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 RationalPoet@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. You may not publish individual poems without my express permission. Any links to my poetry must be credited to me.

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/X accounts. Twitter has now changed it’s name to “X”. So all poetry in this site referencing Twitter is also including the new name “X”.

“RationalPoet@brianrrs37”
AND
“Brian@rationalpoet37”

I have also joined Facebook/META poetry group “Facebook Poetry Society” Under “Brian James Rational Poet”

Also I just joined http://www.allpoetry.com under the user name “RationalPoet37”

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

NEW EDIT………


A special thanks to Zaylen of “Okay Atheists” on the Discord app, for allowing me to guest host this poetry reading available on their YouTube channel originally aired 5/22/23. Here is the link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_ikCkc7lWE

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.

UPDATE EDIT AS OF 11/13/2024. I have a new account at Bluesky Soical under the handle @rationalpoet37.bsky.social .

 

 

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

Dear theists
I must state this
When you answer
A question I pose

Can you speak
For yourself
Or say
“I don’t know”

When you say
“God said”
Or
“The bible says”

My eyes turn red
Regurgitate
Old words dead
Hand up your back

The puppet is fed
I asked YOU
Not your God
Do you want me to view

You as a mere bot?
Can you formulate
Your own thoughts
Can you reason

Outside of that book?
Is it, the only you read
Seems that you see
What you want to see

Exactly where is
Your mind autonomy
If you always let God
Speak for thee?

Marionette
Is to be
Strung up on
This fallacy

Needlessly
Hopelessly
Mindlessly
Parroting

Mythology.
(end)

As an atheist, when I debate theists, I really get frustrated with the theist when I ask them what they think on a topic and they say “God said” or “My holy book says”. I am not asking you the opinions or positions of others, I am asking YOU what your independent position is. When you regurgitate the words of others or lines in an old book, you are not formulating your own position, you are clinging to the mythology of antiquity because you fear thinking for yourself.

If you are allowed to think for yourself however, then God should have no problem with you disagreeing with him, or even criticizing him. But what I seen in that book as an overall characteristic of the God character, is that he is not interested in listening to you, unless it is solely to grovel for his attention. He does not ask for advice or wants to listen to your personal feelings outside of worshiping him. It is all about worshiping him.

So when you say “God said” or “the bible says” you are NOT formulating an independent position and you are devaluing your own mind autonomy. You are not you, you are ultimately a mouthpiece, a billboard without the right to disagree or question.

“I Hope They Stomp Him” By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter)

Even when,
Black men try
Even when
They do comply

The rivers of blood
Caused by blue
The climate fostered
By our institutes

Watts riots
Long ago
Rodney King
History shows

Tyre took
Many blows
No courtroom
To take an oath

Presumed guilty
On the streets
Death of justice
At his feet

This this what
Black men face
This isn’t “woke”
It is fact

The fire stoked
Comes from hate
White ignorance
Fear of change

Our system
Is deeply engrained
With inequity
The fortunes framed

Equal justice
Will not be
If whites keep ignoring
Real history.
(end)

“I hope they stomp him” was a comment one of the officers body cam’s picked up. Our society has a police force trained to dominate like a defensive line in the NFL. No dialogue, no communication, just using fear and intimidation to get compliance. Then brute force as the default position.

Now, many police would argue it is a matter of officer safety and split second decisions. It is absolutely true polices officers have a very dangerous job. But we as a society create these conditions that are avoidable.

Investment in all communities regardless of zip code, where people have an economic interest and family stability. And we should not have a militarized police force, trained to fear those they police. And we also need to have national gun safety laws that are universal. While Tyre did not have a gun, police are trained to assume everyone they pull over may have one. We do have 400,000,000 firearms in civilian hands in America. Thus police are trained to assume the worst.

I am a white person, and if you want to call me “woke” and use it as a slur, fuck you. Tell me what is wrong with having compassion and seeing that other groups of people are treated less equally and are hurt worse by economics and the justice system? It is called having empathy for others.

Blacks do not want a handout, they do not claim they should have more rights than whites. They want police, but just not the abuse. Instead of wallowing in ignorance and fear, listen without judgment, to their stories, to their life histories.

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

Hate never dies
It is only dormant
At best, we must
Never rest

This weed
Impervious
Silent, and creeping
A slithering serpent

If the wondering eye
Looses sight of this hate
The world will surely
Meet it’s fate

We all know
The words on that gate
The extermination
The culmination

Of lie after lie
The vilification
The scapegoating
The violation

Of humanity
In blinded glee
Of Germany
Brutal malice

The Fuehrer
Their leader
Grand ambition
World cataclysm

Work sets you free
A fallacy, a prophecy
Self fulfilling legacy
Repeat again

If we refuse to see
We must remember
History, never forget
This misery

This haunting code
Is whispering still
Reaching ears
Living in fear

The authoritarian
To be their savior
Propaganda
His endeavor

Turn our backs
We must never
Let resurrect
This evil monster.
(end)

Even before the former guy ran, I knew his rhetoric of otherism, scapegoating and vilifying was preying of of fear and social anxiety, when he was perpetuating the Obama birther bullshit. But when he officially ran, I knew this guy would be dangerous to our institutions and our republic, and unfortunately he did exactly that, damaged the public trust in our free society and system of checks and balances. He has lead the GOP to the climate of blind loyalty.

