Arlene Corwin Poetry

New version, condensed, more to the point!

Routine & Ritual, But Where Is Truth? #2

Interest in the self;
For in the self is faith, path, plinth and growth;
Truth unseen but searched for, sought.
interpreting, projecting, recognising nought.

It’s truth we’re after: big or little T or t:
Relative or ‘heaven’ sent,
We generalise, lose sight of what is meant,
Aimed at, talked about.

Full of slogans, bywords,
Platitudes, our own cliches.
We live apart from looking inwards;
Inwards where the whole thing lies,
Where all things lie,
And lies do not.

Filled with ritual,
Traditional, conventional;
We do not know the self that well;
(The well of depth, the well of truth.)
“Know thyself,” said Socrates,
Plato too.
Know, know, know to find out how and what and who…
It is your Self that holds what’s True.

Routine & Ritual,But Where IsTruth? 9.10.2021/10.30.2021 Circling Round Everything ii,

Biography Of A Jazz Musician

The urge to improvise felt young,
A song is played or writ or sung,
A different tune, an altered phrase;
Same song, but new-created,
Most inviting and demanding for the one
who does it.
Need fulfilled.

Where is the gene that brings about
This inner need to shout “oohbopeeda”,
Play Kern’s song ‘wrong’.
(He wants to sue the soul who dares to
Change a note of “All The Things You Are”)
Each in accord to his/her nature,
Jazz is born, borne further.
Drawn to, born to play ‘unused’
(I, one of those.
My food, my clothes…of course my music).
Irresistible the stimulus.

Original, experimental, way out, far out
Re-invigorated, the garde-avant
The tune, though loved feels worn
The song, the person newly born;
Revived, improved, refreshed, pristine;
‘Untried’, un-hackneyed: aim and key.
Such, the jazz heredity,
And probably
Biography.

Biography of a Jazz Musician 10.30.2021 Vaguely About Music II; The Processes: Creative, Thinking, Mediative II; Arlene Nover Corwin

 Redefining Our Relationships

Nature needs it most of all.
We never thought it reigned supreme.
We have the energy, the minds, the means
To clean the planet,
But the will?
Is it our gene-backed tendencies
That turn us all
To ‘seven deadly sins’:
Pride & lust & covetousness,
(the desire to possess)
Envy, sloth & all the rest
Variations on the seven,
Leaven to the state of things
Turning actions towards indifference,
Anger, hunger in their place?

Different colors in each face;
Is there such a thing as race?
Ridiculous!
There are tools and pools of all,
And still, we’re falling.
Funds enough to feed the globe.
Absorb the most,
But we are xenophobic.
Profit, cost a driving force.
One cannot say if all is lost,
But we are all.
Get on the ball, ‘cause
I am, you are, we are all!

Redefining Our Relationships 10.25.2021 Our Times, Our Culture II; Arlene Nover Corwin

That’s What It Is To Be Human

A long, long stretch;
A sudden leap;
Unforeseen,
Because you’ve never known the ‘when’.
Like dust always somewhere upon…
Then dusted..then upon again.

As in a maze, a stage-long phase
It’s always that: an inner phrase,
A clause perfused,
Oozing the ‘you’
Within labyrinth’s queue.

You, the subject, slow-maturing;
Blossoming then burgeoning,
Always re-forming.
Sometimes dormant, but
Not final, never rooted.

Wrong to right, weak to strong;
Higher your development.
So, in encouragement, dear little pup:
Keep it up.
That’s what is to be human.
What It Is To Be Human 10.24.2021 Pure Nakedness II; Circling Round Reality; Arlene Nover Corwin

That’s What It Is To Be Human

A long, long stretch;
A sudden leap;
Unforeseen,
Because you’ve never known the ‘when’.
Like dust always somewhere upon…
Then dusted..then upon again.

As in a maze, a stage-long phase
It’s always that: an inner phrase,
A clause perfused,
Oozing the ‘you’
Within labyrinth’s queue.

You, the subject, slow-maturing;
Blossoming then burgeoning,
Always re-forming.
Sometimes dormant, but
Not final, never rooted.

