Moments

I hope that i will sieze these fleeting moments. my world is so rich... and it's bizarre to think that all of that nothing amounts to something. reality is mostly empty space, nothing that is pose'n as something. and yet all of us exist.

these symbols you are reading aren't the images that are conjured in your head.

one day my daughter will speak in complete sentences, drive a car, find love and heartbreak and love again...



all we have is now and metaphors to try and capture it. even our best technology, video camera's that record in HD, digital camera's that can freeze and instant, are nothing compared to the present moment, and our memories of it. and by the time you recognize this moment, this moment will be gone, but you'll bend the light pretending that it some how lingered on.



rawk in these mountains and now diamonds will remain. we're live'n in this life together and we'll wait to find if it lasts forever...

forever and ever amen.

My Lord and My God

i'm in a poetic mood... so i'll keep going.

tell me about your God,
is it a he, she or other,
does it tell you to embrace your sister
or shun and kill your brother?
does it like babies and children
does it ever show it's face
did it write a book
or with science keep pace
does it keep on forever
can it be worshipped any place
would you dare to name it
is it a Sue, Bob, or Mars
would it walk among us
and hang out in some bars?
would it answer prayers
would it speak in confusing riddles
the voice so musical
like a cello or a fiddle?

i can't tell about mine
it's just too big for words
i try with all my might
with nouns, adjectives and adverbs
and nothing seems to stick
it's too close for comfort
and no doubt that it exists
it's not that often
i get glimpses just sometimes
here and there and everywhere
something terrible and kind
i wish i could say more but
these glimpses they are fleeting
this God can be found
in anything with meaning
a mother and a father
creator of the human race
a source of hope
a giver of unending grace.

Grey Area

a man walked up and said
"i've studied the scriptures and i need to decide,
my grandma so recently dead,
what happens when we die."

now i'm a skeptical man,
who thinks the grey areas should be mined,
i said "i dunno, but maybe so,
things tend to turn out fine."

this man, a scientist and all,
said "show me evidence of your find."
"what good is evidence," I said in reply,
"when aeronautics and science can't say,
why a bumblebee should fly."

i cannot tell you nor should i say,
it is up to you to decide whether
from what you feel and what you know
if there's an otherside, and if we'll be there together.

now he's a skeptical man,
no grey areas are fine,
everything must be backed up
every reason to the rhyme.

he said he concludes
life is linear like a horizontal line,
from birth to death with no deviation,
where it stops on a dime.

that's a perspective but for me
i must disagree
i simply don't see it so
each life is a raging river
each with an ebb and flow
and everyone reaches the sea.
for life is concentric circles,
and this here you can test,
that reality defies categories
and each circle is enmeshed.

and the wind when it blows,
it's older than Cairo,
more ancient than the sands,
or our joy or our sorrow.

and from this talk well he just walked,
but got to thinking...
of all the truth and what's the use,
what's worth believing?
since all our lives can't be verified
is truth still worth seeking?
life's not a test but still do your best
search for ideas worth keeping.
and when we die we might just fly
all along on the wind that's breeze'n.

Zombie Invasion

a poem based on this post a while back...

i move, duck and cover.
under siege and outnumbered.
the only weapons are my books, my mind, and this pen.

the invasion comes and i am beset!
fighting on all fronts.
zombie assignments sent from Sorcerouses and wizards with doctorates.

i decapitate a NT112 paper in a moldy business suit,
i wield Brueggemann like a shot gun,
peppering the paper with citations.

CH113 takes more time, but i systematically
eviserate with a combo of Gonzalez and primary sources.

i grab some pizza and Mt Dew
in an abandoned pub when pastoral care attacks
without warning.
family systems is wielded with finesse and the
ambush is over.

bruised and blooded and one more year to go.

is the pen mighter than the prof? that is the question.

but the reality is that these zombies
aren't half as dangerous than
the ones that will be sitting
in our pews.

ALMOST SPRING POETRY SLAM!

if you're in town, please join us!

