The Prosperity Trap
WHEN WE LEARN TO TREAD ONLY THOSE TRACKS WHICH ARE UNBEATEN, then life becomes a chain of fulfilling adventures rather than an inadequate series of accidents. When every road sign which says, “Obstruction ahead!”, makes you press your foot harder on the accelerator with anticipatory exhilaration, then an explosion of entropic ecstasy will scatter the colours of your soul across every flickering trace of darkness. Don’t take my word for it (or for anything). Try it yourself. It can only bring you good (which can come in many disguises, including those which look “bad” 😊). If you follow the untrodden road, epiphany after epiphany will spark in your mind until you almost want to beg for mercy from the avalanche of insights received and experiences gained! Hope and faith will grow within you like a snowball rolling parallel down a hill. Then you will begin to see everything as a gift, whether seemingly “good” or apparently “bad”. You will even see that your times of despair in the past were a gift too. For despair is a gift to keep us humble — to enable us more to appreciate the fullness of joy — for it brings a challenge from the Universe to change our ways and deepen.
Love vs Romance
I USED TO THINK IT WAS REALLY COOL TO BE ROMANTIC — or, should I say, “A Romantic”. After all, isn’t that what poets, or artists of any kind, are supposed to be? However, the older I’ve become and, maybe, also the wiser I’ve become, I’ve realised just how superficial all that romantic stuff really is. In fact, I came to realise that it is actually a cheap counterfeit of something which goes infinitely deeper — namely, Love. Romance has come to play such a huge part in affairs of the human heart for a number of reasons: Inadequate parenting or abuse as a child; inability to face up to the harsh reality of life in this dimension on earth; a failure to transition healthily from child to adult; superficiality and narcissism; and plain old wishful thinking. All of these aspects have — during the last century or so — been avidly exploited by Hollywood movies and Mills and Boon novels (currently 18,000 of them!).
So here are my reasons for abandoning romance in favour of what it counterfeits so insidiously:
There is no Autumn [sonnet]
There is no Autumn in my fertile heart,
where nothing falls but must ascend like heat.
My greensome coloured leaves do not depart
from twigs and branches. Summer’s not complete.
No frost can come my way to freeze the dew.
The crops sown in my fields no harvest need.
For melancholy moments now are few
and flowers in my soul won’t “go to seed”.
Cosmic Barbecue [poem]
So here he lies, washed up on farsome shores;
his ragged soul now grown in all its broken glory,
like a used & once-upon-a-time was-useful vessel
(dangling from a wizened mountain precipice
just by his fingertips alone, within his jaded story)
from another starfield light-year’s wayward world
which astronauted space seas’ crested foam,
manufactured from the sap of some galactic trees;
discovering he’d lost forever how to be at home,
destined from now on in hinterlands to roam.
Tears & Transcendence (like my Geranium)
[A Meditation for an Eclipse Season]
“Saw the face on the Moon last night —
shocked, marvelled and amazed
that the wrong ain’t made right.
Looking down on this broken old world
over which flags of cowardly deeds
have unfurled.”
I am a Fool [poem]
I’m always ever willing
to be judged a fool
for being vulnerable
acting uncool
for showing courage
seeing life as “school”
dreaming dreams
imbued with passion
sprouting deep salvific schemes
exuding love from every pore
giving much (then giving more)
and all for free (a natural law)
eschewing herds
inventing words
living alone and watching birds
walking on untrodden earth
(even where there is a dearth
of angels on the way)
Centrifuge [sonnet]
The structure of the Universe dissolves
and I am riddled (w)ho(l)ly through with joy.
It took me by surprise; what it involves
is not what it had seemed. It’s all a ploy!
Service and our Own Unimportance
WE ARE NOT NEARLY SO IMPORTANT as we think we are (well… not in the prevailing way that most people imagine). We are all completely expendable — imaginarily here for a very brief time. Then the dream ends as suddenly as it began (though the only thing which really “dies” is illusion).
During this brief span that we call “life”, we play our little roles in a vast and glorious process that we are not even aware of. But we do have a choice in how we play those roles: We can either live primarily to fill our bellies and be ruled by our desires OR we can devote ourselves to serving others. The beautiful irony is that when we choose the service of others we fortuitously become fulfilled anyway! 😊 But the person who is living primarily for himself or herself cannot realise that. To such a one it appears as if “dog eat dog” — strike before you’re struck — is the only way to behave if one wants to find fulfilment. This is one of the primary delusions on the planet, for dogs who eat dogs will themselves be eaten — if only by their own inflated self. “Those who live by the sword die by the sword”.
The World seems to be going crazier each Day
Woke up this morning with a bunch of touchstone principles for living playing out in my head. Added them to some others I’d already written and this is what I finished up with. Are we on the same wavelength?
The Naked Troubadour 