In Search of True Conviction

I have tried repeatedly,

looking down the long and convoluted

barrel of politics

riding upon torrential tides of

indignation

straining for hope within

shadows of dark and ominous speculation.

Since I first discerned the difference

between

pain of injury and

mother’s haunting and delicious embrace

between

rapturous melodies of a songbird

outside my window and

hurtful disappointment

between

stern admonitions of father and

the unrestrained joy of holding

ephemeral beauty within my feeble grasp

between

the morbid anticipation of darkest night

and the fiery enchantment of emerging dawn,

I yearned for the discovery of explanation

within the crucible of doubt.

For me,

there is no escape from

questions that hold

no simple answers

from

an endless discourse

with sweeping time.

I have savored

love with delicacy and

crazed abandon,

I have enfolded friendship

yearning for connection,

I am no stranger to

mishap and disaster.

I am the child of my generation

yet

inevitably fall back

upon my inimitable self.

I am forever puzzled by

this muddled world

where humanity unfolds its destiny

a strange and enticing enigma that

holds no resolution to the

ceaseless quest for understanding.

This life has spanned

over seven decades

enfolded a caravan of dreams,

vivid panorama of exploration and

abiding disbelief,

stories of many textures,

expansive landscapes and

hapless desire,

its inevitable catalog of pain

and memories sweetened by the

fortuitous breath of love.

I have tried repeatedly

to understand,

to encompass truth

as if it had a palpable presence,

to leave a trail of remarkable inspiration,

to be remembered.

What I have discovered instead,

to my awakened and awkward surprise –

true peace of mind lies within the arms

of continual acts of

delicate and determined surrender.

An Incomplete Creation

Thousands of years of civilization

yet still mired in stupidity.

Lofty conceptions

taken to such philosophical heights,

yet we consort like crazed hyenas

over the corpse of our collective indifference.

Remarkable discoveries inspired by the

insatiable curiosity and heightened intellect of

our higher brain,

yet we gleefully slaughter each other over the

most inane differences.

Enviable desire for spiritual development,

yet so much unnecessary suffering

wrought from religious belief and

inflicted upon those deemed unworthy.

Thousands of years of civilization

yet still confounded by our own ignorance.

Responsible for expanding our collective understanding

of this remarkable universe and the

fantastic planet on which we reside,

yet we plunder the very resources

that grant us life and behave as if

we are unconscionable idiots.

Science and technology its primary offspring have

taken wondrous strides over the millennia

yet the practitioners of these arts imbedded in reality

are dutifully ignored and even discarded

when their conclusions are not what we choose to hear.

Capable of such nobility of spirit

selfishness of purpose

and infinite generosity,

yet we pay homage to

thoughts and ideas of little substance

demeaning to real possibilities

enabling unimaginable grief and despair.

Thousands of years of civilization,

yet still behaving as if we have learned

almost nothing.

A Wistful Song

Will humans ever discard

incessant and ancient calls to hatred

subdue the chaotic winds of war

relentless stupidity of the lower brain.

Will humans ever awaken

to the essential joy of living

fall into the blissful and awaiting

embrace of love.

Will humans ever find release

within the fiery storm of consciousness

surrender at last to the reality of

death’s encompassing presence.

Will humans ever bury

the blighted harvest that only

greed can promise.

Will humans ever embrace

everyone as family

put an end

to all the needless suffering.

Will humans ever ascend

the golden staircase

into that terrain

enfolded by the sweet enveloping breath

of boundless peace.

Men of Power

Yet another cold, lonely and exceedingly frightened man

will assume leadership in a divided land,

frightened by the realization that

in his quest for power and prestige

he sacrificed the capacity to love,

frightened that

for a bit of gold dust and

possession,

too much was lost,

frightened by the dreams

that haunt him, and

the power he must assume

but cannot command,

beneath all the bluster

all the witless vehemence

lies a small and inadequate

human being

hollowed out by his own hatred.

He is not alone for

the world is filled with such men

deadened to the reality that surrounds them,

deadened to themselves,

digested alive from the inside

by the venom they produce

and the bitterness they entomb

within their withered spirits.

We should mourn for them,

sympathy is not made easy by

the unnecessary suffering, they engender.

To Our Magnificent Planet

To Our Magnificent Planet

I lift up this glass of seasoned wine

in homage

to this magnificent orb

on whose fragile surface we complete

our momentary lives.

I inhale this air

though tainted with

humanity’s disastrous discharge.

I sing this song in tribute

to your grand indifference to

our fate as

we plunge into a future

woven by our collective abuse.

Illustrious planet

third daughter within

the sun’s embrace

will endure our

reckless indulgence and

thrive beyond the reach of

human hands.

I offer up this salutation to all

earthly beings

to those who will perish

those who will persist

and those who will prosper

beyond the detritus of human endeavor.

To our magnificent home

may you remain as witness

to the distant cosmic future

though humans long extinct.

I lift up this drink

in homage,

may this bountiful earth

continue in its transits

through the icy firmament

until the sun turns off its

abiding light.

The Dance

Thrust into full light

expelled from the ancient deep

from the fluid sea

into the vaulting air,

incessant gravity

cacophony of sounds

all foreign

dispatched from the comfort of

maternal rhythms.

Dance so begun

continues

under open skies,

frigid and balmy,

vagaries of storm and wind
marooned forever on the ancient planet.

Dance of morning

dance of night

of sunlight,

of moonscapes,

of dreams.

Into the shimmering vortex

untamed,

unpredictable.

Impaled on time’s

illustrious arrow,

dancers convene

within the matrix of the

theatre of the living.

Dancing to the music of the present

within the shadows caste from

past remembrances

into whatever future awaits.

The dance ephemeral

the time brief,

yet the circle of the dance

embraces all.

Welcome Augustus

Welcome Augustus

Welcome Augustus to

planet earth and

the human theater, 

may you have a grand adventure,

may you grow up within

your parents’ and sister’s loving hands,

may your life unfold

with grace and adventure

and a boundless thirst for living,

may you see the beauty that surrounds you

and discover the wondrous nature of being.

Welcome Augustus to this exotic adventure

called life.