All posts by Mike Varga

Blog

If Mark Twain was here

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I was watching a biography by Ken Burns on Samuel L Clemmons, better known as Mark Twain.  He was a fascinating humorist, wit, and world traveler, as well as the defining American author.  Mark Twain made wonderful observations of the human condition.  I wonder what he would be saying about our world today… here are some thoughts.  He would be 185 this year.

If the man wants to put his name on everything, including stimulus checks, then let this be known as the Trump virus.

With all this wonderful new technology, planes and such, we can travel so much faster today, but we cannot seem to travel faster than a virus.

I found that through paper I could get any fool idea to millions of people in a few months, now I can get any fool thought to billions of people in less time than I finished this thought.

In my day I, saw the ravages of slavery and racism, but also the willingness of Finn to go to hell to save Jim… Today he might be providing food and medicine to the deserts of poverty, and still willing to go to the hell prescribed by those still waving a flag for a war they lost when I was just 30 years old.

I’ve been watching our President now for a long time, tell me first not to worry, it’s all going to go away, that it is a hoax, that we will do better than any nation, that we are prepared, that anyone who wants a test will get a test, and they are beautiful… We loved to be entertained when the carnival barker came to town, now he’s here every day, and the only entertainment is that we now are willing to believe the huckster!

There is something about writing a book, something about telling a story, where lies can be woven together with truths so that we are moved toward a higher thought, or enjoy a laugh with each other.  Seems to me tweets are a poor substitute, and only purpose is to enjoy a laugh at each other instead of with each other.

If this virus gave us dysentery, I wonder if all the Kleenex would be off the shelves at the market?

There are 450 channels on TV and nothing to watch… It’s like being at a library and all the books have nothing in them.

You know shaking hands can tell you a lot about a man, now if you see it happen, it can tell you even more about both of them.

I saw a politician go into a hospital without a mask to meet with pandemic patients, doctors and nurses, and shake their hands, my gosh they don’t make them any smarter today than they did when I was young.

Mark Twain (imagined)

Poems

The Tower of Babel

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The Tower of Babel from Google Arts and Culture:

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-tower-of-babel/hQEuBFxb3ZEcLw?ms=%7B%22x%22%3A0.5%2C%22y%22%3A0.5%2C%22B%22%3A8.511608201912992%2C%22z%22%3A8.511608201912992%2C%22size%22%3A%7B%22width%22%3A1.7643209305133523%2C%22height%22%3A1.2375%7D%7D

The Tower of Babel
Pieter Bruegel the Elder circa 1568

 

The Tower of Babel 

We were tested and we are here
There is nothing more for us to fear 

We will build a monument of fantastic height
To demonstrate our stupendous, glorious might

We will knock on heaven’s misty door
On the seventy-second constructed floor

Beyond the clouds our greatness shown
Beyond the height that birds have flown

Marshaling all our capability, all peoples as one
Working, laboring our way toward the sun

Masons, carpenters, quarrymen, mariners too
Bakers, shepherds, milkmaids, butchers and you

Join in and see the work, see all we can do
See the materials, the cranes the boats too 

We are greater than all that came before
We will rise above, we’ll knock on God’s door 

Until we are no longer great and act as one
As the babel comes up and lays upon

As the words of not one peoples but seventy-two
Makes it impossible to tell each other what to do

We who worked so hard together now fail
Because we don’t know what to call a pail

Our hubris has been rewarded with confusion
With what we cannot see, our tower is brought to ruin

We will think this is our world and we are giants all
Until something brings us down, something small 

A Tower of Babel, a monument to all we are
Is flawed and will never get very far 

Because we will never act as one
Humble people under the sun

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poems

Cave Art – Our World

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Grotte Chauvet, in the South of France

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/horses-fresco/rQE_FzwjhB5e9Q

Mankind has been representing the world in two and three dimensions for 30,000 years and most probably further back in time.  These representations maybe realistic, or impressionistic, or simply patterns that have symbolic meaning.  Clearly some had religious or educational significance, but most certainly it was often just for viewing pleasure.  Creativity and artistry is inherently human.  Other creatures may be taught to play with paint and brush, other creatures may sway with music, some may be taught to sing, and birds may mimic a tune, but none create art.  None find it within their very being to produce something non-functional for the simple purpose of pleasing each other.  The cave art shown in the link above,  is offered as man’s first mural.  It is very good art and is quite remarkable when viewed in the context of time and as we ponder this intrinsic capacity of humankind.  As I’ve been sharing my poetic view of works of art, I thought it may be interesting to go back to a more primitive time and bring this art to life in poetry.  As I contemplated what to say, I wondered if these primitive artists and their patrons were not so different from us, connecting with the world with the tools and capabilities they had at hand.

