The Forever Tree

Two thousand years ago,
In the first century,
Horst, the Viking,
Sailed the Roman Sea
Where he found the
Strange Isle of Mystery,
The place of the Forever Tree
Whose medicinal sap
Makes you live all eternity
And Horst partook
Of the sap of the tree.

Horst is still alive today,
Imprisoned in life,
Bored and sick
Of his earthly stay,
Cursing the Isle of Mystery
And the sap
Of the Forever Tree.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Failed Leadership

He spends our money in Iraq
Where our boys are dying
For some Arab flag,
Out-sources the work
Of our union labor force
Who thus lose all their
Needed income source,
While our middle classes
Go more and more downhill
And cannot pay their credit bill,
He does not care for our people's
Interests nor our precious soil,
Supports only special interests
And helps the profiteers in oil,
Shows a perpetual neglect
For the growing greenhouse effect
And with a foolish, willful hand
He ruins our beloved land...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Shame!

Two hundred homeless women
Reside at the Lennox Hill Armory,
Subsiding there in misery,
Most working for minimum wage
For some food service company.
In rich, corporate America,
Why should this be?

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Escapade

Love - it was never,
No great passion,
Nothing forever,
Just a bit of fun
On an island in the sun,
A fond recollection
Of a sweet connection
In a romantic collection...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Moses

When Moses left old Egypt Land,
He lost his way in the hinterland
And thus, he deserves little cheers
For being lost for forty years;
Through deserts to mislead
An other Moses we don't need.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

John J Cutup Season

Ah, this very latest bit
Is the John Jay Cutup bit,
Seems a ghost cut up his wife
And some spirit took her life,
Killed one Honky and one Jew,
John J. asks: "What else is new?"
Sits there with a poker face,
Claims he was some other place,
Evidence and all that rot
Are just one big racist plot,
The detectives planted it all
While poor John J. takes the fall,
And after all the noise and fury
There'll be just one big hung jury,
Yes, if old John J. gets his way
He'll live to kill an other day,
They say that once you justice find
You will see she is quite blind,
For the truth is harsh, objective,
While most juries are subjective,
If you have the power and the money
To buy lawyers with tongues of honey,
You can travel so much further,
Even get away with murder,
Yes, John J. is now very much in season
And the media love him for good reason,
John J. is their lucky money tree,
What great shows they get for free,
While his acts were vile and gory,
He'll go free and live in glory...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Cruises

Ah, the latest fashion news
Is the glitzy Southern cruise
To the sunny, poor people isle
Where the rich show off their style
Living glossy lives of luxury
While the natives watch with bile,
Starving there in misery.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Doctor Leon L.

A smooth-talking surgeon
Of doubtful renown,
Known as the butcher
Of hospital town,
A hazzard to patients
In his green gown,
Collected an exorbitant fee
For cutting the wrong knee,
Put some patients at risk
By removing the wrong disk,
One of those careless, young rakes
Who bury all their mistakes,
But then came that lucky day
When they took his license away.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Reverence for Life

Wars and conflicts
Have become the norm,
Even genocide
Creates no storm,
Killing and murders,
Often quite gory,
Are the daily news story,
People rarely weep
Because life is so cheap,
From the deaths in Iraq
To mistakes by a quack.
To murders of passion
Which now are the fashion,
And those horrid chillers
Of those new 'suicide killers'
Cause evil to become a banality
With old values its fatality.
Problem is:
The human bee hive
Lost its reverence for life...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Crucified

Don't curse the darkness
Of superstition
But cast a shining light
On this poor mortal, Jesus,
Who for his Judaism,
Love of mankind and decency
Was by the Romans crucified,
And in his name, millions in wars,
Camps and in the Inquisition died,
Were he to wake to his misguided fame,
He'd weep for all humanity
And hang his head for them in shame.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Heroin Addict's Story

The goddess of the white powder
Made me her slave,
Her unimaginable splendor
More and more I crave,
Made me bonded and addicted,
My body and soul conflicted,
She's my heaven and my hell
Since I for the white goddess fell,
I cannot live without her 'high',
If I withdraw from her,
I'd surely die...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Mister Appleswain - 1929

Once I was a millionaire,
Had it all
Without a care
And then, suddenly, in a flash
Came the 1929 crash,
Lost my business,
All my money,
Life turned dark
From being sunny,
Home, cars,
Even family, all gone,
Am now homeless,
Sleep on stone,
Broke and all alone,
It's a miserable time:
"Brother can you spare a dime?"

