CHILL BLAMES

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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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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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(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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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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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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MY GOOD DAY

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MY GOOD DAY

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An online search can answer many questions

"How many popes were named Leo?"

"Where do sycamores grow?"

However, some questions only I can answer

So if I want to think about having a good day

Only I can define the ingredients

"What does that look like? What would a good day consist of?"

The more richly detailed my answer

The clearer the mental picture

Of my good day

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LAST LIGHT

 

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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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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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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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WHAT I ASSUME ABOUT YOU

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WHAT I ASSUME ABOUT YOU

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You are doing the best you can

When you learn how to do something better

You do it better

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You do things for a reason

Your reasons need only apply to you

I don't need to understand them

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You feel drawn to a higher purpose

Keeping your nose to the grindstone is practical

But adding to the good and kindness in the world

Is your real goal

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Art and nature are vitally important to you

On a daily basis

Music, paintings, forests and clouds

All draw your attention

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You think about the nature of reality

You live the examined life, the only game

Worth the candle

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RELAY

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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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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

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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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TINY SEED

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TINY SEED

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Tiny seed

I wish you get a chance at life

Fall on fertile ground

Feel gentle rain, warm sun

Light breezes

I hope no hungry jaws

Careless footsteps

Droughts or floods

Hamper your growth

Tiny brave seedling

One day I hope you might

Reach for the sky.

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EVERY ENDING IS A NEW BEGINNING

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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

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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

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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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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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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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FAIRYTALE TORCH

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FAIRY TALE TORCH

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Almost everyone can remember

How disappointed and shocked they were

As children

When they realized that life wasn't fair 

People we look up to can be hypocrites

And worse, innocence and purity doesn't always triumph

In the end

The child has no words for this shocking realization

Except to scream, in their high thin voice

"It's not fair!" 

Maybe someday idealism and happy endings

Kindness and fairness triumphing

Goodness rewarded

Will be written out of children's stories 

And the children will read gritty realistic noir

But ...

There is something in humanity that needs children to have 

A higher truth, a brighter vision,  a purer heart's words

In the hope, the bone deep hope

That the children will grow up and transcend

The current state of our flawed justice and inadequate kindness

And make a world so beautiful we will look on from heaven 

And smile 

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SHOWTIME

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SHOWTIME

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All the world is a stage

Which is crowded with actors who have not been given a script

They are forced to improvise according to their character

It looks like teetering chaos with a thin veneer of normality

But that's not the whole of it

Behind the scenes, backstage, there are sets being designed

Actors coached with stage whispers we all strain to hear

Projects being crafted and devised by hands we never see

No wonder the audience is confused, bewildered, aghast

Watching the actors stampede across the stage towards

The Macarena, fidgit spinners and Tide pods without rhyme or reason

If we can pull back the dusty moth-eaten curtain 

We can see the Wizards behind the scenes and confront the fact

That greedy self-interest is in charge looking for puppets to do their will

This is why we must be in charge of our own performance

Allowing no one to tell us where we must stand, what lines we must speak

How we will think once we look to the true Director

Our Higher Selves and the vision they have for the future.

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ONWARD

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ONWARD

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We must go forward

Because we can't go back

We must fix the future

Because we can't fix the past

We must find a better way

As we go forward

If no way exists - we will make one

To get to that better place, that happy day 

We can all envision

A day when innocence is protected

The broken things mended 

The cruelly hurt and painfully discarded

Lovingly embraced and healed

In our future the sky is not the limit

Only heaven on Earth is the limit

As we grow and evolve towards understanding

Of what is valuable and important

Vital

For us to survive and thrive 

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THE LATEST

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THE LATEST

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The Strait of Hormuz, the Strait of Hormuz

I never gave it a thought, now it is big news

Closed or open, open or closed

What will fix this, nobody knows

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BLUE JEAN BERRY

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BLUE JEAN BERRY

There is a little purple stain on my denim jacket

It is from a blueberry so sweet and juicy it dripped

From my mouth, me not being the neatest eater

It happens

Soon I will wash this jacket

Maybe the stain will wash out or maybe it will fade

Like Proust, the sight of the stain brings back the memory

Of the time I had tea and blueberries

Blueberries so sweet and juicy they created a memory

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GOOD ORDERLY DIRECTION

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GOOD ORDERLY DIRECTION

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Lost is a place

Confounded is a state of mind 

And failing is a rock on the road to success

Somewhere things might have taken a wrong turn

But fear not!

Your Higher Self has GPS+

Good Problem Solving Skills

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WELL

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WELL

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Here we are, on an average sized planet

Hurtling through vast inhospitable space

No idea how we got here

Or where we are going

Not a clue how we can get along peacefully

As nations or even as individuals

In all the mind-boggling universe there is only one place

Where you can find peace

That place is within you, in your heart and mind

In every situation you can prioritize your peace

Invite joy, have moments of discovery and wonder

We can wish for peace, pray for peace

Even make signs and protest in the street for peace

Yet we must find it in the only place the calm garden of peace can flourish

We grow world peace in our hearts and minds

The universe within

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THE WAR IS WON IN THE GENERAL'S TENT

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THE WAR IS WON IN THE GENERAL'S TENT

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The General who is a pessimist

Is defeated before he's begun

Yet if the General is too optimistic

He won't know when to turn and run

But if the General is a realist

He will live in the vital moment

While adjusting plans and strategies

And figuring out his opponent

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