War Of The Worlds (In Progress) Poem by Francis Poole

WAR OF THE WORLDS
I am profoundly optimistic about nothing.
--Francis Bacon

I was reading my copy of the book,

ENDLESS PUNISHMENT EXAMINED

and ended up writing this in Poem Hunter
untying the boat and moving with the tides
that brought me,
Endless Punishment Examined:
Its Claims to Divine Origin Refuted.

Rev. I.D. Williamson.
Cincinnati,1847.
Inscribed by Sara M. Jewel
Louisville, Kentucky
July 27—47.

I am anxious to be
clearly understood here,
for I wish to start on fair
and even ground
with the advocate of
endless misery.

Meanwhile:
Hot off the wire…
Albino teen attacked for her limbs.
What is it about America?

But wait I see a new feed
on YouTube of a self-diving car
being set on and torched by
a group of teenagers
in San Francisco, Chinatown.
And here's one of recordings
of the last words of pilots before
they crashed.10 Million views
in two weeks.
And a YouTube of iron mongers
in India working with white hot steel
in an open forge
while wearing flip-flops.

The Egyptians said,
Your sins will be balanced
against the weight
of a feather.
Was I right or
was I wrong?
I don't know
how to judge.
I can only try to tell what happened.

In 1963 when I was sixteen
living in Tarpon Springs with my mother
and stepfather,
I would buy beer
from an old Black woman
in Greektown
who sat on her back porch
in the light of an oil lamp
and played toothless harmonica.
The smells of ham and cabbage soup
exhaling through the kitchen screen door
and mixing with the lilac and jasmine
in the still night air.
Then I would drive out to the picnic shelter
on Lake Tarpon
with a car full of dippy friends
(no hay drogas)
to drink, laugh and play 45s
on a portable phonograph:
Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Brenda Lee, Marty Robbins,
the Chiffons, the Everly Brothers,
and talk and laugh
trying to dance barefoot on
a sandy concrete floor.
And not a rude word spoken
all the way to sunrise.
It was 1963 and we were seniors
at Tarpon Springs High
home of the Fighting Spongers.
The mascot a hardhat diver
being attacked by a shark.
We were all born in 1947
same as Kathy Acker.
She wrote a book called
'Blood and Guts in High School'.
1947 was the year of the Roswell Incident
when the Aliens came down
and we started riding the UFO merry-go-round.
It was the year the CIA was created and
the Cold War Began.
The year the transistor was invented.
And on Friday, November 22,1963
we were sitting in Geometry class
and a voice came over the intercom
and said President Kennedy was dead.
Three days earlier I had been
50 feet away from him as he spoke
at Al Lopez Field in Tampa.
He was on his way to Texas.
It was a sunny November day.
Three green helicopters landed
in the outfield. President Kennedy
emerged from one of them
and got in his limousine, the same one
that would be splattered with his brains
in a few days.
He rode to the pitcher's mound
where a small stage had been set up.
He squinted and brushed his hair back
and smiled at the small crowd
of mostly teenagers.
No one had any idea what
this movie star was
talking about with his
golden movie star glow
and his movie star voice.
Perhaps his memory of our faces
was in a glob of brain matter
blown onto the back of his limo
and scooped up by Jackie
in her white gloved hand.
Caked with blood and brain matter
her white gloves are missing.
After the announcement everyone
slowly got up from their desks
and walked out of the school
even though it was two hours
before dismissal time.
For the next three days
every TV was on.
On Sunday we saw Oswald
as he was gut shot
by Jack Ruby on live TV.
The reporter said Oswald's face
was ashen as he was loaded
into the ambulance.
Everyone's face was ashen on
America's black and white TV screens.
Give a cheer for Kathy Acker's,
Blood and Guts in High School.

Overheard in Dr.'s office:
Young man to young woman,
Look you're doing it for me
so my girlfriend and I
can have a baby.

Tourists machine-gunned
while sun-bathing
on the sugary sands
of a Mediterranean beach.
Then the rockets fell.
Sound of screams
and dishes crashing
in the background.
Religion is us versus them.

Do I talk about myself
to glorify myself?
Isn't all art more or less
about self-glorification?
The Obelisk of Hatshepsut.
Abu Simbel.
I was even conceited
about my inferiority
and conceitedness.

Look for something Egyptian
at the yard sale. And she came home
a half hour later with a lamp
from the Royal Egyptian Papyrus Institute
in Cairo. It is rectangular in shape
with a cartouche on opposite sides
and an Egyptian royal painting
of a standing figure
on papyrus on the other facing sides.

I who have never seen
the grass, the sky, the sea
tried to describe them
in words.

If you could have a piano
with only three keys
what would they be?

Friends don't let friends
drive possessed.

You go hunting
and trap something.
But you don't know what.
Give it food and water
to keep it alive for a while
then take its food away
and see what happens.
That happened to me once.

World's most powerful rocket
reaches new heights
before breaking apart.

Always pushing against gravity
and sometimes succeeding briefly.
Always pushing against time,
time always pushing back
always gaining strength
and momentum
in the end
always winning.

I wish for melancholy on Thursdays and
Saturdays. Why I don't know.
I don't think I should get bored with
being happy.

