If you continually tell them
what they want to hear
you may gain
an honored chair
at the extravagant tables
of the world
If you play the game precisely
how they want it played
your security in this life
can be perfectly assured
a large salary with profound benefits
a softball trophy, a trophy wife
If you own the right rulebook
and practice with intensity
your name may rest
on the lips of princes
playwrights
and professors
If you learn to use your tongue
as a weapon of perjury
the wildest ambitions
you could ever dream to utter
can be made real
almost instantly
You need only prostitute
your gifts to
the right people
at the right time
to be swept from the presence of
the poor, the ugly, the lonely
and into the company of
the beautiful, the powerful, the loved
All of this can be yours
for the very low price of
a few daily lies
a tolerance for cowardice
a talent for flattery
a slight hardening of the conscience
and the willing slavery of your
fiery immortal soul
This is
The Art of The Fear of Man
If you decide to pursue it
be sure to
luxuriate
in its fruits
while they
are yours
For they are the kind
that only
ripen on
this
side
of
eternity
_____________________________________
Robert Bruce is one of the most read, linked, loved and reviled poets working on the web. He writes at KNIFE GUN PEN every Monday from Portland, Ore. Get more over at Twitter. If this did something to you or for you, go ahead and spread it around...
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
OOooo…lookit you, Slick! In fine form of a Monday morn.
Come on down here and read these saps some poetry. There’s a writers’ strike on, you know. People could use a shot of inspiration.
Thanks, Robert. I especially liked the part with the penetrating insights. But… didn’t anyone ever tell you to administer anesthetic before performing surgery??
Ai-eee!! Preach it brother. I’ve been a bit obsessed with a few songs on the new Bruce Springsteen album, and this poem reminded me of one of them: “You’ll Be Comin’ Down” — “you’ll be fine long as your pretty face holds out/then it’s gonna get pretty cold out…you’ll be comin’ down now, baby, you’ll be comin’ down…”
I like the part about fear of man. Of course, when I refused to boot lick and kow tow to one individual and violate what I thought was right for the good of the organization, I got the old boot.
i wanted to know if i could print and share you with a few old men who drink coffee and gossip all day at my store?? i think they would love your work.
I sit in aww of the simple yet profound way you put life. Thankyou for making me smile on mondays
$0.10
William Blake is on record for having said, and I paraphrase, if you don’t create your own system then you will be subject to someone else’s.
Placing belief in that system whilst knowing that it is not infallible to life’s unknowns is difficult to achieve, but getting others to believe in it too is nigh on impossible. And yet I am constantly baffled by the Internet and how quickly a mass of people can be ‘converted’ to a system. Perhaps by way of anonymity, the Internet throws down the skeptical guard that we would otherwise maintain in offline interactions?
$0.10
In a famous essay describing rhythm in verse, T.S. Eliot is on record for having said, and again I paraphrase, that the life of the poem (his poems) comes from the oscillation and interplay between ‘fixity’ and ‘flux’… or to reduce it crudely to just one word: contrast.
I’ve mentioned the ‘Robert Bruce style’ once before within the confines of these comment boxes, and I find this latest offering exemplary in Robert’s use of contrast on multiple levels.
Slipping in and out of a narrative voice, that appears to vocalise part of the everyday, I am knocked off my feet by an aesthetic jab of simile and metaphor: for a second I am pulled down to the dark seabed of the poet’s mind before being released back to the surface.
$0.20
this will be shared with my classes. thanks!
Man alive [as we say here], you can explain some of the most complicated concepts of the broken world with ease, clarity, and a sarcastic style.
Thanks for this Robert.
I like the shoes.
not that I didn’t like the poem,
but the shoes I like in this order:
1. the black pair on the far left
2. the brown on far right (I have those shoes)
3. second from right
embarrassing.
wft?
don’t I know my left from my right?
In today’s world people hunger for appreciation of their worth avoiding the negative and embracing the positive. Itis far far easier to love than to hate, therefore flattery that is sincerely ministered to the not so gifted is in itself a goldmine of truth (forsooth).
What is RSS?
How can I understand your emotional wawe train?
I was going to post something about the shoes as well….
Good stuff gweerie. Quality, I really like this one. I guess there’s a first time for everything.
I felt guilt reading this and in the same instance knew I was not alone.
in keeping the company of the poor, the ugly, and the lonely i find myself useful. is there a greater success a man can achieve than purpose?
thanks, robert. i could tattoo this one on my chest. but then i’d never shave, so i probably wont.