Monday, December 31, 2012


Blind Cycle

By Roberto Lavidez

solitariness
is extended
to man divorced
from nature
ensnared in the
expansive net of
social ills
the nihilism and
narcissism of extreme
postmodernism
the overall spiral
of human unfolding
emblematic of
the impact
of society
sweeping aside
habits of thought
losing the thread of
the story of chivalry
nurtured in the womb
of superstition
an endless quagmire
of clashing civilizations
within the full spectrum
of consciousness
the paranoiac insistence
on rationality which
transcends the body
aiming for the farther
reaches of the
human potential
where in the end
only meaninglessness
becomes acceptable
to the men in power
whose worldwide
shaping force
enhance their
reputations for
toughness
act like mythical gods
liberating man
from blind cycle
they create bombs
for a more peaceful
world order
a miserable parody
of fulfillment
the sidewalk
glittered with shards
of broken glass
a substitute for
long discarded
profundities

©robertolavidez2012




Sunday, December 30, 2012


Broken Windmills

By Roberto Lavidez

Solidarity has become
A matter of the past
Quixote used to tilt
Against imperialistic
Windmills
Appetite for ideals
Was insatiable
Once Vast and
Fiercely burning love
Imbued with a sense
Of energy
Are conjured up by
All that is threatening
And inscrutable
Cultural nobodies
Contemptible yahoos
Unable to shake off
Sluggishness
Scramble into
The open air
Tumble to the
Basement of society
No one dares to
Grab an empty throne
Lofty castles used to
Reflect something of
A hysterical response
Quickly disappear
Into the rainstorm
Consolidation of power
Refuses to labor
And generate even a
Fragile embryo
Shutters all eyes
Into complacency
Bewildering to the point
Of existential anguish
Souls cast into
Eternal torment
Lose their desire
To budge a sleeping giant
Would soak the earth
With wasted tears
Their lack of couth
Unable to send flowers
Unable to spill blood

©robertolavidez2012




Saturday, December 29, 2012



brain forest

By Roberto Lavidez

the door of time
is thrown wide open
at the living architecture
of the brain forest
everything seems to be
fine and progressing
across the two
hemispheres mapped
onto the known
evolutionary path
wiggled through
dire obstacles
mistakes and choices
seemed reversible
molecules replicating
infinitely adaptive
and malleable
remarkable ability
given by Pleistocene
ancestors to apes
ogling with
intense curiosity
at a menacing
hole at the bottom
while fishing for
termites with sticks
an unnerving omen
of things to follow
a chameleon shift
from olive river memory
to sullen brown discovery
utter spontaneous
cries of emotion
from a piled up
assemblage of systems
sudden thunderous
outbreak of smoke
from an increasingly
incomprehensible
montage of
intersecting systems
blurring the line
between reality
and illusion
altered ecosystem
rising brain waves
making it harder
to discriminate
fact from fantasy
rush to backfill
the voids of doubt
heavy cold air
charging forward
to fill the vacuum
slurring linguistic
landscape as
sweet liquor
spread its heat
in the bellies
of young wolves

©robertolavidez2012









Friday, December 28, 2012


Tribute

by Roberto Lavidez

bronzed statue
staring down
bloated vagabonds
glued on concrete
under glittering skies
of empty promises
mouth agape
uttering flies
that land on
drumbeat bellies
prodding
for a salute
to its sculpted myth
on cemented fate
stained by the blood
of an anemic
revolution
the proud figure
still standing tall
waiting for the
wreath in the morn
to be laid by
calloused hands
not from labor
but from the
weight of gold
while snoring souls
pay tribute
by snorting solvents
shrinking brains
to a size of a nickel
hacking
spitting phlegm
at the cold face
that missed
the milk can
of loose change
the same face
worn by the
towering figure
they now call
home

