140 The Pain of Life

Old Nietzsche wrote of those who preach the death-
He ever spoke to show their foolishness,
Yet also did he speak of higher breath,
And greater life first seeks a death of less.
The preachers well convey the pain of life,
For each and ev’ry day the battles wage,
‘Tis in a man, or out that reigns the strife,
He cannot stand for loss or creeping age.
But Nietzsche spoke of newer men to come-
A life unbroke by strife and painful hue.
And yet we must transcend our present home
Our horrid lives must end, to live anew.
The soul can be reborn to newer life,
Yet first it must be torn to rip the strife.
© Jerusalemrising (Tyler O’Neil)
Written January 31, 2007

139 Solitude

Emotion thwarts the student in his work,
Distraction steals away his ev’ry thought,
He gains in wretched sloth, to duty shirk,
And knows but never does the thing he ought.
No peace is found in such a mindless state,
And thus the student must devote his mind,
Yet ev’ry weak attempt does seem a waste,
When ev’ry focus fails, his will maligned.
And thus he seeks to truly be alone,
Where no distraction may corrupt his read,
Yet solitude on Earth cannot be known,
No man from sly distraction can be freed.
The man who tires of this great disease,
Will give his cares to God upon his knees.
© Jerusalemrising (Tyler O’Neil)
Written January 29, 2007

138 Upon the Nature of Good and Evil

The skeptics say there is no good and bad,
Their broken way has taught them not to think,
For ev’ry action’s right or wrong, my lad,
These things your very might can never sink.
‘Tis very hard to tell of right and wrong-
Yet spirit knows full well the very things,
It says you ought to sing a certain song-
And is distraught when wrongful spirit sings.
If seen aright, perversion is the wrong-
The evil blight still seeks for something good-
The murderer may kill for justice’ song,
The theif’s down-battered will just longs for food.
The Evil search for good in wrongful ways,
So act the way you should, for virtue’s praise.
© Jerusalemrising (Tyler O’Neil)
Written January 28, 2007

137 The Lovers of Nature

The lovers of the Earth are seen as wise.
Their reputations fly on winged birds.
The common-folk do see from crooked eyes
The vision that these prophets spoke in words.
The common man sees them as full complete,
He reads of them, and speaks of “wiser” ways,
He never questions elevated seat,
Imagination easily betrays.
For ev’ry poet longs for something more-
He never finds the answer which he seeks,
The nature lovers did not find the core,
They see the other man upon the peaks.
The fullest wisdom lies behind the Earth-
Look there, not here, to find the fullest worth.
© Jerusalemrising (Tyler O’Neil)
Written January 28, 2007

136 The Peace of Earth

The peace of Earth is not a peace at all,
No thing of worth will lead to direst shame,
Yet unrestricted love will take its fall,
And selfish careless shove will lose its aim.
The method of the Earth is to defeat,
To hoard all things of worth unto yourself,
Such selfish greed, at souls does ever eat,
The horrid seed of all perverted wealth.
The body’s love is not a full design,
For selfless love is such a thing’s intent.
Ambition for the self will self malign,
No greatest living wealth on self is bent.
To find a peace divine, look not to here,
The heart-desires shine beyond the sphere.
© Jerusalemrising (Tyler O’Neil)
Written January 24, 2007

135 The Greatest Force

It lies ahead- there is the greatest force,
The soul is dead, corrupted at its core,
Our fullest selves emerge through self-divorce,
From Nature we diverge to something more.
Through centuries of change, grand Nature’s grown,
Yet changes of the age are greater still,
The mother’s work is man, by him she’s known,
Her greatest perk exhausted, man’s her fill.
Yet still the cry of “instinct” can be heard,
The foulest lie is that our lust is right.
From gluttons fattened bone, control is learned,
Perfection though, alone- will end the blight!
As man o’er Nature rules, he shall transcend
Yet God does hold the tools, our selves to end.
© Jerusalemrising (Tyler O’Neil)
Written January 18, 2007

