a whiff of green

promising to bring back
the god old coal mining jobs
drilling and fracking for oil
on federal land
loosening pollution standards

does not really jive
with sudden claims
to work for the purest air
and the best crystal clear water
of the whole world

yet another pathetic attempt
by a pathological liar
to make facts
fit his egomaniacal fictions

that whiff of fake green
does not smell good

right at the center
of a somewhat stormy europe
my little country
     at times
     with a touch of gallows humor
struggles to maintain
the venerable illusion
that Austria remains
as we have thought for centuries
     an island of the blessed

amidst the brexit troubles
the growing voices of dull nationalists
     masking as patriots
authoritarian visions
     of „illiberal democracies“
         even at home

heart-breaking fates of refugees
     unwanted anywhere
spineless politicians
     who change positions
     according to the winds
     of not so presidential twitters

follow deniers of the climate change
     though they are sweating
     through the highest temps
     since measurements began

      etc., etc.

sometimes we may be wise
remembering poetic words of yore
like those of dear John Donne:

„No man is an island“

do we really want
our country imprisoned by a wall
and all the seasonal Mexican harvest workers
locked out?

California and other
southern border states
do not seem so enthusiastic
about this concept

legal or illegal
they need the (wo)man power
to get their fruit and vegetables
to the (super) market

therefore, dear ICE
& other border guard units

get your act together
do NOT separate children
     from their parents    
try to use your brains
      rather than follow your orders

and act
like good Americans would

there are moments
when in the daily busy-ness
questions slink into our thoughts
making their way slowly
through the distracting perma-noise
of our world

     what will there be
     after all obligations
     tasks  projects  jobs
     are no more

do we fall
     into a blissful black hole

find ourselves stymied
     by the absence
     of the pressure
     to accomplish

do we slowly fade away
     feeling un-needed
      
maybe  
      luckily
find our private obsession
that keeps us occupied
until we breathe our last

who knows

sitting on my loggia

on a balmy spring evening
   after a short return of winter
a drink on my side
the birds chirping their evening song
the sun slanted
straight into my eyes

my favorite radio station
has declared jazz day
so I have been enjoying
Dizzie Gillespie, Charlie Parker
    Joe Zawinul, Benny Goodman, & cetera

lovely

yet I have the blues

I had to take
my woman to the airport today
she’s now miles away from me

she mailed me
she arrived safely

I am glad to know

but she still is
miles away from me

I have the blues

once you let your poems
fly freely
out into the world
anything can happen to them

and it does

if the results of your negotiations
remain below the expectations
of your great leader

you better write your testament
say goodbye to your loved ones
and prepare for death
instantly or piecemeal
in one of those well known
penal colonies

whereto the great leader
relegates those enemies of the people
who fail to give himself
     and his good buddy Donald
the precious soundbites
they need to announce
over the global media

to demonstrate
their nuclear good will

people there are
who manage to be
elephants in china shops
even visiting good old England

has been appreciated
      over centuries
proven by epigrams and haikus

but the technology
      of our time
has made it mandatory
to express yourself
     in as few words as possible

in order to save
      space & time
on smartphone screens
throughout the world

no matter how transmogrified
     thinking may have become
by this enforced simplicity

complexity of thought
has gotten out of fashion
and even nations‘ leaders
have fallen back
on simple black & white
intentionally abusing
the KISS principle

when almost everything
feels rather new
almost every day

drops falling steadily
upon a misty world
far more than fifty shades of green
dazzle your senses
make you
     almost
hear
trees  bushes  flowers
drinking sustenance
     ecstatically
dancing in the rain

it seems that our earliest ancestors
already felt the need to advocate
existence of such beings
     larger than humans
     yet created in their image
they could adore  
     pray to  
          ask for help
in their hard life‘s exhausting chores

