Arlene Corwin Poetry

To Only Deal With What You’ve Got

To only deal with what you’ve got,
Not what you had
Nor thinking steps ahead –
That is the art of starting days
With no desire for their staying;
Using consciousness
With trust in sight, smell, taste…
Aware that senses waste away;
Shrinking joints to points awakened
For the sake of spirit
(For it knows if you are doing right)
Doing what you’re meant to,
Sure of what you’re meant to
Hour by hour;
Power by power.

To only deal with what you’ve got,
With what you’re handed
Just precisely where you’ve landed,
Is the license of consent
To the science of existence.
To Only Deal With What You’ve Got 6.30.2020/revised 6.30.2021 Circling Round Experience; Circling Round Existence II; Arlene Nover Corwin

 “That’s Just the Way I Am”!

He says, “That’s just the way I am!”
I say, don’t ever use that phrase because…
You are all other things as well;
One who can change, admit they’re wrong,
Avert the spell, take charge
When reasoning gone wrong comes barging in
Damaged by an ego
That refuses to let go.

There is no predetermined way…
But rules of honesty built into daily facings
Which demand a certain bravery;
Flexibility, humility, no vanity,
Untold attributes contributing
To what you’re capable of being.

“That’s Just The Way I Am” 6.30.2021 Pure Nakedness II; Arlene Nover Corwin

The Most Ridiculous Of All

The most ridiculous of all – let’s see.
What can it be?
Death.
Yes, death.
Farcical, the disappearing
Of the point of being here.
Certainly unreasonable, pointless;
Yes, ridiculous.
The Most Ridiculous Of All 6.28.2015/revised 6.29.2021Birth, Death & In Between III; A Sense Of The Ridiculous II; Arlene Nover Corwin

The Question Of Expanding Tastes

I saw a film from eighty something;
Saw how much my tastes were then.
Surprised, amazed, was I so different?
So sure then of preferences,
What I liked, what turned me on.
Now, thirty something years have gone,
And stuff that makes me cry from beauty
I thought then was bad or ugly.

What is growth, how, why is change?
The thing unanswerable;
One’s range increases, tastes expanding
While the rest inside contracts,
The processes are never landing.

The theme of change will always be
A stickler for the likes of me.
To question, be reminded of,
To ultimately greet, receive.
Happenings which every second,
Subtle as the air around.
Are constantly inconstant, hounding some,
Ignored by others.

Blending, mingling, integrating,
Merging and consolidating…
All combined to sway my tastes
The day I noticed how the fates
Had taken hold. How I enjoyed
The art today which I avoided yesterday.

The Question Of Expanding Tastes 6.27.2021 Vaguely About Music II; Circling Round Everything II; Arlene Nover Corwin

    The Elixir

If there ever was a magic potion
Inbuilt in an earthly notion,
One to change the habits old
Into a new and lifelong gold,
Outside all tricks,
The negatively nix,
A lotion of refreshment
Portioned out, the perfect servant,
Ocean of vitality and vibrancy
And most of all, not fancy,
It is doing what you can
With what you have
Wherever you may find yourself.

Tools always in your hand
Or foot, or leg or mind,
Its wangling angling,
Instinct, intuition, reasoning
There in existence and your presence
Is the feature and the fixture:
The elixir.
Elixir 5.21.2020. Words To Love; The Processes: Creative, Thinking, Meditative II; Arlene Nover Corwin
Elixir; a preparation supposedly able to prolong life indefinitely:

         Authenticity 

(A bitty, kind of witty, gritty ditty)

Take every word I say: play with it.
Every word you say: stay with it.
Key to this city:
Authenticity.
When necessary, do things over.
Tolstoy, never wavering,
Wrote War & Peace” – forever fervour-ed.
Sundry samples and examples,
Authenticity the target.
Know yourself and work it out
Repeatedly, so you can say,
“It’s I, it’s me!”
For ‘I is me’ is all required,
All that’s been acquired
Weaving, sieving and delivering your destined star:
The whole percent of all you are:
Authenticity the city.

