Thursday, February 25, 2010

THIS COULD BE HEAVEN: THIS COULD BE HELL!!


THe poet tree bus rides again!

Well disciples here we go.


I was walkin and talkin to mrs EEjit and we came round to life and death and the hereafter. I was thinking, and I confess I don't much these days, and I should, of my Dad ,who died when I was 16, almost 300 years ago. I felt he hadn't a great life and I felt he sacrificed his happiness for ours and I felt heavy in my heart and I hadn't really felt actually physically heavy of heart before.
And we were wondering if there is a heaven and if there is my Dad is surely up there. But then if there is a heaven, there must also be a hell and the thoughts of eternal hell is not at all pleasant. If hell is a reality it surely should be feared and yet the final judgement is like an exam around the corner and I continually fail to revise for the test.
Do we shove the realities of death too far away, should we face the challenge of life more square on? Wouldn't it be better if there was neither heaven nor hell, if we just lived the best or worse we could and then died? Eternity is quite a long time.Eternal bliss has it's advantages but if there is such a thing as eternal damnation should we not be better prepared?
For me I would like there to be nothing after death, you live, you die, that's it, feck it.I'm no good at tests.They're all fine and dandy if you pass but what about the failures? This eternal life after death is a feckin curse. Can you imagine dying, that's bad enough , but being rent from your friends and family and leaving this life alone? All alone facing into a new heaven or a new hell without a hand to hold , lips to kiss or worries to be shared? Fuck me! I hate doing anything on my own, even nipping down to Aldi, let alone facing into eternal hellfire pain and torment and watching Liverpool.
Also are there degrees of heaven and hell? If I never park in a mother and baby space, stay faithful , pay a few bills and don't murder anyone, should I really be in the penthouse suite with Mother Theresa ? Conversely if I were to punch a few politicians, drive my car without a tax disc and steal a pound of sausages from Tesco, should I really share a bunk bed with Adolf Hitler?


So this weeks challenge poetry peeps is to tell me your reality. Your hopes, fears, worries, dreams, hope, despairs, indifference of the next life, or lack of it.Whether you be catholic, agnostic, protestant, muslim, atheist, buddhist, Jew, mormon, amish, baptist, liverpool fan, whatever tell me your truth in a poem.


Ps. I don't know anything about anything but I was walking (again, I do my best thinking while drunk and/or walking) and absent mindedly thinking about all my relatives that I loved and who had supported me unconditionally through my life and I was thinking how I was lost without them and their support when this gust of wind from nowhere pushed me gently but firmly in the back along the path. I being a kind of a 'believer' took this to mean that though 'gone' they were still with me and also that I would see them again.I took some comfort from this.

If I weren't a believer it might just have been a meaningless isolated meteorological phenomenon, or an abstract ethereal blip . Either,all, or none, could be true. Let me know!


Write them poems! And put a comment in my comments box so I can post links to all your pomes.The Bus leaves on Monday burt here are a few early birds...

fORGET IGNORANCE, POETRY IS BLISS.. ask Karen!


Double Trouble Teressa
And apron strings eternal


Moo! Watch out for Weaver!
http://weaverofgrass.blogspot.com/2010/02/catching-poetry-bus-early.html

Communionication with Peter Goulding
http://stammeringpoet.blogspot.com/2010/02/ticket-for-poetry-bus.html#comments

Sorting the Tiger Woods from the trees with Rachel Fox
http://crowd-pleasers.blogspot.com/2010/02/tiger-woods-to-publish-book-of-poems.html

Little light Lakatos
http://revolutionaryrevelry.blogspot.com/2010/02/monday-poetry-bus-respite.html?showComment=1267364424543_AIe9_BEOh3YUY2RRSfOCNvJVMbyHTpj8bcjbb0dZBaBg93r5cA-XGX1_E0rCsr3cHsLNxIrVdDaYaXeG8mWxuJWOkKbsdTwT0VAiqz4y8mg8simpoW2JbozvQr1typVztMF21oqNOt1OPkcF1IWe3tRq0nfFjudO3_RM72SPNOydhaY_ALlRBGaXAT8WNPKSkTrzW4HUsuD9lclIIZVHrkXximj5tvMRcC_2BO2tWJK9b-PLRgHc5gu_mXvyf3QpDaiBu9nXxaGf#c254476379816654920

Lupus treading soft
http://shaistatayabali.blogspot.com/2010/02/footsteps.html

Come home, feed the cat , but Don't Feed The Pixies
http://hungrypixies.blogspot.com/2010/02/tfes-monday-poem.html

