Thus I Wrote

Immigrants arrive
And women have new roles
Rules change as midwives
For a new evolving whole

I see factions fight
To invade my space
I feel claustrophobhic
Trying to keep my place

I feel more uncertain
And fearful of my fate
The world is changing
But that’s a natural state

And I have come to trust
That the invisible hand,
Of consensus in this world
Knows better than I understand

I spend a lot of time
Inside my head
Trying to find if the future
Has a golden thread

I am sensitive
I get hurt a lot
But I say many things
When I should have not

Sometimes like a bad car
I drive all over the place
But its seems the only way
That I can find my space

But I discovered no more faults
Than others show
And I discovered no less virtues
Than others know

I learned of fear and pain
Are my companions in my growth
And to look them in the eye
And stare them down both

I’m on a winding road
With no diversion or distraction
With no sex, drugs or alcohol
To replace effective action

And every day a crossroads
A chance to start again
And yet another chance
To ‘suck it up’ again

🙂

We all want our space
Created within the human race
And so far as we can see
For us, the best way is democracy

Life is a compromise
But we developed a common view
That the needs of the many
Must outweigh the needs of the few

A multicultural society
Has many minorities
And a more fragmented common view
Because they must be included too

But we all want our space
Created within the human race
And so far as we can see
For us, the best way is democracy

You want opportunity and to be free
And to choose who, the government will be
You want fairness and you want rights,
And justice to give, it all some bite

And thus is created your space
And those of everyone
And the boundaries in the race
Agreed by you and everyone

So we create our space
Within the human race
With responsibility
To others in our democracy

Some say…
“Sticks and stones
May break our bones
But words cannot hurt us…”

But words can be gratuitously insulting
And words can be exclusive
But why not be courteous?
And why not be inclusive?
To feel good about ourselves
Must we be abusive?
Do hurting words come easy
And nourishing ones elusive?

We can disapprove of what you say
But we defend your right to say it
(And our right to ignore what you say
And not to listen while you say it)
If it does not clearly incite
Others to anger and fight
To use sticks and stones
To break our bones

Words convey the ideas
Our humanity needs to grow
And defending free speech
Is the only way we know
To allow potential good ideas
A fertile place to grow
But words can never condone
Using sticks and stones
To break our bones

We have also learned
From past experiences burned
That your crime of intolerance
Is best fought by tolerance
And to grow and be free
We need to live in unity
And not use sticks and stones
To break our bones

We want to feel we matter
To connect and serve with feeling
As we run up that hill
Looking for a meaning

How do we know we exist?
How do we know we’re alive?
How many people do we need to tell us
Before we accept we have arrived?

We’re together in this room
But only some can see the elephant
In the truth of everyday experience
We compete to be relevant

There are 14 Billion years before us
And we get 80 years or so
We stutter briefly on the stage
We flicker briefly and then we go

Wise men have worked to show us
We are leaves in the forest green
On our own we have little significance
In the playing of life’s great scene

We’re together in this room
But only some can see the elephant
In the truth of everyday experience
We compete to be relevant

Some ignorance may be a virtue
That many find unexpected
The truth is in life’s experience
And not in its meaning dissected

In the end our focus shifts
To those we love and what we’re giving
And while we’ve something to share
There’s still a relevance to our living

We’re together in this room
But only some can see the elephant
In the truth of everyday experience
While we share, we are relevant

Inspired by the Birdman film

Hey little darling
What’s that you say
Your mother’s a fish?
And she just swam away?

