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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Turn the Telescope Around [based on Amy Jo Sprague’s prompt: self-contradiction]

I love the caustic fire
of the 1980’s
Dead Kennedys
and
I love the 101 Strings.

I love the explosion
Spicy Cashew Chicken
at the Best Thai Cuisine
and
I love those dusty
cellophane packaged
cinnamon buns
with the congealed white frosting
sold at anonymous roadside
gas stations.

I love how Christians
cannot convince me
that the
Eternal Conscious Torment
of Hell exists
and
I love how everyone
will come
to see Jesus as God
of their own volition,
(just don’t ask me how).

I love how atheists
require proof
and
I love that
they cannot
reduce the splendor of life
to mathematical formulae.

I love peacefulness
and
I love upsetting
complacency.

I love that
I frequently see
my deceased father
in the mirror
and
I love that his baldness gene
hasn’t kicked in yet.

I love
that I don’t
fight correction
like I used to
and
I love being
provably right
every now and then.

I love art
that comforts me
and
I love art
that outrages me.

Look at me
through the strong end
of the telescope,
and my inconsistencies
are glaring,
threatening to tear me
into two,

but turn the telescope
around,

and from a
distant,
less threatening
perspective,

and all you see
is one
self-contained
dot
with infinitesimal
self-contradictions,

that is me.


[Posted at ##OpenLinkNight at dversepoets.com - a poetry lovefest online!]

38 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:08 AM

    "and all you see is one self-contained dot with infentesimal self-contradictions"....oh my. Brilliant Mosk! You soooo wrote that quote. I absolutely love this. I keep picturing you in the mirror--what a stunning image. You should shoot me a quote and I'll copy your brilliance! :)

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    1. Thank you so much! I stare in the mirror asking "the eternal question." (See Barfly for answer.)

      "The best lack all conviction and the worst of full of passionate intensity." Yeats - now, go write!

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  2. hmmm..nice start with food...hmmmm...spicy chashew chicken and cinnamon buns...sigh.. and love all the different aspects you tackle..esp. like the telescope image in the close...nice

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    1. Thanks, I was trying to get the whole sacred / profane dichotomy in there... the telescope image I stole from an Elvis Costello song. Shh! Don't tell or he might get angry at me...

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  3. nice....i love many of the same things....i am glad for sure splendor can not be reduced to a mathmatetical equation....for then i think it would lose its magic....ha...and wonderful close on the dot of contradictions...i am in there as well...smiles.

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    1. Thanks, my brother, yes, I sense were we in the same zip code, we'd probably pal about.

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  4. This is great, Mosk! I do think oftentimes if we look at ourselves we see that we are a mass of contradictions and also that we HAVE learned something through the living. I do hope you continue to escape the 'baldness gene.'

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    1. Thanks and long may my tumbleweed hair wave!

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  5. I really like this, so much food for thought.

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    1. Thanks, my friend, making my way to your blog now...

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  6. This is FANTASTIC! Were you inspired at all by the Dr. Seuss quote, "Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It's a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, and that enables you to laugh at life's realities?” I like learnign through both ends of the telescope... obviously not all at once! :P

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    1. Thanks for your enthusiastic response! I look forward to your Wednesday poem as well. I was actually inspired by a quote that Amy Sprague put up by Walt Whitman ( "Do I contradict myself? Very well, I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.") So, if you liked this, go to Amy's site (amyjosprague.wordpress.com) and send her some love too!

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  7. Anonymous2:17 PM

    From one mass of contradictions to another - well written and, like Brian, I love many of the same things. I wish it was only atheists who demanded proof, but sadly many Christians want certainty where they should be seeking faith.

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    1. So, how would that be faith? Thanks for your kind words.

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  8. But you are a very cool dot. That's my opinion!

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    1. Thanks, my pal! Dot's how I feel about you too!

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  9. Anonymous2:47 PM

    Wonderful way to handle the prompt, poet friend! I loved the idea of the telescope too! - deb

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    1. Thanks, didn't take too much looking to find my self-contradiction!

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  10. I love the contradictions...specially about art that comforts and outrages you ~

    But its all these things that make you unique as a poet and as a man ~

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    1. Thanks, Grace. Yes, the rule is most often if I hated it initially, I'll probably grow to like it.

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  11. "... one
    self-contained
    dot
    with infinitesimal
    self-contradictions,

    that is me."

    Loved this, including all the outspoken points of view, many of which I totally agree with! Think we are all perfect just as we are, contradictions inclusive! Well penned, sir!

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    1. Yes, I agree - we are perfect just as we are. thanks!

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  12. And I love that you love all those inconsistencies, indeed embrace them!! (I fear, though, there is no beating the bald gene.)

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    1. Thanks, and the bald gene is just timing me out. I'm sure he'll win.

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  13. This made me smile all the way through.... I love the way you love life.

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  14. I love how you've fashioned this so beautifully Mosk - it's a little piece of brilliance, not the least of which is the trick with the telescope which I think is flat-out inspired...cool.

    http://aleapingelephant.blogspot.ca/2013/02/the-trees-stand-watch_26.html

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    1. Thanks so much - changing our perspective often changes everything.

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  15. i love your contradictions, Mosk! :) and that ending with the telescope turned around. great write!

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    1. Thanks, La Poetessa! There's an old Prince song called "My Name is Prince" (!) and he says "I've got two sides, and they're both friends." So, no contradiction!

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  16. Well, I love what I see (even if you do go bald) which is funny b/c I don't know what you look like on the outside... you are such a dear. And I used to eat those cinnamon rolls with white icing a lot. =)

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    1. On the outside, I'm gorgeous, but I don't show my image so readers won't be positively biased in favor of my writing.
      ...
      ...

      (OK, we can all stop laughing now.)

      Thanks for your kind words and for confessing to eating those horrid cinnamon rolls that sometimes just hit the spot.

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  17. I love this poem, and particularly:
    "I love that
    they cannot
    reduce the splendor of life
    to mathematical formulae.

    I love peacefulness
    and
    I love upsetting
    complacency"

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    1. Thanks, we're cut from the same cloth!

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  18. Insightful and thought provoking poem..to have the telescope turned back on us is not always pleasant but mesmerizing and mysteriousness and yes, contradictory ;)

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    1. Oh, I hate looking at myself in the mirror, but how am I ever going to know if I have shmutz on my nose? Wait for someone to tell me? How embarrassing! Thanks for your kind words.

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  19. Brudda, I agree with you about Christians and Hell and that whole "Jesus is the ONLY way" crap. I mean, I follow the teachings of Jesus, but so much of the rest of it was created by men who wanted things their way... and that trend continues today.

    And I ALWAYS look at your from the strong end of the microscope. I love the gracious, brilliant, ranting, loving fellow you are. See, size DOES matter!! Peace, your sistah, Ameleh
    http://sharplittlepencil.com/2013/02/20/frickin-frackers/

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    1. To rant is one thing , but to be gracious and brilliant? Ah such a compliment, thanks my sistah from anotha mista.

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