See God through Barbara's binoculars
http://intendednot2b.blogspot.com/2010/02/christening-through-binoculars.html

Life after death with Niamh
http://variouscushions.blogspot.com/2010/02/tfes-monday-poem-life-after-death.html

Weighty thoughts from Willow
http://willowmanor.blogspot.com/2010/02/mag-3-on-da-bus-dead-weight.html

Blast from the past Gypsy Moth Dominic Rivron
http://dominicrivron.blogspot.com/2010/02/herberts-heaven.html

Angsty then Argent goes to Nashville
http://argent-delusionsofadequacy.blogspot.com/2010/02/poetry-busferry-across-styx.html

Tell us Titus!
http://titusthedog.blogspot.com/2010/02/tfes-eternal-bus-of-belief-heavenwards.html?showComment=1267406514352_AIe9_BHLk4OKuG2gCIuvTf65cjMwOVtIt8kdmkXItfty8sOChJd6mhD_Fz9EXElsURwWyYGkSpixNhmirdam5UYoobJGpn7u1Hu9XaUaoEEdwbGaTPXHgfBSNqAGc5R5voYziHvL-9KU4kRN0bQF3QzRm-D1HXh8FW6iYPe8uCFtcoH5f62JOKCNHmmhlCIFCFgKHPTDnKlwMoYrzK6V0mAxI7oifrMYhGiBtwtbh-QR2_xIkrGbsE4-Aw1scffiKXjn-eoLCSDs#c4258917370256499807

Sleepy Swiss
http://travelsinthefloatingelvis.blogspot.com/2010/03/heaven-that-is-monday.html

One way ticket NanU
http://sciencegirltraveler.blogspot.com/2010/03/big-red-poetry-bus.html

Return Journey visions from the Fox
http://crowd-pleasers.blogspot.com/2010/03/and-theres-more.html

Gifts for the reaper The Watercats
http://thewatercats.blogspot.com/2010/03/totalfeckineejit-poetry-bus.html

Hungry is the night Pure Fiction
http://fictionalfictionwriter.blogspot.com/2010/03/tfes-poetry-bus-is-on-roooooaaad.html

Blowing bubbles with Emerging Writer
http://emergingwriter.blogspot.com/2010/03/tfes-writing-prompt.html

Sad Faith from Poetikat
http://hyggedigter.blogspot.com/2010/03/another-spin-on-poetry-bus-on-faith.html

'A wig of wires to helmet yourself '...... Winds of change from Padhraig Nolan
http://pjnolan.blogspot.com/2010/03/poetry-bussing-monday-poem.html

55 comments:

Heather said...

There are some who believe we all go to Heaven and that Hell is the bad times of life itself. If God loves us all no matter what, surely we do all get to Heaven. My Dad was convinced of that and sure that we would all meet again one day.

ArtSparker said...

Oh. man, I think about this stuff all the time. The only problem I can see is coming to a conclusion, because then you feel obliged to rush around converting other people or kicking their asses or making them dead. i prefer flow, possiblities, kindly gusts of wind to certainties. This may just make me a Californian. I might post something related, especially as Alice is all about conventional certainties and questions.

Tess Kincaid said...

You've got Aldi? I shop there, too. (I know, all these heavy thoughts on eternity, and I ask about Aldi.)

femminismo said...

I would love to write a poem about this. The gust of wind at your back is a great metaphor for the helping hands that may or may not be there -- but we'd like to think they are, wouldn't we? Caught between heaven and hell. If I were underwater, hanging on a cross, surrounded by plastic flowers, I can't say that, eternally, I'd be real happy!

Dominic Rivron said...

Is there life after death, or is life all there is? I rather like this quote:

“…Considering the marvelous complexity of the universe, clockwork perfection, it’s balances of this against that, matter, energy, gravitation, time and dimension, I believe that our existence must be more than either of these philosophies. That what we are goes beyond euclidean or other practical measuring systems and that our existence is part of a reality beyond what we understand now as reality.”

Jean Luc Picard

Dr. Jeanne Iris said...

Can't wait to get Dan-te this one, TFE, and share my NDE with y'all!

btw, I'll be wearing my red raincoat, so the bus driver won't miss me this time. ; )

Karen said...

Love the classy snow globe!

I'm patiently waiting at the bus stop. Tap. Tap. Tap. *Checking my watch.*

Oh, what the heck? Can we let Milton drive this time?

http://keepingsecrets-karen.blogspot.com/2010/02/blissful-seat.html

* said...

