THE YEAR THAT LOOMS AHEAD
December 26, 2024
Imagine for a moment
you could go back a century or more
before the war to end all wars
had shattered so many illusions in its wake.
Or just as easily, two centuries ago,
the Romantics in full flight,
the dawn of an industrial age
with promises yet to be redeemed.
And why stop there,
Edo in the Shogun’s days,
Florence in its prime,
and you a chameleon on the wall
as the spectacle unfolds?
Ah yes, to dream away
the year we leave behind
the better to avoid imagining
the one that looms ahead.
ARCANA IMPERII
Democracy is like a tram. You ride it until you arrive at your destination, then you get off.
— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
January 7, 2025
Straight from the horse’s mouth,
the secret so many aspiring autocrats
hold close to their chest
as they prepare their ascent.
Once they’ve reached the top,
as we’ve learned time and time again,
the props that might impede their path
are swiftly swept aside,
the media muzzled, judiciary shamelessly controlled,
opponents bullied, locked up,
or otherwise dispatched,
as megalomania becomes the order of the day.
A fatal flaw, all said and done,
in how the democratic game is played,
in human nature as well,
which helps explain
the painstaking hurdles to be overcome
for the pendulum to swing back the other way.
FIRESTORM
January 11
In L.A., nature doesn’t seem to care
whether the communities going up in smoke
house the rich or house the poor.
Like death, the great equalizer,
there is no escape
when the rains hold off for countless months,
the foliage in the ridges
is bone dry,
as the glare from across the hills
grows near.
Nor should we
watching this apocalypse from afar
engage in schadenfreude,
knowing all too well
this is no Hollywood movie with special effects
and deafening soundtrack
to rattle the nerves,
but something that many elsewhere
have also endured
from the boreal North that we call home
to the Mediterranean in the summer heat
to the Austral bush year after year.
There seems to be a message here,
but it’s not one the climate change deniers
want to hear.
AUSCHWITZ @ 80
January 27
You too once journeyed to Auschwitz,
though it was on an empty, well-aired train
from Cracow which you had been visiting
in relative comfort.
You also passed beneath
the wrought iron sign
speaking of Labour making us Free,
saw the bunkers, the room labelled Canada
with heaps of shoes and clothing
taken from the incoming victims,
the chimneys of Birkenau nearby.
You remembered those on your mother’s side
who had perished in the genocide,
recalled the testaments of Primo Levi, Nelly Sachs,
and less celebrated ones as well.
You wondered then and wonder now
what we may have learned,
knowing full well
massacres on a mega-scale still occur,
hatred seeps through the veins
of all too many on this earth,
even in the so-called Holy Land,
and we can only bow our heads in shame.
IF THE ANCIENTS
February 13
If the ancients, viewing our predicament,
could remind us what they had learned
what might they have to say?
That power in a single set of hands,
can quickly yield to hubris, madness,
and woeful tyranny?
That empires that once held
half the known world in their sway
soon enough crumbled into dust?
That wars, plagues, and famines
never seem to go away,
despite the better times that come along?
That for all the wondrous breakthroughs
our species may achieve
our underlying nature never seems to change?
That even the gods
to whom we mortals pray
prove no more lasting than you and me?
Then, not wanting to leave us in complete despair,
they’d wish us better luck
as they shuffled back across the Acheron.
A GAME OF THRONES
February 22
It’s like having front seats
at a horror film,
adrenaline spiking into overdrive
at every twist and turn,
villainy, skullduggery
making the blood run cold.
Or like finding ourselves aboard the Pequod
with mad Ahab
on his vengeance trip
tracking the white whale,
though ship and crew, as we know full well,
will sink deep into the sea.
Or like frequenting Bayreuth
as the Ring Cycle begins,
operatic drama with its highs and lows
dragging on interminably,
until Valhalla itself
comes crashing to the ground.
A game of thrones in very real time
the world could do without,
and little prospect, sad to note,
of simply tuning out.
NORTH AMERICANS OF A DIFFERENT SORT
March 2
Perhaps it is a virtue to be less flashy,
somewhat self-effacing,
though not unadventurous or uncreative,
but thankfully not always in your face.
It seems to have helped keep
this sprawling country of ours together,
despite the speed bumps,
while our neighbours
have torn themselves apart with frenzy
on more than one occasion.
We’re seeing it again
as the ogre’s minions and enforcers
take an axe to some of the reputable things
the republic to our south has undertaken,
academic research, climate initiatives,
aid to some of the world’s most impoverished,
transforming their shining city on a hill
into a despot’s palace.
If we can continue to successfully chart our own course,
despite the madness taking hold next door,
it may just be because of who we are –
North Americans of a different sort.
WHEN THE EMPEROR DECREES
March 11
When the Emperor decrees,
the Senate, Consuls, Tribunes fall into line
and through far reaches of the empire
Prefects ensure his edicts are obeyed.
When the Emperor is enraged,
the object of his ire can choose
the legendary poison fix
or exile to some distant shore.
When the Emperor decides to play,
his courtiers compete to prod him on,
boast of his prowess on mount and between the sheets,
his robust table manners and boisterous good cheer.
And on the sad day our Emperor passes on
we’ll mourn in unison of course,
bathing our cheeks in copious tears
recalling the grandeur he will have bequeathed.
WHEN THE EMPEROR SPEAKS OF PEACE
March 12
When the Emperor speaks of peace,
the images that come to mind
are of Carthage destroyed
in the Third Punic War,
of Corinth levelled to the ground,
or Jerusalem’s smouldering ruins.
So next time you hear him speak
of wars that he will end,
beware what the terms will be,
and remember what may be in store
for those misfortunate enough
to lie in his legions’ path.
ZEITENWENDE*
March 17
Once our generation sang
how times they were a-changin’,
the battle outside ragin’,
the old road rapidly agin’.
Now that we have reached old age
they’re a-changin’ once again,
though not quite in the way
we had intended.
A rule-based world order
is a-fallin’ into tatters
as great powers compete
in treatin’ sovereign states like ours
as dominoes in an imperial game.
Those amongst us who would resist
this turn to might makes right
find ourselves with little choice
but bucklin’ up to pay the price
of keepin’ the predators at bay.
*Zeitenwende – turning point
THE SANCTUARY
April 4
In early modern times,
Holland was the European roost
to which savants
aspiring to breathe free might flock,
fleeing absolutist monarchs and civil wars
in their wake.
In later centuries,
America became the beacon for many more,
seeking to escape the conflicts,
deprivation and tyranny
encrusted in their native soil.
And suddenly our quiet corner
of this massive continent
becomes an island of sanity and retreat
as a toxic web entangles
the land once claiming to be
the paean of liberty.
DODGING A BULLET
April 29
The gun is loaded
aimed straight at our hearts
by an overweening braggart
out to do us in,
but despite party differences
and a closely fought election,
we now need to pull together
to dodge the bullet.
There’s a major slog ahead
before we can begin to disengage
from our neighbour’s iron grip,
but a rekindled sense of purpose,
of a shared country
with its plural identities, vast resources,
and core underlying values,
will be key to help us navigate the storm.
