it takes time

I had ten full years of becoming
Catholic
God and Jesus and Mary and all the saints
Solid years, my best years of learning
the early years that the Jesuits grasp

I had thirty years in the wilderness
seeking the Promised Land
saw a lot of places
none overflowed with milk or honey

But in these past fifteen years
of anguish, loss of innocence
and loss of those we loved
slowly, creepingly slowly
the past is being undone

unlearning is proceeding apace
the Buddha's out of date
but still true North holds good
and his methods prove strong
and practical

and the writer of the Tao te Ching
guides me to greater safety and safe harbour
perhaps before I die
I may have learned how to live

Randy Zen Abbott

Ikkyu wrote
"The wise heathens have no knowledge"

What did he know about them?
He was too busy enjoying women

time

the tick of time
keeps getting disrupted

interrupted by constant noise
from the neighbours
the family
even the cats

I'm trying to control the universe
and I can't even see where my control pads are.
Why is everyone so damned busy around me?

All in a dream,
wish I was in a dream,
of a dream.
I'd fly off into a dream
if I could dream one up

but all that's happening
is time keeps being disrupted
tick after tick
by political pronouncements
and soft temptations

Blackbird on the rowan tree

blackbird on the rowan tree
nest-building
keeping an eye out for ancient aliens

He knows they exist
he's been abducted before
took him days to be released and get back to his nest work

Now he's gone again
Hope he's at his nest
doing his craft, his joinery, his tailoring

Hope those damned ancient aliens
haven't taken him away again.
They really should be more considerate.

different dreams

different dreams he said
as he wandered into the night
different dreams
as if asleep inside a tree

different
like an axe chopping the waves in two
different
like Hannibal changing course and heading for Largs

different dreams cannot change
the reality that life is but a dream
reality cannot change
the dream that we are but nomads
on a desert floor

like the salt removed from the sea
we dream of different paths
not knowing we have already arrived

toxic

the political climate is toxic
venom everywhere
better to stay at home
and watch Noggin the Nog on TV

the artistic world is void
abstractions of abstracts
meet copies of old masters
in a collage of unsurprise

the mind that sees the chaos becomes chaotic
the mind that sees peace becomes peace

always the same view

always the same view
green stars at the horizon
birds cawing backwards like a Beatles track

the two stones stand still
but we know they are living
and in the night travel far and wide

sparrows pretend to be frightened
they are spies for the underworld
of animals that seek to overthrow mankind

a car door opens and closes. footsteps.
she walks but not on the ground.
floating, she is not at all what she seems

birds fly backwards
stones make a move
the woman comes in the front door.

Pawel Pawel - Six Generations Song

Pawel Pawel
do you know?
been looking up hist'ry
from long time ago

Pawel Pawel
what did I see?
you didn't even live
to reach thirty three

Pawel Pawel
what do I know?
Your baby son Jan
only three when you go

Pawel Pawel
Jan didn't live long
forty years max
such a short song

Pawel Pawel
even Jan's son
my grandad Wladyslaw
never saw fifty-one

Pawel Pawel
a hundred years on
my father Jan
produced a new dawn

Pawel Pawel
That generation survived
Siberian winter,
long afterwards thrived

Pavel Pawel
Two generations more
Flourish in life
With the genes you once bore

Pawel Pawel
Rest now in the ground
We treasure your gift to us
Through which we are bound

Pawel Pawel
do you know?
been looking up hist'ry
from long time ago

Nothing to decipher

Nothing to decipher
nothing pure to hold
nothing here to die for
nothing to be told

everything to unlearn
everything to say
everything you still yearn
everything at bay

Collisions in my nightmares
Explosion in my home
People saying fright prayers
Caesar's killed in Rome

Caesar's killed in Rome all right
Tyrant bleeds to death
Tyrant takes his throne all right
Tyrant steals his breath

every breath a lifetime
every step a mile
every path a life of crime
every grief a smile

I Don't Understand

What if the space-time continuum is wrong?
What if it is in fact a time-space non-continuum?
What will we all do then?

Probably much the same as we do right now I guess.

Eat chips
Easily resist the temptation to start smoking
Write a report for a dull meeting

Or

If the universe ruptures because we've got it all wrong
Then we won't need to do anything
Because we won't exist

And this poem
if it is a poem
will serve no purpose

which it probably doesn't do now anyway

4D