Wisps

There is nobody singing, there is only the song
There is nobody dreaming, there is only the dream

Insubstantial joy needs voice
Beginning and end
The illusion each
singer and dreamer
brings.

We hold ourselves as bringers
of that which brings us
We fear most as mortals
that which delivers us.

Pray if you must
Wish if you need
You are not your blood
Even as you bleed.

The spirit you call
Calls you instead
From where you cannot know
To where you must yet go.

Make yet be not the Maker
Who sings in your dream
Reminding you in waking
That which does not seem.

Silence the singer,
yet the song remains.
Awaken the dreamer
Yet the dream remains
Destroy what's made
Yet the Maker remains.

Rejoice in songs for the singer is not the song
Rejoice in dreams for the dreamer is not the dream.

Rock of Ages

I'll give them pride and purpose,
said the holyman.

I'll give them pickaxes and pennies
said the capitalist.

I'll give them pickaxes and promises
said the marxist.

I'll give them bayonets and bullets
said the general.

I'll give them dynamite and detonators
said the industrialist.

I'll give them meters and methods
said the scientist.

I'll do it myself with chisel and hammer
said the artist.

I'll plant bamboo with seed and faith
said the sower.

I'll endure the ice and the fiery sun
for my living moment said one.

Unbecoming

We've grown smaller.

Each of us together apart.
explode across eons and continents,
despite floods and droughts
and blooded horrors

DNA predicts nothing of the rain
or of our need for it always.

Nor does it know ubiquitous sunlight,
that but what is cannot be without.

So they map and explain it,
those who know better than i,
finding always less possibility
as if the universe means less

Infinitely.

We've shrunk.

All of us, individually.
To fit within televisions,
facebooks, sidewalks, classes,
malls, tents, cubicles, cars ...
each a virtual self

Identically.

We've discovered

Electrons flow regardlessly
the only insubstance certain
of remaining smaller than its parent
parenting smaller still.

While wars and heated storms
rage greater so as to deny
supposed quantum indifference.

They calculate and speculate,
those who know better than i,
finding ever smaller certainty
declaring not living everything's all

Eternally.

Unlearning

The invisible cannot be seen, says the sage.

The seen cannot be invisible, says the sage.

Thus seeing the invisible and not-seeing the visible,

These make all living creatures perceptive, says the sage.

When the invisible can be seen by all, does it become visible?

When the visible cannot be seen by anyone, does it vanish?


So much confusion!


That which appears was once invisible.

That which vanishes was once visible.

Only that which is never visible and that which never vanishes

Endures.

This is the mystery that shapes all things.

No

No is a tiny word.

An orphan.

Shouted by nuns to the heavens.

Like an echo

Returning:

Yes!

Truthteller

There’s more in a sunbeam
than in
all the words,
all the books,
all the numbers,
all the history,
all the stories,
and
all the thoughts
and
all the dreams
of all the humans
that have ever lived.

Said the serpent.

How

How can you put its explosion back into the bomb?
How can you put her eyes back in their bloody sockets?
How can you put a scream back into shredded lungs?
How can you put their brains back into shattered skulls?
How can you put the joy back in the decapitated child?
How can you say it was all a mistake

When after all you built the bombs
Shipped and loaded the bombs,
Dropped and triggered the bombs
And afterward flew over the craters
To judge the effect of the bombs?

Do you check for useless limbs scattered like garbage
Or fragments of scalp like confetti at a birthday party?
Do you listen for the moans of those not quite dead?
Do you show your bombardiers pictures from a hospital bed?
Do you allow them to carry pictures of their own little kids
As they aim for buildings without thought of human dread?
Do you train them not to feel, not to grieve, not to cry?
Do you teach them that consequences don’t apply
And threaten or shoot those who refuse to comply?

When you come home to your velvet wife and
Your bright pesticide lawn, your healthy kids,
Your friendly neighbors, your sleek new Benz,
Your running water,
plenty of food
bomberless skies
air so conditioned
windows windexed
streets kept swept
songbirds calling
squirrels cavorting

How do you do it?