Declaration of Interdependence, on the occasion of the semiquincentennial

 

The Beast In Us

     In the past few weeks, a bright and beautiful muse reminded me of how time is timeless and how the Gods(desses), and we in their image, craft our existences with a mere thought. The thought can then, through our conscious intention, become an object such as art; in this case—music and poetry. And it was the particular nature of my muse's artistic expression that drew me back to the passion of my youthful angst that enjoyed unveiling the zeitgeist of the time through poetry and song. 

     The other day, William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell echoed to me. Finding one of my literature anthologies from college (my B.A. is in Lit.), I read that, as well as several other of his works, and recalled how much I love that time in literature. Both the restrictive nature of specific meter and rhyme scheme, as well as the use of poetry for sociopolitical protest, always appealed to me in the paradox of working within strict parameters while letting loose the flames of righteous indignation. I largely abandoned this type of poetry in 1995 after being harshly criticized by my professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary poet, Stephen Dunn, who told me that my writing was “antiquated” and that I should try writing in free form. 

     We find ourselves in a particularly volatile and uncertain place in today's world. Our nation, here in the U.S., stands at risk of losing its democracy, the very essence of the foundation for which we fought nearly 250 years ago, freeing us from the tyranny of feudalism. Our country stands on the principles of the U.S. Constitution and especially in its Bill of Rights, and in true form, our country has used its right to Free Speech to protect our voices and effect change or make corrections. Should we begin to devolve to a time when the human brain primarily consisted of its hindbrain, lacking a frontal lobe and prefrontal cortex to intelligently think about our choice for barbarism (the fight or flight state of animals' survival-of-the-fittest), we can collectively gather, raising our arms and voices, and shout, "We the People!" in our demand for an equal society under the law.

     It is in the spirit of my literary forebears (rest in peace, Mr. Dunn, forgive my transgression) that I present a work-in-progress of 8 stanzas of 4 rhyming couplets, in iambic tetrameter, voicing how I feel about the immediate threat to the sovereignty of our Democracy.

Image generated by Gabrielle Cianfrani's poetic prompt,
in the spirit of Blake's etchings,
rendered by our robot overlords

The Beast In Us
Scrawled in the Ashes of Democracy

By An Angry American Bitch

Through battered gates of Now, I trod,
Where Reason’s corpse lies cold, unshod,
A land of trolls and liar’s din,
Where fascist brutes creep forth in sin.
The ICE-Men march, their chains a-clank,
To cage the meek on Freedom’s bank,
Their raids spotlight a savage might,
Cruelty masked in Star-Striped light.

Below, the DOGE-beast howls and bays,
circus of frauds in frenzied craze,
False prophets with a vacant stare,
Preach wealth to rocks, to empty air.
Palantir’s eye, all-seeing, gleans,
A Silicon God, wet data dreams,
Surveils the soul, and binds the free,
Spying lens, bends Liberty’s knee.

The pious swarm, with crosses high,
Their gospel twists, their tongues belie,
The religious right, a zealot throng,
Would bomb the world to prove it wrong.
Anti-Life, they raise their flag,
Books to ash, and thought to slag.
The tanking market, planned decay,
To fatten lords while serfs obey.

USAID, peace-pimp of yore,
Gets axed for laughs by budget Whore,
Allies wince, foolish tariffs slap,
Consumers caught in price war trap.
Schools churn dolts for TikTok reels,
Health’s a scam for snake-oil deals,
Disease we once kept well in line,
Co-opted by reviled Schwein.

The Constitution frays and splits,
A parchment torn by power’s fits,
Democracy, a threadbare jest,
Hangs bleeding on a tyrant’s chest.
Across the globe the darkness spread,
From Putin’s reign to Xi’s red thread,
The ballot box, a hollow shell,
Echoes screams from Freedom’s knell.

Democracy, her bleeding feet,
Now drags bare through every street—
And none will lift her from the dust
For fear–AI and Elon Musk.
The Tree of Liberty was felled

By hands that once its branches held.
And still they cried, “Land of the Blessed!”
As babe was torn from mother’s breast.

In old time Hell, the devils danced,
But here they rule, their spears advanced,
Will camps return, the ovens hum,
While patriots beat a deafened drum?
The empty ghosts in MAGA caps,
Applaud as rights are left for scraps,
And as We Woke and rose to trust
Sun set on Freedom, Truth, and Just.

We drown in jetsam deep in mire,
Our Inferno lit by human fire,
The past and present join as one,
Damning all time, a world undone.
No angel comes, no savior’s call,
Just we, the fools, who forged it all—
A satire? No, a mirror’s gleam,
Of sleeping world’s fascist wet dream.

