“The power to command frequently causes failure to think.” – Barbara Tuchman, author and historian (30 Jan 1912-1989)
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Three Card Monte
Mostly shills or marks, there’s something wrong with the world today…
Three Card Monte by Michael Romani We see it play out on the street Where each of us should gladly greet Our neighbors not as strangers but friends God knows where it all eventually ends They stack us into separation Drive us into clouded desperation Us or them, them or us held with glam Most of us unwittingly fall for the scam You need to see things for what they are You can't guide your life from a false star But by the twin forces of God and reason Allowing their guidance in all of life's seasons You can't win from losing No matter how it seems choosing The voices heard are confusing Ours is but acceptance or refusing The only way to win it not to play Dealt the hand, we must stay The only way not to lose so they say Is to refuse to give it any play Tapping there with a crossed bone tick Looking to find the lady in a three card trick All around shills pour fuel on the fire Playing with a dreamer's heart filed with desire An increase given in false confidence Seemingly as given to way by Providence Shouted out in it's dalliance Shrewdness takes the hue of brilliance The only way to win is not to play Dealt the hand, we must stay the only way not to lose so they say Is to refuse this con any sort of play (c) January 29, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems, Uncategorized
Tagged Con, Confidence Game, Despearate, False Confidence, False Star, God, Mark, Poem, Poetry, Providence, Reason, Season, Separate, Shill, Shrewd, Three Card Trick, World
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Free Expression Heeded
The world we meet and grow in should be one in which free thought leads to free expression. Some will be good. Some will be bad. But, each thought should be allowed it’s space to be experienced and grown from. Hampering this can only cause more harm than cure.
Free Expression Heeded by Michael Romani Despite the homogenous propaganda Over seven billion separate agendas Seek to rule the world we live in Yet, though and to think once again Some are too weighed down By the practical to wear that crown Some seek only enough strength for breath Content in forestalling that night of death Those caught up in this hard-pressed urgency Are not concerned with more than the daily emergency The reality lived is filled with such threads Filled to brim with hopes and also with dreads Still, these predicaments require less drinking And perhaps a willful inclination toward thinking More important than speaking is listening in conversation If we, together, are to get past our frustration The celebration of our wisdom is equaled by stupidity And the all too human urge toward mass cupidity The overarching questions remain the very same Of what is happening and really who is to blame That perhaps is the simple and greater shame Nobody truly wins in playing the blame game Though global these questions are deeply personal And are best resolved through discussion and not arsenal In an era of hacking the synapses of the human brain If we are to keep the whole thing from the drain We are going to have to move beyond the sinister Be it from sheer reason or from worded ministers The all encompassing spiderwebs of connection Put pressures and drive into moral introspection Personal gestures can set the world ablaze The path out is a complicated twist of a maze We wake up from insecurities in our complexity Fully alert to a world faced with anxiety History takes its unexpected turns As we try out best to live and discern We stand perched at the edge of our irrelevance Wondering how biotech and data have this consequence All the promises lost in what can easily go wrong And we humans wonder just where do we belong Biases and hatred bind in an era of post-truth With greater complications than known in our youth Trying to make sense of this Frankenstein of our creation Together we struggle to get grasp of our situation Living long and through this age of bewilderment We need and weave new stories of what's meant Overly ambitious in our thrust to find meaning Only the hopeful speak in terms of living dreaming Biotech and artificial life allow us to re-engineer Ourselves into that brave new world that we fear The invisible hand is blind and will not long wait We need to move ever forward even as we hesitate What's coming next is quite the journey Borne from the depth of our very human legacy Illiberal regimes crush down on free speech But, it's only such thought that will teach Teach us past obstacles of our own wicked making Facing up to the risks, each well worth taking Though it be dangerous and sometimes soul shaking The alternative is nothing less than heartbreaking (c) January 29, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Agenda, Cupidity, Dread, Emergency, Free Expression, Heed, Hope, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Practical, Propaganda, Rule, Strong, Think, Thread, Urgent, Weigh, Wisdom
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First Principles: The Art of Good Government Consists of Honestly Doing One’s Duties
“It behooves you, therefore, to think and act for yourself and your people. The great principles of right and wrong are legible to every reader; to pursue them requires not the aid of many counselors. The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest. Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.” – Thomas Jefferson (1775)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Art of Government, Consist, Credit, Duty, First Principles, Honest, Thomas Jefferson
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Thought For the Day: Actions Speak Louder Than Words
“Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak.” – St Anthony of Padua
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Actions, Loud, Speak, St Anthony of Padua, Teach, Thought For the Day, Words
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First Principles: Without Freedom of Thought There Can Be No Wisdom
“Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without freedom of speech.” – Benjamin Franklin (1722)
Thought For the Day: Givers Have To Set Limits Because Takers Rarely Do
“Givers have to set limits because takers rarely do.” – Anonymous
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Givers, Irma Kurtz, Limits, Set, Takers, Thought For the Day
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An Informational Confession
The old adage is that information is power. In today’s reiteration of perhaps too, too much information out there, I believe it’s time we modify this. Clarity is power.
