The Zero-Sum Game

This is something I wrote while waiting in the free lot at the airport for my buddy's flight yesterday...the first line is a line out of a song that was playing on the radio as I drove from my office to the airport - the rest came from, well, life...

Lose the beat, lose the rhythm
Lose the beat, find the rhythm
Find the rhythm, find your path

Skip the counting, just do the math
One and one can equal one, two, three or none
You are your own sum of life's equation

The possibilities are infinite
You are the one who limits
Opportunities and potential
Parallel and sequential

You choose the size of your box
Big or small
One size does indeed truly fit all

It's all equal in the end
For life is a zero-sum game, my friend

New Work

Wow, logged on to post these and found that this blog had just been viewed today - thank you!

I watched The Last Airbender last weekend, and the theme of water was rattling through my brain. Unfortunately, daily work life took over and chased it out, although it showed back up in life as rain and tears this week.

Today, as I was journaling, these two poems came through - not the theme of water, rather perhaps the larger theme of flow, which may be what was really meant to come this week.

letting go/becoming

focus on letting go - becoming has yet to be - becoming comes on the heels of being free and seems to be a two steps forward, three steps back process at times - keep aiming for the light at the end of the tunnel - focus on the esoteric what not the in-flesh who or the material thing

focus on letting go and then becoming comes - sometimes slowly and haltingly, like coaxing a feral animal into your life, sometimes with a burst of speed and light that takes your breath away - but it does come once letting go is gone

Life - Golden and Full

life is golden - truly it is - and being golden, it is precious and every drop should be savored, not slurped and hastily swallowed

pain adds the salt and joy the sweetness

a life lived fully becomes full bodied like a good red wine or a hearty ale or the smoky cheese that fills your mouth with its nutty flavor

Namaste!

Check, Checkmate

Yesterday I attended 100,000 Poets for Change, and this is the poem I wrote to share at this year's event. Other poems I shared were Misdirected Penguin, A Chance for Atonement, and Unsung Heroes (also posted below).

Check, Checkmate

The dove queen watches the eagle king play chess,

Getting into check again and again and again

Wondering if when the game finally comes to checkmate

Who or what will truly win

If humankind will all turn into pillars of salt or become

Shadows on the sides of the buildings that remain

Or if instead she will take the olive branch from the King’s claws

And bring peace down upon the Earth once more to reign

Unsung Heroes

Unsung heroes there

Whilst we are bickering here

Who is right or wrong

Sing thee the hero's song

For those in lands faraway

Who may not live to see another day

Unsung heroes every one

Someone's daughter, someone's son

Doing their job until day is done

Sing thee the hero's song

No matter what side of the aisle you're on

Or which religion you choose to don

Unsung heroes far and near

All to someone very dear

Ask not why we are here

Sing thee the hero's song

Pray for peace and freedom from greed

Pray for relief from every need

Unsung heroes every one 

Care for them as they cared for us

In our love they put their trust

Sing thee the hero's song

And pray they all see another dawn

The dawn of coming home

One Month to the Day

...since I last posted on this blog. Last night was a blaze of inspiration, brought on by an afternoon of brainstorming at work and the swirl of creative types I cybersocial with on FaceBook.

Here is what came from the muse last night:

Relationships

You might be, may be
Interested in him if
Only he were too

Interested in
You perhaps, maybe
You are into him

And this form is senyru, not true haiku...just so you know...

The next one was

The dance we weave is
Meant to deceive you, me
And all humankind

And Mother Nature
Has not a rewind feature
For any creature

No matter how great
Or how small, Mother Nature, 

She does rule us all

And our greed and our
Pride will truly be the death
Of us one and all

Then, based on prompts from a writing group, an episode of The Big Bang Theory, and my upcoming vacation, came this one:

Today I am randomness
Schreodinger's cat is named Fluffy
Smoke from a distant fire reminds me of camping
Getting up with the sun, not an alarm
No deadlines or commitments but the day to come home
Senyru (not haiku)
And to sleep, perchance to dream
Of trains, coal, steam

And then finally, due to the sky's colors when filled with smoke from a large grass fire yesterday at sunrise:

Gaia Mother Earth
Watch me set the sky afire
Turning Moon to gold

Being

Be still
Listen
Then follow

Sweet Wonderment of Nature

I'm blessed to live right next to a local park with a creek meandering through it. Those who know me on Facebook have seen my various photos and videos from my meanderings there. Here is a poem I wrote a couple of days ago after one such meander.

