the great and powerful (oz.)

[mnaz]

he sat there behind beatnik glasses
the squinty intellectual ones, and railed
in that tone of his, he couldn't give a fuck
about camus and the plague of civilization
spiraling smoke around his syllables

we won the war, re-wrote history, he said
as the victors always do, we quote it by rote
like automoton zombie quoters of platitudes
funny how we all know that one by heart
and sign up for the next one

and smoke snarled around his cigarette
his eyes flashed vague intellectual disgust
it's us against them, they want it that way
and the giants are on, need another beer

[joel]

I had a quick moment to log on and see what was new beofre a busy -- but blessed -- night that lies ahead of me...and this is what greeted me...and I am speechless for how awesome it is and thankful for the gift of words and art and thought that coax the coming steps...and while part of me wishes for the specific gifts and talents you possess, I'm also completely satiated to receive them purely as wonders from another member of this pilgrimage. This is amazing. Thanks.

[mnaz]

amazing what platitudes can teach
what was assumed, you recite things
like they were the end of wisdom
at the time

[Hollweg]

More or less where less
is more--the long and short of it
topped off with enough.

[Arcadia]

vivid portrait, mnaz!! gracias for sharing it!

[tarbaby]

Soldier From Kansas — jim turner

Grant me this leave. Let me play
my part where my helmet is hung
on my piece--well out of your way. *
Have no word spoken, no song sung.
I would not hear. See? I ignore
red fury; hot, metallic rain;
my shaken bed; the battle's score.
I will neither move nor explain.

Once, on your strange world, I stood tall
for one who weeps to have me found.
Quiet her far, importunate call
with a clod of this callous ground.
Let me sleep! Her Kansan tears fall
in Oz, with an alien sound. **

http://studioeight.tv/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19614

[mnaz]

thanks jack, Arcadia and Hollweg..
football is the opiate of the masses
12 oz. are the opiate of the masses
haha (parodic "intellectualism"..)

"Oz" represents DC of course, and the "wizard" politicians who don't (can't) keep promises, and "oz."-- well, the opiate of the... (what a great cliche!)

[stilltrucking]

Sometimes a house has to fall on my head before I get it.
But now I know why the road to Oz is yellow.

[saw]

an ounce of this, a pound of that.....read the plague, and the myth of sisyphus again recently for a discussion group.....it was a lively group that made for a good time.....nice work mnazzie......

[mnaz]

thanks jack, and saw. heh... "plague of civilization." did i really say that? or perhaps, "plague of history." that's not the way that camus used "plague" (allegory of resistance to the nazi occupation of france, 1940-44). i've been reading too much terence mckenna, i suppose... "the problem is 12,000 years of history itself"..