rubric of appearances

by Roberto Lavidez

in a 

mindless age

every insight

takes on 

the character of 

a lethal weapon

assailed by 

questions

without answers

it had to be 

imagined

why were 

we killing

and being killed

knowing nothing

but loathing 

and fury

and the 

impossibility

of squaring 

the circle

denying 

the possibility

of its being done 

in the metaphysical 

sense

the man 

under the rubric 

of appearances

seems to be 

tangled up

in a kind of ball

keeping 

the absurd alive

a little hunger 

sharpened

his wits 

and reflexes

and improved 

his courage

his ideas 

are agents 

as sure as 

guns and bombs

desiring 

for revenge

showing its 

inextricability

from the sinews 

of time

and light

made free

by passions

intersecting 

with the

natural universe

it leaps forth 

like a cry 

from the body

revolted 

at the sight

of too much 

cruelty

growing out 

of the barrel 

of a gun

the paths 

to destruction

are often indirect

the only boon

he can beg for

is the stroke 

that reduces 

patterns

a wonderful mixture

of good and evil

to single 

atomlike existence 

where strength 

resides

in the hair

long and primitive

head reeling

in a cloud

contemplating

powerlessness

and loneliness

with intense 

anxiety

©robertolavidez2014

recycled thoughts

in one's attic

by Roberto Lavidez

to rethink

old

assumptions

about the

order of

the cosmos

world

soul and

body

as the

suffering

of one

single

child

irrevocably

denies the

existence

of god

even

the best

of us

need

a reminder

of our

fallibility

and ability

to deceive

ourselves

into a very

confident

blunder

to access

one's attic’s

contents

to walk

inside and

look around

and see

what is

what

what has

come

from

where

what is

there

that

shouldn’t

be

and what

isn’t

there

that

should

be

old ideas

and new

insights

overlapped

confusingly

they have

proliferated

into every

corner

of culture

the old

accounts

of human

nature

recycled in

complex

imaginative

ways for

intensive

use in a

rapidly

changing

expanding

world

the evidence

too powerful

to ignore

including

reference to

abstraction

and detachment

as conditions

brought on

by various

types

of psychotic

overload

the inherently

incomprehensible

and deceptive

psychological

structure

the spirit

of  lethargy

that tempted

us to idleness

where there

should have

rightly been

spiritual labor

to detach

the framework

of fact

from the

embellishments

of theorists

to pause

and reflect

and reconfigure

the great

question

in the

minds

of many

people

dwelling

in Dante’s

Hell

unable to

speak in

whole

words

but quite

compatible

with the

calculation

of chance

the improbable

is not yet

impossible

©robertolavidez2014

the impossible

dreamer

by Roberto Lavidez

the masses

needed

a clear

political

awareness

those who

heard him

were afresh

moved with

compassion

to see a man

refurbishing

the history

of the

revolution

who seemed

in all other

respects

to have

a sound

judgment

and clear

understanding

of the

material

well-being

for an entire

people

imbued with

revolutionary

consciousness

to give

a perfection

to distributive

justice

bestowing

upon everyone

his due

thanking

heaven

a thousand

times

for having

qualified

to answer

the necessities

of the miserable

there existed

a deep abyss

that separated

the workers

from the

exploiters

the liberated

slaves

from their

enslavers

the intriguers

the pseudo

revolutionaries

the corrupters  

were worms

in his discourse

he still

expressed

himself

justly

so absolutely

mad and

distracted

rambling and

self-indulgent

a mishmash

of fact

and fiction

when any

mention

was made

of his cursed

knight-errantry 

©robertolavidez2014

finger pointing

by Roberto Lavidez

perhaps

people

will do

one thing

when they

are young

and another

thing

when they

grow older

never

to believe

anything

that seemed

obvious

at first glance

indeed

to believe

the opposite

it is the

nature

of man

to long

after things

forbidden

and to desire

what is

denied us

to plunge into

irremediable

ambiguity

reflecting

an ancient

prejudice

of thought

caressing in

imagination

the lovely

mirage of

hope

wavering

between

terror and

hysteria

there is no

easy answer

to the

question

why

but suffering

ennobles

and purifies

as persecution

gives freedom

strength

apparently

suggesting

that

something

drastic

would be

done

to solve

the riddle

explicable

by some facts

lying deeper

than the

phenomena of

consciousness

perhaps it has

something

to do with

Plato’s essence

of eternal reality

underlying

superficial

appearances

which may

carry the soul

from the depths

of the concrete

to the heights

of the abstract

or perhaps

we could

devote

ourselves

to tracing the

actual pathways

that evolution

had followed

reducing

to ashes

the rage

hate and

cruelty

by which

we are

mutilated

with a finger

pointing

to the sky

asking for

justice

pondering

uncomprehendingly

on what

went wrong

©robertolavidez2014

an analogue

of happiness

by Roberto Lavidez

to touch

upon the

secrets of the

human heart

and conscience

already inclined

to guilt

is to struggle

with the

problem of

Dostoevsky

the wholly

inhuman

dimension

of evil

one thereby

comes to

have a survey

of the entire

scheme

questioning  

the righteousness

of a God who

allows evil

on a

monumental scale

in the world he

is reputed to

have made

probably

pointless

to worry about

probably too late

to think of

the theatricality

of purpose

mind drifts

due to mere

carelessness

carried away

by nothing

more blissful

than the stream

allowed to

fall asleep and

not be wakened

that we had

lent our ear to

an idle curiosity

while our feet

trudge on into

the dumb

expanse

of freedom

making ourselves

deaf to the

divine voice

for the purpose

of being able

to hold on

to a theory

which requires

but little

racking of

the brain

a delight

one takes

in one’s existence

an analogue of

happiness

without being

corrupted in

any way

no way of

having recourse

to synchronicity 

that seems to hover

to any intuition

upon which it

might be based

that it were ever

possible for a

created being

to attain to

such a state

to swerve

unpredictably from

the generation

of truth statements

one does not

have to think

perfect equilibrium

to bear 

a formidable

power of will 

in the pursuit of

total wakefulness

one can choose

to bypass the

truth dilemma

and attain the

condition

of myth

©robertolavidez2014

he who denies

by Roberto Lavidez

he who

denies life

is compelled

to gaze long

and unflinchingly

into the dark

abyss of 

existence

he denies

the unpredictability

the inevitability

of conflict 

between forces 

of disruption

and forces 

of order

he denies 

the fight

against the lack

of understanding

against a whole 

world of

non understanding

he denies

consciousness

of exercising 

mastery

over oneself

discouraged

to think

one’s way 

through the 

things of life

from the 

microcosm

of the self

to the 

macrocosm

of the universe

he even denies

the motivation

of the soul that

identifies itself

exclusively with

god and 

the good

rebelling against

established  

structures

and values

he denies

the unleashing of

elemental forces

the awakening of

nature’s depths

the sweeping

mass movement

of energies

he understands

that one is

being fooled

yet denies the

power not

to be fooled

what will become

of the man

who no longer

has any reasons

for defending

himself

or for attacking

what will become

of him who

denies implanting

a meaning

a new meaning 

into what 

has become

meaningless

the hour

when all

good men

are asleep

what will become

of him who

denies himself

an awakening

©robertolavidez2014