Note found on roof of
Bowery Building:

'Nothing below,
Nothing above,
Had enough,
So, I jump off.'

George Appleswain

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Jenny

She's quite a terrific chick,
In sexual affairs
She masters every trick
And her performance
Is a memorable bit,
She also works the sexy flick,
But if you want her as your honey,
You better shell out lots of money,
Dear, sweet, luscious Jenny,
Worth every single penny,
Always good company and nice
But her profession is strictly vice.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Hillbilly Style

Up in hillbilly land
There lives the moonshine band,
They cook and stew
Their alcohol brew
Like montain folks
Are apt to do,
Hoping that revenue agents
Don't have a clue,
In family feuds
They shoot each other
Once in a while,
That's the hillbilly style.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

A Child is an Arrow

A child is an arrow
Aimed at a target with a bow,
But once it's left the string,
It travels on - beyond control
Of the originator, who, hopefully,
Has aimed his arrow well,
Yet, subject to fate
And circumstances.
Its final destination?
No one can tell...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Agnostic...

Religion, the opium of society,
Its chauvinistic concepts
An offense to sobriety,
With virgin mothers, gods of wrath
Or other senseless piety,
With Allah, Jesus, Zeus, Jehovah
And some other strange variety,
I do believe them not,
Nature is far more intricate
And has a more sophisticated plot,
Neither an atheist nor believer I'd be,
- for god forbid -
There is a god for you and me.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

He Seems...

On the outside
He seems clever, fresh,
Well polished,
But his insides
Are totally demolished,
His body wasted
And heavily abused,
His brain empty
And unused.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Within the Smithy...

Within the smithy of my soul
Lies the collective
Consciousness of my race
With all its charm,
Intellect and grace,
And as man grows
To span the universe
Humanity reveals God's face...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Tomorrow

Do not regret the past,
For time moves on,
Nothing does ever last,
What's done is done
And chances lost
Are simply gone,
Always look at today
And think of tomorrow
For past regrets
Only bring sorrow.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Search

We search this universe
To find the revealing light
Which may illuminate the night
Of ignorance and blight,
Yet, we never seem to get it right,
For the facts appear to be
That the real nature of this world
Is far beyond our philosophy...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

His Romantic Past

He came to the conclusion,
After much confusion,
That romantic nostalgia
For times gone by is a delusion,
Since life was ever more restrained,
While in these modern times,
He freedom and comfort gained,
But were he to the past returned,
He'd wish with all his heart,
His bridges to 'the good old days'
Were never burned...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Fishes

I'd love to know
If fishes kiss
And how they cope
With marital bliss,
Out of water
They don't do it,
Under water
I can't see it,
But they keep on
Procreating,
So I guess
They must be mating.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Drowned Poet

Bless my hallowed halls of ivy
Where a new world I'd see
And a better man I'd be
With ideas to set me free,
Then, after I had run the course
They made a poet out of me.

He drowned in some old
Water hole one day,
Never found him,
- but his poetry -
His poetry is here to stay.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Morning Dew

When morning dew glistens
In the light of the rising sun,
Flowers open and the birds awake
After the night has slipped away
And up on the green village hill
The church bell rings,
While on my window sill
The early robin sings
His longing story,
Then I rejoice in the awakening
Of life's sweet morning glory...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

The Life We Cherish

The life we cherish
Does slowly perish,
When out time is up
And we must go,
There's no heaven above
Nor hell below,
Then, we are but history
And our lives
A fading mamory...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Upon Closer Scrutiny

The protons, neutrons,
Electrons and photons
Which comprise all atoms
Are but a field of energy,
Devoid of matter they may be,
A world which seems but never is,
Where only our senses
Feel and hear and see,
The rest is commentary
Lacking reality...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Wasteland

We dwell in the wasteland
But look at the stars,
Dream of peace and green pastures
Yet have pollution and wars,
We proclaim justice, morality
In a society decadent
With indecency, carnality,
Our world, seemingly,
A free democratic shell,
But in reality, beneath it all,
A predatory jungle,
A living hell.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Snow-birds Skip Florida!

