(In one of our regular Creekside Poets gatherings, i.e., on Earth Day! … upon prompting from our leader, the amazing Sylvia Manning, I wrote a little “impromptu”-poem about Earth Day being an extra special day for me. April 22nd is both Earth Day and the birthday of my deceased brother Lawrence “Larry” Martin, or as some called him in the San Antonio area, “the amazing Mr. Martin”. [Lawrence Alton was born in Nixon, Texas, the second of six siblings to Louise & Alton Martin, a little more than a year after me.]
That Earth Day of the Creekside Poets gathering on the second floor of the beuatiful Seguin Public Library, I quickly scratched the poem out on an already-used sheet of paper … all I had that day … and now have misplaced it and perhaps inadvertently tossed it in the trash?
The sweet poem below is a response to my poem about my brother Lawrence Alton Martin, from the kind heart of a Creekside Poet colleague, who is a much, much better poet than I.)
i suppose i will have doubts about
it all until i pass
but then … i am certain that for MY
life it will not matter
(well … in this moment of
twenty-twenty four, … the eight billion, … and consumption–for sectors, of
well over 300,000 kilocalories per capita per day
of this i am dead sure
WE are the problem
of rampant, out-of-control consumerism, neoliberal capitalism, militarism … and
ecological destruction and socio-ecological injustice,
… and NOT DJT
but speaking of death, i suppose
that a smoothly realized real solution is pretty much dead! dead!! dead!!!
we simply cannot get degrowth into
our head … into our psyche … into our ethos!)
………………………………….
ok now! … let’s
focus on the spiritual more than the uncertain certainty.
i’m sorry old devine classmate
richard guajardo … that I am picking on you once again
nevertheless, you did put the
doubt there in my spirit in the seventh grade with your tough queries of those
poor nuns who were indoctrinating us
these difficult but necessary questions made me question religious
dogma and doctrine,
including later … the dogma and
doctrine of capitalism (that many propagandizers, even john q. & suzie q.
public, have said to be even better than sliced bread)
anyway, another old friend robert
cruz told me that you and you poet twin brother, virgil, eventually became
evangelicals
now … you and virgil are up there
in heavenly heaven
and when i pass, i’ll simply be in
the mystic
at any rate some in their deeply sorrowful
regret say i’m not spiritual because i’m not very into this “God business”
mostly i just don’t care … and i am
sorry, because i do realize that it bothers the caca out of some
(some of these some have even
suggested mescaline, psilocybin, other brain-resetting drugs as a cure;
however, i have not been much into drugs other than alcohol
[and my alcohol intake has been
self-regulated more as at the age of almost seventy-eight i have increasing
troubles with that elder problem of a certain male organ])
it was helene tamarin a lovely ignostic jewish friend i met in nicaragua and stayed with during my 2415-mile bicycle journey for democratic socialist bernie in 2016
who really made me ponder about
the myths of the easter bunny, santa claus, and other Gods … and then ignostically
mostly forgetting about it
…………………………
spirituality? … as mentioned
previously herein, some speak strongly that paul bain martin is not spiritual
because of his ignosticism. … could
be!??!
……………….
alone and overwhelmed in the midst
of atlanta at a national entomological meeting when i was a young wet-behind-the-ears
research scientist who had a presentation to make on natural management to make
in a couple of hours before very experienced researchers, including those paid by
transnational synthetic biocide manufacturers
… and finding home and wonderful
solace in the amazing catholic cathedral on peachtree street
yep! that was spiritual!!!
mom st. louise’s home in devine,
mom hoffmann’s home in rio medina, our home at 605 elm seguin Texas
the beautifully sparkling greens
and yellows and lovely light del sol de lamañana
after waking while tent-camping in
Unicoi state park, north georgia mountains
one lovely spring
garner state park, the texas hill
country; any of the beaches of rio de janerio with beautiful “garotas de ipanema”;
swimming in the enormously fantastic spring-fed
pool at balmorhea; the plaza and the farmers market in santa fe; the french
quarter, new orleans; the zocalo de
ciudad Oaxaca
those are spiritual!
the deep dark green, green, green carpathian
mountains in ukraine and eating homemade noodle soup cooked on a
cast-iron/porcelain wood-stove, fresh blueberries from the sheep-browsed
meadows and with fresh cream from their cows outside
while visiting with farmer-friends
and drinking way too much vodka
ave marias at funerals. high masses sung in latin
some of my most spiritual of
times!!!
the sparkling eyes of spiritually
elderly and very alive esmeralda santos ramirez in her modest rural home in the
mountains of zapote, comayagua, honduras
betsy’s smile and beauty that christmas
night my eyes met hers across the quihi dance hall near rio medina, the love we
made all night six months later after we wed at st. louis catholic church -castroville
… and danced and drank champagne ‘til midnight … there again at that lovely
quihi dance hall out in the midst of nowhere
real family. friends!
poet friends!! grandkids!!!
heaven!!!
south texas brush country
where i hope to die.
onde eu vou me deitar “para sempre.”
where I will lay down “forever.”
