Silent wind flutters
wings of pretty butterfly
on lovely flower.
FYI: Haiku is a Japanese poetry form of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.
I am one among billions
of fish in the Sea.
I don't know why.
I swim with my kind
and go where they go
… that I do know.
We seek food to eat
and try to not be eaten
by those that would.
We all move as one.
We live to survive.
I don't know why.
I am one among billions
of fish in the Sea
… until I am not
I stood on the peak amidst the expanse of the moonlit, starry night, with the resplendent glory of the Sierra Nevada, windswept and cold, lungs filling full with exquisitely pure air after the hard climb.
Weakened by the long survival trek, body seeking food, the soul freedom, suddenly I was at peace in the profound beauty of the night.
No window light or human voice or face, or road or sound of sufferings’ groan was near or real in this ineffable place of truth. How odd, I thought, that such a place—cathedral of grace—lives, exists while humanity struggles to grin in the cruel grip of its inescapable pain.
Come here, I thought, come here with me now – see what I see, feel what I feel, know what I know in this moment and place. Come in to the hallowed beauty of this night.
But the night said they must come in their own time, urged me to push on to Freedom Road, to food and water—to avoid the aggressors.
It gifted me and sent me on my way to learn what I may before my inevitable return home — to the beauty of the night.
Note: This was an experience I had as a twenty year old Air Force Pilot. I had just finished the two week “Starvation Trek” in the Sierra Nevada mountains that was the second phase of the Air Force Survival School. The third and final phase was the Escape and Evasion Exercise. Earlier that night, our crew of eleven was loaded into a truck and driven to an isolated location in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range where we were dropped off in pairs. Each pair was given a small map and a compass. Our challenge was to negotiate about 25 miles of difficult terrain while locating four partisan (friendly) checkpoints and avoiding the Aggressors (the enemy). The objective was Freedom Road, located at Stead Air Force Base near Reno, Nevada. If we managed to evade the Aggressors and cross over Freedom Road, we would have completed survival school without any further requirements. If we were captured, we would likely endure some very aggressive interrogation and notoriously rough treatment in the “POW” Camp.
A Sierra Nevada Night takes place as I and my companion reached the peak of a third or fourth high ridge at about midnight. We had been weakened by the Starvation Trek so we were physically exhausted. In case you’re wondering, we successfully crossed Freedom Road the next day.
I walk around the lake to wake up my cells and strengthen my heart and all the other good things walking does. Yet the walk always gives more than that. Just to be inside the unconditioned air is a natural pleasure too often missing from my common day. To socialize with the sights and sounds of nature as both observer and participant is as perfect as it gets when allowed to simply happen.
I wonder if the geese and ducks and gulls walk and paddle and fly for their health? Of course, I think, mostly to accomplish their survival needs, like eating—and that’s for their health. But sometimes they seem to enjoy flying for the fun of it, the joy of it—and to practice. The gulls are especially good flyers—show-offs sometimes, impressive to me, an admiring (envious?) flyer of machines. I often wonder if any of them wonder about us.
It's winter. Bare-limbed trees (except the evergreens) display their singularly different, sometimes intricate silhouettes, their limb structures so clearly displayed against the still-lit quiet eventide sky, reveal their heritage—their family characteristics.
I am awed by the diversity and beauty of it all even in this small park. Then there is the ever-fascinating activity of people watching … and sometimes meeting. The park is a good place to visit.
We are the arrogant animals, the out-of-step ones—the ego-driven, tantrum-throwing destructive ones. We are the prideful animals and the delusional animals all at once.
While a deer is busy being its noninvasive self, we are busy invading other humans or defending ourselves from human invaders. At this moment, as I write, somewhere a lion is killing another animal in order to feed itself and its family while we compose beautiful music and kill other humans in order to … I’m sorry, why do we kill other humans?
Of course the Book says that the first son of man murdered the second son of man. So what did we expect?
Some among us believe we are the guardians of this planet. They tell us they know what is best for us all—that they know what fish should live where, and what grass should grow where, and which humans should live where, and I suspect that soon when they "evolve" a little more, they will denounce God for allowing volcanoes to erupt and they will attempt to prevent Him from doing any more of His great and diverse mischief.
We have had hundreds of thousands of years to improve—to modify our violent natures—and we have failed miserably to do so. Yet because we are the delusional animals, we don’t really think about things like that too often.
Instead, we imagine ourselves to be a species apart—a non-animal species of an infinitely superior nature. As proof we direct each other to consider the wonders of our truly magnificent deeds and accomplishments. We enshrine our DaVincis and Einsteins in order to reassure ourselves that we are the intelligent species, the evolved species, far removed from the animals.
Of course, as needs be, we fail to earnestly consider the all-too-human contradictions inherent in our DaVincis and Einsteins. While we loudly and repeatedly laud the remarkable accomplishments of these icons of human superiority, we quietly and easily demote their other contributions—DaVinci’s advanced weaponry designs and the first most urgent consequence of Einstein’s e = mc2 — apocalyptic death and destruction, which proved beyond any doubt that we are far more efficient killers than all other creatures on this planet.
Yet, in our fleeting moments of unadorned self-appraisal we wise and superior guardians of the planet are obliged to accept the unspoiled truth that we can't even make a leaf.
there's a place
beyond which
i cannot go
where mind stretches taut
to Know
to pierce the God walls
that entomb the Truth
the Answer …
or something
more important
… and final
celestial mental minders
cling to my thoughts
like jealous cats
guarding secret mouse lairs
locking, blocking, stopping
Thought Processes,
forbidding entry to the
Fruit of Final Knowledge
on penalty of …
something more is intuited
without the thinnest edge
of reason to justify pursuit
nothing cannot exist
sayeth the little mind of man
to its Self
in its dream
or His,
or Hers,
or theirs,
or …
there is no sense to this
only nagging, fleeting innuendo
teasing my highest faculties,
taunting me to follow, to wonder,
to ponder, to surrender to
… nothing
where nothing lives or dies,
or laughs
… or cries
wrecked on deadly shoals
off sealess shores
I scratch futilely
on the immutable wall-face
of Forbidden Knowledge
to gain entry,
which
never
comes
where are the Gods
they speak of
when our fears
reassemble our eternal atoms
into adversarial
random
patterns
of chaos?
the illusion of well being
evaporates for one terrifying
moment of truth and
we see …
if there's a hell, said daddy,
this is it
and at least that's
… something
if it is
hell or not
not allowed are we
to know anything
… important
Mist on the calm sea
caresses my troubled soul
and I am renewed.
FYI: Haiku is a Japanese poetry form of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.
The Lark on the post
has the ear of all who listen
as it sings for us.
FYI: Haiku is a Japanese poetry form of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world.