You are Irish, yes? {I think I read that somewhere, on some blog tonight}

My gram died last month and today I went through some of the stuff in her house. First time there without her there, you know. It was empty and bizarre and then my son (2 yrs old) messed his diaper. But yeah, I'm with you on the deep, ponderous thoughts today.

* said...

PS: I don't see any poetry links here, although I have a few I've written of late. Here they are...

Homage to Lucille Clifton

http://thechocolatechipwaffle.blogspot.com/2010/02/poem-homage-to-lucille-clifton.html


Can I give you 2 links? (What the hey, I am anyhow)...Here's the other one:

The mother-poet

http://thechocolatechipwaffle.blogspot.com/2010/02/poem-mother-poet.html

Dominic Rivron said...

Sorry, I think I got that quote slightly wrong. At the risk of being pedantic, I'll requote it (feel free to delete my previous comment):

"Considering the marvelous complexity of our universe, its clockwork perfection, its balances of this against that... matter, energy, gravitation, time, dimension, pattern, I believe our existence must mean more than a meaningless illusion. I prefer to believe that my and your existence goes beyond Euclidian and other "practical" measuring systems... and that, in ways we cannot yet fathom, our existence is part of a reality beyond what we understand now as reality."

Jean Luc Picard

Rachel Fox said...

Is it because I'm godless (completely!) that I don't think at all about next lives and all that (one thing less to worry about, pop-pickers)?

Saying that I have an old poem on the loose subject of heaven. I might post that and see what else tumbles out...

x

Batteson.Ind said...

... I refuse to go along with the hell thing.. why should there be a hell just becuase there's a heaven?.. I personally believe that it's a case of, you make your own ending. I belive there is something after, maybe we join a big mass of pure cosmic energy out in the universe or something.. and I believe in karma.. if you don't get things back in this life, you will in the next....

so, if you nicked some sausages from tescos now, next time round, you'll be a sausage.. or something... ahh.. don't ask me how it works!

The Weaver of Grass said...

Your title for this post somehow brings Lisdoovarna to mind - can't think why? Shall now go away and ponder on heaven, hell and somewhere in between - limbo I suppose.

Totalfeckineejit said...

Heather, I like the cut of your gib.And if God loves us like you say he wouldn't want us to fail.I don't want my children to fail and I'm no( almost but not quite) a god.
Your Dad maybe right.

Totalfeckineejit said...

Sparkey, you is wonderful!

Totalfeckineejit said...

Yeh, Willow, we got Aldi! We got cheap beer and Wine, we got potato wedges and strawberry smoothies, we got gourmet pizzas, we got prawn cocktail, scampi and aloe vera toilet rolls.In short, we got heaven on a stick!

Totalfeckineejit said...

And yet.Feminiso , some people's idea of heaven is exactly that! Or is that hell? Either way I'm totally looking forward to your poem. Welcome aboard!LOng live the gusts of wind! (so long as they're not your own!)

Totalfeckineejit said...

Jean Paul Sartre has a lot to learn from Jean Luc Pitard!Dominuso.

Totalfeckineejit said...

Ok red rain coat Jeanne, will you be singin in the rain? (Hey Dan, tay! In fer now?)

Totalfeckineejit said...

Karen, Milton, Driving? Wasn't he blind?Butbthen he was republican, but then he praised cromwell.Ah, feck it, let him drive, if we don't like him we won't have a whip-round.

Rainey J. Dillon said...

ah jaysus I don't know..my head is feckin' wrecked now thinkin' about it! The good thing is(if you're Catholic-ish) that they decided to get rid of 'limbo'..ha!- add THAT into the pot & you heaven/hell via zombie-ism...oooh but hasn't hell been outed too?
'tis all in the mind all in the mind ..the mind the mad mind !

Totalfeckineejit said...

Teressa , the more pomes the better!

Totalfeckineejit said...

Completely godless , Foxy? Time will tell! Lookinn forward to yer poemtries!

Totalfeckineejit said...

SoWatercateenskis if I knicked a porno video Would I come back as a porn star..again?

Totalfeckineejit said...

OOOOHHHHH LIssdoonvarna!Lissdoon, Lissdoon, Lissdoon varna!This could be heaven, this could be hell, who the hell knows , who can tell!Ohhhh Lisdoonvarna, Lissdoon, Lissdoon, Lissdoonvarna!!!

Thanbks Weavo!!

Rainey J. Dillon said...

I'm pretty sure that shoe shop on your header is on Talbot Street? But that ou'fella is usually on Henry St with a monkey & a trumpet!
Thanks for visiting my bloggy petal!
Rainey

Totalfeckineejit said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Totalfeckineejit said...

