Monday, November 30, 2015

subsistence

monosyllabic man with red stick in hand
drawing on the rocks, impressions of his land
animals dancing or rearing or rough
since when is subsistence enough?

plastic pearls and gingham swirls billowing from her hips
rouge paint round yellowed teeth, beckons from her lips
two-legged dance or ritual for love
since when is subsistence enough?

sweat-soaked labourers beneath electric earth
asking 'brothers, how much are our bodies worth?!'
bread winners dying or trying to be tough
since when is subsistence enough?

blogging woman with her fingers afire
ranting her wit through the undersea wire
suits meeting re distribution of stuff
since when is subsistence enough

Comments:
Since we turned the developed hard fought for world over to the Oligarch franchises has subsistence been enough. Them who have too much have no concern for your barely enough,Chris. They want you enslaved in debt.
 
No matter how poor we are, we seek comfort in many ways. The ways provided and the ways we have to seek a little harder than the every day to secure.

We put very little effort if any into the business of selecting our own leadership in the US, and this is nothing new, it has been going on for a long time. And now we are in the midst of paying the price for that civic laziness and ingratitude for the necessary political mechanisms at or disposal that we choose to activate or let lie individually and yet in mass.

But that's none of my business. I'm just drinking ice tea with an uneasy green fellow.
 
'plastic pearls and gingham swirls billowing from her hips
rouge paint round yellowed teeth, beckons from her lips'

Seriously evocative.
 
This so reminds me of Maslow. I think I'm of the opinion that subsistence is not enough once it's not in peril.

I think. I could be wrong, though.

Glad to see you're still posting, BTW. I thought everyone had left.
 
Thanks for these comments guys; visits from old friends.

Walking Man: I'd been thinking more from a history of human perspective but that's the mirror image of our quest for greatness/innovation I suppose, the supreme greed of some while the rest scrape by at best.

Toast: thank you sir, I liked that line too.

Eric: "No matter how poor we are, we seek comfort in many ways." sums it up quite nicely.

X.Dell: I think you read it exactly as I wrote it. Hadn't thought of Maslow explicitly but yes my long ago reading of him probably strongly influenced this....I thought everyone had left too! This was my first post in a long long time.
 
Maslow and I agree with X Dell. I've lived Maslow's hierarchy. When life is difficult, the poetry comes daily from being, but doesn't get scratched on a page.

However, if you don't damage your memory too much, it's there for later when your needs are fewer and you have time to work with the words to match your vision.
 
Eric: I hear ya. Which is why it astounds me that paleolithic humans got creative and painted cave art. But I guess I'm holding a stereotype of those times as being tougher than they were. The thinking nowadays is that they would have had more free time than we do now and when the weather and such cooperated they were very well off in terms of protein and such.
 
I assume our ancestors must have suffered "cave fever" during winter confinement and the harsher climates at the end of the ice age, as well. And it's clear that they held respect for their art, simply judging by its survival. Many Paleo humans tended to burn out their caves in the spring to cleanse infestations and I would also assume to smoke away the bacteria and other beasties that cause foul stench. But the paintings are unscathed by any fire. Or were touched up or repainted as was needed.

I'm assuming they practiced their art fairly often. And who really knows about what they created on animal skins, or their own skin. Things that we can assume and deduce, but don't have much if any surviving evidence for. Painting one's self or one's belongings is as natural as a child experimenting with watercolors or finger paints.
 
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