Poems
by KJ Hannah Greenberg

 

 

Byzantine Rhetoric

 

More than a literary habit, nearly an expression of life, particular ontology

Based on “pious” principles, whose universal cosmology arose organically,

Upheld a relational hierarchy that fixed creation as franchise of existential

Wonderment.

 

Accordingly, manuscripts of classic works; encyclopedia, commentaries,

Translations, went prized for both forensic and commonplace obstacles.

Such documents operated opposite grammar else dialectic. Hermogenes

Trumped Minucianus.

 

Winning souls, per se, became currency like gold or gems. Whereas certain

Clergy disavowed “pagan” discourse, suasory talk ruled amidst other forms

Of connection. Language developed into devices for elevating not persons,

But positions.

 

Heightened sensitivity to possible social strata encouraged assigning arbitrary

Meaning to symbols, invigorated the use of words to craft realities. Semantic

Monging evolved to include the classification of information into imperious

Annals.

 

All in all, “intellectuals” were increasingly charged with assessing the attraction

Of things. Religious mentalities’ confinement breached many otherwise merely

Abstract perceptions. Probing nature by observation or experimentation stayed

Forbidden.

 

 

 

 

 

The Intervening Hundred Years

 

During the intervening hundred years, rare, significant freedom modifications

Grew in the midlands. Nationwide, rhetoric was fossilized, focused simply on

Power. Not ‘til the revolt did downtrodden persons aver reinvigorated words.

No interesting developments followed, ‘cept the use of labor camps plus jails.

 

Eventually, a countermovement swirled beside hushed latrine/locker natter.

That uprising played barely broad-ranging, narrowly a bygone phenomenon.

En total, no unique, time-bound trials occurred, only episodes of communal

Endeavors rooted in old-fashioned perspectives; all frontrunners were killed. 

 

For decades, such remonstrations weren’t integrated into cultural terminology

(scarce social innovations altered the scope or emphasis on united talk— until

Contributions to the foothold about fragmented the undertaking.) Meanwhile,

Many politic purchases were beaten down, additional leaders risked execution.

 

Although it’s inherent for laypeople to explore the morality/meaning nexus,

Victimization and the recovery of abused individuals can emerge as too dear

To promote reliable grasps of dealings; ethics often become an early casualty.

Junctions of wisdom and words probe painfully, create unmitigated tensions.

 

Contrariwise, empowerment, authenticity, inclusivity implore denied justice

Be restored, global solutions extend beyond mission prescriptions. Tousled

Discrete & institutional functions proclaim confusions launched by shared

Policy. Life quality matters. Every citizen’s expositions remain momentous.

 

Reflections on fact/value distinctions need to be clarified instead of sourced

To a priori arguments. When activities rotate objectified, some consequences

Cannot build futures, attach soundly to relations, respond favorably to fillips.

Recount, disparities abound amid discourse’s ubiquitousness, truth’s absence.

 

 

 

 

 

Yet Educational Systems

 

A shortage of research affects missed perceptions, our tendency to display

Consequences of educational systems. Without processes communicating

Critical thinking behavior, our sphere, increasingly, becomes a collectively-

Strengthened, egocentric contemplation buttressed by narrow knowledge.

Instrumental discourse, unlike intrinsic rhetoric, can’t assess unseen items.

Though we’re expected to externalize vacant information when endorsing

Such venues, procedures button up employers, colleagues, careers, lovers,

Self, the general public, & “bedrock” values. Constraints confine options.

So, society inadvertently possesses more constructs than we may convey.

(We need to develop amended routes for understanding  comportment.)

 

Meanwhile, human exchanges stay transactional. Culture’s realized policy

Purposes remain bereft of valid grasps of the “ethics” phenomenology–

Frameworks keeps gaping, doctrines continue being rendered in halves.

Most applications seemingly ever lack utility. Temporarily, civilization’s

“Just Guardians” renounce their “singular liability” for shared actions.

“Realized” conditions of their answerability become visible when folks’

Shared scruples chase validation of private feelings, sensitivities, truths.

The paucity of rules concerning scholarship, plus transmission, results

In “freedom of thought,” involving “discerning amid morals & tenets.”

No events exist in which institutions prolong being subjected to blame.

 

See, our tradition of standards draggles on denizens' capacity to compose.

We rely on intellectuals' self-imposed obligations. Later upshots fluctuate.

Depending on manufacture, timelines, questions of conjoint conventions,

Augmented amounts of metatheorized statements, learn or espouse facts,

Execute and referee group obligations, or articulate advantageous models.

Communal commitments for dialogue pile on developed awarenesses of,

Provided understandings per, created opportunities for clear-cut notions

Undergirding our connections. Rhetorical expertise once again conquers.

We’ve potent instruments for transmitting motivational power, deciding

Destiny. If weighing phenomenal norms, present human nature, matters.

 

Intrinsic or principled purposes, however, endure being implied initiatives.

Influential, honorable drives, contrariwise, are explicated akin to terms of

Content. Their legitimization produces ways to organize talk, allows some

Development of reasoned judgment when acquiring, maybe manipulating

Data as appropriate to acts, actors, and theories of actions. Elsewise, most

Routes function to deconstruct, not to build or maintain public discussion.

Individual identities, in chorus, reputedly reenforce our citizenship talents,

Moreover, process our diminishing self-esteem, self-actualization. And so,

We truly transfer acquiescence onto complex, incongruous reality beliefs

Underlying linguistic adjudications, through our fresh community biases.

 

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