©robertolavidez2012







Thursday, December 27, 2012


Cult of the Unheard

By Roberto Lavidez

Revolution arising
From nowhere
Fear rationalizing
Extreme measures
Tremendous yearning
Yearning for movement
Rummaging around
The rubble of excess
The cult of the new
The cult of the unheard
Man is either dead or
Never existed
The shrill cry of a hawk
Pulling the anonymous
Into awareness of the
Most utterly revolting
Rays of moon filtering
Through the foliage
Simultaneous disquiet
And fascinating presence
Of poetry from the crowd
Encroached upon by
The process of decay
Mortgaged its chances
From being understood
The alternation of
Sentimental words
From mental states
To speech to the
Written word
Process of repression
Slipping into free fall
Falling out of control
To lose equilibrium
Falling into the depths
With no room for pity
Of any kind
Imaging a destination
In synchronistic mind
Dark clouds on fine
Summer days
The poet nevertheless
Retains his fiefdom
Is capable of
Miraculous
Regeneration
Sometimes noticed
By perpetrators
And bystanders
The yearning for
Quiet
Peace and
Love

 ©robertolavidez2012












Wednesday, December 26, 2012


Dante’s Beachhead

By Roberto Lavidez

Dante descended
into infernal beachhead
peering into machinery
that dominates life
plummeting down
the pecking order
to the sound of
splashing fountains
created by the web
of connectedness
that knits together
intellectuals who
have thrown in
their lot with  
predators passing
wretched creatures
who prefer circuses
to freedom
accustomed to living
at subsistence level
every moment of
lived experience
reduced to a
commodified status
weighted down by
the shackles of
falsehood prevailing
in society
subjugated citizens
of conquered islands
by the final arbiter
of collective existence
who have fashioned
man from the clay
of real estate
everything human
seems suddenly
obliterated in a
scream of a
bygone era
an appendage to a
ubiquitous presence
of the absurd


©robertolavidez2012















Tuesday, December 25, 2012


Exejesus
(PKDick Exegesis)

By Roberto Lavidez

banana is to banana
reality is to X
existence
a decayed
state of reality
we are all mad
choosing to go mad
while facing pain
or go mad while
denying pain
beauty, love, pain
grief, sacrifice
the stations
of the cross
and our imitation
of God himself
to comprehend
the drama
taking the path
to enlightenment
Kosmos is experienced
expressed as the
will of God
growing downward
into otherwise
lightless realm
the creature
toils alone
staggers
into the unknown
not so much
half-dead
but half-alive
self-creating
creates itself
backward
Christ
rendered me
innocent
by guiding me into
innocence
and yet
to suffer is
to know Christ
because he suffered
the slain God
proliferates
down the cosmos to
each rat and cockroach
maintains Christ
correctly as the
redeemer
and revealer
universe could turn
into a dream
because our universe
is a dream
the final order
of reality
the real universe
is mind
he who literally
wounds
the ecosphere
wounds God
a crushed beer can
Deity in the very
trash of the alley
the very dynamism
of life
this exegesis
I write, I learn,
I evolve and grow
therefore
I am
AND
God said
play again
I am waiting
AND
therefore
I am infinity
AND
a life form
from the
future
AND
an essence
of agape
AND
an infinitude
of bliss
END





Monday, December 24, 2012


bullets of logic

By Roberto Lavidez

balance is continually
thrown off balance
there is no backstage
to rehearse reality of
performance
everything is
horrible and funny
at the same time

giving thought
over the unthought
tests the limits of belief
lives entirely controlled
by abstractions
in the realm of
quantum uncertainty
redolent with the
subtlest nuances of
meaning

war would be beautiful
if there were no guns
trenches would be
defended by children
their innocence shielded
from bullets of logic
that erases potentialities

an ardent desire to
refashion the world
is put to sleep for
hundreds of years
lose earth is
defended by
those laid to be
torn apart by birds
and thus carried up
into the sky full of
shapes and
swarming shadows


warps and curves
in the fabric of space
guarded by nature’s
sleight of hand
in the amount of
symmetry embodied
by the universe
you hear
dogs fighting
in the distance
violence never really
disappears in time
of peace

foggy haze
of earliest moments
a black dripping sun
has arisen
a vain attempt to settle
on a nest located by a
turbulent seashore

