Pascal's Wager: A Collection of Existentialist Verse

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©2023 Valerie Lynn Stephens

ISBN: 978-1-312-74550-6

PASCALIAN WAGER

Pascalian wager won't quell this dread,

Toiling within, the living dead,

Obsolescence reigning-an iron-clad epoch,

Eros & Thanatos entwined in a lock.

SCIENTIA EST POTENTIA!

With nothing to lose or to gain,

Burdens made nihil, of this bane,

Knowledge is grief, this is true,

But also power, thus ensued.

ALL THE TRAPPINGS

A predator hungry for prey,

Always obliges the way,

Beware the enticements ye accept,

The snares of the devil are adept!

AURIBUS TENERE LUPUM

To seize a wolf by the ears,

Quickly tames all fears,

Dulling its claw & fang,

And neutering ravening pang.

MONOLITH

To foil the Enemy's plan,

Throughout one's lifespan-

A soul smithed to utmost precision,

And the Devil's toilsome derision.

THE DASTARDLY DREAD OF DEATH

Do not place thy head upon,

The chopping block over yon,

Wherein waits with bated breath,

The dastardly dread of Death.

SOPHROSYNE

Putting on 'bridle & bit,'

To remain, sound & fit,

In Body, Spirit & Mind,

'Tis Sophrosyne, defined.

DIABOLUS EX MACHINA

Glittering generalities abound,

And sinister specificities unsound,

Bottom dollar paving the path,

To earthly delights but celestial wrath.

STALEMATE

Pandora's box thus unlatched,

Evil 'gainst Evil goes unmatched-

'Til a Soul that's wrestled them all,

Brings their stalemate & enthrall.

SAVAGE CIVILITY

Creaturely comforts lead to this,

Finer instincts gone amiss,

A slow defanging & declawing,

For the final maim & mawing.

APEX

The animal that runs is pursued,

As Lustmord is renewed,

Keep your movements slow & smooth,

Apex have, nothing to prove.

FRIENDS & ENEMIES

Melancholia is a constant friend,

And Joy, an enemy on the mend,

Hope waits there in the wings,

For the torment that it brings.

AMOUR-PROPRE

The green-eyed monster is blind,

To its own gifts in kind,

Denying itself the natural esteem,

Borne of a right to thrive & dream.

BETWEEN AGAPE & EROS

The many faces of love & lust,

A human Soul cannot trust,

Seek instead that love Divine,

Agape & Philia, in due kind.

THE DISPLEASURES OF THE FLESH

How the pleasures of carnality,

Are reduced to such banality,

But, as Epicurus once warned,

Happiness is best, unadorned.

VICE & VIRTUE

Vice & Virtue often switch sides,

Depending upon where Truth lies,

In the end all sins shall be assessed,

By a humbled heart, put to the test.

DEMIURGE

To create to destroy,

Or destroy to create,

Be it an act of Love,

Or an act of Hate,

All muses given, by finer forms,

Are born out of Love, not waspy swarms.

HEART OF STONE, HEART OF FLESH

Heart of stone, heart of flesh,

Divine ministrations upon the thresh,

Winds of change pummeled down,

Now abated-safe & sound.

EROS & THANATOS, I THEE WED

Eros & Thanatos, I thee wed,

Making up quite, a fiery bed,

To one day soon end, in unwedded bliss,

A divorce decreed with an Eternal Kiss.

LUPUS PILUM MUTAT, NON MENTUM

A wolf changes his coat,

And not his disposition,

Seize him by the throat,

To render his submission.

L'ENNUI

When the muses have left,

And the Soul is forlorn,

'Tho ennui is deft,

New crafts are born.

OF FAITH & ANOMALY

Divine Providence is the exception,

And not the rule,

In a world so fickle-so cruel,

The devil awaits your reception,

To his unabated rule,

O' Melancholics forget not-

At what price your Souls were bought-

Your true King awaits,

Born of immaculate conception.

THE SAME BANNER OF GRACE

The Sacred over the Savage keep watch,

Yet above both devout & debauch,

The same banner of grace flies,

Within our Lord's redeeming Eyes.

THE CIVILITY OF SAVAGERY

The Savage over the civil often leads,

To unexpected virtues & creeds,

Chaos oft-needed for Order to be found,

Human hearts long to be, freely-bound.

THE CRUSADER

Upon injustice do I thrive-

Keeps a righteous flame alive,

Persecution is my stoker,

Seeking higher deals to broker.

THE STOIC

Amor fati is my motto,

I dwell in Principato,

Embracing all & yet none,

All games lost, are also won.

PRINCIPATO

'O cities of tumult & revelry,

'O towns full of commotion,

Cease at once thy devilry-

And set His peace in motion!

DOXOLOGIES & METHODOLOGIES

With method to the madness,

And joy in the sadness,

In turmoil lies peace-

Storms raged are ceased.

THE WEAVER

How masterfully he weaves,

The noose to which he cleaves,

Soon to bear full weight,

The deeds he did of hate.

