Cognition/Grace

With cognition comes sadness

Sorrows we must all face

Luckily

Interspersed among the losses

Are moments of overwhelming grace

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

Spring Bird

Spring bird in winter

Chirping hopeful song

Sun shining brightly

Chill not yet gone

Cat is thinking darkly

Song goes on too long

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

Revolution Begun

Revolution begun

Engines burn

Nothing won

Is unearned

Sleep tonight

Forget rage

All will be right

When we shatter the cage

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

Snark

Don’t let snark be your only form of self expression

Or disdain be your sole reaction

Sincerity and authenticity are not curses

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

Straight Up v2

I could tell you it was about love

But it was straight up about the need

I could say I drove too fast due to lateness

But it was straight up about the speed

I could tell you I was into Phish or the Dead

But it was straight about the weed

I could tell you I work for the love of it

But it is straight up about the greed

I could tell you a whole lot of shit

But telling is not my creed

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

Wallace Stevens Hartford Old Time Blogger

Wallace Stevens would you blog?

A webpage for your thoughts and log?

Behind your wooden insurance desk

Pursuing online dreams like all the rest

Stolid gray-flannel business man

Except with your electronic pen

Would your success be imminent?

Even in the digital age?

Would industry be hell bent?

To keep your voice safely caged

Words were shaped from chaos

From Hartford insurance towers

Corporate cog among lawyers and clerks

Archeologist of truth among bottom lines

We carry on your lyrical good works

From our cubicles in these dark times

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

That Crusoe Must Have Thunk/version 2

I have the kind of

Knowledge you get

From spending days and years alone

Books existing as my solace

When I am lonely to the bone

I am a dreamer

I am a drunk

I am thinking all the thoughts

That Crusoe must have thunk

I have the kind of old soul

That runs away from pain

I know all about the price of love

And its small and subtle gains

I am a dreamer

I am a drunk

I am thinking all the thoughts

That Crusoe must have thunk

I might have misgivings

Gathered up along the way

But the train’s already moving

And the fare has been paid

Some come on now

All you words and songs

Give me that substitute

For that which my soul longs

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

Purple

The depth of my dreams are purple

There I am slumbers disciple

Shards of knowledge deeply burned

The color of imperial authority

Desired images innately yearned

Fragments fight for supremacy

The court of reality stands adjourned

When faced imagination’s temerity

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

Once I Wanted For Nothing

At birth I wanted for nothing

As a child I yearned for naught

Then I succumbed to comparison

For years and decades I was caught

In between accumulation

Of possessions

And the desire to be free

From the black flowers of depression

My hoarding

Gave bloom to in me

So I took a fearless assessment

Of what caused decay in my core

And gathered a hard cold resentment

Of what made me less, but want more

Now when faced with desires

Or guided toward sadness and wants

I look at what burns in my fires

Deciding what nourishes and what haunts

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015

Maybe All Songs

Maybe all songs have been written

Maybe all stories have been told

At least I got enough books&music

To keep me from boredom as I grow old

Gene G. McLaughlin 2015