. . . . . At breakfast, my nine year-old son says there are perfect versions of things beyond earth, like a circle, like us. I ask if he learned this at school, but he replies no. I was just thinking about it. Like Plato, I say, you’ve stumbled upon the world of Ideals—and he nods, continues eating his cereal. The morning more perfect, here, than any conjured heaven.
In the Hell of the endless Brooklyn night on the crossroads of wars, perestroika, the sleeping terrorist cell waiting to explode in the middle of life, the unshaved face in the window cell looks in fear at angry Atlantic Ocean loudly arguing with ghosts of American Dickinson and Persian Khayyam. Great sinner Omar! You thought that the more you have, women and wine, the closer you are to God? Bullshit! God does not exist; a man drinks only because the … Read on…
Meditation, Not Fallen We are not angels fallen We are apes rising We are not descended To violence but Rising to peace We are not fallen We are not angels We are apes rising When we rise We are not fallen Except in choosing Not to rise . Meditation, God’s Name God is not God’s name Allah is not Allah’s name Yahweh is not Yahweh’s name Elohim is not Elohim’s name Brahman is not Brahman’s name Mazda is not Mazda’s … Read on…
While searching for truth You seize and open An entire series Of ever smaller Cubes and containers, Like Chinese boxes Each holding the next. You find inside each A cherished premise Inevitably Exposed as a canard. Each premise subsumes A more basic one In a direct line To the ultimate Disillusionment. Finally you stand Before the smallest box And the greatest “truth.” Only opened upon Your arrival at life’s Last second— There you contemplate End or beginnings, And you just … Read on…
With his electric screwdriver, my big brother Lyle is tightening the hinges on the saggy composite doors beneath the sink in the kitchen of the minimalist apartment I rent from Barbi. One of Lyle’s cast-off high school love interests, my landlord harbors few ill feelings toward the person Lyle was twenty years ago. For me she has only sisterly affection, a lavish wardrobe of hand-me-down T-shirts, and expert haircuts strictly off the books. “I’m pretty sure,” I say, “that the … Read on…
I drop to my knees on the impulse of prayer, fold my fingers inward to construct the little church, pop up my pointers to erect the steeple. I open my hands and look at the people my fingers represent. One has a sliver embedded near a blister. Other than this they all look the same, stained by the clods I broke up for worms. I wiggle them, stupidly. Then I unclasp my hands and set them free.
my temple will be my aquarium, green plants of Sadness muddy waters of Meditation round shells of melancholy fishes’ blind eyes of unconsciousness going up bubbles of Hope exploding upon reaching the surface of Life. translated by the author and Marina Rubin
It’s not easy being a humanist, And you can’t add “Lord knows”. It sure has it’s bumps and snarls. Your church-going friends think “You’re going to the devil”. And worry that you don’t even Believe in the devil. It leaves them perplexed, angry and worse… Makes them defend their own beliefs. They suspect that you might be a communist, Or a believer in international government. You wonder why you follow this road It’s easier to put your critical faculties to … Read on…
When did world and weather shift, that we walk friends about in fur? On scrabbled coast where Jeffers pined and Mission clay soaked native blood, I am on Easter Sunday in the back pew of Wayfarers’ church, simpled green and white. Hear Father Norm bless all, as my blonde dog stretches under hymnals and the plate, with eyes forgiving human egoists who say God needs no pets in heaven. Norm sermons that life-firsters of today would eagerly pluck Jesus off … Read on…
Sometimes I question the whole Enterprise, I mean the whole Thing, the whole Universe which is the one Verse, the one great Poem. Sometimes I think It sucks so bad it’s beyond Revision, beyond Hope. I mean after the Big Bang, I mean after the First Fuck, they should have just Flushed it down a black hole You know? I mean it Would have saved us all a lot of Time and Space. But I only Think that sometimes. Other … Read on…