THe Josie BaggleyCompany, what A cool Moniker!Welcome Welkcome, WElcome!And LImbo , Yes, What the feck happened to Limbo ? First therte was, then there wasn't. Hopefully next they'll tewll us thetres neiTHER HAEN NOR HELLUS.Mainly, i BET, cos some o dem will be headin fer a fRYIN!

Rainey J. Dillon said...

yeh spittin'stories with that hot bloke the divil! Feckin t(h)icks ..useless as an effin' chocolate teapot! eh what are we wafflin' about..? I'm delicah -sometimes I'm not here

The Weaver of Grass said...

Am jumping (well, staggering) on the bus early this week eej as I am having a teeny break from blogging - shall spend the weekend stretched out on the back seat easing my troubled back! So whoever drives the bus on Monday tell him/her to drive gently and miss the potholes. In the meantime, I have posted my poetic contribution this morning. Have a nice weekend.

Peter Goulding said...

Heaven? Hell? Who cares, so long as there's football.
Meanwhile, I've booked my ticket and am standing here in the rain two days early...

Rachel Fox said...

Well, I was going to post tomorrow but I see the bus is already on the road so here you are.

x

Titus said...

Lawks! There's people posting already. I'll try and be there for Monday.

Dr. Jeanne Iris said...

Okay TFE, my poem is up, up and away! I'm standing out here with my red coat on, knee deep in snow... hope the bus wheels by soon! : )


wv: inexesco: a new shopping center where everything is in excess and completely unnecessary!

Dr. Jeanne Iris said...

Oops.... forgot to mention...
My poem's up on this site:
http://revolutionaryrevelry.blogspot.com

Kat Mortensen said...

Are you sure you want to open this Pandora's Box with me? Well then...stay tuned on Monday. (If it's earlier, I'll let you know.)

Did you get my e-mail response?

Kat

Shaista said...

Hello Total, we haven't met before but I have seen your work around :)
I have just posted a poem that resembles your requirements - it is my last hurrah, before I leave this worldly seat.
Footsteps http://shaistatayabali.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Hi TFE, Peter G's poem reminded me of some of all the occasions we've been in church for, so I wrote about one particular christening :)

Tess Kincaid said...

My ticket for the bus is posted! Swing by the manor and pick me up, EEj!

http://willowmanor.blogspot.com/2010/02/mag-3-on-da-bus-dead-weight.html

Don't Feed The Pixies said...

decided to play this week :)

Niamh B said...

Inspiring challenge TFE, I'm all aboard.

Dominic Rivron said...

Poem posted!

http://dominicrivron.blogspot.com/2010/02/herberts-heaven.html

Argent said...

I'm on, I have my ticket - or my penny for the ferryman or whatever!

Titus said...

Phew! Thought I was gonna miss it, but whipped something together at the last minute. I have my ticket! I'm aboard!

swiss said...

and me too...

NanU said...

Here you are, mistereejitsir!
Can't wait to make the rounds tonight.

Rachel Fox said...

Oh heck, I'm sorry about this...I've done another one! Might you add it on? Or is there a limit...

It's here.

Do I get overtime for this?

x

Batteson.Ind said...

we is rolling! :-)

http://thewatercats.blogspot.com/2010/03/totalfeckineejit-poetry-bus.html

just to make life a bit easier!

Pure Fiction said...

Late as usual :), but can I hop on now?

What a great prompt - it made me think (actually it did my head in, but in a good way)

Now I'm off to see what it's produced

Emerging Writer said...

I am on board. Late but then again, I'm planning not to die anyway

Padhraig Nolan said...

Fluck! Luckit all dem poems! Eejit, you've a whole other thing going on here these days. Here's my take;

http://pjnolan.blogspot.com/2010/03/poetry-bussing-monday-poem.html

Kat Mortensen said...

Here you go: http://hyggedigter.blogspot.com/2010/03/another-spin-on-poetry-bus-on-faith.html

Kat Mortensen said...

TFE, Just to let you know, I've added a second poem to my post. You might find it a shade more uplifting.

Kat

Titus said...

Whoo Whoo TFE (is that a train noise - sorry) that was a great ride this week and it would appear that the bus is now a triple-decker. Waiting for yours, please.

Karen said...

You don't bring me flowers; you don't sing me lovesongs...oh, wait..wrong blog...You don't read my poems? You don't leave me comments? Hmmm. Second time. Getting a complex here. On the other hand, maybe you're still driving around the block and can't find a place to park chez moi.