Build a shape of love to him
and truth will come stay with you
Build a way to follow him
and wind will surely find you
Find in cycle
Wind in air
Cast in our lures
Stand with truth
Love adventure
Follow air
And our lives are to feel
the love
Red Tailed Ichneumon … Photo by Thomas Peace c. 2019
Once there was a twice
and then three times
Twice there was a once
and then three times
Once there was great green earth
and no crazy endless raging fires
Once there was clear ocean
with everything freshly alive
with everything freshly alive…
Once fossil-fuel cars and trucks
and redgreenyellow stop lights
Now there’s empty rust and black smog
while nothing much is alive
while nothing much is alive
Once we made dead plastic
we mindlessly tossed it all around
Now it’s a veryonceuponatimeplace
where life used to be
Once there was heaven
fresh air butterflies soaring sweetly in sun
Now a lot of toxic dead ocean smell
and large bipedal mammals there are none
there are none
Once there was a twice
and then three times
Twice there was a once
and then three times
Real aloneness is that independence from all “influence.” It is that innocence that occurs when the mind is not tethered to achieving more and more and still more. It is to stand alone away from all influence, from all beliefs, traditions, suppositions, habits, fears, and conclusions. (Besides, beliefs and many iron-clad traditions tend to divide people and cause havoc in the world.)
Aloneness is when, without planning or effort, the mind is of an intelligent emptiness beyond mere thoughts and thinking. It does not occur when the mind consists of desires to get something out of such emptiness. Ambition and expectation have nothing to do with such emptiness manifesting. There is no acquisition or reaping involved with such emptiness. You don’t make yourself empty to “get something.”
When the limitations of thought/thinking in (and “as”) consciousness are intelligently seen, then there may be an abnegation due to seeing the false as the false. Clinging to falsities and limitations may involve effort akin to hugging onto shadows persistently.
That aloneness, that emptiness that is beyond falsities, is like an uncontaminated sky that is open, pure, and unspoiled by the activities of man.
Take one step at a time, they said.
But the steps,
if one steps enough,
are not separate from time.
And one step at a time
is too slow and mechanical
and ordinary.
So, we flew beyond what they
said to do.
We flew beyond their stale,
traditional ways.
We didn’t do it one step
at a time,
according to the patterns
and points that they
all so narrowmindedly accepted.
When the vegetarian cameraman
took aim at the vegetarian mosquito
no one there was
(really)
out for blood
When Barney, the bulky, bullheaded Bullfrog
decided to take up residence under my car tire,
i told him politely, “Barney, that is quite a perilous spot
at which you can — most definitely — easily expire.”
Barney just sat there without a trembling twitch
and said, “You sure are a very worrisome bloke;
i can assure you, most greenheartedly,
that we brave Bullfrogs are, indubitably, not afraid to croak.”
Then i realized that all of my careful cautions and
pale-lectures would not cause Barney to fearfully quiver,
so i grabbed his humongous, bullheaded, brown-old butt
and — despite his slimy objections — threw him into the river.
can couldn’t
and did didn’t
but nice knew
quaintness quickened
“be”s beckoned
while “wouldn’t”s were
“me”s mingled
“haven’t”s heard
steps stood
and said sermoned
cruel counted
must might
having had
tried thought
cricket chirped
but will won’t
_______________________________________________________________
[Note: Tree Crickets are very elusive; if they see (or hear) you coming, they hide on the opposite side of the bush or foliage that they are on. Please note the tympanal membrane on the front leg of this specimen; it is used as a hearing mechanism… an ear.]