Wrong to right, weak to strong;
Higher your development.
So, in encouragement, dear little pup:
Keep it up.
That’s what is to be human.
What It Is To Be Human 10.24.2021 Pure Nakedness II; Circling Round Reality; Arlene Nover Corwin

Jazz Singer, I

Ms Blossom Dearie
Said to me:
“I never listen to the words,
I think about the harmony.”
That’s me!
In a nutshell, that is me:
The chords, the voicings all I hear.
They read to me,
Lead me to
A what? The song.
Short or long.
What sort of singer I,
Whose musicality is tuned
To improvising on the ‘changes’,
Not concerned at all with words
But rearranging melodies on chords
As if she were a horn.
What’s wrong?
Nothing! As
She is a singer of Le Jazz.
Just that.
Jazz Singer, I 10.23.2021 Vaguely About Musc; Arlene Nover Corwin

 The Ego-Experience Self

Interest has risen in the Self (big S)
The world goes down, things fall apart,
Arctic and Antarctica
With holes that forecast,
If not prophesy, predict and augur
Awful dog days, hot as hell;
Days of clanger, anger, danger
Not a soul to shoulder all.

Who to lay the finger on?
God in heaven?
No! God no!
It is the ego side of mankind,
Giving self-esteem, self-importance, self-worth, self-respect,
Self-conceit, self-image, confidence, identity;
All good and faulty. Most unlucky.

It can be critical of self,
Connect with spirit; Yet, in conflict
With the things of senses and their drives,
The things they love,
The numinous suggesting One above.
What to do to harmonize disparate two?
Destiny you have will have the say and sway
It all depends on you.
The Ego-Experience Self 10.21.2021 To The Child Mystic II; The Processes; Creative, Thinking, Meditative II; Arlene Nover Corwin

Sent only to those I know who write: I hope I’m not bothering you with my overproduction. This is something I’ve wanted to write about for a long time now.

  What To Write About

The whole’s about the things you know,
The things you think about
In order that you know,
Using what you know already.
Words old/new, each leading you
To deeper layers.
You may not ever be the best of sayers –
But you will develop,
Helping those around and not,
in, on their ways.

Newer forms, parts re-corrected.
Entertaining, self-created.
Light on top, the universe beneath;
Brief, long, breadth, breath.
Life, in-between and death.

What is essential is to write,
To say and analyse from deep to light;
The mystical invisible;
Your writing’s meant to take you further
Into all-embracing knowledge wise:
Self, truth, illusion’s lies.
Write, write for self realization.

What To Write About 10.20.2021The Processes: Creative, Thinking, Meditative II; Circling Round Experience; Circling Round Everything ll; Arlene Nover Corwin

Sudden thought 4 a.m. last night. Gradual write 1 p.m. today.

Sudden Stop

Sudden stop!
It happens.
Hormones, circumstance,
Plans, points of view…
We never know when, how, or who.
Hayden did it;
One hundred seven symphonies
Then pop! He stopped!
New interests possibly. Priorities
Revised, amended, switched, adjusted,
All glued to wind’s gust in Time.

Passions wane.
What was one’s cup of tea
Of no concern:
Hobbies and ambitions bore;
Not worth the chasing, striving for.

Live in the now!
One’s being led somehow –
It just to trust the inner voice
That knows the inner best.
It’s all a chance and all a test,
Gift and skill and innovation ever prompts.
The sudden never stops.
Sudden Stop 10.19.2021 the Processes: Creative, thinking, Meditative II; Arlene Nover Corwin

The Good Leader or, No One Is Perfect

The one who leads is he or she who’s
Modest, willing to concede,
Recede, all without the need
To be involved as ego
But concerned that others grow.
A sense of humour never hurts.
It doesn’t disconcert but generates relationship
That animates and stimulates,
Culminating in a healthier result for all,
Reverberating off each wall.

The leader ought to want the best for all involved.
Earned, or learned?
Perhaps it comes with years,
Since all roads lead to Rome.
Let us assume it zooms in
On the meaning of ‘to lead’
The creed of knowledge, care
And love in sharing.

Leader has no leading urge,
But dominates by listening
With some sharp instinctive ear and surge
That doesn’t judge, yet judges right
Not in the short but long run.
(S)he has insight, knows (s)he’s not the sun
But brightens by a presence.
It is something most around can sense;
No Mensa member, for intelligence
Has many faces, many facets like a diamond
Or a passion with soft-heartedness.
A soft sell that goes well
(Truth to tell)
Most of the time.
The Good Leader 10.15.2018/10.15.2021 Revelations Big & Small; Arlene Nover Corwin