Gabrielle Cianfrani

April 5, 2025

Love Verse

 

 

When I am alone, I sing songs to him. 

Do vibrations travel through subatomic airwaves at the speed of sound,

that along with intention, 

Kinetically find their way to his temporal lobes, 

so he thinks that the music is 

always coming from 

within?

When I sing to him, do my songs bring his heart to reverberate like a million 

electric kisses that flutter his particles into 

harmonic resonance,

circulating through his being,

attracting all of the love he is

into a mass of energy, 

exploding back to me,

so that we are entangled

in the Universe’s dance—

like old lovers?

Are my songs to him like photons of light

that cannot be confined, or

destroyed;

escaping the illusion of

Time and Space?

Do my songs ignite shadows,

revealing a brilliant color prism

from crown to toe that illuminate his 

Core, 

like blasting off with DMT,

architecting a spectacular cathedral 

of expanding intricacies, 

emanating and adding to his own

Inner Light—

pure love radiating truth that

Sets Fire to the Cosmos within?

“I only want to hold you, I don’t want to tie you down, or fence you in the lines I might have drawn. But I’ll still sing you love songs…”

 

Gabrielle Cianfrani, 2023

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Core

The Core

For every night my weary head falls 

on pillows as soft as my broken heart;

For every morning the radiance of brilliant

sun sneaks its beams through safe darkness

 of my shattered window pane;

I fall and rise, encircled in Love,

pure and true

to share with You; 

not expecting, but sending wishes to Heaven 

Illimitably expansive, intimately treasured,

circular flow, everlasting freedom

elemental breath of life



Gabrielle Cianfrani 
July 25, 2019

Transmutation

FuturePeak, Boulder Creek, CA July 2018

Dancing alone, wide, green eyes gazing up

starry, wondrous sky, expanding;

Twirling around, counter-clockwise motion, 

arms grounding, extended hands,

compassionate Universe,

transforming Ego,

longing for flight—

Heaven 

Heightening True Love to raise like seeds,

blown from trees, afloat, featherlight,

lifting above suffering

Earth’s dreamscape,

Where separations enmesh;

Fear evaporates like intense

summer storm, quickly dissipating into

atmospheric tranquility

You, guiding your feet to meet me,

dancing your own, unique rhythm, 

vibrational ascension,

holding each timeless moment

freedom for all beings;

Composing creations, interwoven like Tabriz and Kashan,

collaborative, masterful designs—

bliss and peace 

Fly weightless, infinitely deep,

high above temporal clouds, 

obscuring neither pure mind nor soul;

contented abandonment of aloneness,

intermingling independent movement;

spinning clear light, resonating,

strumming heart strings— 

One Song

  

No-Bull Apes

Princess Ida had a thought inside 'eh:
"The ape-to-man master plan
was flawed, my gawd!"

Ida know
nothin' has changed...

Time ain’t swinging on vines, 

She’s hanging steady, so woman be ready!

Eternities of pounding chests upon her breasts

Beating fists, Old Silverback say, 

"Just try and run away."

A Lady Fair of Lineage High

Limitless

It is nearly 3 am,

I just returned from roasting coffee. 

Was going to strip my clothes off and jump into bed, 

but I thought about all that smoke from all that coffee just

permeating my pores,

the smell of the burned off sugars, oils,

the deli and its deep fryer—  

Sleep would be restless

if I dove into my brushed cotton sheets, 

covered in fleece and feathers;

And when I stepped into the shower, 

it felt so good, 

melting away the harshness of life 

like marshmallows dissolving in hot chocolate;

thankful for the water running over my body,  

breathing

long, deep exhales with audible 

Ohhh and Ahhh;

Adequately wet, 

I picked up the patchouli soap, gliding it all over 

rinsing as I went— 

turning to let the spray reach my left side, 

standing in that one position for about

30 seconds;

And I thought, “I always do this, stand like this,

but do I ever switch sides and let the right side of 

my body feel the long, 

penetrating heat?”

No, never.

I say that in full confidence, for

when the water hit me,

there was an awakening—

Sensations I had never felt before

and I wondered in an instant

"how many other ways do I limit myself

without conscious decision;"

how much of life had I missed?

A profound sadness swept over— 

tears, feeling sorry for my lack of 

flexibility;

or like a child 

who cannot sleep for fear she will 

miss-out on fun 

(God, what have I missed?)

until I realized

that there was vision in the 1st place,

an openness of spirit, 

a love and thirst for life;

having the ability to tell myself that there was something more

in my human experience,

trusting myself,

to turn the other way without

fear 

to know true

Freedom.

