Luxuria (Lust)
“Oh, lay with me and
be my bride!
You’re Gregory’s
own, legs spread wide!”
(It is a claim of
sticky pride,
this slickly-heated
marriage guide):
“When thoughts are
hot and flesh is red—
It’s time to test
the marriage bed!
Not spoons in bowls
but spoon instead.
He’ll take his fill
before you’re fed!”
Years turn over. You
turn away.
While darker night
trumps duller day.
Yet, come September,
rays of May
will bring back
black to greyest grey.
So leave what’s
right and save the wrong
for lawyer-briefs
and minstrel song.
A magnet’s pull is
much too strong
that needs just two
to get along.
Touch of skin is
burning fire.
Limbs 'top limbs,
an earthy pyre.
Kiss is breath for
whirling gyres.
Seed is song for
your desire.
.....
What matters is—not
why—but how,
on how the bull
entreats the cow.
And if by tusk does
boar rake sow.
Now who will take this marriage vow?
And what tab fits
into what slot?
(From A to Z it
matters not.)
Picked by colour or
picked by lot,
they’re habit formed
by what you’ve got.
The rhyme is older
than the verse,
from teeming seas to
Venus-nursed;
from blue, warm days
to frigid curse;
from heated lips to
parson's purse.
.....
Down to the wire,
touch the edge.
Cross the line—trim
your neighbour’s hedge!
You’ll walk a
cracked and broken ledge
that soon crumbles
in the knowledge:
Where passion
bounds, love has limits.
Seeds are sown when
sewing’s in it.
Each knits there a
common spirit;
warp and woof of
love begin it.
gula (Gluttony)
A meal before us
and one behind.
Pray, Meal, restore
us!
And then in kind.
A mouse whose bones
in a bottle lay,
starved by the feast
that it had one day.
Or tables bare
and larders empty,
and guards who say
it was forced entry.
Admissions—granted.
Passports
quick-stamped.
Shelters abandoned,
exiles decamped.
The crisis over,
our fear declines.
And just like that,
the future aligns.
Thus:
Calories counted
are counted twice—
once for the human,
once for the rice.
avaritia
(Greed)
Under the spreading
chestnut tree,
it’s one for you and
two for me.
An open purse spells
anarchy.
An open purse, a
curse will be!
"Beds of roses, all
thorny-stemmed,
will soon appear
if money lend.
So best to beat off
and to send
such beggars’ feet,
their roads to wend."
What was that once
there in the park?
Story? Fable? Or
hapless lark?
It’s money
scratches in the dark
that itch that rarely
fails to spark.
The sun our world
goes on around
is bright and shiny,
also round
like coin so shaped,
similar ground,
but in our caps and capes is found.
What’s mine is
mine, and yours is mine.
You all must read
the posted sign.
And now I’ll sit me
down to dine.
I pray, remit me, line
by line.
…..
Timid tailor, needle
and thread,
will sew the shrouds
made for the dead.
In famine’s lands
it’s always said:
The price of gold is won with bread.
Coin and paper;
silver and gold.
The story’s new, the
story’s old.
What first is bought
must then be sold.
(All riches rot, if
truth be told.)
.....
Taste the honey of
humming bees.
Hear songs made by flowering trees.
Keep for now what is
ever free,
what’s got by land
or got by sea.
acedia (Sloth)
Roll out of bed on
to the floor.
Roll ‘cross the
room, roll to your door.
Lift an eyelid, now
lift the shade.
So, is it sun or
darkened glade?
Yet either way you
must decide:
Which teeth to
brush? And on which side?
And do you floss?
(It makes you gag.)
Your face is puffy—no,
it sags!
In the mirror it’s
safe to laugh.
While in the world
you’re prone to gaffs.
Your face there, it
frowns and winces:
Pain returns in
pointy twinges.
Never mind, it’s on
to others—
other things will
give you cover.
The tea’s hot brew
and morning news.
Then from your list
pick one you’ll choose.
Now that your
first-thing needs are met,
it’s on to sending your regrets:
Those hollow
halloweds come to mind.
But not for
long—your teeth will grind!
