I Want to Be Like Marlon Brando

I want to be like
Marlon Brando,
fallen reputation
and all, because
the dude had
a lasting integrity
that you could trace
from the beginning
to the end of his
career.

That's all I can
really talk about,
his career, the
legacy he left
behind, from
The Men to
The Island of Dr. Moreau,
no matter if his
decisions garnered
respect (The Godfather)
or derision (Mutiny on the Bounty),
he traced a map
of his own world vision,
from Apocalypse Now
to The Formula,
never flinching,
no matter what it
got him.

First respect
(On the Waterfront)
then anything but
(The Freshman).

Yeah, he was
a contender,
he believed that
personal decisions
counted for something,
that a man in the world
could be a man
in the world
without sacrificing
himself to it,
could be the world
and could be himself,
and damn the world
if it didn't agree.

He demonstrated
how it was possible
to be oneself
and create illusions,
be The Wild One
and still the father
of Superman,
or find romance for himself
(Last Tango in Paris)
and others (Don Juan DeMarco).

But he never gave in,
and for that, he
was crucified, finding
no comfort in strangers
(A Streetcar Named Desire),
after all, just a brute
to the world, savage,
untamed, lost.

But he was a beacon,
and those who saw
him knew him,
and even though
who don't know him
carry on his spirit,

and because of that,
because he was always
the best of himself,
I want to be like
Marlon Brando,
now and forever.

And while he
ultimately
saw nothing
of himself
in it, the
world is better
for having him,
a rejected soul
like the world itself.

Mending Time

(after Frost)

Time is a battlefield
we sketch upon
the scars and holes
we seek to mend.

In it we seek
redemption for all
the toils we have
been making.

It is a sorry beast
we labor 'long the field
and curse for all
we afflict upon it.

And in the time
that we have found,
the time that we've
been mending,

We saw mankind
and knew at last
it never had ne'd
mending.

We have seen the world
as we see ourselves,
but that was never true.

Time is no battlefield,
no fiend that stalks
beside us, but rather
just a friend,

if we like it.

The Changing Pace of Culture (The Fast & Furious New Fade)

I doubt you'd get
a better response
fifty years from
now than you would
if you stopped
reading this poem
to ask the first
person you see
what's popular.

Yeah, we certainly
know a lot of things
that are well-known
and well-hyped, but
we've reached a point
where it's more
difficult than ever
to find a consensus
over who actually
enjoys them. Part
of it's the very
demographics that
have become so popular
to track, but it's been
a building trend for
years now, not just
because we've gotten
expanded choices, but
we perversely refuse
to share.

Also, part of the reason
is that all the cool kids
are the ones we've been
trying so hard to ignore,
who came from marginalized
segments and who now
dominate all the hippest
quarters, the new
marginalized segments.

Globalization is real
and it's a bitch, because
like Rome, like the
British Empire, we've
learned that those
who create change
are eventually left
behind by it. Hey,
just ask Bob Dylan,
the only man smart
enough to roll
ahead of the stone,
who always has to
answer the charges of
"selling out." Go
electric, lose the spark,
keep the cool.

Whatever.

Renaissance Man

These days, it's gotten harder
to identify what exactly
a Renaissance Man is, because
we've gotten it competing with
the less respectable
Jack of All Trades, who is,
of course, master of none.

So just what is a Renaissance Man?

Do you consider such a person
someone who is simply really
good at a number of different
things, or is it more complicated
than that? After all, any
number of entertainers famously
float between disciplines these
days, whether acting, directing,
recording music, writing things,
but do all those things merely
fall under the category of
"creativity"? If so, might
it then be argued that all
the original Renaissance Man,
da Vinci did, was exactly that,
even considering his scientific
pursuits? After all, how many
practical notions can you
think of, without their
images, that he bequeathed
to future generations?

Is a Renaissance Man merely
someone who "thinks outside
the box," who is able to
lead a room simply by being
there? Is that person
to be thought of as the most
respected individual around,
who generally avoids
restrictions that get in
the way of others?

