Hel-lo-o

Hel-lo-o, stubbornly staying on message is mere propagandizing, not holding the line on socialism

Slash the foolish military budget right in half before it chokes us all to death

Realize that god does not provide you guilt-free disclaimers for your political decisions

Stop trying to muzzle scientific research using political debates, buzzwords and sound bites

Wake up - The facts are long in on global warming or climate change or whatever you want to call it

‘Property rights’ to small streams are an empty shibboleth for your faceless corporate investors

Stop ignoring the recycling hybrid drivers on energy efficiency and alternatives to smash and grab

‘Local Control’ simply empowers outside developers in their formulaic coast-to-coast rape and ruin

Freedom and democracy do not magically emerge overnight from foreign war, rubble and poverty

Look, gun rights, abortion and gay marriage are really not the most important issues that we face

Hel-lo-o, France is not even the enemy, you alternatively-gifted, brainwashed and illiterate pawns

Your fundamentalist, evangelical, literalist brand of heaven is but a comic fairytale to the godless

Evolution is not enemy to any non-dogmatic religion but adds to its deep and insoluble mysteries

Demagogic fundamentalism is way too simple, childlike and constraining for literate adults

For god’s sake at least clean the restrooms in the national parks

Yo, mover and shaker - that house of yours is not some go-go investment instrument

You will be cast aside by employers but still need to work to survive, in your golden years

Credit cards are not the way to maintain a phony lifestyle despite your negative savings rate

Hel-lo-o, we are not building a better world through our mindless mass consumption

Our military spending is infinitely more wasteful than our ‘failed’ social programs

Further breaks for the rich have never trickled down and floated the poor up out of poverty

Your precise information control is not conducive to the open and free society you brag we enjoy

Health insurance and early learning programs are cheaper than prisons and emergency rooms

‘Gaming’ is one more vice pimped by corporations for the government, just like alcohol and tobacco

Your overpaid, unregulated military contractors are running amok, armed and on steroids

Holy wars over resources have failed many times before we ‘invented’ them once again

Hel-lo-o, how is simply mortgaging future generations better than taxing and spending?

You fucking idiots voted for Bush & Obama twice so don’t even look for someone to blame

BigAg’s ethanol is no energy alternative but actually a well-tuned subsidy-lobbying effort

You have led us from the world’s summit into a dark and deepening box canyon

The pitiful, foolish, lazy, ignorant and undeserving hang on your every sponsored word

You cannot discredit honest science with a merest smirking grin & the imperially dismissive wave

I’d call for all your impeachment sirs, but I am but another squishy, cut-and-runner

No, we are not better off or more secure than before this dark time began

America the fat and ignorant cowboy bully is such a shameful, humiliating image

Hel-lo-o, your god did not appoint you sheriff and moral compass to the world

It’s pretty hard to cut and run as the setting cement of cultural decline reaches up to our knees

Contrary to your baseless rhetoric, clean air and pure water do not compete against jobs and money

Leave the Middle East to sort it out for themselves in the stinking desert, without our petro-dollars

Evolution does not rise up against your sacred Bible as yet another Creation Myth to be smitten

GM, Ford and Chrysler are as out of touch as yourselves and the aging senate

Hel-lo-o, mommy doesn’t need a faux armored troop carrier to take the kids to school

Look, you can’t afford two lattes and a $12 lunch every day, you clueless chump

Increasing population to pay our debts will ruin our lifestyle as well as the environment

Producing food like lightbulbs poisons the earth and destroys the sanctity of our family meals

You will never find that account from which to draw that time you are always striving to save

Don’t leave us ignorant and poor to make China rich, innovative and ecologically-devastated

Make them depend on our water technologies, our energy innovations and our food stuffs

You have no right or reason to mouth ‘God Bless America’ after every speech you did not write

This wasn’t, isn’t and won’t be God’s Country and we surely are no chosen & exceptionist people

Jesus cannot and would not guide you with your foolish military decision-making

There are way, way too many black men in your fabulously overpriced and outsourced prisons

Clean air, pure water and intact ecosystems actually are also valuable and finite economic resources

Hel-lo-o, a sustainable economy does not threaten your precious Traditional Family Values©

Just stop with the blatantly-hypocritical, faith-based, saber-rattling and moralizing, already

Look, this is just an undeveloping country on a small but lucky planet,

circling an average yellow star, in a so-so spiral galaxy, in one of many possible universes

Vagabond Koans (4)

NorCal

With every footstep dirt appears

Each activity makes a mess

In this fate of repetition

Why wipe the dust away again?

