Don't Let the Bastards Win
Don't Let Them Pave the Way
Don't let the bastards win or pave your way
To know a life well lived, albeit brief
Mortality is not the way we pay
.
The real costs tally from the games we play
On those we scorn — or join — in joy or grief
Don't let the bastards win or pave your way
.
The score accrues along our transient stay
How we sidestep each obstacle and thief
Mortality is not the way we pay
.
Temptations cannot strategize your day
Ill-gotten gains cannot define relief
Don't let the bastards win or pave your way
.
Do not be silenced, advocate your say
And save your soul, gain purchase in belief
Mortality is not the way we pay
.
Take stock, at death's dear door, your full array
Of conduct plainly written, sans serif
Don't let the bastards win or pave your way
Mortality is not the way we pay
About the Creator
Gerard DiLeo
Retired, not tired. Hippocampus, behave!
Make me rich! https://www.amazon.com/Gerard-DiLeo/e/B00JE6LL2W/
My substrack at https://substack.com/@drdileo
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More stories from Gerard DiLeo and writers in Poets and other communities.
Do you understand haiku?
Do you ever get sidetracked when writing? I do. I think it must be in the nature of the creative mind to draw connections and have a need to explore them. Since the World Wide Web became established in the 1990s, this has become a lot easier to do. The phenomenon being described as ‘going down a wormhole.’ Sometimes a distraction, but I have written some of my best work when I have disappeared down one web wormhole or another. It also happened in the days when most of my research was book based so we can't blame it on the internet. Book research was just slower. These days, guided by my AI friend, it is much, much quicker.
By Raymond G. Taylorabout 20 hours ago in Poets
Standing While Falling
Quotation from Friedrich Nietzsche "He who wrestles long with monsters should beware lest he himself become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you. Man is not destroyed by suffering, but by the meaning he makes of it."
By LUCCIAN LAYTH6 days ago in Critique
Comments (8)
Do not let the liars win! Say it loud!
The bastards are good at double play and lying and cheating, mostly they know the right people and you have to fight to stay alive, but we still fight those bastards.
Superbly written and loved the message!!!❤️❤️💕
Great villanelle! The main riff from Primus' "Here Come the Bastards" might make a good background to a reading! In the Egyptian lore, our hearts were weighed against the feather of Ma'at. A typically tricky thing for Thoth to do, considering that hearts who have traversed the terrestrial realm must come to the end of the path with heavy burdens. The secret of Thoth's trickery, to my mind, lies in understanding just how massive and universal is the bird from which the Goddess of truth plucked her adornment. It is not that we should have an unburdened heart, but a heart so pure that it would bear any and every burden for love. So neither the feather nor the pure heart is light. Why the trickery? Well, ol' Thoth knew that the charlatans and hucksters and tyrants and sorcerers would try to sneak in and wanted them to think their hearts should be light as a feather... which is to say, unburdened by concern for others. Takes a trickster to trick a trickster. :)
This is stunning, Gerard. Loved this one a lot. Felt strong, bold and impactful and as noted by Joe has a lovely tuneful flow to it.
Excellent villanelle. Only experienced pathlayers who are not bastards will be allowed to pave my way. And they will be seriously vetted.
This was both so profound and powerful! Loved your villanelle!
Great message that would make for a great song.