The Thought That Lingers: Part Six
Karl Constantine FOLKES 1935 (Portland)
The search for wholeness is the search
of modern man; the quest,
to regain knowledge of the Divine Self;
and remove his Edenic stain; his blemish.
To become a faithful child of God
in a Promised Land, with hope renewed;
to benefit from grace and wisdom;
to dwell in harmony and balance.
We are all pilgrims seeking progress,
our earthly paradise having been lost.
The tasks we’re given to regain it
require penance on our part.
From a spider’s web of misdeeds,
we’ve woven our matted histories;
created our mythic cultures,
and forged our graven images.
We continue to build icons and edifices,
and worship them with platitudes;
in religions that are outward bent,
instead of those that turn inwards.
We’re an outward thinking people;
extroverted in our actions.
Not inclined to what requires reflection,
we’re sanctimonious in our disposition.
And so we become proficient
in that which requires articulation.
Braggarts of our accomplishments,
we feast on that which is demonstrative.
Language is our primary means
by which we display our primacy
as Alpha Homo Sapiens
in dominion of the world.
Through language we construct our gods;
those made of fiscal currency;
devising schemes and lofty plans
to justify mammon’s delight.
Our artifacts serve as our gods;
false images to entice us;
as monstrous tools and artifices,
before whose altars we worship.
A God of machine is modern man,
desiring to be almighty;
man of flesh, persistently striving;
to be immortal robot man.
Technology is now the craft
by which man weaves his witchcraft;
and Internet becomes ‘The Source’
serving as modern man’s Torah.
This worldwide web offers instructions
on what is gleaned as propaganda;
propagated as the Tree of Knowledge;
dictating what is ‘true’ or what is ‘false.’
This weblike Internet is all-seeing;
it’s wavelength tentacles worldwide.
Potent is its craftiness;
and ever present is its outreach.
This weblike Internet is highly interactive.
A tool of modern man,
it befriends him to be machine man;
to be a copy of his original Self.
Modern man has been co-opted;
created man created by his own creation;
postmodern man a simulacrum;
part machine; and partly human.
In such a state man finds himself;
that of the Betwixt and the Between;
courting the Devil; while striving to be God;
lost in an eternal liminal state.
In the Betwixt and the Between
man resides; forever transfixed;
transfixed in proximal development;
hindered by his clever fuzzy logic.
Man deems his logic that of the possible,
crafted by art of the impossible;
to become genetic übermensch,
lost in the Betwixt and the Between.
In this Betwixt and this Between,
this transgender liminal zone,
modern man forges false realities
where gender must be negotiated.
Man has so strayed away from Self,
he no longer knows himself.
As a machine, he‘s just a thing.
A mind/less thing unto its/Self.
That which is upside down is mind;
the mind of modern man;
modern man with capsized mind;
capsized by thought he’s now God.
The machinations of such mind,
manufactured by modern man,
transmogrifies the human form;
as artificial, and no longer God-like.
As Subject, man becomes the Predicate;
his syntax is a hangman’s verbiage;
looped around, enchaining him;
semantically, nonsensically.
The thoughts of modern man are parsed
by quantum foolish utterances;
robotic in their tense and structure;
voided of human sentiments.
We’ve become servants of servile thoughts;
the slaves of our robotic minds;
seeking freedom; still yet chained
by chains of our own devices.
Woe is man with lofty dreams,
his dreams becoming nightmares;
the paradox of man with dreams,
of being his own creator.
Woe is modern machine-man,
transformed by act as robot-man.
Woe is Faustian robot-man,
seeking ascent, finding descent instead.
What irony is the search of man,
desperate to obtain wholeness;
designing what instead is web
in which he finds himself buried.
Modern man has lofty dreams
of reaching for the stars;
forgetting that the stars he seeks
are all crafted by his maker.
For man himself is, too, a star,
designed by heavenly hands;
to sparkle in God’s firmament,
for his delight; and none other.
Modern man of robotic ego
must cease from thinking he is God;
woven he is, but not by himself;
instead by God’s own hands.
The thought that lingers never rests
concerning modern man;
how he must now return to roots
and claim his royal source.
For man was made of sterner stuff
declared as “very good“
by God, resting on the seventh day
to view mankind, made in His own image.
Man’s hubris is to think he is
the author of his own making;
made of flesh, not needing soul;
manufactured by his own consent.
The thought that lingers never rests
of modern man today;
residing in a brave new world,
spindled by a demonic Internet.
The thought that lingers never rests,
is how God made this world
for modern man — made in His image
to falter, yet strive for reconciliation.
Modern man employs pathways,
many crooked; and one that’s narrow;
some woven like a spider’s web,
and one revealed; by man’s discernment.
The straight and narrow path remains open.
It is, for some, the road not taken.
Those who find it, gladly welcome all
to turn around and, hopefully, follow.
Frosty cold is the road not taken
from lack of feet to warmly tread upon it;
or hearts to give it comfort
with tender loving kindness.
Yet it is the path awaiting
for all intrepid travelers;
the path that leads directly
to knowledge of our healing.
This straight and narrow pathway
diverges from all others.
It has no outward landmarks.
All signs are inward turning.
By thus inclining inwards,
this path leads to its center;
Its residence of the human psyche;
and place of holiness.
The straight and narrow pathway
directs us to a place of healing.
It is a super ordinate pathway;
sanctuary of the Divine Self of Wholeness.
The search for wholeness is the search
of modern man; the quest,
to regain knowledge of the Divine Self;
and remove his Edenic stain; his blemish.
About this poem
This poem, “The Thought That Lingers: Part Six,” is Part Six of a collection of twelve poems that are laden with interconnecting ideas, and with the interweaving central theme of “The Thought That Lingers” (hence the title of the entire series of poems), forming altogether an anthology of metaphysical, philosophical, existential poetry that was composed in the year 2000, and now published online on poetry.com.
Written on June 06, 2000
Submitted by karlcfolkes on April 17, 2023
Modified by karlcfolkes on April 19, 2023
- 6:01 min read
- 377 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | Text too long |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 6,086 |
Words | 1,203 |
Stanzas | 45 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"The Thought That Lingers: Part Six" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 14 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/157137/the-thought-that-lingers:-part-six>.
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