………

Chilly fog evaporates before a stiff damp breeze

October sun rolls over to sleep some more

Still the somber colors begin to reappear

Sharp bird calls pierce the sound of surf

………

Jumbled strata lie exposing multi-million years

Running free to the limits of their ropes on a Friday night

March of the seasons turning into long-term planetary cycles

Little Monday banking on small Friday once again

………

they reach out to grab but not to touch

they raise the volume to overcome their din

they strain to see for all their bright lights

they shout over top their simple thoughts

………

I sip my coffee condensing my latest dreams

Make good meals, stay clean and fit

Travel slowly between peaceful shelters

Play some music, read a book

………

always taking the easy path

peaceful gurgle around the boulders

quietly lapping on sandy shores

river talking where it is hurried

………

big plans for adventure with new skills

confidence born of inexperience

a foolish move at the wrong  moment

well-deserved and painful lesson learned

………

in the twilight, a forest road

off beyond the traffic noise

stately evergreens and a tinkling creek

thick pine needles beneath our bed

Collective Quantum Entanglement

Quantum entanglement: “spooky action at a distance”, Einstein

All by myself I decided that hair dye, botox and cosmetics were not made for me

A thousand miles away you made the same decision and we passed each other on our trips

Sitting home alone in the dark I realized that we were headed in the wrong direction

Half a continent away I heard a stranger say just that on a far-off radio frequency

I set out to save the world via the personal attainment of a sustainable lifestyle

You invented the same solution and we never had to meet or talk it over at all

We rejected childlike Christian fairy tales for the sound of a hand clapping all alone

Millions of us wandered in these same directions happy at not ever seeing one another

We both traveled far from totally different places to this unremarkable vista point

You had a brother not far from us and we had once shopped in your town

Your large SUV cost too much to fill and we found no solitude upon the trails

We shook our heads in agreement there was no stopping this thing called progress

We talked it over alone at home and gave up on factory poultry and industial beef

Overnight new industries appeared as unrelated millions made the same decisions

My well-considered conclusions on social issues were never shared with a soul

But you read my mind out loud in an interview with another random citizen

I knew I was alone and righteous in banishing packaged sports from my entertainment

Lo and behold their ratings began sliding for good, all across the nation

Thinking about it, I realized that neither chemicals nor cremation was for me

Next thing I knew green burials came along seeking to fill the bill for a profit

We sold our giant house before the stupid speculative market bubble burst

Luxurious downsizing was reported as a great new trend among us

I realized that the inner political circle did not have our best interests in mind

Their numbers continued to sag despite all their best in marketing efforts

After my last downsizing, I would never again pledge allegiance to any corporation

The same lack of trust and commitment spread silently to colleagues I never met

I came to my own conclusion that neither party worked for my real interests

The Independent label grew faster than it ever had before

Despite their best efforts I became convinced of the reality of global warming

They were left holding their empty rhetoric as people changed of their own accord

We realized independently that real estate agents should not share in the proceeds of our work

We had no problem in connecting with buyers and sellers who shared our beliefs

In quiet and solitary meditation I slowly learned to find a little peace

You did the same and, likewise, never spoke of it with another person

Talking only to ourselves we concluded we would never get to spend all that time we were saving every day

Millions silently realized the decreasing marginal benefits of more money, longer working hours and ever-increasing consumption

After too many pointless tasks the artificial deadlines and hazy goals of foolish project managers could no longer motivate me at all

They laid us off for good in favor of those still young enough to swallow the nonsense they could only parrot nervously

We had enough Hollywood special effects and over-hyped, overpaid, so-called stars

We shared opinions on independent and foreign films we all watched on the web

I laughed at the absurdity of the big box, drive-thru evangelical mega-churches

Gradually their congregations decreased even as their advertising was redoubled

You cut my hair for years and it only saved us a lot of money

Economists noted a trend towards fewer salons charging more in a shrinking market

