Prayer #2

THERE IS NEVER WITHOUT YOU

Even when i am apart from you

still i am a part of you

like a drop of water from the sea,

now rising into sky

you paint clouds with me.

then drop me down to ground

to quench the thirst of wheat,

feed the bellies of children,

filling me with appreciation

and compassion for all life,

I weep and you seep out

from my eyes, roll down

my cheeks,

holy tracks of my tears..

there is no escaping you is there?

even when i abandon myself

and tell myself the lie that i am alone,

then finally turn to you in my grief and fear

i see once again that i was never

out of your embrace for a moment.

I am iron resisting Rumi's magnet,

oxygen refraining from the fire,

fear fighting off the perfect serenity of love.

then once more as often before

i open again to you my friend,

I play joyously when i surrender,

become your conscious, willing flute.

You conduct your breath through me,

 I am always an instrument of

your divine orchestration.

Prayer #1

Otter's Song

 i used to be polite and

thank god with restraint 

for all that he provides for me-

that etiquette i imposed upon myself

to keep from waking those nearby 

calling their sharp attention to me. 

now i see it was my fear of disturbing them

by admitting my utter reliance on god

for fear that they would scoff and reject me 

like my father in his own fear did.

i used to pray quietly

hiding my wonder and adoration like a secret from myself

no longer do i choose

to govern my gratitude

writing prayers in some personal  private journal

let it be know 

near and far..

i love my god

with all his heart,

this beat is borrowed 

from his pulse,

he and i are one

still playing hide and seek from one another

time and time again

            amen

71511

A SIMPLE WIN-WIN SOLUTION

Paid to not Work? Huh?

Okay. Some body help me out here. Please!

We’ve got about 10% of the adult work force unemployed and most still receiving an unemployment check each and every month. They are receiving this money from the government because they do not have a job.   

The government itself is not creating jobs (nor is the free market adequately) and is about to file bankruptcy altogether yet we have bridges and roads (infrastructure) falling apart, while social services and education takes a backseat beating because of the colossal unjustifiable expense of maintaining useless wars against countries that neither protect nor benefit the people on either side of the equation.

What I truly and deeply do not understand in the slightest is why we don’t simply require that every person receiving unemployment money from the government to go to work (in the interim) in social services, teaching, the repair of our deteriorating infrastructure and any other service we can think up. Why should people who have nothing to do be paid to continue doing nothing!?

So the idea I’m advocating is insanely simple and a win-win for the governments money woes and the out of work citizens woes. Put us to work for crying out loud. And if there is a reason this cannot work please point it out to me.  And after pointing out the reason(s) why this simple, reasonable, brilliant plan will not work-may we please collaborate on working out ways to make it work?  Notice that the most common word in this essay is “work”, as in-nothing that we are doing and everything that we are not doing governmentally, educationally, militarily, economically, environmentally and socially is Not Working!

You know, in the recovery culture of ex drunks and other addicts they have a very concise and poignant insight often expressed; their definition of insanity is: continuing to take the same actions repeatedly which result in the same outcomes. Perhaps as a nation it is time to change our actions; recover our sanity, our confidence, our foreign relations, our working democracy, our schooling system, our self respect and our pride in being an American before it is too late. If it already isn’t..

Please feel compelled or at least free, to email this idea to friends and government so-called representatives

SMOKE SIGNALS

..Is the name of a must see film about fatherhood. The following poem runs across the credits at the end. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did:

HOW DO WE FORGIVE OUR FATHERS?

…maybe in a dream,

Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often

Or forever

When we were little,

Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage

Or making us nervous

Because there never seemed to be any rage there at all.

Do we forgive our fathers for marrying

Or not marrying our mothers,

For divorcing

Or not divorcing our mothers.

And shall we forgive them

For their excesses of warmth or coldness,

Shall we forgive them for pushing

Or leaning,

For shutting doors

For speaking through walls,

Or never speaking

Or never being silent.

Do we forgive our fathers

In our age

Or in theirs,

Or in their deaths.

Saying it to them

Or not saying it.

If we forgive our fathers

What is left…

FOR ALL FATHERS ON FATHERS DAY

A POEM FOR DAD

I never did sing for my father,

While he could hear,

Nor did I dance for him

That he might see me celebrate

His strength, courage, integrity.

For far too long

Did I imagine him against me,

And so decided

To be against him.

He did not love me

In ways I wanted,

I needed him closer  

To set me straight.

I grew crooked 

Without his attention..

Remembering him now though, 

Straightens me.

My father never quit a thing,

Complained, or shed a tear

 For himself.

Holes in his socks,

A drunken wife,

Five children and he stayed.

I never honored my father

For pulling the wagon

That was his family, 

Dutifully day after thankless day.

My immigrant father,

Peasant farmer,

Cosack survivor,

Who measured men from the neck up..

after 96 years

has finally fallen.

I sit with him in his final hours

With nothing left to say.

He is gone without a word,

to that place i don’t exist,

I place my hand upon his once broad forearm

and shed a parting tear.. and suddenly,

 “He’s Awake!”

And startled back to here and now.

“I know you! “ he exclaims,

Surprised and glad to see me.

“Why you’re my number two son, Harvey!”

A leap of heart,

A flood of joy,

An ocean of tears..

All I ever really wanted from my father

Was for him to know who I was.

Hello dad,

Goodbye dad..