Brahma Ii - Parody Ralph Waldo Emerson Brahma Poem by Jonathan ROBIN

Brahma Brahma II

Truth on logic seldom grows

If the red slayer think he slays, Life’s curtains open but to close,
or if the slain think he is slain, each a poor player is who struts
they know not well the subtle ways on stage an hour, age little shows
I keep, and pass, and turn again. of infant promise, fizzles, phuts.

Far or forget to me is near; The dice are loaded that man throws, -
Shadow and sunlight are the same; grim Destiny’s unkindest cuts, -
The vanquished gods to me appear; Time’s river ever onward flows,
And one to me are shame and fame. as all slide through predestined ruts.


They reckon ill who leave me out; Life’s whys and wherefores no-one knows,
When me they fly I am the wings; save I: its ins and outs, ifs, buts,
I am the doubter and the doubt, blind Reason never can disclose, -
And I the hymn the Brahmin sings. life’s sacred secret sweet rebuts.

The strong gods pine for my abode, For truth on logic seldom grows,
And pine in vain the sacred Seven; its adepts oft are selfish scuts,
But thou, meek lover of the good! Love’s instincts only never close
Find me, and turn thy back on heaven.the door to peace that all else shuts.




Ralph Waldo EMERSON 1803_1882 22 May 1982


© Jonathan Robin Poem written 22 May 1982



« I am that which began; « If the red slayer thinks he slays
of me the years roll if the slain think he is slain,
Out of me God and man; They know not well the subtle ways
I am equal and whole » I keep, and pass, and turn again »

Algernon C. Swinburne Ralph Waldo Emerson.

The ear which hears is pre-attuned in heaven,
The eye which sees prevision hath ere birth.
‘Festus’ Philip James Bailey

Brahma Revisited





Before starred worlds revolved, before Mankind evolved,
ere dust to dust dissolved sin punished, sin absolved,
Creation’s Eve had solved the Day of Judgement’s Doom.
Before first Eden grew, before its seed sin knew,
before vice or virtue distinguished false from true,
before Cain Abel slew, I was born from your tomb.

In orbit unresolved let chance-dance continue
for reasons still unsolved, from chaos to construe
some order linked into more chaos, - mould to mould.
Each spectral spectrum hue through prism travels to
split light as many few appear to overview.
Blinkered trust not to trite superficial costume!

Tomorrow who shall see Death’s all consuming womb
give birth to fresh débuts ? - acts which themselves renew
as years lost years pursue in search of rendez-vous, -
self-circling as they woo mirror reflections through
conundrums. What else, who could thrust light through the gloom ?

Before both desert, flood, before tree, branch bloom, bud,
ere creatures cold of blood crawled careless from the mud,
before cow chewed the cud, mine was the hand, the loom
that spun the thread fed through Past, Present, Old and New,
So certainty’s led through doubt’s trough to turn into
dark heresy ahead as values skin deep mew.

Before the skies were blue, before the first bird flew,
before the first cock crew, I am that (s) he to whom
shadow and light the same are, as is flood and flame,
forgetfulness and fame, as is both praise and blame,
as pride is, as is shame! Yet what is in a name
when player, rules and game in fission cloud mushroom ?

I’m crime, solution, clue, detection overdue,
release, detention too. Life’s melting pot abrew
evaporates into steam seamless sans ado.
Before the first breeze blew, before first sneeze, atchoo,
before love took its cue from life free from taboo,
until the last adieu I WAS who Self subsume.

Time eddies, all at sea, because causality
no difference need see twixt truth and fallacy.
Before prehistory, and after ‘what will be’
all sense of self in « WE » I lose - there lies the key –
for karmic mystery lends atoms energy,
vibrates Eternity as timeless echoes b(l) oom.

Naught is there I eschew from Mars to Timbuktu,
from thence to Xanadu, naught foreign is, naught new
all’s shadow déjà-vu, kaleidoscopic view.
Ere Gentile, after Jew, ere ‘forests walked, fish flew’,
ere Echo did construe alternate I and You,
ere Noah’s ‘two by two’, I might thy Fate assume.

