April 1, 2002: Retail Sales

Retail Sales

Two aspects of running a store:

Sometimes it’s hectic, and sometimes it’s a bore.

There are so many items to put on the shelf,

Including your thoughts; your thoughts of yourself.

And then there are the customers that “always come first”.

They are the best, but they are also the worst!

Some problems are easy, but some are complex.

You don’t always know just what to do next.

The limits can vary on your going beyond:

The volume of clients, and the way that you bond.

But if you really don’t know how to meet a request,

You say, “I’ve run out of options.  I’ve done my best.”

Of course, you want to make some kind of sale!

But let it go.  Most often, you fail!

People return if they think that you care;

That you wish them the best, and you try to be fair.

July 4: Joy's Last Days

Joy’s Last Days

Your mouth hung open;
Your hair fallen out.
You can’t make a sound,
But you’re lucid, no doubt.

Taking in your well wishers
Takes your mind off the strain
Your strength is fading.
Not much, but some pain.

I know you have struggled.
You seem somehow at ease,
Resigned in your knowledge
Of the end of disease.

You can hardly swallow
What we drip on your tongue,
And though you must be hungry
You no longer crave.

Yet we still recognize you,
Here, where you belong
We remind you of times
We shared and our songs,

Grateful for the time
You can still be around.
You struggled to breathe
A drug helped you to calm.

You seemed so peaceful,
And then you were gone.

July 5: Joy

Joy

I’m not all into the grief and lamentation
Over what once was and can no longer be.
I’m not exactly in the mode of celebration,
But I sense that her gifts still affect you and me.
So many pictures of our lives she enabled us to see.

She was an astute, energetic, kindly person to know
Through the games she could play and the skills she could teach.
I recall her ingenuity, but now I let it go,
While others keep groping for what’s now beyond our reach.
Only she had the power to hold a wave upon the beach.

I wish I could share my love in a poem or a song.
It’s my own sense of reality that’s getting in my way.
She had a way of distinguishing what do and don’t belong
But when I held my ground for what I needed to say,
She could see where I was coming from, and it would be okay.

Acceptance wasn’t tied to a certain point of view,
But to hold a conversation with good humor and respect.
I’ve been trapped in my attachments to what I think is false or true.
Her knowledge was more subtle, and even indirect.
Her gift - to make observances, and not to introspect.

We sought to share our love in authenticity,
And relish our adventures:  Choose a goal and map a route.
As in art, so in life, we display our liberty.
Life is too, too short to analyze it out,
But in our changing reflections, we find what life’s about.

So we learn through the process of playful interaction;
A gentle curiosity for hearing different views:
The defenses people build and the points of attraction,
Where we put our attention and the colors that we choose . . .
Just a few of her perspectives that we don’t have to lose!

July 6: Art As Resistance To Change

Art As Resistance to Change

Change in life is an awful annoyance.

You just get started and it’s time to end.

You want to remember your state of buoyance.

You want to be with your long-lost friend.

You know you can’t always keep it together

Or remember the flowering of your simple heart.

You want beauty - or pain - to go on forever,

And those are the moments that you turn to art.

Your art then takes a life of its own.

At least, it never meets my own expectation,

But it reflects a part of what was meant to be shown.

The rest is a balance of luck and creation.

July7: Unconscious Understanding

Unconscious Understanding

We don’t know what sensitivities lie hidden in our genes.
Sometimes we’ll get a feeling and we don’t know what it means.
Our attention may be scattered, but a changing in the weather:
A winter storm; a hurricane - can bring us all together,
And help us see a potential, or deal with a disruption
Like the way the snakes and monkeys act before a big eruption.
Two weeks before the lava starts seeping through the crest,
The monkeys get excited and birds will leave their nests.
The reptiles all come crawling across the muddy fields.
When they crush out all the air, they disrupt the farmer’s yields.
How do the animals understand what a scientist doesn’t know?
Of course, they can’t explain it.  They just feel when it’s time to go!
And the old chief in his highland village said the gods had been disturbed.
The people in the cities never took him at his word.
They said it wasn’t feasible for the tribe to emigrate,
But they all came down the mountain because they knew they couldn’t wait.