Anyone who thinks
he isn't a fool
is a fool.
Tattoo that on your brain.

EVERYTHING COMES DOWN
TO SEQUENCE.
What comes before creates
What comes next and
What comes after.
Pay attention to Sequence.
I said,
Let thy fingers teach
thy lips and
let thy hands teach
thy mouth.

I have
some cool things
I gotta do, like
work on a new t-shirt design.
Bye!

EMPTY EYE

When you
enter the water
you must
open your eye
Then you must
You will
fill your eye
and when it is full
empty your eye

It will fill again
don't worry
it will be full
once more

When your eye is full
you must close it
and empty it again

Go ahead
Empty it
Empty your eye
until it is full
and empty it again

2001: A Space Odyssey quotes.
Just what do you think
you're doing Dave?
I know everything
hasn't been quite right
with me
but I can assure you now
very confidently
that it's going to
be all right again.
I feel much better now.
I really do.
Look Dave I can see
you're really upset
about this.
I honestly think you
ought to sit down calmly
take a stress pill
and think things over.

Dream October 12.
I was standing outside
a yellow house.
An official looking document
came floating down
in front of my face.
There was a line for a name
or signature.
Different names appeared
and disappeared.
There were large bonsai trees
growing outside the yellow house.
Some of the branches
were almost touching it.
I was supposed to set the trees
on fire.
So I took a torch
and held it close to the leaves.
Then I realized
what I was doing was wrong.
A voice said No.
So I put the flames out
before the trees could catch fire.

Don't tell me your life
hasn't been interesting thus far.
Be assured it will become
even more interesting
before your end comes.

Neutrinos are supposed to be
the ghosts of the universe.
That's what it says here
in the instruction book.
I believe in ghosts therefore
I must believe in neutrinos.

And why are labs growing
human mini-brains?
Aren't there enough mini-brains
already?
How about twin brains
or triple brains stacked like
scoops of ice cream on a cone.
We obviously need more diverse
Central Nervous Systems
to help figure out why there is something
rather than nothing.
Even now there is evidence that
human beings are devolving into
microcephalic pinheads.
Everywhere you look
manifestations of extreme dysfunction
of an uncivil nature.

Everywhere I go
I see the young.
I see them moving about
frantically
as though their lives
depended on it.
I see them recycle their days
as they try to figure out
how to begin.

The one who knows
what your next thought will be
isn't telling.

2001: A Space Odyssey quotes.
I know everything
hasn't been quite right
with me
but I can assure you now
very confidently
that it's going to
be all right again.
I feel much better now.
I really do.

My cousin Jim Fletcher writes
about the experience of
having terminal brain cancer:
Still doing pretty good actually
although I was a bit tired
after the trip yesterday.
I had not driven alone since
back in Apr/May? ? over such a distance.
In a way I don't like having to give up
the freedom that came with being able
to go out and simply go wherever I wanted,
and, at the same time I understand
that which is going on with my brain
and would not want to find myself
in a situation where something happened
that might have been avoided.
Bla, bla, bla,

I wonder is it like being
The Man With Two Heads?
One fairly normal and the other
being taken over by the big C.
Ray Milland to Rosie Grier:
They have transplanted my head
onto your body…
Now would you please
Shut Up
and get some rest!

My cousin writes:

Well, Francis, fell into a shit hole
in the passage of the night
in that upon wakening up found
that reading the morning paper
is a real struggle. I am still able to,
with a degree of success, able to work at the computer
in writing to people but find (you are the 4th today)
I should go back and reread that
which has been written to find mistakes,
and believe me they do exist.
More later, as long as I am able.

I'd like to start my own Caliphate.
Who wouldn't?
Akhenaten tried it but
went too far.
Switching gods in midstream
maybe not such a great idea.
My Caliphate would be
a place with perfect weather
most of the time.
And good peaceable friends.
And no poverty and no drugs
and no madness and no violence.
And disease limited to sniffles
now and then.
No brain tumors allowed, please.
Sorry, no promises.

My cousin writes:

Had a full day, yesterday, at NIH
where I underwent the major surgery
on my brain hole some six months ago.
They wanted to see just how I was recovering.
I had to be there by six thirty in the morning
for blood withdrawal, then on to a place
where they injected some sort of metallic substance
into my system. Then I had to sit for 45/50 min.
while the substance was circulated through the system,
even the brain (or that which is left of it)
then on to another test where you lay on a flat surface
with your head in a sort of prison while wearing
ear plugs plus ear phones so the projected noises
do not cause damage to hearing but brain images
are created by sound. Anyway I requested and have
been promised a copy of the CD that will show
all the images of that which remains of my brain (hole) .
I saw some of them and am sort of amazed that
I can still do a lot of the things I can do.
Of course I am a bit pissed at the loss of talent
in some areas. At least it seems that way
at the moment. In looking at the large easel
and not feeling up to working on paintings is
a major issue with me. The other day I got out
tubes of paint and, leaving them unopened,
began to at least think about painting again.
Nothing has happened to get me going
on either repairing an old painting
or starting a new one, but in some small way
I do think of it from time to time.
I have, I believe, told you about the pencil work.
Enough, enough, I will cut myself off for the moment.
One of the areas I seem to have found
after the operation is not just the speed of typing
but also the number of sentences
sent out for you to read. Most emails used to run
about 5/7 sentences while now emails run
a page or more...I think.
Anyway, have a good weekend.

