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The Frustrated Painter
His "art" was interrupted by wild grouses.
Abandoning landscapes, he painted houses
always giving loud vent to each dislike
that bubbled in the cesspools of his soul.
But yet, his fractured personality
(which had all the attraction of a swamp)
felt the illusion of becoming whole
whenever he spoke of a great, Third, Reich.
And, as part of his "helping others" pose,
he put a book together in bad prose---
too long, too shabby, too perverse: Mein Kampf.
Very nice synopsis of how
Very nice synopsis of how disgruntled pscyhopaths see the scale tipped and become madmen - in this case one, most particularly famous pathogenic personality. I particularly love the way the title sews in with this piece, because I think it scales a man - no matter how politically powerful - down to his reality: He was just a mere, fragile-emotioned, frustrated artist who couldn't deal with failure and rejection. His 'strength and power' came in numbers, and most of all through all of those corporate powers that saw the benefits of his vision, no matter how perverse.
Your title, to me, particularly makes your poem a lesson for today and all days. A man is but a man, good, inconsequential, or bad. The range of his power is maximized to that of someone who - if altruistic - helps the homeless in his community, perhaps, or - if socio/psychopathic - may become anything from a troublemaking neighbor or a fraud to a serial killer. These are not insignificant outcomes, but only when many others of good will, in the case of the altruist, or of ill will in the case of the pathogenic personalities, can a localized heaven or hell become a international phenom or terror. In short, Hitler died but Bayer, IBM Deutsche Bank and BMW all lived on, having participated in plenty of havoc since.
Thank you for your
Thank you for your compliment, and for the very interesting analysis of the historical meaning and malignant significance of Hitler. Decades ago, in January of 1975, in a history class during my Junior year in high school, I wrote my second footnoted research paper, fifty-one pages although only ten were required, on Hitler. My main textbook was Shirer's Rise & Fall Of The Third Reich. Shirer, as I recall this late in my life, used a lot of quotations from Mein Kampf, with a focus much more on Hitler's personality than on the mere recitation of dates and places, battles and political rallies. I have also had the misfortune of becoming acquainted, much as I have tried to avoid that acquaintance, with a neighbor who seems very much to me. His ego and paranoia are overwhelming; he feels he knows more than anyone around him, and that only his opinions are accurate. He actually believes he is gifted in that way. He reminds me very much of Shirer's interpretation of the minor housepainter with a maor mouth.
Starward