Florida with its hurricane
Is turning into a snow-bird's pain,
Non-paying insurance companies
Increase the strain,
Outrageous taxes and assessments
Put too much money down the drain,
Let snow-birds skip decaying Florida
And go to Arizona, California, Spain.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Lawyer - Politician?

He was not a lawyer of renown,
People considered him a clown,
A decent job he could not find,
Putting him in a financial bind,
Shrewd, but no philosopher was he,
His greatest strength was sophistry,
Unfit to serve, he found no place to go,
He chose a new profession - politico,
His senate salary was much too small,
But then the graft he took was tall,
Thus, inept lawyers always find:
Go into politics -
And rob the public blind.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Dance...

I'm dancing with you
Into the heavens of love,
Where the world sinks away
And we can't get enough,
We dance into passions - sublime,
When every moment of time
Is a dreamy adventure
In a heaven - divine...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Let Love Prevail

Let love prevail
Where hate once used to be,
May this be just one world,
United in one free democracy,
But let it start with you and me.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Day of Infamy 9/11/01

The vicious burning
of our Towers
will in the memory
of all forever be
an act of infamy...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

The Psychiatrist

To the psychiatrist
I make my confession:
"I have an obsession
With my depression."
He looks quite quixotic,
Thinks I am a neurotic,
Or worse, a psychotic,
And changes the topic,
Claims of my ravings
He had his fill,
On my way out,
I should pay my due bill.

To you I would say:
"These chaps are expensive,
Their help not extensive,
And I safely declare -
Forget those quacks,
Settle your own affair!"

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Snow Birds

We snow birds
Return to Florida each year
With lots of money,
Bringing good cheer,
But with the hurricanes,
Assessment creation,
Outrageous real estate taxation
And high insurance manipulation,
We will be better off
In some other places
For our winter vacation.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

How Much Do I Love Thee?

How much do I love thee?
Frankly, I love them all,
Delicious, juicy creatures,
The pleasantly plump,
The slim, the short, the tall,
My love does not alter
When it alteration finds,
I simply love all kinds,
For me, each new gal
Is an absolute sensation
'cause sex and love
Are my enduring recreation...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

That Man!

She could not stand him
For an other day,
A bore, a brute,
She wished he'd go away,
But when his time was up
And he just died,
She praised him as the best
And cried, and cried...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Bitch

She was a horror,
She was a witch,
And many times
He called her a bitch,
But when she left,
He was bereft,
Claimed he loved her
More than life,
His treasure lost,
His loving wife...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Winter

When winter's iron fist
Closes upon the land,
Freezes the landscape
With an icy hand
And trees stretch
Barren branches to the sky
In silent supplication
And flora dies or rests
In hibernation
With whirling snow
Across the northern nation,
I stare at frozen windows
In my lonely room
Feeling my age
And my impending doom.

It's then, I close my eyes
And wander in my mind
To southern isles
Where golden beaches
Meet with azure skies
And palms sway in the wind
Each warm and sunny day
And colors reign,
Not dark and gray,
My place of dreams
To spend life's stay,
Where my heart surrenders
To my imaginary paradise
And tropical splendors...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Theme

The theme is still the same,
We're born, we live, we die,
It's all just one big game,
This heavenly joker up above
Lets us suffer, fight and love
And one fine day he tells us
You've had it - that's enough,
We come into this obscure world
To stay a while and then to go,
The reason for this idiocy
Is not for us to know...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Man

Man is of such stuff
As dreams are made of,
A bit of ancient stardust
Traveling eons of time
Landing on earth's crust,
Creating new shapes,
In complexities - divine,
New forms of life - sublime,
Great energy potential,
Atoms uniting - consequential,
Accumulated information,
Hereditary and contemplation,
Adapting new creation,
And this may sound perverse,
But there'll come a day
When man will guide
This universe...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Misbegotten Leadership

