May 4: Soul-Searching Soldier

Soul-Searching Soldier

You hike down a trail with your knapsack and gun,

Just another soldier in the shadows and sun.

You won’t let it concern you if this path is incorrect.

Everyone is looking for a better position.

You can’t take time to stop and introspect

When you and your squadron have to finish up your mission!

You’re gonna seize the ammunition before it’s turned on you!

It wasn’t your decision, but you can see it’s really true!

You don’t know for certain how their base has been protected.

You can’t know for certain if they’ve guessed at your advance.

The scouts have gone ahead and you trust what they’ve inspected.

Success in this endeavor cannot be only chance!

On the trail, you think about what’s failure or success,

When the means to war’s accomplishment are causing such distress:

Creating new complexities when their systems are disrupted,

And everyone involved seems to take a different view,

While the leaders we’re supporting have been hopelessly corrupted.

Our intention was to help, but a lot has gone askew!

You see the reasons given – why we had to go to war:

Take a stand for freedom, or even up the score:

These are skewed by the economy, cheap labor, and resources;

Strategic  little gestures made – just to make it all appear

That it’s not the brute advancement of our government’s armed forces,

But a demon, or a ghost, that no one needs to fear!

And sometimes, you might wonder, though it may well be a sin,

How much it even matters if we should lose or win!

Of course, you’ll be wanting to do an honest job,

And not allow your comrades to get hurt, or even mangled,

But the country you are marching through’s been beaten, broke, and robbed.

How does our country serve without getting in the tangle?

You have felt within yourself that wild, perverted fun

That comes from the power of carrying a gun!

You’ve seen for yourself the misery you’ve caused

And the results of many kinds of brutality;

From the passions of expedience, where there aren’t any laws,

And you wonder to yourself, “Is this reality?”

You know, despite the setbacks, some things will be achieved.

So many lies, you can’t keep track – but some things you still believe.

You want to trust that there are leaders who are wise and hold good will,

Who are working for a fair and intelligent solution

You’re trying to hold it down, lest that very hope be killed.

In your courage and your fortitude, you make your contribution.

Still, you’re exposed to sufferings you had never known.

You’ve become sometimes callous, and harder than a stone.

You’ve seen hatred and greed that’s downright psychotic.

You see barefoot wanderers: sick and destitute.

And sometimes it’s hard to feel proud or patriotic,

When you’re asked to stand by and watch as people loot!

Heaven turns to chaotic hell, and you wonder who’s deserving.

Hypocrisy backs into its shell, and you ask, “Who am I serving?”

Is justice an ideal that you're helping to determine?

Or do you feel so disjointed that you don’t even care?

And when you come face to face with an absolute vermin,

Is it in your gun to be fair?

As you’re hiking up the hill, your enemy engages.

They become the target of all your fears and rages,

But you seek your best position, as it has been your training,

While bullets and grenades go flying through the air.

Your shirt is soaked in blood, but there will be no complaining.

Whose blood it is, you hardly even care!

The sergeant cries out that we can’t accept defeat.

At this spot upon the hill, there is no place to retreat.

You crawl into some underbrush where you hope you won’t be seen.

Now the guns have grown quiet, and it’s hard to know the danger.

You hear something rustling. You’re not sure what it could mean,

And you see that you are crouched behind a stranger!

Do you shoot for your country?  Do you shoot for your rage?

Do you shoot for protection?  Do you shoot for your wage?

If asked “was he your enemy?” you’d say “I cannot know,

Though don’t you think I have an alibi?”

If he had run away, do you think you’d let him go?

And what end did all the shooting  -- satisfy?

Regardless of whatever you’ve been told to do,

There are times when life speaks, and you have to be true.

Some will call you a hero.  Some will say you’re a demon.

Some will say you’re a pawn, only lost in confusion.

If you’re a slave to your duty, or escape into treason,

In warfare, there’s never any perfect solution.

And you’ll live with yourself until the day that you die.

You live what you’ve lived and may still wonder why.

Some people wonder.  Some have no respect.

Some project the resentment of where lives have been broken.

