• Welcome to Brian James Rational Poet’s poetry blog

    Welcome to my poetry blog. I love reading Plath and Sexton and Dickenson and Maya. But to me, the best poets I have read are the unknows. The giants are great for sure, but the friends and locals and groups are a joy to participate in. I encourage everyone who writes poetry to be themselves. It is ok to have influences, but you should always in the end be yourself. There is only one them, and only one you.

    Let words be your canvas, show them the raw you, in all your happiness and sadness. Show them your love of nature, and empathy and kindness, but also make them think, provoke, even blaspheme. The poet’s job to me, is to never be shy or timid, but use every word in your vocabulary to paint the best pictures you can. Paint your sunrises, your sunsets, your romance, your fears. Paint your insecurities, your addictions, your successes, your tears.

    This blog is dedicated to my late mother Jane. She was my biggest supporter and never let me fall through the cracks. While she was a bit of an authoritarian growing up, that all melted away in her late years, and we grew as close as any parent child could. We had so much fun with our silly car games and rubber duckies, and counting the trees. And our wordplay games, and our thumb wrestling. And forget Yahtzee and backgammon, she always kicked my…… at that. I love you mom. I miss you horribly.

    And also my late best friend ever, Bob. He unfortunately passed away in 2017. He lived in Australia, he was a science geek, and he taught me a lot about debate, and some science. I can only grasp overall concepts, not real nitty gritty details. But he most importantly made me feel comfortable in my own skin. I miss you too Bob.

    Then there is this annoying guy from Okleeee homa, who says “tators”, and “videeeaaaa” instead of “video”. And don’t get John started on banjos. He is my best friend and he is always there for me, and I love that redneck.

    And also Dwayne, Stacey and Vicki. You saved my life all of you. Thank you.

    All poetry posted by me on this website is attached to @brianrrs37, handle RationalPoet on Twitter ,as well as “Brian James Rational Poet” on Facebook/ META. And is subject to copywrite on all my pages.

    A Special thanks to Brian Sapient of Rational Responders http://www.rationalresponders.com for hosting my poetry thread for so long. Thank you.

    AND….. YOU are more than welcome to share this link on your social media. Especially Meta and Twitter, but your own social media too. Any help bringing traffic here is more than welcome. THANK YOU.

    This poetry blog may contain some material that may be considered sensitive to some viewers. Reader discretion advised.

    Now, everyone, grab your popcorn, glass of wine, and watch me make a fool of myself. Enjoy.

    HEADS UP….. THERE ARE PEOPLE MIMICKING MY TWITTER ACCOUNTS……

    I only have two Twitter accounts.

    “RationalPoet@brianrrs37”
    AND
    “Brian@rationalpoet37”

    THERE ARE MORE PAGES. WHEN YOU GET TO THE BOTTOM OF EACH PAGE, in mice print….. It says “Next Page”.

    NEW EDIT………

    If you want to leave a comment to any poem, click on the BOLD title of the poem first, scroll to the bottom of the poem, and you should see a field to leave the comment in.

     

     

  • It Won’t Be Long

    It Wont Be Long, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter)

    It won’t be long
    It’s been too long
    Another day
    Of rinse and repeat

    They know no zip codes
    They know no class
    They don’t care the building
    Where you take your last breath

    It won’t be long
    It’s been too long
    The flags at half staff
    Boggling math

    They take glee
    How easily
    The reaper’s trigger
    Availability

    Just walk in
    Like a side of fries
    No record required
    More people die

    It won’t be long
    It’s been too long
    Short order massacre
    Is no surprise

    That’s not katsup
    On your shirt
    Easy access
    The blood does squirt

    Brain matter
    On the floor
    Another hides
    Behind a door

    It won’t be long
    Before the next one
    I bet another
    Before your reading this done.
    (end)

    A week or so ago I wrote ” I Would Tell You” about mass shootings, and there seemed to be a welcome doldrum at the moment, but unfortunately days later it happened again. The irony is that that poem was a response about someone else who wrote a poem about the Pulse Night Club which was years ago.

    “It Won’t Be Long” has to be to me the most insidious title I have ever come up with for this subject. I desperately want every mass shooting to be the last.

  • “Truly Without Words”

    “Truly Without Words”, based on Jill Biden’s quote today. By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter.

