Discovery (125/365)

Technology in the wrong hands
Can go very badly
What if you are the technology?

Stuck Moving (124/365)

Burning the oil I need for later
Racing to finish
Against myself
Not really knowing
What energy moves me
Why I come back again and again
Trying to keep myself from destruction
When chemicals fight the fire I flame

Confused (123/365)

Closer then farther
Connect and dissolve
Inside but calling out
Done or beginning

Aspire

"Aspire for perfect surrender, calm, peace, light, consciousness and strength in the mind and the heart."
-Sri Aurobindo

Waiting (123/365)

A day of delays
A pale foggy sunset
Glows peach behind an old twisted tree
On a desolate hill
In my troubled mind
Waiting for the music to wake me up

Slow Down (122/365)

Understanding influences
Sugar, planets, hormones
Still they move me
Thought too close to action

Be the Change (121/365)

We all want change
But no one wants to change
It hurts to smile
When you're dressed in sadness
But it's not about you
It never was
Your grief is a smokescreen
That hides you from love

Internet Age (120/365)

Trillions of keystrokes
Information downpour
Packets of light
Pooling and clumping
Bouncing or hiding
Should we be mirrors
Or stew for a while?
Add our own color
Or pass the potato?

Inspired by the Mystery

Found this cool sticker at the Wooodstock Festival today in San Francisco. Went to see my roomie Kathy's band "The Druids" play.

Abundance (119/365)

What do you believe?
It takes less energy
to believe in abundance
I don't have to hold on tightly
It's not a new thought
It's a path that's been tread
Sincerely, joyfully, confidently
A choice to live in hope
Rather than fear
A fake-it-till-u-make-it
Reliance on the law
That giving turns you on
To opportunity
While holding back
Slows the progress

What Are They Doing? (118/365)

All this talent
And no one wants to run for office
The best and the brightest
Are chasing paper
Deceiving the masses
They once called neighbors
Our physical walls get taller and thicker
You can't hear me in your car
You can't talk to me with headphones
Who gives a shit what they do
You're not like me
Greed spreads like a virus
And we all fall down

Trauma (117/365)

Slumping at your schooldesk
A gunman appears
The universe rips right next to you
You play dead until he leaves
Classmates you could have known
Are frozen in your memory
You walk around
With a 5-person-sized hole by your side
A deep dark void
Alone right on the precipice
You wonder if you might fall in again
Our souls like magnets
Even with strangers

Way to Live (116/365)

I don't know any better way to live
Even if it's all a dream
Even if it kills me
I can't imagine living without love
Without an open heart
Keeping your defenses up
Is a waste of time and energy
Give until it hurts
Then give a little more
What is to regret
When you gave them all a chance to shine?

Foolish Pride (115/365)

Fighting over the last blanket
Who wants peace the most?
The haves toss to the have-nots
Who in their pride refuse the gift
And everyone goes without

Scenes on a Bus (114/365)

A yogi on a sugar high
Amaretto in my purse
Meditating on the bus
Babies, drunks
The volume-disabled
Where did it go wrong?
A heart almost closed
That one closing
Friends don't let friends
Bring them down

Good Job (113/365)

God's got a fun job
I see the work and just smile
How you are provided for
How I was used
How trust opens doors
That suspicion closes
I'm glad it's not my job
But it's fun to watch

It Must Be The End (112/365)

I can see the edges
Of our little blue globe
Such a nice spot to wander
Around and around
An engineer of my own life
I tweak and make it flow
Work out the kinks
Redesign and take notes
Curious as a cat
Showing others the way
I've been there before
I was sober and patient
I want others to have
The peace that I've found
The health that I've tapped
The joy that abounds

The Guilt of Stillness (111/365)

With a mind made for motion
And a body built for pride
I'm saddled with guilt
When I sit down for a while
I get so wound up
I have to unwind
A cup of green tea
My cat by my side
Standing on the back porch
Gazing across my slum
Breathing the cool damp air
The ancients weren't dumb
You can't live your life
On auto-pilot
Someone
Has to check the fuel levels
Polish her up
Do the maintenance
Make her purr again
That someone is you

The Great Paradox (110/365)

The great paradox
Of human nature
We know that
Nature favors freedom
Yet freedom doesn't come naturally

The Wake of Ignorance (109/365)

How do we correct what has gone wrong?
Can we stop the ripples from expanding?
Or do we wait until they lose their power?
How do we endure together the foul smell
Of the carnage in the wake?
Or will we do it instinctively,
Knowing that where there is darkness
There will be blood shed.

Getting in Line (108/365)

I want to tear the roof up off this house
I'm feeling claustrophobic
I haven't seen a star in weeks
It helps me place myself
When I'm swimming with the current

Change in an instant
Avoidance of pain
What used to attract you revolts you
Measure your words
Don't spill a drop
The vibrations rattle on for eternity

The Price of Doubt (107/365)

The benefit of doubt
Is a huge amount
Even living 30 years
I'm still wrong
Most of the time
There is almost always
A good reason
But almost always
We can't guess it
Open mouth, insert foot
It never hurts to ask
With an open mind

Welcome Rest (107/365)

My legs are dead weights
I lay immobile
My cat on my chest
My partner and witness
A few easy breaths
From long black bliss

Knowledge

I had a revelation today about sharing knowledge with other people. If what you are saying really is the truth, you don't have to convince anyone. You are telling them what they already know. The theory is that we all have an innate recognition of truth. You can actually feel this when you read a passage of well-written poetry or literature, or when you listen to a moving speech or a heart-felt song. There is a trend in social media that criticizes people for being generally stupid. It is true that we live in a society that tolerates and even promotes ignorance, but I believe that all people are born with the ability to at least recognize if not tap into absolute truth/knowledge.

What this means is that if what you are saying is truth, it will be recognized as so, and will stand on its own two feet. You don't have to try so hard.

Assembly and Toil (106/365)

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

Bump (105/365)

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?

The Ride of Your Life (104/365)

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

My Goal for the Next Year

"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

True Desire (103/365)

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

Mortal Dream (102/365)

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

Moving (101/365)

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

Exiting Oblivion (100/365)

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

Not Yet (99/365)

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

Another (98/365)

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

Youth (97/365)

Like water dribbling its way down a hillside
We are all going somewhere
You can throw up a big dam
Do it your way
But in time you'll realize
How small a part you play
In the lives of others

How the quality of interaction
Trumphs the quantity of efforts
And how your tone
Colors the memory
So become sensitive to the tides
And learn when to let go
And when to invite

A cat will tell you
Its fur your practice
Its claws your punishment