and inhibitions,
would we not then
allow the winds of change
to bring back to our children
the hope of a gentle future
where the simplest pleasure
becomes the ultimate experience?
Illogical Mind
The logical mind
seeks to be considered
the one and only provider
of human identity:
but is this not a misconception?
For a complete human
is body, mind and spirit
(some would argue this:
fine– I can’t offer proof
except for one point –
can a mind “love”?
With apologies to Mr. Spock,
meditation, contemplation, prayer,
(a waste of time
from logic's point of view)
allows the stressed and tired mind
to gently and quietly recall
images of the spirit's journeys
into the dream time;
to unravel the history of one’s life;
to bring forth understanding;
to mould and shape the thoughts
that become what one is.
For we are not known only
for our attributes and abilities –
we are mostly known
for our daily choices.
Impression
twisted from birth
the leg drags
painfully along
the climbing street
cold steel
pierces my heart
tears fill my eyes
--love is not blind--
In Silver Drops
In silver drops
falls the Autumn rain
pattering delicately happy
on slowly swaying branches
and faintly rustling leaves...
Resting
in the peaceful verdant prairie
a mighty weeping willow tree
sways and rocks silently
at the warming touch
of a gentle breeze
In silver drops
falls the Autumn rain
each tiny ephemeral diamond
hangs daintily from leaf and bud
each tiny evanescent crystal globe
reflects the million smiling faces
in velvety grayness of drooping skies
and silky greenness of a resting land
Attracted by the mild and misty hush
a slender naiad leaves her river home
glides to a topmost branch and sits
contentedly combing her gossamer hair
singing a song of love softly
as the Autumn rain falls
in silver drops.
It's Christmas
It's Christmas(hype! hype! hype!)
time to express our need
to show off expensive love
by spending all that money
January will starkly remind us
we didn't have!
Seasonal love is gauged
by countless material things
made in break-down Taiwan
and Cheap China
contributing to disappointment
and landfill clog:
can't even recycle
Christmas love.
I have come to understand
I don't need Christmas
to say I care,
for all of time is at my command
to do random acts of kindness;
to give love and thoughtfulness
to souls in need of direction,
of spiritual awakening,
of gentle comforting.
Greater than any store-bought gift
is this unselfish giving of love
from the depth of a human heart
which has no need of Christmas
wrapped in gaudy commercials
disguising cheap, short-lived thrills.
It's The Apocalypse!
The old gods are frantic
control slipping
out of anaemic hands:
The State is in a state;
the Church is in the lurch...
And the banks are caving in:
It's the Apocalypse!
Yes: Revelation.
It is being revealed
that the old has passed away
the new has come, like it or not.
Is this not inevitable?
Since the one constant of the Universe,
so I'm told, is change:
isn't it time this piece of Universal energy
experiences meaningful change?
Freedom: we've been crying it
for millennia:
It's being handed to us
ready to serve:
do we really want it,
or do we want to play at war
for one more round?
Judgment
We perceive and we judge:
Seems it’s our nature to do so.
calling that either “right” or “wrong”
but seldom do we stop to reason
what we base our judgment on.
How do we know what’s right?
How do we know what’s wrong?
Among other things, feelings?
But what are feelings?
That which causes us to feel— true—
but do we live our life
based on how we feel?
Isn’t that what some once called
hedonism?
Could that be the main reason
behind our many social problems?
Feelings are never “wrong” in themselves,
they are but another of our natural senses,
or perhaps an extension of our senses,
but surely we are more than senses!
Perhaps our world is in the mess it’s in
because we’ve refused to grow up;
refused to get beyond our feelings
and develop a new “sense”— empathy!
If we developed our ability to feel
all that another is feeling —
if “you” became a necessary part of “me”
then likely I’d move from judgment
(of you)
into friendship:
certainly, and at the very least
I’d be motivated to seek “the way”
that makes it better for you...
and consequently, for me.
Karma
There's a lot of talk about karma
floating around the loose caboose world
of much noowagey con mind games
and I'm not exactly jumping on the band wagon
with those who insist they're here
to payback or to be paid back...
Karma implies that in a past life
or in an array of past lives
I've done terrible things to all kinds of people,
or they did terrible things to me
and of course all this terrible stuff
has to be balanced eventually.
Am I poor? Sickly? Oppressed? Underpaid?
Am I lacking in intelligence? Or opportunity?
Am I rolling in dough, surrounded by starving crowds?
Blame it all on karma, or thank your karma:
You're living in payback time.
There's a clear legal problem
with such a simplistic view of life:
If I commit a crime on this world, in this life,
usually I get my day in court;
at least, I know what I am in prison for.
But what about that karma thing?
If I did something to someone 10,000 years ago,
shouldn't I have some certain way to know
it really was me who did it, and not some slime
who passed himself as me to escape punishment?
I'll put it this wa
y: The universe (some call it God)
certainly seems to maintain a point of balance in energy:
'For every action there is an immediate and opposite reaction'
Aha! says I! That's not at all like karma, is it!
If the opposite is immediate,
I must conclude there's no such thing as 'karma' -
No sudden windfall; no terrible punishment
waiting for me, life after life
until I become aware of the so-called law of karma:
you know the karma that
ran over your dogma?
Keys
I may not prevail
in every struggle,
but I hold this truth
firmly within my heart
that a battle lost
should not be discounted
as waste.
Whether I win or lose
is not the point of this game:
there are valuable lessons
taught in defeat.
How so? you may well ask.
Well, humility is one seed
that sprouts well
in the soil of defeat.
If heaven had a door,
you'd find that humility
is a key
that would fit quite well
within its golden lock:
there are other keys, of course.
I'll leave that to you
to figure out...
"Know" More Money!
Money's declining in value,
soon may not even exist;
financial institutions are definitely
on their way to the grave--
(I salute them: a well-deserved rest!)
bank robbers will taste unemployment,
with or without a union card,
and so their counterparts,
break-in artists and CEO's,
who sell their ill-gotten wares
for pieces of coloured pulp.
Politicians will be struck dumb:
unfunded lies seldom gain
the status of truth...
Just imagine:
old ladies once again safe
to walk down lonely sidewalks;
clean running transportation
when profit in oil and gas
vanishes in the last whiff of smog;
green grass and window panes
reflecting a pristine sun;
national debts cancelled,
gone by the sweep of a magic wand;
trees standing tall in the wind
spared from the printing press
as media deception fades out;
abandoned financial towers:
pent-housing for the poor,
rent free, guilt free, fear free.
Imagine a world without money:
why should it frighten?
Knowing Life; Doing Life
Think of all the instructions
we get through life:
how to do this or that,
how to think, what to think
when to think... and when not.
But what constitutes
what we call “life”?
Simply put: it's all a matter
of careful observation:
what works, what doesn't -
it's all there,
in the collective experience.
All that's necessary is to tap
into this great pool of knowledge.
Well, no, not quite:
there's a trick we must learn
that goes with knowledge:
it's this “doing life thing.”
“Practice what you preach,”
“walk your talk;”
“don't tell me, show me,”
sounds great: how is it done?
So what's the conclusion?
Life is knowing what to do,
and