WHERE DO PRAYERS GO?

If you learned how to worry, you know how to pray
And you likely do both each day.
You know worry gets you nowhere,
about that there is nothing more to say.
But when you pray, sins and cares
seem to pass away--but do they?

The prayers you use, some old, some new
some are about others, some are about you,
some are long and loud so they can be heard far away,
or doesn’t it work that way?
Silent prayers and thoughts too---are they heard?
That no one can say.

But it wasn’t always this way.
There was a time when sins were in fashion
and sacrifices were the only means of redemption
Animal rituals were the preferred route
to judgment day,
although sometimes sinners themselves were made to pay,
as when Abraham offered his only son as prey.

Around the Common Era (70 C.E.),
praying was first adopted to atone for human frailty
Yanneh, a rabbinical cabala synod,
decreed that civility trumped sacrifices, and
morality was more than archetypical rituals
that passed for religious legality.
That was when praying, a benign form of begging,
replaced animal and human sacrifices; the voodoo of
that day, and.
so the culture changed for good. by way
Soon after, Jesus was the last sacrifice for the sins of man.
Afterward praying became the new talisman.

But prayers came with a new price.
They were unstructured, disorganized, rambling,
often failed to deliver, and were misused.
Prayers were written to atone for every known vice,
They came in many flavors-- repetitive, petitioning, ritualistic,
meditative, intercessory, collaborative, and colloquial
atonements, socially acceptable and perfuse.


Changes from physicality to spirituality was the new
psychology that enhanced life by illusion and fantasy
all without contrition, embarrassment or apology—
a cultural conundrum!

The daunting struggle continued by uncovering truths
and casting them away to the ethers.
It included confession to reduce life stresses,
and required daily conditioning from childhood on,
until it was haunting.

So many prayers are not answered; the failure rate is high
Sometimes it seems all that remains is to pray a lie:
(A Parable)
A young boy prayed each night for a new bike,
but nothing happened that he liked,
so he stole one and prayed for forgiveness,
while riding a new bike.

The challenge is to preserve a culture, which evolved from brutality to intimacy whereby prayers pursue problems,
but are often polluted by problems pursuing prayers.

Prayers and meditation reside in the same mind,
and need faith to reconcile the human and spiritual needs of mankind.
Praying is noisy, faith is silent, and each is mutually exclusive yet together are gentle to the point of sedation.
It matters not the length, speed or intensity of each,
their catharsis goes to the furthest reach of the ether
in tandem with a cacophony of all other worldly sounds,
any one of which is capable of murdering the hope they promise,
by canceling prayers from closed eyes and open mouths.

But what if there is not more to life than living it?
Then the secret is out, the mystery is over!
A new liturgical fabric will be needed
or mankind will again roam blindly to atone.
What new process awaits us for condoning and atoning?
Can a poem, a poem in harmony with the universe better express
our most intimate thoughts, and fulfill our needs
with its every verse?
In time, poets and poetry may remain to direct the only
stream of consciousness left to mankind forevermore here on Earth.
Thank God, I’m an Atheist!

GOETHE

JOHANN WOLFGANG von GOETHE*
(1749-1832)
(A Biographical Poem)
*pron. Gerta

What is poetry without romance?
abstractions without people?
Philosophy without insight?
Courtesy without love?

So it was with Goethe:

Brilliance without admirers;
Humorless French theatrics
that mimicked Greek tragedies;
A Napoleonic perception that tragedy
only befalls royals and monarchs
thus keeping their subjects in awe;

Goethe’s poetry is filled with alchemy and darkness depicting conflict, dread, and tragedy.
Among his poems,
- “It is Good,” is a conflict among Adam, Eve, and God;
- “Dance of the Dead;”
- “To Luna,” where spirits wake at night;
- “The Fisherman,” who meets his fate by the lure of the siren’s bait.
All eventually leading to the infamous debate
between Mephistopheles and God
about the worth of man, who is always destroyed under God’s grand plan.

Thus began the dark struggles of FAUST!

He, a God-fearing man seduced by Mephistopheles,
by willing his soul to Hades.
But God’s heavenly restraints win out.
Despite Faust’s newly restored youth, wealth, scintillating sex, and fame,
after the fun…his soul is redeemed, and God wins the game.

