Genius

If you ever find an egghead
With a double yoke,
A genius, who perchance
A Hamlet wrote,
Some Einstein, Mozart, Milton
Or another special bloke,
Give him fame's unique cloak,
The human race will gain
And you, the finder,
Never will go broke...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Mimi's Failed Affair

't was love at first sight,
after much wooing,
they spent a night,
but she lost all her fancy,
the affair was too chancy,
for by dawn's early light
he failed to delight...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Muenchner Hofbrau House

Hitler's ghost still haunts
These somber halls,
The brass band playing
The marching songs,
Old white-haired men
Dream of past glory yet,
Remembering their Fuehrer
In his shining day,
And they, in black uniforms,
Sun gleaming on their bayonets,
The rulers of the world
In a thousand year Reich,
Shattered in five years
With fifty million dead,
They drown their sorrows
In their Steins,
Defeated, broken men,
In drunken stupor,
They talk of all
That might have been,
And I, a Jew, survivor
Of the Holocaust,
Proud member
Of an ancient tribe,
Who outlasted them all,
Would only pity
These broken men,
Were it not for the six million
Of my brethren killed by them,
And silently I praise my God
Who cursed their fate...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

I long for...

I long for joys I never knew
And strange desires fill my heart,
The opportunities I've missed,
The girls I liked and never kissed,
I long for what I could have been,
Exotic places I have never seen,
The happy life I could have led,
Experiences I never had,
Potentials which were not fulfilled,
The hopeful dreams so early killed,
Warm feelings turning cold and chilled,
And still I yearn - the sparks of hope persist
Till my last breath as long as I exist...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Plea on Rape Charges

Insanity is my defense,
I saw the girl and lost my pants,
My passions simply went berserk,
In one quick, momentary quirk,
Your Honor, I just lost my mind,
My sense of reason just went blind,
I promise you to make amends,
I'll put a lock on all my pants.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Stardust

What miracles we humans are,
A bit of flesh, a bit of bone,
Frail, vulnerable, all alone,
A fleeting life - and we are gone,
Death turns us then to bits of stone,
Yet, of eternal stardust we are made,
Our dreams spanning the universe,
The music of the spheres - our verse,
Moving through time and space,
Our memories part of God's grace,
Recalling the sublime - the human race...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Washington 2006

They buy and keep their public posts,
Their golden sinecures,
With stolen public money,
Give readily false promises
With tongues as sweet as honey,
Create a lifestyle
For themselves - quite sunny,
Take bribes from lobbyists,
Those instruments
Of corporate seduction,
And turn their public trust
Into a hotbed of corruption.
Ah yes, looking at Washington,
One can plainly see
What utter fools these voters be...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Washington Holocaust Museum, 3/14/98

The old nightmare revisited,
Hobnailed boots, gleaming bayonets,
The Aryan race in its full glory,
Ethnic cleansing by genocide,
Mass murder in concentration camps,
Gas chambers, ovens burning, burning,
Human flesh turning into smoke and ashes,
Memories of stark fear and terror,
Millions of Jews, Gipsies, foreign
And disabled men, women and children
Murdered in camps while German children
Hand flowers to the Fuehrer,
With martial music playing, mobs screaming,
Hysterical, hypnotized masses in a frenzy,
German supermen destined to rule the world
In a thousand year Third Reich,
Only to be burned in their cities later
Or die by the millions in Stalingrad
And all over the continent of Europe
For the mad ideology of their insane Fuehrer,
Human folly at its very worst,
And people walking through the Museum
Seem stunned by man's inhumanity to man,
With one woman saying: "This can't be true",
"It was, it was", I said to her, "I was there",
"But where was God?", she asked me,
"What God, what God?", I answered,
For my faith died in Auschwitz...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Is Nature Prejudiced?

