I Felt It, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X.

You took a mundane accident
A knife in the kitchen incident
And used words so magnificent

I could feel that flap of skin
The piercing pain within
The thumb betrayed it’s kin

Thin as a piece of paper
Dangling off of the top
The bleeding wouldn’t stop

You spoke of the Revolutionary War
The British brought you gore
Zero pilots red spots clot

The onion was the plot.
(end)

This is a poem about my favorite poem of all time by Sylvia Plath, “Cut”.

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

Hitchens could not be more eloquent
In his blasphemy devastatingly defiant
That this celestial dictator demands you compliant

“Do you wish it to be true?” , someone upstairs
Is every waking moment of your life, watching you
Calling you broken at birth, calling you wretched

Telling you you have no worth, without blind obedience
“Do you wish it to be true?” that you can be convicted
Just for your thoughts, your privacy never existed

On him always dependent, never have independence
Under penalty of death, and hellfire’s breath
“Do you wish it to be true?”, that you can never leave

Never given any reprieve, from the camera in the sky
Your only lot is to lavish praise, spread his authoritarian
“Obey me or else” ,to go unscathed, never ask why

“Do you wish it to be true?” to have to live under threat
Of the abusive spouse, the mafia boss, or Kim Jong Un
His relentless surveillance is never done

A mic in your head, a camera over your bed
One your bathroom, no thought’s your own
You’re never alone, “Do you wish it to be true?”

There is no choice, if you have no voice, if you have no say
Extortion is the price you pay, his protection racket
His one party state, no probate, it is his will

“Do you wish it to be true” you cannot contest
You cannot escape, you cannot think, you cannot resist
His absolute power, your brain is always dispossessed
(end)

Christopher Hitchens was highly critical of the Abrahamic God in all it’s forms. He hated the idea that there was something even worse than an immovable power like Stalin or Kim Jong Un. But a cosmic version, that could watch you at all points in your life, get inside your brain, not allow you to your own thoughts, and especially if you didn’t love him back, he could beat you, and torture you. Why would anyone want this to be true?

Gaslighting Of Beauty, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

It is my duty, when you talk of beauty
When you claim a monopoly, based on your book
When you claim a patent that no other can see

When you say the atheist’s eyes are closed
And cannot appreciate the orange and red and blue
The dusk of the hew of the evening sunset

When you say that the atheist is incapable of
Feeling emotions of a loved one’s hug
As deeply, or when we do, it is robotically

When you say we have no sense of wonder
When you say we can never ponder
The way Jesus gave you the ability to

When you claim we are fatalistic
When you claim we are pessimistic
When you claim nihilism is our brand

It is on your part, insecure gaslighting
It is fear of being wrong that keeps you fighting
To think we can’t see beauty in life

I see beauty in Picasso, in my calico
I see beauty in the pock marked moon
I see beauty when lovers swoon

I see beauty in a graceful swan
In a spring time pond, next to grazing
A speckled fawn

I see beauty in a an ocean tide
Breaking waves on beaches ride
Darting dolphins, breaching fins

I see beauty in kitten’s whiskers
I see beauty in peacock feathers
I see beauty in rainbow weathers

If of this to you it bothers
I don’t know what to say
Other than you cant take away

The beauty that I see.
(end)

I just read another bullshit post on X today about how only Christians can see beauty and how we are all doom and gloom because we are atheists. Or if we do see beauty it is because God gave it to us. I am so sick of this patronizing, arrogant gaslighting.

Flying Through Turbulence, By Brian37, (Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

I have felt the nasty breath
Of death on the back of my neck
Calling for a blade or pill or a gun

The day could have been sunny
People smiling at a party, having fun
I’d still feel like I was the only one

Fortunately the rain torrent never came
The reaper has failed to earn his fame.
(End)

IT WAS NOT AGNETHA FALTSKOG, it was someone on her page posing as her. I didn’t give out any info, so no harm. But the like I got on my post was not her.

The Agnetha Faltskog page was legit, but some fucking asshole was pretending to be her by liking and hearting posts, without communicating with anyone. I didn’t know this until this morning but what people do is get you to click on the like to figure out who liked the post, then click on the thumbs up and it takes you to another fake page.

Now that is not to say you cannot talk to celebrities ever. I have and some of them are very real and they do interact with you. BUT YOU HAVE TO BE EXTREMELY CAREFUL. Best policy is to never communicate in DM and especially never give out your personal info. Real honest celebrities will never ask you for personal info in DM OR PM.

The Dog Waiting At The Front Door, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X.

