Wherein our fabled folk-hero, the Sultan, mulls over loss.
Brides and marshals have left my side,
My provinces I have lost; my pride has deserted me
Only in your goodness you have kept me alive
When I rend my throat for mercy and no one hears me, you are there
Day after day, my life receives from you a trickle of hope
My love is for you -- how can I pine for anyone else?
The world's treasures before me are as so many pearls before swine
I chase, I covet, with feigned fervour, but I fool no one:
As easily as I gain what I desire, they are taken from me
Only you, for in every moment I long to return to your embrace!
Never turn your gaze away, lest I turn to dust
For I am filled with dread for when you too will leave me forever
I will tear my robes, I will shred my heart, I will never regain peace.
Showing posts with label This is not a poem either. Show all posts
Showing posts with label This is not a poem either. Show all posts
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Monday, April 05, 2010
Not really saying anything
In the beginning I was pretty clueless, and believed everything I read.
Then 5 years ago I got weaned off Newsweek.
4 years ago I stopped reading Time.
1 year ago The Economist, it too bust my bullshit geiger counter.
and now The Straits Times is treating my church like a piñada.
Who can I trust now?
Everyone has a side in the story. But not everyone has their leverage.
If a lobby is influential enough, even their most trivial causes can rally support.
You cannot count on the media to present the most conscientiously-pure account on anything.
And if they cannot give you the untainted view,
you have to give yourself the power.
The price to pay is your opinion over those ever-faraway issues
Where the myriad messengers throng between you and the truth.
Because it is better to have power over seaworthy opinions
Than to be adrift and swaying in the high waves of contention
And to drown in a sea of no faith.
What sage am I to concern myself with things that do not touch me?
God alone judges those who need to be judged.
Let facts be your wood, and verification your varnish;
Let faith be your sails and wind;
Let everything else on earth be put to question;
Let questions be the waters to set your vessel afloat;
Let there be enough questions to fill the world's oceans.
Then 5 years ago I got weaned off Newsweek.
4 years ago I stopped reading Time.
1 year ago The Economist, it too bust my bullshit geiger counter.
and now The Straits Times is treating my church like a piñada.
Who can I trust now?
Everyone has a side in the story. But not everyone has their leverage.
If a lobby is influential enough, even their most trivial causes can rally support.
You cannot count on the media to present the most conscientiously-pure account on anything.
And if they cannot give you the untainted view,
you have to give yourself the power.
The price to pay is your opinion over those ever-faraway issues
Where the myriad messengers throng between you and the truth.
Because it is better to have power over seaworthy opinions
Than to be adrift and swaying in the high waves of contention
And to drown in a sea of no faith.
What sage am I to concern myself with things that do not touch me?
God alone judges those who need to be judged.
Let facts be your wood, and verification your varnish;
Let faith be your sails and wind;
Let everything else on earth be put to question;
Let questions be the waters to set your vessel afloat;
Let there be enough questions to fill the world's oceans.
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