Cultural Diversity
O, Reason is a Western trait;
_Dead white men love logic
And dominate the world with it—
_A practice demagogic.
No syllogism from the Greeks
_Will boss me, no, my thought’ll
Go where and when it wants to go
_No matter if it ought’ll.
I’ll think what e’er I want to think
_No rationale to oppress me.
If A’s not A and B’s not B
_There’s nothing to distress thee.
We won’t be able to distinguish
_Lunacy from soundness.
Unreasoning will be the rule
_And Folly be our Foundress.
We’ll multicultural ourselves,
_Eschewing Aristotle;
Invoke the Muse of Foreign Lands
_And channel Quetzalcoatl.
The Delphic Oracle
I’m practicing intemperance, no knack for contemplation—
A student of excess, I’ve got no gift for moderation.
Self-knowledge, it is not my bag, serenity’s too tough.
I do abhor the Sacred Mean, too much is not enough.
The Pythoness gives her advice to all who read her sign
These virtues, she doth much admire and vice she doth malign.
But, is it wise to listen to a fortune teller who
Sits in a cave, inhaling fumes, inscribing leaves to you?
Poet’s Note: The Delphic Oracle had two signs on her cave: “Know Thyself” and “Nothing In Excess”
Leslie Lippincott Hidley is retired from the safety business and lives in a small town in southern California. She has published poetry in Sparks of Calliope and other writing in the Ojai Quarterly and Ojai Monthly. She has just published her first long poem, “The Burglars’ Ball,” available on Amazon and a YouTube video of the same title. It’s a poem about a family of marauding raccoons and how they’re entertained by a boy and his grandfather.
I like the way these poems zero in on two huge problems… secular powers and sacred powers that are both abandoning reason.
The people who lead us are going crazy, and if we’re not careful they’ll take us with them.
amen
Leslie,
You wield one deft sleight of wit in the following stanza:
No syllogism from the Greeks
Will boss me, no, my thought’ll
Go where and when it wants to go
No matter if it ought’ll.
“Thought’ll” and “ought’ll,” cleverly illustrate the folly to which you refer. And they do so poetically -instead of exactly. Bravo, Kudos, Félicitations.
Thank you! It was fun to write. Glad you enjoyed it.
The stanza in Cultural Diversity to which Alec referred made me go back and read it several times, laughing all the while. The entire poem is fantastic. Thanks, Leslie!
thank you! was fun finding somewhere to put Quetzalcoatl.
“Cultural Diversity” is timely yet timeless in its truth. Your rhyme of “Aristotle” and “Quetzalcoatl” is priceless. I think “Ought’ll,” though, would make more sense as “ought to.”
“The Delphic Oracle” is a perfect pairing, addressing themes of reason/temperance and irrationality. Reason, in the end, wins out.
I do think both poems would gain much by omitting some of the archaisms (“e’er” and “doth”). They don’t appear to be used tongue-in-cheek and they (at least to my ears) interrupt the otherwise smooth flow of your meter. Just a suggestion.
Thank you for your comments. I like “ought’ll” because it’s funny….. a goofy sounding word.