There once was a raven,
Black as coal,
With his flock did he fly
'cross the free blue sky,
Some scientist painted him
With a gleaming white dye,
His brothers attacked him
And the poor soul had to die,
For in this cruel nature's game,
They'll kill you,
If you're not the same...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Politics 2006

With toothy grin and jovial smile,
Back slapping, shaking hands,
The golden boy subdues in style
To further political ends.
The ladies he charms
With an actor's smile,
Filthy babies he kisses
With magnificent guile,
A very efficient imitator,
But as one can sadly testify,
A thouroughly rotten administrator.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Commerce versus Art

Pray, let this twisted soul
Reach a haven of content
And not fall victim
To the commonplace intent,
Assert his genius and ability
To rise above the quagmire
Of bourgeois upward mobility,
Promote his talents not to the
Predatory gain of the material
But to the eternal values
Of the idealistic ethereal...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Vote Democratic

The incompetency
Of the powers to be
Severely affects
You and me
Through spiritual and
Economic bankruptcy.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Asian

Always smile,
Politely bow,
Just say yes,
Never no,
Though in fact
It is not so,
Ever joyful
The outer shell,
The inner self
Maybe in hell.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

One Night Stand

The rapture of the night
Encloses us and makes us one,
Brings us the zenith of delight,
But when dawn breaks
Into the day's bright light,
We wake up with a start,
Reality returns to us,
We nod politely
And we part.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Casanova

He was the Casanova
Of Beverly Hills,
To all young maidens
The ultimate thrill,
When he was erected,
They felt delightfully
Connected,
But now he is old,
Broken down
And neglected,
Only in his dreams
He feels resurrected.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Seduction

The lives we build
Are our own production,
Never blame someone else
For your seduction...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Cancer

God, grant me some respite
From the excrutiating pain
Torturing me day and night,
No hope, for at the tunnel's
End I see no light,
Pray, let the eternal sleep of
Death mercifully end my plight...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

To my Soldier

You were my love,
my star, my moon,
my shining sun,
my world is but
an empty shell
since you are gone,
you were the very best
in life I've ever known,
and now I'm left
to weep alone
for my brave soldier
resting 'neath cold stone...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Grandfather's Heritage

When I enter my darkness
Of eternal night,
I'll leave behind
A flickering light,
My little ones,
Bounced on my knee,
Told them old tales
Of life's sweet mystery,
They'll be my heritage,
A part of me,
Where I'll live on
In memory,
Long after
I've ceased to be...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Seek...

...but as the present fades
with the passing of time,
reflections increase
as remaining years decline,
while wondering about
the origins of the sublime,
how one can purposes define,
seeking some source
of the divine...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Republican Gold

With a White House resident,
Who is a totally incompetent,
There soon will come the time
of:
Brother, can you spare a dime.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Auschwitz

So cold and gloomy lies the camp,
The steel of its ovens,
The cement of its death chambers
Tell us so many bitter-sad stories,
Nearby, there are the fields
And my eye wanders
Over the bright flowers
As if nothing had happened,
But one cannot forget,
The wind rustles in the trees
With a thousand voices,
Voices which call us
From the quiet present
Into a horrible past.
They say: "Please remember us,
Hear our lament,
Do not forget us,
Women, men, children,
The dead from Auschwitz."

The sun, so warmly it shines,
So fragrantly bloom the flowers,
But the wind, the wind
Touches my very soul
Like an icy hand.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

The Trick

To imagine the life
You want is the trick,
Proceed to live it,
Use all your phantasy,
And on the morrow,
It can be your reality...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Holocaust Memories

Those memories do haunt me yet,
The camp, the gas, the ovens,
Six million dead,
And often I wake in my bed,
After a nightmare, in cold sweat,
Recalling how I barely got away,
Lucky to keep death at bay,
Sad for all who had to stay.

For the rest of my life,
Wherever I'd be,
The trauma of our agony
Will always haunt my memory...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Proposal and Advice

'I love your beauty, charm and flair,
Only for you I truly care,
You're the dream of my desire,
You set my heart and soul afire,
You are my sun, my stars, my moon,
Come, be my love - we'll marry soon.'

'Daughter, I know this chap well,
He's a messenger from hell,
Don't buy his spiel,
You'll get a raw deal,
Know what he'll do?
Love you and leave you.
In sophistry he's a master,
Listen to him,
You're courting disaster.'

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Death in Iraq

My broken heart
Lies in the desert of Iraq,
My one and only son,
He's gone,
There are no tears left
In my eyes to shed,
The child I loved more
Than my life is dead,
Fallen for callous men
Who never toil,
But make their profits
On the oil.