We have seen this tactic before in human history. Lie and scapegoat and vilify, and sell hate of outsiders and us propaganda an rhetoric to make political rivals targets of violence, and throw questioners of your own camp under the bus for even the slightest of question.

These tactics in a seat of high political power are exactly how democracies fall, and how despots, dictators and fascism arise. I am do not like saying this at all, but the parallels are there and glaringly obvious.

We must always remember what hate and propaganda and lies combined at high sets of power can lead to.

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

Twain simplistic
Yet profound
Samuel Clemens
Quote renowned
Said of “faith”
“Is believing
In things
You know
Ain’t so”
Symbolic
Cannibalism
Is trash
To throw….. Away.

Multiple armed
Deities
Have no say
Ocean currents
Are not swayed
By Poseidon
Fires
Are not caused
By Pele
Allah’s source
Is Yahweh

El at the top
Of the divine family
Elohim of Canaan
Humanity keeps
Inventing them
Might as well been
P.T. Barnum

Antiquity’s bane
Plagues us still
Over mythology
Today we kill
Never it seems
To get over
That hill

And graduate
Science the guide
Theists hate
When caught
In a lie
They try
To incorporate
As if their deity
Invented science
It is all the apology ……. Of denial.
(end)

Mark Twain once famously said, “Faith is believing in things you know ain’t so”. Now mind you I was taking poetic license with this quote. He wasn’t singling out any one religion, but merely criticizing absurd claims.

Then there is the other quote from P. T. Barnum, “There’s a sucker born every minute”.

The rest of the poem is basically saying that all gods/god/God/deities are human inventions. But when theists get called out on their absurd claims they suddenly become metaphor, or allegory, and when that does not work, they try to get science to point to their holy book. To me it is all apology to remain willfully ignorant.

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

The untold become told
To make a connection
In the mind of the reader
Becomes an infection

The brush silent no more
The artist’s core, to shine
Glow, provoke, and soar
Make them want for

Weave the words
Wind down the page
Paint that picture
Set the stage

Make landscapes
In their brains
Thorny roses
Break the chains

Sunsets simmer
Oceans glimmer
Angry skies
Boom with thunder

Jilted lover
Razor blade
Ends it all
On the page

Falcons soar
Talons too
Prey ambushed
It was you

Set your eyes
On the poet
The artist lies
In untold coves.
(end)

Another poem about why poets write. It is painting a picture and providing a connection to the reader, a serious image, or one of beauty and awe, or romance and fall.

3rd Party, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter)

I didn’t ask you to
I can decide for myself
I can forgive
But I don’t need your help

If there is a transgression
Against my person
I make that decision
As to who I am forgiving

You have no right
To take that from me
You’re a third party
Don’t dictate to me

Revenge I do not seek
But that does not mean
I have to keep company
With that person that hurt me

This character Jesus
Takes my autonomy
Far too many people
Buy this fantasy

Once indoctrinated
They cannot see
They cant speak for themselves
These lemmings to be

I have a brain
I choose to use
I think for myself
They haven’t a clue

Ask for forgiveness
And get into heaven
It doesn’t matter
What you have done then

Are they suggesting
If this is the case
If you are murdered
You’ll meet your killer face to face?

How is it the right
Of this third party
To force you to live with
The monster that cried?

“I’m sorry”
Said the bad guy
Jesus said
“You get a ticket to the afterlife”

My self is not mine
My autonomy gone
I am just a prop
Jesus’s pawn.
(end)

I find the entire “forgiveness” motif of the Jesus character immoral. I am all for the idea of forgiving, but that should always be left up to the person hurt by the other. It should not be up to a third party. I am not advocating revenge on anyone. But I should have the ability to part company from that person who hurt me and never see them again.

But if that person gets to say “I am sorry” to Jesus, to me, that would be like having a boss where you work telling you you have to put up with that harassment or bully.

And while we are at it, exactly how is not staying dead, and faking a suicide a “sacrifice”? Altruism to me is doing the right thing, even when nobody is looking. I do not see how this Jesus character’s story constitutes a real “sacrifice”. He didn’t stay dead, and he sought worship and glorification. Real empathy and compassion is not seeking fame or worship. I would say the soldiers of D-Day were a real sacrifice. They did not get famous, they did not have religions started in their name. It was about the country, not them as individuals.

Jesus is God, and God’s core goal is to bully you into worshiping him and if you do not you burn in hell. This is not real altruism or love. It is mental slavery, intimidation.

(DISCLAIMER) This is not a hate poem. It is not calling for the forced end of Christianity. It is simply a poem to get the reader to think about the logic of the motif in the character’s story. I will always value human rights, but claims do no not deserve blind taboo status never to be questioned. Art isn’t just to be about beauty, it is also there to provoke thought. If our species never questioned social norms, our species never would have left the caves.

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

The empty vase
Treated as fragile
Up on the shelf
Out of reach
Never to see
Roses
Or carnations
Never to see
Flowers bloom
Never to see
Them wilt In gloom
The windowsill
Never it’s home
(end)