Llewellyn Mark Jones

To Focus Beautiful

Myopic clarity is alarming

In comparison to hyperopia,

But sight is emotional and

Untrustworthy.

Life’s spectacles distort.

However, in contrast vision

Is cerebral, spiritual,

Eternal, and hopeful.

Light is metaphor

For knowledge and purity;

Colour for variety.

Close up or far away

Truth needs forged transparency.

Illusion forms substance

That validates vapours

And wind unites humans to divinity.

Flowers, skies, grass, trees, water

Dance, art, music, words,

Even death and suffering

Concentrate in elegance.

WORLD WITHOUT END 

Science, the religion, believes not in spirits and souls.

Science, the god, is the mighty creator of Oreos and

Caramilk chocolate bars with binary barcodes.

Science is expanding the universe, advertising itself

Into the great unknozone for its own increasing

Prophet. Economics precipitate onto Earth with

Acidity and amassing heat, accelerating the demolition of

Science’s own creations, wrapped in its own destruction.

Since good and evil do not exist, it happens without design.

Chaos theorises billions of years are short.

In time travel one day is a thousand years.

Nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons declare

Science’s omnipotence, electrical omnipresence, and

Unsteady omniscience trapped in paradigms

Missing yet unknown data.

Progress and innovation, opiates of the people,

Consume hope and promise in this

Miss Universe contest of extinction.

Physicists heal themselves with measurement, and

Are immeasurably harmed in spontaneous human combustion

When creation consumes the Creator.

So Life Essential

Shock Value 

Watch this

Chainsaws tear flesh

Popcorn salt

It’s only fiction

Rewind that part

Turn you on

Turn it off

Observe war

See casualities

Friendly fire eat

Raw steak

Week’s fourth rape

Coyote gets bird

Another telethon?

Middle-east peacelessness

More lamb chops

Cop killers fried

Fatal fetus

Hurricane Abel destroys

Hockey hoods try

Testosterone cheese-smothered nachos

Giants clobber

Dolphins

Cancer numbs heart

Not very scary

Essential Communication

I think, I mean, you know

You know I think

I mean, you know, I think

I think you know

Idealistic

I mean, ya, you know,

Going forward I mean

Like I am

Artistic

You know, um

Ya, I mean absolutely irregardless

Perfect, I think, you know, I mean

Perfect

Controversial

Like I think, uh, you know

Expressive

Going forward

Absolutely um, perfect

Visionary

Extremely unique, I mean

I think

You know?

The Card Game

Reassure Me

BATTERED

The child given, entrusted to our care

To be raised with love and security, matured

To leave and cleave

To pair with one whose motives seemed honourable

But on circumspection, they were false, and true 

Intentions were never obvious.

Charm and charisma hid pain and self-loathing,

Seething anger and monstrous rage

Assertive, seemingly confident, the charmer

Ever in control

Told the story of a happy family

But vapours of deceit embellished that wholesome mirage.

The gentle child cowered in submission

Trapped inside the tyrant’s narrative,

Wanting peace while unrelenting pressure

Disassembled the adult

Until courage to confront unleashed

The full cruelty of the beast.

Victory over the victim, not enough!

Complete destruction the goal!

Inhumanity dictates, love is lost.

Our child returns, damaged by abuse,

To survive, heal, pursue peace, comprehend love again,

And to vow, to ensure

No parental sin visits the

Next generations.

ACE

Eyes see but cannot stop seeing

Ears hear but cannot stop hearing

Mind thinks but cannot understand

Emotions feel but numbness and depression rule

Trust is shattered

Damage done

Loved and unloved

Wounded and scarred

Innocence stolen

Growth stunted and memories blurred,

Coping mechanisms developing, but for now unknown

Mazes of escape almost ready for exploration

Before then, is healing possible?

Why Human Hearts Harden

 If love endures hardship, then survivors declare its success,

Rewarded with comfort, reassurance, and peace.

But without love, the selfless gift of self,

Distress, doubt, and din harbour hate.

In incipiency, toxic bondage mounts debits and credits,

Balance sheets record wrongs and note not the good.

The ledger cannot reveal its profit, and losses mount,

Yet flawed foundations and formulations before incorporation

Bankrupt the trust before business began.

Transactions from accounts past twist today’s trade.

Unbalanced books build bilious dealings,

Grasping failure from success.

No mutuality, no saving.

Ruin reigns.

Law declares insolvency and dissolution as

Partners blame while the innocent ache,

Their scarring devaluations yet unseen.

TWELVE

Tribes and apostles minus one then add one

A dozen bananas or donuts

A bat mitzvah to celebrate

Days of Christmas partridge in a tree

High Noon (a must movie to see)

Years of Hitler’s crushing grip

The last grade of public education

Months in a year

Cylinders in fine engines

Leftover baskets of food from a miraculous meal.