     Egyptian  Hindu  Greek
     Roman or Jewish  Mayan  Christian
     Islamic, Orthodox or Puritan

they all see leader figures
     mostly male
     and patriarchal hierarchies
as necessary for the survival
of a firm belief and their religious values

where there are many god(esse)s
earthlings in need are able to appeal
     and donate gifts
to more than one

     other religions offer fewer choices
     or none

yet all are born from the conviction
that we need help from higher sources
we have created ourselves

out of distrust
that we could master
life‘s challenges
on our own

when you are pensive
looking for ideas
to write convincing verse

just think of all those idiots
in politics in our days

your pen will glow
a scathing red

with what you have to say

the time your feelings
are only at your back
    and not in front of you
it may not be so wise
to start another tryst

emotions hanging in mid-air
suspended in a cosmic cold
might gravely chill
whatever the new fire

make your attempted new desire
dire

no collusion
is an illusion
to sow confusion
against factual evidence

we do not really know
what to expect of times to come

those who dare say they do
are more or less intelligently speculating
and their assumptions usually don‘t exceed
foggy predictions read from crystal *****

so what?
the problem is not really new
all our ancestors
     some more desperate than others
were longing for the certainty
they thought would go with knowledge
of all things as yet to come

     fact is we have survived without it
     for some million years

even if our digitized society
     obsessed with quantifying everything
     from time to work to *** to pleasure
seems mortally in fear of lack of data
     about the future

the one thing we can say for sure
is that life will be different
because the only constant in our world
is change

     know it
     and get on

Spread claims you are the only one who can stop corrupt politicians and their dependence on the rich (even though you yourself belong to the rich)

2. Spread lies and insults about anyone who might look like a serious opponent

3. Once you are in power, continue 1. & 2. and put your rich friends into influential positions in state offices and courts, give tax breaks to the rich and claim that everyone benefits from them. Declare any information that runs counter to your lies „fake news“.

4. Invent threats to the security and well-being of the nation and then claim you are the one who can solve all the problems by strict measures, like building a 2,000 mile wall against those criminal immigrants that threaten your people – what the „fake news“ reports as a few thousand refugees from neighboring countries who flee from misery and persecution and crime and hope to get asylum in your country of 350 million.

5. Cut your aid programs for the home countries of those resfugees so that the situation there worsens even more and even more people will try to run for a better life, and you can rhetorically justify inhuman security measures at your borders.

6. On a different field, isolate your country internationally, be the elefant in the china shop, break or end international agreements, destabilize whole regions, and then threaten to send the military – all of which, you tell your voters, makes your country great again.

7. Start trade wars with old global partners, accusing them of taking advantage of your countrty, and when your own economy suffers from such idiocies, calm your afflicted followers with federal subsidies that jolt the nationl deficit to singular heights.

8. Fire (or mob into retirement) any critical person in your government until all your officials speak with your voice.

9. Look around for a worthy cause to be the focus of your consoldidated power.

10. Start a world war and lose it.

unburdened by knowledge
or traditions of polite civility
some powermongers
     brazenly
demand attention of the media
force their way onto title pages
assuming that bland lies
     combined with contradictions
     and outrageous stupidities
     mostly echoing sycophantic TV news
will satisfy their followers
ensure their loyalty
and even guarantee
their reelection into higher office

     there is a tendency
     to underestimate ‘the people’

they usually take their time to watch
and talk  and reconsider
     after all
     one does not lightly
     throw away the expectations
     one has projected onto the preferred

then comes the point
when ruthless ignorance
      and greed for power
become too obvious
      too much

people no longer do approve

the powermonger tumbles from his throne
his reign remembered as a somber blob
in people’s history

you want to build a wall
to make it high and tall
to keep them out
them all
you fear because they call
with different voices
different words
wear different clothes
in brighter colors
have darker skin  
and
who knows
may have darker souls within

and you don‘t see
they only flee
from terror and lethal poverty

desperately hoping
that the Statue of Liberty
still remembers her promise

a shop sells spirits and flowers
for Valentine's and Ballantine's
it's owner's face quite happily shines

and would I cry
were I to lose you
     yes

my light of many decades
dimmed beyond return
would make the world
a dreary place

filled with the shadows
of our dark imaginings
we‘d kept at bay
with our love and joy
and our laughter

without you
they would gather force
draw closer

     a pack of hungry wolves
     sensing a weakness in their prey

yes
I would cry
were I to lose you

thinking in quiet
at the end of a busy day
about what you have actually done
can yield sobering results

they told me
my father died quietly
in his sleep
at 2 a.m.