This Map on my Wall

I am no longer the axis on which
the world revolves.
I am not a genius or shaman but I realize
how a human evolves.

Maps no longer depict the things I've experienced
or the places I've been.
what matters more is what's between the lines
and the people under these pins.

(written in Leipzig Germany in 2003, but dedicated to the Leadership NOW class of Summer 2008)

The Objective Walk

i walk my dog at night
and ponder what is right
what facts are facts
and what is objectively true.

i think of my old self
and the old science that said,
"The atom is the smallest matter
and can't be divided."

i remind myself that the
US was to fighr russia
and the world was to end
the date was 8.8.88.

I knew God was God
and He was in heaven
all things from His will
and i was loved.

i think of my self now
and the science that says,
"Atoms aren't the smallest
(we have quarks and quasars)
and we can dissect them too."

The world has yet to end
(though some say 2012)
I see this as each generation
unable to think of a world
without them in it.

I know God is God
and I am loved
and what is objectively true
and constant is change.

I know one day this
dog that i walk will be gone,
my unborn will be born
and may birth some more.

one day i won't be here.

these changes are true without
me having any say
and won't change despite
my objections.

but beyond that is vanity and words
and words are mist posing
as rocks on the distant
and future horizon.

so love abundantly and do no evil,
be a child of God
and remind others,
that they are too.

All We Have is Now

Reflection on "Bowl of Oranges" by Bright Eyes or
"I am a Strange Loop and You Can TOO!"

While Scientists were mapping my insides,
i wandered into a lonely storm,
here's what i found:
there's no prayer i could say,
no advice i could take,
no pill that offered salvation,
no fountain to seek,
no cup i could drink.

i know of nothing that ever grew younger,
the universe goes on forever,
like two mirrors facing each other,
it's reality upon illusion over and over,
until you can't tell the difference,
they both blend together.

all we have is now,
all we have is you and me,
let is sit together here,
in awe of the strange loop we create,
and read the story in our fault lines,
and in our soil,
that is furtile with our own personal histories.

The First Day of Your Life

This is the first day of your life, but i just thought that you should know.... i could go anywhere with you and i'd be happy, these things there's no telling, we'll just have to wait and see.

but i'd rather be working for a paycheck than waiting to win the lottery.



Happy Birthday Reverse Babe! 2-28-80 to 2-28-08

Apart for Now

My love,
we are not together today,
and I'm sorry for this,
but let others spend time with you,
for they know half my bliss.

we will be together again,
(birds, hearts, and stereotypes will sing)
with yesterday's same passion,
our love keeps ripening.

we are not together today,
but we will not fold,
to be with you again in many future days,
and i hope i will remember them all,
when i am old...

-original poem from 2-15-02

Kate found this today and i think it would be good to post it here... just because everyone needs a little poetry in their day and maybe, a little love as well.

Stars that Clear

Another version of my patent pending HYPERLINK POETRY! For those of you who aren't familiar, i take somes songs and mash 'em together to form a new poem with a cohesive message. i think this fits to my last post.

It's funny how songs just pop up randomly into your life. The day of the last post, i popped in Bright Eye's I'm Wide Awake It's Morning cd and was just hit over the head. The lyrics hit home, said just what i was feeling. i find that amazing. This CD is amazing. It's a mix of dylan, springsteen, and cash rolled into one. i'm surprised i liked it! and then we went to the O.A.R. concert with Jason and Lindsay this past friday at GMU... and they really rocked the house! another time where the lyrics just hit you in the gut and run away with it. I never really listened to O.A.R., but their lyrics are pretty profound. very positive and transcendent. i really had a great time.

so here's the poem that sums up my last post with a mix of Bright Eyes, Death Cab, and O.A.R.

