humanity

Interdependence

What a virtue, what a trait

Independence!

Encouraged, applauded

Even envied

To stand on your own feet

To make and pave your own way

To rely on not a single soul

What an accomplishment!

But wait a minute!

Do you even open your eyes

Unless the sun

Comes peeking at your window

Bringing you a new day

How would you even get to bathe

Had the clouds not emptied

Or the snow not melted

So the streams could run and reservoirs rise

How would you smell your morning coffee

Had the sub-equatorial lands

Not grown and reaped the beans

Ground and brewed in your Keurig 

What clothing would you don

Had the cotton not been picked

The yarns not been spun

Garments not been stitched

So in true essence

Are we really ‘independent’?

Or are we ‘interdependent’!

And if so, what have we understood?

Do we accept and realize

Our co-existence

Our co-dependency

Our inherent need for allegiance

With the natural world

The countries we have created

To our neighbors

To our own selves!

Taken for a ride

By the good old ego

We pride ourselves

With a claim to independence

Yet looking deeper

Within and around

We are part of a whole

Where even a breath

Is not under our control

The gift of all gifts

Sent magically into your being

Silently with no fanfare

It’s time to question

Time to ponder and reflect

What an incredible existence

Where everything is so magnanimous postured

That blinded we have become

To the interconnections

That’s serve to sustain

Our universal existence

Time to wake up

Not to just smell the roses

But care for the roses

And all else on this blue planet

Madness of March


From the maddening crowds
Masked with mayhem,
To voluntary quarantine
And prohibited movement

The making of mass hysteria.
Heads rise above the cellphone
Our seeming invincibility
Suddenly cracked open

Finally we see each other.
Is it with empathy or fear?
Is it with comradeship or disdain?

With opposing forces
Hand in hand
How are we to survive?
How are we to accept them all?

Looking to Mother Nature
She shows constant dichotomies
Where the unlikely
Co-habit and even thrive.

On the hardened brittle bark
Beauty resides
As blooms spring forth
Soft and sumptuous.

From murky stagnant pools
Emerge the pristine lotus flowers,
No looking back or down
Just rising with a divine grace.

So this March
Is like no other,
Tests and trials
All yet to come.

Let not madness reign
As the confusion may prevail,
Rather rise with fortitude
And generosity of heart.

What comes, must pass
So lose not sight,
And ask of yourself
What are my powers
Which are constant,
Restoring and sustaining.

Staples of Life


Photo by Max Malloy, curtesy of Pinterest.

Staples of Life

Food?
Water?
Light?

For the warrior of old
Chia was his sustenance
Now with innumerable grains
Some so old like amaranth, unknown

For the arid desert nomad
A palm on the horizon, a vision of hope
Now water, flat or sparkling
And in any flavor sought

The shepherd into his night
Lead by the galaxy of stars
Today with the neon lit skies
Some have lost the savoring of dawn

So what now remains
As the staples of life?
What is it, without which
We cannot survive!

Conditioned to strive
For fame and fortune
Placing prosperity before responsibility
Lost is man

In the battle
The mirage
The day’s toil
Leaders, soldiers, all men
Muddle in circles

The greatest of misfortunes
Has befallen mankind
For he has no answer
To what sustains his own life!

At times, man is forced to face
His dichotomous humanity
For some a choice
For most not

When stripped naked
Of the labels, the roles
The doing and undoings
The staples of life
Emerge from the core

Humility or pomposity
Vulnerability or defensiveness
Compassion or suppression
Gratitude or greed

Wait not for the unraveling of your life
Embrace your core
And claim
The grandest of staples
Fit for this life

Love into the Mirror

faceinthemirror

See the big deep eyes
Staring back at you?
The centered nose
Trying not to sniffle?
The pouty lips
Wanting not to give it all away?

Ever said,
“Cry its OK”
To that face in the mirror?

Standing apart from the form of myself
Separating from the pain
Allowing the play to unfold
I watch,
I acknowledge,
I comfort

Myself.

How?

By saying
To the face in the mirror

“I love you”

From deep within
Comes a Knowing
I am not my pain,
I am not my circumstances,
I am not the labels.

So I say, to the one
That no one else sees
And the one that looks right back into me,
I do
I do
I do love you!

