("Peyote Moon", 2018, original encaustic)
The Great Toad
At the gateless gate
I met the Great Toad
Sitting tall and wide
And in his gaze
All my needs were known
And met
And in that moment
I passed beyond
Without a trace
(8/17/25)
Trabaho, kailangan ng lahat ng tao
Upang kumita ng pera na pambili
Ng mga pagkain at ng mga gamit
Dapat na ibigay ito sa lahat ng tao
Huwag ng maging sakim ang mga
nasa gobyerno at namumuhunan
Ibuhos ang kaban ng bayan para sa
lahat ng mga lugar at mamamayan
Maraming trabaho ang magagawa
Tagatimpla ng kape, tagapunas ng
sapatos o tagamasahe ng likod
Kumpara sa petiks at tsismisan lang
Kung lahat ng mga tao ay may pera
Lalakas ang lahat ng mga negosyo
Puno ang groceries, restaurants,
Coffee shops, malls, hotels, salons
Ibuhos ang pera sa kaban ng bayan
Paagusin tulad ng sa mga lawa na
umaagos sa mga ilog at mga talon
papuntang karagatan at kalangitan
Ibubuhos muli ng langit sa mundo
Upang umagos muli sa mga sapa,
paulit ulit na ganyan din dapat ang
Trabaho, na paulit ulit sa mga tao
Joy is found in money
Nor yet on things any,
Joy is conditional somehow--
On whence it comes and how.
I may balloons buy to feel happy,
My friend, by selling them,
Another one by bursting them,
For sure, joy is a strange puppy.
For, my joy never for long last,
As it wears out fast,
And more balloons do make me blasé
As more and more I chase.
But bliss
Far from joy is,
Like perennial strings
From deep within it springs.
One has to just tap it, no more,
And it flows from one’s deepest core.
_____________________
Free verse |10.02.2025| joy, bliss
The opposite of life
is death
The polar opposite of eternal health
is terminal disease,
with unease perhaps lying/truthing
in-between timelessness
and untimely demise
So too,
my opposite of steady compassion
may be your unsettling dispassion
Elation v deflation
of all these oppositional answers above
as clear
as unclear appositional questings
below.
What is my opposite of suicide?
Self promotion?
Ego inflation?
Having all my consuming needs
fully answered?
Or
maybe some uneasy questing
timeless mind
and spacious body
in-between healthy Now
And death-defying
death-denying
death-defining
death-despairing
death-despoiling
AnthroLove Here
Remains part of EarthLife There
whenever tomorrow comes
Now?
As Me curiously questioning
feels like our lonelier half
of We not yet
finally answering?
What could appositionally rebalance
death's final answering Earth-climate
and life's open questioning Anthro-culture?
What is the opposite of lively ruminations
and deadly ideations?
What lies contentious truths contenting,
In-between EarthBody's discommunication
desecrating death
and AnthroMind's sacred communion life?
sunlight on the son,
shining like a star.
king of the world,
the man from afar.
his army of peace,
come to stop the war.
a hint to the rich,
a hand to the poor.
the princely posture,
standing nice and straight.
the life that we live,
will come down to fate.
let the magic free,
dancing like a fool.
we all have to have,
some kind of fuel.
The night falls like snow,
lying on the bed.
and doing those things,
that turns a face red.
Don't try to know why,
life is confusing.
sometimes it is nice,
not the abusing.
Only time will explain,
why there's pain and love.
and when we will meet,
this god from above.
Washing the clouds away, dreaming of lemon and minty tea. Open to follow the tide. Waiting for lights to guide my way. Yoking to paradise. Junking the fires into the rain. Kneeling to Heaven on silent praise. Holding my peace as love echoes her name. She is the moonlit star, the shadow Queen who defeated the dark. Zipping toward flowers and tender grace. Nothing but stillness showed me I am given sight. Heavy snow and colder waves break down the fallen pain. I screamed at the dawn it was silent like I was just a passing song. Rivers give way to my garden wall. Planting the seeds to raise the Tao.
we are here
tame the mind
let love appear
bliss thunder undefined
animates our soul
now divine aligned
truth our goal
obliterating every fear
presence feels whole
“tao ting”
how to say
silently that
silence is the
best
answer
without
break
ing
it
("Bristlecone", 2016, original pen and ink)
Samsara
Beneath the titillation of Samsara
the veneer of morality waits.