A devoted author of Weimar Classicism
in a privileged German-Jewish heritage,
Goethe lived a life of tragic formulations
always haunted by a stern father’s aspirations.
Six languages by the age of eight,
philosophy, medicine, and law by eighteen,
self reliant and unconstrained he fell deathly ill,
returned home to struggle with health, love
family aspirations, and new social skills.
Transformed by this turmoil, his coherent vision
of good and bad produced a remarkable Dicter**
who influenced freund** Frederich Schiller
on his poems of death:

- The Secret Ring of Polycrates;
- Nadowession Death, and
- A Funeral Phantasy,
inspiring Schiller to write Tales of William
Tell, and Don Carlos, both as with Faust stories and operas of great poignancy.
Alas, Geothe’s wish to be buried alongside Schiller
who predeceased him.
A fitting end to this Greek tragedy, but that was verboten**.








** Poet, friend, forbidden, resp.

A HOROLOGY OF TIME

INTERNAL, EXTERNAL, ETERNAL:


Inaudible, noiseless, Time stays we go,
a tenseless presence of past, present, and future
yet measurable down to quantum Plank units
beholden to no single theory after
2,500-years of trying.
The essence of Time is physical,
continuous, and eternal
with no time for philosophizing
about metaphysical entropy.
Time is temporal, an accretion of
the past (present-day Time has a past),
and an absolutely predictable future
(present-day Time already has a future),
grounded by physical repetition
and preparation by Earth’s inhabitants;
human, animal, and vegetable.

Ontological and faultless are the metrics of eternal Time
People’s daily habits are predictable
Animal migrations are unchanged,
Seasonal crop growth is known
Axial rotations of celestial bodies are measurable
Flood and ebb Tides are chartered
Night and day is repetitive
all are physical elements of eternal Time.

So how is it we run out of Time?
The 2nd law of thermodynamics states,
“a closed system is not self-correcting,
and eventually dissolves into chaos.”
Time is a closed system perpetually working in tandem
with cosmic gravity to maintain the momentum
of an ever-expanding physical universe,
and a future identical to its present and past .
While we merely pass by.

What of time travel?
Is not Time accretive, tenseless, and akin to a
kinetic state?
Once spent it is left in the wake of an expanding universe
abolished by dark matter.
Traveling back is to deny its existence and traveling forward
must exceed the speed at which the whole universe expands—
the speed of light.
That too, is impossible…so enjoy the ride and stay put!

FRACTURED PRISMS

Refracted lights allow us to see,
a spectrum of colors
of our self-righteousness,
and with certainty.
And so it is with moral conflicts,
that all begin with a clarity,
belying the underside,
of destruction, and pity, both
last refuges of piety.
Since creativity, wars of certainty
began but ended in despoliation.
Followed by peace and bereavement,
generation after generation.
History records twenty-seven wars
since seventeen-hundred and seventy-six,
and twenty smaller conflicts in between,
with casualties of 3.2 million soldiers,
mostly unforeseen.

Young people lost to nine generations,
not counting millions of civilians
caught up in the mad hypnotism,
of enlightenment, reflected in a terrible war prism.

The spectrum of primary colors was stained ‘dread,’
in the fourth quarter of the Eighteenth Century,
when the Revolutionary and Indian Wars,
left forty-thousand dead.

The Nineteenth Century color was ‘Vermillion,’
after the War of 1812, the Civil War; and
the Spanish-American War, cost another million.

Victories were attained, and the Twentieth Century became “Bloodstained”.
WW I, WW II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf,
and twenty-six other “minor” conflicts,
Cost the lives of over two-million young conscripts.

Now here we are seven years later,
as the hated not the haters.
Iraq and Afghanistan are today’s quid pro quo,
Twenty-Five thousand casualties,
and only ninety-three years left to go!

The "No" Shibboleth

Let’s face it, saying “No”
sets you far apart from others.
After all, whether “No” is loud
or soft, it is clear!
“Yes” can be fanciful and obscure,
often jocular and exasperate.
Ending all further discourse,
because you’re desperate
Except, of course, who really lost?

People who say, “No” are
more likely heard
For the sake of this one word.
they’re noticed by others,
As interest soars, and faces scowl,
all because they finished talking
with a vowel.

“No” is far more noble than “Yes,”
just using it is more likely to impress,
Especially when it is effortless.
heads turn at once, ears eagerly listening,
Why this naysayer is so freethinking.
it’s so much easier to go along,
Believe others are right and you are wrong
that way you’ll never be noticed in a crowd,
And just get along and not be proud, or
challenge those who are usually loud.
Though wrong they may be nonetheless,
leave it to fate to unscramble their mess.
Or say, “No,” and sit back and see,
if your insight is better than their stupidness.