I think a lot of society
wonders about this, fears
that a Renaissance Man
is somehow necessary,
and we spend our time
looking for them, honoring
them when we find them,
or completely overlooking
them, because a Renaissance Man
has too much on their plate
to seek the same spotlight
many others assume for
flashier but less compelling
achievements. But,

we also fear them. We fear
the Renaissance Man because
he represents a basic failure
in our own lives either
to have the opportunity
or ability to master so
many complex thoughts (because,
whether conscious or unconscious,
any skill is the product of
complex thought).

The Renaissance Man negates
the ordinary man, because
the Renaissance Man makes
the ordinary man unnecessary.

The Renaissance Man also
threatens the ordinary man
into complacency the ordinary man
can't shake if the Renaissance Man
is lost (what does the void
left by Batman mean about
those and the situation
he leaves behind? that's
a current comic book query,
anyway). We hate and fear
those we cannot replace,
hate them because we
are not them, and fear
them because we do not
believe we are capable
of taking their place.

The Renaissance Man is
a form of societal paralysis,
a symbol of what we know
about our past and what
we don't know but can speculate
about our future, and that's
as much why we maintain history
as anything else, our chance
to negate at least part
of the Renaissance Man,
and fear when history is lost,
why we horde treasures
and place value in them,
because they help remind us
of those that created them,
what they represented.

The Renaissance Man is a totem,
a god, the prototypical god,
and the more we learn how
to advance our technologies,
our cultures and understanding,
we fear that we will lose
the Renaissance Man, negate him.

We have a concept of good and evil
because it is the quintessential
battle within ourselves,
of hope and fear, over
the Renaissance Man, the Other
that is always among us,
but whom we set apart.

We do not understand
the Renaissance Man,
we know him, we know
them, but tell
ourselves that we don't,
because it relieves
the pressure that,
in the quiet moments,
tells each of us that
we are that Renaissance Man,
we have that potential
if only we'd listen.

But it is a frightening thing,
so we prefer distractions
that tell us anything but. Anyone
can try anything and fail at it,
if that's what they truly want.

The Renaissance Man can fly.

Only Love Can Leave Such A Mark

If there indeed is a global
conspiracy, it has ever only
been to suppress this fact:

Society is always led by its
most primitive minds, but
mankind is always evolving.

***

There was a Polish scientist
who basically exiled himself
to Antarctica, but he left
behind the love of his life.

To commemorate her, he
gathered penguin dung, and
spelled out the first
letter of her name,

and since then, two species
of flowering plants have
thrived on that spot,
leaving a permanent
imprint of his love for her.

***

Guggenheim finally made it
obvious why I always found
the Wallcrawler appealing,
what most writers have always
failed to articulate,

and that's the fact that
Peter Parker represents
not just a relatable hero,
but someone who has
considerable smarts
but isn't afraid to
be a noncomfortist goof.

He is an embodiment
of the true spirit
of progress, and is
in a sense not really
so different from
Batman or Superman
after all. Each of them
represents the cusp
of discovery and practicality
that science always takes.

Maybe Superman isn't so
obvious, but Morrison
always seems to sense
his potential, whether
as an All Star
or in the midst
of a Final Crisis.

***

I think my love
for you is
oblique like that,
the discovery
that takes time
to reveal itself.

Only love can leave
such a mark, a transition
everyone sees but
mostly chooses to ignore.

But that doesn't mean
it isn't there.

Regarding John Stossel

It takes a certain
amount of nerve
to be someone
like John Stossel,
whom I respect
more than any
other investigative
reporter today.

Just recently he
did a piece about
the stimulus package
that punched the
final holes in its logic,
and for that, I've
got to be grateful,
because, well hey,
someone has to make
sense, right?

For eight years
everyone complained
about an administration
that they could do
nothing but get
in the way of,
except when they
were agreeing with it
and bitching later,
mocking it in
every possible way,
and the new president
is a direct result
of a collective will
to believe that
everything was as
it seemed, and no one
had to put a single
thought into it,

just demagoguery.

An economic cycle
that began well before
eight years ago finally
came to a head recently,
and Stossel seems
to believe that we're
not even right to be
panicking now.