Ashes, Ashes, All Fall Down

I have seen where the wolf has slept by the silver stream. 

I can tell by the mark he left you were in his dream. 

Ah, child of countless trees. 

Ah, child of boundless seas. 

What you are, what you're meant to be. 

Speaks his name, though you were born to me..." 

-John Perry Barlow, Cassidy

    In early 2008, I visited Daniel Kottke at his home in Palo Alto, California. He is a computer engineering friend who happens to play piano and is a huge fan of the Grateful Dead, so we went through a bunch of songs just singing and having a great time. He shared with me that he'd occasionally hang out with poet, writer, former Grateful Dead lyricist, and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, John Perry Barlow. Barlow would come over and he'd play Dead songs on his piano while singing and picking Barlow's brain about specific song lyrics or stories behind songs. Of course, to someone like me who loves singing Dead tunes, what Daniel told me was an absolute dream come true. 

     A year later, on Saturday, September 26, 2009, my good friend, Fürgen and I attended the Horizons: Perspectives on Psychedelics Conference, which was being hosted by our friend, Neal, held at the Lombardo-Romanesque style Judson Memorial Church in New York City. The church is situated near NYU and across from Washington Square Park, a park famous for its 77-foot tall marble arch constructed, originally, in wood and plaster to celebrate the centennial of George Washington's inauguration. It's a lively place where people go to play chess, feed squirrels, perform art and music, teach their kids to ride bikes, read by the fountains, and so much more. 

     While standing near the large pillars toward the right front side of the church, I saw a figure walk into the hall, kind of limping, wearing all black, and I could see the heel of a cowboy boot. The figure stood near a podium that had been near the rear center of the room. I squinted and knew right away, it was Barlow. I hurriedly skated over to him, trying not to look like I was running (my mind already engaged in a 40 yard dash), and not having any idea what I was going to say.

     "Holy shit!" I said, as I realized how utterly embarrassed I was going to be after coming to terms with the fact that I lacked all verbal articulation, "It's YOU!" He looked a little surprised and said, "I guess it is!" I introduced myself and laughed as I segued into telling him we shared our friend Daniel in common. I guess he didn't believe me, because Daniel is a pretty famous figure, himself. And as all people with fame have, Daniel also has a lot of social media friends, so Barlow put me to task.

     "Call him," Barlow looked me in the eyes and then down at my handbag to suggest I take out my phone. 

     "Really? You want me to call him? Okay," I took out my phone and dialed Daniel, "Daniel, I have a friend here who would like to say hi," I handed Barlow my phone and he chatted for about a minute, glancing up to smile at me as he did.

     We stepped outside onto the rounded front steps of the church and sat down, alone. We sat, silently, and Barlow looked over his left shoulder and said, "You know, no one has ever greeted me that way before. Nope, not in my whole life have I ever been called, "Holy shit!" I roared with laughter and apologized for my crudeness, but sometimes, you just don't know what to say and all that comes out are the most simplistic of ridiculous utterances.

     With a group of about 5 other people, Fürgen, Barlow, Neal, and I walked a few blocks to a friend's tiny studio apartment that housed a large, king-sized bed in the middle of the room, a couple of chairs, and a kitchen. Most of us sat around the perimeter of the bed with Barlow to my back. 

     While our host was in the kitchen with a friend, the mood was kind of stale, no one was talking because we were all in the presence of a God. It was painfully obvious that they were silently clamoring not to bore Barlow to tears. One man, tall and lanky, wearing a grey, button-down shirt, scarf around his neck, and brown trousers stood, looming over all who were seated, "Why don't we recite some poetry!" he declared.

     Everyone thought it was a good idea, even Barlow. I was all about it, after all, I had some poems up my sleeve that I could share. I worried that I didn't have many of my works memorized and might mess up the one shot I had at redemption. I was also thinking how this guy really wanted to impress Barlow and how silly and pretentious it was to just assume that everyone had poetry to share from memory. "I'll begin," the man said,"This is a poem by Walt Whitman."

     My mouth dropped open as, one by one, people recited other people's poetry. "What the fuck is this," I thought, "These people are kidding, right?" I kept quiet as four people recited works by famous poets, as Barlow leaned farther and farther back on the bed, being visibly lulled to sleep. 

