Let the flames die down a bit

soften the nasty innuendos, slow down the rumor mill, get off message - just for a moment

back off the simple but twisted soundbites, let up with the anger, don’t be so demeaning

cast a few less aspersions, tone down your blog, drop the macho posturing for a minute

toss the neckties, slip off the tight dress shoes, stop demanding that ‘God Bless America’

don’t just read their speeches, quietly say no to TV makeup, drop one or two multi-tasks

don’t fear to say waste needs cut and taxes need raised, don’t check the polls Every day

maintain your own image, reduce coded rhetoric, quit lashing out just to provoke anger

let artificial suntans fade, reconsider self-entitlement, come out from your walled compounds

look just a bit beyond the next quarter, ease up on the open contempt for any foreigners

lose a little weight, try a few meatless days, exercise a bit, don’t drink quite so much

question some military outlays, quit inflaming ignorant hatred, think beyond simple GDP

slow the oversimplifying, let shades of gray dapple the black and white, even take in the outdoors

recycle a 3-piece suit, forego just one phony filibuster, tone down that greedy Christmas hype

think a bit about our food supply, soften the sarcastic smirks, lower all this furious static

don’t be quite so shrill, dare to be both with us and against us, reduce the angry righteousness

un-popularize polarization, de-emphasize animosity, come out from behind closed doors

let the flames die down a bit, say it a little more quietly, tend toward that Middle Way

lighten up on those who read and do the math, don’t shovel the unread so much red meat

maybe just speak one at a time, lower your own decibels, watch that blood pressure

quietly turn away from shouting matches, face off against problems instead of each other

nod in silence until they just stop talking, socialize with their families, isolate their hatred

lower the fog machines, take walks and naps, have a deep breath and sigh it out slowly

maybe don’t always vote in party line blocs, share the tiniest foothold upon common ground

let splinter groups form eclectic coalitions, weigh this petty enmity against the infinite darkness

reform catchphrases in your own words and see if they make sense, start here and now, with yourself

roll down the windows, sit in the grass, be mindful of the cherry blossoms as you make decisions

really feel the rain of blessings, stand outside the camera lights, lay off some of that fast food

don’t demonize until co-operation is traitorous, know yourself instead of your marketed image

move away from career politicians, maybe it doesn’t have to always come down to money

attend more to the infinite miracles proceeding at light speed all around us, often remain quite still

reasonably consider human over-population, integrate manufacturing into natural systems

try cooking from scratch, give quietly back for all you are receiving, remember the past

get some small things right, listen until they hear themselves, point out just one sunset

laugh with a bit less scorn, consider progress instead of mere victory, pause in a soft light

stumble back to the ancient path, leave less anger in your wake, spread a little less fear around

look a cow in her gentle eyes, find some reason for a joyful tear, smile as life passes so quickly by