©robertolavidez2012







Sunday, December 23, 2012


swinging

by Roberto Lavidez

labyrinth of
a strange riddle
colonial powers
languaging
between ancient
and modern times
fragmenting
the social whole
shadows grow
darker every hour
there is nothingness
on the horizon
all dignity is
destroyed
by starvation
bodies crushed
by swinging
authoritarian
truncheons
divorced from
a crumbling reality
using force against
its own people
jailed them
mutilated many
executed some
executing more
breaking all
resistance
in the streets
until the colonial
savage mind
slumbers
from exhaustion
sparing
the sleepless
sitting in a
hammock
who starts to speak
in a hubbub
muffled grumbling
picks up
momentum
with velocity
of new ideas
what seemed
rudderless
is on the brink
of another explosion
rekindling flames
extinguished
by fire hoses
configuration
of the stars
only needed
that spark
from the
sleepless
sitting in a
hammock

  
©robertolavidez2012





Saturday, December 22, 2012


sweat of brow

by Roberto Lavidez

bare walls
of roofless cottages
empty fields
where only weeds rattled
in the grand apocalypse
of races
neurochemical reactions
churn away
beneath
surface of awareness
why the world
seemed so bleak
frustrated by
urgings of restraint
lethal mix
of pseudo-sciences
and craniology
rumble at the gates of
rational and
moral judgment
bodies restless
and taut with anger
missionaries, historians,
abolitionists
vanguards of
imperialist expansion
spiritual, intellectual,
aesthetic
profoundly out of joint
like salmon
swimming furiously
upstream to their deaths
tragically ensnared
in a vicious system
a narrative of some
fearful  tale
of barbarity
ostensible punch lines
that triggered
laughter of gluttons
ecstatic at annihilation
of coastal tribes
wears immovable veil
which covers
greedy ambitions
a hybrid of
the most despicable
they earned their bread
by the sweat of
their brow


©robertolavidez2012



Friday, December 21, 2012


trans-portable Shakespeare
webstruction by Roberto Lavidez
(lines taken from Antonius, Horatio, Trinculo,
Macbeth, Sonnets XCIV, Bottom)

Friends, Romans, countrymen,
Lend me your ears;
They have dealt with me
Like thieves of mercy;
But they knew what they did:
I am to do a good turn for them.
I shall laugh myself
To death at this
Puppy-headed monster.
A most scurvy monster!
I could find in my heart to beat him –
Do not muse at me,
My most worthy friends.
I have a strange infirmity,
Which is nothing to those
That know me.
They that have pow’r to hurt
And will do none
That do not do the thing
They most do show
Why do they run away?
This is a knavery of them
To make me afeard.

 ©robertolavidez2012

Thursday, December 20, 2012


all stripes

by Roberto Lavidez

cowboys burrow
through stacks of
documents like
inquisitive moles
exposing flaws
of the glass ceiling
shards and fragmented
labor of alienated
extremists of all stripes
highlanders, tribesmen,
warriors and clansmen
beautiful huntin’ and
shootin’ along
impossibly potholed
highways of
consequences
some exuberance of
force presencing of
former memories
leaves hallucinatory
fantasy disconnected
from the world
of open-endedness
rationality leaping
quickly from the
fireside rumbling
explosions from
rebel zone
returning home with
postmodern ambiance
booty of battle
muttering secrets of
enigmatic verse
during chat over
convivial cup of coffee
then things laboriously
spoken beyond closure
of comprehension
a maddening puzzle
of old crates for
tables and chairs
slip into petty
quarreling
committing
instantaneous act
of disappearance
suddenly disconnected
from the exquisitely
engineered system
that once dropped
leaflets preceding
calculated invasion
a classical paradigm
of the invaded
war hero

©robertolavidez2012 


Wednesday, December 19, 2012


changing reality

by Roberto Lavidez

surgery
on the malleability
of human societies
strike
at the very root
of social system
waves of exiles
from oppressive regimes
chattering in an
incomprehensible tongue
subjects
of rehabilitative measures
largely cut off by
damaged thought
potential
for collective insanity
wailing saxes
and shifting
township rhythms
seeking to accommodate
a changing reality
devastation
of colonialist war
staggering
carnage of rebellions
interaction
of myriads of variables
miserable conditions
prevailing
a diabolical space
resting in the belly
of the capitalist beast
alleged source
of contagion
that could infest
entire universe
without any
apparent cause
or reason
gray smoke drifting
across a desolate
gray landscape
over an apartheid
banana republic
which had lain for decades
on a wooden board
balanced on some empty
oil drums
old civil war  
would break out
in a child’s brain
confronting
an armoured car
with only a rock
in his hand
god’s wrath
had yet to descend
pamphlets and literature
kept pouring
advancing the aims
of demagogue’s
drunken offspring
a psychic trauma
bequeathed to
subsequent generations
children
clinging desperately
to arms
and legs
of archaic sovereignty
something
of an unknown
something
of a question mark
bonded to work
on a new policy
of inhumanity