On the one hand,
I shouldn't be happy
with that thought
because my job is
one of those that's
been severely threatened
by the recession,
but on the other,
I can appreciate what
he means because
I see all around me
only misery caused
by terrible management,
and that's the true
source of failure,
which a bad economy
addresses above all.

Now, the way to
get things going
again is to get
things going smartly,
not simply to get
them going, again,
since all you get if
you plug along
a doomed course
is the same view,
right before you
reach the end of it,

again,

and if you don't
recognize the problem
then, you've got,
well, the same problem.

To have someone like
Stossel on network TV,
reporting in an age
of voices saying whatever
they think is clever,
is reassurance
that everything's not lost,
and that once again,
we can have faith
in that big stupid
economy called mankind,
where the ebb & flow
of time rocks along
regardless of what
we think works.

Responding to the World's Vagaries

There's another Star Trek
philosophy I'd like to
bring up, and that's
the Great Material Continuum,
which is different from
Karma like the
Metaphysics of Value
are different from the
Metaphysics of Quality.

The Great Material Continuum
suggests that you will
always get what you need,
and I think that's
the way the world works,
which is confusing
because most people
assume they will
always get what
they want, and become
frustrated when they
can't, no matter
what they do

The Great Material Continuum
is ironic, because it comes
from a blatantly commercial
society, but doesn't treat
economics the way we do,
or even the way the Ferengi do,
but rather how we should.

To trust in it
is to believe
that our pursuits
are worth whatever
effort we place in
them, and if you
do, the outcome
is always assured.

If we trusted
more like that,
we'd be better off,
not afraid when
things go wrong,
but confident
that in the end
they will go right.

In My Sister's House ii

How to account
for a relationship
that's easily
my strongest
but also my
most tenuous?

As with any,
the nature of it
traces back
to its origins,
and in this case,
a mutual need
and rivalry,
dependence
and independence
mark the territory
quite well,
creating a dynamic
that I cherish
but constantly
question, because
both us need it
and maybe have
outgrown it, too,
or evolved beyond it.

In my sister's house
we know how to play,
what to play, and when
the rules are broken,
we both understand,
and it hurts, and it
strains, but when
it matters, we can
overlook the problems
because we better more
the better we follow
what we know works.

As in any
relationship,
the best moments
are the ones
we could never
plan, the ones
that just happen,
that work against
the things
that work against
us.

It's a weird thing
now to visit
my sister's house,
because I know
that is no longer
mine, even though
when I am there,
it is a second house,
but a second house
is not a house,
and understanding
that is important,
and perhaps in
the knowledge of
our limits we
are better off
for it,
to work the ebb
and the flow
instead of
against it.

But in my sister's house,
I know I am always welcome,
but it is her house
and not mine, and I
am only there when
I need to be.

That's what really matters.

To Lack Imaginative Thought

I'm walking a
fine line here
when I suggest part
of the problem most
people have is that
they lack
imaginative thought,

because it's
a difficult
thing to
qualify.

How to put it?

Most people,
when faced with
a problem,
think first
and only
of the worst
possible outcome,
as if that's
all that's really
possible, and
because it's
so common,
you can't really
fault them for it.

This isn't to say
that they can't be
creative, but that
their imagination
can't support the
possibility that
people are better
than they seem,

and so most people
are content to act
worse than they
really are, not
because they're
bad people but
because they act
only as they
expect others
to think of them.

That's why I
consider America
to be a Peter Pan
nation, where we
believe in a Dream,
which is something
children usually
hold onto, something
to snap out of
or find unobtainable
in adulthood because
that's when we must
own up to Responsibility.

It's the most childlike
adults who succeed best.

But we are constantly
taught, despite what
we preach, that only
what must be done
is important, the rules
that are ruthless,

and while we do so,
we find ourselves
lacking in
imaginative thought,
so some choose to
escape into
entertainment

not for answers
but just to escape

into dreams.

Take a Local Interest

Star Trek once mused
that asking if you
could help would
become as famous
as saying "I love you,"

but I've got
a different
phrase in mind,
and it's been
one I've used
for years,
just to myself,
when wondering
why it's so
hard for people
to care about
their surroundings,
why we seem
doomed to become
a society of butlers.

