Where art thou Diogenes?
Not on Capital Hill, not among
the powerful, not in the White House,
nor among the power brokers of business.

Only among the citizens who carry
your lantern, as a cell phone, and
are threatened and beaten and
then shot for doing so.

In the era of performative democracy,
during the rise of hypocrisy and
a fledgling, evil autocracy,  there
are no reasoned leaders to be found.

Oh, Socrates, is it futile for you
who seeks truth, in an age of
alternative facts, where the powerful
trample the truth along with the people?

They will ask you to end yourself
rather than answer your questions,
and submit to reason, exiling, and
disappearing without justice.

Infamy does not worry them,
for they plan to rewrite the history of now,
more so, they do not care as they’ve
enriched themselves at our expense.

Yes, philosophy, history, truth,
reason and empathy are but constructs
of the human condition they wish to twist
and manipulated for fascist rule.

Hold on to the truth, hold on to
reason, empathy and honesty
for this is their weakness, if we continue
to believe, then they cannot win.

As with all dictators and their
henchmen and henchwomen no
children of the next generation will
be named after them.

The names Donald, Pam, Kristi
among others will not find their
way to future generations, just as
the name Adolf faded from consideration.

Oh Diogenes, we are out here
still, we are honestly seeking
a better world for our children
and the children of all people.

Oh Socrates, there is still
truth to be discovered, if we can
only continue to ask the questions
and not waver in our commitment to truth.

We the People will Overcome
We the People will Vote
We the People will Win
We the People, Believe.

to Mom and Dad, Mr. Michael Varga and Mrs. Pauline Varga
from all of us!  3 children, 7 grandchildren, 9 great grandchildren, and one more here soon!

Children of Love

Oh my, what beauty and grace
as children you could not know
what love could create.

You could not know how life
struggles would deliver such
victories, and loving legacies.

You were so young, so in love
and now seventy years later
you are still in each others arms.

Yes, time covers much ground
but please, now look around,
see the joy of love and life created.

Know your family loves you
dearly and your legacies live
and love-on because of you.

Have a Blessed Anniversary!

These words rise,
intertwine, and spin
like smoke from
a friendly campfire
as a signal to you who
read such signals.

Messages like so many
sent before, arise from
a fire-burning life-passion
for the memories,
the now, and especially
our greatest hope,

Know this passion exclaims
a love of life every day
and every moment
while thinking of you
in better times
in care of better futures.

These words I pray
signal a message you may
read now and yet know,
you’ll best understand
long after the fire,
long years hence.

There’s many places where the sea
tests the shore to see if it will give in
and the land refuses access until the
sea rages and forces itself unto the land
and the land absorbs what it can until
it sends it back from whence it came.

We believe the stormy sea to be
relentless and impossible to stop
and yet it can do only what we let
it, we resist with what barriers
we have and we remain steadfast
against the rage because it is our land.

Through the long arc of history
there has long been this power
this fury, this rage, and yet we
resist, because we know that
the flood of hate washes away
all goodness if we let it win.

The erosion of goodness happens
at the edges which are being tested
and must be held, as we constantly rebuild
using our enormous reservoir of love.
A love that is greater than the
hate of a raging and shallow sea.

The clouds are low
bending light into fractions
washing the colors of everything
in the fog of quiet that overwhelms
all sounds of life, as it absorbs the
heartbeats and breaths of every
creature little and large alike.

Life is there, still beautiful
it is just quiet sometimes,
it is not only in the fiery sunsets
and mountains grand and sea
with waves trying to move the shore,
or parties and celebrations,
it is in the quiet contemplations
of the past, the present, the future
described in the truths, loves, and
memories that are both bigger
and smaller than we can imagine.

The mysteries of life
being held by the fog of
uncertainties, and at the same
time loving arms that are knowing
give us hope, vision and clarity
even when the clouds are low.

I think, in the twists and turns
in the aggression and burns
of a whirlwind year such was that
how could one not lose their hat.

No one asked for that, but it came
and we will never be quite the same,
but we will figure out a suitable fix
in the coming year of 2026

For we are resilient, don’t you know?
we learned to see the lies falling like snow
in the great blizzard that was 2025
which we survived, barely alive.

But we know how to unbury ourselves,
how to pull those words off the shelves
that our forefathers fought for and gave to us
and we know for certain these words we can trust.

We will make this coming year, a year of change
we will not put up with further evil harangue
but we will need to fight for all that’s right,
to ensure we do not go quietly into that darkest night.

We will win because we know we must
because the next generation too must trust
that we did hold these ideals to be pure and true
and freedom is the legacy of the red white and blue!

The bee’s know their role
The frogs know too, as they croak
The birds chirp and know
The insects know
As do the mice and
the snakes which hunt.

The fish know this, or suspect
That the coral is in on the game
The seabirds know,
The turtles, the sharks
the dolphins and whales know

There’s a certain ecology of a meadow
an ecology of a pond or the sea
just as there’s an ecology of a city,
of a nation, of a people who live and work
in the homes, offices, factories or fields.

But what of this ecology when the
Great Undoing comes, what of
the plans of those who think they
are in control of their futures,
and those dependent on others?

In the Great Undoing the pieces fail and fall
shattering.  Because we forgot
we are of one great ecology,
because we forgot we are dependent on
laws, rules and each other?

What happens when we turn from
what works and toward a power
reshaping history, redifining law, economy,
freedom, and reason?  Destroying our
bio-diversity and thought-diversity?

What should we know of the Great Undoing?

That putting it back together will
take several generations, if ever.

And for millions, their will be no recovery at all.

Thank you for family and friends
Thank you for all life energies
Thank you for the health we enjoy
Thank you for the gift of comedy
Thank you for the wonders of the world
Thank you for the diversity of thought
Thank you for the lyric and melody of music
Thank you for letters and language
Thank you for moments and memories
Thank you for the bounty of the table
Thank you for the comfort of the couch
Thank you for all the seasons of sports
Thank you for the sun, the moon and stars
Thank you for the wonder of it all
and mostly for life and each other’s love!

Happy Thanksgiving!