Arlene Corwin Poetry

 Only time will tell whether you influenced another human being or not.  Numbers on a computer mean little.  To feel you are ‘an influencer’  means to ask yourself who, how, where and why.     

The New Fad Word: Influencer

The latest fad, the newest word –
A word you’ve heard;
Turd for the herd.
A word dreamed up by vanity
And deemed to be an actuality
When its truth is actually
Imaginary –
Not to be taken seriously.

We influence where e’er we go.
We set examples, sway, control.
We guide, we form, we shape the norm,
Is that the ‘influence’ at which you aim?

There’s room for goodness, goodness knows,
For we’ve observed how sorrow grows,
With leaders leading by the nose
Whole groups of hopeful, wishful crowds.
They influence, oh yes!
By pressing pain and lies
Into the sighs and cries and floods
Of men and those who acquiesce.

I submit that you omit the concept ‘influencer’
From your aims.
Life’s no fame game.
Your name has value only when
You’ve lived and helped your fellow men.
To that I add a short Amen.

The New Fad Word: Influencer 1.31.2021 Our Times, Our Culture II; Arlene Nover Corwin.

 A Useful Note

The eyes – they’re seeing what they see,
Which at the moment is to watch tv.
The hand is tapping out this poem
Which at the moment is more pastime
Than a paying job or métier.
Each part is doing its small bit
While ‘I’, the ‘I’ behind the eye
Is there with brother/sister mind
And steering, cheering on
Each object that it finds
For concentration and attention;
Each function filled with unction
One can but applaud.
As for we and me inside this head,
We can and ought to spread the joy
From using what the body lead to,
(What felt true and what felt best)
Leaving all the rest
To it and to the whole of you.

A Useful Note 1.30.2021 Definitely Didactic; Arlene Nover Corwin

          Taking A Bath

Taking a bath is heaven:

Fine, benign – divine!

Bath is water, laughter in ascendance.

Earth in essence, which in

Other planets ‘round our girth

Shows by its absence.

Activities we take take for granted

Planned or planted, 

Standing for life on this planet,

Such as sitting in the tub,

Warm water spawning  suds of pleasure –

There are simply no word banks, no treasure

In the world’s World Banks to thank. 

For whom or whatsoever gave

This saving H2o to pave the way

For fish to swim in, brimming over for we humans

Makes the Bath a metaphor 

For watered and aerated forms:

For soil-warmed worms; 

For beasts and nests

And all the messy, blessed rest

Of us.

Taking A Bath 1.29.2021 Circling Round Experience; Arlene Nover Corwin

Based on an email.

 Things To Do In Times Like These

Enforced by climes,
Potentially creative times
For those indoors; creative hours
Using things of daily use
To make you happier than usual:
Training, both to get and keep
Your strength and flexibility;
Practicing a hobby’s pleasure;
Art of leisure;
Cooking from ideas not tried, new acquired –
Meant to eat and cure at once;
Lance the boil spoiling all the current toil;
‘Things’ each physical and mental,
Incidental and essential.
They but ‘things’ – activities.
Not only there to ‘live’, but please.
No matter what, life’s there to please,
The ease not always easy.

To give to you some things to do
While undergoing a non-boring
Squeezing out of this disease
By seizing on a life of things
To do small things in times like these.

Things To In Times Like These 1.28.2021 Our Times, Our Culture II; Circling Round Experience; Arlene Nover Corwin

Based on an email.

 Things To Do In Times Like These

Enforced by climes,
Potentially creative times
For those indoors; creative hours
Using things of daily use
To make you happier than usual:
Training, both to get and keep
Your strength and flexibility;
Practicing a hobby’s pleasure;
Art of leisure;
Cooking from ideas not tried, new acquired –
Meant to eat and cure at once;
Lance the boil spoiling all the current toil;
‘Things’ each physical and mental,
Incidental and essential.
They but ‘things’ – activities.
Not only there to ‘live’, but please.
No matter what, life’s there to please,
The ease not always easy.

To give to you some things to do
While undergoing a non-boring
Squeezing out of this disease
By seizing on a life of things
To do small things in times like these.

