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Poems 2005

Poetry Index

Out of My Skin
Monarch
A Matter of Scale

Heat Wave
Poet and Pet
Awakening
Rebirth

A Reasonable Life

Snapshots 2006
Haikus
Hush and Listen
Faces
Lizard Thoughts
Thunder
White Rose
Mother of the World
Finally

Poems 2005 —
Passion & Discontent
Absence
Blind
Dance
Dry
The Wake of Disaster

Evening
Mama's Tears
Nude
Old Furniture
Pertoglyphs

Rest
Saved
Sounds of an Empty Promise
Entertainment
Sycamores
Three Quarters
Vientos del Mediterráneo
Weavings

Battle
Giving In

Poems 2004
The Dissappearance of Lao Tsu
Nameless Beauty
Commuting
Memory Game
Every Little Thing Counts
Landscapes of Yo Yo Ma's Brazil
Miles (to Miles Davis)
The Colors of Piazzolla's Tango

War and Peace
Making Friends
Old Glory
Kabul Update
Take Heart
March Madness

Poems 2003
Johnny Cash
Between Heartbeats
"Naked Poetry"
Sunflower Sonnet No. 1.5

New York City
My NYC is not your NYC
SanitationWorker, NYC
Gentrification
Passing By
Belly-button Renaissance
West Chelsea

Poems 2002
Crisis
Finding Each Other
Kindred Spirits
Meteor
To Our Youth
At Sunset
Questions
Hollyhock
Holland in Winter

On Society
Mirrors
McKinney X-Tex
Lady Liberty
Making Friends
Old Glory
Walking

Life's Lessons
Child's Life
Crashing Surf
In Search of the Unknown
Love at First Sight
Holding Hands
Grandpa's Tools

Musings
First Snow
Impressionism
Anonymous
Downcast Eyes
Sagrada Familia

In France
French Gardens
Air Show
Cell Phones 01-04

Churches
Lovers in the Castle



Entertainment

Enchanting decoration
for our eyes,
the embodiment of light
of dreamy fantasies
of ideals
of heroes
of feats sublime,
dramas of color
and sound,
visions uplifting
and sights profound,
escape from dreary
daily labor
with a veil of wonder,
in a world of splendor.

In modern culture
filled with fear
entertainment parades
inhuman nightmares
of hellish imagination,
of destruction,
of wars,
of tortured senses
dulling compassion
for human suffering
and honest ambition,
filling the mind,
blinding the eyes,
shaping values
based on lies.

Killing our hopes
with a cynical game
in a virtual reality
of enemies,
of interests,
of good guys,
of fame,
making a caricature
of the human race
with lusty patriots
who don't see the face
of the people they hate,
in arrogant pride
with a godly war,
they entertain.

In our culture of fear
it is, oh, so natural
to spend millions of dollars
to recruit the soldiers
of the next generation
with the bloodless seduction
of video games
of excitement
of reflexive killing
of adventure without pain,
in hypnotic rhythm
and exploding flame
where there is no danger
of bodily harm
where the soul succumbs
to patriotic charms
of guileless politicians
who are merchants for arms.

The borders have blurred
between entertainment
and world events
no more uplifting escape
into the ideal,
into lands pleasant
with endless possibility
and joyful imagination.
The new reality
of entertainment mixed
with politics
have finally achieved
a seamless drama
where nightly news
and fictitious series
excite mass consumption
of a human condition
beyond fear
or real-life casualties.

We pay good money
to buy our ticket
congratulate ourselves
for our civic spirit
not realizing
that the daily labor
of our human nature
should create common ties
to meet the needs
of our common lives.

Instead we are slaves
of other's greed
we open our mouths wide
eager with hearts naïve
to swallow the icons
of the earth's destruction
as a compelling religion
of salvation
preached by the priests
of manipulation
while enjoying the feast
of our excited senses
with thrilling
nail-biting
world-shaking
mind-dulling
heart-stopping
hand-clapping
soul-wrenching
tax-eating
late-breaking
up-to-the-minute
entertainment.

© 2005 Richard Sidy


© 2006 SNS Press
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