    Our First Lady
    Along with our nation
    Had the misfortune
    Of becoming aware again

    129 now so far
    And the year
    Far from over
    Not even summer

    I agree Jill
    I am without words too
    More teachers, more students
    Just wanted to go to school

    The boon of the morgues
    The toe tag storage
    In the wake of a fetish
    The unrelenting carnage

    And the sycophant cowards
    Paid off by the lobby
    Make the profits of one industry
    Crimson streets flows misery

    One more casket
    One more headstone
    A lifetime of PTSD
    For those who make it home

    It’s as if to them
    This object breaths
    As if it were life
    To which they gave birth

    Iron and steel are not.
    Big clips don’t go to recess
    Spray weapons
    Don’t play quarterback

    But the fetish of death
    Takes their last breath
    The cultists obsession
    Has no boundaries

    We are all truly
    Without words Jill
    But we must never
    Become numb
    (end)

    THIS FUCKING TIME, NASHVILLE. I just wrote a poem the other day, not even a week ago. I want to see the day when I don’t have to write another poem on this subject.




  • Stop Running

    Stop Running, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter)

    The pallet elusive
    The brush dodges
    The ink well dry
    The quill dashes

    The poem starts
    The idea crashes
    In mid stanza
    Lost it’s passion

    The days keep passing
    And I am not writing
    Writer’s block
    I am constantly fighting.
    (end)

  • They Were

    They Were, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter)

    They were pseudo science
    Eye color charts, nose size
    Cranium size, evil stares
    Responsible for the nation’s ills

    They were xenophobic
    And if you were handicap
    Or mentally ill, you were
    Unworthy of life

    They were, anti science
    Unless they used it
    To build up their military
    Or conduct cruel experiments

    They were, anti intellectual
    They were, anti art
    Unless they approved
    Or stole it from others

    They banned books
    The leader’s book
    Was the official grievance
    Of one man

    They were a Christian movement
    And their leader said
    “We do not tolerate anyone
    Within our ranks

    Who offends the ideas
    Of Christianity”.
    No, not vanity
    But the insecurity

    Of a sicko who
    Got even with the world
    Because an art school
    Rejected his paintings

    They were fascists
    And today, in Florida
    A Principle is jobless
    Fired for showing the artist’s

    Work of the statue of David
    Millions died denying covid
    And Boebert failed multiple times
    Before she got her G.E.D.

    And their GOP Mussolini
    Falsely plays victim
    And tells you you are too
    And only he knows what to do

    He wants to be your authoritarian
    He wants to get revenge for you
    Just like Hitler did for WW1
    So as well the failed businessman

    The Nazis wanted retribution
    For Mar A Lago, it’s the solution
    He’s not doing it for anyone
    It’s just a fraud, it’s just a con

    They were the losers
    And he will too
    The fever of fear
    Breaks when you get the clues.
    (end)

    I am tired of people saying the parallels between the Nazis and MAGA Trumpism are not the same, they are. The GOP is anti education, and Boebert just called for the total destruction of the public school system.
    Which is funny because she failed her G.E.D. a few times before finally passing. She got a G.E.D. not a Highschool diploma. The government she claims to hate issued that G.E.D.

    The GOP is constantly attacking judges and FBI agents and District Attorneys who do their jobs objectively. This is the same type of purging the Nazis did when they first named their party that, when Hitler was barely on the radar long before he became a national political figure.

    Hitler was not an atheist, he was his own brand of occult/deist/catholic. He invoked God multiple times in Mien Kompf. and as the quote goes mentioned in the poem , but here is the full quote

    We do not tolerate anyone in our ranks who offends the ideas of Christianity, who stands up to a dissident, fights him, or provokes himself as a hereditary enemy of Christianity. This movement of ours is actually Christian.” Recorded by Max Vogl, from Hitler’s speech October 27th 1928 in Passau.

    Today the MAGA right is selling White Christian Nationalism. Is selling the same anti intellectualism, anti art, anti science, and targeting minorities just like Hitler did. We are literally seeing the rise of fascism here in America.

    They are deliberately selling mistrust of our government institutions, and demanding blind loyalty to the party.


  • Timeless

    Timeless, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter)

    Foggy eyes
    Tearing up
    Don’t be sad
    Just cheer up

    I watched a video
    Kids critiquing a song
    I grew up with
    Past time so long

    I saw Miley
    Singing Blondie
    I know Blondie
    Covered Buddy Holly

    In the grocery store
    A while a go
    I saw a teen
    Wearing AC/DC

    Adam Lambert
    Keeping Queen alive
    Future generations
    The baton survives

    I may be old
    But some things
    Are timeless
    Music transcends

    The spark is endless.
    (end)

    I love the fact that often I run across teens or young adults who love the same music I grew up with. Last week I ran into a kid who loved Pink Floyd. Today I was watching a video of black couple, must be in their early 20s critiquing Blondie’s “Heart Of Glass” and liking it. And I was thrilled to see Queen play the Global Citizen’s festival and Adam Lambert charging up the young adults singing side by side with their parents and even grandparents.