"Take a local interest."

Just see that it's
no one's responsibility
but your own, that
if you can, you should,
that maybe you ought
to have some pride.

Another Star Trek
put into question
"The needs of the many
outweigh the needs of
the few, or the one,"
but seemed to get
it wrong.

I think what it
originally meant
was that, in a
conscious society,
the few or the one
were not slaves
but rather aware
that their actions
had the greater
impact for being
in a minority,
that it is better
to think in terms
that include
oneself as well as
others than to dwell
merely on one
or the other,
the many a reflection
of the worth of the one.

We tend to think
in negative terms.
I should know.
But I believe
that we don't have to,
that a belief
that casts the roll
of the weak as less
than the strong
merely as a matter
of course is wrong,
that we don't have to accept
that (in the gospels,
it's a new commandment),
or believe that all
that we have gained
can or must be lost.
Call me a pharaoh,
but I think you
can take it with you,
if not in the literal
sense, then in
what you leave behind.

I believe that the way
you conduct yourself
is the way you will
be remembered. I don't
believe that we all must
be saints, but rather
that we must accept
that the basic meaning
of humanity is the chance
to understand humanity,
not as an abstract concept
but as a community we
approach in our own way,
but an approach that
must be done. To avoid it
is to shun our own
humanity, and that is
what I believe most people,
without realizing it,
spend their lives doing.

Funny to hear this from
a guy everyone assumes
is shy, who freely admits
he prefers time alone.

But to take a local interest
is to embrace the possibilities
we are continually offering
ourselves, whether we embrace
them or not, recognize them
or turn our backs to them,
to do what we can because
we can and because it is
the right thing to do, not
because we get anything from it,
but because, in the end, we
are better remembered for it,
and help the rest of humanity
along the way.

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight!!!

You don't have to tell me
that I have an erratic
personality

and the simple explanation
is that people make me crazy,
and I have a hard time
dealing with it, oh, and
I've also made it easy
to deal with, by
going crazy.

But I'm always working
on it. I like to think
that I'm a little more
rational than other
people, and so when
I realize crazy people
are making me crazy,
and that crazy is crazy,
maybe more than crazy
people are able to handle,
I try to refine it,

be less crazy.

But I have to be crazy,
because crazy people
really ought to know
that they're crazy.

The best way to make
a problem worse
is to pretend
that it doesn't
exist,

but that's exactly
what people most
like to do.

(The second best way
to make a problem
worse is to handle it
poorly.)

(The third way
is to criticize
the people
trying to make
it better
until their efforts
are made null
and void,
exactly what
you hoped for
and what you
were doing
yourself.)

But really,
if I don't
go crazy, then
it's my belief
that it will
only be worse,

so that's why
if I don't go
crazy tonight

I'll go crazy

permanently.

The Pope was on the Jungle Gym

I don't know,
sometimes things
make sense even
when they seem
like they shouldn't.

I work a job
that makes me
miserable,
but think it's
still the best
of what's around
for me right
now, and what's
more, is probably
good for me,
at least in some
small, continuing
way. I just
need to work
myself around
all the problems
that surround me,
the people (whether
customers or
coworkers) chief
among them,
and not so much
the books.

Like I've said,
I don't understand
why a bookstore
is such a big
attraction
for people
who obviously
have little interest
in reading. You
tell someone
enough times,
and they'll think
they really have to.

But then, some
interests are
just different,
irritating,
but different,
and that may
be that.

We'll talk more later.

All Roads Lead to Rome

Rome is the terrible symbol
that suggested a world
united by conquest,
through which civilization
spread but could not be
maintained, where power
corrupted absolutely
and the barbarians
at the gate saw no
great loss in storming it,
where religions ebbed
and flowed, a lasting
treasury bequeathed
to mankind but never
a good opinion,
famous and infamous,
a cautionary tale,
fear spread like fire
in the night, no one
to watch, but everyone
to remark what a tragedy
it is, that no one
could survive.

All the roads lead there still.