134 Upon the Subject

The man who looks upon the world he sees,
The rotting books, the sun and leaves and grass,
The man whose soul is one with balmy breeze,
Will love the yellow sun, and will not last.
It is by all agreed this world will fall,
The atheists concede the sun’s collapse,
The end of time is told by one and all,
To every rhyme there comes a final lapse.
The question lies, why write of dying Earth?
Romantic eyes see not what lies above.
Must not the seeker see a thing of worth,
To tell its majesty, and light thereof?
The short, temporal life will soon depart,
Its song, upon the fife will leave the heart.
© Jerusalemrising (Tyler O’Neil)
Written January 16, 2007

133 The Second Temporal Enigma

The flaws of man are numerous indeed,
Since time began, he does lament his wrong,
And yet he looses more in such a deed,
His short temporal store will soon be gone.
The self is not the same from time to time
Now lion strong, now lame, time takes its toll,
Each moment lost does hold a part of him,
'Tis living's cost, a limit on the soul.
Yet man's a fool, he cannot know the whole,
So time's a tool, to teach his empty mind,
The past illuminates his seeking soul,
As nearing death degrades his growing find.
Is time an evil curse, a theif of wealth,
Is ignorance not worse than death itself?
© Jerusalemrising (Tyler O’Neil)
Written on January 14, 2007

132 Morality

The skepticists hold “right” to be a taste,
The “moralists” are far too strict indeed,
And yet when they are wronged, this view they waste,
No matter how prolonged, it must recede.
For theft and murder’s blight, are not a taste,
No man would call them right in his right mind,
“Morality” must not then be a waste,
Reality declares the skeptic blind.
All times diverge to some quite vast extent,
New tastes emerge, and change affects the faith,
Yet all, in truth, converge to one consent,
And all religions merge, this truth portray.
In Egypt, Greece, or Rome, or even here,
The Right and Wrong are home to men sincere.
© Jerusalemrising (Tyler O’Neil)
Written January 4, 2007

131 Corruption

The wise of time agone did well devise,
Their method, greatly strong, was well conceived,
Yet as the rest, which ever slowly dies,
It failed the test, and men no more believed.
An order new is now the question heard,
The thinkers brew another system strong,
To think that it will stand is yet absurd,
The one afore was grand, and it went wrong.
Mankind asserts the flaw to their design,
The breaking of the jaw, to bone itself,
They never ask what agent did malign,
But simply cast a stronger living wealth.
Corruption deals its mighty blow severe,
For order’s steel, mankind must be austere.
© Jerusalemrising (Tyler O’Neil)
Written January 2, 2007

130 The Source

A man cannot describe the right and wrong.
The method he contrives is full amiss,
To show the form through what in it belongs
Cannot inform, and leads to great distress.
Alas a gift does then present itself-
None is adrift from what these forms contain,
Thus man is not compelled to share the wealth,
As it’s through all dispelled, none need attain.
Yet if mankind’s aware of good and bad,
The virtues he does share must not be his,
But those of one beyond his knowing clan,
They are the son of what mankind consists.
A puzzle then, the link of all mankind,
Excels the ken, its finder shall be wise.
© Jerusalemrising (Tyler O’Neil)
Written January 2, 2007

129 Progress

The ages pass, and men grow slowly old,
Time moving fast, a merciless command,
And now the people ask if time is gold,
If it performs a task so truly grand.
The man who knows disdain does answer no,
In time before the pain he once was glad,
Now sadness reigns, his heart is ever cold,
He knows the pains he once had never had.
The happy man does answer loudly yes,
He now does stand atop the golden stair,
He does remember well his old distress,
And will quite gladly tell of dead despair.
Yet neither speaker knows full well the truth,
For as emotion grows, it blinds the sleuth.
© Jerusalemrising (Tyler O’Neil)
Written January 1, 2007