THIS DESOLATE DESERT
Have you ever noticed,
how abusing people breeds,
monstrous deformities,
in everyone concerned.
This desolate desert, lonely wood,
where I bode better
than the bustling city:
here, unnoticed, I solitarily sit
and harmonize with the discordant refrain
of a wandering gull
the dissonant notes
to my sorrows and suffering.
Inhabiting my heart is a humble home
abandoned like a forgotten homestead
growing dilapidated so long neglected,
the memory fading of what life was,
as colors disappear ensconced
in shadowy twilight.
THE
DAWN WAS WINDLESS
The dawn was windless - windless soft and mist shrouded;
the horizons vanished behind a curtain of clouds
hovering sorrowfully over roof tops, wrapping the valley
and far off hills in a colorless picture of gray crepe.
Finally, the swelling sound of commuters had died down,
and a brooding silence permeated the air;
where a row of street lights disappear down the street
in the cold drizzle oozing from the sky.
Portland has existed for over a century and a half
and during that time it has not created
one individual who could excite envy,
or an extreme desire to emulate;
one great artist, one great scholar, one great humanist.
Most residents, noticing nothing, only eat, sleep, drink and die;
while, others are born and to ease their boredom
viciously gossip, engage in adultery, inform on their neighbors
until, finally, they expire under the overwhelming weight
of their own stupefaction; and their children,
warped with their venomous vulgar influence,
become the same sort of pitiful, dead people
as their homogeneous parents.
ISOLATED INDIVIDUALS
The lowering clouds glower
obscuring the morning Sun, as it vainly attempts
to peer from behind Mt. Hood;
they promise us a bitter morning;
overhead the dancing stars are scattered
in fantastic patterns above distant horizons,
and one by one, with the anemic reflection
of dawn oozing over the dark violet vault
gradually lighting the steep slopes
of the West Hills covered
with still slumbering suburbs,
they silently retire.
Right and left sad and mysterious abysses
yawn black, issuing out slither the gray mists,
serpentinely whirling and winding up the furrows
of the near by draws as if fearful
of the approaching dark day.
I anxiously look at the naked trees,
whose thin limbs are encrusted with ice,
and wonder where are my sons.
In their early twenties, they had spent the night
out on the town. Anyway, is there any
essential difference between my boys
and their mother and I at their age,
between then and now?
How quickly time has flown,
before to long, say another couple of centuries,
perhaps people will look at the present
as we view the past, with derision and disdain,
as though this is another period
of ignorance and intolerance
a time of witch hunts and inquisition?
Just think how great it could be,
pregnant with a thousand happy possibilities;
where, instead of only a few enlightened intellectuals,
the majority of people will be educated and enlightened,
where isolated individuals will be obsolete!
DEPOSITORIES
The moon has set.
Slowly, dawn arrives
displaying the silent slumbering valley
nestled beneath a blanket of fog.
Floating like dark wooded islands
on a white inland sea,
moraines are scattered
across the valley's large yawning mouth,
depositories from a previous ice age.
I read a lot;
but, the more I learn
the more I long for knowledge.
My hair is as gray as this Winter day.
I am growing old;
however, there is one very important thing
that is true: we are not happy.
Happiness is being reserved for future generations;
and, its both unnecessary and a shame.
WHAM!
Wham! And again
Fate has smashed my spine
with another car accident.
So, here I lay
relearning the flat features
of this somber ceiling
that another week will forget.
One day, we too, will be forgotten
all that we thought,
all that we said,
all that we did.
How fragile life is.
I wonder what future generations
will say about today;
whether, what now seems so terribly important
shall seem paltry and absurd; or,
whether we will appear
wicked and unclean.
Time has a way of siphoning off
the frivolous and fashionable dross,
while leaving that which is truly important intact.
TIME
The other afternoon in the library
I happened to need to know the time;
and, as there was no clock,
I asked someone passing by.