So have a nap; take
sleep’s favour:
Must you work for life’s sweet savour?
…..
No replies come in
your in-box.
Take a pill and ponder detox.
So, are there clouds there in the sky,
clouds shaped like
clouds there, going by?
By the window, lift
the curtain.
Will you tell and
know for certain?
What’s in the world?
What lay beyond?
Besides this stay
you've grown so fond?
You pause to think.
You stretch and yawn.
It seems you're bored by one more dawn.
“It's tedium,
not tedious
when all for one means all's not us....”
…..
"Weary is this day’s
dull baker!
His stale loaves we’ll give the maker?"
"What God has made, he
must now change--
to ride beyond this
narrow range."
What's did is done! Will you not care
that what is new becomes a dare?
Take the greyness! Take disorder!
Stay no longer at
your border!
ire (Anger)
Those germ cells
fight and make their way
to ripen eggs so
fine.
And if they’d elbows
they’d have pushed
their way to first in
line.
Doc spanks him hard
on his bottom.
It gives him such a
start!
He’ll slurp for now
his mother’s milk,
Though her nipple’s
quite tart.
Tied to his mother’s
apron strings,
she gives him love
and pain.
For win or lose her
weekly slots,
she smacks him just
the same.
And daddy-dear, the
absent sod,
still kicks around
his whores,
till cops with clubs
come beat him up
to even up the
score.
…..
Duck and cover. Us
and other.
The boy, he learns
new tricks.
And absent some
restraining tongue,
he learns some
better licks:
He slaps a boy
across his head
under the chestnut
tree.
He kicks a girl
across her shins
and cracks her boney
knee.
He will spit-ball
all the ceilings
and inkwell
ponytails.
What flesh he saw
in rubber soles
is pierced by
upright nails.
“He’s such an angry,
little tyke!
Such a mad laddie,
he.”
"Watch! His chatter comes
with splatter!"
That monkey in a
tree!
For now his wrath is
circumscribed
by schoolyard and
the park,
till us and them,
hell and heaven
soon make his mind
grow dark.
…..
He plants a bomb in
next door’s yard.
I heard, quite well, the bang.
Now, instead of a
wading pool
there’s room for all
the gang.
Pray, is anger born?
Come by male?
Do females lay an
egg?
And will we learn
that when worms turn
we can’t just
shake-a-leg!
Invidia (Envy)
Distinctions between
what is and what
seems
hardly need your
introduction.
And thoughts that
will turn
and abound and
yearn,
beg more private
introspection.
This thing between
us,
so viral, jealous—
it will need some
new amendment.
This crime is best
served
in a place reserved;
thus, I propose a
postponement.
…..
On an darkling plain
(you know well its
name),
It is time alone
that will tell.
It’s said of your
creed,
you have such a need
that’s been too long-drawn from your well.
So, while I await
your soul’s great
debate
to tell us on when
it’s ended,
I’ll tend your
garden
and not, be-pardon,
say it’s just God
that’s offended.
superbia (Pride)
Now, first is first
and lasts forever.
(It’s best to say so
without “never.”)
You’ll find your way by well-worn kismet,
far from a past you'll just once visit.
Begin the project
with some totem
held high aloft,
intoning: “Oh, Him!”
Mint calves of gold, and break those of clay.
Then have all hear
what your priests will say.
Wave antique objects
held as “cosmic”.
(Ignoring whims to
wax laconic.)
In temples and on
funeral mounds,
and by rich and honeyed midden grounds.
When placing gods you've made to order,
use them to give
your lands their border.
Stone towers soon will
rival spires.
Give each, to each, their heart's desire.
……
You show rosy
worlds through glasses bright.
But we contrast best in black and white!
You let favourite
sons in favoured lands,
while your daughters
walk by, hand-in-hand.
With so much to do and to create,
you will find no time to stand debate:
Your hands shaped clay and set the mould
that time does break, and then legends--SOLD!
By finger and
thumb, ribbon and bow,
there are gifts for those who wish to know.
Your, what’s mine
is mine, and mine is mine—
Will you never
sip a sweeter wine?
