Sestina view of Hawai'i
The Progress of Descent
Sestina to the World’s Greed
At a glance it is gold, but all things are meaningless
All desires are shallow, swallowed by the man behind you
Taken or stolen, covet or tricked, all things are but dust, as we are mist
Shines are lackluster as wealth rots, gain rots, desires will rot
We are evil to cause things to fade from beauty
This world was beautiful, but we dragged it down to the abyss
Dragged down, the beauty taken to the abyss
By my lust, my greed, my ambition, that I soon find meaningless
Fellowship, brotherhood, mirrors and smoke between me and you
My dreams, my shadows, darkness soon ensnare beauty
Let’s watch all things fade, watch as my dreams rot
To disappear, slowly as it is swallowed like a mist
All emotions, all desires, all are fickle as a mist
Doomed to be destined in the mouth of the abyss
It sucks in what was good, all that was beauty
We stare into the precious good and find it meaningless
I don’t need any help, yet let us tear virtue from you
And reminds us the memory of Cain, as Abel rots
Purity, in essence and soul we let rot
To justify desires, though proven meaningless
We sacrifice virtue to fade in the abyss
And watch justice fly like the mist
The ground of lust, of greed, of ambition is beauty
It shatters and coils beneath you
Not you, no the gain from you
Ransack glory, our body to rot
As Abel fades close to the arms of meaningless
Close to the desire of our master, The Abyss
He shows us the light, the dark and the mist
He shows are fickle failure, our ravishing of beauty
You know that you wanted beauty
I wanted it to; so I tried to steal it from you
But I found that beauty will soon rot
So I throw it to the air, with my virtue in the mist
My offering to Cain, my master the Abyss
And find that all things are meaningless
The Abyss that grows in me, in you
Shows the meaningless of our beauty
So watch it fade to the mist, let us watch it rot
Trust in mistakes
A Pantoum of Faith
The guilt of my past, how can I even stand
I can barely look you in the eye
the list of my crimes are an endless, ensnaring strand
My conscious weighs down ‘till I fall to die
Yet I try to look into your eye
To see the promise of endless grace
That my conscious takes back its vengeance to die
That I may find in you one taste
To see the promise of endless grace
Though still I find myself unworthy
To even speak of just one taste
How can I ask, with such a heart so dirty
Yet even with a life unworthy
A voice calls in gentle assurance
That though my heart is found so dirty
You call me over, to stand in confidence
As you call in gentle assurance
My heart attacks with referenced crime
Still you call for me to stand, with confidence
The promise of washing of my grime
My heart reminds me of my crime
But I will trust in your desire
To wash away all my grime
To be what you inspired
I will trust in you desire
To know the mercy freely gave
I will be what you inspired
As you lift me, yes you, from my sentenced grave
So this is Honolulu
Simply walking and the gust is not just a gust
It breathes, it whispers, it cleanses, it caresses
Everywhere you look, mountains and roads and seashore
A photograph, a simple shot, postcard are pinned up on every side
I’ve been to LA, NYC, DC
The jungle of concrete has no comparison to the jungles of green
Fresh breeze across a fresh scene
Mounds of riches, richness dotted by tears
Tears of joy, tears of lost
Tears that stream down an eternal face
Gathered to the open waters, a pathway blue to green
Or red, or brown, or blue, depending on the house you will visit
Yet they all share the same roof, plastered with comfort of pillows
We stare up to the clouds, the heavens, rinsed and painted by the timely hands of the gale
By since you are by the shore, we must race to Ka kaako
Before those timely hands pull the veil
And reveal the journey of Hokuleia
Journeying through a sea of stars
