What?

Cherry

By Mangone

Sat, 08 Oct 2011
  • 1498 reads
8 comments
 

What language did the flower speak as it passed on Buddha’s light?
What language do new lovers speak with fiery kisses in the night?
What language does our planet speak as it warns that all’s not well?
What language does the Devil speak as he beckons us to Hell?

Words are pale writ messengers from the blinkered to the blind.
A faint hope that understanding might pass from mind to mind.
Yet even when the recipient says “Ah. Yes, I understand.”
How can we know their mind has reached the conclusion that we planned?

To communicate by semaphore, for most of us would be a bore.
Yet, Semiosis, signing metaphor, is why ballet dancers take the floor.
So language is much more than words, listen to the songs of birds.
They’ve been here a longer time and have no need for pantomime.

So, while we argue day and night
about what’s best, what’s good, what’s right.
It’s just a game, a fading light,
for we can’t agree on what is bright.
Save the planet, save the whale?
Save more money, have a sale?
Feed the starving, build better bombs?
Find single fathers for single moms?

What good is language if we have no heart
As we head for Hell with our shopping cart?
Clever voices shouting ‘Come this way’
'Follow us and you will never pay!'
Yet they will be silent on Judgement day
At last then God will have His say!

Certificate U
Poem
Tales Of The Rainbow Dragon
Humour

Comments

Submitted by Silver Spun Sand on
Stirring stuff, this , Mangone. I particularly like the change of pace throughout. It serves well as a tool to drive the poem's ultimate message home. Tina

 

Submitted by Mangone on
Thanks Tina!

Submitted by Highhat on
I liked this very much Mangone, especially the message of different languages- the bird's song etc. ;)Pia This must be for the IP?

Submitted by oldpesky on
Nice one Mangone. You are a master of rhyme as well as all that science stuff that goes right over my head.

Submitted by Mangone on
Thanks Pesky! It deteriorates into a mediocre rant but maybe that is part of its charm :O)

Submitted by Mangone on
Thanks Pia! It might sound crazy (and probably is) but I sometimes wonder if the birds sing their wishes for the day and without them the world would be dreary and the weather even more extreme than it is already. Certainly frogs sing (croak) for rain so maybe birds sing for sunshine, for blue skies and occasionally for rain (for the sake of the frogs :O)

Submitted by Highhat on
Well Mangone , birds sing in the morning as the sun rises so maybe they do sing for the sun etc The blackbird in Spring is so wonderful.Perhaps they do more magic than we can imagine! ;)Pia

Submitted by Mangone on
I just have a feeling that birds and animals have a bigger role in the life of the planet than we care to imagine, Pia. We are so full of our own self-importance and the belief that the Earth is ours to do with as we will that it never seems to occur to us that the different forms of life on the planet might all have their own significant roles to play. We seem to believe that the loss of biodiversity is simply a narrowing stock of things to be exploited and that so long as we can manage to keep a few examples alive in a frozen test tube or a dilapidated zoo then we have done our bit… Perhaps we can have avaitronic robots in metal trees with a variety of random bird songs alternating with the top twenty pop songs of the week. I heard from someone I was chatting to that where he lives they have been forced to pollinate by hand because all the bees have gone… If we can make drone missiles to take away lives can’t we manufacture drone bees to pollinate our food crops and flowers… well, come to think of it saving lives is a much lower priority than taking them!