PROUD AS LUCIFER

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PROUD AS LUCIFER

When narcissists rule

We all sing their tune

Cause they are the penultimate

One in the room

We always say yes

We never say no

We smile and nod

So they never know

We resent their bullying

We can see they are wrong

But they are quite dangerous

We all play along

The narcissists' weakness

Their one Achilles heel

Is that they only concern themselves

With how pleased they feel

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MESSAGE FROM ABOVE

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MESSAGE FROM ABOVE

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While the news crew

Interviewed the distraught principal

About the children killed in the school shooting

A bird, (off camera)

Sang the sweetest song, over and over

From a nearby flowering tree

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BURDEN

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BURDEN

What happens to the straw

After it breaks the camel's back?

Why, it looks for another camel

Of course!

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LIFT UP YOUR EYES

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LIFT UP YOUR EYES

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Most people know

What a vicious cycle is

Where something, or perhaps a bunch of things

Go wrong, yet every effort to fix it

Simply makes it worse

Which can affect health, sully the sense of well-being

Sometimes it can seem almost impossible

To stop the runaway train

Of a vicious cycle

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But as with most things

There is a yin to that yang

A benevolent cycle

When one small act, one kind thought

One small temptation avoided

These seemingly small choices

Unlock a previously undiscovered door

A door where you perceive new tools

Insights, a release from suffering

You feel the problems ease up

Your eyes lifted from the downward spiral

Looking up, looking ahead

To the lush green pastures and magnificent mountains

Laughing streams of sweet water, fields of flowers

Where life can be beautiful and pleasant

Where the path to wholeness and peace

Becomes crystal clear.

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STICKY NOTE

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STICKY NOTE

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If at home you do not find me

Leave a note that will remind me

Though I can not say where or when

I might be back this way again

Once I am forced to just move on

You will find me ever so gone

So if you visit the aftermath

Leave a note, but don't hold your breath

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ADVANCED COPING

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ADVANCED COPING

Coping with the aftermath

Of a terrible experience

A great wrong committed against you

Whether intentional or not

Is painful, slow, and sometimes 

Very unfair

Yet it is the exact process by which we grow and learn

Become stronger and wiser

Harder to fool or trick

Experienced in the ways of the world

This does not have to result in bitterness or cynicism

But it must result in more caution, planning, thinking ahead

Maybe even overcoming our natural inclination to

Jump in and help

It results in realizing some basic truths

We can't fix others, certain behaviors are dire warnings

We are worth more than to struggle with the futility

Of making a silk purse from a pig's ear

Your horrible experience is Life Lesson 101

Or 202, or 303

Please take notes of your journey

In your journal

Because this will be on the Final Exam

And might show up on a pop quiz

Mid-semester

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HOLE TRUTH

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HOLE TRUTH

The only hole we can not try

To climb out of

Is the grave

Otherwise, look for a hand hold, a foot hold

We need not concern ourselves

With how we sank so low

Or with how far we need to climb

Our only concern today

Is the next step, the right thing

And maybe asking for help

From a kind person who might have

Very recently

Climbed out of a hole themselves 

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SUFFICIENT

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Poem I wrote

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SUFFICIENT

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When I hear "Go big or go home"

I go home

When they say "You only live once"

I think once might be enough

Since life is extraordinary

Everything seems miraculous to me

I only need to direct my attention

To the beauty and mystery around me

Right now

To be in harmony with my life as it is.

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TOO REAL ESTATE

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TOO REAL ESTATE

Conquering people and taking their land

The conquerers think, "Oh isn't this grand?

We will take your whole country 

Call it our own.

You will be driven out to find

A new home."

When did this warfare start? 

Nobody knows

But for quite a few centuries

This is just how it goes

The current conquerors now rule 

With their schemes and plans

The Earth is the same 

But it has changed hands

The conquerors hang on 

The best that they can

Until a stronger opponent 

Lays claim to their lands

We ask "Is this right?" 

We ask "Is this fair?"

We ask "Do the conquerors have a right to be there?"

The past is gone, but the future will come

Let us think up a peace plan so that

Warfare is done.

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EZEKIAL 23:20

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EZEKIAL  23:20 

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As a child

I read the Bible in church

Because I had been thrown out of Sunday School

For asking questions

I read the Bible quietly in the back row of church

Looking for passages about potential alien contact

Ezekial seemed promising

Not to mention other remarkable information

I really wanted to know

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ELSEWHERE

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ELSEWHERE

What happens when the object being orbited 

Disappears?

When the spirals get bigger and become

Erratic

When the center can not hold.

Eventually

The satellite flies off to who knows where

Travelling

Not exactly lost, but with destination

Unknown

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DECISION ON A FATEFUL NIGHT

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DECISION ON A FATEFUL NIGHT

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Turkey hunters found her body

Staring sightlessly up at the sky

She picked up a man at the night club

Unfortunately, it was the wrong guy

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She and her friends had a system

They came and went home together

They watched each others drinks and purses

They were careful like birds of a feather

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Except that one night she went out alone

She wanted to drink and get high

Ignored her friends when they phoned

And she left the club with the wrong guy

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Turkey hunters found her body

She was unclothed and tied up with tape

She paid the ultimate nonrefundable price

For making a thoughtless mistake

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WONDERSTRUCK

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WONDERSTRUCK

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When we grow and learn new things

A better way

We encounter the temptation

To reconsider all our part decisions 

In the light of this new information

Information we did not have when we were making 

These decisions, some of which were obviously

Blunders of the first magnitude

This reconsideration is a huge mistake

To think we were fools back then

What we were was uninformed, naive

A babe in the woods

Wide-eyed, innocent, untutored

Inexperienced

So, while we learn, grow, renew our minds

We never critisize our younger selves

For being wonderstruck

By the overwhelming spectacle of life

Swirling rapidly around us, younger us

Unwise us, now growing in wisdom and that great gift of time

The power of discernment

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