The Time Isn't Right

Well, why hasn't it happened yet?
Because the time isn't right.

Why haven't these people come together?
Because the time isn't right.

Any number of things
because the time isn't right.

***

Faith has always been self-centered.
The time has come for a social gospel.

People need to believe
that their lives mean something

to other people, too,
not just to themselves.

There is no such thing as a life
that does not affect any other life.

***

Charity can't be found in my dictionary.
People are worth my time if they allow it.

***

The time isn't right,
but that doesn't mean it won't be.

Memo to the President (Concerning the World We Have Been Building)

Dear Mr. President,

While I am aware
that you campaigned
strongly (and successfully)
on a platform to
keep Americans working
in jobs that have
in recent years been
shipped overseas,
I don't think you
understand what
you were really
arguing.

In a dynamic
eoconomy, jobs
are what current
situations require,
or can allow, or
that are simply
new and better ways
to get things done,
not simply what
keeps people working.


In a dynamic
economy, which is what
we provide those overseas
who get those old jobs,
lives are improved
rather than maintained,
the flow of ideas
continues, and
everyone has a chance
to succeed, despite
how it might initially
seem.

Instead of trying
to retain jobs,
focus on efforts
to develop new ones,
permanent notions
that reflect the fluid
nature of our times,
as indeed all times are.

You don't have to cater
to win the hearts
of your constituents,
despite what it might seem.

You were elected to lead,
you ran because you wanted
to lead, so get into the
business of leading.

That is all I have to say.

Respectfully,

Tony Laplume

The Best of All Possible Worlds is the Real American Dream (But it is Still Only a Dream)

Among the things
we like to say
but maybe don't
really believe
is that the
American experiment
believes that
the best of all
possible worlds
is on our own soil.

I'm not saying that
we are, but
that we have built
ourselves the best
potential to obtain it.

But like all dreams,
it takes more than
thinking it up
and agreeing on it
to make it real;
it's a constant
process, one we're
hardly aware we're
working on, especially
when anyone calls
our current state
into question. Those
are the times we
say it most but believe
it least, when we think
it's all we can do
to keep what we have,
or at least had, because
it sounds good, more
real, easier than
what we dream.

The American Dream
is our greatest
contribution to the world,
our belief that
the best of all possible worlds
is possible, not just for some
but for all, and it begins
here and it ends there,
right around the world.
We confuse it for a sense
of self-reliance, that
success is possible
for those who strive for it,
but that's the old model
we're breaking, the first
steps, when it's no longer
acceptable to merely
suggest only some can succeed,
but that it's our right
in the form of human
community for everyone
to be everything
they want to be.

It's saying that we
don't need to be told
what to do, because
we believe that some day,
maturity won't just
be something you're
expected to have,
but something
to be understood.

Even the schools
will help you find it.

But it is called
a Dream for a reason,
because it is
a vision quest
we are all on,
from here to there.

Maybe Ramen Noodles Aren't Just a Meal I'm Not Thrilled About

I'm beginning to suspect
that, biologically speaking,
I just don't agree with them.

I've been tampering,
though, and maybe
I only have to tamper
some more.

Thing is, I've got
a lot of packets.

Also, I may know
why my parents
didn't specifically
refer to it as
a "care package."

An Apology to James Patterson

Sometimes
I can be
a real
bastard.

Sometimes
I can forget
that I
really am
comfortable
with people
embracing
their own
groove.

Hey, if it keeps
you out of
trouble
and you aren't
hurting anyone
really

who am I
to judge?

Looking for Someone to Blame

It's hard to have a
conversation when
we never really talk,
not for two years now.

It's hard to have a
conversation when
all we talk about
is the things we
have in common.

It's hard to have a
conversation when
we're a thousand
miles apart and neither
makes the trip between.

It's hard to have a
conversation when
we sort of knew and
never said and now
can't avoid the obvious.

It's hard to have a
conversation when
we have fights without
saying what we really
mean, because it's
impossible.

It's hard to have a
conversation when
we've never said
the things we ought
to have, and now
only long for each
other like starcrossed
lovers,

afraid that we're doomed.