Inches in an imperial foot

Channels on VHF television

Jurors, magnesium, cobalamin, sons of Odin,

Players on Canadian football and women’s field hockey teams, but in American football and the beautiful game the twelfth man is the fan

Minutes in a quarter of NBA basketball

Step program

Names of the Hindu sun god, Surya

Signs in two zodiacs

Years of marriage that ends in divorce of course, a betrayal of trust, a loss of hope, another damaged soul with others collaterally

But restoration will happen

A significant number

Disposable Humans

 Imagine the lack of love

A human drained of worth

By narcissistic abuse and gaslighting

Cornered, isolated, unappreciated

Shot down, animalised,

Humiliated and wounded.

At the start, innocent and trusting

Kind and caring, joyful and dependable,

But now cynical, damaged, and alone

Whimpering in a tiny cage,

Subjected daily to cruelty, but ending traumatically,

Thrown out of a car driven by a serial torturer.

SoCal Sun and Fog

On a clear, sunny day 

There is warmth, beauty, and visibility.

Colours, shapes announce themselves 

Eyes see form, pattern, and dimension. 

Human movement, dance and traffic, display grace and order. 

Breeze brings comfort, omniscience, and pure breathing.

Clarity and truth are obvious, universal.

Differing visions matter only as multiple artistic interpretations and understandings. 

No harm when humans see each other for whom they are.

Patterned, peaceful coexistence and

Evil can be seen for what it is. 

On a cloudy, foggy day 

Thick fog, polluted smog so dense it sticks to and soaks everything it touches,

Limits visibility.

Lungs like sponges absorb the poison and spread it. 

Communal blindness, bumping in the grey darkness of nothing hides intent.

Nefarious, deceitful actions cause chaos.

Truth cannot be found in evil’s malicious propaganda

Because evil calls good evil,

And this deception weaves distrust and hatred into

Scratchy blankets of shame for targeted, innocent victims.

There is fear, coolness, chaos, disunity, and danger,

Damaged property, reputation, nature, and humans. 

Dirty, muddy, messy, harmful. 

What’s the weather like today?

Will it ever end?

Duality

The Shadow knows better than Jung

Or anyone what evil lurks

In human hearts.

The Shadow knows karma’s quixotic

quirks and justice, what’s sewn grows for

Thrashing, reaping.

Yet Jung discerns balance varies,

Uniquely within all people,

As archetypes.

Imagine a contest between

Fraternal twins, wrestling in womb

Until cold end.

Yet the Shadow’s twin desires not

To let it escape their façade,

Confusing all.

Good and evil compete in soul

One harms, decays, destroys - a

Madness monger.

The other soothes, heals, and restores.

Humanity cursed with knowledge,

Freely chooses.

Both forces living in us all

Loving, hating, killing, giving

Heart, soul, and mind.

Lies torment truth,

Conspiring opposite accord,

Assassinating innocence,  

Gaslighting life.

Contemplation while we walk dark

Spirits lurk in sleepy nature

Bystanders quake,

Not in fear, but in apathy,

Assessing their lives for balance,

More good than evil

Tips the account in their favour

What of the damage done unseen?

Judgment delayed.

Grace saves penitent, attentive

Souls, but the shameless continue

The Shadow’s rule,

Eternally separated

From the gentle doppelganger

While deathless time

Chooses to be linear or

Fog-like without vibrant vision,

Strolling nature.

Coyotes sing in harmony with humming wheels from a distant highway.

DOG

 Fear dog (perhaps God in the right context)

Passive aggressive owner now trained chooses not to restrain

The beast

Rewarded by treats for returning after attack

There are no crumbs on the floor to eat

But steak and caviar fill the bowl

Eaten raw

Owner loves self little because neighbours are loved less

Dog is worshipped and its sovereignty unchecked

Who owns whom, undetermined, while terror rules the street

Dog is not a loving god

Nor is it human

Able cane responds

KNOW THYSELF

 Lies told to self and others

Hide intentions, weaknesses, insecurity,

Latent evil, and self-loathing.

None can hear see read internal

Monologue, only external

Dialogue and action

But people are good,

Humanity is progressing,

Some say.

Others assert regressing and

The end is near.

Actions shout,

Inaction mutes.

Conflict is natural, yet

Intentional destruction is

Product and by-product.

Blessings to those who curse

And forgiveness to forgivers

Evasive insight and peace

In all times

Villainous and heroic

Inmates unbound in prison

And in freedom, captives

May search for understanding

The multi-act play ends as

(Happy mask, sad mask)

Neither tragedy nor comedy

But tragicomedy,

Perhaps cathartic.

MOUSE

 There’s a mouse in our house

Where there’s one, there are more

The house, the shelter of humans,

Cannot abide the invaders

Those unthinking venture capitalists

They enter through holes

As small as a quarter

Making their winter home inside a human home

Eating through wood and enjoying human heat

Running to the kitchen in search of food,

Leaving evidence that they found some.