They extend their arm
exposing their watch,
its digital display
blinking away the seconds.
How different today's watches are,
with their neat little rows of numbers
silently marching in place
glowing electric green,
from the round faced clocks
of my youth - the ones that patiently displayed
all the hours of night and day,
and some even possessing Roman Numerals.
This eternal moment discretely floats
isolated, quantified and registered,
on the stranger's wrist.
How many years of my life are missing,
lost in the rolling tide of time,
gone with the wink of the clock?
MOTHER'S BACKYARD
The weak Winter Sun feebly beat down,
but it didn't provide any warmth.
My son picked up a bundle of brush
and added it to our pile;
our conversation was filled with commonplaces,
as we cleared the debris left from the storm
from his grandmother's backyard.
I have known these trees and bushes,
grass and flowers ever since boyhood;
which I have derisively described,
as an ordinary mediocre suburban clap-trap
cluttering up our lives;
I have even called it ugly,
and characterized it as a boring, burdensome blight;
when, suddenly, it takes on
an independent existence,
whose mysterious significance
and sublime beauty is overwhelming;
and, yet we go on as before
without the power or desire to stop
and marvel, at the extraordinary miracles
that comprise every waking moment of our lives
OH MY SOUL
Oh my soul, you endure,
in spite of everything, a physical manifestation
of your divine idea; all is veiled in mystery
in the spheres of your supremacy;
persist in your path,
steadily traveling toward the final Sunset,
down the dangerous road
toward your patiently waiting Sphinx..
And, while passing through,
pause and pick the rose, but be careful of the thorns,
roll to the rhythms of the road
dressed in silver raindrops and golden sunlight;
respect the rough hardiness of labor,
and endure, secure in the knowledge
that you, too, are a child of God
pursuing your dreams;
and endure, knowing God gives us all,
good fortune as well as bad, for reasons of its own;
and, while dark, scowling clouds threaten
to obliterate our long suffering society
under a maelstrom
of bigotry, boredom and indifference
persist, while the Congress of Birds
sings your praise,
and the stars in heaven
benevolently beam down
as they accompany you on your way,
even while you bravely pass
through the streets of Dis
fearing no evil, secure in the knowledge
that the Tree of Life is constantly budding
now hope, and, like God itself, continue....
MY DREAM
Their nightmare woke me, moaning -
immersed in the most intense pain.
My dream: that you love me
and it has somehow hurt you.
The moon floods the room
with light, which explodes the walls;
and I'm outside in the street,
where car lights are like wild animals' eyes.
Its impossible, to exist
alone tonight, walking down dark streets
so destitute, so miserable the serpentine city lights
that writhe away like a dried river bed.
Floating in a pool of light,
with no place else to go;
but, it really doesn't matter,
no place else feels like home.
Dozing I wake with a start, suffering -
my misery merging with yours.
I lie wrapped in pain, behind closed doors,
where these dead minutes fall from me
like Autumn leaves.
RUMOR MILL : HAIL KING GEORGE II
The Rumor Mill contends that historically the U.S.
has broken new ground after the last election. Never before have
we had a President thrust down the throats of the American people who lost
the popular vote and was fraudulently given the necessary electoral college
votes to win. What do I mean by 'Fraudulently - if improprieties
occurred that altered the outcome, and while, deliberate and/or inadvertent,
being aware of those improprieties the result was allowed to stand - nothing
was done to correct the known wrongs; then fraud (deceit or trickery perpetrated
for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage) transpired.
First, over 9,000 citizens were denied the right to have their vote counted.
Further, it was known that if counted VP Gore would have won. Finally,
Four Reagon/Bush (appointees) supreme court usurped the right of citizens
to vote and have it counted! Second, improprieties occurred by making
the ballots unfair. Third, people were turned away from the poles.
Fourth, a ballot designed so poorly that citizens could not determine who
they were voting for there by diverting votes from Vice President Gore.
The results are catastrophic for the institutional integrity of our Democracy.
