4th Of July 2009
Empire passes
from nation to nation
as money dictates.
It is better
to be free and happy
early than late,
I guess,
but the tiger
who caresses with his claws
is already at the gate,
and he laughs last.
Our empire will pass.
Down Jones Bones
The stock Market
has bipolar disorder,
it's ups and downs
are notorious
and chronic.
When crashes come,
investors feed
on arsenic.
Who will straighten out
this lousy mess?
It must be government
who loves us best,
Clear-Sighted Harry
Meditation
opens into nothingness
and then -
I am -
in the absence.
A Quiet Night In Summer
There is no word
or combination of words
in the dictionary
that can reveal
the essence
whose nature
is to be
Being itself.
Let us be silent
and worship
the mystery,
intoxicating.
But in this
sultry summer night
the wind and wind chimes.
Author's Apologia
Don't say my poems
have no use.
If nothing else -
If they don't sell -
of if I give them away free
they can be used
in ticker tape parades
and weddings
as celebratory confetti.
Kindergarten
We write our first
scrawled letters
and trace first numerals;
we make a shadow box.
This is easy to surmise;
all we did was build mud pies;
it seemed a stratospheric zoom
for which there may be still no room,
but this world is a kindergarten.
It's child's play from cosmic view.
We're nasty kids - yes, that's true.
Envoi
Tell everyone to read this book.
And keep it in some special nook.
They may go back, and look again.
But I'll be on the road by then.
No Accounting For Taste
The Romans saith,
"De gustibus non est disputandum,"
which translation goes,
"Don't argue about style."
Polkas all sound the same
to fans of rap;
and rap sounds all the same
to those the polkas claim.
John said,
"I like all music".
But I'm free to generally
dislike "country"
and prefer "folk".
We must never judge
another person's style.
All is idiosyncrasy.
But what would we do
without music.
Vatican II
Moderation in all things -
except moderation.
Tolerance in all things
except intolerance. No more
condemnation. No more
punishment. We are brothers
to everyone in the
world.
The Joker Is Wild
You're all a deck of cards
and money is the house you build,
and the joker in this game is wild.
The house of cards is a pastime
- is it truly innocuous?
But, apart from that, you are
preoccupied,
mostly, with making money.
Your investments will collapse
like a deck of cards one day,
because the joker is wild.