Lifting Off From This Life

and as I saw myself where I lay quite still, just barely breathing

I began to leave in peaceful radiations

rising up, I separate, and leave a trail of gently streaming images

passing straight through the picture window as though it is not there

rising freely, tucking backward, a back dive arching upward

arms spread quite wide and I’m trailing, a rainbow colored mist

moving onward, climbing upward at a steeper angle, the foothills fall away

and from a spot between my eyes, an infinite image is unwound

much higher now, but not too far off, the mountainous divide comes into view

so very free and beyond being calm, evaporating in the contrail of my soul

heading West and ever higher my density decreases

in somersaults and laid out back flips, an entire journey in an instant

and then, high enough at once, I see the curve of our miraculous atmosphere

at last so free with arms outspread, it is escape velocity for me

moving cross the moon's lovely face a bright blue planet shines far below

then on around to the dark side to slingshot away with even greater speed

and faster now, cruising openly with the photons from the sun

leave the friendly ecliptic behind to get a feeling for the void

and in four short years my soul can visit nearby Proxima Centauri

but at this speed time passes so very slowly that I am aged but very little

Effortlessly realizing that nothing good comes for free

Peeling back the silky mandala one gauzy layer at a time

Gazing back out through its crystalline structure from a central void

Then suddenly and necessarily, without any conscious effort

It is that first real time up, riding on that old bicycle

Always in that process of learning something new

not merely chattering to simply hide good silence

Taking pride and pleasure in the basics of life

Feeling the native wisdom of hot sweat and hard breathing

Studying deeply as well as reading widely

getting up before the sun

Knowing how to do things with the use of your own hands

Cooking food yourselves and sharing it at home

Watching the cycles of the moon, the sun and the seasons of the earth

Remaining simply aware of the subtle sounds of nature

Finding use for anger but not living driven blindly by rage

Sharing as much love in any way as often as you can

Traveling far but not forsaking the good home that you have made

Always being sure that you can still read and write

Respecting the old, repairing the broken, knowing the history

relaxing your entire body one part at a time

Understanding that you can’t be any happier than the saddest you have ever been

Making every single day a good day to die

Being honest and avoiding salesmanship

Knowing yourself and listening to others

Not letting their noise and confusion mask the vast emptiness

Seeking out the quiet places and letting them fill you up

Adjusting constantly and unconsciously to the eye of the storm

Effortlessly realizing that nothing good comes for free

My Fool Errands Led Me Here

For so long that false but pervasive urgency molded my perception of how it is and what it should be

I always awaited some trite event which quickly faded off into my incomplete and jumbled blur

At times I thought I was stepping sagely back, but really that was just one more, too hurried task

I strained so long under that pointless stress that I felt empty when I was casually cast off for good

Thought I saved time religiously, but although I never even spent a bit, my account is empty now

Drove thousands of angry and wasted miles between demeaning jobs and dysfunctional homes

Found novel ways to make foolish noise when I should have known to keep to a good silence

Exhausted by the vapid over-stimulation, I convinced myself I had grabbed for all their gusto

My fool errands led me on, time and again, growing older without noticing, almost til the end

I thought I traveled widely but I viewed everything with the same unquestionable beliefs

My lot was insipid variation upon pointless tasks prodded by the greedy, shallow and insecure

Overheated by implanted artificial needs I nosed blindly towards this infinite shared abyss

Their droppings stained me from above as we raced on the same treadmill for canned rewards

Any brief satisfaction was rapidly eroded by the over-hyped flood of the New and Improved

Often in the frenzy I caught short, sideways glances at details I vowed I must later consider

Sometimes I awoke from odd, confusing dreams, and felt thankful to be rapidly re-absorbed

Briefly disconcerted by my elders passing, I was quickly reassured that our lives must go on

I stumbled on after that hazy HappyEverAfter always radiating just beyond my event horizon

I never realized how the endless greedy distractions merely kept me quiet and uncomplaining

Expensively-empty vacations and merchants holidays kept me pedaling furiously in place

I lay in the night vainly craving the hollow diversions they had convinced me were so important

Too willingly did I suffer chronic fools in a synthetic hope of achieving their venal illusions

Slowly I realized I must race ever faster towards goals I clearly had never really specified

But, For Right Now, I always had this to Get Over With and that to Get Out Of The Way

Dutifully, I carted the kids between enriching activities they quickly and indifferently forgot

I envisioned a contemplative future but, sadly, my body wore out and my mind grew confused

Sociopaths set me to useless tasks, seeking only to lend some meaning to their own wasted cycles

Kept in the dark, led by the greedy, I slapped up their Just For Now with my own Quick And Dirty

I repeated their vile catechism of eternal vigilance, always preparing for more savage conflict

Brought back tiny inscrutable nuggets of extra-media clarity from times of sickness or injury

Forced myself to attend to their ever-changing office plumage and corporate sloganeering

Pretended my noisy, gas-powered wreckreation provided a fulfilling and re-invigorating relaxation

Gorged myself into obesity and illness mistaking nervous, gnawing emptiness for real hunger

Left the awful, incomprehensible future to the fuzzy heaven I financed through His Sales Reps

In the end, tried in vain just to stay in the rat race that I thought all along I was striving to escape

Struck finally into deaf silence by the blind truth of an everlastingly colorless and empty void

