"The Ghost of Bampfylde"

The ghost of Bampfylde is who I am,
By the clear, swift creeks I roam.
My loved ones lived south of the dam,
My story in the hearth of home.


The attics of boyhood hid secrets
Only the brave dared to know;
No thrills satiate the palates
Of hijacked pubescence for show!


Before boys grew up a crisis struck,
From which men were keenly made:
Damn rascals turned from shooting ducks
To chasing after girls with braids!


Without any training love debuted,
Hormones started a new trend;
But quickly came a news most skewed
Of heartbreak beyond any mend.


No-one ever told those teenaged boys
That with joy sorrow must come,
And sorrow marched without a noise
To the beats of a dead man's drum.


In their old age all these men wondered
About things they could have done.
In their rues they deeply suffered,
But none knew why, not even one.


If only they could see what we ghosts see
From beyond the graves that enslave man:
Death does not end a lifelong esprit,
Oh but a heart unbridled surely can!


So with regards to the matter of life
This is what a spirit has to say:
To end the wars of your inner strife,
Honour your love—and forgive now—today!

Haiku: Smuggled Love

like a smuggled torpedo
smoked in spain
my pain is no longer local

Haiku: London when he cries

sorry letter
c'mon, bruised pride
new air
disappearing world
rushed breakfast in
a different city

Two minds of @JeffSchweitzer

Schweitzer calls the gap between Christianity and science an "unbridgeable gulf", yet his theorizing of primeval times subverts his own opinion:

"Traits that we view as moral are deeply embedded in the human psyche. Honesty, fidelity, trustworthiness, kindness to others, and reciprocity are primeval characteristics that helped our ancestors survive. In a world of dangerous predators, early man could thrive only in cooperative groups. Good behavior strengthened the tribal bonds that were essential to survival. What we now call morality is really a suite of behaviors favored by natural selection in an animal weak alone but strong in numbers. Morality is a biological necessity and a consequence of human development, not a gift from God." (from Two Americas: Rationalists and Arationalists)

How convenient for Schweitzer to deploy his criticism of theists to dovetail his own faith in the undocumented human evolution of morality! Nowhere in his argument were the evidence and arguments of the best from the other side (say, Michael Behe's irreducible complexity) reasoned against or even mentioned. If this is all his article amounts to—a gross double standard in his own reasoning—at least I now know not to take Jeff Schweitzer's layman's ramblings seriously.

Haiku: The Carnival Prince

fairy floss machine
tired midnight in empty carnival
the clown transfigured

Haiku: Dark enclosed

dark enclosed
concrete garden
no way out
of a song

Says who #13

It never ceases to amaze that people often go out of their way to state their particular worldview that all worldview are basically the same. How self-defeating! But if you hear them carefully they are actually saying "all beliefs are wrong EXCEPT MINE!", which makes them guilty of the same alleged hypocrisy that they accuse others of. A true neutralist never speaks a single word for or against. Probe; don't parrot.

"Season"

You supplanted morning with a kiss:
Like a rain that never ceased;
I can't forget, to say the least,
A love as sweet as this.


You poured me wine from the dew,
And loved me in a season—
Still I can't supply a reason
For the season that is you.

Says who #12

The detective story differs from every other story in this: that the reader is only happy if he feels a fool. At the end of more philosophic works he may wish to feel a philosopher. But the former view of himself may be more wholesome—and more correct.

- G.K. Chesterton, Generally Speaking (1928)

Says who #11

The problem with contemporary Christian praise and worship is that its object defies the very thing it claims to be doing. They are songs of a desperate man denying himself the right to his God. There was a time when we used to know the object of worship when both congregation and choir sang facing the Icon. Instead of offering his veneration to his God through hymns the contemporary man offers himself the comfort of an experience through the musicians onstage. Bach trounces the modern church any day in the retelling of God's amazing grace.