Things To In Times Like These 1.28.2021 Our Times, Our Culture II; Circling Round Experience; Arlene Nover Corwin

         Self-Doubt II

I try to picture you-know-who
Sitting on the ‘john’ or ‘loo’*
For really, he is one of us:
Doing what we humans do.
Wondering if he’s ever insecure,
Unsure about what comes to mind,
Understanding that the mind can find
The craziest of thoughts to think.
Myself, I waver,
Do not savour every blink.
And here we watch men of the hour,
Those with power
Giving out their unsound signals,
Posturing from face to fingers;
Accusations, condemnations…
Is there never doubt of thought,
When I, the lowly writing poet
Try to deepen virtues absent, missing parts
While always staying kind at heart,
Well-inclined, well-defined;
Self-understanding melts self-doubt.
To know the two Is good for you,
Of value to the time to come;
By definition, everyone’s.

*loo, john; English slang for toilet.
Self-Doubt 10.2.2020/re-composed 1.27.2021 Our Times, Our Culture II; Circling Round Experience; Arlene Nover Corwin

Self-Doubt II

I try to picture you-know-who
Sitting on the ‘john’ or ‘loo’*
For really, he is one of us:
Human, doing what we humans do.
Wondering if he’s ever insecure, unsure
About what comes to mind,
Understanding that the mind can find
The craziest of thoughts to think.
Myself, I waver,
Do not savour every blink.
And here we watch men of the hour,
Those with power
Giving out their unsound signals,
Posturing from face to fingers;
Accusations, condemnations…
Is there never doubt of thought,
When I, the lowly writing poet
Try to deepen virtues absent, missing parts
While always staying kind at heart,
Well-inclined, well-defined;
Self-understanding melts self-doubt.
To know the two Is good for you,
Of value to your time to come;
By definition, everyone’s.

*loo, john; English slang for toilet.
Self-Doubt 10.2.2020/re-composed 1.27.2021 Our Times, Our Culture II; Circling Round Experience; Arlene Nover Corwin

   Your Place On This Planet

I’ve asked and asked,
And never could come to the question –
Not the right one anyway.
What was it that I wanted to find out?
I think I know,
The answer come about:
What is my place, what am I meant to do
To know about myself, the space I take?
The answer’s slow in coming, So I wait.
It grows and growing, showing bit by bit
Small flashes of perception;
Pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, nuzzling in collaboration
Ultimately fitting, sitting with perfection.
I, you, all, can only wait:
Wait and act in wholesome ways.
As Buddha says,
“The middle way is always best.”
It is what makes you last the longest.
What you wished and what you wanted
Usually
Turns out to be
A thumping great illusion.
Follow instinct, intuition.
Each will lead to what you’ve needed
All the while.
There’s a You inside of you. The Real you!
There’s a Force outside of you
That leads and kneads this real you.
Follow both.
They lead to Truth – the truths for you:
The truths that are the real you,
The you that you can kneel to,
Feeling they are full of right and rightful.

Your Place On this Planet 1.25.2021 Pure Nakedness II; Arlene Nover Corwin

Everything Is Yin & Yang
(another ode to Facebook)

Another ode in anthem mode:
Each using EffBee for his aim;
A simple sharing of a poem;
A needy soul who aims at fame;
A person specialised in something rare
Who seeks to share his passion for
The oldest car well, everywhere.

The negative and positive;
FB draws the best and worst,
The selfish and the selfless those
Who thirst for what is best
And those who may be bestial.
(Just a use, perhaps abuse
Of Poet’s license; please excuse
The rather brutal use of word)
Going on: FB invites a bit of fun;
Emoji’s icon. Quelle invention!
Quell design!

As for me and mine,
This facebook is divine.
So I’ll be signing off.
I’ve said enough
Even without one cup coffee.
Signing off with love and warmth.
Signing off. Goodbye.

Everything Is Yin & Yang 1.24.2021 a Sense Of The Ridiculous II; Arlene Nover Corwin

One Hundred Percent Spontaneous

I can feel cell connecting
Self correcting;
Writing righting, righting writing,
Deepening, expanding
The idea, its landing..

Without method or intention.
It’s a wonder when you think about it.
All the rest a slowing down,
This new detail of living
The most giving,
Making outlook, inlook most enlightening:
Lightening a flash of thunder;
Lightening the load from under –
Or at least from going under.

Impetuous, spontaneous,
Unplanned, extemporaneous…
What could be better!
Letter and the law of living
Superseded by an inner craving
For a non-existent caring
Of the world of judgement and acceptance.
As for instance,
This short flight of insight
Both inciting and igniting,
Written with the speed of lightening
And approved of by its writer
Could have never made her happier.

One Hundred Percent Spontaneous 1.24.2021 A Sense Of The Ridiculous II; The Processes; Creative, Thinking; Meditative II; Arlene Nover Corwin