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

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

Is That Guy On Tacitril Or What!?

It really should go without saying...

It really is an absolute wonder drug that finally turned my life right around, so much for the better

Now I know when to keep to good silence instead of shooting off my stupid mouth once again

No more do I suffer the after-effects of unreasoned outbursts that I could not Even control

I no longer bore and anger my co-workers with my irrelevant ramblings at their Big Meetings

I can serenely sit back as others go way overboard, far off the deep end and never shut up

Tacitril has taught me to say so much more, simply by talking far, far less

I even started hearing a lot of the other randomly excess noise with which we fill the world

Now I realize that silence is no frightening void that I must forever try to fill with verbal spam

A daily dose and I’ve stopped yelling at those hateful, cosmetically-enhanced anchor people

I lost the urge to keep making up lame questions, vainly trying to assure myself that I’m smart

It’s really been helpful to silently let others trail off alone into the weeds of foolish nonsense

Merely remaining quiet has become a great weapon which creates confusion in my superiors

I simply don’t have that fool need to recap, rehash and re-iterate like I used to anymore

I just let the kids and the wife talk themselves off into stammered, evaporating mumbles

Yes, I nod my head, but not in agreement, merely acknowledging that I heard what my boss said

Every meeting reinforces my stillness as I filter their compulsive, but empty, chatter

Talking in circles around the point just to hear my own voice is no longer satisfying for me

It’s easy to forgo pointless sidetracking of important discussions just to show that I am present

I can detect their BS more quickly now since I’m not always only thinking about what I will say next

Sometimes my reticence even provokes a satisfying rise from those who simply cannot be still

Now I find my silence as full of meaning as anything I could ever have hoped to blurt out

I find it as pointless to try and have the last word as to talk over our incessant and vapid noise

I forgot what it’s like to lay awake just wishing that I could have kept my stupid mouth shut

I’m satisfied just hearing the movers and the shakers hanging themselves out to dry, again

I cut out the preambles, the redundant flourishes and repetitive conclusions from my speech

I respond to their frothy clarion calls to corporate boldness with a politely expectant silence

It’s easy to deny them the pleasure of empty, long-winded responses by withholding dumb questions

No longer do I erupt irrationally because my blood pressure is too high and heart rate too fast

Nowadays, I’m far more likely to think “I’m glad I didn’t say that” than “I wish I’d said that”

I lost the sorry need to try and sell other’s scripted soundbites via my own constant repetition

Happily, I no longer bother attempting to talk over those who have interrupted me, once again

No more parroting sports stats, movie lines, advertising slogans or political catchphrases for me

Don’t sarcastically back-sass cops until they finally just decide to write me up real good

Politely ask the telemarketers to wait and leave them on hold, instead of yelling and blustering

Sure, I’m still angry, insecure, confused, scared and nervous, but I don’t have to broadcast it

I have learned that silence really is a very simple, yet very powerful and totally unlimited blessing

Club Them With Gentle Parody And Unearned Mercy

Tyrannize them with your merest example, torture them with a vast but unassuming modesty

Beat them down with an unbroken stillness, dilute their poison in an infinite sea of tenderness

Let their twisting tongues fall harmlessly only upon their own self-deafened ears

Punish them without the slightest trace of malice using just a bit of your priceless grace

Hurt them deeply with but a wordless mercy, strike them down with gentle voices

Club them like those baby seals but with simple stillness, then smash them with patient smiles

Shut their mouths with children’s laughter, attack them savagely with fresh flowers

Muffle them with silently repeated mantras, let merciful raindrops sully their agendas

Cuff them about with cosmic quiet, put them down with ragged grins from the homeless

Rinse out their greed-blinded eyes with your own salty tears, hack at them with happiness

Silence them with endless earbud recordings of their own foolish and empty braying

Tamp down their angrily-shouted sound bites with your own long and reflective pauses

Cripple their overwhelmingly selfish greed by exemplifying what shall be held important

Smother their toxically smoldering, useless malice beneath many layers of honest goodwill

Betray their selfish hatred by bonding together with the common people of their enemies

Topple their top-heavy propaganda with polite and quietly reasoned conversations

Sterilize their fundamental beliefs with that soft light from within and just lay down their arms

Batter their egos by merely turning away, punish them for life with simple acts of kindness

Dwarf them beneath a vaster cosmic consciousness, deflate them with gentle parody

Starve their overwhelming need for attention, help them to wash off all that garish makeup

Puncture their inflated egos with divine inattention, parry angry shouts with friendly nods

Waterboard them with laughter, bury them in cosmic blessings, make light of their big lies

Waste them with wisdom, quarantine them behind universal love, rob them of bitterness

Drain their greed into the onrushing void, empty their pride into the anonymous eternity

Injure them severely with a vast disinterest, paralyze them merely by ignoring their antics

Dwarf them with visions of the infinite everlasting cosmos, smite them with unbounded pity

Lacerate them with simple honesty, leave them alone to suffer themselves in solitary

Bury them under the burdens they left for the future, defile them with that perfect bliss

Starve them on a diet of their own empty words, remove their blindfolds just at the abyss

Confound them into madness with inexplicable charity, empty them by forsaking greed

Crush them by gathering in non-violent protest, bewilder them with lighthearted pardons

Impale them on their own sharp and poisoned catchphrases, disable them with soft laughter

Confuse them with the certainty of eternal emptiness, blind them with that radiant light

Humble them with a good-natured concern over their shortsighted goals and childish needs

Slash their greedy creed with the sharp truth from ancient wisdom they so scoffingly ignored

Debase them quietly, but brutally, with constant reminder of the effects of their actions