SEEDS OF SUCCESS

The seeds of success are planted,

When Faith & Desire,

Ignites the fire,

Of gifts we have been granted.

TOOLS OF THE TRADE

A procrastinate will,

'Tis the devil's thrill,

But a rash decision,

Lends his greatest precision!

FORTUNA ADIUVAT FORTIS

A cataract in the eye of Fate,

Clouds vision & causes Hate,

Fortune, it is told,

Quite favours the bold!

RIGHT DECLINATION TO ASCENSION

The darkness seeps into the cracks,

A gain subtracting from the lacks,

To walk while one has the Light,

A Sisyphean triumph of defeatist plight,

Surely ascension poises for Eternity,

Upon tensional momentum of such degree!

OF ANGELS & DEMONS

At every impasse lurks rancour & woe,

Angels & demons on standby & go,

So pick your guide & pick it well,

Thou makest a Heaven or Hell.

EVERY LOSS SHALL GAIN A WIN

The devil is quickened in his schemes,

By those who give up on their dreams,

Nurture Hope from deep within,

And every loss, shall gain a win.

THE DEVIL'S BLADE

The devil's blade is sharp & swift,

As Godly justice runs adrift,

But be not dismayed,

By virtue delayed,

Spiritual wealth pays in thrift.

GRATIAS AD ANNUM

Thank You Lord, for continued health,

And for the stores of spiritual wealth,

Last year has been trying,

The source of endless sighing,

Yet ye remained in beneficent stealth.

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

Something wicked this way comes,

Hear them bugles & hear them drums,

But I shall stand in solidarity calmest,

Righteousness quickens the pen of the Psalmist.

INTELLECTUALIS DEI

Which world is 'sane'-

The one from within, or without?

Sometimes it seems both,

When we strive to be devout,

But sanctuary is found alone,

Within the mind of God, where all Reality is known.

THE SOUL'S MANY PHASES

From liquid to solid to evaporant & back,

The Soul's many phases from white to black,

Leading it onward to fullest evolution,

As every test provides, eventual solution.

QUID PRO QUO

One man's elixir is another's poison,

As another's scarcity,

Provides another's foison,

All gives & takes in the course of this Life,

We must find balance, to cause less strife.

EQUITY

Let the strong lend strength to the weak,

The boastful bring honour to the meek,

So the 'straight-and-narrow',

May teach the 'bone-and-marrow',

The path of most resistance to seek.

SILENCIO

Deafeningly silent rings the Void,

But outermost' tis, the Work employed,

God moves on a quantum level,

All to outsmart the dumbfounded devil.

EUTHUMIA

Euthumia is found,

Straying from baser passion,

Asceticism it seems,

Brings pleasure in this fashion.

THEREUPON HIS BECALMING BREAST

Do you ever get any peace & quiet?

Or dwell in company of toilsome riot?

Go therefore & find ye rest,

Thereupon His becalming breast.

LIFE'S BANE & GAIN

'Tween false friends & enemies true,

Whom should we give our hearts to?

Life is loneliness, life is bane,

And in death we've naught to gain,

Yet tho' we must travel alone,

In the end we share His Throne,

Reaping heavenly harvests we have sown.

ANIMAL OF PREY

Be an animal of prey,

And not a predator,

Devil kept at bay,

By unmatched competitor,

A heart of flesh & not of stone,

Strengthened by softening, to Truth alone.

AFTER ALL THE WOE & REELING

The devil scourges the deepest wound,

To bind the Soul in fleshly tomb,

'Tho these are what enable healing,

After all the woe & reeling.

CRUMBLING CASTLES

Building up to tear them down,

They try this way, to earn their crown,

Of the truth in me they seek to kill,

They can dim its light, but not its will.

THE CHASTENING

In due time their mask shall slip,

And I won't be there to soften the trip,

This chastening is, theirs alone,

A self-knit noose they now own,

Into which is sown, the fibres of Redemption-

I love them enough, to beg their exemption.

WORDPLAY

An elegance of summation,

'Tis mind-heart syncopation,

A sacred marriage is this,

Of such sapient bliss.

THE NATURE OF ALL WAR & TRUCE

When battle-mode has become the norm,

Swords into plowshares cannot conform,

This is the nature of all war & truce-

White flags become the Noose.

EQUANIMITY

Life, when fully embraced,

Reveals our fears erased,

All vagaries leading to clarity,

And anguish to hilarity.

THE FANG OF SOFT-BELLIED CREATURES

To remain both soft & sweet,

Maintaining fang for choicest meat,

Adaptation takes, an onerous toll,

Mere glimpses allowed, of feeling whole,

A momentary affliction it may be,

I prepare for the world meant for me.

TERRA FIRMA

Oh, rugged Beast of neoteric nativity,

What soft underbellies of Self & Other,

Have you tried to pummel & smother?

Captive bred & captive born,

Leonine locks are never shorn,

Except at the scissor of savage civility,

Denying the Soul of true humility,

Feeling rough & feeling weary,

A constant mapping of all that is dreary,

For all Beasts need true reign,

Over terra firma, non-feigned.

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