The light of day
The dark of night
The rich brown loaminess of the soil
The verdant green of the grass
The rich textured shades of browns and greens of the trees
The amber waves of grain
The vibrant reds, blues, purples, yellows and oranges
The rainbow of the flowers and fruits of Nature!

The ebb and flow, fast and slow of the water
Down the channel, crashing over the rocks

The rut of the deer
The cry of the hawks
The skitter of the slithery things in the brush
The red-winged blackbird perched on a tule rush

Ah, the sweet wonderment of Nature!

Three Faces of Gaia

My writing has been resting lately, lying fallow, gathering nutrients in order to burst forth again into bloom. Here is what has sprouted this far:

Three Faces of Gaia

Restless days

Sleepless nights

Burning out of my skin

Shivering to get back in

Losing my way

And in the end

Finding my tribe

Such is the path

Moving from Maiden

to Mother

to Crone

Update from 2012 Poetry Month Challenge

Well, I didn't make the 30 poems in 30 days this year - life is still very much in the way of my writing.

Here is the rest of what I did write in April, however, for your reading pleasure!

30 April 2012  

Ride the wave of pain
Until it dumps you on the shore
Pick yourself up, dust yourself off,
Slough through the sand until
The tide pulls you out
To ride the wave once more

29 April 2012  

Unrequited love
Worst kind to have - barbed arrow
Always in the heart

28 April 2012 

I miss you asking
About today's conference,
Sharing wine and food

26 April 2012

  

Brutal truth is

Always better than lies are
Truth truly trumps all

24 April 2012

Waking in the night
Rolling over
Touching your back
Smelling your skin
My hand on your stomach
Back to dreamland again

23 April 2012

Cried myself to sleep
Last night; not that you care
But that's the way it is

22 April 2012

Truth hurts once
Lies hurt many times

Undermine self
Undermine hope
Undermine faith

Truth easier to recover from
Lies can cause chronic suffering

Which do you prefer?

22 April 2012

Truth not always told
Hearts broken because of lies
Love not always dies

21 April 2012

The skeletons in my closet
Are few

They are out dancing at
The dead man's party

How about you?

20 April 2012

Daffodils in vase
Likely last of the season
Brought by ashen flame

17 April 2012

leopards do not change their spots
nor hide them truly well;
even the black ones have spots
if you look long enough to tell

nor can tigers lose their stripes
for they are deeper then the skin

and the grasshopper never did learn patience
in the end

15 April 2012

I believed in you
I believed in us

My castles in the sky
were only castles in the sand
and now all is turned to dust

Why?

why not leave me where I was

Why lift me up
only to drop me down
further than I was before

What the hell did I ever do
to deserve such a negative score?

15 April 2012

Black cat
ate white rat
who made gray elephant
squeal

14 April 2012

I feel anger rising
again as a shield
against the pain

Love has leached away
with the realization of loss,
of lies,
of dreams built on sand
destroyed

Pain pulls down
Anger buoys up

Love would light the way
Lies took that light away

Darkness rules now

What defense is left?

14 April 2012

  

setting fire to the rain 

of tears falling 

frees the pain 

cauterizes the heart 

allows the healing 

to start

Back to the Poetry

Okay, so this is what I've neglected posting on this particular blog:

This is from a prompt asking how do you set fire to the rain - a line from an Adele song:

setting fire to the rain
of tears falling
frees the paincauterizes the heartallows the healing
to start

This one came to me last night:

I feel anger rising
again as a shield
against the pain

Love has leached away
with the realization of loss,
of lies,
of dreams built on sand
destroyed

Pain pulls down
Anger buoys up

Love would light the way
Lies took that light away

Darkness rules now

What defense is left?