     So, when the last person finished, I waited for silence and said, "I have a poem I'd like to recite, but it's something I wrote." Barlow sat up. "It's called 'Oh! Albatross' and is a poem I wrote in college when I was an angsty kid. Let's see if I can remember it..." With a bit of dramatic flare and a little bit of nervousness, I spoke:

"Here I am

In a world, crumpled-up
like an old piece of crumb-infested
cellophane
that will soon fall to its
demise
amongst all the forbearing rubbish;
Then I,
that useless bit of cellophane
will be thrown onto the curb
where the thieving ants will come
and scavenge through my few remains;
I will have no choice
but to surrender to their
military ways;
An ultimatum--
Join the Ranks of the Stronghold
or be ripped and torn
into a million
nameless
pieces
to which all that I am is

no more."

     A couple of people clapped and the room erupted in conversation. I was facing a wall as I sat on the bed and I relaxed my posture to kind of slump down, shaking my nerves away. At that moment, Barlow laid back, stretching his neck out to me and said, "I really like your poetry, it's good, you're a good writer."

     "Thank you," I nodded my head up and down, smiling. For a writer to get affirmation from someone who is like royalty that their work is "good", is just about the most satisfying and motivating word, ever. It's so simple, "Good." And for him to say that he liked it, well, I didn't need anyone else to give a compliment, ever again. He took that away that night, that insecurity that writers have, especially when sharing it with others to scrutinize, and he immediately put me at ease.
     I am so grateful to have had such a beautiful interlude. You never know when someone might say something that changes your life for the better, forever.

     Among his poems, J.P. wrote these rules to live by during his Saturn return, which would set his path for the next stage of his life. On August 15, 2013, Barlow participated in a Reddit AMA, where he shared his "Principles of Adult Behavior" that he'd written in 1977, the night before his 30th birthday:

1. Be patient. No matter what.
2. Don’t badmouth: Assign responsibility, not blame. Say nothing of another you wouldn’t say to him in the same language and tone of voice.
3. Never assume the motives of others are, to them, less noble than yours are to you.
4. Expand your sense of the possible.
5. Don’t trouble yourself with matters you truly cannot change.
6. Expect no more of anyone than you can deliver yourself.
7. Tolerate ambiguity.
8. Laugh at yourself frequently.
9. Concern yourself with what is right rather than who is right.
10. Never forget that, no matter how certain, you might be wrong.
11. Give up blood sports.
12. Remember that your life belongs to others as well. Don’t risk it frivolously.
13. Never lie to anyone for any reason. (Lies of omission are sometimes exempt.)
14. Learn the needs of those around you and respect them.
15. Avoid the pursuit of happiness. Seek to define your mission and pursue that.
16. Reduce your use of the first personal pronoun.
17. Praise at least as often as you disparage.
18. Admit your errors freely and soon.
19. Become less suspicious of joy.
20. Understand humility.
21. Remember that love forgives everything.
22. Foster dignity.
23. Live memorably.
24. Love yourself.
25. Endure.

John Perry Barlow

Born October 3, 1947 

Lived fabulously and fully 

February 7, 2018

Rest in Peace

     Fare thee well, now, let your life proceed by its own design,

     There's nothing to tell, now, let the words be yours, I'm done with mine.

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

Futility- A Discussion in Fucking the Unfucked and Unfucking the Fucked (or, "Not That It Matters Anyway")

While pondering the universe this morning, I thought of Ouroboros, the snake that eats its own tail. The earliest known representations of the snake in mythology are centered in Egypt, as it made its first appearance in Enigmatic Book of the Netherworld. Found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen, it depicted Sun god, Ra, connected to the God of the Afterlife, Osiris, as one, giant god, while two snakes with tails in their mouths, were coiled around the head, neck, and feet of the huge god, symbolizing the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, to which the lesson is that there is none, and that the universe is eternal.

Then I thought how the snake really appears to be eating its own sexual organ.

This is an interesting thought, as it turns out in consulting my book, that in later Greek mythology, Cronos (Saturn, to the Romans), Ouroboros' son, cut his father's penis off and threw it into the sea. Since all parts of Ouroboros were immortal, naturally, his penis grew into Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, beauty, and fertility. Ouroboros, the Sky God, is also the son and subsequent lover of Gaia, the Earth, who was born from Chaos. His Lover-Mother and he were inseparable until Cronos cut himself free from his mother's womb, cut off his father-brother's main vein, and that's how the sky separated from the Earth, Duh! By the way, Ouroboros got rid of people by swallowing them whole... talk about deep throat.

Anyway, back to the snake eating its own trouser snake: I thought that the symbol, really, is just the symbol of the Universe telling us all to go Fuck ourselves in perpetuity... a forever, "Fuck You, you're permanently fucked!" Though, technically, in considering the nature of the fact that Ouroboros is beginning and end, we must equally be able to unfuck ourselves, negating the fucked, and remaining simultaneously fucked and unfucked as long as Universe exists.