…..
“Yes! First is
first! And will ever last!
And so, all-in-all, it's been a
blast!
Thus, leave for your crabs
their kingdom shells.
Mine’s been a
heaven, though yours was hell.”
Lust,
Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Anger, Envy and Pride. The Big Seven. The whole
stuffed, messy enchilada. That’s why we’re here. That’s what we were made to do. We preach what we practice. Sin is the gold standard for today's Better Living.
If some of them could have been avoided, we might have stayed in the treetops, happily eating
nuts and berries, and pooping on passing Mastodons. But I think the last two of the BS
(Big Seven), Envy and particularly Pride are responsible for upsetting the
apple cart, with the other five following along as we slide merrily down life's slippery slope.
I don't think these are great poems, and my excuse is that they were written some time ago, but I was trying to think about the major vices (Quick! Name their opposing virtues!*) that we humans are err to. And share a bit of fun with the reader.
I seem to have listed them in the same order as Wikipedia, starting with lust (and whose list doesn't that one top!), but at the end of the day, I don't think they're in any particular order. But since Pride seems to be the engine pulling this train wreck, maybe it should be Number One.
Now, I know I'm really simplifying things but, except for Pride, the other sins seem more sociable, almost friendly. By that I mean they seem a natural part of ourselves, part of our psychological makeup, our DNA; they reflect how we interact with our fellow mammals. Pride seems a bit different. More remote. A little alien.
I won't go on too long. If you've read all the sin poems you're probably wracked with guilt and just want to curl up in a corner and sigh. So, about sin: If there wasn't any in the Garden of Eden until you-know-who came along, then it wasn't always a part of us, right? Then what brought it into being and allowed it to blossom? What's in an apple or under a fig-leaf?
I've always had an interest in pre-history, particularly the time around the end of the last ice-age, when our current era, the Holocene, came into being. Humans, so I've read, were hunter-gatherers at the end of the ice-age, and gradually became farmers and pastoralists as the rainfall, vegetation, animal migration patterns, etc. adapted to the earth's warming climate. I've always wondered what people believed in, how they saw themselves, their world, their place in it, and how they lived their lives. It's all speculation, of course, since there are no written records of any sort until around 3500BC at the earliest. Therefore, archaeology supplies us with the only answers we can have (along with modern anthropology's study of remnant hunter-gatherer cultures, and DNA analysis, etc.) But, before then, during those thousands of years of pre-history, can we ever know what people thought and felt when they looked upon the world, the sky, each other? Since I'm such a firm believer in progress and scientific innovation, I've already bought my ticket to be on the first wave of time-travelling tourists. I've booked my excursion through an agency called "Timely Tours", so I'm ready to go! Meantime, I'll have to make do with some of the recent archaeological finds that have been uncovered in what was once called the "Fertile Crescent" and today is located in south-central Turkey.
 |
| Monolith with glyphs. Some are 15' tall. |
The late Klaus Schmidt, chief archaeologist at the site of Gobekli Tepe ("go-beck-lee-tep-eee"), a temple complex dating from around 9500BC, said of the place that it was possibly, "the last flowering of a semi-nomadic world that farming was just about to destroy." Here was a place where an old way of life was to meet the new. There is so much to say about this remarkable site (which was only discovered in the 1990s) but the one thing I want to focus on here is the monumental sculptures that were erected there, and how many of them have animal motifs carved across their surface. They were open-air groupings of monoliths and statues, whose purpose is unknown, but it is thought the site was purely ceremonial in nature--that is, it was not a place were people lived. People built this huge complex over centuries, and gathered there to perhaps worship or to celebrate, say, the solstice, like the rituals that probably occurred at Stonehenge, millennia later. We just don't know.
