A Tribute to Hofstadter

I have a couple of reviews in que, but have been drawn to other things this month. However, though the distraction or rather attraction may be, this posting has clear roots in the works of Douglas Hofdsadter. No matter your intellect, you can appreciate Hofstadter’s work. Godel- Echer -Back won awards. I am a Strange Loop speaks to how thinking works. Eugine Onegin, speaks to the heart and soul of a thinking person. So whatever your itch Hofstadter can scratch it.

For me, recursive thinking, and a continuous feed back of such, played on my heart strings and in my head in April drawing on all three books. Only he who has read all three books could fully appreciate my intentions. So the following is a tribute of poems inspired by Hofstadter’s works. It coursed through many layers of my brain in a continuous loop connecting mind, heart, and soul. This is first a tribute to him. As coincidence would have, it is also a tribute to those who have blessed my life; some with good fortune and some as conduits to the fate of living with the deeds of one’s’ youth. To both I say we are all much the same regardless of where and how our paths intersect. I might say that consistent with Hofstadter’s trilogy; the loop, made real, is now complete.

Onegin
Chapter Eight Verse’s Forty-eight and Forty-nine

And out she strode. Eugene stands shattered
As if by thunder’s awesome blast
His breast’s awash with grief: he’s battered,
Adrift in raging seas, aghast.
But hark – some spurs are heard, encroaching:
It’s Tatyans’s husband, fast approaching…
And at this juncture grave and grim
We’ll let my hero sink or swim.
O reader dear: we’ll take our vacations
From him, for now forevermore.
It’s been enough! We’ve come ashore
At last, we two! Congratulations
Upon our finally reaching port.
Hurrah! What’s left is sweet and short.

Dear reader, friend or foe, at present
I’d like – whoever you might be –
To take my leave on terms most pleasant.
And thus farewell. Whate’er from me
You sought in this light stanza –
Some boisterous souvenir bonanza,
Relief from toils and drudgery,
Some lively scenes, some jeux’d’espirit-
Perhaps just some errors in my grammar! –
God grant that in my modest art.
For entertainment, for your heart,
For dreams, or for the press’s yammer,
You have found at least a grain or two.
And on that note, farewell to you!







A Mother’s Love
Time and space do the heavens grace
Allysum’s tender color embroidered lace
T ending her garden with love and care
Year after year there is no time to spare

Tying nature and family a harvest of produce
Amorous devotion does anyone notice
Time’s span and space knows no boundary
Yearning for meaning heart strings tarry

Tender is the song to her child she kisses
Amidst her toils a song she misses
Tending to weeds amongst her collard greens
Yoga her portal to heavens beyond waxed beans

Transcending through mists of heaven’s gate
Anchored by her mother’s blind fate
Two slices of bread makes her the sandwich
Yearning for meaning , words find no language

Torn my demands on each side of her generation
Always there she provides the fruits of her garden
Tempting her soul does Onegin lurk
Yet steadfast to her fate dose she work



Nature of Rain

From the heavens the essence of nature
Form in droplets of nurturing water.
Each with a destined journey to the sea.
Where they become One with their brothers
Yet remain still a droplet.

Each droplet's journey akin to a journey of man.
He knows his origin and has faith in his arrival.
Home where in the body of the whole exists
the body of the self. Knowing self is Self
Knowing we are all One is knowing self




You Can't Stop Love

Like the power of a flowing river
Love brings a mysterious shiver
To he who stands in its way
For nothing can hold it at bay

Like the acorn of a century oak
A life time love's flame is stoked
A man can travel the world
In its shade the dream-world swirls

Love's tears may water the sapling
A women's beauty enchants aptly
A lifetime he waits for her affection
Forever flowing love's devotion

Eugine Onegin's fate was sealed
Love for Tatyana fate did steal
She too fell innocently to fates prey
Their love to another they shan't say

Sure as the sun sets a moon rises
Love's flow in the constellation of Isis
In to the arms of heavens paradise
Delivers treasure of love's merchandise

Such treasure is companion to the soul
It's weight thru life’s journey be its toll
In eternity shall be its birth
The kingdom of heaven on earth


Orange Juice

It is a simple concept if only we look within: Everything in Nothing.
In old saws and adages on village square, there is found the phrase
In the village air as they conclude ‘When you squeeze an orange,
Orange juice comes out.’ They never say if it’s how it might taste.