"Fuck me?"

"Fuck you!"

¹Hornung, Erik. The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife. Cornell University Press, 1999. pp. 38, 77–78

Oh! Albatross

Here I am
In a world, crumbled-up
like an old piece of crumb-infested

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

cellophane
that will soon fall to its
demise
amongst all the forbearing rubbish;
Then I,
that useless bit of cellophane
will be thrown onto the curb
where the thieving ants will come
and scavenge through my few remains;
I will have no choice
but to surrender to their
military ways;
An ultimatum--
Join the Ranks of the Stronghold
or be ripped and torn
into a million
nameless
pieces
to which all that I am is
no more.

Gabrielle Cianfrani
September 6, 1995

Learning to Be Confirmation Unbiased

During the presidential election season, all over social media, people post "evidence" that comes from sources with one political leaning or specific intention. While none are truly unbiased, there are ways to sort through the muck. One great way to manage is to find information that challenges our views. To do that in a fair manner, one should give as much passion and time to seeking out unpleasant information that is opposed to our beliefs and stances as one gives to finding information that supports current beliefs.

If you already lean toward specific ideologies and beliefs, and then only seek circles of information that consistently confirm and never challenge that framework, there's a term for it, "confirmation bias", and chances are, your ideologies and beliefs are shaky, at best. At worst, those beliefs can kill people, when those with such bias are allowed to effect legislation and rules for the rest of us, or when average people decide to allow their biases to affect others' right to life and freedom.

Challenge your comfort zone and welcome others of and in the world to take you out of your personal status quo. Through allowing others to challenge our beliefs, our beliefs are either fortified, adjusted, or they are changed altogether.

It's how we learn and grow. Changing your mind or not being able to make up your mind is not weakness, it is strength. It fortifies and grows the mind to be flexible in thinking. And sometimes, issues are so complex, once we allow more information in, there can be no cut and dry solution or stance, because reductionism marginalizes and trivializes.

Anyone who truly understands an issue can argue for or against that issue with equal fervor and breadth, because they can explain all sides.

It gives us greater ability to be able to protect ourselves against tyranny and injustice when strategizing in a geopolitical sense, in business, or in our personal lives. And when need be, it also adds a sense of humility and compassion to our stances, so we are able to deeply understand the view of our supposed enemy.

So, challenge your mind's comfort and step outside the norm. Take a different path home and see what you find.

Gentle Friends

When I was a baby, my mother purchased a Lenox china 3-piece porcelain gift set that she saved and used as I grew a bit older and more capable of handling such wares.  The series was known as "Gentle Friends" and featured unique rhyming couplets on both the plate and bowl.  The plate reads, "Our world is full of sweet flowers blooming bright and gay!  We love the things that make life good and bring us happy days!"  The bowl, which I used more often, read, "I should never feel alone, wherever I may be. So many gentle friends are near whom one can scarcely see."

That last rhyme, the one on the bowl, resonated with me throughout my life.  I am definitely one who stops to smell the flowers.  In fact, when I was very young, about six years old, I'd often be late for school, despite leaving home in plenty of time, so that I could watch a cloud float by, say hello to a dog, chase a butterfly, or literally stop to bury my face in the neighbor's flowers.  I always found peace in nature and I never felt alone, even when I seemingly was. My childhood, while I was able to lose myself in Nature, was often met with great difficulty, obstacles, and sometimes immense sadness and fear, markedly different from the way an ordinary child's life usually is.

Well, I'm not sure what made me think of it- perhaps it was Facebook adding a new "bio" feature to tell the public something about oneself that made me think of that little rhyme, that it should be my motto. I wondered who wrote it. Did Lenox have poets on staff, ready to whip out timeless bits of lifetime wisdom back in 1976? So, I did a search and found a poem by American poet, Abbie Farwell Brown called, Friends, and when I read it, it made me cry happy tears.  It really does embody a huge part of my life's philosophy in a beautifully simple way. While even a small child can understand the words, sometimes the simplest words, no matter one's age or sophisticated wisdom, hold the truest, most profound meaning:


How good to lie a little while
And look up through the tree!
The Sky is like a kind big smile
Bent sweetly over me.

The Sunshine flickers through the lace
Of leaves above my head,
And kisses me upon the face
Like Mother, before bed.

The Wind comes stealing o'er the grass
To whisper pretty things;
And though I cannot see him pass,
I feel his careful wings.

So many gentle Friends are near
Whom one can scarcely see,
A child should never feel a fear,
Wherever he may be.