Analysis of The Consumerist Conformist Materialistic Paradigm



I've been trapped.
Trapped, I say, and it's a crime,
By the Consumerist Conformist Materialistic Paradigm.
All my life I have been there,
In a kind of metaphorical electric chair.
Snatched by a force that didn't seem to care.
As far as I know
It all started slow.
I, a mewling infant, was unaware,
Emerging from Mama's hospital underwear,
Under the gaze of Papa's vital expectant stare.
I was an I
And not a me,
Lacquered and varnished
By society.
Preacher, teacher, vagrant, saint
Friend, foe, scallywag all tried to paint
My virgin soul with a vaguely sycophantic taint.
Everyone's opinions became mine.
Prevailing thoughts, ideas and concepts
From near and distant times.
The evolution of the entire gang
Rang and reverberated
In something known as me.
But I wasn't free.
No authenticity.
The paradigm, as the children say, really sucked.
A constructed mental construct barely together stuck,
Built on a foundation of religion and tradition
With a healthy dose of terrifying superstition.
Not an ounce of reality could I find
In the Consumerist Conformist Materialistic Paradigm.
I will never, never ever, claim it as mine.
(Pregnant, reflective pause. Sela)
But then who might I be?
Where is the sinew?
Where is the refinement
And not the witches' brew?
Is it light or abyss
That appears like Gorillas in the mist?
The only harvest that I have learned to sow
Appears only when I be still and know.
There is, however, something more
Than a bunch of DNA from Baltimore.
I won't say Truth.
The notion is far too haughty.
But something like it pulses me.
A pulsar like something Almighty.
My accumulation of Atoms, Quarks and Strings
Vibrating, pulsating, a truly living thing
Is more than the sum of its infinitesimal parts.
I am I, something greater,
A thing with a heart.


Scheme ABBCCCDDCCCEFGFHHHIJKLMFFFNOPPQBIRFDSTUVWDXXYFFFZ1 2 3 4
Poetic Form
Metre 111 1110101 1001000100001010 1111111 001101000101 1101110111 11111 11101 10110101 0101101010 100111100101 1111 0101 10010 10100 1010101 1111111 110110100101 10010011 0101010010 110101 0010100101 100100 010111 11101 10100 01010101101 00101001100101 11001010100010 101011100010 111110111 0001000100001010 111010101111 10010110 111111 1101 110010 010101 111101 1011010001 01010111111 0110111101 1110101 101111110 1111 01011110 11011101 010110010 10010110101 10010010101 1110111001001 1111010 01101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,775
Words 339
Sentences 30
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 53
Lines Amount 53
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,403
Words per stanza (avg) 303

About this poem

The socialized egoic maya self with a glimpse toward authenticity.

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Written on November 10, 2022

Submitted by jfstandards47 on November 20, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:44 min read
60

Jeffrey Rollins

Theatre Arts Degree, University of Maryland. 50 year broadcaster Westwood One Radio. 20 year poet. 200 poems more…

All Jeffrey Rollins poems | Jeffrey Rollins Books

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