©robertolavidez2012

Tuesday, December 18, 2012


the cause it serves

by Roberto Lavidez

priest carries a pistol
responding to
systematic
state-sponsored
extermination
force with force
imminent desolation
and the end of time
surrendering to hatred
aspiring to power
exalting psychological
mindset to scrounge
for metal in rubbish
heaps overarching
drama and horror
imponderable sprawl
of febrile humanity
beneath the equation
of moral and rational
dark mutterings
of wounded soul
source of its own
affliction
utterly divorced
from anything
outside global
theater of war
bohemian radicals
beating the drum
about revolution
to gain sympathy
for the cause
sounding the trumpet
something must be done
altruism which often
cloak base motives
of unbearable kind
of idealism
reprehensible the
cause it serves
and its own
amorality
sparing havens
for war criminals
and champions
of atrocity who hide
spoils of victory
world overshadowed
by propaganda
is not the cold
and hostile
place it seemed
deus ex machina
with a little aid
from the gun
wielding priest
would win it

©robertolavidez2012 





Monday, December 17, 2012


hibakusha

by Roberto Lavidez

heavy downpours
like storms of grief
mitigated in
several different
ways connecting
rivers of
blood and water
digging
seeking out
the roots of
mysteries behind
created liturgy
of a particular
feast day
accumulation of
superimposed layers
out of chaos where
cosmos is born
a balm for the pain
caused by judgment
after dropping Deus
of unforeseen outcome
on a piece of rice paper
waiting for calligraphy
of piecemeal reforms
within the existing
social structure
for pilgrims
journeying to the
kind of transfiguration
collecting blossoms
of roses and lilies
for the heavenly
homeland
a blank page full
of possibilities
espousing an
egalitarian creed
after villages are
leveled at the height
of heroic resolution
and militancy
a total redemption
of mankind at the
heart of Hiroshima
submitting ecological
existence under
coercive power of
super state
a hibakusha surviving
force of the aerial wind
goes digging
seeking out
a monastic life
digging deeper
into the roots
of mysteries

 

©robertolavidez2012


Saturday, December 15, 2012


tipping point

by Roberto Lavidez

treacherous embraces
kisses
floundered hopelessly
in romance
spilling
so much innocent blood
viewed
through the prism
of tragedy
a cycle
of self-sustaining violence
articulating
conflicted aggression
allegiance
humanist brotherhood of man
hapless heroine of melodrama
inextricable entanglement
losses
traumas of history
psychological tipping point
prodigious effort
to create a civil society
an avatar of
nonredemptive suffering
adversities on behalf
of others
indomitable sheer force
emanates the stink
of mortality
memorializing
the vanishing race
implacable hostility
equated with modernity
conventional war
against an enemy
an obsession
with painful betrayal
invoking the radical
dead in the water
surging

©robertolavidez2012

Friday, December 14, 2012


silent storm

by Roberto Lavidez

breathless
an amazing lightness
definitive by chance
archaic maybe  
knowing
it is done
bewildered
squirming
grimacing
under its auspices
unornamented
portrayal of what
exactly love can do
with pages as swollen
as infected wounds
at least the joy
of digging for it
the mind-body issues
that you wanted to
explore
one very passionate
intense
embedded
suddenly disgust
rhetorical
non-conviction
even for
great poets
the great
silent storm
rages in the intervals
to acquire
an appreciation
of the small
unnecessary

 ©robertolavidez2012



Thursday, December 13, 2012


quantum power

by Roberto Lavidez

neck deep world
forced into absurd
waste of energy
decadence sunk  into
deepest impotence
waiting to exorcise
omnipresent demon
who punishes people
through planned misery
ideological warriors
contemplate all sorts
of transgressions
wage battle of ideas
in multiple ambiguity
intellectual chameleons
designed to temper
extremes of
quantum power
hideous calamity
descends upon
mankind shaken
by convulsions as
experimental dogs
scientific torture of
society from existence
old age comes
crashing down and
a new age is born
out of figments
of primitive
imagination
intimations
of a profound
secret fragments
of a lost whole