July 8: Building Relationships With The Poor

Building Relationships with the Poor

Some people writhe in a mass of trouble:

Disorganization and circumstance,

While others are happy to live in their bubble;

A smooth, though sadly predictable dance.

Some have the gift to be engaged

In their worlds, and are truly alive.

Some are inspired to work for change;

For a world where we all can thrive.

Some have an ideal of community

Where they strive to be truly inclusive.

Can it grow in the heart of the city?

The answers are still inconclusive.

We may not reach the best, but we strive to get better

At respecting people in every station,

And find the ways we can get together

In work and in conversation.

No one’s got time to sit around

With folks that just can’t relate.

We’ve got to get clear on our common ground;

In untying ourselves from our fate.

Those who have a strong ability

Build the bridges to heal the divide,

But it’s not an exercise in futility

To stand with the marginalized.

July 9: Just An Ordinary Man

Just An Ordinary Man

Can’t you see me where I’m standing?

I am just an ordinary man!

I’m just like you; I’m not so strange!

I’m looking for shelter and I only need a ride!

Please, could you spare me just a little bit of change?

I’ve got no place to run and hide!

I’ve got no place to run and hide!

Do I really look like I mean to be imposing?

I’ve got nothing in my hands, so what are you supposing?

What makes you so careful to lock your door,

Staring straight ahead at the traffic light?

I think the wind is blowing up a storm

In the fading glow of this winter’s night!!

In the fading glow of this winter’s night!

I step behind a store just to take a leak.

There’s some bushes by the alley, and I’m feeling kind of beat.

Then a deputy strolls up to me with his stick,

Saying “Keep your private business out of sight!

Get back out to the street.  You better make it quick,

‘Cause all these stores are closed for the night!

All these stores are closed for the night!”

I step inside a bar, feeling kind of nervous

“We have the right,” they say, “to refuse to give you service."

I say, “If you don’t mind, could I use your telephone?

The bouncer tells me “There's a booth right down the block.”

A patron says, “I’ll bet you don't even have a home!”

I shrug and he orders me up a Rolling Rock.

I shrug and he orders me up a Rolling Rock!

“Buddy, I can get you an awesome place to stay

If you’ll deliver some bundles.   It’s a tiny price to pay.

I can get you some clothes and something good to eat.

If you’ll stay with me I’ll even call you my son!

There’ll be lots of wine, and women we can meet

At the end of the day when our work is done.

At the end of the day when our work is done.”

As the sun came up, he said, “It’s getting late!”

I got some other business.  Would you mind to wait?

He stopped the car.  I said, “What’s going on?”

He said, “Get you a cup of coffee and a sugar roll.”

He hands me a five, saying “Stay here while I’m gone!”

But I felt like he was trying to take my soul!

And I sure wasn’t gonna let him take my soul!

‘Cause what could I say the day they put me on trial

With some old judge who’d forgotten how to smile.

Like – I don’t know I’ve been workin’ for the mob?

Like – I don’t know I was making an illegal sale?

Like – I’m just a flunky who is bound to take any job?

Like – I really want to spend my life in jail

With no one in the world who can make my bail!

Now, I haven’t had a bite of breakfast yet,

But I don’t want to be in someone’s debt.

So I wave him on with a motion of my hands

When the guy drives by, blowing his angry horn.

The look on his face tells me that he understands.

I think that it’s going to be a happy morning.

I’m thinking that it’s going to be a happy morning!

But I still need some shelter and I’m looking for a ride!

I’ve got no place where I can run and hide.

I’m just like you!  Really, I’m not so strange!

Can’t you see me where I take a stand?

Couldn’t you spare me just a little bit of change?

I am just an ordinary man!

I am just an ordinary man!