Absurdity of life.
Absurdity of Life
Stumbling through rows
Upon rows….
Of headless flowers.
Wandering wildly
At the assassination
Of such beauty.
Someone told me at school
There was a heaven
And a headman whose name
Was god.
They told me of gates above
And endless caress of love.
And another place of fire
That waited for me if
I strayed from paths so dire.
But I never believed for a moment
Never told a prayer
Not one that was true.
Instead I listened to Camus
And his old mate Kafka.
I looked at Faustian scriptures
And swore at the rich
in St Peters,
As everyone turned to shit.
When I go I want you
To promise me
My old bones will
Be burned to ashes
And mixed with a glass
Of Jamesons.
For everyone to taste
My disbelief.
And toast my time
Absurdly,
Delivering peace.
The Absurdity of Life
don’t know why but after reading this I wanted to listen to Kavinsky’s Roadgame, is that normal?
good work
Hi “if”. Thanks for the read and comment… I had to google Kavinsky, heavy sounding, melodramatic I liked it.. “roadgame”. I can see how you could channel that definitely. In actual fact when I wrote this I was listening to this…
https://youtu.be/jM8dCGIm6yc
The HU band are a Mongolian rock band that play traditional instruments and throat sing. I find the energy thrilling. Inspirational.
Thanks again.
Where do you get the time – and the talent, to post so many interesting poems? I liked the honesty here; it seems to me that there are only two realities we, as humans can comprehend: one, that allows for a transcendence beyond the material, or other, the purely material – aka Richard Hawkins; though, maybe science is now hedging the bet – quantum physics and all that jazz!
Wow thank you so much, as for time I’m an insomniac and write most things at two or three of the morning, they never take long, if a poem starts to run beyond five minutes I begin to become frustrated, I think because it means my mind isn’t flowing with the tale. Talent!!!! Thats a wonderful compliment, which I question, because I just write what’s in my head usually motivated by something I’ve seen or heard shortly before. And often there’s music playing in my bonce as I write…. so are they songs.. I really don’t know. But I am… Read more »
I enjoyed readying your poem, Mentalelf.
Camus, eh! Some may say the father of the EU idea. (As I live in the EU, I should say that wasn’t said sarcastically!) But a fascinating man nonetheless.
I must admit that I don’t see life as absurd, incomprehensible would be my preferred word, but each to his own is a very important tenet when we consider this experience don’t you think.
I appreciated the analogy of the rows of headless flowers. Too many headless ones I think!
Allen
No your totally right about Camus. I do see life as absurd, a lack of direction helps. As a “remainer” I appreciate that. Incomprehensible? Probably at the very end of life we question incomprehensibility, what was it all for at the end?? Yes I like you don’t judge. Thank you for your comments though, made me think and also feel grateful.
Sad. But good work! Sad because a chunk of the population who needed to stay on the ship are deserting it not because they are the rats, but they are the good lot. The good lot are turning atheists and agnostics, the majority of the ones who are staying on the ship are causing the shipwreck. You have used ‘burning to ashes’ as a protest, but it is not so in the case of the Hindus. But I quite understand and appreciate your viewpoint. On the whole, it’s very well written. Camus said that he believed in Jesus, but not… Read more »
Thank you very much for your reply, I can tell you and its relevance to Camus and your own comments, I lost my 18yr old son to bone cancer and a god that allows that and all the other suffering to exist can’t exist in the sense many believe. There is no grand plan to taking our children, although I have my own beliefs that precludes Christianity, buddhism is the nearest i’ve come to a caring and understandable philosophy to follow. Camus did say at the start of sisyphus that the biggest question we face is wether to live or… Read more »
Dear Phil,
I have copied your response and pasted it on a word document. I will come back with a response, maybe as an attachment.
Supratik feels inadequate; he has no magical power, no miracle to offer, his English skills is not very ‘English’ either, but he feels this needs answering. He feels that Phil is an aspect of Supratik that is questioning him. Please wait for my response.
Cheers
Supratik
Dear Phil, At the outset, I would like to say that my response is not to convince anyone on the path toward spirituality where people like Jesus and several sages had been many years ago. Hinduism is one of the oldest ‘belief system’ (not a religion, contrary to popular belief and it is 8000 years old) that is designed in a way so that it relieves its followers (anybody who follows the system, or the method) from any kind of diseases and ailments (mental, physical, psychological), accidents and or mishaps. I will not tell you any story, though stories are… Read more »
A small correction. The brothers and sisters referred to here are my cousins. In India, cousins are considered as brothers and sisters; we are attached to them as we are to our siblings. I have only one elder brother. We didn’t communicate for years because I ‘thought’ he was giving me a tough time; never realized that life was a ping-pong ball and the reason he gave me a tough time was because I had thrown him a wrong ball at some point in time not comprehensible to me. Now when I started working on myself my brother came back… Read more »
Dearest supra tic I have read your thoughts, and many truths left out from the page, I’m going to reread it and study what you have written so I can discuss this intelligently, spiritually and hopefully in context. I will reply when I have a better grasp, but one thing that leapt out near the beginning was “Supratik feels that the world had made a gross mistake by following the preaching, and not the preacher; he wants to become Christ, not a Christian, Krishna, not a Hindu, Budhha, not a Buddhist, and so on.” This addressed many injustices as well… Read more »
I have no experience of Camus but I do of the absurdity of life! I learned many years ago to give anyone who thought they had it all sussed a wide berth. The more I have studied, the more I have suffered and grown, the more I become aware of just how little I actually know about anything! Looking back , life was often more comforting and reassuring when I could take on second hand what my parents taught me…and it was what their parents taught them… There was a certain (but short lived) time of being cossetted by Sunday… Read more »