My favorite people say, “No!”
even when they think, “Yes”
Then leave it to others to
pass the test.
“No?” It’s best.!

Fractured Prisms

Refracted light allows us to see,
The spectrum of colors
Of self-righteousness
With certainty.

And so it is with moral conflicts,
That begins with clarity,
Belying the underside of
Destruction, pity, and
The last refuges of piety.

Since creativity, Wars of certainty
Began and ended in despoliation.
Followed by peace, and bereavement,
From generation to generation:

History records twenty-seven wars
Since seventy-hundred and seventy-six,
And twenty smaller conflicts in between.
With casualties of 3.2 million,
Most of them unforeseen.

Young men and women lost in just nine generations,
Not counting civilians caught up in the hypnotism.
Like splinters of light reflected by a terrible War prism.

The spectrum of primary colors was stained ‘dread,’
In the fourth quarter of the Eighteenth Century,
From the Revolutionary and Indian Wars,
That left forty thousand dead.

In the Nineteenth Century, the color was Vermillion,
Following the War of 1812; the Civil War; and
The Spanish-American War, we had lost
Another million.

Not to be outdone by victories attained,
The Twentieth Century color was Bloodstain.
WW I, WW II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf,
And twenty-six other armed conflicts,
Cost the lives of 2.2 million conscripts.

Now here we are six years later,
We are the hated not the hater.
Iraq and Afghanistan are the quid pro quo,
Twenty-Two thousand casualties,
And only ninety-four more years to go!















…inspired by reading Goldensohn, Lorrie, American War Poetry, (Columbia Press, 2006),
and Grandetita.

Aristocratizing America

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

The Shrinking Importance of Americans
ARISTOCRACIZING AMERICABeginning with The Bank Holding Act of 1956[1] that exempted Industrial Loan Companies from federal banking regulations except for keeping them eligible for government- sponsored FDIC insurance, these secondary lenders were a valuable source of high interest loans to a public segment otherwise unbankable. A financial stranglehold has proliferated on all citizens, however, because of misusing an otherwise well conceived statute.Today, Industrial Loan Corporation charters are open to non-bank corporations wanting to own a financial institution without becoming subject to the provisions of the Bank Holding Company Act. These “Credit Card Companies,” with federal deposit insurance protection, are endowed by Congress with “most favored lender” treatment and “exportation” rights pursuant to the Federal Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act of 1980[2], a statute enacted to allow a special interest group to usurp all State usury laws, and charge outrageous interest on credit card purchases that masquerade as punitive fees, elected by the card-holder, as an addition to contractually high interest rates.Only California, Colorado, and Utah offer charters for Industrial Loan Corporations that are eligible for FDIC insurance to exempt them from abiding by bank regulatory statutes, and other State usury laws. In 1986, only the Utah legislature enacted a statute that “mandates” all Industrial Loan Corporations be insured by the FDIC, and be allowed to use the words “bank” and “savings” in their name. [3] This act enhanced the value of their State charters for non-bank Industrial Loan Corporations (previously tainted by the failure of Utah’s privatized Industrial Loan Guaranty Corporation that resulted in numerous problems for state politicians including depositor lawsuits.)[4]The Competitive Equality Banking Act was passed by Congress in 1987 to change the definition of “bank” to include any institution having FDIC insurance but specifically exempted Industrial Loan Corporations from other bank regulations if, among other things, such corporation, “...organized under the laws of a State which, on March 5, 1987, had in effect, or had under consideration in such State’s legislature, a statute which required or would require such institution to obtain insurance under the FDIC Act.”[5] Utah was thereafter prepared for the “gold rush” of domiciling credit card companies. From 1994 to 1998, at least eighteen major credit card companies obtained Utah State Charters to operate as Industrial Loan Corporations, including American Express, First USA, GE Capital Financial, and Providian Bank. Combined these accounted for over $18 billion in consumer debts in 1998. Today, these chartered “banks,” joined by almost 200 others account for $two trillion of outstanding credit card debts-- half of which constitute egregious interest charges and punitive fees (the latter a euphemism for even higher interest rates) that often double the cost of an original purchase on a revolving account. The constitutionality of State and consumer rights to fair and statutory interest is rarely challenged when federal legislation benefits the gigantism of credit card “banks” and their lobbying at all political levels, not to mention the largess of their political action committees (PACs) and soft money contributions.”[6] (MBNA, a major company made political contributions of $3.5 million in the last election, and the credit card industry as a whole is estimated to have contributed $19.2 million, two-thirds going to the Republicans).[7] Pernicious consumer laws become accepted doctrine by default because they are rarely tested against the metrics of our founding fathers that entitles every American citizen to freedom from legalized forms of oppression---economic, as well as religious.Not content with the Utah lottery that entraps the American public into over-shopping then paying credit card companies twice for the privilege, or the merchant clients who also pay fees, discounts, and collection days to credit card companies for the privilege of selling merchandise, the Congress passed consumer bankruptcy law reforms(?) to prevent hard-pressed American consumers from their constitutional right of due process to declare bankruptcy and obtain relief from their accumulated and burdensome debts including credit cards, exorbitant fees, and horrendous interest. This new law raises all credit card debts to the same priority as income taxes arrearages (taxes are not dischargeable in bankruptcy). In U.S. history, no other type of indebtedness enjoyed such privileged status.[8] Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah), and former chair of the Judiciary Committee that created this travesty, is quoted as saying, “This bill will do an awful lot for the good people in our society”. Article 1 of The Constitution grants powers to Congress to regulate bankruptcy for the purpose of “enacting laws of hope,” but can the debtor’s stockades be far behind?Congress is unaffected by the burdensome consequences of having American citizens pay exorbitant and no longer illegal interest and fees that masquerade as punishments, but our politicians continue to profit politically from the payback of passing the Bank Holding Act of 1956. Do we not have political aristocrats who cloak themselves as selfless public servants to further enrich their regal benefactors as well as themselves?Please let me know your thoughts....Thanks!End Notes:[1] 12 U.S.C. x 1841(c)(2)(H).[2] Section 521, 12 U.S.C. x 1831d(a).[3] Utah Code x 7-8-5(3)(a)(iv).[4] A fund created by State statute in 1975.[5] ref: 12 U.S.C. x1841(c)(2)(H) and 12 U.S.C. x1811.[6] ibid., March 15, p. A22.[7] ibid., March 13, p.A14.[8] NY Times, March 13,15, 2001, pp. A1-14 and A22, respectively.
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DID YOU SEE…