However, we must not make the same errors of the past that were made after
the chicago and resulted in Nixon being elected as president. We
must reaffirm our commitment to the democratic ideals that have made the
greatest nation on the face of Earth. We must actively participate
at every level of political activity from the local all the way to Washington
D.C. If not we, like Rome before us, will lose our rights as a Republic;
and, while retaining the empty forms, become an Empire for the exclusive
benefit of a well organized, extremely rich, powerful few.
LIBERTY NOT LICENSE
Rumor Mill writes with no other object in
mind than to promote our country's liberties. It is hoped that these
concerns, when freely heard, and seriously considered, will be carefully
reformed; then, the outcome will be the greatest degree of civil liberty
possible, which all wise people aspire to promote. It is my belief
that when prudence heeds the voice of reason from whatever source, then
it becomes possible to repeal mistaken policies of the past. Let
us resolve to not with hold evidence that would alter our opinions for
our sacred love of truth, which all good people profess, and let us earnestly
strive for uprightness of judgment, which is to be fair and open minded
rather than just view the world as a reflection of established prejudices
that have become extremely profitable and largely self-serving for a privileged
few. Rumor Mill does not illegally use drugs because of a profound
respect for LAW, which is the great protector of people's personal and
property rights; its experience is roughly equivalent to George Bush Jr.'s
the future Presidents.
Rumor Mill submits that our policies on drugs have
been a disaster. It has resulted in the establishment of pretenses
to persecute honest people who don't offend in any other way. Further,
it has resulted in good people turning bad, hurting and perverting their
neighbors instead of respecting their right as minorities to be happy in
their own way, to the extent it does not deny others the same right.
The radical right has, by first attacking heroin and cocaine, established
a precedence whereby they think that its ok to deny others our God given
right to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. This is injurious
to the concept of equality the foundation on which all our democratic institutions
are based. This has resulted in wide spread corruption with the radical
right maintaining a virtual monopoly on the international drug trade; and
other lawless behavior, which includes acts of violence, prostitution and
adultery. How can you get some one to alter behaviors, which seem
to them both reasonable and pleasurable. The only alternative is
to force, which results in bad behaviors, and has created another class
of hardened career criminals. Criminals who have arrogantly placed
themselves above God and beyond the Law. The radical right has tried
to justify this and themselves with a two fold excuse. First,
they vilify their targeted victims. Second, they delude themselves
into believing that they aren't motivated by profit, privilege and pleasure;
but, rather, they do so for a highly emotional excuse: children.
However, children become victimized when they are, either, recruited to
be prostitutes, or, are victimized by individuals the radical right have
deliberately perverted. An act which has to result in the sexual
abuse of children. Further, the radical right also destabilize children
into committing acts of violence against themselves and their peers i.e.
school violence. Next, they have perverted children,
too, which have resulted in induced criminal behavior such as rapes
and murders. Then, the fact that both children and adults are targeted
repudiates the belief that these misanthropic behaviors are done for the
sake of children. Finally, if we destroy our legal safe guards what
is to prevent children from being victimized in the future in their turn?
Who would want to see their children not grow up as good and honest individuals.
Common sense dictates that those who do bad things to others (i.e. slander,
cheat or deny someone the right to work thus starving people or driving
them from their homes or taking their cars and other possessions, even
taking food from the mouths of their victim's children) are bad, and, this
is exactly what is happening to many children who are being exploited by
the radical right. Further, one should not forget that the
radical right pay themselves handsomely for causing these bad acts to occur;
and, they obtain other special privileges, too. Those that are successful
after two hardship tours get to pick where they live. They get help
getting jobs, housing, money and investing. People who don't produce
(do bad things) get drummed out. They have become corrupt to the
point where for propaganda purposes they have incited riots, utilized serial
rapists, serial murders, and child abusers. But again, common sense
indicates that this system will result in artificially elevated crime rates
- especially the highly visible crimes. Because of the nature of
the activity the radical right's income is not declared, thus widespread
income tax evasion transpires, which results in children being cheated
in areas like education and health care. The great point about
Children being abused by perverted people and by being recruited and trained
as prostitutes (male and female) is that not only are we having artificially
high crime rates, but we are becoming morally bankrupt as well. All
of this has negative economic consequences, too. Things have deteriorated
to such a sorry state that people who have lived their lives like George
Bush Jr. are attacked for daring to think this is not a very good idea.
