Tag Archives: poetry
Bless this mess
In encountering the imperfect and the inspiring
Comes to mind, comes to prayer/speech/vision, comes to action
“Bless this mess”
– said by squirrels & birds thick as thieves
Growing love of hazels
These relatives of birch, ancient and awesomely rugged, adding golden bark and kindling salvation to tree lines around the world
These shrubs with long flexible bows
These fruits from charming hot pink flowers that greet the spring and stay
These nuts that come in energy-dense compostable packaging, shelf-stable for years, made by arboreal solar panels
These nuts that are easy to eat raw and one of the healthiest snacks I have
These nuts that are even tastier roasted; simply apply fire and enjoy a sweet, earthy, ancient gastronomic ally
These branches, that have been warmth in peaceful and desperate times
These branches, that have been homes in peaceful and desperate times
These branches, that have been the crux of countless wooden items
These gifts, that have come from ancient hedges, woven into the fabric of lives over time
These gifts, that host the humans and other kin, who enjoy them and who need them
These gifts, that can make the giver better as they enrich the recipient, when given and received in good relations
Ancient hazels, though we face harshly changing times,
Your past and present company comforts me, knowing you have helped my ancestors through ice ages and then some
And so, knowing we work together even where we are not in touch,
I wish peace upon you, and I love that in that, peace may be upon me too.
What will come of this?
Year 2222 200 winters away How many generations will have passed? What will I&I enjoy in life? What of one's own ways will continue? What lessons will I&I have learned? What challenges will I&I face? What will I&I have of the essential gifts to sustain oneself? Wood, water, air, soil, energy? How will one reciprocate One's gifts and All's abundance? #TreesAreTheAnswer #WeAlreadyKnow #Hózhó
Language is our gift and our responsibility
“Language is our gift and our responsibility. I’ve come to think of writing as an act of reciprocity with the living land. Words to remember old stories, words to tell new ones, stories that bring science and spirit back together to nurture our becoming people made of corn.”
via Robin Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, page 347.
3, 2, 1, Animism
Elemental ingredients
Every one has mind, body, spirit
Every being expressed by Mind, Speech, and Body
That is:
Archetypal essence, idea, consciousness
Pattern formation, design, name
Specific presence, action, physicality
3, 2, 1, “It’s Alive!”
3, 2, 1, “Hello, hi” (go ahead, talk, like talking with a pet)
“May peace be upon you”
What do I depend on? Rhymes to an African Violet
simple
depending on notions of owning independent
we forfeit sentience of heaven-sent inter-dependence
alas, what do I depend on?
the state? the fate of oppressed folks otherwise like me, born in Saudi, Venezuela or Nigeria?
fossil fuels, tools, and tossing money trickling up toward fools who pay to play and pay to make the rules
what do I depend on?
Make your community a better place ?
If you could do one thing to make your community a better place what would you do?
via J.T. @ https://www.facebook.com/jerome516/posts/1082094282191807
This is a great question Jerome, thanks for sharing it and your thoughts.
I would prioritize healthy, equitable agroforests through urban and rural landscapes. Trees that can help meet people’s basic needs (fiber, fuel, food, farmaceuticals, fun, +), in public parks and sidewalk green spaces, in yards, serving as bountiful fences, and texturing our agricultural landscapes, diets, and cultures. Acts of restoration, relinquishment, and resilience which ripple mass reforestation and good health.
Much love to the trees that have been with our northern climate ancestors who I’d hope to see in my area: hazelnuts, birches, maples, honeyberries, chestnuts, acorns, hickories, walnuts and pecans and that whole fam, elderberries, willows, spruces, and so many more.
More specifically, if it needs to be one single thing: cultivate a cooperatively-owned tree crop processing facility that can be used in the community and potentially as a regional hub, to help people meet their basic needs using trees. Areas of primary interest would be:
- food (for biocultural restoration),
- fuel (to heal fossil fuel addiction), and
- fiber (to build resilience in the face of social environmental, and economic disturbances).
Interested in this also? Let’s talk and collaborate, let’s walk and exacerbate our own nuttiness, let’s squawck and walk the talk and elaborate on a way to initiate … do great or forsake. People ate acorns for millennia before they ate candy corns. Let’s make it happen.
Album playlist: Nate – Make It Happen
Predation & Evolution
I poem I originally shared July 15, 2014:
SPLASH
FIGHT
BITE
All was alright in the world, as I was moving toward the light
Looking for some food so I’d sleep well through the night
And awaken another day
My mouth becomes open
!!! Woah I am awoken !
I spread my wings and make like a cross
Then my world is tossed – tension to release; anticipation to closure; potential to kinetic
So,
It is written
Now I make like the moss (gratitude to the roots, foundations of the Kingdom)
Growing slowly through the churning fires of Time
Now at the turning of the rhyme, I ask:
Have I eaten or been eaten?
cr0 – Sword and Bowl (Lyrics & Instrumental, Rendition Not Recorded)
samurai funk
semper fi punk
open wide trunk
dag nabbit go'n grab it
go'n stab it with the sword o' separation
meditation, divide two parts to start
finding the heart, third waypoint hark
there they point: two poles to a whole
two souls and a bowl
pythagorian therians has me seein' medians
dan tien meridians
fission vision endearing 'em
yea, gettin' outta my funk
pull a sword outta my trunk and behold it
thine self, known it
all along, we ample strong when we together
O, different for the better
opposites coincide, open yer eyes wide
breathe, so you ain't blue in the face
union, in pace with nature's trace
(read:)
peace