Some try to allure you, and you have to deflect

An embrace that is false; a hatred unspoken.

You retain your own dreams, and sometimes you yearn,

And life’s experiences, from which you have learned.

Crawling through the thorns was not always fun.

It was sad sometimes to be your only friend

When you did the things you felt had to be done,

‘Til that battle; that War – finally came to an end.

May 3: Love Song

Love Song

Time’s special with you:  You, a dream coming true,

And now you’re here to love, I love you.

Fantasies I’ve often had seem close to turning real.

But more than their fulfillment are the waves of what I feel,

As their rising to your shore brings their emergence.

Time’s special with you; you, my awakening.

To share my darkest years with you is heaven,

For the joy in your receptiveness has turned my lead to gold.

Spring flowers, blooming everywhere, are wonder to behold,

And everything is wonderful when you are here beside me.

I see you as desirable, yet I would not have that block

The light of authenticity; the truth of all we are.

Though life may leave its battle scars, we understand each other.

We’ve set our sights on different stars, but I choose you as my lover:

Your existence plants a seed in me, and that’s my joy in you.

You’re coming all the way with me!  I want you at my side,

And plot a new trajectory that joins our separate dreams,

Searching in our hearts if it’s the will of the divine

All ways to be your inspiration, you forever mine.

I offer all that’s precious in my heart!        

You’ve given me your love, but is yours like mine for you?

Anyway, there’s one more thing I ask:

Let freedom’s song live in us as long as we’re together.

I would never want to lose you, but I would not have that block

The rise of new relationships: Wild flowers upon the earth.

I would choose no separation from the Life that gives us birth!

Time’s special with you; you amaze me like the sky!

I am enchanted by the beauty of your gestures.

You’ve opened up a portal to the playground in my mind,

And as I pass into your world, I’m intrigued by what I’ll find.

I feel as though a child again.  You’ve brought a new beginning.

Changing and unfolding, and supported in our trust,

We know that life can never stay the same,

We may give ourselves to others as we find the need is there

Knowing we’re together, and it’s part of how we care

Expanding Me through our conjunction. We both unfurl with time.

You more than fill my emptiness;

With all my heart, I love you!

May 2: Aunt Leta

Aunt Leta

People collectively make up society,

And pass through their phases, each in its stage.

You’ve lived as you’ve lived in piety,

But you’ve finally reached the age

That whatever you’ve gained to keep or to show,

You can hardly use it, so you let it go.

You’ve appointed your favourite niece

To be the person in charge of your care.

All you want now is to live in peace.

You don’t make proposals or ask if it’s fair

That you’re no longer taken where you once liked to go,

And what she’s planning for you, you don’t want to know.

Your niece is putting your house up for sale,

And all your possessions must be passed along.

Got to pay what’s required as your health starts to fail.

Got to keep you safe, because you’re not that strong,

And from what you are losing, someone else is in luck.

He has hauled your belongings away in his truck.

(Chorus)

Some say reality is all in your mind.

Some say it’s only what you happen to find.

Some say you must grasp it or it leaves you behind.

I say, “Make the best of your bundle of clay,

Knowing that time will take it all away.”

When your husband died, you could hardly proceed.

Full of ideas, you missed some practical essentials.

You’d always  preferred to sit and read,

Just a book away from all of your potential!

It’s almost as if you’ve left to fate

What took you your life to accumulate,

Your books are a mirror of civilization.

Oh, but who takes the time to read any more?

Too many words!  Too much complication,

And what are you going to use it for?

Life is a treasure, and we take what we find,

And share what we can of what sticks to the mind.

Which is always more than anyone can carry,

Inevitably there is much that is lost.

If it’s only in storage, it’s as well as if it’s buried.

If it isn’t used, it’s eventually tossed. . .

You might find it again at a rummaging store,

Or collect the pieces washed up on the shore.

Chorus

Some say reality is all in your mind.

Some say it’s only what you happen to find.

Some say you must grasp it or it leaves you behind.

I say, “Make the best of your bundle of clay,

Knowing that time will take it all away.”

