"Murphy was an optimist!"
Anxiety December 24, 2009 9:47 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Philosophy, Poetry , add a commentThis hand versus that
The good and the bad;
Trying to spread good
But feel only sad;
A harmless white lie
still tears at the soul;
Her ego judged me
When I did no wrong
Then I judged her
Same verse; same song.
Look in the mirror
It’s me that I see;
The image that is
Not the one I want it to be;
They write the rules
I write the rules
There are no rules
We; the fools.
I cannot live
Upon this pillar
So very tall;
Such that all can see
The stature
The nature
The me;
The higher it rises
The bigger it becomes
More of the pillar they see
And so much less of me;
As big as I wish to be
I’m shrinking
Vanishing
Becoming
To small to see.
Poetry at 70 mph November 30, 2009 12:14 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Philosophy, Poetry , add a commentI tapped this out on my phone after cresting the hill south bound before the I-40/Pellissippi Parkway exchange. My normal glance at the peaks of the Smoky Mountains was obscured. The weather inspiring.
There are no mountains today. A cloud blankets the horizon. More so, it blankets us all. @djuggler
Theo Aukerman suggests this could become a Haiku.
With slight mods, could be a haiku: … @knoxcoder
So how’s this?
No mountains today
Cloud blankets the horizon
It blankets us all.
Hmm. I may have a thing or two to learn about meter versus moras ("on").
add a commentOne on is counted for a short syllable, an additional one for an elongated vowel, diphthong, or doubled consonant, and one for an “n” at the end of a syllable. Thus, the word “haibun”, though counted as two syllables in English, is counted as four on in Japanese (ha-i-bu-n). Source, Wikipedia, Haiku
Too stressed to type November 16, 2009 11:39 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Poetry , add a commentThy todoth list overfloweth. Nay, thine own muse shouts silence. Gagged. Hiding in thy shadows within the deepest recesses of mine own mind. Today’s stories shall be passed upon to giveth thy brain a necessary reprieve such as tomorrow’s adventures shall be retold with vigor! William eat thine own heart out with a spork!
add a commentThrob throb throb September 14, 2009 11:08 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Philosophy, Poetry , add a commentIt is so easy to become so consumed in thinking about one’s situation or task at hand or the thing that needs to be done or the impossible deadline that we become frozen, unable to do anything about that which needs to be done. So much easier said than done but the simple solution is to stop thinking about it and simply do it.
Today stress has left my head fuzzy, foggy, in a cloud. A rare state for me. I have never taken pain killers before but I feel like I could use some today. I’ll settle for a fist full of a Tylenol/aspirin cocktail.
add a commentThere was peace
I drifted through space
Then I open my eyes
The ground rushed up
To smack me in the face
Leaving me with nothing
But a dirty taste of reality.
Absorbing ourselves September 11, 2009 10:24 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Philosophy, Poetry , add a commentAnd I was consumed with darkness
So this is death
But there is no light
Death brings the light
Enlightenment
Only darkness
Where did the light go?
No, from where did the darkness emanate?
Within!
That hollow feeling in my chest
A black hole
Sucking the light away
Sucking the life away
Pulling me down
Down
Infinitely
Down
Falling
Failing
Spinning
Swirling
Going
Going
Going
Gone.
And I can feel the changes coming on… August 31, 2009 6:13 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Philosophy, Poetry , 4commentsWalking through Butler & Bailey, I feel a swell of joy
I sense positive change in my life
As if I am in the process of emerging from a cocoon.
I am calm
I can handle the next part of this journey with ease
I am happy!
I exit the store
To see a dragonfly dying on the sidewalk
Slowly moving its wings for the final time.
The best 1 min 44 secs of time spent today August 6, 2009 11:56 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Activism, Deep Thoughts, Philosophy, Poetry, Touchy Subjects , add a commentWatch the entire video. Wow!
add a commentToday’s Kill August 5, 2009 12:58 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Family, Gray, Of Being Dad, Pets, Philosophy, Poetry , add a commentA cat is a cat is a cat.
I don’t have to like that.
She gives me gifts
I’d prefer not to have.
Extinguished life.
Birds, mice, chipmunks and bats.
My bloodstain stoop
Her trophy case.
Today she stood proudly over a wren.
I think that’s what I buried.
