God And Mammon Poem by Eric Ratcliffe

Into the book the images disperse
as publishers perform their Act of God.
In subsequent appraisal of the verse
the critics' heads may either shake or nod
and closest friends may even mouth a curse,
finding a phrase that strikes them as most odd.

And yet some oddness is not really odd,
for associations in the brain disperse
in various modes. Some manifest a God,
a Devil or neurosis in their verse
- a resonance in thought promotes a nod
and dissonance provokes a silent curse.

And so we should be wise to every curse
laid on our poetry, as not so odd.
To help sound nightly sleep to soon disperse
the nightmares caused when critics upstage God,
we hold the right to give the world our verse
though only close relations praise and nod.

And yet, approval, causing heads to nod
can be a mental prison and a curse
when reality of life is judged as odd
if bodies burn and molecules disperse
- releasing astral bodies before God.
Are sense impressions then the founts of verse?

The imagery which furbishes much verse
would hardly cause an angel's head to nod;
retailers of such observations curse
the mystic world as useless and just odd.
Financial profits would decrease, disperse
if ledger headings bore the name of 'God'.