… next to my wife betsy and my kneuper grandparents. with a headstone about the necessity of
degrowth.
at going -on seventy-eight, an
amazing spouse of fifty-three years, a real home in seguin, Texas with family
and friends near … as well as spread across this old eaarth
… “crying-accompanied spirituality” comes more
often nowadays
i’m insignificant. who cares. we simply shouldn’t worry about it … about anything
sweetly dream on and on and on pablo
……………….
do i sleep well EVERY night?
hell no!
gotta get up at five and milk bossy before the school bus arrives
i have a bunch of latin responses for mass to memorize
i must get down coach gustafson’s trick devine warhorse football play before friday night in hondo
daddy won’t let me take kathy to the track meet in the car … guess i’ll pick her up in the bobtail pig-hauling truck
that SAT test matters!
i have to report on galbraith’s “the affluent society” and then gun control policy in my aggie speech class … and world record-holder shot-putter randy mattson is a classmate!
i am director of pest management for the TEXAS Department of Agricuture!!!
our st. philip’s president lecture series committee has to prepare for the arrivals of ossie davis, desmond tutu’s daughter, & chris hedges!
i have a poem to write for creekside poets
I AM IMPORTANT!!!!!!
***********************
“honey, will you please take out the trash before the city workers get here!
and you’re going to have to wash the dishes this morning, i have a federated women’s club meeting to get to”
***********************
will the 117 billion human beings and countless, TRULY COUNTLESS, other organisms which have existed for 3.7 billion years miss me?
will the 117 billion and countless other organisms even be missed?
(they’ve only been here for 3.7 billion years of the universe’s 13.7 billion years of existence)
… naw! … they’re insignificant
************************
HELL YEAH THEY”LL BE MISSED
HAVEN’T YOU HEARD OF EVOLUTION AND THE WEB OF LIFE AND ALL OF THE IMPORTANT UNKNOWN AND KNOWN SUB-ATOMIC, ATOMIC, MOLECULAR, CELLULAR, ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS AND CONNECTIVITY SINCE THE BIG BANG … AND THE UNKNOWN CONNECTIONS BEFORE
YOU, WE … ALL ARE AN IMPORTANT, IF INSIGNIFICANT, PART OF ALL OF THAT!
certainly!?! all of you hunters can shoot all of the birds!
isto e, as long as i have control and draw the line
…………………………..
i am in line!!!
i am perfectly normal and very overtly gay
and i am certain there is nothing better that those exotically erotically dancing, prancing birds
………………………….
ookaaay! perhaps this poem IS for the birds
and more of it (for the birds) than just one little line
but that’s part of the reason why we are so joyously and playfully gay
…………………………..
my seventy-seven-year-plus learned opinion??? … desantis is of course not in line because “Don’t say gay (or they)” is a line that is very definitely for the birds
(i certainly do fully realize that the devil is in the details
and there is much more to the story
and you do not have to believe
but it is Truth
it is good science
which involves the most basic of science …
physics … the second law of thermodynamics)
……………..
less is more
………………
your extremes of: comfort … and hedonism and greed and gluttony and pride … and order
do mean discomfort, suffering and horror for others
(it means continuation of genocide and increasing extinction, disparity and War)
………………
rigid borders, walls, fences, barbed wire, guns and armaments including a selfish greed for the nuclear … and local and global soldiering vs. solidarity and PEACEmaking, or “positively ethical applied community ecology”
large air-conditioned homes and schools, and businesses, especially transnational corporations
automobiles, glamorous clothing
aviation and air travel, cruises
neoliberal captitalistic high-input curative health care vs. a more socio-ecologically just low-input preventative health care system which is more profoundly- and holistically-sound
highly organized precision industrialized agrilogistics of no-tillage and LEPA and drip irrigation, etc., etc.
even much of our silly feel-good, arrogant “science” vs. real science toward sustainable resilient local/global ecological community
the more kilocalories your transform (fossil or otherwise … even so-called green energy), the more chaos you create
and the more you reduce a natural Nature (my “God”) and climax ecological communities
or what might be called dynamic homeostatic symbioses
Two “poems” for Poetry Night at the Seguin Public Library, Thursday, 6:00 pm, April 18th, 2024
Lovely Lady Beetle Larvae
by Owen Schaefer & grandpa paul bain martin
…………….
lady beetle larvae are falling freely from the old oak tree
(down on smiling grandson owen and a very happy me)
what fantastic lady beetles they will be
(psst … they are hard-fore-winged BEETLES with chewing mouthparts and NOT true bugs with distinct triangles on their backs and piercing-sucking mouthparts)
…………………….
now some say the larvae are quite ugly
but not to owen and not to me
……………………….
now LISTEN! all of you folk out there …
… IF we totally realized that all life was beautiful
perhaps to nature we would be much more dutiful!?!