    I hate getting old, but I get a tear in my eye seeing this. It especially hits close to home because I was a dork, awkward teen and didn’t have my first friend until high school. Music and TV were my only friends on my street, my only escape from the bullies. It is simply nice to know I really wasn’t as alone as I thought I was back then.

    I can look back at even the Bee Gees and ABBA and not give a shit what people thought back then of them, or what some still think now. I can listen to them and Metallica and Paula Abdul and Living Coulour. Point is the really good songs, last and become timeless and future generations will like them too. It simply makes me feel young again.

  • I Would Tell You

    I Would Tell You, by Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter)

    I would tell you
    Their names
    But those killers
    Don’t deserve the fame

    I would tell you
    How many so far
    But it’s been countless
    Over the decades to start

    .I would tell you
    We’ve had enough
    But not even Newtown
    Shook things up

    I would tell you
    Not to worry
    But the bodies pile up
    Everyday in a hurry

    I would tell you
    It is safe to go outside
    But even I look for exits
    Out in public inside

    I would tell you
    It was isolated
    The tune of 100 a day
    Makes that claim negated

    I would tell you
    To go see a movie
    To go out shopping
    It is safe at school

    I wish I could tell you
    Not to fear bullets rule
    I wish we could
    Give the slip

    Of the industry’s grip
    The merchants of death
    Profit off of blood baths
    Caskets in masses

    I would tell you
    It is getting better
    But the numbers
    Keep rising forever

    I can tell you this
    We can never, should never
    Get used to this
    Living under the gun

    Every hour, every day
    Under the sun
    In the dark allies
    In our homes

    In our workplaces
    Losing loved ones
    It is up to you
    To not become complacent

    It is a generational fight
    The right plight
    To stay alive, without fear
    Of someone’s selfish fetish.

    Make the tide change
    We don’t have to live this way
    Non violence should always
    Win the day

    They are afraid
    Of our vote
    They are afraid
    We are right

    And we are.
    (end)

    Mass shootings are unfortunately a very unique distinct and vile quality of American life that does not have to be that way. I wrote this poem as a response to a poem someone read on a Twitter space today about the Pulse night club shooting. And that was after watching a made for TV movie about a very real mass shooting that happened in 1988, the night before. And that is not including my JR yr HS yearbook which had a two page spread called “The Year In News.”

    In that two page spread, it had pictures with paragraphs describing the person or event in the pictures under each. One was a picture of Reagan, another was the firs artificial heart guy, another the space shuttle. But also the picture of a mass shooting in California in 1984.

    And the 10s of thousands in the past 40 years in between the few I mentioned and others you may remember but I don’t. The sad fact is that they happen every fucking day, and until the industry can be sued into behaving, and the shops being held responsible for where their products end up, this is not going to stop.

    But unfortunately the industry has a grip on a large enough minority that holds the rest of the nation hostage. It is insane to think being number 1 in firearm violence can be solved by adding more firearms to civilian hands when we already have 400 million in civilian hands. I never get a good number that would suffice the firearm worshipers. Would 1 billion guns in civilian hands be enough? How about 10 billion firearms in civilian hands? How about 50 billion? How many is enough? I say they don’t care, they simply want to win to own us, not because they are right, but because they know they are on the wrong side of history.

    Don’t ever get used to this. It may be a long road, and things may seem hopeless right now, but every voice counts, and the industry CEOs and profiteers of violence cannot win unless we let them. Use your voice, use your vote, don’t stop, no matter how long it takes.

  • Heads up for those who have Twitter. My audio poetry reading.

    If you go to both my accounts, either one and scroll down, you will see my most recent poetry reading which is about an hour long called “Skeptics Poetry” . You can listen to it at either @Brianrrs37 or @rationalpoet37. You’ll have to skip past the dead air at the beginning. I hate that it doesn’t auto clip or auto fill that. But there is an hour’s worth of poetry there. If you do decide to listen please let me know if it works for you. Twitter has been a mess lately. But it is showing up on my end.

  • Not a poem but an OP/ED

    Good Cop. OP/ED, now what you are about to read is my opinion about a news event, but it still does not change the disparity about how law enforcement treats whites or middle class whites, vs how over policed and over charged and over sentenced minorities are treated for committing similar infractions/crimes.