Each day I pray
To my dear God above:
Punish those men!
They killed my love.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Our Indians

On poor and arid lands,
Confined to reservations,
They lived in poverty
And degradation,
The once proud Indian Nation,
Till oil wells and casinos
Brought them great wealth
Beyond their wildest expectations.
There is an irony in here somewhere,
To mention it, would not be fair...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Fat

Call me this
And call me that,
But do not ever
Call me fat,
Pleasantly plump
Or nicely round
Has a little better sound.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Agnostic?

To believe in gods
Of our own creation,
While narrowly defining
Religious obligation,
May ease a simple soul,
But for a good mind,
It can't be a goal,
Yet, do not insist
On being an atheist,
For god forbid
There is some sort of god,
Quite sad may be your lot,
Since it's not proven
That there is not,
For this great universe
Seems shaped to be
By powers far beyond
Our poor philosophy...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Jesus and Marx

If Jesus and Marx
Could rise and see
What men have done
To their philosophy,
They'd say despairingly:
How could this be?

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Hebrews

I belong to that ancient Hebrew race,
Wanderers from place to place,
Left the Sumerians five thousand years ago,
Always strangers wherever we go,
Though we number only thirteen million
In a world of more than six billion,
We contributed in great measure
To our world's rich treasure:
From the Bible to Abraham, Moses,
King David, Salomon, Jesus, Joseph,
Mary, The Twelve Disciples, Maimonides,
Spinoza, Heine, Marx, Freud, Einstein,
To Mahler, Gershwin, Berlin, Bernstein,
Salk, Oppenheimer, Teller and on and on,
Are the famous names of my people known,
And yet, our hosts hunted and persecuted us all,
Especially, when six million
In the Holocaust took the fall,
And often I ask myself - why would this be,
Why should we suffer such misery,
For Christians, Moslems, Arabs
Are our offspring and kin,
Without our heritage,
Where would they have been?

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Incompetence

A surgeon with questionable ability
Practiced his craft in a shabby facility,
Made a big splash cutting people for cash,
If he messed up, made the wrong decision,
He never, ever lost out,
The funeral parlor gave him commission.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Frankly, Nobody Cares...

The aging parent
Stares at the wall,
Quite lonely in his house,
His children never call,
Gone is his spouse,
His eyes are weak,
He cannot drive his car,
And with his walker,
He just can't travel far,
His small Social Security
Won't pay his bills,
And thinking of the future?
He gets the chills,
But how about
Good old Uncle Sam?
He does not care,
He's busy in Iraq, Iran,
And for the poor?
Frankly, Republicans
Don't give a damn.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Behind the Pantomime

Politicos spout platitudes,
Robbing the public,
Yet pretending
Compassionate attitudes;
The rich live well,
Pay much less tax,
Export the jobs,
While the middle class?
They get the ax.
Religion is another
Profitable line
With preachers
Praising the divine,
Living the good life,
While societies decline.
Ah yes, there is much crime
Behind benevolent pantomime.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

A Grand Dame

She was a grand dame
Who lived in style,
She married rich men
Who were worth her while,
She left with their money,
They remained with their bile.

Now she is
The richest matron
In the Palms,
Her former husbands?
They subsist on alms.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Confidentially

Beneath the palm trees
In some southern paradise I lie,
While on some far off shores
In sandy deserts thousands die,
And the survivors ask me, why?
I tell them as the leader of this land,
Honor bound, I never, ever lie:
'You must defend your holy soil',
But, confidentially, my family
Makes money on the oil.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Betty

A stunning beauty - she was,
Richly endowed
With grace, charm and class,
She gave me a sunny life,
Guided me through
Struggle and strife,
And more than the above,
She taught me
The nature of love,
Sweet memories of her
Will always stay with me
Till I will cease to be...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Darwinian Law

It's not the province
Of the weak and meek
To forge ahead
And thus this world's
Spoils to reap,
For it's incumbent
Under nature's reign
That predators will always
The advantage gain,
From justice than
We must abstain
When sharks the lives
Of little fishes claim,
For under Darwinian law
Morality is preached in vain.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Beta Gamma Sigma

National Honor Society for MBA
and BBA students and alumni

Beta Gamma Sigma
Selects the brightest and the best
To be a beacon for the rest,
For scholarship and dedication
And leadership in business
Or administration.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Think of me...

