PostPoems Be Artistic. Be Creative. Be Inspired!

ON THE TRAIN

Intro:

1) "To be or not to be. That is the question."

– Shakespeare, from "Hamlet"

2) "There is but one philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Whether or not the world has 3 dimensions or the mind 9 or 12 categories, comes afterward."

– Albert Camus, from "The Myth of Sisyphus"

3) "Yes, I thought. You can ponder this or analyze that til the cows come home, but the real question is whether all your pondering and analysis will convince you that life is worth living."

– Brian Greene, from "The Fabric of the Cosmos"

4) " Now when you come up against the great gulf that often, and even generally, exists between the conditions and suffering of the masses of people, on the one hand, and what you are able to do about that at any given point - when you run up against that repeatedly, everyone feels a definite pull which expresses itself in moral terms: how can you stand by and not do something about what’s happening to the masses of people?

– Bob Avakian, from "BAsics"

__________________

On the train to Florida,

world music colors the air

with Mexico, Ireland, India,

the Middle East and Africa.

Colors-rich, primeval,

nothing pastel,

and it’s hard to sit still,

hold my peace

while these rhythms paint

the pulse of my body.

As the train moves further South,

I can feel the sticky humidity

of jungles fragrant with bougainvillea,

and bromeliades dangle

from every note of Les Nubian.

Talking Drums answer in response.

While trumpets call out

staccato style,

hot with salsa,

a reflection of my uneasy mind

wondering what I will find.

***

Visiting my folks is a joy,

but these last few trips

have also brought

lots of struggle and pain.

They are getting on in life,

still living, but now

mostly dying.

How do you write about

life and death?

And in particular,

Dad’s worries about ‘family trees’

and the fact that we are the last.

***

How do you write about dying?

Could I write a poem

the way Mozart wrote his "Requiem";

feverish, delusional

yet his notes flowed from his fingers

like a tempest brewing

in an open flame.

While my words are shards,

splintered in millions

trying to explain a different view

on our finite lives.

***

"Have a nice trip home", they said.

" Ok, love you mom,

love you dad", I reply.

And as the train pulls off,

and I wave goodbye,

I worry about them.

***

As the train heads North

and I listen to these different songs,

I reflect on our conversations

and think:

Within the swirl of colors and words,

stirred and mixed musically,

we raise our questions,

speak our art

and tell our stories.

There have been many.

Countless, like endless grains of sand

washed ashore in the cosmos.

But what happens when they end?

What if a story winks out

like a dying sun losing its light

as it becomes a black hole.

Then what?

Will there ever be another?

A continuance

or something new?

Extinction is final -

it’s a motherfucker.

***

Dad, you say that it matters,

that this family name

has reached its last branch.

But why?

Humanity will go on.

What is in a name anyway?

And how did it come about, our name?

But more, what have we done?

Yes, we existed.

We loved, fought and died.

We played, married,

raised family and did what we thought right.

But have we disturbed the universe;

made waves in the ocean’s tide?

More importantly,

did we live and die for the people;

sacrifice all just to make the leaps

to change the world?

Here is an infinite truth:

billions have come and gone

now lost to history;

billions more will do the same.

Our lives are finite,

yet change and matter,

in one form or another

is infinite.

In this ever changing world,

have we strained to the limits

to touch matter,

affect its taste;

attempted to move its direction

in the service of human kind?

Or, have we simply gone along with the way things are?

Have we made a difference?

Have we really lived?

And isn’t this

the only truly philosophical problem!

______________________________

Conclusion: Further thoughts:

1) "But it is only through fearless engagement that we can learn our own limits. It’s only through the rational pursuit of theories, even those that whisk us into strange and unfamiliar domains, that we stand a chance of revealing the expanse of reality."

– Brian Greene, from "Hidden Reality"

2) "Your life is going to be about something - or it’s going to be about nothing. And there is nothing greater your life can be about that contributing whatever you can to the revolutionary transformation of society and the world, to put an end to all systems and relations of oppression and exploitation and all unnecessary suffering and destruction that goes along with them."

–Bob Avakian, from "BAsics"

~~~redzone 7/31/13 (began 2/12/12)