    Now having said that, an Oklahoma police Captain was pulled over by police for suspicion of DUI. The suspect, the Captain, repeatedly stated his title, and asked the officer to turn off his body cam, several times. To that officer’s credit, he did not. He in fact said, “I do not care if you are a gang banger or the President of the United States.” meaning he treats everyone the same and wasn’t going to play favorites because of the title.

    The Captain was arrested and put up bail and put on administrative leave pending investigation. I do wonder if it had been a black officer would they have been fired? I also now worry about this arresting officer’s safety.

    I once witnessed the aftermath of a car crash and pulled out an off duty police officer from his private car. I knew he was an officer because he constantly stopped at the convenience store I worked at multiple times a week. As I pulled him out of smokey car (Turned out to be the airbag gas), I noticed an empty booze bottle on the passenger side floor I pulled him out of.

    When the rescue and fire showed up, they took my statement, I did not see the actual impact but came across it just after it had happened, as it was a slow traffic day with no cars around. I got a summons to show up to court, which I did. But as was waiting for his case to be called, two officers came up to me and told me I would not be needed to testify.

    I didn’t quite understand at the time what they were doing, but I did leave right then. I now know they were covering his accident up to save him. I regret not sticking around now, but also wonder if I could have been threatened or had trumped up traffic charges hoisted on me by the other officers possibly stalking me.

    The point is, especially now, with one party sucking up to a dangerous liar and bully, it is now more than ever important for our law agencies at the highest ranks to be as objective as this individual officer was with a superior. The former guy has gotten way with far more damaging things that are becoming a threat to our national stability.

    If the highest in power in our intel and law enforcement are corrupt and divided politically our nation cannot function, the system will collapse and we cannot take it for granted that our system will always stand. We cannot allow election lies to foster distrust in our voting system, and we cannot allow the courts who uphold the results to be divided or corrupt either.

    It is ok to hold power to account regardless of party. It is not ok for those in power to deliberately lie and sell fear and division to the point it casts doubt on our concept of peaceful transfer of power. The former guy is under multiple civil lawsuits, and possible criminal indictments. Not because he is a Republican, but because he is abusing his power and has broken his oath multiple times and thrown his own intel under the bus to suck up to Putin and Un both brutal dictators.

    If the truth and objectivity can matter to an individual police officer then it most certainly should matter to the courts, judges and grand juries investigating the former guy. (end)

    https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/17/us/oklahoma-city-police-captain-pulled-over-dui-body-cam/index.html

  • The Fallacy Of Cuteness

    The Fallacy Of Cuteness, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37)

    It is a trap
    Easy to assume
    If it is a cute animal
    How can it meet it’s doom

    Take a duckling
    For example
    It is cute
    When it quacks for it’s mother

    But we falsely assume
    All the chicks survive
    She’ll protect them all
    When they hatch and arrive

    If late to hatch
    Or born a runt
    If it cant keep up
    Falls back too much

    The mother won’t
    Always come to defense
    If it sees the chick
    As a burden to them

    We do often see
    In nature that of adoption
    Like a pride of lionesses
    Care for other’s cubs

    But not always the case
    If cub ages not the same
    If one is a straggler
    Abandons her claim

    In other avian
    It is quite common
    For the weak chick
    To be tossed out of the nest

    A buffalo calf
    Could be sacrificed
    To a lion stalking it
    For more to survive

    I like to root
    For the underdog
    I like to see
    Success for all

    Nature doesn’t
    Work that way
    Cuteness doesn’t
    Always get it’s way.
    (end)

    Far to often laypeople think anything cute always has the upper hand. Not in nature. Allegators and crocks are viciously protective of their nest and young, at least until they get the babies to water. Mother crocks and gators can pick up their young in their mouths very gently and carry them to safety.

    In other cases mothers and fathers of many species will kick the runts or weak out of the home or abandon them or even kill them. Mother ducks are no different.

    Cute makes us feel warm and fuzzy, but nature isn’t ways warm and fuzzy.

  • Our Conceit

    Our Conceit, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter)

    Titles are fleeting
    So too wealth
    And fame
    This passenger jet
    We call life
    Takes off
    And lands
    The same
    Carl Sagan
    Was on the spot
    Pointing out
    Our short lives
    Perceived self importance
    On this “Pale Blue Dot”
    We scurry
    And scream
    And flail
    Dominate and fail
    Fleeting marks
    We make, if any
    To no avail.

    #vss365 #poetrycommunity

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