When on some morrow
The bell may toll for me,
And all my hopes and dreams,
My world, my self will cease to be,
Pray, friends and loved ones
Sometimes think of me,
So part of what I once was
Can still inhabit this sweet world
And be with thee...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Life and Love are...

Come, grant me a moment of despair,
For life and love are never fair,
The good man marries a shrew
As most of them are apt to do,
The rotten Lothario
Captures a lustrous pearl,
Brings misery to this poor girl,
The Don Quixote
Is deemed quite funny,
While the crooked politician
Makes all the money,
For life and love are never fair,
If there be gods,
They just don't care,
Or better yet,
They were never there...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Considerations

Throughout the struggles of life,
Competitive survival
On the edge of the knife,
The phony sophistry,
False comradery,
The slogan for god
And country sacrifice,
The ruling elite
Corrupt with vice,
With everyone on the take
And the whole system
A gigantic fake,
Put all your inhibitions
On the shelf,
Be only true to your own self.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Theater of Life

All of us are actors
On life's stage,
The curtain rises,
We smile, cajole, assuage,
Though deep within,
Our hearts may break,
Till that final curtain falls,
When our eulogy may be:
'He always smiled,
A happy chap was he.'

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

An OLd Flame

An old song
Drifting along from nowhere,
Reminding me of a night long ago,
Jasmine blooming in the park,
Bits of music drifting across the lake,
Dreams, longings, whispered words,
First love, hope, plans
And the whole world - all ours,
Stars, soul - all aglow,
Nothing ever like this,
Blush of youth, passion
And desire on her face,
A night of a million promises,
Long ago, long ago...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

The Wheel of Fortune

The wheel of fortune
Turns within the hub of time,
The rich man of today
Will on the morrow
Ask you for a dime,
The collier's son
May one day fortunes own,
The misfit, half-wit palace resident,
Promoted by his royal father,
Could some day be selected
Lower Slobovia's President.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Dust...

The fleeting days
Pass into an endless chain,
The brevity of life
Becomes obscured
By passing fancies
Which seem in retrospect
Irrelevant,
And in the end,
The whole 'adventure'
Is but an excercise
In pure futility,
A dust to dust
Arrangement
Devised by gods
Bored with infinity...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

I Feel...

I feel a weariness
Creep into the very marrow
Of my bones,
I'm tired of the dance,
The little game of show,
Pretense and nothingness,
And purposes escape me,
Like flighty birds
I once did know and loved
- too well, too well...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

To Pat

My friend and teacher is gone,
A life which has inspired me
Now turned to dust beneath a stone,
A Renaissance man with a brilliant mind,
A Greek-Latin scholar you seldom find,
His passing has diminished us all,
He'll always be remembered
As a rare man - walking tall...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Seduction

In your dark and dreamy eyes,
Windows of your soul,
I see passion burning hot,
Hot as burning coal,
Come, give in
To flames of desire
Ere our feelings all expire,
Let's not make a production
Of some mutual seduction,
For a night of love's sweet pleasure
Will in life's quality measure
Always be the greatest treasure.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

The Political Game

Please, let me play the political game,
I'll pay for the ads to get a name,
With enough cash, I'll be selected,
Fix voting machines, quite undetected,
Pay off the Court to be elected,
Use special media for public's seduction,
Try to make billions on all-out corruption,
Use preachers to pontificate
On 'values and sacred soil',
While I and my buddies prosper on oil,
Keep a war economy well fed,
With just a few thousand Americans dead,
And if I constantly repeat the same lie,
They'll believe - won't even ask why;
And my rich friends will be richer,
And the masses will be poorer,
All done by me - the master obscurer,
And in the end, I really don't care,
For I'll be a multi-billionaire,
With my family in the power elite,
My descendants never ever in need,
My misdeeds - quite rotten,
Soon forgotten.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

That Single Night

't is on nights like these,
I think of you, my love,
when moonbeams
pierce the balmy sky,
reflecting silvery upon the waves,
faint tango from the beach nearby,
remembering that single night
I held you in my arms,
your lips, your eyes,
your sweetness and your charms,
all in the past - so long ago,
yet, till I close my eyes,
it was the best in life
I ever were to know...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Dichotomy of Man

The nature nurture syndrome
Shapes man from his conception,
Makes him respond to his environment
With his particular selective perception,
And yet, within the smithy of his soul
Resides within a hidden place
The collective consciousness
Of the entire human racc
With all their charms, faults,
Intelligence and grace.
Man - a mixture of the collective
And the subjective.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Heroinville 2006

