Heidegger crossed out being
And what was the significance
Of that audacious act
Was it an act of audacity
Or an empty histrionic gesture
History has judged him as among
The less of effective of those
Who enthusiastically crossed out Jews
He was merely okay with that
And supposedly not an enthusiast
Or perhaps he cared about career
Maybe that’s why he wore the uniform
And the pervy little mustache
His fame has waxed and waned
As existentialism has trended or failed to trend
And many denied identification as existentialists
As Heidegger preached the metaphysics of dasein
Until Sartre confessed that existentialism
Should be regarded as a humanism
But as their idol Nietzsche proclaimed
All humans are all too human
While Swift expressed his love
For Tom Dick and Harry
And disdained mankind
So there’s an honored place in the pantheon
For both these poets maddened with rage
But don’t point to that O unhappy cogiteurs
For sweet sensible unemphatic Parfit
Steered clear of fretful contraries
As being and nothingness
Human and inhuman
To dwell instead upon facts and reasons and persons
The realities of hands and faces and voices and esteem
And those who exert moral claims upon us
Teletransporter hopeful trolley and jolly saboteur
And in the mixed and open realistic bag
Objects manifestly exist
But events occur and situations obtain
And processes I’d like to add
Merely proceed

There’s a birdsong I can’t describe
Emissions meticulously assembled
In the corridors of evolution
Four sharp impulses
A slur to a chattering trill
And eight cracked staccato tones
Forgive my imprecision
But when you hear this bird
Nor gold nor brass
But flesh and feather
It must push you back
Into an ecstasy of amaze