Modified painting by Hans Memling‘Faith’ and Other Poetry by Mike Bryant The Society August 11, 2019 Culture, Deconstructing Communism, Humor, Love Poems, Poetry 13 Comments Faith I’m pond scum, someone said today. Some soup primordial, in a bay was struck by lightning. Oh, I see I’m wrought by electricity… then, look! it’s a bacterium who, in a deep delirium, decided he would rather be a worm that crawls out of the sea. From there it’s just a natural flow to Einstein, Michelangelo. Or maybe, let’s connect the dots, we’re spawned by ancient astronauts. Of course, that doesn’t answer where they come from, maybe the thin air? It’s making perfect sense to me… science answers perfectly. If you don’t think so you’re a dunce. Regain your senses now, at once! Just climb aboard and dance the dance, and feel the will of circumstance. (Science is the golden calf… and God in Heaven has to laugh.) The Baked Bard of Avon? Pray did our William fortify his verse With cannabis? Did he form new world dreams? Tune in, turn on and go from bad to worse. Connect his works to barely conscious streams? Perhaps he flew his beautiful balloon Above the cares and ken of normal men, Partaking of the latest, greatest swoon And letting pharmacy persuade his pen. Or maybe Indians from across the sea Presented him a western prototype That turned a troubled mind to ecstasy. He understood why it was called “peace pipe”. Of course, we each can only speculate, I’m sure it wasn’t drugs that made him great. Material World And if there is no God above, no poetry, no mystery, and visions only dreams of love or hoped-for future’s history. If souls have never met before, and hearts are only muscled mass, and every yearning’s based on lore, imagined stories from the past. If blue eyes are just coloured flesh, your lips of crimson, emptiness. If mirrored spirits can’t enmesh, can’t feel care or happiness. Even then, if nothing’s true, and every reverie is through, and all the world’s been misconstrued… My life and love belong to You. Mike Bryant is a poet and retired plumber living on the Gulf Coast of Texas. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. Trending now: 13 Responses Joe Tessitore August 11, 2019 What a lovely and challenging way to start a Sunday! Thank you, Mr. Bryant. Reply Mike Bryant August 11, 2019 Thank you, Mr. Tessitore. Reply Joe Tessitore August 11, 2019 P.S. I’m a retired building superintendent and worked regularly with all of the trades. Plumbers invariably had the best jokes. Reply Joseph S. Salemi August 11, 2019 All three poems are lovely and well crafted, but I especially like “The Baked Bard of Avon.” The only stimulant that Shakespeare had (or needed) was a pewter tankard of good old-fashioned English ale. Reply Mike Bryant August 11, 2019 Thank you sir, that poem was based on this: https://time.com/3990305/william-shakespeare-cannabis-marijuana-high/ Reply Joseph S. Salemi August 11, 2019 One of the further links from that piece quotes the line from Sonnet 76: “And keep invention in a noted weed…” as a hint that Shakespeare may have used marijuana. But in this line the word “weed” means “clothing” or “garment,” and does not refer at all to a plant. We still hear it used in that older sense in the phrase “widow’s weeds,” meaning the dark clothing of mourning worn by a bereaved wife. C.B. Anderson August 11, 2019 Mike, I liked all three poems, too, but a few things bothered me. In the first poem you wrote, “Science is the golden calf,” but you probably owe your current health to science, as most of us do. What is more true is that scientism is the golden calf, but try to make that assertion work metrically! In the second poem, stanza 3 line 4, you put peace pipe in quotation marks. It is inappropriate to put a noun phrase after “called” in quotation marks. “[C]alled peace pipe” is plenty good enough. In the third poem, stanza 1 line 3, there is a problem with number: “and visions only dream” or “and vision only dreams” would be grammatically correct. In the last stanza, it is unclear whether your life and love belong to the material world or to some heretofore unmentioned inamorata. These are just details, Mike — something to pay attention to, but nothing to get worried about. These poems were sound, and it’s not as though you had left exposed the proverbial plumber’s butt-crack. Reply Joseph S. Salemi August 11, 2019 In poem three, “dreams” might be a plural noun rather than a verb. If so, then a verb of being has been ellipsed, and the explicit sense of the line is “and visions [are] only dreams of love…” It’s possible, since there is already a verb of being in the poem’s first line. Reply Mike Bryant August 11, 2019 You have it just right Mr. Salemi. Mike Bryant August 11, 2019 C. B. Thanks. How about, “False science is the golden calf” ? Also Mr. Salemi is correct about the meaning of the line from the third poem. As for the quotation marks, I bow to your greater knowledge. Google here I come! Reply Martin Rizley