Today's email from my cousin:

Francis, Took me the longest time today
to remember your name.
Finally had to look it up.
I'm sending you a pic B/W (Charcoal) .
let me know if it does not come through and I will,
along with trying to remember your name, try again.
If it does make it let me know how it looks,
not critically as I am so heavy on myself.

I never heard from Jim again. I learned of his death
on the Internet. He had been Town Manager
of Washington Grove, outside D.C..
I found a note of condolence on the town website.
A month after his death I received two large cardboard
boxes filled with family papers, photographs, and letters. The archive of the Homer Fletcher family. Homer was my grandfather. His daughter Margaret Rebecca was my mother. In reading through the documents I learned that my maternal Great Grandmother, Annie Gootee Fletcher was a direct descendant of Jean Gautier, a Frenchman who arrived on the Delmarva peninsula in 1662. Suddenly I felt very old
and needing absolution from what I know not.
I felt cold air as though someone
had left the door open.

I've had many strange jobs
in my dreams.
For instance in one dream
I made saddles.
In another I was a
professional liar.

From a scrap of yellowed newsprint
from the Albany Herald
found in an old paperback history
of medicine:

Albany Georgia,1961.
Counters closed two hours before
Meeting of Negroes.
There was talk of a march on City Hall,
And possibly a series of 'sit-in' and
'kneel in' demonstrations by the Negroes to
protest segregation in this city of
racial controversy. Negro leaders
had said this should be the day
that would decide what turn their
struggle would take.

Chief Pritchett said he ordered the
lunch counters closed as a
precautionary measure. He said
he would further explain his move
later.

Enough additional state troopers
and sheriff's deputies were placed
under Chief Pritchett's command
to bolster his force-normally about
60 officers to about 130.
Pritchett began teaching the Albany police department how to effectively deal with the non-violent protesters. He insisted that they not use violence or force. His intentions were to 'out-nonviolent' them. Pritchett went on to further explain that 'the men were instructed that if they were spit on, cussed, abused in any way of that nature, that they were to not take their billy clubs out.'

Meanwhile Albany's racial
controve…(paper torn here) .

New Years Eve,2016
Assateague Island, Virginia.

Warm out for this time of year.
Fifty-eight degrees. Low grey clouds.
Walking north on the shore line
twisted branches of driftwood
poking up through the sand
at the water's edge as if
trying to free themselves
and climb out of a grave.

A sudden clatter and painful shrieks
across the marsh.
Hundreds of Snow Geese
lifting off from the water
and flying in a long line
pulsing up and down
in flashes of silver
becoming a polished sword of light
against the dark tree line
before plunging into a distant pond.

Somebody's horoscope:

It will happen quite naturally.
You'll put your foot down
and stop going along
with the unsatisfying status-quo.
Things need to change
and you have very little
to lose.
So they throw you out.
Less is more, right?

Headline:

MAN STEALS 5 BODIES
FROM CEMETERY
SAID HE HAD NO CHOICE

Names of men's fragrances
sold in DOLLAR STORE:

LION

CONSUL

THUNDER BLUE

BEING HIM

SAVAGE

STETSON

MASCOLINO

New Year's Day,2016

Headlines:

NJ MAN LIVED WITH DEAD WIFE
A MONTH

WIFE'S DEATH SEEN
ON FACE TIME

PUNK ROCK SINGER FOUND
AT BOTTOM OF ELEVATOR SHAFT

LONG ISLAND MOM INNOCENT
OF PIMPING OWN KIDS

GRUESOME DISCOVERY
ON CARNIVAL CRUISE SHIP

US ARMY WANTS YOU
TO EAT THIS

In one dream I was watching
a clump of bushes rise up
and fall on a boy
pushing him to the ground.
The bush then covered him
in a green blanket.

What about Adam?
He was a greater sinner than Eve
because he knew what he was doing
was wrong.
And God created woman.

Anesthesia. The first use of
anesthesia to spare humans
the pain of surgery was described
in the Bible.
Gen II: 21.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep
to fall upon Adam, and he slept:
And he took one of his ribs
and closed up the flesh thereof.

Nice story about the deep sleep
that fell on Adam.
It showed that God understood pain
and how to spare man's suffering.
In sleep there is no pain.
In sleep
your breath is blameless
and leaves no scar.
I hope my cousin Jim has
a perfectly painless sleep.

Did anyone sin against me?
I really don't know. Probably
based on my feelings of persecution
and the scars I keep remembering.
Did I sin against anyone?
Obviously. It may explain my guilt.
I'm sorry but
it was all meant to be.
Yes I have sinned
against my bother
the Ass.

As for the doctrine of
endless punishment for sinners
it is said that it would be
abhorrent to nature
which giveth pleasure in living
to all creatures
for anyone to justify the principle
of endless woe.

--Francis Poole