NAN - Not A Number

 
    NAN – Not A Number: a purported numeric representation found invalid by any CPU

Face down with my eyes closed for a moment on a brilliant summer day

Switching my thoughts from dry and empty words to illustrative imaging

Arms outspread and feeling for earth’s smooth rotation underneath me

Smelling the moist brown sod beneath the green grass that’s tickling my nose

Ears pricked to catch the silence of our planet’s revolution about its star

Feeling the moon tracing around us, constantly changing her expression

Alert to the momentary minuscule changes in the output of our sun on my back

Aware of its rotational plane with respect to our own Milky Way

Observing as I move slowly upward and somewhere away from myself

Brain waves smoothing into that ancient, nearly-forgotten, frequency and rhythm

Relaxing, smoothing and soothing every part of my conscious anatomy

Anchoring at a center from which all things move away at the speed of light

NAN is not a number but it is the sum of all of my small experiences

My own unique personal version from one of the uncountable different infinities

Feeling my heart slowing as it nonetheless inexorably tolls my 3 billion allotted beats

Hearing an old German church bell again on that quiet Sunday morning in October

But, jet-lagged and sleep-deprived or fit and well-rested, my dust will be the same

Merging with smaller galaxies we encounter, on a route that seems to be directed

Tracing a path through the cosmos without conscious purpose and to no planned end

Aware of the bee as she buzzes about a neighbor of mine standing here in full flower

Rag-Dolled By The Roaring Waves

Wasted by a howling wind

Beaten back by biting dust

Pelted by the pouring rain

Frozen by that driven snow

Frightened off by lightning flashes

Swept away by swirling floods

Buried beneath building rubble

Stung all over by swarming pests

Swallowed up by dark tsunami

Ravaged by raging forest fire

Burned alive with bubonic plague

Weakened being tired and wet

Curled up tight against the cold

Driven off by constant drought

Carried over curving waterfalls

Drifted in with fat dead fishes

Decomposed in wasteful dumps

Shot dead by some unknown soldier

Broiled crisp under a burning sun

Entombed beneath icy avalanches

Dangled off of dangerous cliffs

Struck silent by so much starlight

Maddened under a fall full moon

Deafened by the thunder’s din

Silenced by their quiet suffering

Given cancer by corpro-nutrients

Rag-dolled by the roaring waves

Singled out by biting swarms

Ground up fine by heavy glaciers

Fried crisp in fiery volcanoes

Smothered by our own toxic smoke

Ripped apart in rock-filled canyons

Sunk far too deep in salty oceans

Tossed down from the tallest trees

Lost the way in dark limestone caves

Wandered off among the wondrous clouds

All that dry space between the raindrops

in the icy waters tumbling

          actually dancing in that shining spume

in the blowing hoarfrost crystals ignited by the wintry sun

          beckoning through their many prisms

part of the gentle sounds of spring creeks flowing

          splashing about upon their rocky floors

souls of patterns seen in far-off clouds

          also glinting from mosses, green upon the stones

neither evil spirit nor mythic god

igniting any reason for their invention

glimpsed while considering galactic clusters

          filling probabilistic emptiness within the atoms

inside the sound of wind and rain

glowing golden in the lion’s eye

neither possessed of emotion nor conscious intellect

          touching yet deeply and yielding wisdom

in the colors of the birds and the fish of the oceans

shining from her eyes without her even knowing

deeply moving yet quite untouched

          without a will but quietly consistent

unaware of the pulsing life force

          but part of the larger cosmic evolution

all that dry space between the raindrops

          mysterious force that builds up rivers

sense that makes the oceans restless

          unnecessary beauty of the morning

answer to all the orphan’s questions

          nameless void from which life briefly sparks

beautiful patterns left without any explanation

          tracings there as if something passed

things we finally learn we should have always searched for

          mystical back-drop, mute to all our wasted folly

what the children are afraid of

          why the old ones have no fear at last

riddle of the victim’s expression

          blur of twenty years sensed in a single instant

revealed in the short lives of crushed dragon flies

          meditated upon near one huge, decaying stump

on the golden line of sun reflected in a breaking swell

          of the snapping and the popping of our campfire burning

feeding the feeling arising when making music

          grateful use of ideas that arise unbidden

joy we take as children play with puppies

why we cook and sew, safe and warm at home

neither in the snow nor of the coldest winter

          sensed by the wolf and he begins to howl

all these tiny life forms dancing, fully animated within but a raindrop world