.

A guy named Eric, in Venice,
Richly aware of the menace—
Afflicted with piles,
He moved without smiles,
And damn near gave up on tennis.

Though he walked much like an android
(He suffered from chronic hem’rrhoids!),
The doctors came through,
They fixed him like new,
And now he just grins when he voids.
                          (10/02/08)

Posted in Aging, Pain

Sunshine

Sunshine, Joan’s therapy cat, sometimes sleeps
With us, sometimes not. Untrammeled, he roams
About, guards the gates, makes prodigious leaps
To pace my desk, secure his turf at home.

The other day, at dusk, I watched him, pressed,
Absurdly still, on our front walk, intent,
Focussed, feline energy invested
In a tiny bird, innocent portent,

Perched on our front gate. Never have I seen
A creature so like stone. Not even breath
Disturbed that psychic tension, that fierce force—
Cosmological—presaging prey, death.

The bird flew off; Sunshine, coiled, too late, hurled
Himself. Writ small: the hist’ry of the world.
                                              (10/1/08)

Posted in Animals

Naiveté

     For B.L., Ph.D.

                 I
A fellow academic, cynical
Beyond repair, finds me perverse, naïve.
Why? Because I preach justice. Clinical
Evidence? Shocked by misery, I grieve.

“For pity’s sake, Marv, that’s the way things are—
Get over it! For pity’s sake, stifle
Those Edenic dreams, accept the blunt scars
Disfiguring humanity. Trifle

With power? You’re daft! Shmuck, stop, suck it up!”
Thus, the realist. Undeterred, I dream:
Wealth heals poverty; greed shrinks to enough;
The gods agree—dissent does not blaspheme!

Health care is free; politics rational;
Learning pursued; our fecund Earth adored.
Wit and wisdom flourish! We can annul
The horrors we endure. Why travel, gored,

That cynic’s road? Explore our hopeful way—
Graced visionary path: naiveté.
              Marvin Klotz, Ph.D. (9/21/08)

                         II
Naïve, the noun: innocent and simple,
Artless, lacking worldly wisdom. Naïfs,
Ill-equipped to heal the toxic pimples
That infect our lives, must submerge beliefs

That cannot float upon the surly sea
Of tyrants, corporate wealth, and power!
And yet, these same naïfs, historic’ly,
Did whine, berate, fight, complain, and glower.

Your point? Well now, at last, we all can vote,
And unions are no longer criminal.
And, despite diminished profit, that host
Of poison must not (crudely dumped) appall

Our seas and air. What’s more, slavery, firm,
Brute economic principle is done.
Rules hamper predators, force them to squirm.
Seat-belts, for chrissake, prove naïfs have won!
                                  (9/25/08)

Posted in Politics

America: That Shining City on a Hill

     Los Angeles Times, Business Section (9/10/08)

Never mind the war zone News; instead, talk
About Business—that’s what we’re best at, right?
Well, there seem to be cracks in need of caulk,
“Lender responds to data breach,” one bright

Headline reads. An entrepreneurial
Worker, it seems, sold two million data—
Such acts, of course, are not mercurial—
Market leads, it seems, generate good pay!

“Wachovia [that’s a bank] battens down
the hatches.” Forget the cliché—risky
Loans, it seems, surely fail. Don’t fret, weep, frown—
Those brash loans, despite the hype, seemed frisky

Risks. None, it seems, imagined price collapse
Could curdle mystic markets, infecting
With intractable disease—moral lapse,
Not merely economic—what abject,

Demonic Greed (our strongest Deity),
Has grabbed us, seized both throats and genitals?
But wait, there’s more, delicious, you’ll agree!
“Lenders to adopt code of conduct,“ quail

Before grim evidence, piously pledge
To stop bamboozling students, stop lying,
Stop bribing college counselors—allege
Fair play (banks born again!) to dodge dying!

The bottom line (that’s what we’re good at, right?)—
This Shining City on that Holy Hill,
Profoundly ill, consumed by moral blight,
Worships divine Greed—deity that kills.
                                     (9/18/08)

Posted in Greed, Today's News