Personified: Volume 1

By Willy Thorn

A collection of classic rhyming poetry built around the concept of personification; giving life & form, voice & breath to virtues & philosophical concepts.

Individual pieces include: flourishing Superstition, Idolatry & Hypocrisy; Outlaw Time & beautiful Nature; the collision of Time & Truth; Justice’s eager ears; Lust & Greed exposed, as so naïve; Ignorance tobogganing; Alcohol is no lady — & certainly not your friend; the discourse between Knowledge & Wisdom; the relationship between Death & Beauty & more.

Includes 27 pieces, accompanied by allegorical art work from Arnold Böcklin, Donatello, Titian, Albrecht Duerer, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Kano Motonobu, Frederick Stuart Church, Maritius Lowe, Theodoor van Thulden, Balthasar Permoser & the Supreme Court of Canada.

Includes quotes from:

Martin Luther
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
John Updike
Mos Def
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Tennessee Williams
William Carlos Williams
D.H. Lawrence
Lee Xiaolong
the Book of Isaiah
Jim Stands
the Book of Isaiah
John Webster
Jeremy Taylor
Pliny
Laurell K. Hamilton
Jack Kerouac
Marquis de Sade
Nicholas Rowe
Miguel de Cervantes
Rumi
John Updike
Claudian
Georges Bernanos
Tryon Edwards
Billy Graham
e.e. cummings
Mark Twain
Michel de Montaigne
Jimi Hendricks
Hans-Ulrich Obrist
Thucydides
Henry Ford
Kurt Vonnegut
Louis Pasteur
DeWitt Clinton
Calvin Coolidge
Augustus Hare
Derek Bok
Margaret Fuller
Jay-Z
Friedrich Nietzsche
Leonardo da Vinci
Marcus Garvey
Plato
Ralph W. Sockman
Stephen Hawking
Kofi Annan
Avery Brooks
James Madison
John Milton
Jim Morrison
Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Horace
Homer
Wallace Stevens
Walt Whitman
J.R.R. Tolkien
Edgar Allen Poe
Henry David Thoreau
Virginia Woolf
Laughing Bull
Plato
Zhuang Zi
Thomas Moore

• Language: English
• Publisher: Willy Thorn
• Release date: Dec 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005301712

Willy Thorn

Willy Thorn is a communications expert & artistic renaissance man. He is a journalist & copywriter, teacher, author & artist.He has lived many places, beginning with Milwaukee & Rome & Minnesota & central Wisconsin. Among his other homes are Washington DC & Baltimore, Chicago & the Twin Cities, St. Francis South Dakota, the Bay Area & Shanghai. He currently lives & works in Bangkok.Thorn has a Masters Degree in Journalism & has spent time as a Capitol Hill reporter & wire editor, sports writer, political columnist & arts critic. Other media endeavors include public relations campaigns, magazine feature writing, ghostwritten biographies & time on the radio – as a DJ & on-air host, play-by-play sports announcer & music promoter.He has spent nearly a decade as a language specialist for Craft Worldwide & as a copywriter & creative for McCann Worldgroup. He currently works as senior copywriter at Quo Global branding agency in Bangkok.He has won awards at Cannes Lions & been recognized for sports writing & political columns, magazine features, theatre scripts, religious publications & photography.Thorn is also a photographer & classical oil painter, trained thru the Corcoran Gallery in Washington DC. His artistic c.v. includes photography gallery shows; sculpting in Mamallapuram, India; concrete statuary at Wat Xieng Mouane, in Luang Prabang, Laos; and flower petal mosaics in Cagli, Italy.He is a Buddhist meditation instructor; trained thru Thailand’s renowned Willpower Institute. And he was even the rare foreigner to complete the entire six month course in spoken & written Thai. He currently sits as an advisor on the institute’s English Foreign Language subcommittee – where he translates books, helps develop outreach programs & occasionally lectures.He is the author of more than 3o full-length books & plays & proudly notes a Master’s Degree from Marquette University & books in both Washington's Library of Congress & the Vatican Archives in Rome.His catalog is varied & he has written extensively about a number of subjects — including sports, politics, religion, Buddhist philosophy & Asian history & art. One of his largest endeavors was documenting & cataloguing several hundred temples in Bangkok, Ayutthaya, Yangon, Vientiane & Kuala Lumpur.His catalog is available thru the following distributors: Amazon // Apple iBooks // Android Aldiko // Barnes & Noble // Sony // & Smashwords.His Milwaukee-centric column of sports poetry & prose — 'Run of tha Mil' — can be found at Milticket.blogspot.com