An Informational Confession by Michael Romani Here then in this present age We most need wisdom of a sage To undo all the bits that cluster And confuse, causing us to fluster All to find the way and rhyme That makes sense of our time But with all this complexity It's hard to focus on that singularity That makes an atom's difference In all the things that we reference It was once the thought of the hour That knowledge is the source of power I say now in this informational age That we need more to perhaps presage What I believe with in all integrity Is what makes power now is clarity A series of lessons for the 21st century Given to us with all earnest sincerity Is first of all and simply just because Big data has come and is watching us Deluged by the extreme prevalence Of so very much lacking in relevance It's hard to claim we have any precision When seeking to find true clear vision Of what will be the future of humanity More often seen like a thing of calamity And there is the pressure of inference That one false move will have consequence You see these pressures boiling over here There, and really just about everywhere People yelling not listening and doubting Leading to polarization and more shouting If we are going to build a world into better We'll have to learn to do this together And maybe, yes, maybe that's not fair? But then who said it was and who cares? It's less about fair and more about clarity If we're to make more of this human history Than just the muck we so far live And will to look at mistakes made and forgive (c) January 27, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged 21st Century, Age, Clarity, Complex, Information, Information Age, Integrity, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Power, Reference, Wisdom
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Samson (XII)
Bringing the series to it’s conclusion. This then provides a bit of a nexus with King David and I think also how it interrelates with the very life of Jesus. The finale of the retelling of Samson and Delilah, as originally set out in The Book of Judges:
Samson (XII) by Michael Romani XII. Blinded and dragged before the throne Samson knew he was not on his own Though he stood in utter humiliation Samson knew this was not his final destination To the castle pillars he was chained Beaten with lashes and openly disdained He prayed for the Lord's strength on last time Knowing he had to make Dagon pay for his crimes Filled with the surge of God's great power Samson pushed apart the pillars in this hour In doing this, the Philistines would pay There on this microcosm of judgment day Statues and castles brought crashing down And the prophecy was fulfilled by God's crown Though tragically, the Israelis would mourn his death With this price came the victory of God's breath Time and again would come the battle for the Promised Land Dagon's Philistines came against Jews under God's command Until the battle in earnest that mighty Samson had begun By the shepherd king, David, was at last won. (c) January 27, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Jesus, King David, Nexus, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Samson and Delilah, Series, The Book of Judges
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First Principles: Let Us Never Forget That America’s Inheritance Rests On A History of Heroes Struggling For Our Future Generations
“Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence.” – Joseph Story (1833)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged American Youth, Ancestors, Blessings of Life, Blood, First Principles, Guard, Independence, Joseph Story, Liberty, Never Forget, Noble Inheritance, Peace, Posterity, Property, Religion, Toil, Transmit
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