Once they’d been brought to be I thought earth, stars and sea,
dark empty spaces free between each galaxy,
attraction’s gravity, dwarf, giant, man and flea.
As truth is fallacy, both possibility
and probability existence owe to me.
In ALL I am, all through sweep, chimney, smoke and broom.

Before the first screw turned, before the first flame burned
to ashes hope enurned, before life Life concerned,
before Mankind discerned that Time was Heaven earned,
before the forest ferned, after chance ripples churned,
dust into dust returned bright galaxies to fume.

Ere « Fiat Lux! » my weal, - and wheel in spinning wheel
which some would show, some seal, all open, all conceal, -
I’d blood and bone congeal from clay and stone to heal
the void, rules lend to spiel appearences of real
as Fortune tunes unreel - yet Earth is surf écume!
Before web spider knew, before its skeins with dew
were hung, I AM the glue which binds all things into
a senseless sense! I drew, may undraw, play resume.

The fossils from the sea in Himalayas see
all layered in my See. What high seems, low shall be.
what’s great won’t last as we fast fade, made humble, flee
from temporality to temporality
tied to futility. Now IS Eternity -
yet what is Time to me ? ... frames in Fate’s dark dark-room.

Before first Jack and Jill went up and down the hill,
before the first drops’ spill from sky to sea to fill
the oceans and fulfill Life’s need to breed, instill,
from the first eve until last dawn I work my Will, -
through Cause/Effect yet still for parallels there’s room.

I captain am and crew, both horse and rider too,
combining we and you, Past, Future, and thereto
add Time itself which to itself must e’er accrue
until implosion will explosion launch anew
as cycles curlicue. Life’s bride I’m, yet Death’s groom.

I AM emotions’ heartbeats fast,
both love today, and that forecast,
through two souls stitched, man, maid, to last
pulse, impulse, to propulse at last
till cows moon jump, home, ne’er outcast,
hush, flush, lush crush, rush unsurpassed.
I’m voice for choice that can’t be classed
shall shatter false conventions, caste.

I AM emotions Death can’t pale,
and flag unfurled upon Life’s mast,
I'm deep commitment, dark betrayal.
I am rejections which aghast
leave both deceived, deceiver, frail.
I will not bend before storm’s blast,
submission – domination’s tale,
I'm detail, panorama vast.

I AM emotions, skin within
to swim, - the wing, to fly, - the fin,
beholder's eye which out and in
must seek before love may begin.
I am the outer mask whose sin
can be absolved within win/win
relationship where two can twin.
I'm both chagrin and violin.

I AM emotions pitter pat,
synaptical motions, wit, head, heart and hat,
neuronic, neurotic, won’t leave it at that
I am commotions, the mouse and the cat.
Romantic but rarely pacific I lack
any walls which might fall to an angst attack,
grow from seed subatomic to leading the pack.
With empathy flowing both forwards and back
I feed from my need, live from need to give back.

I AM emotions uncontrolled,
the oceans’ motions rocked and rolled,
the sirens’ po(r) tions, shipwrecked, shoaled,
the waves’ commotions thousandfold
recorded on a Dead Sea, scrolled.
The brine, the fresh, the deck, the hold,
the line, the flesh, its every fold.
the storm’s eye I fly unconsoled.

Some think through Nature’s course Death’s force returns
to an equation stable, as all burns
to nothingness, substantial pageant done -
yet nothingness from light experience learns!

Thus if within Eternity there be
subsegments which their own identity
- Time overspilling - somehow could prolong
then therein lies their authenticity...


Links in a chain skein, still vibrating scope,
Eternal are the atoms which comprise
The unique image of itself that prize
Trapped mortal peering through his periscope.
Heaven and Earth spin and kaleidoscope,
Ever commingle, yet naught verifies.
Right and wrong, truth, false, sloth, enterprise.
Each deifies himself to help him cope
Before those questions which, like bubbled soap,
Explode between his finger-thoughts. Replies
Held once self-evident, denied as lies,
Open Pandora’s box, - but where is Hope?
Perhaps Mankind will make sense of the maze,
End ‘Why, Where, What and Whence? ', himself amaze...


