“The obvious reason for inflation is that the government printed a zillion amount of more money than it had. … If the federal government writes checks, they never bounce. So that is effectively creation of more dollars. … If the government could just issue massive amounts of money and deficits didn’t matter, then, well, why don’t we just make the deficit 100 times bigger? The answer is, you can’t because it will basically turn the dollar into something that is worthless.” – Elon Musk
“Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm.” – James Madison (1787)
As is known, from time to time, I attend a long running short form poetry workshop. I went back there tonight and learned of a poetic form called the Zejel.
What is a Zejel?
• Spanish poetic form likely an even older Arabic form
• Up to15 lines
• First stanza is a tercet (3-line stanza) with an AAA rhyme scheme
• All other stanzas are quatrains (4-line stanzas) with a XXXA rhyme scheme, so the second stanza would be BBBA, third CCCA, fourth DDDA,
• Lines are usually 8 syllables long
How to write a Zejel
• Up to15 lines (can be less)
• First stanza is a tercet (3-line stanza) with an AAA rhyme scheme
• All other stanzas are quatrains (4-line stanzas) with XXXA rhyme scheme, would be BBBA, third CCCA, fourth DDDA,
• Lines are usually 8 syllables long
XXXXXXXA
XXXXXXXA
XXXXXXXA
XXXXXXXB
XXXXXXXB
XXXXXXXB
XXXXXXXA
XXXXXXXC
XXXXXXXC
XXXXXXXC
XXXXXXXA
XXXXXXXD
XXXXXXXD
XXXXXXXD
XXXXXXXA
This is the poem that I have come up with in exploring the form:
Zejel Duel of Recitation
by Michael Doyle
There in poetic duel, a song
That two poets do sing-a-long
How could this small beauty go wrong?
The people’s loved poetry plays out
Like a troubadour without doubt
A simple drunkard played as lout
Does such proper poetry belong?
Accompanied by light tambourine
There is magic in what it means
Vibrant mystics dance the unseen
Until at last, the beat is strong
Lebanese in its tradition
Subtle in its rare condition
Flowed in its metric rendition
Is it wrong to join in midsong?
(c) May 17, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
“The propitious smiles of Heaven, can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained.” – George Washington (1789)
“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” – Alan Kay, computer scientist (b. 17 May 1940)
The Slow Crawl
by Michael Doyle
Pushing past the slow crawl of another day
Edged to darkness and I begin to pray
To a god that I feel unsure of
But who has a sense of humor disguised as love
Death is a way out of life's brutality
People like me are cursed with immortality
Undeserving of such mercies as an end
For our failed humanity for which I contend
That there are lessons that I've yet to learn
Somewhere deep inside the pits of this slow burn
The scars that don't show and will never heal
Are those that come to us who deeply feel
Remembering deeply all that we have seen
In this path of becoming authentic in our being
Is it a blessing or its own special curse
To be honest, I don't know which of these is worse
Given heart wherever it is that I may go
I have given mine, long as a river might flow
Two become as one is this magical sort of math
Of the straighter course that was once my path
Out there on the grains of love's true beach
Everything I needed lived within my reach
It was nothing less than a life's changer
When all I loved died and I became a stranger
How I wish I could turn my heart to solid stone
Instead of waking up to finding myself again alone
Staring deep into this twisted sense of maze
All of my thoughts are naught but a misted daze
(c) May 16, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
“My own personal popularity can have no influence over me when the dictates of my best judgment and the obligations of an oath require of me a particular course. Under such circumstances, whether I sink or swim on the tide of popular favor is, to me, a matter of inferior consideration.” – John Tyler
“I want people to talk to one another no matter what their difference of opinion might be.” -Studs Terkel, author and broadcaster (16 May 1912-2008)
Dropping the Stones of Judgment
by Michael Doyle
Demonstrating the Bible in our living
Let it be seen by what we're giving
Baptism as immersion brings its witness
In how it serves to model our fitness
To stand anew in our public affirmation
It's a way of showing devotion and confirmation
The Bible is the gateway to our salvation
It should be approached with sincere emotion
Like Jesus, we must approach life in humility
The Whispers will say as they feel in brutality
While the language of hate has been and is the way
Of the world, and yet, we all know it is not okay
The differences may seem minute in theology
But those differences change the meaning of ministry
From that of service to ourselves to that of others
It is a change of from ourselves to loving one another
We should just judge these things from the surface
But from the tensions and attentions we embrace
It is the difference from suffering failed eyesight
To the fullness of gaining helpful insight
Our God left his home of heavenly, total perfection
To stoop down to humanity with fullest intention
Of offering redemption to us, one and all
If only we might heed His sincere and loving call
Bringing strength of love truly courageously
Lifting us all up for our good and persuasively
Staying with us in our mistakes until the end
Leaning in as our truest committed friend
Then standing to state, we should sin no more
We have no need to question this and what for
As God proves He accepts us as we truly are
Sometimes not approving but urging us to go far
There is no need to make a spectacle of others
Instead privately encouraging one another
To not all into the parsimony of graven sin
Lifting each other up time and yet again
We are all sinner when pressed under the light
However much it is that we try to get it right
We know this to be true in our every stride
Let's stand in the gap and put away our pride
Finding the grace of our relating
Finding forgiveness and truth deflating
Our ways of putting away self-righteousness
To help each other toward spiritual wellness
In the blessed assurance, let's put down our stones
Knowing the road we travel isn't walked alone
There are echoes of mercy in these whispers of love
As we frame our own witness given from God above
(c) May 15, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” – John 8:9-11
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