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AHOY MATEY
If a shipping container full of problems
Arrives at your port of call
Don't sign for it
Don't unload it
Don't step foot on its deck
Don't even let it drop anchor
You can send it in its way
With your own personal Maritime Zone Enforcement
Use the non-lethal deterrent that is kept
In every ballot box in the land
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MERRILY MERRILY MERRILY MERRILY
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If I had a dream about a blue flower
And someone had a dream about a red flower
Would there be any point in us
Engaging in mortal combat
Over what color the flower was?
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OPINIONS
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I have opinions
How I got them is unknown but not unusual
I have always had opinions
They have changed dramatically over time
The opinions I had as a teen
Look preposterous to me now
As a teen I would have fought tooth and nail
To defend my opinions from other opinions
I had strong feelings surrounding my youthful opinions
But in the end nobody took my opinions
They just eroded away and were replaced with new opinions
I dredged up from somewhere
I have no confusion about what my opinions are today
I hold them lightly, they are not my identity
I know one or more could fly away at any time
I am not my opinions
I am whatever manufactures opinions
From the raw material of life
If my opinions are different from the next person
That is not a reason to fight with them
Everyone is entitled to their opinions
They have the right to express their opinions
As I have a right to express mine
Transitory as they may be
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SOMEONE ELSE
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A sudden disaster, a shocking problem, a steep mountain to climb
Doesn't throw me into panic and confusion
If it happening to someone else
I can see the situation clearly
Think rationally, even philosophically
If it happening to someone else
I can think of effective measures
How to calmly proceed, the next step to take
If it happening to someone else
I immediately understand that blind panic
Will not accomplish anything productive
If it happening to someone else
Now, when a problem rears it's scary head
My only task is to figure out
How I can become Someone Else
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NEWS FROM AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE
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I almost spilled my coffee today
And perhaps in an alternative universe
I did spill my coffee
All over this notebook
Turning this poem into a soggy mess
Unreadable
So you would not be reading it right now
You would be doing something else
Which means that my reality is impacting yours
And the "something else" you might be doing
Could impact others, including me
A spiraling loop of our intermingled realities
The Dance of Existing in this reality or another
The dance floor might change
But the Dancer dances on to the music
Of the spheres
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ARLINGTON
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Arlington National Cemetery
Is a thorn in the Confederacy's side
It once belonged to Robert E Lee
A source of Confederate pride
Lee had slaves and riches
Until the Union came in 1861
They freed the Arlington slaves
But they were nowhere done
They buried the Union fallen
Right outside the door
In Mary Lee's rose garden
Before they won the war
They trashed the Southern mansion
Started the endless sea of graves
Set up a sanctuary
For the newly freed slaves
Today, if you go to Washington DC
You can see the somber cemetary
Now a sacred national resting place
For the brave that are honorably buried
The Confederates don't want this reminder
Of their mistakes and their defeat
They don't want to look at it
And the message that it speaks
A great big gaudy hideous arch
Would block the line of sight
Of our dignified national cemetery
Because the Union won the fight
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BREAKING NEWS
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Here is the news from the Multiverse
Things could be better, things could be worse
A path appears, then it's gone
The mindful timeline you are on
Grab the wheel, hold the reins
Steer your thoughts towards goals and gains
You can create what your mind's eye sees
The Master of your reality
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YOUR NEIGHBOR IN HADES
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He mows his lawn with an assault rifle
She dries her underwear in the salad spinner
They throw pinecones at the squirrels
And have cold beer for dinner
Hell is other people
We know karma to be true
So in life be respectful of others
Lest the Bickersons move in next to you
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CHILL BLAMES
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I read the paper, I watch the news
Hoping and wishing the Strait of Hormuz
Soon opens wide after all this moil
So this winter I can afford heating oil
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SPECK IN THE DISTANCE
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A crazy old baboon
Climbed up the tallest tree
Declared himself king of it all
Ruler of all he could see
Hardly anyone listened
To what he had to say
Then a mighty eagle swooped down
Carried him clean away
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(IN) TANGIBLE
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Give me a pencil! Give me paper!
Before my thoughts dissolve like vapor
Thoughts float around like waking dreams
Running a program behind the scenes
I don't know what I'm thinking about
Til I write thoughts down. then I find out.