One of the fab four, we all know as lore
Any one of them would do, waiting at the door
For 40 years, I longed, never expecting, then today

She sang in disco French asking “Do you want to”
To sing of lost battles in Waterloo, knowing me
I don’t want to talk, I want to shout, “I GOT A LIKE”

Watch out, it is true, I got a like, I got a like
I got a like from you! Yngwie rocked gimme
in honor of you. Fia-Spel is the game for thee

Rock me, roll me, I am so happy, on and on
Friday night when I made that post
Not expecting a response to show

One of us is crying, tears of joy
When I was a young teen boy
I would look at your Magic album

And became the dog waiting at the front door.
And I am still that dog waiting at the door
Because my heart broke and broke some more

Like many cons we’ve seen before
One pretending to be her wanted to lure
A sucker in to DM OR PM to get some loot

Ask you for your private info too boot
So be careful and do try to be wise
You don’t want your wallet to have a surprise
(end)

I got a like commenting on her official merch FB page from Agnetha Faltskog that was FAKE. Fortunately I never gave out personal info so no harm done. But now I look like a fucking jackass because I bragged about it all day yesterday to my friends only to tell them now I was wrong.

To The Technocrats, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

You talk of tercets
You talk of sonnets
You may sing of bonnets
But you can lose the message
Of the sunsets if it is too coded

You talk of iambic pentameter
To build a parameter
To create a diameter
But you can lose the corona
If it is too coded

The filet mignon
Can be overdone
The simple cheeseburger
May be more fun for some

Simplicity even when odd
When there is no rhyme
Can be the rise in the morning
The cup of coffee
In the sunshine.
(end)

I have no problem with people who pursue any style of poetry. I only get down on others who get snobbish and think poetry should be one style always has to be set to a meter. It does not. It is not music, it is poetry. It can be set to music sure. But it also can be simply read.

I have been reading and writing for over 30 years. I have seen poetry from people like Anne Sexton’s “Wanting To Die” and Sylvia Plath’s “Mirror” that don’t rhyme and yet are very powerful.

If you want to be a great poet, the most important thing is to BE YOURSELF. If you want to follow a pattern, go for it. But that pattern won’t mean anything to others if it is so coded it lost on them. Some of the best poetry I have read can also be simplistic Ig “I Am Nobody, Who Are You”, by Emely Dickinson.

Be encouraging to other poets. But never be an involuntary critic. If someone wants your advice they will ask for it. If they ask for it, then it is ok to give it.

I started my “AllPoetry.com” account under the username “RationalPoet37” there, 8 months ago. I did not discover until today that 5 months ago someone started an account under the username “Rationalpoet” there as well. I only have one account there and that is “RationalPoet37”. The other one “Rationalpoet” on “AllPoetry.com” is not mine.

Don’t Stand So Close, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

The argument from a designer
They claim could be no finer
That all this was fine tuned

Their rosy picture festooned
Heaven is sprinkles, party balloons
And angel food cake , daddy makes

They don’t like their logic impugned
They don’t want their fantasy ruined
On this tiny rock we’re marooned

We are the apple of an invisible eye?
Floating in space? But ask not why
A super nova could easily fry earth

A black hole can destroy a star like our sun
Just for fun, and turn it into spaghetti
Shred it like confetti

Nine months for human gestation
It takes vivid imagination to think
That we are the best breeders

When cockroaches vastly outnumber us
And in a mere 44 days, dozens of eggs it lays
While we average 1 or 2 in 9 months

And look at the face of the moon
Meteors mark it, like bullets
In a shooting range target

And the dinosaurs could attest
Earth has a thin protective vest
That won’t stop every slug

And we don’t know where
All of them are, chances are good
And not that far

That someday one, the size of a city
Will not take pity on Cancun again
Our planet will continue on without man

Still you want me to believe
In your Biblical Mothra “Leviathan”
Or like the old man and the sea

“Call me Ishmael” is fiction to you
Yet man can live in a whale?
Sounds like a tall tale to me

From page one to the very last
Fans of this deity too many insist
Genocidal prophecy top of their list

Revelations brings them jubilations
Joy in burning all the nations
A pit in my stomach not glee

If we are to extend our ride
If we are to save humanity
Then we must insist on maturity

In inventing meteor deflectors
Cleaning our oceans, ending poverty
But if you insist on barbaric mythology

As the Police once sang,
“Don’t stand so close to me”
I want our species to be

Around as long as can be.

A Dead World, By Brian37 (AKA Brian James Rational Poet on FB/META and @Brianrrs37 on Twitter/X)

It would be a dead world to me
If it were a world without poetry

Sure the bees would buzz
Sure the elephants would trumpet
Sure the peacock would woo colorfully
Sure the orca would hunt masterfully

It still would be a dead world to me
If it were a world without poetry

Sure the penguins would waddle in pairs
Sure the rabbits would have plush hares
Sure the swans would glide on glassy waters
Sure the seagulls would comb the beach

It would still be a dead world to me
If it were a world without poetry

Sure the blue whales would sing their songs
Sure the dolphins would play along
Sure the the butterfly would flutter by
Sure there’s the eagle soaring in the sky

It still would be a dead world to me
If it were a world without poetry

Surely in all this clutter, surely in all this stress
It is my wine, though I no longer drink
Surely in all this division, surely in all this hate
It is my whiskey, though I no longer drink

Every word is my pleasure, my pain, my temptress
Every word is my pride, a sculpture of a lioness
It still would be a dead world to me
If it were a world without poetry

I inhale the print of others, like oxygen
An opiate that drives me to my pen
Rare doldrums do not frighten me
It always happens when

The spark hits it’s mark
Ready set go.