My Spanish always helped me to communicate - with the janitors in our buildings

Now they say it’s a vital skill in the newly globalized economy that we all must live in

We laughed about their latest mania for those 300 foot long luxury yachts

Polls showed few believed any of their latest tax cut money really trickled down to us

We privately decided to make a personal statement regarding overpopulation

Demographers noted that the educated bred at lower rates than the swarming immigrants

We determined to support our troops by wishing for the ouster of their chief

Public support evaporated despite the light and heat of their ongoing propaganda

We smiled at their awkward efforts to put a few bags of groceries in a giant pickup

For us, the era of the monster vehicle was over long before American auto makers even had a clue

Travels In The Mystery

Set out in misty pre-dawn darkness and took the first wrong that was possible

By the time the sun had smudged the night horizon my way back was lost for good

Quickly found my awkwardly-packed and hazy goals a useless burden to be cast off

Now I cruised along powered by the illusions scattered out from my youthful imagination

The sun was not too hot and I set a pace that did not strain me

All along the way kind strangers righted me and saw me off again

Nights always found me blotting out any accidental recollections

The countryside kept on changing slowly and so did I, drifting on

Good women bade me stay with them to build enduring dreams

Old dogs roamed with me taking scraps beside my fires

Aging men told me these riddles and to this day they grow even harder

Watched the sun rise many times but did not really see what it lit

Heard voices speaking softly in tongues that were strange to me

The seasons changed along with the scenery as I passed by to somewhere else

It took me quite a while not to fear all those things I did not understand

Often I woke up excited to explore another place I had never been before

Paused here and there for half a season where the living was warm and easy

Picking grapes and apples, harvesting wheat and berries occupied me in their time

With no goal and nowhere to return to, I could not in honesty say that I was ever lost

My potential satisfaction increased with every hardship I endured

Deeply drifted snow blanketed me until late Spring during several years

At last began to notice that my growth rings began to narrow into simple habits

Even as my eyes grew dimmer, I used my experience to fill in the finer details

My opinions lay quietly inside that they might not damage my chances on the road

Stayed with men who built warming fires from old debris in rusty barrels

Slept in sturdy cardboard shelters and recycled newspapers into blankets

Walked trails I could not see as darkness overtook me in ever-deepening woods

Sought safety in the churches but they did not keep them warm

There were many times there was no path ahead and no room to turn around

Then again all directions seemed open, sharing equal beauty and great promise

Sometimes I wept with loneliness and at others with good cheer

Doors sometimes closed as I approached but many showed me warmth and light

Pursued my own tack without a map but many had been that way before

Laziness and greed were not parts of my own peculiar temptations

Found real beauty in the desert but only in the dark of night

Winters did not bother me in the lands where skies stayed mostly clear

Happiness stopped overcoming me so often but at last ceased to let me down so very hard

The disaffected no longer enchanted me but still the ordinary held no magnetism

Slept in castoff clothes with dirt in many layers between my toes

Paid too much for petty luxuries that could not satisfy my imaginary needs

Kept on walking and taking odd jobs right along with the many other immigrants

Met a couple pilgrims and caught snatches of their inner conversations

Learned to know the weather by the marching of the clouds

Watched the tides changing with the waxing and the waning of the moon

The gypsies would not speak to me cause I had nothing for them to steal

Wondered why the wild geese had decided to settle down within the cities

Did not have any snapshot history to prove that I was ever there

Got all the disgusting skin diseases but free the free clinics saw me through

Helped build orphanages and new wells, dirt roads and far-off one room schools

Talked to myself just enough to know that I could actually still hear

Watched the indentured flood the highways seeking a weekend recreation

Heard the children laugh and call me names and was tempted into wonder

Learned to read the water and followed the courses of rivers like good books

Was alone so long that I felt uncomfortable when I found myself in crowds

Grew skilled at untangling random knots but could not bind things together properly

Found that my contempt slowly turned into confusion when nothing could be changed

Studied the evolution of the litter that crept out in every direction on the trails

Felt my faculties decaying even as the world around me moved ever faster

Built a warm and quiet retreat deep inside my thickly-walled and slow-moving head

