The last eight years have been like a thrown gauntlet Between the sadness and anger, it's been a punch in the gut That serves best to divide this nation and world's minds It is as if we've left our optimism too far behind
It is well publicized and has left a devastating impression With all the murder, hate, and rising rate of depression Drugs, alcohol, and suicide all push this world's despair And it seems to me that we've forgotten how to repair
This growing and stark sense of ever-expanding alienation When every mother's child cries out in their desperation Sick and twisted, like some kind of murder in slow emotion It leaves me wondering about easier times filled with devotion
But it is Hell today when no one really knows others very well And when we pick to settle in, we only find the Devil's details Hanging by a thread, wondering when did America grow so mean Let's slide past the venom trail and remember again to dream
This age reeks of menace and accusations of loutish conspiracy Radio terror bleats its hatred mixed with heated hypocrisy It's the polarization of the weak but loud, given a microphone That shouts into the streets that we are born to be alone
Political dysfunction undergirds a wave of angsty anxiety With hate-filled social media driving all of us a bit crazy Most of this is self-inflicted and leaves us miserably alone Not because we have to be, but from choices that we must atone
Instead of being self-righteous and loathingly hypocritical Which among the publicly moralistic is not so very atypical Maybe we should walk this walk back toward needed humility Treating others as if it's okay to remember their dignity?
(c) December 28, 2023 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” -Mortimer J. Adler, philosopher, educator, and author (28 Dec 1902-2001)
Looking back on what has been 2023 There was a lot to know and more to see AI taught us some about our self-doubt And as always, there was a lot to work out
Everywhere we looked, there was more to know Who knew Mars had seasons and winter's snow And while we debated about electric cars We dreamed of building snowmen on the planet Mars
Plastic sweaters have become all the latest rage As our style declines on the fold of the front page And while the sky is falling, and we question why We learned carbon dioxide sequesters inside fungi
Yerba mate was pushed on consumers but didn't fit While feral chickens run amuck as Hawaii admits That 200,000 pirated books serve as AI's databank Still, it's impossible to say which of these outrank
The others and Pablo Escobar's hippos for Christmas Are re-engineering the local waters into a mess Allergy seasons really are getting far worse And poets like me struggle to find cause for a verse
(c) December 27, 2023 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
“To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude that the fiery and destructive passions of war reign in the human breast with much more powerful sway than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace; and that to model our political systems upon speculations of lasting tranquility would be to calculate on the weaker springs of human character.” – Alexander Hamilton (1788)
Another year is sliding into the next, and as it is with time, it all connects bit by bit into a lifetime. Aloha Promises Forever sees another year out, and without a doubt, it’s been a year with more ups than Downs. All the same it’s been a year of prayers and one of these for the last of this year, it is the prayer that all the readers who have passed this way may yet have the Merriest of Christmases and a very happy and blessed New Year, one and all!!
Heading out of Australia to escape this Aussie winter. First stop Japan, then UK/Ireland and if work doesn't call me back, onto Chicago. I will make it up as I go along
