The Bread of Life – 29th April 2022

 The Bread of Life – 29^th April 2022

 

Twas Freya’s Day, Summery Autumnal day,

Autumn so mild Cone Man could not recall.

Good sunshine could not be thrown away,

Cone Man and his tribe had a ball.

 

Racing to the beach, they ate,

Drank and basked in the sun.

Children built a sandcastle great,

Tide sweeping it away when done.

 

Feijoas from his tree, fell late,

Feijoas harvested were juicy and sweet.

Pruning, fertilizer, watering, were great,

Improving yield and providing a treat.

 

Cone Man consumed Feijoas,

Gave away Feijoas,

Made jam out of Feijoas,

Bought quart jars to preserve Feijoas.

Struggling, like Joseph in Egypt,

To store this bountiful harvest.

 

Joseph struggled with surplus wheat,

Knowing that after seven years of abundance,

Famine would come, Egypt would feel the heat,[1]

All the world would to Egypt would advance.

 

Jacob had long believed Joseph was dead,

Facing starvation, to Egypt he sent his sons.[2]

Ten brothers set out in search of bread,

Benjamin remained – second of Rachel’s sons.[3]

 

Twas a wondrous tale:

Brothers searched for wheat to make bread,

And found a brother returned from the dead.

A man by his brothers rejected,

Became the man Egypt respected.

Men sought wheat, for bread, for life,

One day another rejected man would bring

The Bread of Life.

 

© Craig Turney

 

 

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[1] Genesis 41: 28-32

[2] Genesis 42:1-2

[3] Genesis 35: 16-18

Bonfire of Verses – 28th April 2022

 Bonfire of Verses – 28^th April 2022

 

Twas Wodin's Day, wintry the weather,

Cone Man, prone to daydream,

Struggled to pull thoughts together,

Before dreams became more extreme.

 

Movement should never be confused with action,

Twas true, but movement could break a reverie.

Walking, even in no direction,

Was the way out the Desert of Apathy.

 

Walking to the Working Man’s Club,

Cone Man reflected:

Anger was superior to angst,

Action was superior to anger.

Planning, superior to mindless action

- without a plan nothing happens;[1]

Plans fail for lack of counsel,

but with many advisers they succeed;[2]

Determination, often the difference

between success and failure.

 

Anger's sword stuck morose flint,

Sprang sparks of illumination,

Firing kindling of inspiration,

Inspiration grew into flaming verse.

 

Mind's resurrection moved the stone,

Breaking free of procrastination's reverses.

Darkness no longer chilled him to the bone,

Warmed by this blazing bonfire of verses.

 

© Craig Turney

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[1] Bonaparte, Napoleon.

[2] Proverbs 15:22

An Age of Fools – 1st April 2022

 An Age of Fools – 1^st April 2022 

Twas the annual Day of Fools,

A day permitting a practical joke.

Till mid-day you could break the rules,

After that you became the joke.

 

Celebrated by Europeans since the 17^th century,

Origin of this tradition remained unknown.

Cone Man suspected it was brief frivolity,

After Northern mid-March wheat crop sown.

 

The Day of Fools seemed redundant,

Out of place in a Year of Fools.

Inflation raging, tribal leaders were unrepentant,

Currencies in turmoil, tribes breaking financial rules.

 

Angst wracked the Stars and Stripes Tribe,

Looking for leadership, they saw a weak chieftain.

Enthralled by the counsel of mad, bad advisors,

Suppressing domestic oil production,

While quarreling with foreign oil suppliers,

Precipitating economic destruction.

 

Poorly advised too, was the Bear Tribe’s chieftain.

Uninformed by sycophantic advisors that:

Crane Tribe was determined to resist;

Europe would help them to resist;

Bear Tribe’s army could not persist;

More Bear Tribe warriors would have to enlist;

 

Bear Tribe’s chieftain was a ruthless realist,

Ruthlessness, however, led advisors to lie to him.

Now subservient to Dragon Tribe to exist,

He surveyed the future, and it was grim.

 

Drinking red Wolf’s Blood wine, Cone Man sighed:

“A Day of Fools in an Age of Fools …”

 

© Craig Turney