Brahma Revisited After Emerson, Swinburne, Philip Bailey, Andrew Lang Et Al Poem by Jonathan ROBIN

Brahma

If crowned chicken acts as egg,
if egg as chicken should react,
why, hen is zen, and [s]tale is leg,
as s[t]age [c]old question winks at fact.

Is man from monkey or from mouse
descended, woman from the bear?
An answer lies within his house
of cards: beware, lord louse lies there.

Life's curtains open but to close,
each a poor player is who struts
on stage an hour, age little shows
of infant promise, fizzles, phuts.

The dice are loaded that man throws,
grim Destiny's unkindest cuts,
Time's river ever onward flows,
as all slide through predestined ruts.

Life's whys and wherefores no-one knows,
save I: its ins and outs, ifs, buts,
blind Reason never can disclose,
life's sacred secret sweet rebuts.

For truth on logic seldom grows,
its adepts often selfish scuts,
Love's instincts only never close
the door to peace that all else shuts.

If the surgeon thinks he cuts
or the famer thinks he sows,
fundamental fallacies
Are suggestions such as these.

I am the roots of the disease,
the wheezer, the wheeze and woes.
I am the healer a-greed for fees,
the sneezer, the sneeze, the nose.

I am the deed, the cause, and cure,
all thats certain or unsure,
and I the seed, the horse manure,
wealthy sad and happy poor.

Stoic am I, and epicure,
Christian martyr, lion's lure,
Jew, gentile, pass, yet I endure.
I am perfection, yet impure.

I am the roots which anchor trees,
sedge reeds that bend, wild wind which blows,
the ground, the grape, the leaves and lees,
both summer sun and winter snows.

I am the scarecrow and the crows,
timid squirrel gathering nuts.
The poet's playful parodies
here finish with final-I-[t]ease!

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.

Mind profound minds nothing's stitch, naught notes
unfounded or unworthy of free votes
that rock boat float rocks founder to denote
'ceteris paribus' - quotes all equal coat.


Brahma Revisited