be wary of what you cannot carry
it might cause you to slow.
wear out and tire your tread.
pack well around the waist
don't hold up one side overweighed
don't distract only one arm or leg
stay balanced as you move along.
leave what can be left behind.
what you hoard won't help you later,
it hardly helps you now.
it doesn't help you now.
03 March 2011
who moves the world is
those with might to
brute force right to
encode life and patent tight the
things we need to live.
metaphysical battle ground the
nsa's virtual alarms will sound if
you dare to be combative.
don't talk too much don't
double speak you're invoking thoughts
through all those teeth.
if i cannot own you ill own your words.
patent office: first come, first serve.
it matters not what your friends have heard.
bioproperty need no philosophy when
its essence is a facet of
evil.
enslaving the most for the
glory of the few can you
feel any love through your cage?
brute force right to
encode life and patent tight the
things we need to live.
metaphysical battle ground the
nsa's virtual alarms will sound if
you dare to be combative.
don't talk too much don't
double speak you're invoking thoughts
through all those teeth.
if i cannot own you ill own your words.
patent office: first come, first serve.
it matters not what your friends have heard.
bioproperty need no philosophy when
its essence is a facet of
evil.
enslaving the most for the
glory of the few can you
feel any love through your cage?
are you brave?
or are you just an illusion?
do you feel like more than you really are?
does the mirror trick you well?
heroes aren't the ones that win the wars.
they're the ones that fight for good.
they walk into the caves where evil hides
and fool around in the dark.
do you behave?
are you good at doing what you're told?
or do you practice social alchemy, remaking your own mold?
heroes aren't the most obedient.
but, civility is their mark.
they walk into the caves where evil hides
and fool around in the dark.
will we run?
or will we stand up for what's right and say that
we are not afraid?
will we run?
or will we stand up for what's right and say
there's something i can do?
are you brave
enough to let go of your selfish ways?
can you look beyond yourself without
fearing anything?
do you feel like more than you really are?
does the mirror trick you well?
heroes aren't the ones that win the wars.
they're the ones that fight for good.
they walk into the caves where evil hides
and fool around in the dark.
do you behave?
are you good at doing what you're told?
or do you practice social alchemy, remaking your own mold?
heroes aren't the most obedient.
but, civility is their mark.
they walk into the caves where evil hides
and fool around in the dark.
will we run?
or will we stand up for what's right and say that
we are not afraid?
will we run?
or will we stand up for what's right and say
there's something i can do?
are you brave
enough to let go of your selfish ways?
can you look beyond yourself without
fearing anything?
yearning and laundering
you are cold and
washed out with
likable colors but
i just cannot appreciate the
timbre of your
low dry tumble.
where is that vigorous
active, charismatic and
sexy voice i got so into?
where are those feelings i
expected you to feel also?
where is your submission to
my will?
i feel some negative feelings, yes.
i just show it when
you cannot see.
and it will be shed
upon non-innocent ears.
thrown upon the offering pile.
free for all to take learning from.
thrown away, excreted with the
pisses and shits of days
to come.
re-purposed as a better
sense of direction for
the next time i have
a go.
washed out with
likable colors but
i just cannot appreciate the
timbre of your
low dry tumble.
where is that vigorous
active, charismatic and
sexy voice i got so into?
where are those feelings i
expected you to feel also?
where is your submission to
my will?
i feel some negative feelings, yes.
i just show it when
you cannot see.
and it will be shed
upon non-innocent ears.
thrown upon the offering pile.
free for all to take learning from.
thrown away, excreted with the
pisses and shits of days
to come.
re-purposed as a better
sense of direction for
the next time i have
a go.
09 January 2011
driving to newbury park
i am possessed by a
strict unattraction to
the billboards that vandalize
my view of the sky from the
freeway
avoidant of
everything i see on
one
i stare as i listen to classical music like
bukowski would have
i reference bukowski
in my head
like a wannabe beatnik
i contemplate the etiology of
the word
wannabe
i arrive at no answer just
keep driving
until i arrive at
the night's traffic
billboards are derogatory
wannabe is informal and derogatory
i do not wannabe driving
strict unattraction to
the billboards that vandalize
my view of the sky from the
freeway
avoidant of
everything i see on
one
i stare as i listen to classical music like
bukowski would have
i reference bukowski
in my head
like a wannabe beatnik
i contemplate the etiology of
the word
wannabe
i arrive at no answer just
keep driving
until i arrive at
the night's traffic
billboards are derogatory
wannabe is informal and derogatory
i do not wannabe driving
The bell is unbuilding.
