HIGHERWINNER
Endless are the many requests
Listed on computer printouts
Awesome lines of rolling data
Spewing from a laser printer
In the corporate office setting
Arcane phrases there on paper
Taken from the 'Sales' mosaic
By executives of learning
Bright their eyes in fevered passion
Caught up in their only mission,
Like the leaping spawning salmon
hard against the flowing river
Never stopping for a moment
Barter is their clearest vision
And imperatives like targets
Draw them to the open markets
Where the buyers brandish money
And the stalls are thick with honey
Oh the promised dreams to capture!
Each one holds an earnings rapture
Wetted lips like silvered fishes
Murmured promises and wishes
Looks conveying understanding
Flights by 1st Class and glad-handing
Everything within a premise
Nothing given without promise
Considering the prime intent
Commission always pays the rent.
(C)John Holt, 17-March-1999
John Holt@jaygee.demon.co.uk
I IN THE WORMHOLE
Hello my friends,
may I come in?
-I'm sorry that I'm late-
but metaphysically, you see,
I'm in a parlous state.
I know I *AM* -because I think.
But *WHO* I am is indistinct.
Can I define 'reality'?
Does it include 'duality'
or 'doubleness' and 'dualism',
'duplexity', 'polarity'?
Am 'I' in a dichotomy?
-the question's really got to me.
Are ME and US two different things,
existing, both in different wings
of that same place known as the SELF?
-or is there some convenient shelf
where I and ME and WE and US
are part of some great Omnibus
in which there is 'collective say'
denying undisputed sway?
Don't tell me "read Philosophy.."
-I've soaked up all the glossary
but still found it was rather odd
to try to prove "Is There A God" ?
when all I ask, with poignant cry,
is please just tell me, *WHO* am I?
(c)John Holt
12-JAN-1998
I CLOSE MY EYES
I close my eyes
and visualise
the thoughts you have,
and I surmise
that, just like me,
you dream of things you
want to be.
There is a pattern
to our hopes
which keeps them safely
off the slopes
of Setbacks, Stress,
(the Daily Grinds)
and - I guess -
those `darker thoughts`
inside our minds.
I close my eyes
and visualise
that we aspire
to many things,
and yearnings
can be realised
if we put on
our 'self-help' wings
There is
a lot
that we
can do
to make such dreams and hopes come true.
(c)John Holt 21-DEC-1998
DESERT ISLAND BODY SWOP
If you should meet me sitting
on this desert island beach
and wonder at my vacant stare,
my mumbled speech,
do not suppose that solitude
or glaring sun has robbed me
of my wits or made undone
intelligence I once possessed.
The body that you see is not
the one I own. My stolen youth
is in some other place,
beyond my reach, away from me
-not in its rightful home.
Leave me a book, a cd or a video,
if this will help me lose my self,
but hold back time, make it run slow,
until my body-lost returns, greeting
me with the face I used to know...
(c)John Holt 25-Nov-1998
(Return-My-Body Inc.)
A MUSE ON MY REFLECTION
I muse on human nature
its foibles are so ranging
and though it is a variable
it`s constantly unchanging.
I muse on politicians
they study human nature
and they adjust persona
to magnify their stature.
I muse on churchly clerics
who by their hidden nature
must justify existence
with pompous nomenclature.
I muse on terminology
locution and taxonomy
then codify my musing
in an arcane phraseology.
(c)John Holt 14-AUG-98
ODE TO A DEAF POET
Old man, they say you are not deaf but
Dormant. I think you close your
Ears and choose the right moment
To be 'hard of hearing'.
Occasionally your rhetoric loses me
And when I ask you to clarify what
Dictum is at the heart of your
Essay you gaze into middle distance
And tell me to search for thematic
Frequency. Sir, I am not Herakles doing
Penance or Sisyphus rolling a stone
Onward and upward for the rest of
Eternity. In spite of my appearance
There is a limit to my understanding.
(c)John Holt 05-JAN-1997
THE ACCOUNTANT`S SONG
I know a `number-cruncher`
and it`s very plain to me
that constant `number-crunching`
is the way to atrophy.
The meaning of the universe
and everything I see
is all tied up with `crunching`
and it`s happening to me -
I see that other `crunchers`
(on a higher plane than me)
are using *bigger* numbers
and it`s sobering to see
that all this arcane `crunching`
is the way to a Trophy
and there exists an ethos,
born in the final `crunch`,
which claims "a single figure
*must* be submerged in a bunch"
(c)John Holt 31-JUL-1998
MIND IS THE KINGDOM (Part 1.)
I heard you ask "What is the Mind?
and how do we know anything?"
So, let me try to help you find
the answers you are seeking.
We'll have to travel back quite far
but trust me - I'm your friendly guide.
Your Mind outshines the brightest star
(it's all that energy there, inside.)
Consider what your life has been,
with all the thinking in between.
First, thought, then action, is the way
your Mind has helped you day by day.
One trillion thoughts were written down,
from your first smile to your last frown,
and when your pen ran out of ink
your Mind kept working, think-by-think!
Some caution now.... because some `scenes`
came from your Parents via their genes.
By this I mean not only `looks`
but other things - your love of books? -
but that's ok because *you* made
your Mind pick out life's `light and shade`.
Now please don't yawn, it's really true,
this Mind is quintessentially......You.
MIND IS THE KINGDOM (Part 2.)
Not satisfied? ...well don't you fret
there's *tons* to learn on this theme yet!
Now Brain and Mind employ a `link`
Cogito ergo sum, I think.
One's made of cells and squishy stuff
the other is...(whew! this is tough)
intangible, but has its `home`
set out, inside the cranial dome.
"What makes us human?" you still ask.
Your query sets up quite a task,
involving as it does, you see,
Biology plus Philosophy.
Am I more human than you are
if I reject the motor-car?
Am I less human, come to that,
if I don't like the next-door cat?
But, with its Human Brain and Mind,
our species is a special kind,
with power to destroy or preserve
our only home - the planet Earth.
EPILOGUE:
Your simple question
is profound
and all I've done
is `rake the ground`... :)
(c)John Holt 28-MAR-1998
DAMOCLES` HERITAGE
The Lord of All looked down on earth
a troubled line upon his brow.
`It seems` he said `that since his birth
Man's fate hangs in the balance now`
A little seraph stopped his play
and touched the Great One's gown,
`But Father, has not Man advanced?`
he said, with tiny frown.
`O smallest one`, The Voice replied,
`I've watched him through the years.
These eyes have seen him build and plan,
this heart has shed his tears.
His world is full of hopes and dreams
but also full of hate.
Man's inhumanity to man
has built his present state.
After the last great holocaust
he vowed that never again
would the Four Grim Horsemen ride
to sever a nation's youthful pride
in blood and dust and pain.
But now he plays with potent force,
has fashioned the final key.
The stage is set, fate runs its course,
this is his destiny`.
The kindly tone grew sad, then paused,
as if in thought a while.
The cherub coughed,
and God glanced down
and gave a gentle smile.
(c)John Holt 09-AUG-1998
