Loose Paper

From "Pump Up the Volume"

    "What exactly is a troublemaker?" he asks.
    "Someone who is not interested in education." she replies.
    "That includes every teenager I know." he says.
    "Nothing is more important than a good education." she says.
    "Except the basic right to it." he says.
    "The point is, I have the highest SAT scores in the state." she says.
    "Yeah, but how?" he asks.
    "I stand by my record."


Quiet Solipsism

I sometimes feel guilty about writing,
thinking I should fix wrong by righting.

Drawing is neither right or wrong.
Drawing is neither write or wrong.

Without words there is no context
because there is no text.

One's thoughts are their own.
They are thoughts about what one is seeing.
They are thoughts about what one is not seeing.
The only opinion is their own.

Opinion requires no knowledge of familiar characters.
No matter what one's opinion may be,
they can still form that opinion.

They do not have to consider text.
They do not have to consider context.
Or subtext.

They can consider this because of writing
or they may consider this because of righting.
They can, even if they are wrong.
Or they can form their opinion and never ask why.


Context

a line of dialogue
a wall of monologue
an inexplicable photograph
both beautiful and terrific
a doorstop of a book
that transcends its role
as doorstop due to its understanding
and appreciation of a very old
but ever changing code
an image that transcends all code
a market of symbols of humanity
which can be seen heard smelt felt tasted
and possibly most important, remembered
an unexpected encounter in a strange place
how wonderful


Exercise

Four words a line.
Why not try it?
It can't be hard.
Is "can't" not cheating?
Is using punctuation cheating?
What about writing questions?
Questions without explained answers?
This line not question.
Me write like caveman.
These rules mean nothing.
They don't sound good.
What is the point?
Why limit one's expression?
More and more questions.
Things always get complicated.
Thank god for conjunctions.
The English language forgives.
Eventually, it always forgives.
It is only ideas.
Language is only ideas
no matter how corrosive.
Inevitably, it gets corrosive.
It can be bad.
Only a bad idea.
Ideas cannot actually harm.
Terrible people with words.
One can't blame words.
Just remember that line.
It's pearls before swine.
I have finally rhymed.
I will not deny.
Words intrigue me sometimes.
I must exorcise bullshit.
It makes me lyrical.
Rules cause me trouble.
I wish they didn't.
These aren't real rules.
Why choose four words?
All these questions again.
Rules make one sane.
Something to dwell on.
Excuses for active minds.
Powerless, yet active minds.
An exercise of words.
An exorcise of words.
I like this line
what a circle jerk.
Concentrate on relevant things.
Keep thinking, you will.
You will understand someday.
Hopefully you will, someday.
Why four word lines?
I don't know why.
I asked why not.
Four words or not.


Esoteric Journey to the Center of Random Points, Abridged

I.
Why does the brown guy always die first?
Refer to the Boston Massacre.

Technology is leading us back to simpler times
in a complex and dizzying way.

II.
Why does the brown guy always die first?
Refer to the New York Draft Riots.

Technology is leading us back
to a feudal system that lacks hard labor.

III.
Why does the brown guy always die first?
Refer to Jim Crow laws.

Technology allows close-minded cads the ability
 to better spread their idiotic point of view
 on a far broader (but equally idiotic) spectrum.

IV.
Why does the brown guy always die first?
Because, no matter how we are defined as human beings,
many of us are still woefully prejudice
due to our limited exposure to reality.

Technology keeps us safe of consequences
from those who have no power,
and threatens us with those who have too much power.

V.
Why does the brown guy always die first?
Because he prefers different things
and when confident, knows how to get exactly what he wants,
but his skin isn't light and easily damaged by natural forces.

Technology makes us capable of things
we have never been capable of doing,
but it does not make us smarter.

VI.
Why does the black guy always die first?
Because we are mostly dumb or selfish
and that is a bummer.

Technology makes us more able,
but no less dumb or selfish
and that is a bummer.

VII.
Learn to transcend.


Poem

I once knew a girl who wished she was dead.
I tried with noble reason to try and fix her head.
Soon I understood how similar we were,
The things that tortured her are what I try and turn to art.

I once knew a girl who thought world was hard,
I wished to ease her pain and introduce her to my bed.
In evening, when I slept, she explored all of my art.
All she felt for me was soon denoted dead.

Time?
3:43 a.m.
Call it.

Art can annoy one the way a wife can.
A wife, annoyed, her husband does not see her artisan.
Tragedy, when each cannot recognize their skills.
Tragedy, when each will not swallow other pills.

I am glad to get this out of the way.


We

How silly we are pretending
we can't see something great.
We wonder wonder wonder
while we clearly see our fate.

We tumble to and fro,
armored with our doubt.
Attack when we are cornered,
lash out with our clout.

We are strong, but we feel weak,
weak of what we know.
Weak of rigid structures,
boxes hinder how we grow.

We're growing just the same, though
stuck within some gap.
We keep growing growing growing
learning to adapt.

We are nature in a country that secretly hates us.
We are nature in a country that openly hates us.

We have a feeling of learning to weave,
weave through structure with chaos.
We have a feeling of learning to weave,
weave through chaos with structure.

We maybe growing where we never thought we'd grow.
We maybe growing where we never thought we'd know,

We may take root with such strength
no moving monolith will ever take.
We may take flight never to be seen again,
unless, of course, we are for one reason or another.

We may begin to believe in the home,
the world, the meaning, the physical reality.
We may also question the existence
of physical reality.

We may gravitate towards things we love
in order to justify the ignorance we feel
in seeing things we do not understand,
yet still know exist.

We may try some things we've seen
only on video or computer screens.
We may laugh at things we've seen
only on video or computer screens.

We may immerse ourselves in work,
anykindofworkanykindofworkanykindofwork
and we'll do it to the best of our ability,
but sometimes we will fail.

We are bound by our influences.
We must find what we love about them
and fix the mistakes,
even if it is a mistake.

If we ignore them, when we know they exist
we maybe destroyed.
Believe it or not, we do not want to be destroyed.
Certain buttons may have not been pushed yet.

We are.
We are, whether or not.
We have no control of it now.
No one seems to.

Aaron C. Molden