August 12, 2019 Another way to communicate the idea of “false science” is simply to put the word “science” in quotes. Then the closing couplet would read: “Science” is the golden calf. . . And God in heaven has to laugh. By using quotation marks, the idea conveyed is that certain theories presented as science in the popular culture are not pure science at all, but philosophical naturalism dressed up as science. I enjoyed the satiric humor in this poem! Susan Jarvis Bryant August 19, 2019 Mike Bryant, you never fail to impress and surprise me with your poetry and its message. Faith is very topical and captures the skepticism around the subject of “Science” these days – very thought provoking. I love Material World, for the questions it poses and images it conjures. And, as for the Baked Bard of Avon, I adore Shakespeare, and welcome this grin-inducing aspect of my literary hero. Thank you for your constant inspiration! Reply Mike Bryant January 5, 2020 You are absolutely the best poet alive…and possibly the best poet who has ever lived. I am amazed and humbled by Your gift. 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Joe Tessitore August 11, 2019 What a lovely and challenging way to start a Sunday! Thank you, Mr. Bryant. Reply
Joe Tessitore August 11, 2019 P.S. I’m a retired building superintendent and worked regularly with all of the trades. Plumbers invariably had the best jokes. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi August 11, 2019 All three poems are lovely and well crafted, but I especially like “The Baked Bard of Avon.” The only stimulant that Shakespeare had (or needed) was a pewter tankard of good old-fashioned English ale. Reply
Mike Bryant August 11, 2019 Thank you sir, that poem was based on this: https://time.com/3990305/william-shakespeare-cannabis-marijuana-high/ Reply
Joseph S. Salemi August 11, 2019 One of the further links from that piece quotes the line from Sonnet 76: “And keep invention in a noted weed…” as a hint that Shakespeare may have used marijuana. But in this line the word “weed” means “clothing” or “garment,” and does not refer at all to a plant. We still hear it used in that older sense in the phrase “widow’s weeds,” meaning the dark clothing of mourning worn by a bereaved wife.
C.B. Anderson August 11, 2019 Mike, I liked all three poems, too, but a few things bothered me. In the first poem you wrote, “Science is the golden calf,” but you probably owe your current health to science, as most of us do. What is more true is that scientism is the golden calf, but try to make that assertion work metrically! In the second poem, stanza 3 line 4, you put peace pipe in quotation marks. It is inappropriate to put a noun phrase after “called” in quotation marks. “[C]alled peace pipe” is plenty good enough. In the third poem, stanza 1 line 3, there is a problem with number: “and visions only dream” or “and vision only dreams” would be grammatically correct. In the last stanza, it is unclear whether your life and love belong to the material world or to some heretofore unmentioned inamorata. These are just details, Mike — something to pay attention to, but nothing to get worried about. These poems were sound, and it’s not as though you had left exposed the proverbial plumber’s butt-crack. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi August 11, 2019 In poem three, “dreams” might be a plural noun rather than a verb. If so, then a verb of being has been ellipsed, and the explicit sense of the line is “and visions [are] only dreams of love…” It’s possible, since there is already a verb of being in the poem’s first line. Reply
Mike Bryant August 11, 2019 C. B. Thanks. How about, “False science is the golden calf” ? Also Mr. Salemi is correct about the meaning of the line from the third poem. As for the quotation marks, I bow to your greater knowledge. Google here I come! Reply
Martin Rizley August 12, 2019 Another way to communicate the idea of “false science” is simply to put the word “science” in quotes. Then the closing couplet would read: “Science” is the golden calf. . . And God in heaven has to laugh. By using quotation marks, the idea conveyed is that certain theories presented as science in the popular culture are not pure science at all, but philosophical naturalism dressed up as science. I enjoyed the satiric humor in this poem!
Susan Jarvis Bryant August 19, 2019 Mike Bryant, you never fail to impress and surprise me with your poetry and its message. Faith is very topical and captures the skepticism around the subject of “Science” these days – very thought provoking. I love Material World, for the questions it poses and images it conjures. And, as for the Baked Bard of Avon, I adore Shakespeare, and welcome this grin-inducing aspect of my literary hero. Thank you for your constant inspiration! Reply
Mike Bryant January 5, 2020 You are absolutely the best poet alive…and possibly the best poet who has ever lived. I am amazed and humbled by Your gift. Reply
