to the members of the next parliament

if you know the truth
tell the truth

if you don't know
the truth

say you don't know

to assume that you can

with rhetoric
or deceit

or straight-out falsification

serve

some higher goal

some greater
good

is simply

to fail
to connect

with reality

all very well

for artists

stage players

and myth makers

fatal

to lawmakers

and representatives

of the people



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.

we move in description

it is always an argument
you make

to yourself

and all others / make
of you

the question of truth
to stone

can never be settled

never known

(it is only the reason
for focus)

in the moving frames / figures
made of soul

line and light

conscious things

burn
bright



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.

the world is true

perception specific

and conception
without ground

or on any ground

we can say

what is excluded

is the full
picture



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.

election day 2007

when emotion
seeks its death

in the appearance
of decision

in a life or the lives
of all who reach

in unfathomable
desperation

on a Saturday
morning

to make a mark




(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.

a way of seeing when the world takes or when it is just so

there is a peace

in the order
behind consciousness

or in fact
nothing

that consciousness
can recognize

in itself

the solution
is outside our vision

we can know
that

not what



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.

in these days

in these days

the light is thinner

hearts
are not hidden

(the appearance is true)

there is a loss
of depth

as if it never was

behind things

(and in any case
what is darkness?)

so

we face
just what we face

and this
the real terror
of being

the gods
have left us

to the surface

without account

or a place
for dreaming

old books
hold the history

of the lost art
of searching

the fashion of the day
is all that remains

the sacred

the poetry
of presentation



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.

Islanders

Islanders
have no memory

the myth is present

and on the edge
of deserts

you find disbelief

and the making of
realities

out of the placing
of stone

here the girls are flying

boys make art
with pieces of blue sky

groups of men
and women

have no identity

outside of

the game of
making games

beyond the cities

there are only
fields of grass alive

this is the fringe

holding against

death

is red

the dust storms
of unknown

gods



(c) greg. t. charlton. 2007.