*Originally posted 30 December 2010 on Prophets of the New World
It is the time of year most commonly referred to as the "holiday season" and heavy rain is soaking into the pot-hole pocked streets of Long Beach. The rains this year follow the trend of recent years: colder colds and wetter wets for winter. Residents discuss the irony as they have just finished feeling the record breaking heat of summer. Extreme disparities in seasonal weather patterns are not characteristic of temperate maritime Southern California that generations of inhabitants have become acclimated to. Stability is being disrupted.
Global climate change is being realized more and more in our everyday lives. For those aware of it, the feeling can be quite schizophrenic. You see a problem that you feel helpless against. It surrounds you where you live and reminds you if you forget. And discussing the issue you realize that so many people just do not see what you do, even if they are already familiar with the problem.
Weather patterns throughout recorded history have developed a bell distribution with regard to the occurrence and breadth of moderate and extreme weather. As the composition of our planet shifts, the distribution curve is following suit. What it reflects is a sort of flipping of the curve, making extreme events more common, and moderate events less average. In other words, climate change is having a polarizing effect on the weather that means radical events like hurricanes, floods and heat waves will be amplified in magnitude, longer in length when they happen, and more immediate in their coming and going.
But, I don't really want to talk about climate change in the meteorological sense. I think there are enough scientists with Ph.D.s doing a fine job in that area. I am more concerned with the fact that that polarizing effect seems to be reflected more in contemporary culture.
Extreme weather is happening on the psychological landscape.
It is not hard to find either. The mass media are dependably delivering us more fear mongering, doubt manufacturing and exploitation everyday. It happens before our eyes and becomes more easily forgiven the more it persists. The systems of power that be are becoming more powerful. Those in poverty are becoming more impoverished. The middle class is falling out, and the class gap is growing.
We need extreme support on the other side. If evil is our enemy then to combat it calls for a strong and fearless good. We need to stand true to our ethic and morality in order to not get far behind. We need to be unafraid of hurt and willing to take hits. We need to do this non-violently and intelligently, without taking on the false means of our adversaries. We must defeat cheaters without cheating ourselves of our character.
Try to maintain a sense of direction and awareness as the current shifts. Remain lucid in the coming times of darkness. There are hurtful systems of power afoot, and they throw rocks during snowball fights. The bell curve is unbuilding into a valley and a flood is coming. The weaker side is destined to fall in.
It is the time of year most commonly referred to as the "holiday season" and heavy rain is soaking into the pot-hole pocked streets of Long Beach. The rains this year follow the trend of recent years: colder colds and wetter wets for winter. Residents discuss the irony as they have just finished feeling the record breaking heat of summer. Extreme disparities in seasonal weather patterns are not characteristic of temperate maritime Southern California that generations of inhabitants have become acclimated to. Stability is being disrupted.
Global climate change is being realized more and more in our everyday lives. For those aware of it, the feeling can be quite schizophrenic. You see a problem that you feel helpless against. It surrounds you where you live and reminds you if you forget. And discussing the issue you realize that so many people just do not see what you do, even if they are already familiar with the problem.
Weather patterns throughout recorded history have developed a bell distribution with regard to the occurrence and breadth of moderate and extreme weather. As the composition of our planet shifts, the distribution curve is following suit. What it reflects is a sort of flipping of the curve, making extreme events more common, and moderate events less average. In other words, climate change is having a polarizing effect on the weather that means radical events like hurricanes, floods and heat waves will be amplified in magnitude, longer in length when they happen, and more immediate in their coming and going.
But, I don't really want to talk about climate change in the meteorological sense. I think there are enough scientists with Ph.D.s doing a fine job in that area. I am more concerned with the fact that that polarizing effect seems to be reflected more in contemporary culture.
Extreme weather is happening on the psychological landscape.
It is not hard to find either. The mass media are dependably delivering us more fear mongering, doubt manufacturing and exploitation everyday. It happens before our eyes and becomes more easily forgiven the more it persists. The systems of power that be are becoming more powerful. Those in poverty are becoming more impoverished. The middle class is falling out, and the class gap is growing.
We need extreme support on the other side. If evil is our enemy then to combat it calls for a strong and fearless good. We need to stand true to our ethic and morality in order to not get far behind. We need to be unafraid of hurt and willing to take hits. We need to do this non-violently and intelligently, without taking on the false means of our adversaries. We must defeat cheaters without cheating ourselves of our character.
Try to maintain a sense of direction and awareness as the current shifts. Remain lucid in the coming times of darkness. There are hurtful systems of power afoot, and they throw rocks during snowball fights. The bell curve is unbuilding into a valley and a flood is coming. The weaker side is destined to fall in.
