Asbury Park, NJ

August 1, 2020

Hey everybody!

It's that time again!  I hope this note finds you safe and well… well.  Kimberly and I are spending the summer here in Asbury Park NJ.  It is for me, as I am sure it is for you strange to be in one place especially in summer.  This is my first east coast summer in a long time!  

Thank you for all the well wishes.  I did throw my back out and I have been bed ridden for 6 days now.  In fact, my last poem of the week was done from bed.  If I have to do it again from bed, I will, because yes, every Wednesday at noon eastern time I do for you the poem of the week.  

The Library Show was a lot of fun and a big success.  Thank you to those who dropped by.  It was so much fun that I am now going to do a monthly full set of new material and old favorites.  This will happen the first Wednesday of every month at 9pm eastern/6pm pacific: The Muse and Whirled Retort Live.  Here is a link:

https://www.facebook.com/events/368671364100360

It will be going out live from my personal Facebook page, which is www.facebook.com/chrischandler.org.

I have not worked in 2020, but I am enjoying doing these live broadcasts very much.  I would like to make them better by purchasing a good external microphone and a...wait for it...teleprompter.  Since I haven't had any shows this year, I could use your help.  

You can donate directly here: www.paypal.me/baldchandler

You can be a patron of the arts by setting up a monthly donation here: www.patreon.com/thechrischandlershow

Or drop some change in the coffee can at: www.chrischandler.org

Enough with the crass commercial announcements.  Here is the Muse and World Retort.

The I's of Evil

By Chris Chandler and Stephon Moody

If you look into the eyes of evil

and do not see yourself in the reflection,

you have not really looked.

We've willfully walked down the spiral

into a hell of our own making.

Make it be for a reason.

Make it be for the purpose of looking into the eyes of evil,

So that we can see our own reflection.

It would be a disservice to forget that

our own self righteous,

sometimes indignant,

and sometimes enticing

stances are always mirrored in the eyes of another.

Our core values

have been exposed leaving a hollow foundation

longing to be filled

- and is being filled -

but being filled only with a vacuum

sucking more emptiness and divisiveness.

The vacant core expands.

Hell has always been at the center of the earth,

however, the earth's core is now hollow and

hell is emptiness.

No amount of finger pointing is going to get us out.

Unless, that finger is pointed inward.

Real eyes, realize, real lies.

The only time

I feel like I am beginning to extricate myself

from this nightmare

is when I honestly feel like I love someone,

anyone, everyone, more than I disagree with them.

I truly believe,

there is something deeper going on here

than simply the wrong party getting elected.

As William Butler Yates wrote,

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed,

and everywhere the ceremony of innocence is lost.

The best lack all conviction,

while the worst are filled with passionate intensity."

A nation founded on genocide and slavery

that also touts itself as the freest on earth

is a lie that we have all been living.

The centre cannot hold.

Both parties are complicit.

The centre cannot hold.

The lesser of two evils,

leaves us only with the evil of two lessers.

The centre cannot hold.

Our work

is more important than just getting

the Democrats or Republicans in office again.

It's all of us revamping our assumptions

and seeing people as being more

than whatever ideological category they fit in,

perpetuating the falsely constructed

binary confines

of the computer age....

Black, white; democrat, republican; male, female;

gay, straight;

mask, no mask; nonviolent, violent,

stand, kneel;

American League, National League.

...perpetuating the falsely constructed

binary confines

of the computer age

onto an increasingly - obviously - non-binary world.

We've been conditioned

by a binary winner-take-all

two-party system

that has devolved into what we see today:

Two, old, white guys,

both of whom's mental fitness is in question,

facing off in this November's election

to safeguard a system

whose spiritual fitness is in question.

We've been conditioned to do this by the capitalist media  

(which literally depends on these binary controversies to ensure it's continuance)

Once, media depended upon the dollars of the solvent

to purchase ads catered to the solvent,

as they peddled points of view

that aligned with the solvent.

The centre cannot hold.

Today,

Media depends upon the micro pennies of the insolvent

to purchase click bait

by peddling binary battles to the broke and bankrupt.

The centre cannot hold.

If you have a point of view,

you can find someone to further it,

and listen only to them.

The centre cannot hold.

While this may seem like a completely absurd situation,

it perfectly mirrors the complete impotence of both parties,

and sadly reveals the emptiness at the center of the American Dream,

The centre cannot hold.

We have been trying to fill the emptiness

at the core of the American Dream

with materialism,

Hallmark holidays,

Sports, and endless info-tainment,

which has become a romanesque spectacle,

and even though (not fake news) the violin had not yet been invented,

Our new spectacle is

complete with music critics

selling click-bait

as they debate

with vicious vigor  

the finer points

of Nero's fiddle playing.