Dare You Deny

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Black man kills.
Thug!
Brown man kills.
Terrorist!
White man kills.
Mentally ill!
What inequalities!
Outrageous righteousness!
Blatant unconsciousness!
Common denominator
Innocent
Deaths!
Beneath the differences
All are flesh and blood
Requiring acknowledgement, acceptance
Striving for peace and love.
These are our commonalities.
Dare you deny!
Yet presidency given
To fear, greed and anger.
Dare you deny!
Deny this noise your attention
Dare to be a just voice
And claim the you
That enables unity yet choice.

Connect

 

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Without a thought
To the cogwheels, circuitry
Nuts, bolt and divine engineering
We forge or stumble forward

As the day dawns

With all faculties replenished
One foot then another
One task to the next
Obligations and responsibilities
Desires and obsessions
No questions asked
Working this machinery
The human form
We do as we please
Yet in one mere second
All operations
Can come to a screeching halt
A&E all over the world
Full of stories never heard before
Details dramatic, devastating,
At times even demonic
Yet the fact that life
Is somehow limited
Is just so hard to accept
Fact undeniable
Yet realism is demoralizing
So pretense to oblivion
Manufactured as the norm
Maybe too deep,
Too philosophical
Yet I insist
STOP
Smell not only the roses
But the fragrance of life
Watch as it permeates
All that moves, dances
Sways and flies
Connect with the source
Acknowledge this power
As you rise each morning
And go about your way
Breath in, breath out
Befriend the magic
The blessing, the power
The foundation
This breath in all your days

The Friendship

For a short while

We came across

Each other’s paths

As friends

We shared a time

A passage

Leaving deep memoired ravines

Intention:

We’d be friends forever

Not just this lifetime

But the next too

What folly

How fickle

As time has but one power

And that is 

To changes all things

Even the great Colorado

That ran virulent and strong

For so long

Dried out to be depleted

With the passage of time

No surprise then

For our short meeting time

Of days, months even years

To wither into moments and memories

Yet what splendor

Did she leave

That Colorado

Laying canyons deep

And etchings one of a kind

We my friend

May no longer walk

Side by side

But footprint on my heart

Smiles surfacing to my face

And our times

All return

To remain my solace

So now

Where ever I sit

I have you still

Here right beside me

Deep in the caverns of my heart

Man of Maasai

 

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Standard 6 foot 3 inches
Draped in colored shuka
Spear and machete unconcealed
No mistaking your identity.
Footprint invisible
True to your ancient ways
Treading soft on your red earth.
As one with your land
You live side by side
Beast, bush and Man.
Boma-home, simplistic
Matted or bricked
Domed or steepled
Housing your family and livestock.
Your community ways
Protect the elderly
And teach your young.
What men of honor
Trust once gained impeccable
Unity undeniable.
Accepting of right and wrong
No law keepers required
Justice served from within your circles.
With tolerance to political and western tyranny
You have accommodated ‘globalization’
By being inched out of your land.
Of the ‘worldly’ new ways
Not all is needed
For human existence
Nor this great planet.
Much we can learn from you
As you sustain yourself
Your families, your communities
My prayers for your survival.
I shall never forget
Our precious time
Meeting at rock mountain bed
Guided through adventured lands
Dancing by light of campfire.
Thankyou
Nameste
Kwa heri
May we meet again.

Debut Poetry

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There’s that book, on the bookshelf, it’s a treasure trove, full of every word you always wanted to read, speaks to what you’ve felt, what you know and where you want to go in your journey in this life… and even though you know each page, every once in awhile you have to pull it off the shelf…
Prior authors for me have been, Tagore and Gibran…
A lofty statement, but here is another from today’s world.. Atul Ranchod, with his debut book, Top of the Water…available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/atul-ranchod/s?ie=UTF8&page=1&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aatul+ranchod

The first poem in the book is ‘Human Time’… when I first came across this poem it inspired me to make this audio recording…I hope it gives you a taste for the book..

https://rhythmandthedancer.org/2016/06/30/audio-human-time/

One World Trade Center

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All for which it stands
Rising like a Phoenix
Ashes left behind
Majestic in its stance

Fueled by the past
With pain giving way
To strength and liberty
So humblingly inspired

Life force trickles on
Like water flowing naturally
Replenishing sustenance
Circling with ease and grace

By the power above, below and all around
Love flows deeper, greater
Resilience at its best
Surfacing over and over

Lessons to the heart
Never give up
So long as breath is granted
You can always rise again