"Four" a poem by Janet Vickers

 

Cover: So Held By Sky: 5 Gabriola Poets
Image taken by Sonja Arntzen

I propose, among all the other proposals 

that we adopt a new movement which I call Four.

It must examine new ways of seeing the Universe 

because our mind has been clogged with 

the pecking order, not the old ways of nature 

or ancient scriptures but 

ways harnessed through 

blade without chalice, reflection, or conscience

—Universe without soul.

If you add up numbers 1+9+8+4 which equals 22 

and 2+2 which equals 4, and the year we are in

2+0+2+0 — it comes down to number four.

Not that everything was destroyed in 1984 

but Orwell’s warning — boot on face forever

or reconcile the mind with the heart

the past and with the future.

How can the number four lead to wholeness? 

Four directions, four seasons, four horsemen

sword, famine, beasts and plague

could be end times but orthodoxy won’t help us

unless we put earth at the centre 

where it has always been our mother.

(this poem appears in the chapbook 'So Held By Sky: 5 Gabriola Poets' who are Sonja Arntzen, Leah Hokanson, Dave Neads, May Partridge, Janet Vickers)

Politics of Cultural Despair - Chris Hedges

" The most difficult existential dilemma we face is to at once acknowledge the bleakness before us and act, to refuse to succumb to cynicism and despair. And we will only do this through faith, the faith that the good draws to it the good, that all acts that nurture and protect life have an intrinsic power, even if the empirical evidence shows that things are getting worse. We will find our freedom, our autonomy, our meaning and our social bonds among those who also resist, and this will allow us to endure, and maybe even triumph." Chris Hedges

I place the person who cares, who works and who gives to her community above those who have some political or social status. They contribute to civil society, community and the economy.

Homo Sapiens

 

What is the meaning of the word "Sapiens"? According to Wikipedia sapiens is a Latin word meaning wise. 

Dictionary.com says wisdom is "the quality or state of being wise; knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action; sagacity, discernment, or insight."

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."

Aristotle said. "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."

Chess is a game of strategy played by clever people and TV dramas are about fast moving plots. Broadcast news casts are a collection of headlines that a radio producer decides is the most important news.

The news is impressed with celebrity, the very rich and famous, and the Royal Family — but the wisdom of celebrity is not often worth broadcasting. Headlines need drama of the "gotcha" variety. Knocking Humpty Dumpty off the wall. It competes for viewers and listeners.

Explorations of what makes us wise is little use in neoliberal economies. If fact business is built on shallow consumerism. The more gullible we are, the more we need symbols of success, the better for those who hold some power over us.

Everyone knows that wisdom is what we need to survive. Wisdom is how our species became homo sapiens because we learned how to care for those we depend on. This reminder in the Houses of Parliament or Board Meetings will be dismissed.

Our economy can live without us for a short while if we should die off from boredom, disease or hunger.

Universal Basic Income

"Once we realize the vastness of the cumulative common resources that our ancestors have bequeathed to us, it transforms our conception of wealth and value. Contrary to the widespread view that an entrepreneur who becomes a billionaire deserves his wealth, the reality is that whatever value he created is a pittance compared to the immense bank of prior knowledge and social practices—the commonwealth—that he took from." 

Universal Basic Income: The Moral Birthright of Every Human Being. Jeremy Lent

You Are an Unscripted Future

be a servant to your dreams

include everyone and everything

forget leading actors and their victims

hierarchy will not matter after the collapse.

Put away your chess board

go to the top of the mountain

and look down on what you have destroyed

forests, lakes, grasses, air

(don’t be squeemish about your errors

and addictions, 

human-up)

if you are offended by the accusation

— imagine a time where nothing else can be destroyed

where nothing is felt or seen

and where the wind has no-one to talk to.

Are Monsters Humans Who Have No Conscience?

 

"Neoliberalism has been neatly described by William Davies, a professor at Goldsmiths College, as “the disenchantment of politics by economics”. It sees politics as an ineffective or illegitimate means of social improvement. Decision-making should be transferred to “the market”, a euphemism for the power of money. Through buying and selling, we establish a natural hierarchy of winners and losers. Any attempt to interfere in the discovery of this natural order – such as taxing the rich, redistributing wealth and regulating business – will inhibit social progress." Monbiot, Monster Makers

Abundant Feminine

 

Abundant Feminine

Here is evidence of abundance

(for now)

the promise of birth with its pain,  comfort

and demands 

Many a sperm and egg are lost

but those that come together

must enter the body of consciousness 

and enter the world crying

if it is to live. 

The sacred feminine swerves from death

to love whatever breathes 

when it becomes difficult

when it exhausts us

into compassion and the weeping

that brought us here.

You and I are the dance  

complexity born of centuries which demand 

attention and love beyond economy and jobs 

and toxic greed.

We—chicken, ox, fish and ape

are more than a corporate factory. 

(from Sleep With Me: Lullaby for an Anxious Planet (Ekstasis 2020)