Scientific Method in the New Fade

scientific method became the new religion
at the dawn of the Atomic Age, the other name
for the New Fade

the trouble is that scientific method
became the Gregorian Chant of these unholy times

everyone says that this is the best of all possible worlds
in which to examine the past present future
and yet none of these are illuminated
when all of them are lost in an endless file,
the wheels on a car overturned on a slippery road,
spinning fruitlessly

The Myth of Interpretive Analysis in the New Fade

all progress halts when those who are supposed to accomplish it
martyr themselves at the altar of interpretive analysis

interpretive analysis seeks to stupefy everything
without achieving anything

so that the only thing that is achieved is talk
and it's always the end of the world

if there were actual thought put into the process,
this might change

Cleverness & Innovation in the New Fade

cleverness is punishable
in the New Fade,
just in the way it was
for Galileo & Tesla

innovation is rewarded
in the New Fade,
just as it was
for da Vinci & Edison

cleverness is the ability
to contradict

cleverness attempts
to persevere

innovation is the ability
to conform

innovation attempts
to endure

cleverness
brought us new things

innovation
brought us refinement

cleverness
is not mainstream

innovation
is the mainstream

cleverness & innovation
contradict each other
only because one is seen
to threaten the other

one is old age,
the other is youth

in the New Age,
everyone clings to youth
and shrugs off old age,
preaching to old age
but believing in youth

these are things that will need
to be rectified
if the age is to pass

My Mother in the New Fade, Part 10

is the story of my mother's life
a tale of heartbreak & triumph?

it seems that way

to me she was my mother
and then i discovered her
as a person
and that version of her
has come to dominate
my perception of her

she often confided in
her children
the winding path of her history
and while i have not retained
all the details
i have come to appreciate
it more and more
as the story of another
human being
who just happened to be
my mother

maybe that's not what
you're supposed to do
and maybe to most
other people it wouldn't
and will never be so
significant
and they will never understand
how it has come to define
the New Fade for me

how the more things change
the more they stay the same

(some cliches exist
because they're true)

even at an accelerated pace
change happens slowly

it's the cost of human perception

and as frustrating as life can be
it's also the only thing we've got

and that's enough reason
to cherish it
and those we share it with
even the ones we don't choose
but would even if we could

that's my mother in the New Fade

My Mother in the New Fade, Part 9

my mother is a contradiction

she is at once
one of the strongest people i knew
but also
one of the most vulnerable

i think i recognize in her
the same betrayal
i feel
from the world
in that i have so much faith
in it
but am constantly
wounded
by its failings

my mother's greatest wounds
came from her family
wanting it to stay strong
and yet it kept
falling apart

the first wounds came
from sisters who didn't
respect what my mother believed

the second wound came
from her mother's untimely
and mysterious death

the third wound came
from her father's timely
but still incomprehensible death
something that crept up on her
and came about just when it seemed
he'd live forever

the fourth wounds came
when her first two sons
rejected the faith she'd embraced
all her life
for variations
that the world represented
as faithful alternatives

the fifth came
when she was diagnosed
with cancer
far too late for effective treatment
and so only a series of pains
she did not want to endure

and so the sixth came
when she made the decision
to stop treatments
and to only inform her family
when they approached her

the seventh pain
will come in the end of all things,
an appropriate rest

Memorial Day in the New Fade

how much farther into the fringe
can military service be pushed
in the New Fade?

it's not as if war has ever been
popular in America
not even during the Revolution

and yet now
after Vietnam
and Afghanistan
it seems as if the population
has segmented
to an extreme degree

the armed forces are now
completely voluntary
and i think that means
that only the people
who really want to serve
are going to care
about what that means
and anyone who doesn't
won't

there is no longer any real sense
that the sacrifices that are
still being made today
are necessary
that they are anything more
than a set of politics
and decisions that you
either agree with or reject
involved

and again
to a certain extent
this is no different
from before
but there's a real chance
today
that there will be
if not now
then very soon
a lack of respect
for everyday sacrifice

even the military doesn't seem
to appreciate this

there are little bubbles
for every facet of society
but this is not one
where this should be allowed
to happen

it's too important
and too noble
and too honored a calling
to be segregated
and reduced to
pawns in someone's chess game

My Mother in the New Fade, Part 8

as far as faith goes
my mother always had
an abundance

it's everyone else
who seemed to lack it

at church in our new home
of Lisbon Falls
she quickly discovered
that the motivation
most people had to
participate
had less to do with piety
and more to do with status

so they were always jockeying
and not minding
when they elbowed other people

and this was a pattern that
continued
for many years

she helped her children
enter into this kind of service
but i'm not sure any of us
were equal to her example

her daily prayers led
to the family rosary
and long after that ended
she continued to pray

her faith would serve her well
through unexpected trials