Traps sometimes catch them,

Other times they feed the rodents

Poison is injudicious for predators of mice

Then summer comes and mice go camping.

During that vacation time humans try to plug holes

To prevent next fall’s infiltration.

They endure, survive, and thrive.

HOPE and FAITH

 When seasons change, snow melts solitude.

Water saturates soil and flows downhill, downstream.

Light resurrects life, joy springs from winter’s strife,

(This seemingly never-ending, harsh, cold season)

And green triumphs over sterile white and barren brown,

Freeing other vibrant colours to flourish.

It’s still winter here and now, but we will not bow

To today’s suffering and evil, nor repay evil with evil.

We have hope because this season will end soon.

Truth will emerge, growing into blossom, seen and understood 

By everyone who treasures its beauty in our garden.

Aussies and Canucks

 Fear of the alien conceals

 Reluctance to visit Down Under:

The Blue Ringed Octopus, Box Jellyfish, and Great White Shark

Patrolled the waters alongside Steve Irwin’s Stingray and the Stonefish,

And Textile Cone Snails with enough venom to kill sixty adults.

Nearing land, Saltwater Crocodiles and poisonous snakes

Reinforced by the daunting Cassowary and deadly Redback Spiders

Attack unsuspecting trespassers.

Yet Australia without intent fashioned prisoners incarcerated

In other countries by dread of unfamiliar death and distress.

 Australians, liberated from those fetters,

May likewise shirk the true north, strong and free,

For fear of cunning Cougar, choleric Bear, immense Moose,

With western shores patrolled by Killer Whales. “Wolves and wolverines!”

And the foreign creates reciprocal phobia.

“Not so,” Canucks counter.

 Within this planet of potential menace, anxiety is everywhere,

But perhaps worthy of deeper consideration,

The most dangerous animals are

Human beings.

CROSSING

Walking this dark, asphalt path reflects insight.

For five months turtles heed traffic signs,

But a warm October day tempts some newly hatched

To traverse against decree, hell bound.

Not a rabbit’s race; instead, a snapping, flat finish.

Snakes bask in warmth, but slithering stops with a squish.

And while listening to The Clash’s lyrics

Deer decide to stay or go.

Sooner or later, they dash into

Destined danger or death, leaving

Accidental venison and injured vehicles.

So short and sudden ends to their journeys

Provide pause to ponder passageways.

Similar junctions on human roads soften peril

With lights and warnings.

Off ramps gently lead directional change,

Yet none are safe.

Ho hum, how pedestrian.

Lengths of life’s lanes vary.

If the road does not kill, for some

It terminates with speed over a cliff.

An impotent car horn then protests,

With a single note fading while falling.

Others find a celestial rest stop,

Yet the journey led to there.

Fate, gentle or abrupt, inevitably intersects the way.

FLIGHT

 From coastal rain and fog

I rise above clouds toward mountains

With white tips and dark, luscious valleys

Scorned by late day shadows

They are untamed and immovable

Yet moving.

Their stature decreases with movement east

Into foothills and then sculpted prairie

Creeping darkness hides its shapes and colours

But rural towns and farms offer light to declare their joyful isolation

And in Canadian Shield

(We stand on guard for thee)

Celestial and electrical exposure

Mark mysterious bodies of water

Midst fortifications of trees and rocks

Pacific to St. Lawrence, God!

(Keep our land, glorious and free)

Imagination cannot comprehend

The true north, an enigma, in mind’s distant horizon.

THE FIX

Sixty-six and where’s the fix?

Endurance, my friend, stays with us

Until the end

Gain through pain is not plain

In sight without fright in spite of

Fog and grog and dog doodoo

Who can complain

About the pain

When gain is so unseen

Small like a gem of

Great value

Wealth found and earned

With sweat and needless worry

So sorry for wasted time

In sixty-six years of flash

That dash and sometimes crash

Into meaninglessness, but

With hope to cope and say

It was worthwhile

So smile

We passed the test and

Did our best.

LET’S TALK OR NOT

Sadness is profound,

A slave to empathy.

Thinking is muddled

In a scrambled brain.

Injured by false love,

Trapped in abuse,

Sensitivity’s radar

Spots too many things

For focused future.

Self-worth stalls starts.

Climb out of the trap,

Find help and heal.

The innocent watch

But they cannot see.

Meaning may be late

In time for understanding.

A sparrow falls to the ground.

Yet you are worth more.

BETRAYAL

Surprise comes from ignoring lies

Perfidy leaves clues

A foreshadowing of intent

A signal of malevolent end

Buried in the Judas archetype

In each of us

A Christ figure sees what’s coming

But knows the greater purpose

And allows betrayal

To reveal superior character

And enduringly hopeful destiny

Yet the traitor's future and history

Hold condemnation and self-destruction

A call to all to wake and aim

For deeper dream and ardent unity