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MID-ME-DLE
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There's a lunatic fringe on the left
There's a lunatic fringe on the right
You can tell who they are
Because they are eager to start a big fight
They feel they have been wronged
That the other side is to blame
They hurl threats and insults
They call each other bad names
For all of us in the middle
Those capable of sensible compromise
We want the fences mended
We heed the words of the wise
For the sake of our blood pressures
We need to live and let live
The lunatic fringe demands change
With all take and no give
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FREE FLOATING RESENTMENT
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If you put on an itchy sweater in your bedroom
You would feel itchy
If you walked to the kitchen, you would still be itchy
The living room - itchy
The front stoop - itchy
Because the problem is not the bedroom, nor the kitchen
Living room or stoop
The problem is the itchy sweater
Knitted from the yarn of abuse and neglect
Until you remove the itchy sweater
The problem will persist
Resentment is like that maddeningly itchy sweater
If you are in a relationship - resentment appears
If you are alone - resentment
Unemployed - resentment, employed - resentment
Free floating resentment will attach itself like a leech
To whatever situation presents itself
The problem is always the resentment
There is only one cure for this resentment
Humility
Humility is the realization that nothing is perfect
No one is perfect, no situation is ideal
These imperfections are a fact of life
Humility recognizes that perfection is impossible
But we can do our best to have a good attitude
Make our lives better any small ways we can
Humility is recognizing that the resentment is within us
And that is where resentment must be neutralized
With humility
The path of humility is the path of peace
The only path out of suffering when we journey into the calm optimism
Of the humble explorer on a new day
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LAST LIGHT
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I hope he has a moment of clarity
As the sand in his hourglass runs out
And in this moment of clarity
He sees the life he could have had
The good he could have done
The lives he could have changed for the better
I hope he sees the wreckage in his wake
The broken and ruined tributes
To an ego clothed in lust and greed
I hope he fully realizes that money and power
Will never fill the place of love and kindness
The light of understanding calls him home
But here, here, he will not be missed at all
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HINDSIGHT
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CRACK!
In the wind and the rain
A tall and mighty pine tree broke
The top of the tree came down
With a crash that shook the ground
It fell in two different directions
Fallen, never to rise again
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Many years ago the tree top divided in two
Bifurcated
Perhaps to gain an advantage
By absorbing twice as much sunlight
Beating the rivals that crowded in to compete
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But now it becomes apparent, obvious
All these years later
That the strategy of splitting in two
Created a vulnerability
That led to the death of the majestic tree
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It was just a matter of time and the right storm
To bring about its fatal and dramatic end.
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DSM UPDATE
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Something psychology has completely missed
Is diagnosing those that are chronically pissed
They do their rageful aggressive dance
They think they are victims of circumstance
The system has failed them, insight is naught
Cause fussing and fighting is all they were taught
Won't listen to reason, won't look at proof
With blood pressured fury that's right through the roof
Responsibility absent, empathy nonexistent
The most you can say is that they are consistent
Vile and nasty, a hot temper that flares
Their unhappiness is everyone's fault but theirs
We might not be able to tame their rage
I just avoid them like the plague
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RELAY
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The cup that quenches my thirst
For wisdom and knowledge
Will be tightly held during my entire life's journey
Until it falls to the path
For the next curious soul to wander by
And pick up
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MEDIAN
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Can there be an us without a them?
Do we just keep going or begin again?
There are so many questions but answers are few
What is right for me might be wrong for you
Can there be more directions than left or right?
Can problems be solved without a fight?
Perhaps the best path to be found
Is to tolerate others but stand your ground.
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IF YOU EAT A PICKLE
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If you eat a pickle, or if you ate one yesterday
This affects me not at all
You can eat a pickle anytime anywhere
And my life will go on normally
Unless I have been brainwashed since birth
To think of pickles as evil, an abomination
Tools of Satan to lure unwary innocents
To the road to ruin
Then I will be offended if I see a pickle
I will be outraged if mention of pickles is within my hearing
I will judge pickle eaters as unworthy
I will suspect my neighbor of secretly eating pickles
In the privacy of their home
And condemn anyone who stops in the pickle aisle
As minions of societal collapse.
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EVERY ENDING IS A NEW BEGINNING
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Somewhere between mercy and vengeance
Is the grey fogbank of indifference
The apathy that blots out the whole situation
The sharp sigh that cuts the tether
So we are free to drift off to new worlds
Of wonder
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GO TOWARDS THE LIGHT
The Higher Self is the midwife that waits
To deliver the stricken lower self from the womb of obsession
To stand in the birth chamber of compulsion
And bring consciousness safely back into the light
Heralding the rebirth of knowledge, inner strength and new purpose
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RULE-ETTE
Life is a great big casino
Each day we win and lose
But we can cash in our chips for wisdom
Whenever and however we choose
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STOP OR GO, YES OR NO
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A plan is forming
I can see its vague shape waitimg
On my potential path
Shrouded in the swirling mists of time
And probability
As I get closer, I will be able to ask
"Who goes there? Be ye friend or foe?"
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GOING GOING GONE
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What if they don't "get it"?
Will never get it
It might be impossible for them to process enough new information
To ever get it
In fact anything that does not reinforce their world view
Makes them angry enough to attack
They are threatened by differences, alternatives, proven facts
What do we do with them?
We can't change them either by sweet reason or hard data
So we must change ourselves
Fortunately, we are capable of change
We can adapt, develop a winning strategy for a peaceful life
My winning strategy is to ignore them
While doing everything legal I can to thwart their agenda
I get out of their way, they are rushing headlong
Towards the fate of the unchangeables
Those forever stuck in the concrete of their opinions
I don't hate them, but I have no hope for them
To see the same light that guides me toward inclusion
Fairness, equality and learning
We get it, and we get that they don't get it
And that they are dangerous in their rage to destroy anything
Different than them
We are different than them but we will prevail
Over time love, kindness and fairness is more powerful
More sustainable, more sensible - love bets and wins
Because the Divine is Love and the Divine is the House
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