 

Our World

There is no time
There is now and forever
There is all I’ve seen and done
For this is my life
I’ll show you on these walls
In this world that is for now home
With no limits, no boundary
Shared with these creatures I can draw
I give them life on these walls
Without me they have no name
It is I that can give them immortality
I that give them value
With my eye, my mind, my hand
As I was taught by my elders
And I will teach my young
It is who we are
It is who we’ll always be
It is our world, and we can create
It is in us, we are in part of it
It is our world
Come see, see what will be
Come see forever
Our world

 

 

 

Poems

Girl with a Pearl Earring

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More from Google Arts and Culture:
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/girl-with-a-pearl-earring-johannes-vermeer/3QFHLJgXCmQm2Q

Johannes Vermeer c. 1665

Girl with a Pearl Earring

She glances my way
Translucent and ethereal
She touches my heart
With her oriental way
As her light illuminates
All that seems dark
Except her and her own
As it shines through
Because she noticed me
And let it run me through
And through
Just because, she says

Poems

The Starry Night

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Google offers an arts and culture online site that presents famous works of art in great detail for us to study.  I thought it would be an interesting challenge to write poems to accompany famous pieces of art.  A bit presumptuous I know, but oh well, it’s my blog site… so here’s my first attempt for the iconic Vincent Van Gogh painting The Starry Night, painted in 1889.

https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-starry-night-vincent-van-gogh/bgEuwDxel93-Pg

Starry Night

A mind so demonstrably bright
Gazing with more than eyes into the night
Picturing what your soul must be
Broiling waves of light across a sea
Of stars that ripple down a hill
Like an avalanche of emotion and will
Allowing journey beyond horizon
To the stars and planets of Orion
The passions, the disturbances of rippled time
Supported by the calm of this village of thine
That warms us no matter the night cold
With the heat of passions and story told
Of the village home, that is sleepy and dark
While the soul does emphatically hark
To the desires of travel so far beyond
Where new experiences may be found
And along the way the colors, the proportion
The vividness of this creative mind’s notion
Projecting on who we will all become
Before it’s hidden again by the light of the sun

Blog

Transformational Times and Easter Sunday

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Every few generations, every 50 or 70 years, the world seems to present a seminal event that transforms who we are, that brings about the creativity and the initiative that is needed to move humanity toward a better future.  These seminal events always are painful, with great suffering, then we rise above it.  Jesus showed us the way two millennial ago, when he overcame great suffering and death to rise again and to teach us.  We are still commemorating this transformational gift to humanity today, even this very day!

So too, it is right for us to reflect on what presents as challenges today.  The suffering must change all of us.  These times present an opportunity to our next generation to bring science, math, testing, service, sacrifice, compassion, even humor in a creative and innovative way to problems we have previously ignored.  Problems with poverty, social/economic divides, politics, mythologies that affect the very survival and health of humanity.   We don’t know what the changes will be, but there will be change.  We don’t know what the lasting effects will be, but they will be there and they will be the legacy of the generation that is learning today about what things we must value.  Education, health, science of testing, of data, of modeling, and how and who pays to reconstruct our economies.  Maybe universal healthcare will be viewed differently when the bills come due for the battle being fought.  Maybe we’ll have a different understanding of the impact of improper nutrition and inadequate education on the communities that will pay the highest price in this pandemic.  Maybe we’ll value frontline warriors currently in this fight more generously.  Maybe those that are homeschooling will value anew the educators in our society.  Possibly we’ll have a renewed sense of what is important in our lives as we socialize at a distance.

But for sure we will change.  For sure our next generation will bring forth ideas and creativity and purpose and they will do it with more compassion and more love than some of us that came before.

Yes, there are profiteers, and scammers and others that evilly take advantage of this situation, just as there were soldiers casting lots for the garments of Jesus… but they will not fare well in the coming world and coming times.

I put my faith in the resurrection of humanity led by a new generation that is coming into awareness at this time.  A new generation that will transform our world in ways hard for us to imagine today.  But it will happen.  It must, for it is the history and legacy of humanity.  For every tragedy there is a response, an advancement, and I for one have great hope in humanity and our young adults that are truly amazing.

Happy Easter!

 

Poems

We must remember…

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We Must Remember

Gone is our time of innocence
Gone is our time of fearlessness
When our handshake was our bond
When a hug was the greeting of friends
And gone too is trust of leaders to protect
Us, not just their own political futures
When science has too few answers
Leaving room for conspirators and
For scammers to find prominence
Feeding on our fears and weaknesses
For we have many
And yet there rises above all of this
Some truth tellers that find their voices
Their purpose,
And doctors, and nurses and
Food deliverers and makers of
The tools that the frontline needs,
Who know it’s their time to shine
While we wait for a better time
They deliver with compassion
With kindness and courage
While we hope for normality
For they are our angels
And we need to reward them
With a new place in our world
For their nobility of service
And their sacrifice… and we will
By God remember them!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poems, Uncategorized

Butterflies

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Butterflies

Two butterflies flitted by in a dance
Possibly a game or maybe romance
Certainly a rebirth from something remote
As an angel unwrapped from an old ugly coat
And so they dance, in celebration of living
In a rebirth, in a new beginning
As a new spring is upon us and within us
As we will be reborn, with help of angels among us

 

 

Poems

It’s Raining…

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It’s raining this morning.
I like the sound of rain on the roof when there is nothing else to hear but the hum of the refrigerator, and the house is quiet.  Many would never notice the hum of a refrigerator, but it’s always there, it’s like cicadas that make sure nights are never silent.  Also there are the sounds of the refrigerator breathing, as temperature fluctuations, so slight, cause little creaks and moans, barely perceptible, because they are always there. Like the rustle of tiny lizards moving in the leaves, quick, then quiet, avoiding what they do not know, going where they do not know, just living.  Surviving as a species… as we are of course in the quiet of our homes, safe.  And the raindrops tickle lightly the roof overhead, never finding my head, my arms my body… safely listening from a distance.

Poems

Rush Hour… Survival…

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Survival

Birds share their song undisturbed
As if rush hour never existed
As if the sun rose for them
As if the wires were always theirs for resting
And it’s a song of life, of a future
As if there was no past
As if there was no need for more
Than the survival of the species