Pulling from all directions
Gathering enough strings
To make a sturdy rope
As I climb the tree
The hard way
I weave them together
Let the scrawny pieces fall
When I get further up
I’ll hang my rope
So others can climb with ease
Meanwhile
I toil on with joy

Light puppets
Gliding over the planet’s streets
Columns of white-gold energy
Walking human corn dogs
A fistfight on the bus
Is rare news and a tragedy
What is there to gain
Being calm as the world
Struggles in ignorance?
Which one of us needs to learn to be quiet?

Continuing to ride the train
Here I wobble, there I wobble
The roller coaster ride of life
One wheel on the tracks
A seatbelt comes loose
I hang on through
Sickness
And exhilaration

"Equality means a quiet and unmoved mind and vital, it means not to be touched or disturbed by things that happen or things said or done to you, but to look at them with a straight look, free from the distortions created by personal feeling, and try to understand what is behind them, why they happen, what is to be learnt from them, what is it in oneself which they are cast against and what inner profit or progress one can make out of them…"

-Sri Aurobindo, The Integral Yoga

Desire and passion
Seeds of unhappiness
How can we desire
Without personal gain?
If passion so moves you
Create for humanity
Lift others up
With your time and talents
Let them realize
The power of many
Expressed in one
Dazzle them with humility
Astound them with grace
Let them feel only joy
Let your love light the way

Skating downhill on a fast board
Re-tucking my credit cards into my pocket
Hoping no one notices

Running over a child’s toes
Sorry’s not good enough
The old lady gets bumped on the way

Haunted by a 2-headed siamese demon
Looking forward to the next high
With his pants down

He moves into my loft
Violence ensues
I’m thrown over the balcony

I return in a fury
He bites, I scratch, I beat him down
Until there are 2 of them

I’ve forgotten to love
In the midst of my fear
And in doing so, revealed my mortality

I flipped the switch
In my dark heart
And the demons became sweet cherubs under my fists

I released my grip
And stroked their foreheads
I bathed them in love, ashamed but forgiven

Forces above, within, and outside
A kiss from the moon
In the blue morning sky
A peek over the building
To wish me goodnight

It took us a while to find oblivion
But now we know we have it
We carried it to the lenders
It sat with us and watched TV

It kept us working at our jobs
When profits soared and wages sank
Oblivion kept us trodding on to
Certain riches and to fame

But alas it was all a game

Our science does not speak
Of democracy, greed, or justice
We focus on the simple things
An atom bomb, Viagra
We’ve ignored five thousand years of wisdom
Time-tested values of history
Because our test tubes and calculations
Promised riches and security

We forgot that our most precious asset
Was not a lump of gold
But the child that carries our dreams to tomorrow
A child which thrives on things we can’t buy
Clean water-air-food, love, justice, and hope

If what will be will be
How will I know how large a part to play?
So many times I am moved
But not sure I am called
God has never shown me
The unilluminated trail

The Earth turns to bring me a new day
My soul reaches out for God
I’ve already won the Earth game
Let me climb to higher planes