Changing Eaarth … to a Neo-Earth of Quality Life for More
by paul bain martin
……………
por favor you all,
write me a consequential line
(or 2 or 3)
that is so very meaningful & fine
about how?? YOU/I/ … WE!
can truly begin to significantly change somewhat
this dying artificialized Eaarth
of neoliberal capitalistic economic growth & so very much conspicuous consumption, …
of 8 billion humans, and even more numerous domesticated species,
who are each transforming to the detriment of a healthy Earth
up to 300,000+ Calories (with a large “C”, … or kilocalories) of energy daily.
(& also perhaps why??? we should work on this change)
(Eaarth is Bill McKibben’s appellation, with an extra “a”,
says paul bain martin,
for an Agrilogistically industrialized globe,
for Artificialized & plasticized,
for the Anthropocene with its many ecological challenges,
perhaps especially involving greenhouse gases)
I beg of you to tell me in a few of your word-jewels
how we can systematically begin to change
for the short term and long, locally & globally
this constantly War-torn Eaarth
of guns, arms, armaments … including nuclear
to a robustly living, more natural neo-Earth
of plenty of good topsoil, quality air & water, and an abundance of photsynthesizers & biodiversity, and fantastic daily solar energy capture
(a world of diverse climax ecological communites
full of vibrant quality life and socio-ecological justice for all
…………………….
pleeeaase!
please do try to help both your immediate family & friends …
and all of humanity … and all of biota … and all of a dynamic homeostatic symbioses.
for all!!!
keep what you write short and sweet
but put some substantial time and profoundly deep & extensive thought into it.
and do it right away!
(send it to paul bain martin,
a small pig-farmer’s son and lowly land-grant university grad in agricultural entomology
who if he isn’t deeply into humility, should be!
a stubborn not overly-bright anglo-texan
who is a wannabe “Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecologist”,
… or PEACEmaker,
who does care
… and desperately needs help
in his hopes at beginning a bit
towards profoundly & holistically realizing
a neo-Earth.)
………………….
… send anonymously or not
your succinct ideas for solutions
to 605 Elm Street, Seguin, Texas 78155
or pbainmartin@gmail.com .
now! … ASAP!! … … OR whenever you can!!!
(he’ll work at putting your ideas into a book …
and into action!)
with love,
pablo martín
(PLEASE JUST SEND ME JUST ANYTHING OF SOME SIGNIFICANCE TO YOU!
which isn’t much in the whole scheme of things given …
o thirteen point seven billion years of quadrillions and quadrillions rollings of dice which roll on, and on, and on …
o three hundred thousand years of human existence … and the eight billion of these beings currently existing which exceed Earth’s carrying capacity because of the consumption of the Haves and prevalence of domesticated species … poultry, beeves, dogs, cats, and so on and so on
that’s why i do as texan and president lyndon baines johnson said
i work at realizing a sustainable livelihood of teaching, preaching, & politicking that all should have sustainable livelihoods of teaching, preaching, and politicking
and the salient point of this teaching, preaching, and politicking is mostly encapsulated in eswazi economic anthropologist jason hickle’s simple mantra … “Less Is More”
… get out of the way of Nature (that is, dynamic homeostatic symbioses)
nevertheless, do always and constantly also try a bit to give it your best shot throughout your existence … to grease the way for quality lives for ALL who exist or will exist
but i reiterate …
mostly just get out of the way
…………………
HOWEVER,
(and again, mea culpa)
in this process of sustainable livelihoods of less is more …
seriously nagging aggravations do frequently get in the way …
o the special “true” religious Gods “in a ‘Heaven’ ‘somewhere'” which foment status quo
o those who are “blessed”
o apathy & complacency … prayer … rather than any real action toward doing once’s necessary bit of greasing the way for the disenfrachised, the powerless, the poor, the have-nots
o rampant, senseless consumption, and artificialization
o economic growth; trickle-down economics; agrilogistic/industrial/synthetic/plastic/electron-electromagnetic production of so very much artificial & useless stuff … and information/misinformation/disinformation
o the currently very prevalent and powerful and socially- and ecologically- destructive God of neoliberal capitalism, militarism, and widespread local & global acts of very narcissistic & greedy, hedonistic consumption
o global transnational corporate propaganda hitting us from the right and the left, from down below and from up above … that we must not be satisfied! we gotta have MORE!!!