Began to see my own old footprints being made by other’s shoes

Set out for nowhere, so I could never say that I was ever really lost

Stayed mostly where the rain was so welcome you would not look for shelter

Could not fathom how many people now clung everywhere upon dear mother earth

Saw the headlines in passing, as if they emerged from my unconscious

Jumped into cold lakes to clean off my sweat and rinse out my mind

Rolled in the snow and shook like a dog and cackled into the emptiness

Carefully peed on the phony green lawns that I crept past in the night

Helped them hold me up as an example for their children to avoid

Listened carefully to the silvery tongues of their clever politicians

Compared the fantasies of those caught up in some religion or another

Watched as progress unfolded and put an end to many quiet places

Observed as dying cities spread and grew larger, even in their decay

Was poked and laughed at in a cage I built of my own dreams and fantasies

Got washed and fed by patient women who had seen it all before

Did not make a fortune and was abandoned by the merchants for lack of credit cards

Grew thin and wiry on scraps during long marches but did not complain

Set out with bright eyes and happy smile and only slowly grew gnarled and twisted

Found myself at last with a good set of well-tempered memories
Never stayed long enough anywhere to really leave it all behind

Never got all bent up about running out of time for the happily ever after

Read much more than I talked and wrote way more often than I shopped

Croaked and peeped out my little song on this one tiny green pond

Filled up with tears at the beauty of the frightfully large and empty universe

Spit a bit of ochre around my hand as it lay upon the canyon wall

Never had enough to toss it all aside and make some kind of a new start

Listened equally to the recovering alkies as to the suave opinion makers

Trudged on through one more war or man-made disaster after another

Wrung my hands in anguish through the wailing for the dead and the dying

Carried off the victims and looked for patterns in the smoke of their funeral pyres

Knew I had no ultimate goal but never doubted my sense of direction

Felt secure on lonely beaches where the waves crashed in endless trains

Abided in the valleys not yet buzzing with man’s abrasive touch

Happened upon a woman who spread peace tending plants and flowers

Wondered at the men who sought security by constantly preparing for another war

Saw them savor artificial victories and taste the bitterness of imaginary defeats

Set out with confused expectations and collected unrelated realizations

Grew older but was not deemed wiser and let it go at that

Considered my words so carefully that they mostly condensed into silence

Stepped aside as others rushed by me, heading off in different directions

Kept on walking, trying still to see it all for myself

Used up more than I helped build, reaped so much more than I had sown

Slowly regressed back through the infantile once again towards the void

Reached out back through time to those that I once had known

Looked forward in the night to the peace of pre-dawn hours

Set out again as someone different, but set out just the same

Did not lack for sustenance, comfort or human understanding

Loved the good earth that sustained me and wondered at its mysteries

Saw the moon through daylight clouds as if from somewhere else and far away

At last started simply observing as that growing mystery settled on in around me

Darkness In Their Light

They bought items made and shipped from far away and they saved really big

Their jobs disappeared and others worked as slaves unable to afford what they made

Her bathrooms were always so clean and shiny and safe

Her antiseptic cleansers biologically selected the strongest pathogens for survival

He awoke in the Saturday darkness and drove far to the wilderness

At the trailhead to the lofty summit were already parked more than 50 cars

His lush green and manicured lawn was the envy of his good neighbors

It leached precious water loaded with eutrophifying fertilizer and toxic pesticides

They pointed, clicked and texted their way far out into the vast reaches of cyberspace

They rejected organized learning and spelling and syntax and grammar also eluded them

The country saved money eliminating preventative social and health programs

They ignored that required new jails and emergency services proved even more expensive

The president emerged, firm in his beliefs, after talks with his personal savior

The imams were unbending in their narrow interpretations of their infallible Koran

They had real jobs cutting down trees those foolish tourists spent money just to see

When they were done there were no longer any jobs because no more stupid tourists came

They counted on an increasing population to pay the debts of their wondrous times

Subsequent generations lived in ignorant poverty on a shattered and overcrowded planet

He enjoyed his pricey morning latte and needed to get out for lunch in his new car

At 50 his services were no longer required and he realized he had saved nothing at all