Our present
White House resident
Is not the people's
Selected President,
Rejected by the majority,
With the Court's help
Elected by a minority,
Not the common folk
But special interests
Are his priority,
For stem cell research
He has no use,
Women's abortion rights
He considers abuse,
A raise in minimum wage
Puts him into a rage,
While in a country - far
Our boys die daily
In some civil war,
For Medicare
And Social Security
He does not care,
Indifferent how oldsters fare,
To social programs
He gives the ax,
But for the rich
He cuts their tax,
He dogded the fight
For flag and soil
But is right there
For profits
On the war and oil,
They say, he's not too bright,
That he's manipulated
And no shining light,
But what he does
Is just not right...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Isle of the Dead

Silently gliding
Down the river Stix
Towards oblivion,
The isle of the dead,
The boatman's skull
Grinning at me,
Obscene and horrid,
Am I finished?
Am I through?
I - who loved life
So much,
Flowers in May,
My loved ones,
Green pastures
And sunny days,
The azure skies
And the blue sea,
Dancing a tango,
Jasmine in the air,
Please, dear God
Or faith or anyone,
Let me live,
Stay the darkness,
Even for a little while,
The boatman turned to me
And whispered:
'Not yet - not yet',
And the man in white
Standing over me said:
'We almost lost you
But you pulled through,
You willed it...'

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Memories...

Memories of the past
Gently haunting me,
Dear loved ones,
Days of wine and roses,
Gone like flighty birds
Of paradise I once knew
And loved too well,
Too well...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Middle of the Night

In the middle of the night,
By the moon's early light
Woke with chest feeling tight
And a great deal of fear
That my death maybe near,
An icy draft on my right,
Then I saw the black knight,
His face white as snow,
His eyes a red glow,
With a voice
Strange and hollow
He commanded to follow,
Grabbed me with a bony hand
And led me to my world's end
Into the kingdom of the dead
Where a grave is my bed...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Epitaph for a Friend

Let it be said for him
Whose spirit lived
In this poor mortal clay
That even at his best
He never found his way,
Chased some elusive goal,
Drifted without purpose
And aimless was his soul,
While others envied
His good life,
Devoted children,
A loving wife,
He seemed to live in style,
But to his inner self
His life
Was not worthwhile...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Tennis Courts

Wild flowers and weeds
Grow in the tennis courts
Of the Vincent Continis,
Their gardens overgrown,
Their house in ruins,
This old, noble family,
Who lived here once
In style and splendor,
Burned in the ovens
Of Auschwitz,
But sometimes
A lonely traveler
Listening to the wind
Rustling in the trees
Can hear the sounds
Of laughter and music
Of a lost generation,
A ghostly presence
Of a bygone world
Haunting
The old gardens...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz
Li

To Dad?

For all those years
You worked for me,
Giving me home
And education free,
And now that life
Has put you on the shelf,
You are expendable,
Work for yourself...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Misanthrope

We're born in pain
We live in vain,
We die in agony,
The rest?
The rest is misery...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Optimist

We come out of the night,
Born to a world of light,
To spend our days with joy
For life is a wondrous toy,
With pleasures filled,
Let's live it to the hilt,
Never worry about tomorrow,
Just use it all and borrow,
And when we have to go,
To our creditors
We'll leave the sorrow...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Out of the Shadows

Out of the shadows of the past
Sweet memories return to me
Of other times and other places
Events, long past, old loves,
So many dear, remembered faces,
Those happy moments I have known
With family and friends - long gone,
Yet, etched forever within
The mirrors of my heart and mind
Where they eternal refuge find,
Fondly recalled to linger on and on
Till my heart stops and I am gone...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Gentility

Your gentility, servility, humility
Give predators the unique ability
To use you well with great facility,
Good qualities are often a debility.

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz

Mona Lisa

Leonardo had it made
When he captured the soul
Behind the facade,
Beneath her enigmatic smile
Of noble, gracious Mona
Lurks a facetious style
And this is why
Great art shows more
Than meets the eye...

Alfred Charasz
Copyright 2007 Alfred Charasz