Trees or People

 

A tree crashes down distantly in a forest,

Not acknowledged or heard by many.

Another human being passes away,

and is honored by so many friends.

Lives touched, affected, enhanced.

Memories made – new associations.

The loss of another person who figured

so large in a community’s goings-on.

Sometimes several trees will topple.

Mudslides, severe weather can uproot many.

Age and diseases can also eliminate many lives,

sometimes all at once, in a rush.

We wonder what is happening,

what is really going on.

Just the cruel vagaries of fate,

or some hidden sinister machinations?

One can never be sure;

just honor the memory of those lost,

and keep on trudging on,

creating new memories to treasure.

Twas The Week Before Christmas

 

Not many creatures were stirring,

except in war-torn places abroad.

Some general got eviscerated in Moscow,

Another school got blown up in Ukraine.

Israeli bombs raining down on Syria,

New settlements on the blueprints there.

The Chinese broke a rocket launching record,

closing in on that spaceX starlink success.

Health insurers are busy erecting concertina wire,

while the trial of a murderer/folk hero proceeds.

New cabinet picks are garnering screams

of dismay on capital hill and in homes all over.

The quiet jingles of Santa’s sleigh unfortunately

drowned out by drone traffic all over the place.

Could that jolly red elf even land on your roof,

without colliding with some buzzing idiot above?

One can hope for a pleasant enough season this year,

Amazon and Fedex taking over delivery of good cheer.

Perhaps shut off the news feeds and editorial screeds,

renew friendships and loves, wish each other a happy new year.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and all the best to humanity.

Give each other a helping hand that we may bond in new fraternity.

Retirement is...

 

Watching a leaf fall from a tree, sail all the way down

to join the others gathered below, a quorum.

Listening to a squirrel chatter or chew a nut,

look up at it sitting on a branch, just being a squirrel.

Strolling along a bike trail listening to a stream gurgle.

Looking at different plants, trying to distinguish species.

Remembering what some of them are named,

but by now most are familiar sights on the trail.

No place to be in the next several hours,

or all day for that matter. Time slows some.

Retirement is time to make the bed, and dress slower.

Time to muse on which direction the day will take.

Life is so fleeting in any case,

why do we hurry up and spend it so much faster.

Our “hanging dewdrop” will burst soon enough.

No reason to panic and make things worse.

We’ll find out soon enough if destined to heaven or hell,

or nothing at all beyond that bright light ahead.

May as well enjoy our brief walk on this Earth,

not dwelling on heaven’s delights or hell’s frights.

Memories of a Friend

 

Some corner of heaven reserved for sonnets

is likely stuffed with many familiar poets.

And some not as well known,

nor with nearly as much renown.

But special ones who were also friends

are surely there, having made amends.

One in particular I’ll never forget,

a mentor and friend who protected

those around him from various pitfalls.

Thanks to him we avoided real downfalls!

I can envision Jim Dunlap out there somewhere,

hosting some informative lyrical poetry get-togethers.

Perhaps populated by other local luminaries departing

this world, they host heaven’s latest poetry readings.

Unforgettable down here, popular out there,

our friend and fellow poet is favored everywhere.

We may not miss your cantankerous ways, old bard;

But we will treasure your memory in highest regard!

(Jim was a good friend of mine, and a great guy. He has been published on several continents around the world, and was also an active presence in online forums like Allpoetry, where he encouraged young poets to hone their craft. Goodbye and godspeed, my friend.)

(Wikipedia entry for Jim, for those interested:  Jim is an associate editor of Sonnetto Poesia, and he has been published in over 90 publications, including Potpourri, Candelabrum, Mobius, the Paris/ Atlantic, and online in Poetry Life and Times, Poetry Repair Shop, The Poets' Porch, and many others. He is a resident poet on Poetry Life & Times. He has been in the Writer's Digest top 100 in 3 categories, rhymed verse, unrhymed verse and the literary short story.^[1] He is listed in the Marquis Who's Who In America, the Marquis Who's Who In The World, and in the Directory of American Poets and Fiction Writers which is a publication of Poets and Writers Magazine.

God in our Machines

 

So I was reading this novel about the near future, where an FBI agent and her humanoid robot go through a basic training course, including rope climbing, obstacle climbing and so forth. The android could respond rapidly to everything the human trainer said. And as ‘it’ stood and surveyed the course, it was running thousands of completions of said course through it’s processors, determining every precise step and movement it would take to complete the course in record time. Which, of course, it did.

It occurred to me that all of human records, knowledge, experiences are being poured wholesale into massive databases, which are in turn accessed by more powerful algorithms every day. We are handing off the sum total of our knowledge to machines, so they can do things better, faster, more efficiently. This has been talked about a lot already, and the need for some built-in controls is well known. But when I see a scenario laid out like the one I read, it takes my breath away. This is really happening, and going to happen more and more. In many ways there will be more convenience. But there will also be more and more knowledge jobs lost, up to the level of doctors and attorneys. At some point we may well need a national Basic Income payment so people can survive the coming unemployment waves, as our economy adjusts. There will be some new specialized jobs, no doubt, but a lot of dislocation too.

Right now, there is so much data being shoveled at us through our phones, our computers, our TV sets, etc. No to mention all the various household devices attached in some way to the Internet. I feel like I’m drowning in data right now – so of course welcome the help of ‘digital assistants’ - but that is in essence more data to keep track of. Wonder when we’ll reach a point where humans lose all control over the whole massive data structure.

We’ll have to be brave and resilient in this “brave new world” that is coming, coming up on us so fast. Good luck. Deus ex machina indeed.