Thanksgiving 2016

Thanksgiving 2016

Sometimes it’s simply good

To relax

To do nothing

But listen

Listen well

Listen to classic Christmas songs

Enjoy the sound of rain on the rooftop

Hear the joys of warmth from a fire

These are the things that make life, life

The things that aren’t gotten with violence or storm

Or maybe they were

Maybe my moment of silent repose

Was paid for by another long ago

Maybe it was

So in all of this perusal

Of what was and what could have been and what is

I will be thankful for the stillness

Thankful for the one who withstood calamity

So that I could be a poet

In the here and now

Black Walnut

 Black Walnut

These trees have stood for over 100 years

Growing

Producing fruit

Emanating a stalwart beauty

Year after year they give

Because year after year they take

They take water in all its scarcity

They take the minerals, the dirt

They take the light, the dark

Then give out food and shelter

Beauty and strength

Wonder and amazement

They grow to great lengths

They do all this from this same, small plot

Year after year after year

Without one single complaint

I think I might just do the same

Fallen Leaf

Fallen Leaf

These water worlds

Juxtaposed by concrete and infamy

Often completely overridden by the modern day

In our hustle and bustle we go on our way

Missing the universes at our feet

When will our drudgeries ever meet

With the magic that lives just below us

Just above us

We hover in that deviation called normal

Missing all that was meant for our dreams

I understand what privilege means

When I ponder the stillness of the waters 

11/26/16

The Swatter

The Swatter

Last night I swatted a yellow wasp

On the curtain above my bed

He instantly disappeared from my view

So I assumed that he was dead

Not so

This morning I found him near the door

Mangled, wounded, but crawling

He was trying desperately to move outside

Despite his legs and bent wings were sprawling

He had spent the whole night struggling to simply survive

I knew his end, his ultimate demise

So once more I took the swatter

With significant might

Two swats to end his bitter fate

Now I feel like Hitler

Like Stalin

Like Mao

Why? You say,

It was just an insect

Just a nothing

One amongst the millions

Yes, that’s what Hitler, Stalin, and Mao

Said also

See life is just too intricate

Too beautiful

To be snuffed out because of fear

See, I was afraid of being hurt

I was afraid of experiencing pain

So therefore I exerted the power in my domain

To exterminate life

To terminate the wonders of biology

Now I wrestle with guilt, with shame

My theology is nothing but a cold, hard stone

I wonder what life would be if life could go on

With just a little admiration and a wonder.

Droplets on an Autumn Tree

Droplets on the Autumn Trees

Water droplets cling to the branches

As the rain tumbles down from the sky

They cling there like iridescent stars

Lighting the path to truth

Though the truth seems to stretch beyond infinity

Such small worlds in such small spaces

Crystal clear, luminous, without any traces

Of this angst I feel, this angst I see

These water droplets on the tree

Seem to be speaking something

Something to me

Something that I can’t seem to understand

I am often overcome by this mortality man

Who is always reminding

I will never, ever know the all

Welcome to fall

Slug Trail

Slug Trail

I was walking along today

Quite consumed with myself

My needs, my wants, my lists

As I stepped along

Almost oblivious to all

I saw a shining random chaos

Atop the beige-white sidewalks

Serpentine, candescent

Reflecting the sunlight from above

In no inapparent apparition

This glowing wandered everywhere

Fantastic

Otherworldly

Unending, eternal

Beautiful

As I got outside of my little world

And entered the reality of this one around me

I realized the snails had been out for a walk

They, instead of being so self-consumed,

They left a little of themselves behind

A little of themselves to be a marvel

Or to simply be stepped over, ignored

Yet either way

Still, in the process 

They created a wonder

And so can you and I

The Oaks

The Oaks

I cannot pour out

What I do not contain

I cannot give away

What I do not possess

So why do I continue

Shaking this empty vessel

As hard as I possibly can

Trying to get the last drop

Out of something that was empty

So very long ago

What am I doing?

Don’t I know that I will tire in the shaking

To the point where I drop my jar

Shattering the ceramic everywhere

Scattering the good afar

Time to rest my vessel beneath the rain

Time to sit beneath the ethereal flow

Time to place the acorns in the earth

Water them so they will grow

For fruitfulness has never come

From awkward and vicious consumption

Of that which was meant to glow

I feed on everything that doesn't matter 

I discard everything that does

This one thing I know

There must be a vast reversal

There must be a complete and total overhaul

I must place my busy-ness in the ground to rest

And allow my rest to grow

In this way I will see and know

The wonder of the oaks

11/12/16

Diamonds and Trees

Diamonds and Trees

I’m a whisper on this planet Earth

Here for a breath, then gone

So why would I want to be placed

In a rigid and frozen plot

A place where memory fades?

I would much rather be found in

A place where the blues and jades

Greens and hues

Continue on

Bringing beauty to the earth

Beauty to the skies

This is where I want to lie

When all my breath is gone

Here in the place of heat and stone

In the place where all my fallacies melt away

Now go and live this day

Do not worry about tomorrow

Simply Grateful

Simply Grateful

I could sit here in this pendulum hammock

Staring at the sky

I could sit down with my profound philosophy books

Asking the questions why

I could sit in front of my television screen 

Watching touchdowns and interceptions 

I could walk around like a homeless man

Seeking everyone's perceptions 

I could go and walk the mall and shop

Easing my pain with stuff

I could hitchhike my way to Washington 

To tell them I've had enough 

I could grow old in my rocking chair 

Pretending to be free

Or I could be grateful that in whatever I do

I am simply being me

The Deserter

The Deserter (of the American Dream and more)

I can only describe what is going on within

as a Civil War

Bloody, tortuous, hand-to hand combat

Me against myself

Not knowing who is who

Bayonets fixed

A full head-on charge

Fire, smoke, death, chaos

A battle hymn

A rebel yell

And all of this for something evil

All of this for something good

All of this for something beyond me and my little world

I am a mere statistic, panicked here on the death grounds

Yet I am told this is the staircase to glory

All I know is that my simple story

Is I came, I saw

I cried,

then died.

There is nothing glorious at all in that

Nothing glorious at all

So right here in the midst of this noisy din

This noisy din of impossible demand, command

I drop my gun

I drop my sword

I refuse to kill my spirit

I refuse to bury my soul

in the soil of greed and human selfishness

I look and see three geese, honking, flying toward their home

I believe I shall go there for my very own self

For I refuse to roam within this land of death and prison and hate

As I drop my gun, I see the gate

On the outer edge of the battlefield

And amidst the cries of the dying, anguished

I take my steps 

To freedom