…the Great Wall of China,
Built to keep out invading hordes, or
The Berlin Wall,
That kept out competitors?

Then you must see the
Great Wall of Mexico,
Built by Americans,
To keep out friendly Sẽnors.

Oh, the sky over it, and
The ground under it,
Are shared with delight,
The threat to America
Comes from the flight,
Of poor but honest Sĕnors,
Who pay their taxes,
To do the chores that
America abhors.

The fence is high, and
Topped with wires,
The US side looks in
With spite such sight
Inspires—beckoning,
Mimicking, and taunting
Those who work the land,
And live with haunting fright.

The Great Wall of Mexico,
Built for votes and false hopes.
Separating land from man, where
A man’s land is his treasure.
Where laws were writ to protect
Property before human rights,
And immortality is passing land
from an older to a younger man.

“Stay on your side,” we shout, “or
We’ll run you out!”
Stay on your side, and
Throw stones at my wall,
So they may be thrown
Back at you, Sĕnor.
We are frightened of others,
Whom we cannot see,
Yet you were always free
To labor here and then go,
Before we closed our doors to Mexico,

But Montezuma will have his revenge;
This is one government program that can
Be impeded,
There are no Mexicans left to complete it!

U.S. Govt. Off Balance Sheet Financing (a lesson from Enron)

According to the AIER, iIn 1974 Congress passed the Budget Act requiring them and the President to follow strict procedures to control expected public spending. The OMB defined "emergency Spending" designed to evade customary appropriations must meet specific criteria. For example, It must be Vital; Sudden; Urgent; Unforeseen; and Non-recurring. During the years 2001-2006, Emergency Spending was $482 Billion, or nine times more than that appropriated during 1995-2000, e.g., $55 billion. Since the Recovery and Response to Terrorism Act of Sept. 18, 2001, "emergency spending" skyrocketed to avoid public scrutiny of regular spending bills including statutory obligations to consider their priority. It is now 5 years since 9/11/2001 and the Terrorism Act of 9/18/2001, and the war on terrorism has been underway ever since and is hardly unforeseen, sudden or non-recurring. Troops have been in Iraq since 2003 ans till the congress and administration pretend that these expenditures are unexpected and outside the regulated budgetary process. In 2006, Total emergency Spending was $94.5 billion of which $71 billion was for the "Global War on Terror." The only reason to pay for the curent conflicts with "Emergency Spending" is to avoid the statutory oversight and political discomfort of public scrutiny.

Turn these politicians out of office and reinstall true and honorable guardians of the public trust.