He twisted and turned,
Because he could not face
The horrid realiy of his life,
And then he met the Great Goddess
Of The White Powder
And she made him her slave,
Giving him unimaginable delights
Or unbearable agonies
Of body and soul
According to her whims,
And in her service
He turned into a tiger
Re-making his world into a jungle
Where death and torture reign,
And when I found him,
I looked into the innermost
Recesses of his soul
Where he dared not look,
And it was there I touched him
With the magic wand of compassion
In the corner where every man
Hides his love,
And when I stretched out my hand
To lift him out of his despair,
He saw a chance
To end his travails
In this sunny place
Where darkness ends
And hope glimmers.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Old Review of King Lear 1968

If on an afternoon
Of some quite ordinary day,
Perchance, you look for transport
Into another world,
So filled with beauty, passion
And magnificent decay,
Then at the Vivian Beaumont
See the art of the inimitable Bard.
King Lear, the tragic hero
Of an other day,
Finely and sensitively portrayed
By Lee J. Cobb who keeps
The audience in his sway,
Assisted by an excellent
Supporting cast;
For a more elevating presentation
One could not ask.
The moving spirit of this tragedy,
The problems of the old and young,
The love between a parent and his child,
It is a story timeless, powerful and strong,
In it I sensed that spark - divine,
And on this gross earth
Of standard commonality
One memorable afternoon
I touched a world - sublime...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Lisa's Story

Came to America,
A Holocaust refugee,
Young Auschwitz survivor
Married me,
As time went by,
Three boys there'd be,
Two had success in life,
A lawyer and a doctor,
The third, a little slower,
A cab he'd drive,
My husband, Hans,
He passed away,
And now I'm all alone,
Lonely, old and gray,
And often do reflect,
I suffer from neglect,
The lawyer and the doctor
Never call at all,
My cabby calls me
Twice a year,
In spring and in the fall.
Ah yes, a mother
Can take care of three,
But all my sons
Cannot look after me.

Alred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

They also serve

They also serve
Who stand and wait,
But for the good life
They're too late...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Oral Diarrhea

Your oral diarrhea,
Senseless verbosity,
Constant redundancy
Seem a foolish way to be.
Had you been silent,
You may have seemed
Like a philosopher to me.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Consistency

Consistency is the hallmark
Of the ordinary mind,
Thus, we in Washington
No out of the box
Imagination find;
Certainly, a warning bell,
They fiddle
While the country
Goes to hell.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Switzerland - Lake Lugano 2005

Dreaming 'neath the cypress trees,
Fragrant flowers, balmy breeze,
Sparkling lake,
The Swiss at peace,
While in places near and far
Rages turmoil, starvation, war,
Yet, this turbulent outside world
Bursts with inventions and ideas,
While the Swiss?
Make cuckoo clocks and cheese.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Speculation

They say, the soul evaporates,
Body turning into mere dust,
As all poor mortals
After a lifetime must,
And yet, and yet
Immortal atoms
Do go on forever,
Just turning, spinning,
Stopping almost never,
With memory functions
Deep within,
As science speculates
Soon will be
In computers seen,
Though memories
Within an orb so small
Seem quite perverse,
But think of this:
A single atom started
This great universe.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

To a Beauty Queen

Amongst the qualities
Which add to life the style,
A sense for beauty
Seems to me the most worthwhile,
And nowhere can aesthetic
Qualities be better seen
Than in selecting of a gal
To be a beauty queen,
And for the night we gladly
Cast aside all daily duties,
To feast our eyes upon The Palms
Enticingly-stemmed beauties.
It's times like these which set
Male instincts all afire,
And lend us for another year
An added measure of desire.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz

Pitfalls of Procreation

Ah, the vicissitudes of life,
The constant struggle
And the constant strife,
The parent straining
For the child who's dull
To put a brilliant mind
Into his average skull,
For soon they'll be classified,
In school will stay
The one who's bright,
To Iraq is the other sent,
To spend hot nights
Inside a tent,
It's not for me to state
That this is wrong or right,
But to the parents I'd relate:
Be careful when you procreate
To better make your product bright.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2006 Alfred Charasz