Authenticity 6.27.2021 Nature Of & In Reality; Circling Round Experience; Arlene Nover corwin

 Sometimes the deepest questions elicit the easiest truths.

   Simplistic, But True

Teddy Roosevelt once said:
“Where you are, with what you have, do what you can”.
Ted said, “Do!
And I, concur with Teddy’s view.
Do you have one more solution?

Complex issues may have layers,
Many sayers.
Sometimes there are no clear answers
Than the ones as thin as matzos.*

Nothing’s oversimplified and shallow,
But to find the road to follow
Shows how tiringly long and narrow
The right way can be:
Always simple but not easy.
*a crisp biscuit of unleavened bread, traditionally eaten by Jews during Passover: a box of matzos
Simplistic, But True 5.20.2020/revised 6.24.2021 A Sense Of The Ridiculous II; Circling Round Reality; Arlene Nover Corwin

To all you possibly non-poetry readers:  Sometimes the craziest of thoughts have substance.

Everything There Is

Everything there is,
Is collage – college too:
Always something new
to learn;
Concrete, abstract;
Truth in fact;
Expressed or heard;
What hasn’t even come to word,
But felt or sensed
With power, essence, even
Non-sense; if it is, it really is:
Fireworks, rocks, open cracks;
No hoax, but truly paradox;
Though absent of some sound or ring,
Even silence is a thing.

Conclusion:
Writer sitting in the sun
Absorbed in silent meditation,
Feeling she is soul with body,
Not just body with a soul;
Following the urge of reason
To explain this mystic kingpin
Of a brain that shares the air
As something everyone needs everywhere;
A creed-less ‘something’ of awareness.

Feeling this is not a caper
Running in for pen and paper,
To approach the something
That makes up the things that make up everything;

To end with:
Even nothing gives you something.

Everything There Is 6.26.2021 Circling Round Everything II; Circling Round Reality; Arlene Nover Corwin

      Midsummer Day’s Acceptance

All the Swedes are happy on Midsummer’s Day
(which Swedes observe the day before).
They celebrate by dancing, joking, playing.
Drinking – anything but thinking deeply.
Being normal and adaptable, I join in.
But deep inside, aside from fun,
I’m underwhelmed.

Days minimally shortened from now on: darkened, colder,
Me myself, by November x months older.
Yes, the rest are loving it.
My thinking is above it.
But, as said adaptable and pliable.
It’s undeniable, unmodifiable,
So I accept the din
And, once again, join in.

Midsummer’s Day Acceptance 6.24.2021 Swedish Book II; Circling Round Experience; Arlene Nover Corwin

Writing everyday, as I do, I write down and build on any thought, (however transitory) that catches me, all being a pleasurable etude-inal learning process. Themes differing, but always a personified thread underlying, it all ends up feeling authentic, both artistically and philosophically.

               Words & Marriage
       Word Paralysis: Stunted Growth

Couples do it all the time:
Talk in phrases long cliched by platitude,
Staled attitude.
They stop communicating
(except perhaps when fornicating),
Do not learn,
Phrases the same,
Repeated at each meal, each film;
Missing out on IQ raising conversation
Real communication
Worn or lost in years or habit.

Stock of’ words inadequate.
They’ve learned to neither listen
Nor to pay attention,
Stopping up their listening ears
Through years of word paralysis.

When deafness real
Strikes one or other,
Talk a task, talk in a casket,
Talk an effort, oft’ a bother,
Communication out the window,
What to do?
Partnership and marriage
Is a dance for two,
Word renewal gemlike jewel.

When words no longer stir or spur.
A sentence or a word ignored,
Love goes sneaking out the door.
Words&Marriage 6.20.2020/revised 6.24.2021 Love Relationships II; Arlene Nover Corwin