 ©robertolavidez2012

Wednesday, December 12, 2012


Omelet of Egos

By Roberto Lavidez


thinning globs
of gray clouds
stealing precious time
shifting from focal point
earth no longer
at the center
ultimate vanity
of human knowledge
irritating blasts
of mindless bravado
languish in uncertainty
destroy every vestige
at the pivotal transition
every nuance of an
intricate hierarchy
class consciousness
bureaucratic layering
stretched out like
sausages on a griddle
generous wine
and its bouquet
residues that
remain
in the minds of
visionaries
fear mongers and
ranting futurists
broken tiles
of thought
and enquiry
subterfuge of ignorance
spreads over a heap
of manure
the most daunting
facts of reality
mesmerists
could not
rejuvenate
humoural microcosm
of the ailing
sparkless universe
only beetles
and moles survive
a mock dance
of venomous beasts
as one beats
an omelet
in a dug grave
of gargantuan
egos

©robertolavidez2012 

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

tomorrowland

by Roberto Lavidez

exotically lawless
reputation
among myriad of
trivial
self-accusations
reconstruction of entire
imprisonment
in beautiful
hunting grounds
so brutal
so much fighting
and killing
unresolvable
internal conflicts
a desperate gambit
to redress
openness
to an indeterminate
beyond
carving out
refilling
one’s own
inner void
escorted
through the air
the pure proselytizer
within shimmering
waves of guilt
shame and
weakness
lifted above the world
of time and sense
the net is dropped over
primordial way of life
long endangered
sad songs
back to maternal
tomorrowland


©robertolavidez2012

Monday, December 10, 2012


all of you
all of me

by Roberto Lavidez

i am me
you are you
they are you and me
humans being
human beings
just like you and me
me and you
being them
being us
being humans
i am you
you are me
you being me
me being you
you and i
not just you
and yourself
or me
and myself
it’s us
and ourselves
including them
all human beings
all being humans
all of you
all of me
i am you
i am man
i am human
just like you
just like them
man oh man
why do you find it
so hard to understand
just like me

©robertolavidez2012

Saturday, December 08, 2012


         Poetry

By Roberto Lavidez

there is poetry
in every man’s life
though never heightened
the ennui of the loneliest
overshadowed by overture
of staged drama
speaks only to those
who torment in silence
prolific in its emptiness
poetry of the uncouth
a lousy childhood
uneventful long life
undocumented by high brows
who walk past
morgue of unknowns
whose woes are fabricated
into eloquence
only to satisfy
the all consuming desire
to be read
to be heard
be praised
for their wit
while the voice
of the ordinary scum
garbles a litany
muffled into obscurity
doesn’t even
get sniffed at
inside its dull shell
tiptoed over
by manicured poodles
the snail
leaves a trail
of slime
across the asphalt
speaking volumes
of unspeakable angst

©robertolavidez2012

Friday, December 07, 2012


            (life sentence)

             By Roberto Lavidez

                 i am a pronoun
        struggling to finish a sentence
              with an exclamation

with the daily routine of redundant verbs
  i couldn’t relax even for a brief period

most days are dragged by boring adjectives
                 and tedious commas
  i wish I could go back to the blank page
           and do it all over again

   i knew my introduction was contrived
    i didn't seem to make any sense at all

i actually dreamed of serving my sentence
                       in a novel
but my composition could not even begin
                     a short story
                what more with poetry

                           i’m afraid
i will gather dust in someone’s footnote
               and if I locked myself up in
                         parenthesis
      who is going to finish the sentence?

       
©robertolavidez2012      

  

Thursday, December 06, 2012


gLITTER

by Roberto Lavidez 

a just society
necklace round
blue collar

rare design by
intellectuals
for common good

priceless jewel
polished by
proletarian hands

features romantic
humanitarianism

studded with solid
democratic principles

happy wearer
showing off glitter
of socialism

replacing tarnished
pendant
of disintegrating
bureaucracy
worn round
white collar

radiance of hope
is now found in this
equally distributed
set of brilliant stones
suited for human dignity

only time will tell
if things turn out
to be counterfeit

when glitter of gold
becomes litter of old

©robertolavidez2012