May 1: About Idolatry

About Idolatry

The prophets rage against idolatry,

And it sounds like an indictment on art.

Perhaps it degenerates to commercial frivolity,

But It’s a focus for the mind and the heart.

Icons have place in spirituality.

The main issue is how they are used:

Do they suggest a joined plurality?

Are the idol and its object confused?

Is it about transcendence, or focused on self?

Is it a road map to thought, or mirrored desire?

Does it glorify power and transient wealth?

Is it steeped in the fear of a flood or a fire?

Is it a commissioned image of the status quo?

Or does it flow from a shamanic vision?

Is the picture to be copied, or allowed to grow?

Do they disclose ideals in our human condition?

In the days of yore, it was a fight for survival.

Each group had its myths.  Each group had its strictures.

We may still cling to idols, like the cross, or the Bible

Instead of growing from the truths that took root in the scriptures!

It just isn’t important that we all agree,

Or that we adhere to the same names and words.

Let the awe of Life’s grandeur bring us down to our knees,

So we’ll see past assumptions that are often absurd,

That the voice of the Spirit may be spoken and heard!

April 30: Let's Begin on the Streets Where We Are

Let’s Begin on the Streets Where We Are

Don’t show me your ladder that doesn’t make sense!

I could never abide by your rules!

It belongs in some other place; over the fence --

But I live in a culture of indigents

In a web of so many incidents,

And the life of these streets is our school!

In truth, there is much I would wish to achieve,

But I’ve got to begin where I am.

I am not the lost sheep that you want to perceive.

I have much to offer, and much to receive.

I am meant to be here:  That’s what I believe.

Your deferred success is a scam!

It is logical, but boxed in by convention.

I won’t let you predict which way I will turn.

You live by procedures.  I live by invention.

You work with axioms.  I work with exceptions.

When little is sure, it’s about perceptions.

Nothing proscribed, but there’s instincts to learn!

You find a library where you’re free from distraction.

I find a park, where I hang with my buddies!

Can’t back away from the interactions.

Everyone seeking their own satisfaction.

We get some ideas, and then we take action.

Workability’s what I’m out to study!

Death may surround us!  We’re the life of the city.

We’re bound to fall, but we know how to roll.

We don’t all talk straight, or look very pretty.

It’s cold sometimes, and sometimes it’s gritty.

It’s all a challenge to creativity,

Though there are barriers that take their toll -

Like the harsh and arrogant attitudes

Of drowning souls who are too quick to judge,

So whatever we say will be misconstrued.

Some walk in a daze, completely unglued.

Others - belligerent - are downright rude -

Too set in their thinking to budge.

Some fall into drugs and alcohol.

Others think ‘til they go insane.

They feel they’re surrounded by a thousand walls,

Or out on the sea in a screaming squall.

An onlooker tells you to get on the ball.

They go home, but you’ll still remain!

The point’s well taken that you must pay attention

When your world has no lock or key!

Folks won’t always cop to your best intentions.

Sometimes, in the game, there’s no room for pretensions.

Some of my friends have ended up in detention:

What you get when you’re feeling too free!

Every night, we make a collection.

We buy some brewskies and make us a meal.

We’re all of us there for each other’s protection.

There’s no insurance if we get an infection.

We rarely get more than some manly affection,

But sometimes, you gotta say what’s your deal.

You talk about discipline:  So uptight.

It takes all of my focus to remain here and now!

I live your descriptions of black and white.

We follow our dreaming all day and all night.

Still, sometimes our hopes seem to drift out of sight.

We’re swimming, but we don’t know how.

Yes, I need just a little stability.

This street life just tears me apart.

There’s ways to do things.  I need the facility.

Wanna think things out, but I’ve lost the ability.

I try to be strong, but I feel life’s fragility.

I need to heal what’s obstructing my heart!

But don’t show me your ladder that doesn’t make sense!

I could never abide by your rules!

It belongs in some other place; over the fence --

But I live in a culture of indigents

In a web of so many incidents,

And the life of these streets is our school!