There are times when events unmercifully put a man in a vice
Its living and surviving that squeeze him to make things nice
Whether it said by Moses, Buddha, Shiva, Mohammad, or Christ
Universal is the message: When you close your eyes and meditate

Look within, you shall find peace if only for a moment, do not hesitate
As busy it may be when you clear your mind of all its drama,
When there is nothing left to think about, beyond your karma
Search ye shall find; or stop searching; to your brother namaste.

One coin, two sides. In that nothingness is energy in your being.
It’s called love, acceptance of what it is, unconditionally.
So when you have nothing what more could you ask for but
To invest in that moment of Everything in Nothing…

My Treasury
Where you find a paradox there is an energy to mint
Two sides of one coin bound together by a simple edge
Clearing the mind, the work the yoga we search for a hint
The quest for God, thru epiphany comes knowledge

Anxiety tears at the choice to spend it or save it
Purchase or invest, betwixt becomes our choices
Chop wood carry water, life’s toil do we commit
Letting it go to the moment we release these vices

Wood and water, God’s gifts, our comforts of natures
Should commitment to work interrupt our quest?
Or to do nothing and be perceived a worthless character
Spent are my coins, intellect or intuition, needless be a treasure chest


If I Were Christ
If I were Christ and your were my Magdeline
Amidst your gasp don’t think this so benign
If it be true; we are sons of One God and no other
Then surely we are to each other his brother

So close then it must be, yet difficult to see
Brothers we are, if so it is, then so it must be
On earth a material existence we all co-create
All sons of man we must all choose a mate

In youth where ones place in his life is being sorted out
A young man’s consciousness may have a lapse of doubt
Where two souls become entangled an intricate bond
Beyond our body temples, to a fate souls respond

On earth men and women bound in marriage
Day to day they burden with baggage in carriage
Let life’s riches bloom in preparation for eternity
Where two souls once again fulfill their destiny

We Are All Fishermen
John and James worked the docks of Galilee
A day at sea labored in to the docks they arrive late
Sold their catch to merchants for the city jubilee
A festival it was the guest of honor their first mate
Talk of the town; our guest says be kind to your brother
But they already know, as there may not be another

Luke and Paul one a physician, the other a solicitor general
One a student of Alexandria wise to the body and mind
Laws of men, to a son of a Pharisee come natural
Each capable of bending words, symbols in prose or rhyme
Spun and woven they say be kind to your brother
But they already know, as there may not be another

All four men write the good book in their own tongue
Credentials shan’t impede the festival conversation
Let the wine be spilled, elders proverbs told to their young
No matter their persuasion it is a simple revelation
Whether from Moses’ table or Jesus’ sermon sung
In their differences they recognize the sameness in each other.

Twenty Days In The Sun

This is a love story of Tatyana and Onegin
It is not about love but of love
Love is forgiveness as no one is guilty
Love is atonement being at one with one
In this trinity love completes the soul.
Upon canvas of midnight tempest
Are brush strokes lashing ones soul
Lightning flashes shadows thru mist
Longing for morn, night black as coal
Mighty oak's canopy of shade put to test

Whisper of tenderness a woman's breath
Love borne on the innocence of early dawn
Eyes portal to her soul tests love of her bequeathed
Extended her love in the storm her shelter drawn
Hope for the mighty oak against nature's test

What fate sought to separate loves flame?
God's will bestowed on two souls entwined
They venture through Onegin’s gate
They navigate by intuition an order divine
Tatyana's reach transcends natures test

Twenty days did Onegin feel her charm
Basking with energy the warmth of morning's sun
Upon Taty's rising sun the tempest disarmed
Twas not to her arms did Onegin run
But a level beyond earth under heaven's sun

Yet Pushkin's curse contrives a poets serenity
Twenty days time his limit under heaven's sun
Taty's yoga carries Onegin's opus into eternity
Not into each others arms did they run
Incomplete their mission in God still remain

Loving life, they live on to let it be
In life their lives remain separate
A mystery of intertwined souls
Must journey through time where eternity waits
And so it is what is to be human

This is a love story of Tatyana and Onegin
It is not about love but of love
Love is forgiveness as no one is guilty
Love is atonement being at one with one
In this trinity Love completes the soul