I looked for you
Through the veil of my tears
But I couldn’t see you
Through the smoke of my fears

As I lay dying
I thought of you,
Of all the things I wanted
And all that I didn’t do

But it’s not all about you
To be human is to share
Can you open your mind?
And see what is fair

We have desires and secrets
That we forgot we had
We tried to bury them
But they still smelled bad

As I lay dying
I thought of you,
Of all the things I wanted
And all that I didn’t do

We have desires and secrets
That buried us alive
That killed the intimacy
Our love needs to survive

In my life I have drifted
Between the earth and the sky
My life’s quest a balance
Between the us and the I

As I lay dying
I thought of you,
Of all the things I wanted
And all that I didn’t do

Inspired by As i Lay Dying by William Faulkner

I don’t need no desert
To know I’m in the wilderness
I don’t need no burning bush
Telling me to pray or confess
I don’t need no lamb of God
Talking about redemption or sin
No, I’ve been knocking on that door
I need someone to let me in

I don’t need no politician
To take me by the hand
Or to part the economy
With some magical command
I don’t need no rich man’s advice
From the wave he’s floating in
No, I’ve been knocking on that door
I need someone to let me in

I don’t need no market
To tell me what I’m worth
I just want to compete
To serve and to work
Sometimes you need help and the right wave
Before you can win
So I’ll keep knocking on that door
Until someone lets me in

I’ve heard enough about the failures
That have put me on my knees
I’ve examined every one of them
And I’m improving by degrees
It’s been a lesson in humility
But I’ll take it on the chin
And I’ll keep knocking on that door
Until someone lets me in

My glass is half full
As I learn what they teach
I see lights of opportunites
But they’re still out of reach
They say that in every fall
There’s a seed of a rise therein
So I’ll keep knocking on that door
Until someone lets me in.

And so it came to pass
We had lunch, God and me
The conversation began to flow
As we relaxed over coffee

God then stroked his beard
And he waited with good grace
As I struggled with my question
He looked kindly on my face

So why are we here?
The human race, I clarified
He thought and stirred his coffee,
Cleared his throat and then replied.

I created this Universe
14 billion years ago
I created all the laws
But how it ends I do not know

The truth is in experience
And in competition’s push
In sharing and connecting
In creating and love’s rush

God then stroked his beard
And he waited with good grace
As I struggled with my question
He looked kindly on my face

So why create this Universe?
Or others, I clarified
He thought and stirred his coffee
Cleared his throat and then replied.

To create independent life
And have someone to share
There is a lot of space
To have no one else there.

We are all connected
And all part of the same
In a circle that goes round
In an endless game

God then stroked his beard
And he waited with good grace
As I struggled with my question
He looked kindly on my face

I saw my father
In the mirror today
And I said yesterday
What he might say
I wear a black hat
To hide my grey hair
As I run too fast
From a life not fair

It is what it is
But what does it mean?
I’m an ignorant part
Of a greater machine
I can see the end coming
I’ll try not to stare
As I run too fast
From a life not fair

I held someone’s hand
And I made someone smile
I forgot where I was going
At least for a while
It’s good to feel needed
To have someone who cares
As I run too fast
From a life not fair

We’re in this together
So I’m not unique
It’s not a favour
Or an advantage I seek
I know we’re all alone
If we have nothing to share
As we run too fast
From a life not fair

But we are so blessed
To be here alive
Somehow chosen
From that great formless void
Free to choose our purpose
Without fear if we dare
As we run too fast
From a life not fair

I held someone’s hand
And I made someone smile
I forgot where I was going
At least for a while
It’s good to feel needed
To have someone who cares
As I run too fast
From a life not fair

I see ghosts of late
From the scenes I’ve played
The haunting of familiar faces
In familiar places

I see ghosts of late
In the well of my emotional state
The pricking of past emotion
The memories of past devotion

I see ghosts of late
From the loving relationships I’ve made
From mother and father
From sons and daughters
From wives and lovers
From sisters and brothers
And from the friends who stayed
I see ghosts of late

I see ghosts of late
Whispering of changes, they portray
The waves that rise and fall
The victories big and small
The turning of the earth
The renewal of life and death
And all that shaped my fate
I see ghosts of late

I see ghosts of late
Part of the man I’ve made
They don’t go they wait
They’re with me till that silent gate….