INTRO
SNAPSHOT
CALLING OWLS
TO OUR SONS, 1982
THE ABORTION PALACE
MY SHIP
WAITING ON LARAMIE CREEK
IMPATIENS CAPENSIS
THE ADVANTAGE OF INTELLIGENCE
FROM THE TALE OF PETER MINK
THE ODYSSEY OF GLOOMY GUS
THE HUMAN CONDITION IS NOT
TED
OLD MAN TO HIMSELF
OLD DOMINION
AFTER YOU LANGLADE
SPRING PEEPERS
THE BRANDY LINE (ABOUT A FAVORITE GOAT)
GROWING UP, TWO AMERICAS
WHEN I WAS FIFTEEN
A TRUE DOCTOR
ANNIVERSARY 1984
HILLS
LITTLE RIVER
THE LESSON
TREES OF NEW JERSEY
BEYOND NORTH MOUNTAIN
OLD RIDER
MUSIC AT THE JACKSON
MEMORY
TO BETTY, 1982
DREAM OF CHARLES DE LANGLADE
CHICAGO AND NORTHWESTERN
THE SCRAPER
YOU CALL ME FOLLY MILLS
BY WINNEBAGO'S SHORE
ALONG 693
DEATH OF WILBUR
I DIDN'T KNOW YOU THEN
©Poems of R.F.Mueller- Other Times, Other Thoughts

MAKE REVOLUTION
R.F. Mueller


Rebel Now!
Rebel against smoothness, uniformity and straightness.
Rebel against comfort, security and greatness.
Against the smooth curve and brightness (except the stars).
Rebel against great piles, monuments and towers,
The leveling of fields, all shafts and cuts,
And against the pursed lip and neatness

2.

Rebel against the furrow, the fence, the ditch,
The road, the dam, circumference, and all truncations.
Rebel against lines-of-sight and excavations,
Marching, lording, anthropomorphic gods and authorizations.
Rebel against ancestor-worship and justifications,
Rights, assertions, pride, institution-worship, domestication,
Clean underwear, and polished boots,
Against expediency, commerce, chairs, tables, and salvation.

3.

Rebel against watches, orders, reports, blarings, hums,
Against clanks, rulers, latches, chemical and mechanical solutions.
Rebel against the sky-defilers, defilers of earth and water,
Against using wilderness, cutting tree roots, and universal harvesting,
Against nature solace and stewardship,
Even against nature as science and nature as art.

4.

Instead
Seek out discomfort, insecurity, roughness, and angularity,
Chaff, dross, waviness, dimnness and granularity,
Great mountain floods, wild washes, cloudiness,
Heat, frost, blue sky, spunk and slime,
Humidity, drought, cyclones and denial.
Then your shadow is the world at play.


 

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Nature usually exhibits a fruitful balance between order and disorder-or low and high entropy. But Human culture tends to greatly emphasize order and the myth of "control." In a sense order and neatness are the enemies of much that is most worth cherishing in our lives. The investments of time and energy to achieve them subtract from Nature's greatest gifts and learning experiences. Some examples are lawn care, personal cosmetics and the world of fashion But planning is necessary too, to avoid the pitfalls of chaos, or disorder without the balance of order. Of course, this balance comes out of our personalities to a large degree, although it can be learned through experience and by example-for which I thank my mother!