Or is it the opposite?
Beneath the veneer of morality
the titillation of Samsara awaits.
Either way, it’s the same thing,
the whole damn mess
being one giant game of seduction.
But that sucking sound
at the heart of seduction….
pulling us in
to a void
that's impossible to avoid
the force at the core
that makes the ten thousand
whirling contents irrelevant
Ah, that!
“Darkness within darkness
The gate to all mystery”
the old sage mentioned…
(9/19/23)
Yang+Yin optimal health economics
fueling wealthy cooperative politics
Leads to less survivalist
Yang v Yin
Also,
Yang x Yin
multiplies SunLight x EarthPower
cooperative empowerment
fuels enlightening reiterations,
integrations,
creolizations
As Yang/Yin divides
separates
disintegrates otherwise win/win
healthy systems.
So, just a quick restorative justice question--
Let's imagine a homeless adolescent (Yang)
and an angry and resentful parent (Yin)
left behind
at what used to pass
as their peaceful white picket-fenced
house
home
habitat.
Do we assume the defiant
rebellious
often self-vindicating
PTSD and ADHD,
homeless adolescent
is typically at fault?
maybe?
Or
do we blame
and shame
the still housed adult
working one
or two
or three jobs?
Why not both
and why not avoid condemning
either Yang or Yin
Perhaps complicated
with trauma intergenerational histories
as old as slavery
and warrior rape
and tribal sacrifices
of adolescent trust
and beauty
and soul emptying absence
of win/win integrity,
secular intent,
sacred hope.
This LeftMind dominant
viral virtue
of practicing RightBody patience
Is a coverup
for feeling deep impatience.
Feeling impatient is not as hopeful
as exploring active curiosity.
Curiosity
about why someone,
including my own anthro-privileged self,
would default to live win/lose
competitively
When our healthiest,
and safest
economically enlightened
and politically empowering experiences
have always grown choices to live
liberally
radically
integrally
EarthTribally
sacredly
neurosystemically
ecologically
more fully win/win,
cooperatively co-invested.
Passionate curiosity might kill the occasional cat;
but probably not more deadly
than dispassionate lack of curiosity.
Besides,
passionate curiosity can also be more fun
than boring impatience
More joyful,
than sad
mad
bad
More curiously glad
even appropriately win/win consenting adult/adult lusty
More sad/glad soulful
preferring mindful disciplines
like healthy therapeutic dances
and well-sung
resiliently brilliant love songs.
A man of no rank
is free to come and go.
Excluded from the councils of power,
he is not burdened
by the worries of the world.
Like a wild beast
he is ruled by the changing seasons,
and not the changing favor
of the court of public opinion.
Like a wild animal
he is alert to the danger of social intrigue,
preferring the talk of birds
and murmur of brooks
to the gossip and lectures of humankind.
Everywhere he goes
No matter it high or low
There is the dharma.
(first published in my sixth book of poems, OUT OF TIME OUT OF MIND, 2022)
Tao of the CosmicCrack
crotched between
Great White Father's
monotheistic Pole
and silently suppressed
polycultural BlackHole
Now ecocidally remembering
what EarthGoddess has brought together
no straight white privileged patrimony
could healthily
or safely part
Like baptismal waters
of RedBlue blooded Seas
and weaponized seasons
of penetrating drought,
wrenching reasons
for dicked-down drenching doubt.
I could know no Self
without an Other
We could have no Child
without an EarthMother
No Ego
without an Earth-bound EcoSystem
I could understand no male
linear formation dominantly prominent
without a co-responding female circling
inflowing/outgrowing concomitance
I could not know severance bipolar
of either/or discursive logic
without feeling round wombed dipolar
environmental both/and nurturing
spiraling positive reiteration
revolving rounds of communication
seasonally developing
ecological peak nurturing communion
I could not form
positive 1
if not for informing/outgoing
co-passionate bipartisan
co-invested bilateral
binomial duo-binary
not negative co-related
half full-out/empty-in 0.
Let us dance
to the matrix
of Tao Teh Ching
with love unbounded
may we spend
our eternities
forever grounded
always together
2 souls,
1 entity
all Heart
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