We now see people attacked for thinking! Ignorance, irrationality
and hypocrisy (it is irrational to embrace policies that result in perverse
behaviors and make our homes and communities less safe) are championed
over reason, morality and justice. Such behavior results in spiritual
decay and undermines the teachings of our churches.
They do not differentiate between drugs. There
is a world of difference between coke and heroin, and beer and pot.
The curious thing is that the use of drugs is not inherently unwholesome.
The same drugs, which are supposed to make people crazy, when given under
doctor supervision with a prescription, cause no noticeable negative effects.
I conceive, therefore, that God provided us with a wide variety of opportunities
to broaden our experiences and enrich our lives. Those that freely
choose to should have the right to pursue happiness in their own way, to
the extent it doesn't hurt their neighbors. Heroin and cocaine should
be directly licensed. Marijuana ought to be handled like beer and
wine. Temperance, not abstinence, is a great virtue that God commits
to the individual to manage over the duration of their lives. We
have seen what disasters happen when mankind blasphemously usurps our God
given rights. God has not placed us in a perpetual childhood, but
trusts people with the gift of reason and liberty to be their own choosier.
There wouldn't be any need for preachers if law and compulsion should dictate
what previous ages' wisdom left to be managed only by exhortation.
Good and evil are like two sides of a coin, they come together. The
individual who knows pleasures, and still behaves moderately, or employs
responsibly is the true Christian. Where is the merit of a fugitive
virtue cowardly hiding in a cloistered life - dead without having lived.
Virtue that is immature and has never contemplated the evil of excess (even
the radical right kind), and doesn't know the extremes that vice promises
to its followers, and rejects it, is an emptily virtue, neither true, nor
pure. Knowledge and observation of vice is inherently necessary, in order
for human virtue to exist. Opposition to the free expression of our
liberties usually falls into three classes. First, is criminal behavior:
and yet the radical right's so called cure causes more crimes than we would
otherwise experience. If we licensed hard drugs we could reduce crime
by over 50%, thereby making our homes and communities safer. Second,
is morality: and yet they use pimps and prostitutes to solicit adultery,
family affairs, theft, deceit, extortion, perversion, rape, and murder.
If we licensed hard drugs we will not prevent fools from behaving
foolishly, but then the radical right hasn't been able to either, in spite
of all the evil that they do. What we have learned from the radical
right is that drugs can not be suppressed without the wholesale moral bankruptcy
and corruption of society - with them even the good guys turn bad!
Regardless of what we do good people will still behave themselves and fools
will still be fools. There is no reason why we should deprive good
people from experiencing the moderate joys of liberty, while we seek to
restrain the fool who will misbehave anyway. Third, it is alleged
we should not expose ourselves to temptation, and we should not expose
ourselves to vain things. But, while we may strive to have people
put off engaging in certain behavior, we have found under the radical right
that sainthood has not increased and people find other ways to misbehave.
So what is the point?
I do not profess to be so wise as to tell people
what to do with their lives, that is between them and their concept of
God. What I do recognize is the mistakes we now are committing.
The futility of the task, and the obvious benefits of a better way.
The greatest blessing God can bestow on a community is liberty. It
the fundamental right from which all others flow. It is the foundation
on which we build all human happiness. It has been my intention to
demonstrate to the nation, if it still values freedom at all, a better
way to promote public safety, morality, and liberty. Here's wishing
you and yours nothing but the best for the New Year.
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