To what are we entitled?
*Originally posted 18 November 2010 on Prophets of the New World
"Which Things, tell me, are yours? Whence have you brought your goods into life? You are like one occupying a place in a theater, who should prohibit others from entering, treating that as this own which was designed for the common use of all. Such are the rich. Because they preoccupy common goods, they take these goods as their own. If each one would take that which is sufficient for his needs, leaving what is superfluous to those in distress, no one would be rich, no one poor . . . The rich man is a thief." - Basil of Caesaria *
We do not choose where we are born. Yet, it has been assumed a priori by proponents of the capitalist free market system, especially in the United States, that all citizens are afforded an equal chance at the "American Dream," (which unfortunately is commonly associated with wealth). But circumstances matter and hard work is not all it takes to live well in our society.
History has played a huge role in the way social groups have become unequally granted proximity and access to resources. Being born into a privileged life has obvious advantages to becoming a self-reliant adult. And those of us fortunate enough to be born into privilege reap the benefits of a history we are derived from and rarely taught. This history includes slavery, colonialism, war, prejudice. We frequently mistake our wealth as justly entitled. But the argument that "that was then and this is now" will not suffice anymore. What has happened throughout history cannot be undone, this is true. And the generations and millennia of history that we have lost with every dying species of plant and animal and every now extinct language cannot be recovered. But they can be discussed and correctly acknowledged. So rather than ignore and pretend, it is time to move forward.
We must be proactive in achieving balance once again. In order to sustain the test of life on Earth we must share responsibility for evils we did not commit. As the community of Earth, we win together and lose together. We must take a hard look at what we have, and honestly perceive what we have been so fortunately granted. Ask what you are fighting for that you should not be. Ask what you should be fighting for. It compels me to say aloud:
I am the luckiest man on earth because I was given all I know, and have never been hungry or frozen or without help a day in my life.
I am the luckiest man on earth because I can die today and not miss the computer and car and coffee I will leave behind.
I am the luckiest man on earth because I have more than I need, and I am ready to give.
- Basil of Caesaria was the bishop of Caesaria Mazaca in Cappadocia, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) during the 300's A.D. He was sainted in both the Western and Eastern traditions of Christianity. He gave away his family inheritance to help the poor. *
* Excerpt from The Verso Book of Dissent. pg. 10. Verso, 2010.
"Which Things, tell me, are yours? Whence have you brought your goods into life? You are like one occupying a place in a theater, who should prohibit others from entering, treating that as this own which was designed for the common use of all. Such are the rich. Because they preoccupy common goods, they take these goods as their own. If each one would take that which is sufficient for his needs, leaving what is superfluous to those in distress, no one would be rich, no one poor . . . The rich man is a thief." - Basil of Caesaria *
We do not choose where we are born. Yet, it has been assumed a priori by proponents of the capitalist free market system, especially in the United States, that all citizens are afforded an equal chance at the "American Dream," (which unfortunately is commonly associated with wealth). But circumstances matter and hard work is not all it takes to live well in our society.
History has played a huge role in the way social groups have become unequally granted proximity and access to resources. Being born into a privileged life has obvious advantages to becoming a self-reliant adult. And those of us fortunate enough to be born into privilege reap the benefits of a history we are derived from and rarely taught. This history includes slavery, colonialism, war, prejudice. We frequently mistake our wealth as justly entitled. But the argument that "that was then and this is now" will not suffice anymore. What has happened throughout history cannot be undone, this is true. And the generations and millennia of history that we have lost with every dying species of plant and animal and every now extinct language cannot be recovered. But they can be discussed and correctly acknowledged. So rather than ignore and pretend, it is time to move forward.
We must be proactive in achieving balance once again. In order to sustain the test of life on Earth we must share responsibility for evils we did not commit. As the community of Earth, we win together and lose together. We must take a hard look at what we have, and honestly perceive what we have been so fortunately granted. Ask what you are fighting for that you should not be. Ask what you should be fighting for. It compels me to say aloud:
I am the luckiest man on earth because I was given all I know, and have never been hungry or frozen or without help a day in my life.
I am the luckiest man on earth because I can die today and not miss the computer and car and coffee I will leave behind.
I am the luckiest man on earth because I have more than I need, and I am ready to give.
- Basil of Caesaria was the bishop of Caesaria Mazaca in Cappadocia, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) during the 300's A.D. He was sainted in both the Western and Eastern traditions of Christianity. He gave away his family inheritance to help the poor. *
* Excerpt from The Verso Book of Dissent. pg. 10. Verso, 2010.
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