And this one came today:

Black cat
ate white rat
who made gray elephant
squeal

Eclectic group, no?

OOPS!

Posted all this to the wrong blog! ;)

MaXIMIze - Even More on Healing

Yes, I'm focusing a lot on healing right now - art imitates life, which can sometimes imitate art.

Like I said when I first started to follow this particular thread, healing takes time. It took time to get to where you are now and it will take time to get where you truly want to be. Healing is a process, an iterative one, which means you heal layer by layer. It also means sometimes you have to peel back many layers to find the original source of the wounding, the pain, the hurt in order to heal.

Additionally, you have to really want to do the work, to truly heal and move forward instead of staying in a continuous "do loop," in order for the process to work. And sometimes that work can be difficult and uncover things that we really never wanted to even think we had within us, let alone drag kicking and screaming into the cold (or hot) light of day. The revealing of some of these things, these issues, these deep and festering wounds, may leave us feeling like a lost naked thing in the open with no cover to protect us. However, just as new skin is sensitive at first and then toughens up, so too shall we learn to face that which has wounded us and left us bloody, maimed, disfigured and alone and take away its power to continue to bloody, maim, disfigure, or make us feel that we are alone anymore. And once we do that, once we take away its power by bringing it into the light and looking it square in the eyes, we will begin to heal and be whole once more.

Our emotional wounds may leave scars, however, our scars do not need to define who we are and what we can become. Honor your scars, for you have earned each and every one of them. Do not, however, ever allow them to define you as anything less than a perfect human being, worthy of everything you truly desire in this lifetime!

And with that, I will leave you with one of my newer theme songs:

Perfect by Pink

2012 Poetry Challenge - If/Then

if life was perfect
then it might be boring

if life were boring
then we might rebel

if we rebel
then things might change

if things change
then they might not ever be the same again

if things are not the same again
then life might not be perfect

if life were not perfect
then it might not be boring

2012 Poetry Challenge - Day 8 - Never Alone

As I sit here alone
I realize
I am never truly alone

All those whose lives
I've touched
or whose lives have
touched mine
are with me

Aloneness is not loneliness

Loneliness is being
cut off
from your fellow beings

Knowing I am part
of all who have
shared in my life
or shared their life
with me to this point

I know I am never
truly alone

Therefore, I am never
truly lonely

2012 Poetry Challenge - Saturday Poem

pumping gas

fetching groceries

getting a hair cut

buying stamps

mailing taxes

cooking dinner

washing dishes

writing this poem

all done on a sunny Saturday in April

2012 Poetry Challenge - Twitter Poem

Twitter posts are limited to 140 characters - here is my poem within those parameters, complete with /s - and with four characters to spare!

writer's block not this is/ simply nothing to write/ driven to create, however/ personal challenge undertaken/ so daily poem yes this is

2012 Poetry Challenge - Day 5 - Senyru

Senyru follows the same form as haiku - 3 lines, 5/7/5 syllable count - however, where haiku is season-themed, senyru can follow any theme. Here is my offering for today:

your heart signs joyous
while my heart burns searing pain
is not love just grand

2012 Poetry Challenge - Day 4 - Your Life

Your life is
your own of
course, but then

They want you
to drop your
life, pick up

Theirs and do
not see why
you say No!

2012 Poem a Day Challenge - Day 3 - Enough

This came to me in the middle of the night last night:

I
say to myself
I
am enough
right here
right now

I
am the promise of the rainbow
fulfilled

2012 Poem a Day Challenge - Day 2

Here is what came to me for today's entry:

Sun's rays playing tricks on me
or perhaps wind is showing power
Coolness reigns instead of warmth
in this breezy sunlit hour

1 Apr 12 - A New Month of Poetry

And here we are, back to April, which means we are back to National Poetry Month! This year, I have started a group on Facebook to share this challenge of writing at least 30 poems in 30 days there as well.

So let the writing begin! And to start the ball rolling, here is a poem I wrote this morning based on watching two birds huddling in a tree from the window of a conference room at the Sheraton downtown whilst at a writers' conference yesterday.

Two birds huddling
on a branch against the wind
one flies away, leaves
other alone, cold