the media only tells us what they want us to know

“Me and all my friends
We’re all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There’s no way we ever could…”

~ John Mayer

fast is the century, the airplane crashes
tsunamis more common in their
execution, destiny enlightened
i watch for signs from the ocean

meteors, extinction events
plagues, global warming
governments muzzling scientists

democracy being wounded
by corporations taking over the media
I see it every day
this is what I witness

currencies cracking
fear in the marketplace
panic amid layoffs

fast is the century,
each month they tell me
it’s the warmest on record
i speak of eternity, but nobody listens

they are living the American dream
exploiting others for profit
Mexicans leave their children

inside the borders, so that
America might become a spanish place
it is happening, soon there will be no
‘us’ and ‘them’, the world is changing
And I’m waiting for the world to change.

let down your hair and be free

when one’s life is riding on a crest
there is no revelry
in excess, for the stuff of dreams

is what we were built for
waves of empty glasses
wine of forever lost friends
fortune for careless returning

i’ll slaughter time. for a second
april showers, distant silhouettes
time is but a dream, across skylines

there nothing i could find
north of the citadel, in the ripened hour
the setting sun tells it’s
time to depart, time for deserted gloom

to pass, like the celebrities of flowers
right on queue, the phoenixes have blown
away, like muse at the palace gardens

the aroma of the last guests has departed
it’s time for the autumn crane
to be romantic again & embrace surrealism.

Wine of Autumn Nights

with sparkling glasses that shine
i drink the moon light
through eyes like candlelight

who cares for darkness?
not the mountain or sky or i
the stars retire me to my bed
knowing my time to live, or die

i might find happiness
impossible awake, so easily
in my dreams, lying drunk

with spiritual jokes
on the shore of my last years
spring dreams flood my
lucid revealing storms

so i drink the autumn dew
and horizons merge in the
open-minded reign of blood

that waits in the bamboo lodge
for eternity to whistle
in the heart’s bright-moon content
in front of my window

the plum tree has it blossomed yet?
Did you see? these morning
showers are as a mountain stream

good omens to refresh all colors
I’ll see old friends beyond the Pass
Can I impose on you, one more glass?

Memories like chinese poems

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
~ Lao Tzu

homesick for something
I cannot name, for home
beyond all other homes?
I am alone in a foreign land

in love with foreigners
sick of the locals
I do not want to speak
or conform to the customs

of living, sowing, reaping
i search for the Tao
but cannot find it, it evades
my grasp, like the endlessly

awake stars, they do not sleep
for light is bled in rivers
of heaven, like poems
mild-mannered echoing down

the centuries, poorly translated
by tongues who no longer speak
with the ancients, the ragged fringe
to be a rare fellow lost among

the songs, i hear music on the lips
of the clouds, that do not dream
but draw, day after day
to bid each other a sad farewell

as neighbors, as friends, as heart-broken
children that have no place
but the wiping of eyes
the lingers at the fork in the road.

lineage of non-duality

Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.
~ Saint Teresa of Avila

on the terrace of immortals
i am laughing at mortality
I climb straight to silence

where there is no ambiguity
my eyes are like jade cubes of ice
they smile into the wind
and tear at the rainy sun

through favor or disfavor
I pay no mind at all….
in poverty or solitude

through the dreams of living
be filled with uncertainty and doubt
i speak the original language
of waiting without thinking

of loving without seizing
taking a page out of Wu Cailan’s
indifference, i find the shinning moonlight

is whiter than long ago
what’s the use of contending?
with grief or disgrace?
to both I can aptly respond

only light resides in the
city of the mind, in the
distance of the heart

that knows no separation
between places, centuries, entities
we drift happily like the clouds
our lives turn like the leaves.

into the Tao

Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin; to say that you are weak, or others are weak.

~ Swami Vivekananda

these are great trees
to walk below, temple breeze
on our back
at the edge of dusk
past dew into the greenest moss

we keep it clean
past the gate
into the great-dream

without expectation
we witness beauty
in forever new ways
wandering mountain monks
who have forgotten everything

but the candle and the meditation
the temple tree path
where we follow orange footsteps

into the sea, sequence of sunsets
autumn’s embrace of crystal ripples
on the lake that doesn’t move
ready for the white moon
to shine incandescent above everything

nothing can waver, time cannot bend
to our little will, not willing to return
we leave the world behind
to others who will learn
to leave the universe behind.

song of death

If you die you’re completely happy and your soul somewhere lives on. I’m not afraid of dying. Total peace after death, becoming someone else is the best hope I’ve got.
~ Kurt Cobain

The night, it is a path of stars
to which no visitor can wander
ankle-deep in the ocean

from forests to cities, to the sea
nobody can falter
though the night be deserted
though there be no shelter

i am not alone, i alone
can visit thee, in my
spirit’s secrecy

from my eternal spark
but i, am the one who holds you
i am not alone, this world
forgets its origins

all flesh is sad to see
but shone, or dark, or together
or alone, in solitary bliss

death the ticker loves the taker
who is the greatest lover
anti-mother who always remembers
i am not alone, let wind or salt
take me, dive me into final hours.

redeemer divinity sweet

Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.
~ Walt Whitman

divinity is not a language
of the mind, but a gift
that resides in the heart

from the Universe to all
and a new music there
and a serene vision that excels
an undying faith that

loves inner beauty easily
and observes time’s children
with a kind of equality

divinity is not a skill
that can be used, or hoarded
it’s in the fields, and the air
its sphere is the light

that bathes all the stars
its atoms mix the purest joy
with all existence, behind the pain

an essential delight of experience
that no creatures can hide for long
of splendid origin, and new light
in hands of god, in kisses from the Earth

divinity leaves a trace and it says:
‘you’re saved, you called me,
you made me, body, life and soul’

time of revelation

Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
~ Aristotle

Give me not translations
of what all the mystics sought
creation forgotten
creator only felt

attention turned inward
in love with the Beloved alone
don’t call it God
call it supreme nature

that everyone possesses
that can possess everyone
if they only knew
how to surrender to its

sum of perfection
to its righteous unity
give me not translations
of what the rishi or the saint

might have thought they had
creation found
creator born anew
o tender burn!

o burning caress!
that renders all debts paid
that makes karma holy
and time sacred

amen, whose splendor
is for living fire
warm and to enlighten
playful, to win my love!

soul never ceases

“What Is Love? I have met in the streets a very poor young man who was in love. His hat was old, his coat worn, the water passed through his shoes and the stars through his soul”
― Victor Hugo

Incited by something internal
Love feeds the centuries
nothing but her attention

everything in her devotion
you believe you act for your self
but it guides you, incited by
the light of your soul that is

an evolutionary spark of quantum
intelligence, a psychic source of love
and also its food, beauty and intimacy

which never grows scarce
wisdom and good works
these are her instruments
harmony, gratitude, compassion, peace

so use them like small lamps
in your life, feed them with
attention, practice, active service

as a diamond fountain gushing forth
as divine roses, the sea of truth
your spirit prepares all obstacles.