Dostoyevsky

 Dostoyevsky was an addicted gambler,

Whose best characters are loquacious ramblers

Who frequently verge into the absurd. 

But since he was getting paid by the word

And was on a personal moral mission,

He brought great novels to fruition.

Consolatio

 Boethius called the Muses of Poetry names:

“Whorish stage girls”. In this way he defames

An art that he himself had long pursued 

In terms offensive and incredibly rude.

On the other hand, if we want to be perfectly fair,

He was being held in some kind of confinement where

He awaited a sentence of torture and brutal death. 

His book “Consolation” is sort of his final breath,

In which he tried to set his learned mind

On cosmic truths, hoping there to find 

Relief from anguish. And oddly enough this book

Is studded with poems. It’s certainly worth a look.

It bridges the ancient world and medieval times,

Profoundly affecting both Dante’s and Chaucer’s rhymes.

It Is

 Some say that existence exists,

And I’m not here to tell you they lie. 

The universe surely persists -

Without sign of soon saying goodbye. 

Parmenides said Being Is,

Albeit, he said it in Greek. 

All agree he was a whiz,

But did he provide what we seek?

It is what it is, we now say,

When urging recognition 

Of facts in the present day

Which present in a sorry condition. 

Existence Exists, I admit

Has a tautological sound,

But still we keep using it

As an evidentiary ground.