Stars that Clear

If you hate the taste of wine,
Why do you drink it till you're blind?
And if you swear that there's no truth and who cares
How come you say it like you're right?
Why are you scared to dream of God
When it's salvation that you want?
You see stars that clear have been dead for years
But the idea just lives on...
In our wheels that roll around
As we move over the ground
And all day it seems
we've been in between
A past and future town

We are nowhere and it's now

When you are on your own
not speaking out is like fighting alone
and that is the worst damn way to fight
and when you are scared no more
you reach your hand out and just open the door
and thats just what I'm doing tonight

And I'm not sure what the trouble was that started all of this
The reasons all have run away, but the feeling never did
It's not something I would recommend, but it is one way to live
Cause what is simple in the moonlight by the morning never is

And all you see
Is where else you could be
When you're at home
Out on the street
Are so many possibilities
To not be alone

Planes and a Cousin

It was many moons ago but our Athens relative came and visited! Garry (the Extreme Alpha Geek) came out and hung out with us. He ran around with me at work, went to the spy museum and even a Justin Jones concert (which i'll review later)! We pack in the activities around here!

The best way to sum up our weekend is by watching this video.. yeah.. that's about right.

We also went to the new air and space museum out by the Dulles Airport. Here are the pix and descriptions of what we saw. It's far better than downtown's version. Highly HIGHLY recommended.

Other than that it was a great weekend.. lots of talk of life and philosophies and such. Garry has been a tad down in the past recent months.. so here's a poem of EXTREME inspiration and kick-assed-ness:

Our Deepest Fear...
is not that we are inadequate,
our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?"
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some of us,
it is in everyone.
And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

- Marianne Williamson -

as seen in Coach Carter.. which is a SWEET basketball movie!

Guns of Memorial Park

"At the bottom of the barrel, surprise, surprise... we find our lives so intertwined" starts the latest cd by Sparta.

War it seems has been popping up every where in my life the past few weeks. War is the reason Politik7 (this post is also on that blog): to protest to the Iraq invasion and the current administration. There just seems to be war all the time for me.

In a recent post, i stated that everyone must have a book and cd they are currently listening too.. I will add movie to that list as well.

My music has a very anti-war stance, as does my book. I am currently reading Peace is the Way by Depak Chopra. This book's goal is not to bring an end to war... but an end to the very IDEA of war.

I couldn't agree more with that... esp. after seeing Hotel Rwanda. In the movie, there was really no point to the fighting, completely no reason to leave close to a million victims in it's wake. There are two groups here that were determined by the Dutch colonists way back in the day. One could not tell the difference between these two groups. To kill people, they checked they're ID or went on hearsay.

We need to erase our lines in the sand. Stop our divisions.

Only through division and de-humanization can war happen. Nazi's declared jews non-human just as these two groups declared each other non-humans. Just as terrorist declare all non-believers as non-human. We are all God's children (even those who don't believe in God are part of this group AKA 'Humanity').

Chopra states that extreme enemies become inherit allies. Think very hard on this... Enemies need each other, they are allies in one way. Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Rielly need us crazy liberals to demonize just as Osama needs Bush (and vice versa) just as good needs evil. Enemies need one another so they have a defining example to show not only what they are against but also use the example to figure out what they are for.

Limbaugh for 'family values'. How does one define that general term? Let's define what our 'liberal enemies' are for, and we'll define the opposite of what they do as 'family values'. We were against 'communism' during the Cold War. What is that? Well it's against the 'free marketplace of ideas' that our democracy represents.

Do you see that? Chopra describes it better, but there's your 10 cents worth. Just as i hate the values and mindset that the conservatives or fundamentalists have, i realize they are people too and have reasons for believing what they do. This blog is a forum to discuss those differing views. DISCUSS! Not fighting, not war. Religion won't do that.. unless that involves keeping an open mind that the other is your neighbor. Jesus and Buddha were COMPLETELY against war and yet millions of wars are still carried out in their name.

Keep the 1st Amendment above all else. Talk to those who disagree without trying to change them. Just get a feel for them and keep in mind that they are humans and bleed just like you do. This practice is what will save us and put an end to the very idea of war.