Book preview

Superstition

superstition

is quite

beautiful

& she sings

the most

alluring

songs

& everyone

who sees

& hears her

wants her

to join them

& come along

superstition

is hypnotic

there is a magic

in all her ways

fortune follows

all her

endeavors

& blesses

her loves

& her forays

superstition

is bold

& shameless

she will claim

anything

that she sees

all triumphs

success

& victories

she brags:

are simply

because

of me

superstition

is deceptive

& deals

in fast

promises

& prayers

& her quick fixes

& long hustles

can be found

scattered

everywhere

superstition

is small

& petty

there’s no thin coin

she won’t collect

& when

& wherever

there is doubt

she pulls

others

into her debt

superstition

hunts

for patterns

as her influence

grows & spreads

& she turns

all habits

to taxes

& then leaps

a few steps

ahead

superstition

weaves

huge webs

of lies

& she wields

an arsenal

of threats

she bluffs

she feints

& her stories grow

she holds grudges

& does not

forget

superstition

preys

on soft

weakness

& those

who would

believe

in chance

she plays at fate

& leads

men astray

& then makes

them all

sing

& dance

superstition

will say anything

in the flashing

lights

of blind

luck

& she picks

the pockets

of many

staring naïve

lost & awestruck

superstition

is mostly

nonsense

tho she plays

at charm

& grace

& it is amazing

what she can say

with a straight look

upon her face

superstition

moves round

seriously

as any lioness

untamed

she lives to hunt

& stalk

weak doubt

& play

at charades’

as games

& when in doubt

she dances

& sings

& her siren songs

ring still louder

tho for as much

as she

gets around

there are very few

who doubt her

superstition loves

to be worshipped

tho she will not

bow

to anyone

she stands above

all that comes

to pass

& holds herself

as number one

* * *

Idolatry

idolatry

is a groupie

& she’s drawn

to power

& wealth

she demands

others

match her

fervor

& then makes

all things about

herself

idolatry

is fiercely

loyal

to what

she honors

& reveres

her veneration

is extreme

& she must be seen

standing

near

idolatry

has imagination

& what she loves

most is enhanced

& admiration

& affection

grow far past

passion

& romance

idolatry

is creative

& she sees

what she loves

everywhere

& she makes

emblems

& images

to carry

& keep close

for prayer

idolatry

collects

offerings

which she alone

then takes

& holds

& she stands

at each gateway

entrance

demanding

incredible

tolls

idolatry is not

satisfied

devotion

can never

be free

she wants the tallest

stacks

of pure gold

& richest

& fattest

choicest

meats

idolatry

leads

the rituals

& heads straight

for the frontmost

rows

she must be seen

devout

in worship

& honored

in her finest

clothes

idolatry

breathes

adoration

she does not

waver

or relent

even

graven

emblems

are hallowed

& she tolerates

no dissent

idolatry

grows

still more

extreme

& exacts

a destructive

price

& when what

she worships

is broken

she demands

still greater

sacrifice

* * *

Hypocrisy

hypocrisy

is very ugly

but she

gets ahead

all the same

she is an actress

with endless

roles

& she plays

each one

without

shame

hypocrisy

will not ever

stop

she steals faces

postures & stories

she pretends

& feints

& double-deals

& masquerades

in borrowed

glory

hypocrisy

wears

many masks

& she does not

stop

or look back

& she switches

so much & so fast

she often forgets

& loses

track

hypocrisy

wears nothing

real

all her cloaks

are counterfeit

& whatever

colors

she may wear

are only for

her benefit

she wraps herself

in bright virtue

& silken piety

shining

sheer

she plays

at the genuine

article

& every thread

is insincere

hypocrisy

is a chameleon

there’s nothing

she cannot

glide

by

her behavior

is never

her own

because

she’s too weak

to decide

hypocrisy

turns jealous

quickly

when others

struggle

to do right

& when they fail

& try again

she hates them

with all

of her might

hypocrisy

is unsteady

& she represses

all her fears

& when urges

& passions

surface

something

wicked

& fierce

appears

her lip service

becomes

mocking

her deceit

turns

to outright

fraud

her dishonesty

has a savage

side

& she sharpens

her teeth

& claws

her pretense

becomes

something

else

her play-acting

is annoyed

her mask brightens

as her heart

darkens

her only desire

is to destroy

hypocrisy

is insatiable

a thief

who cannot

take enough

the darkness

in her

is bottomless

& what she can’t steal

she will crush