The Persistence

“I saw the best minds of my generation
destroyed by madness, starving
hysterical naked, dragging themselves
through the negro streets at dawn
looking for an angry fix.”
~ Allen Ginsberg

THE PERSISTENCE

The gleaning
seeking fallen fruit
after the harvesting
Neither sowing small
nor reaping big
The art of just surviving
Street wise shaded eyes
failing to disguise
a festering fever
of hidden trauma
Is this life but a test?
A trial by unholy fire?

Infected
Free on bail
Evicted and ejected
Ice forming
upon neural pathways
of a brain inflicted
Ever and always
the only gain
with a taste for hell
hidden deep within a well
of …”You must never tell!”
Down a bottomless pit
the prisoner of pain
With only a bitter grain
of dissolving shelter
from the sacrement
of helter skelter
Worshipped and injected
That sword of fate
self inflicted
with words of hate
scrawled upon the wall
of a darkened cell
The poetry of chaos
and innocence lost
boasting the loss
Not knowing the cost
The tunnel you’re digging
whatever
you’ve been mainlining
whoever
you’ve been channeling
it is truly gutter diving
in the company
of creatures crawling
Babies on ice born
The fabric of flesh torn
by hellhounds mauling

The ammunition
of a combustion engine
shooting holes
through a biosphere bleeding
A black market to counter
your personal evolution
Like a hungry vegan lost
roaming the wilderness
of a land ever flowing
with spilt milk
and blood money
Let’s get this over with, Honey!
Get on with the hanging
An ancient tree is swaying
to an angry melody
and is impatiently waiting
for the final dance of death
That hypnotic strip tease
in suicidal slow motion
Upon a cold and bitter breeze
guilt is left swinging

Beyond all regret
… never forget
you are a one
in 7 billion special
to the Great Eternal
Who’s love is insistent
with a persistent yearning
You are never just another
drop of plastic
in the cosmic ocean

Humanity broken
and begging for mercy
Becoming a byproduct
of a disassembly line
never ending
I smell the essence
of obsolescence
“A plus size dose, please
… to forget the regret
of my industrial disease.
Make it a double!”
In the poetry
of primal lust
and broken trust
in a sea of trouble
we all have
our cross to bear
But I guess
the overbearing
just get cross
with the persistence
of unforgiveness

In a fixed race
where only the obsequious
and the bodacious
stand a hell of a chance
Not some free thinking
panty-waist
As Salvation’s Corp
feed the hungry poor
an army of salivation
feeds the intravenous
and the delirious
all under the sway
of a heavy metal pentecost
Dying to stoke the fire
of eternal desire
with hands of frost
holding on firmly
to a twin necked guitar
Caught in yesterday’s gravity
the user becomes the past
The marginalized
and the criminalized
a mental health commodity
Commandeered by fear
then socially engineered
Used and abused
by the criminal boss
empowered by the sin
of prohibition
Only the devil wins
in this losing game
of prohibiting “sins”
Corruption from the highest
to the lowest of places
And a multitude of disgraces
in the killing field
of a pharmaceutical industry
Heavy duty spiritual poverty
on a high of corporate prosperity
The alchemy of a golden yield

When it comes
to human charity
Image is the priority
Style without substance
Like a celebrity on oxy
Meanwhile …
you too can be a winner
with a reconstructed smile
Just Instagram a picture
of your dinner
You are the epitome
of cosmetic health
In the fame game of life
you are surely a grinner
And you’ve still got your wealth
So just post another selfie
No one will ever see
the truth underneath

With minions scanning
my voter data base
and a bad case of ichyosis
the scrofulous
the censorious
and the divisively mysterious
all scamming my
democractic weakness
with trivia superfluous
Whilst from Syria to Yemen
children are dying of starvation!
Tribal squabbles
and iron age religion
in the hard rain
of barrel bombing mutilation
As you spill your life of privilege
down a stormwater drain
In the once holy lands
chemical agents of tyranny
are poured without mercy
upon ancient sands
The shadow of death rising
Like junk on the streets
… persistently pushing

Why do l feel
it is all part and parcel
of the one big deal?
The oil keeps flowing
The cartels keep harvesting
The big guns keep on firing
as missiles are flying
Is the C.I.A administrating?
Or is this madness
just the Alien Alias
making a mess
whilst self-medicating
from a deep state of corruption?
Empires of the Earth chasing
the tail of some dragon
With that smell of sarin
in the napalm morning
Dropping the boom
for that rush of rebellion
I guess a spoonful
of blood diamonds
does help
the medicine go down

Upon a rock
in outer space
constantly spinning
the existential grievance
most industrious
with an unholy persistence
still clinging
to the sorcery of substance
Abusing the all consuming
and the wholly ravenous
The words hollow and tragic
with claims prophetic
only ringing true
within the cavernous fears
of receptive ears
A reckoning overdue
The fateful charismatic
plotting dark magic
with a star chart of tears
and a familiar psychotropic
dwelling in life’s basement

Faith broken
and misled
Truth seekers forsaken
as retro hippies
injest the false token
of a secret potion
The sorcery
of a shamanic pharmacy
is no stairway to heaven
Chanting over
the books of crooks
with just a spoof of truth
whilst buying stuff
blessed in eternal plastic
Smoking the cash
Flowing the stash
Seeking the peace
from a frantic manic
gone in a puff
Playing a game of shame
Riding life’s merry go round
on a horse that’s gone lame
Seeking only who’s to blame
Putting yourself
in the frame

You just gotta love ’em
all the same
For there is a plan
that is grand
with the gift of hope
in one’s open hand
A sound mind
with the Spirit in front
and behind
Justice … just in time
The season for reaping
in the light of reason
Within the Great Spirit
a mighty wind is roaring
A lingering question
upon a gentle whisper
Could Jesus be the answer
you’ve been silently seeking?

With persistence tough
and a whole lotta love
to break the chains
Enough to tame
the proud and the vain
Even initiates
of the wholly insane
The sum total
of your reality ethereal
to be in the Spirit
who brings that taste
of true kingdom freedom
as on the wings of an eagle
… gracefully soaring

Seventy times seven
… the persistence
of forgiveness spiritual
A pierced hand
holding all things together
The healing
of hidden trauma
in an open door deal
The all in all
beyond all that’s surreal
As cereal box science
tries to apply a dress code
to this existence
of brokenness
and cultural abuse
To excuse the misuse
of dark substance . . .
useless without repentance
Don’t be recused
In the light of the Son
become one
with the total sum
With all persistence
perseverance
and spirited resilience
we can truly become
the triumphant resistance
against an Empire of darkness

~ Words & Image:
David B. Redpath © 2018-2020

“Religion is for people who fear hell.
Spirituality is for people who have been there.”
~ David Bowie

Photography;
Linda Redpath © 2020