I can't help feel that what these ancient peoples felt and believed, worshipped and prayed in the time following the end of the ice-age would have been different from what people, millennia further on, worshipped and believed.
 |
| Artist impression of a portion of Gobekli Tepe |
Just like people who were forced by changing climatic conditions to adopt farming and, later, animal husbandry when survival as hunter-gatherers became problematic, so too what they believed in and what they felt was sacred would, no doubt, also have changed. Gobekli Tepe, with the prominant display of animal reliefs found on its monumental scultures (which, it should be said, also include highly stylized portrayals of the human form), emerged at a time when humans were only just beginning to develop the skills and technology that would eventually allow them to harness and control** the natural world. In the time following the melting of the great ice-fields, animals were still wild. They were hunted as game, with the first domestication of cattle and goats emerging later, during the 8th millennium BC.
In the small settlements that grew up around the Fertile Crescent, plants and grasses, grains, fruits, nuts and berries were harvested--not from cultivated fields and groves--but from the places were they naturally grew and were found. Interestingly, there is evidence of early forms of wheat in the area around Gobekli Tepe, the so-called "anscestral strain", suggesting this was a time and a place where the beginnings of horticulture may have started. From my perspective, its seems that humans were more a part of nature, and not apart from it, as we would later become. Spiders and scorpians, snakes and worms were prominantly displayed glyphs at Gobekli Tepe along with aurochs (wild cattle), gazelles, foxes and wolves. Humans in this new world were not obviously displayed as more important, than their fellow creatures. In fact there were no glyphs representing humans on the monoliths--only animals. They didn't erect statues of themselves. This was a world of equals, if I can put it that way, where humans shared the world with their fellow creatures. Or at least that is one interpretation of the finds. (I should note that another interpretation of the monoliths is that they represent the human form--there are stylized arms engraved along the sides of some. However, they are decorated with glyphs of a wide variety animals, large and small, so the relationship between humans and the animal world remains ambiguous; my point is that the monoliths don't seem to represent, as far as I understand, a human-dominant perspective.)
 |
| Artist conception of dwelling interior at Catalhoyuk |
Fast forward a couple thousand years and we have another ancient site called Çatalhöyük ("cattle-hoi-yuck"), also located in south-central Turkey which existed around 7500BC-5500BC. This famous archaeological treasure was first discovered in the 1960s. It is a place of habitation were animals (sheep, cattle, pigs and goats) had been domesticated, and wheat and other grasses were under cultivation. It's an ancient farming community with a population of several thousand, and how they constructed and ornamented their living environment is what is instructive here.
Animal motifs, including bulls' horns, decorate their apartments. Here, grain is stored. Animals are used for milk, meat, hides, and so on. And there is something about having animal bones or representations of animals inside their homes that is significant. Some archaeologists speculate this suggests a different relationship between humans and animals than previously existed, with humans now feeling they either controlled the animals or wished to control them by incorporating totems of bulls, for example, into the places they lived.
Belief systems, sacred spaces, spirits, gods and goddesses, have been radically altered or left by the way with the emergence of humans as the dominant species in the world (though bacteria might have something to say on the matter!) Mankind, in the millennia following the end of the ice age, has taken domininon over the
 |
| Artist impression of Catalhoyuk. |
earth. However, compared with later stages of human social evolution, Catalhoyuk may be an example of a place that was run on more or less egalitarian principles, and a place where the primary diety was female, as the number of goddess figurines uncovered suggests.
And so it continues down through the ages until it emerges (in the West) with the rise of the three, great mono-theistic traditions, and their gift of sin that we all know and love.
But today, we seem to be losing our faith in things, including how some of the choices we make in life can sometimes, genuinely, be seen as "sinful", and where our belief in sin, at one time at any rate, acted as a powerful corrective when other societal checks and balances failed to guide us. Pride in ourselves, our sense of superiority, our unfailing rightness is at the heart of it, I think. Pride is a sin that has been with us for millennia, and it goeth before the fall. It may possibly be the only sin we have. Or need.
At the same time, and more importantly I feel, we seem to have lost our sense of the sacred, of the divine, something that once may have been as common for our anscestors as the air they breathed and the water they drank, and the land they walked on.
Cheers, Jake.
*Chasity, Temperance, Charity Diligence, Patience Kindness and Humility. [FYI: The late-Sixth Century Pope, Gregory the Great, once wrote a marriage guide.]
** And we still think we're in charge, today!