Why is Man here, if Man be here at all ?
What’s far and near, when Time spins cross toss call?
Wherefore Man’s tale which tail has lost withal, -
Whither spring, Gone whither sans recall?

Maze which Man’s gaze consumes till end of days
is but a paraphrase for dance and daze,
hay’s harvest soon is garnered, and the sum
a passing phase on craze horizon’s haze.

I AM the henpecked and the scold,
the tease, the teaser, the cajoled,
the jail, the jailer, the paroled,
physician, cure and camisoled.
I am dreams granted, those fools’ gold,
freedom fair, fast stranglehold,
chrysanthemum and marigold:
WE is Eye most manifold.

I AM the stitch, the hem and fold,
the rich - the sable-stoled, -
the poor, in stable, cold,
unstable, pocket holed,
I ‘m larders empty, fires coaled.
'the bowler, bails, the ball that’s bowled’,
‘the potter, the pot, the clay and mould’
WE is I most manifold.

I AM the secret Past unrolled,
Present and Future still untold.
Before I AM, yet was foretold.
I am unseen, and yet, behold,
unbeholden, naught with-hold.
nor part nor whole, last, shoe and soled.
I am sole soul though manifold.

I Am Before: both babe and old,
Before: both hot and cold,
Before: both coward, bold,
Before: both dross and gold,
Before: both bought and sold,
I am before: both secret, told.
I am We, most manifold.

I am the many and the 0ne, the Father, Holy Ghost, the Son,
I harlot am as well as nun. I am the race before its run,
Before chase scheduled or begun and After laurel leaves are won: -
I am all and yet am none.

Epitome of all thats done, remains to do, will be undone.
I am black hole, stars sundry spun, the target, bullet and the gun,
the interplay of mental pun, the memory - sense none should shun, -
in all I AM and yet am none.

Sophisticated and homespun, both everything and anyone,
I love the most where most I shun. I’m tears, I’m years, and weary fun.
No contradiction is there, none, as everything IS everyone.

What will be IS before begun, - equation, fraction, all IS one!
I’m fiercest foe and closest chum, seed, bud, blossom, weed and plum,
string, the stringer and the strum, sting, the stinger and the stung,
the sing-song, singer, the unsung, the sin, the sinner's hand well wrung.
The lowest mean, the highest rung to me selfsame are, - bells once rung
wait not on time, still on time tongue.
I know not age, was never young,
I know not rage, through love ne’er clung,
- stage, set, cast, critic, critique, run.

Tweedledee and Tweedledum AM I, of everything the sum:
the Past, the Future yet to come - (or is it HAS BEEN’s martyrdom?) .
I am the beat of distant drum which, omnipresent, all must numb.
Styletes and the common scrum AM I, the bread loaf, missing crumb,
vein, blood’s flood, patient, leach, joy, glum,
the hermit’s hut, the meddlesome, heresy, sacerdotium.
I Lethe am, Life’s opium, - still for serenity all come...

I’m early, late, from solid state through liquid to the gas that swirls,
both circle, straight, and pointless point which may anoint the wave that curls
as foam to reach the beach or strand, and, stranded, drains into the land.
I’m finger pointed out of hand, drop, strata, matter’s natter band,
unique, am standard flag which furls before the blast must silence skirls.

Imbalance, equilibrium, AM I, scaled heights, and depths to plumb.
Vacuum filled, life willed, undone, I am leaf, bough, bole, kernel, plum
degrees perceived between stone, scum. Prey, prayer Way error moon & sun,
subtraction and addition, sum, blind imitation, rule of thumb,
creation, all the same are, hum as static on Time’s waves, become
soon silence, though, unheard not dumb, stuck onto all as chewing gum
awaiting some stochastic drum beat's heat, which, timeless, may BECOME...

© Jonathan Robin Poem written 22 May 1982,31 October 1991, & 10 September 2005


Brahma III

I find I’m found the finder and the find,
The fine, the finer and the undefined;
I sign myself the signer and the signed,
Design and the designer, predesigned.


© Jonathan Robin Poem written 23 May 1982