They clamored for freedom and local control of their natural resources

Outside developers bought them out for pennies and built empty, gated second homes

They spent trillions building the most powerful military the world had ever known

Their greatest threat was a scraggly band in sandals that eluded them for years

They realized they could no longer stay the course

But they knew well that they must never cut and run

Executive perqs and compensation increased some sixteenfold

Meanwhile, real worker spending power declined by nearly 12%

They flocked to their beloved seashore to raise families and retire in the sand

They drained the wetlands, eroded the beaches and polluted the ocean with their wastes

She was uninjured after missing the stop sign due to her kids and her cellphone

But that compact economy car was destroyed - Thank god giant SUVs are so very safe

He could quote movie stars and commercials as well as a myriad of sports trivia

As he lay dying he finally realized his own thoughts were few and unconsidered

The dam provided inexpensive electricity and eliminated the threat of floods

The rich silt no longer fertilized the valley farms and fishing livelihoods were lost

The industry advisors spoke with one voice regarding the country’s energy policy

Their society was left supporting terrorists with every tank of gas they wasted

She took great care of herself, watched her diet and did not drink

She died thin and pretty and having not recognized anyone for more than twenty years

Ancient traditions had sustained their Asian society for several millennia

In a rush to modernization they lost their culture and destroyed their environment

Concentrating all week on those two short days off from the endless work to come

But every weekend was lost just the same in a dusty, noisy, swirling blur

Always fighting deadlines and following tight and pressured schedules

They finished way late without any fanfare because, in reality, no one really cared

Sensing the creator everywhere from all his works so close at hand

Swallowing dusty scripture without masticating, like little black pills of literal truth

Springing from the void into mother’s warmth and safety

Ascending into paradise or maybe just decaying into dust once again

Quietly Late Last October

Autumn paused just for a moment amidst the golden sunshine

Held its breath and listened before quickly disappearing

The warmth of those late October afternoons was far sweeter

Knowing well how cold rains would fill the dark days to follow

After the salmon had spawned and little remained for the bears

There came a subtle pause as their noses twitched in that pure air

With waterfowl departing and the streams low and very clear

Dying leaves began their gentle drifting down, to fertilize the ground

Echoes also grew fuller with the lengthening of our shadows

The morning sun greeted us later and the stars came out so soon

The harvest moon looked warm but we reached for our sweaters

The hunters finished their epic drinking bouts and returned to their jobs

Quietly late October removed her costume and set aside her lovely jewelry

Slowly revealing a deeper and more somber aspect of her beauty

Silence filled the early mornings until the remaining birds shook off the frost

The sky grew deep and blue awaiting the first of many storms to come

Dust motes gathered to float one more time before falling with the rains

The fingers of the boys grew cold as they pedaled off upon old bikes

Rivers thirsted for the many long and quenching, cleansing winter rains

Craggy peaks awaited the deep, white blankets of their heavy snows

In sunlight and shadow she paused as a faded memory was awakened

The true smell of wool and a crackling dry campfire sustained him now

The raucous crowds of summer fled with the warmer weather

And that good silence flowed off into the void again, for minutes at a time

Vagabond Koans (5)

Into The Baja

pulling up in the forgiving twilight

a short walk with the dogs

evening meal prepared over gas stove

another quiet autumn night at home

………

slow driving for just one long day

early morning on a crowded six lane freeway

at sunset’s low tide one man gathers clams

his wife holds infant daughter, awaiting dinner

………

dust always raises from the earth

but never lifts again off our belongings

fills our lungs and noses

dust colors vividly the long dry ocean sunset

………

four sleek black dolphins broached beyond the break at sunset

two cars sped down the beach

an old man threw his cast net close on shore

we had arrived in good time to be there now

………

six miles down dusty washboard gravel

a flat desert shoreline with a rocky beach

muddied water and a rusted dark wreck

some kind of surfer’s paradise

………

smiling friendly leather-skinned snowbird faces

swollen with extra pounds and high blood pressure

happy to talk away the hours

warming like iguanas in the autumn sun

………

local fisherman still launch via the campground

flocks of seabirds still follow them thru

gringos bring money to their enclaves

every year more natives come to gather clams