shackles of the

collective mind

by Roberto Lavidez

one has

to struggle

through

the jargon

at the mercy

of his memory

to understand

the stultifying

mind-shattering

boredom and

the widespread

mood of

collective

amnesia

oversimplifying

an immensely

complex subject

man comes

seeking freedom

and justice

and his civil

liberties

are taken

away

things are 

not as bad 

as they would

have been

but they’re

still getting

worse

everything is

whispers

coincidences

depending

on whether

it is taken in

the orthodox

sense

it’s as certain

as the rising

and the setting

of the sun

truth teeters

toward

collective

catastrophe

to get beyond

you have to

come at it

from a

different

direction

or there is

no escaping

its universal

shackles

to some

meaningful

extent

the problems

we deal with

are never

solved

for all time

just as

daemon

and poet

war against

each other

in the

persistence

of a world

in which

man

has rights

over man

too resigned

to the

immutability

of human

frailty

almost

inevitable

for them

to provoke

envy

resentment

suspicions

fear and

hostility

society’s

norm is

gun-ruled

chaos

political

instability

and extreme

poverty

there exists

a spot

in the mind

that ceases

to sleep

from which

life and

death

will cease

to appear

contradictory

wherein

light and dark

are relative

body and soul

committing

the crime

of living

©robertolavidez2014

valorized habit

by Roberto Lavidez

an era of

xenophobic

violent

action

so chaotic

and futile

that it felt

like stasis

encompassed

the usual

mish-mash

of ideological

tendencies

rejecting 

the past 

which

continued

to roil in

the depths

of the present

yet looking

to a 

perfected

future

in the

confident 

hope of 

a miracle

a hope 

which proved 

forlorn

the question

remains

urgent but

unanswerable

expression

as calm and

imperturbable

as that

of the sphinx

we are left

to guess

what is more

dangerous

amidst all the

abundance

we are

inundated

with myriads

of starving

occupying

a place

between

the thieving

impostors

and the

great poets

lonely and

anxious

for a taste

of the rise

and fall of

liberty and

democracy

of the rage

of an extreme

and strangely

fascinating

case of

living which

ensured that

conflict was

perpetual

and endemic

those sitting

at the top

advocating

a uniform

racial

blindness

all they

could do

was fume

no matter

where they

might be

found

they can

disappear

as quickly as

they appeared

their habit

of violence

could be

redeemed

and valorized

making

a mock

of forces

massed

against them

often

degenerating

into 

acrimonious

squabbles

between

cliques

playing up

tales of

new

world order

emanations

©robertolavidez2014

unsettling atom

by Roberto Lavidez

we are living

in astonishing

moment in

history

the object of 

ambivalent

fixation

trying to

come up with

something that

made sense

in the wake

of scandalous

revelations

dabbling in

anarchist ideas

dispensing

to each atom

an individual

soul

intriguing

paradoxical

but also a bit

unsettling

in response to

the conditions

it encounters

because of the

requirements

of adaptation

the top bough

is lopped off

the tree of

tyranny

a non sequitur

from the

very outset

whether it is

casual or

a consequence

of modern

people

with better

ideas

sweeping

around

the world

there will be

a new life

a new man

everything

will be new

a contemporary

manifestation

of the utopian

legacy

laudable

motives

might be

at odds

but the focus

really

is on

the means

to an

adaptive end

of social

reconstruction

there is

good reason

to question

in playing

the game

of culture

rooted

in the head

and the heart

and virtually

everything

that is relevant

to modern

biological

anthropology

vacillating

between the

hypergrammatical

and the

ungrammatical

between

eloquence and

awkwardness

imagining

what lies

beyond

rhetoricism

passions

so engaged

it would not

be surprising

for people

to grope for

conspiratorial

explanation

all else must

fall in line

behind

a perfect

piece of

political

theater

©robertolavidez2014

that which elude

understanding

by Roberto Lavidez

how do

you rescue

human beings

from despair

you write

and no one

reads you

you talk

and no one

listens

every sigh so

impenetrable

to human

thought

every word

so pitiless

to human

weakness

every sign

every glance

subject to

the continual

alteration of

becoming

and decay

pages

had been

thumbed

into a state

of extremely

dirty softness

to understand

things

that elude

understanding

it would be

both impossible

to pierce and

presumptuous

to question

exploiting

the position

of the

mischievous

pawn

threatened

by the

horrid castle

bound to

prevent any

understanding

being

reached

the emergence

of evil

will always

come as

unexpected

rising from

a flood

of mistrust

and hatred

it is not

god who

created us

but we

who invented

god

in the

repudiation

of all

idolatry

of the flesh

looking

at the image

of its own

tenebrous and

passionate

soul

every other

basis is

a sort of

sentimental

confusion

buried in

the mould

of primeval

earth

anything is

better than

chaos or

amnesia

the

terrible

necessity

of peace

and the

terrible

probability

of war

the world is

and is

what it is

©robertolavidez2014

blood and bone

by Roberto Lavidez

blood

and bone

frightened off

by an eclipse

of the moon

terrified

only in small

episodes

and localized

skirmishes

in the nearness

of the heart’s

inner space

just plain

man

that’s what

we are

doomed

to remain

just as

we are

a limit

that cannot

be transcended

a line

that cannot

be crossed

withdrawing

from life

or plunging

into it

to seize

power

listening to

reminiscences

and hopes

metaphysical

monstrosities

and spooky

conundrums

sometimes

half-dreaming

and seeing

something

without

foundation

without

beginning

or origin

thing

bears out

world

world grants

things

what riddle

is there

there’s

a sterile

and there’s

fertile

ground

a lotus

is grown

from the

mud

yet is still

pure

coming to

better

terms

with one’s

inner self

the dull

the acute

somehow

knew

how to act

bravely

in a

wide-open

gaping

abyss

bridged

by lies

facing death

with

equanimity

like a true

philosopher

so long

as we wear

the mask

we remain

hidden

and continue

to conceal

the situation

even from

ourselves

how a free

citizenry

might be

inured to

a new

bondage

we all

suffer

each in

our own

way

as soon

as the sun

rises

our voices

rise

yearning

of a reversal

where

pursuer

and pursued

will change

places

is it to

any one’s

advantage

to have

conscience

©robertolavidez2014

existential plight

by Roberto Lavidez

we are

simply

living in

a different

era

shrinking

inexorably

into

nothingness

amidst the

snarling

faces and

scornful

attitudes

the objects

of our fear

necessarily

traffics

in the

realm of

imagination

the scar

seemed

to have

vanished

in a state

of unbelieving

and ecstatic

astonishment

but there is

a maddeningly

provocative

predicament

and a 

profound

sense of

impotence

we cannot

go on

wasting

time

proving

that the

planet is

not flat

a foreigner

to the very

immutable

laws

which earth

must obey

extemporized

dissertations

composed

half of the

bleak and

bloodless

logic

obstructed by

a turbulent

and immoral

mind

to not have

any wisdom

about the

limitations

of life and

nature of

death

all of a

sudden

the whole

thing

seemed to

blow away

like an

evil wind

filled with  

struggling

and opposed

elements

society

had to be

constructed

on different

principles

away from

the calamity

of reproachable

consciousness

things that

usually escape

the rest of us

above

the petty

squabbles

of the world

wearing

the rotten

richness

ready to

flow into

putrefaction

it and it alone

can be held

accountable

for its

existential

plight

perhaps

that is where

the outrage

lies

©robertolavidez2014