Tag: religion

#PoeticAnswers 53 – Why Is The Sky Blue?

Some things are best explained by science
But today, it would be more fun if it wasn’t.
I’m not denying the truth by any means,
I understand the logistics of
Light particles and molecules
Traveling through the air
But I’ve already used up my
Metaphors regarding the visual light spectrum,
So today, let’s pretend nothing is real

It’s because in the beginning,
God used all the colours of the rainbow
To paint a world of many colours and cultures,
Radiant and vibrant, with so many hues and views,
Only to realise he forgot to use the blue paint.

Or maybe it’s because God
Tried to make the birds blue
With oil-based paint,
But they flew too close to the sky,
And it dripped and smeared
And that’s why the sky is blue

Planetary orbit is a lie,
And the Earth doesn’t go around the Sun,
Nor does the Sun go around the Earth.
But we yoyo in and out of
The inky black and blue of space
Which gets a bit brighter when it’s close to the Sun.

Because the sky is in a
Constant state of sadness,
But it’s not sentient enough to
Take the blue pills,
So it doesn’t know how to feel better.
It just feels clouded all the time.

Or are we all just colourblind,
And it’s not blue at all,
Just a colour that only the
Special and unique can actually see,
Secretly so much more,
Only visible during art and existential crises.

Question from Lynn P. from Facebook

#PoeticAnswers 84 – Why Is 42 The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything?

Physicists and philosophers
Have pondered the expanse of
Life, the universe, and everything.
They have been searching for an answer like
Addicts about to crack while hunting for
An honest needle in a haystack of politics,
Like the answer is a holy grail or
A point on a map that no one ever drew.
And then when a man said it was 42,
They didn’t know if it was the real answer
Or a note of latitude or longitude,

So instead of trying to take it further
They accepted it like
A man broken by a barrage of religion
As it battered down his door accepting
It’s doctrine as his lord and saviour.
Stooping and not stopping to
Question truth and reality until
It was too late.

But yesterday’s later is today’s now,
And we’ve began asking questions of
Why and how and when and why not,
Questioning the world and what we’ve got,
Acting like the status quo was just a band
And nothing more and now we’ve got
A lot more to stand for.
Like the truth.

So we asked and stripped down forty-two
With interrogation and maths,
Breaking it down into God Particles and
Jesus Lizards and quantum paths through
Space and time and time again,
Seeing what we want to see and
Finding we’re wrong and we’re right.
The constants are constantly changing
And the more we break life down,
We discover that maybe
Life isn’t made, it’s what we make it
Or life isn’t worth it at all.

But the truth is hidden behind a wall
Of uncertainty and fear and
We won’t look behind it because
Maybe it wont be the answer we’re looking for.
So I’ll move to believe in the great fourty-two,
And I won’t ask questions anymore.

Question from Hanne V.B. from Facebook

#PoeticAnswers 61 – Why Are People Proud Of Their Own Ignorance?

Ignorance is bliss and
They are blissful and blissfully aware
That their happiness is contingent
On being ignorant.

Because, that way,
They don’t have to support the good fight
Because, to them,
Racism, sexism and oppression is right
Because, doing so,
Does not upset their status quo.

They’d rather believe that
Poverty is an African state
And it’s a choice to live there, and
Skin colour and sexuality
Is a matter of purity
And it’s a choice and they deserve discrimination.
Because choice is evil,
Because choice is binary,
Because you’re either
Right and Right or Left and Wrong.

They’d rather believe that
Oppressing minorities while having a minority belief
Is absolutely justified and O.KKK.
Because ‘white is right’ even though
The country isn’t even rightfully theirs
But the urge to control and dominhate
And trounce and trump
Anything that isn’t in their image
because
Change is good when is good for them.
Because they think they’re god and
They think It’s their God-given right.

Because it’s less about injustice
And more about “it just is”.
Living a shallow live with
Dissociative Moral Crisis Disorder,
Not feeling guilt or shame,
Desperately finding someone else to blame
All while playing pick and choose
(Because pick and mix sounds
Like it will weaken the gene pool)
Feeding the homeless but white
So as to help build a
New World Order
And hold ticker-tape parades of
Red, White and Black,
Flagging themselves and raising awareness that
There are problems in the world
While being blissfully ignorant that
The problem is them.

Question from Veronica D. from Facebook

#PoeticAnswers 44 – Do You Really Think Writing Poetry Can Change The World?

One pen can change a piece of paper.
It’s style may seem insignificant,
But every stroke, every line, every word,
Was put there for a reason.

One person can change a mind,
Planting words and thoughts like seeds,
Which grow into flowers of awareness
That people take the time to notice.

One poem can change an audience,
Maybe not everyone and maybe not all at once,
But there’s a collective ear and a collective thought
As this information is absorbed .

I can talk about the things we try not to,
From feminism to religion
To rape culture and xenophobia
And I have the right to.
But that means I have a responsibility,
A responsibility to let you know that
These things are not okay,
And I might not be the catalyst
But I can be the alchemist,
The herald, and psychiatrist
Experimenting, preaching, advising
On how change the world.

I never said it would happen overnight,
I never said I would do it on my own,
So join me and bust a rhyme, take the time
To write your heart and mind out and then
Plaster your presence on the streets and on the internet.

Take your slam poetry,
Make it battering ram poetry ,
A poetry crash, poetry smashing
Injustice and stigma.
Like a thousand fists in the face of adversity,

Make a difference,
Make ripples in oceans of deep thought
Until you have enough friends and force to
Make a tidal wave of revolution to crash down on
Those who do not seek to address opression.

Take your prose, haikus and sonnets
Stand up and use words as weapons
Because ten thousand voices
Reciting ten thousand poems
Could change the world.

Question from Michael Clark from Facebook

#PoeticAnswers 35 – Are Vampires Halal?

I understand your thought process
Due to the blood-letting
But due to religious tones, I confess
The subject matter could be upsetting

Traditional vampires bite straight in the throat.
Modern vampires are somewhat irregular;
Going to blood banks, tampons or even goats
As opposed to going straight for the jugular

The religious process of prayer,
And the method of draining the blood,
Does not truly follow the requisites of a vampire.
Due to similarities of Islamic and Christian faith, I doubt they would try, even if they could.

Vampirism is not halal but if this is not satisfactory,
There is but one near exception, her name is Erzsébet Báthory.

Question from my good friend, Isla M. 

#PoeticAnswers 22 – What’s In A Name?

Letters.
Carefully chosen and crafted
Like the bricks and cornices
Of a mighty religious building.
Arranged with precision and diligence,
Forming shape and definition.

Meaning.
Granting concept and context to you.
Something to aspire to,
Something that gives you definition,
A guiding purpose
Like a familiar light that leads you back home.

Power.
A name can be called upon
In times of love or trouble,
Bringing light or fear.
Or pleasure.
As they scream out your name
In lieu of their God.

Beginnings,
Because a name is a product of being born,
A nuanced newness, symbolic of birth and rebirth
The first step into building yourself
Or embracing the you you never knew.
A new chance at reality and physicality,
Your personal Genesis.