(At least it wasn’t a rabbit ht Meredith)
add a commentAtlas’ Journey June 29, 2009 3:08 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Philosophy, Poetry , add a commentHopelessness clings like a straitjacket
Constricts like a boa
Weights the feet like walking through watery mud
The legs gave out long ago
But the mountain must be climbed
And I trudge on
Hopefully I will see the summit
If the sun sets without me
I will savor all it illuminated during my journey
and fertilize the trail for the hiker behind me.
Slip Sliding Away June 7, 2009 9:19 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Philosophy, Poetry , add a commentadd a commentI was having this discussion
In a taxi heading downtown
Rearranging my position
On this friend of mine who had
A little bit of a breakdown
I said breakdowns come
And breakdowns go
So what are you going to do about it
That’s what I’d like to know
[Source, Paul Simon, Gumboots]
Handwritten Note April 23, 2009 9:22 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Philosophy, Poetry , add a commentThis one is scribbled on a napkin shoved into my poetry journal and dated August 6, 2004 along with Of Time and Aging.
If at first you don’t succeed may your rotting corpse serve as a warning to the next guy. -DM 6aug2004
Another on the same napkin:
Yesterday was never as hard as it seemed at the time. -DM 6aug2004
And the final is an old favorite that is not an original of mine.
add a commentToday is the tomorrow we thought about yesterday. -author unknown
My One-dimensional Reality April 23, 2009 9:05 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Philosophy, Poetry , add a commentThis was written for a open mic night around 1992.
add a commentI wrote a poem the other day so in the spirit of the evening I would like to present it to you.
Ready?
It’s called "My One-dimensional Reality" and it goes like this:
Dot!
Well, it lacked a little point so I wrote another called "My Two-dimensional Reality" and tried to draw lines between the meanings. It was then that I started to get deep and philosophical and expanded the two poems into "My Three-dimensional Reality." It was here that my thoughts exploded in ALL directions.
I started to write "My Four-dimensional Reality" but I ran out of time.
And one day, I want to write about the larger dimensional realities but at the moment my concepts are beyond words.
Chaos Wrangling March 22, 2009 10:49 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Philosophy, Poetry , add a commentI look about and see
All the chaos which surrounds me
Clutter on the desk
Clutter in the mind
Clutter makes it hard to progress
Leaving me far behind
To get ahead I need to clean
Remove the chaos to be free
Tasks at hand take priority
Leaving chaos to encompass me
Remove the chaos from the physical world
Digitize and organize in bits and bytes and clouds
Where’s my chaos now?
It’s still there but I’ve misplaced it somehow
I stored it on a website for all to see
Recycled the physical evidence around me
But they changed their name
Bought by another company
Delicious bookmarks are all but broke
And the price gone from free
To $4.95 monthly
My chaos still burdens me
I need its comfort for my strange insanity
But now I cannot find it
My desk is clean
The chaos in my head still surrounds me.
Voided March 10, 2009 8:54 am
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Philosophy, Poetry , 2commentsDrip, drip, drip, drip
Into the void it slips
A black hole sucking the darkness in
A container filling within with out
Nothingness becomes somethingness
Still less
With every sampling the void grows
Blackness stimulating
Maddening
Addicting
Hate it, Crave it
Driving force
Of … what?
No answer
Drop, drop, drop, drop
We are all one breath away from the end January 25, 2009 7:23 pm
Posted by Doug McCaughan in : Daily Life, Philosophy, Poetry , add a commentToday I saw a man dying on the side of the road
He lay within sight of trained paramedics, a mere 325 feet
As I came to the scene, parked cars lined the side road dangerously close to the speeding traffic
I criticized whoever allowed their party guests to park so carelessly
I did not know they celebrated a life
As the distance narrowed, my irritation turned to concern
This looked more like a car accident than party
A footfall field away, sirens roared and lights flashed, help was on the way
I pulled the side to clear a path, to my right my worry turned to fight
There in grass, lay a man surrounded by people and one pumped his chest
I do not know what happened to that man
I drove away, I could not help, I’d just be in the way
I did not see his face, he could be someone I knew well, a neighbor, or a stranger
I do not if he breathed again or had his last day
He left my mind as quickly as he entered it
I had no emotional or philosophical response
I did not think of his family nor mine
I simply noted that my CPR training is out of date.