with his pain-ridden last years
I think he was not unhappy
to go farther for once
return to the cosmos he came from
wake up painless
     at peace
floating in the universe
he had admired from mountain peaks
all of his life

is simply abysmal

no speech needed

I think
what saves today’s commercial xmas hype
from being absolutely nauseous
is the wide-eyed joy of children
when they open their gifts
and find their dreams come true

a faint echo
of the joy in the eyes of the Kings
when after their long travails
they discovered the baby of their dreams
had miraculously become reality

he has blood on his hands from Yemen
surrounds himself only with yeah-men
leaves his allies deserted
boasts he has converted
all ISIS to civilized laymen

the year is new
most wishes old
and have been told before

yet hope dies last

and so  
    my HP friends
let‘s have a blast
    offer a toast    
    to all times past
and a hearty cheer
    to the incoming year!

after a tasty  lunch
& and extensive joyous afternoon chats
     with her women friends
while he was doing the dishes
she had no words left for him

so they started
       their smart phones and Kindles
and relaxed in their separate worlds

colorful paint
on a blue canvas
runs down in strings

crossing borders & languages
flowing into hearts and minds
slowly
at ease

the bottom end
of the canvas
is not the end
of the message

lost in alien space
Italians
posted their home culture
and worked for it

today
America

and the whole western world

would starve to death
without pasta pizza
and Michelangelo

grey and black
and powerful

its pointed cone
***** in
all shapes and colors

we do not know
how
where
if

they come back

silhouettes
black on grey
struggle
against their dark weight

wings beating
wildly
to avoid
the crash

a colorful river of words
flows out of the cave
towards an ocean
under azure sky

will it diffuse
in the blue
waves of the sea

or

stake out
in distinctive colors
a current of meaning

reflections
of reflections
backlit by fire
and glaring light
in a world upside down
where masks reign

green

in its circumference
of mirrored silhouettes
that seem to be
looking for something
elsewhere

they are our dreams
some slanted
some straight
all stranger
than our everyday

we marvel
at the creations
of our inner eye

we cling to them
in moments of loneliness

they are ours
only

giving thanks
can be a very existential thing
as the legendary settlers in New England learned
when they arrived
   as illegal immigrants
and the natives
   though wary of their guns and swords
taught them to plant
   corn together with fish
and shared their harvest with them
   late in the year

giving thanks may be a very personal thing
whenever we travel far away
are given a friendly welcome
are fed and housed by the natives
and accepted into their families

giving thanks is a very human thing

it shows that we are aware
of the fragility of our life

that it always depends
on the kindness of strangers
who help us to survive
in their world

after all

we are aliens
in most parts of our globe

          * *

you listen to what passes for the TV news
you read some
but not all
of social media views
you notice that
despite all internationalism
it‘s mostly old sensationalism
combined with more or less suggestive speculations about
how many people may have died in forest fires
to what imaginable depths the president aspires
whether the North Koreans have more rockets
     despite the wonderful achievements
     of the national superdealer
who of the leader‘s staff might be the next
      to lose her job or his credentials
etc. etc.

in short
the world has mostly shrunk
to domestic politics and power games
plus a few places on the globe where
U.S. soldiers still are dying
     in order to protect their country‘s interests
     in oil, assorted mineral resources
     or allies of political expedience
or a few thousand refugees from countries plagued
      by persecution or dictators are
      marching for weeks to claim asylum
           in the home of the brave and the free
           under the statue of liberty
     only to discover that they are seen
     as an invasion threatening
            that blesséd city upon a hill

visions have grown smaller
more petty voices dominate the talk

a nation made of immigrants
faced with the poor who flee from their oppressors
decides to close its borders to the immigrants‘ next wave
oblivious of the times when they themselves
still searching for a better life
found a new place where they felt safe
led by the statue‘s torch that shone its light
upon a poet‘s words of welcome:

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

sometimes I wonder if the time we use
trying to understand the world
by listening to all the media
might not be better spent
with talking to our neighbors
in the pub next door
over some hearty food
     a pint of beer
just let the permahype of news
dissolve with a good joke
and a nice glass of wine
that makes the friendly spirits shine

the night in which
the dead come alive for a while

only to be frightened
right back into their graves
by the horrible masked spectacles
of the living

a few thousand migrants
from run-down middle American nations
join together for a march
to reach the US border
and apply for immigrant visas

the tiny president
of the great United States
sends out the army to protect
the nation of 350 million
from this terrible threat

the master of fake
playing his power games
on the back of the most needy

there once was a gulyas-blonde assident
who posed as a white house full resident
his deplorable style
proved him an imbecile
disgruntling quite a few global presidents

there still is a president  named Trump
who starts every day with a bump
he storms the fake media
and blames Wikipedia
for rating him below Forrest Gump

cope with all the greed  injustice and brutality
we learn about day in  day out

with some luck
these are not part of our own experience
but second hand  from news and media

this does not make it better  though
when trusted public figures fail

how to react
    to priests and teachers
          who abuse the young
    to presidents  dictators  populists
          leading astray their countries
    to our elected politicians
          unable to resist the lure
              and money
          of those special interest groups
    to ruthless powermongers  businesses
          that only work for profit
          not the common good
    
resistance is not easy
the choice of weapons in this conflict difficult

yet if we not resist
not make the global and the smaller perpetrators
accept responsibility for their misdeeds

our living years will soon grow fewer
and we shall hasten our journey
     to the end of all our needs

when a bunch of  old Senate men
and some intimidated women
voted to heave

     an accused ******
     and proven liar with an alcohol problem
     given to irascible outbursts, fits of self-pity
     and insulting comments on women

into a lifelong seat on the highest court in the nation
     against voluminous evidence of his lacking qualifications
the statue of the Goddess of Justice
     whom a former attorney general
      had all covered up in blue cloth
dropped her sword and scales
tore off her blindfold
and covered her naked ******* in shame

there now is a graduate from Yale
who lies boldly
               getting red and then pale
when asked about girls
and high school beer swirls
he swears he never drank too much ale

two leaders once met in Helsinki
for talks that looked somewhat *****
as it turns out
                still nobody knows
what they were talking about
and that indeed smells rather stinky

no matter which religion
no matter who you are
      in class or race or otherwise

your only goal in life
     if you are interested in our survival
is to maintain all natural resources on the globe
      fish  fowl  plants  mammals
      even human beings

if we don‘t care
we‘ll not fare well
and go to hell

full stop

on an enchanted summer evening
the world feels wonderful and meek

why do I still crave more
     than I can feel and seek

why do I need to go beyond the pastoral
    trust the smooth surface
     of this world
     only for blissful moments

feel almost something like relief
when daily imperfections
crowd me again and throw me hard
into the maelstroem of those obligations
that have accumulated over years
tell me I have matured and know
what all life really is about

but also loudly shout
     I do not know
the meaning of my life

yet I envision in the hour of my death
my last breath will flow easy  
      with no strife

remembering the summer evening
I‘ve spent my life to seek

so wonderful …
      and mild …
            and meek ...

I move
through gently opening embraces
and find myself
firmly enveloped in your luscious warmth
that urges me to push on further
until we reach the moment
  out of time and space
that holds us close
forever and again
  one
in a world of brilliant galaxies
  exploding
in deep space

at times we tend to think
our democracy is safely founded and secure
only eventually we recognize
the need to constantly defend its fundamental rights
work steadily against their stealthy abolition
watch carefully the words of politicians
       lest they betray what they pretend to say
think twice for whom we cast our votes
avoid contenders who too often bray
     that these were not their quotes  
listen to those who have good arguments
     do not unleash too easy sentiments
and in the end cast our votes when called

in short  
democracy turns out to be hard work

     in case we shirk this
     we soon pay the price

unfree societies have known
     dictatorship  corruption  vice
have often needed centuries
to remedy injuries done
to find their four freedoms

and to recognize
democracy remains a living promise
a brilliant idea with many faces
always a work in progress