what if Starshine

what if Starshine

had not closed her eyes

and willed the filament

of possibility

had not chosen

Marianne and yes

but, instead, chose no

and the stillness

of uncertainty,

full of alone,

herself, spinning

back into the prison

of her memories

before Ralph braved

the blizzard

of his soul and sought

her out to bring her

into his solitary searching,

which she dedicated

followed as part of him

and in that stead she found

a space, a could be

possibility

what then? what kind of

possibility?

conjure...or con...

the same

she fought the world

and swallowed hard.

 

Knowing

I think I know what 

I know, but 

how do I know

that I know?

or can I?

And this is important

Well, we think we

have things in or

on our minds…?

Do we know all this

stuff or does it come

in the ways

Lots of stuff comes

into us—

but is it all a knowing?

What if all the stuff we think 

we know

are just specious conjurings,

just the stuff of

learning and keeping?

What if there’s other stuff…

eternal mysteries?

Like the smell of lilacs, or

The touch of an infant’s cheek, or

The scent of a lover’s shoulder, or

The bristle of a lover’s beard, or

The scent of a coming storm…

Is this knowing?

If it is then we

ought to be able to tell it,

But can we?

After all,

what is it?

Columbus Day Or Indigenous Peoples Day?

 Today we Americans celebrate the European invasion, murder, rape, pillaging, infestation, and exploitation of an indigenous civilization. No amount of apology, reparation, sympathy, and memorializing could ever suffice. The pain and moral stain are eternal.

Willful Ignorance

 

If the United States of America is going to slide into the historical dust bin containing previous empires, it will happen because of the willful ignorance of so many of its citizens and the cowardice of so many of its timorous leaders.

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

― Soren Kierkegaard

“Five percent of the people think;

ten percent of the people think they think;

and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.”

― Thomas A. Edison

“Any formal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession - their ignorance.”

― Hendrick Willem Van Loon

“If it's a choice between a difficult truth and a simple lie, people will take the lie every time. Even if it kills them.”

― Paul Murray

“Willful ignorance is blissful only in the mind of a remarkable fool.”

― Tracey Bond

“So many it seems, have made it their life's goal to bask in the ignorance of their certainty.”

― John Chaplin

“There is simple ignorance, not knowing, and willful ignorance that refuses to know, that covers the light of knowledge with the dark blanket of bias.”                 Elizabeth Moon

Summer's Eve

 (a children's song)

It’s summer’s eve and froggies call

And Mom and Dad are quiet now

You slip away and chase the sun

Waiting and looking for fireflies

Summer’s eve and all is well

The darkness wraps you up all cozy

Just the sounds of crickets and frogs

The hush feels soft and rosey

This is your time to think and dream

To look at stars and wonder 

All the things you want just seem

To drift out there in summer’s moon

Ulteriority

(Robert Frost’s wisdom)

They come as if from nowhere

Like the grounded finely clipped 

Twigs when things get hungry.

Probably squirrels. You can

Always bet on the squirrels,

The cute ratty crooks.

But they go also, like the

Clippings and prunings you

Left to the whimsy of winter.

If you look closely though in early

Spring, the first of the balmy days,

Something comes out,

Nothing you’d ever want, but

That’s the way they are. They come

Out as if from nowhere.

Someone said it better, ”the force

That through the green fuse

Drives…” us, but how can that be

We being so much above this or

That, we’ll never really know?

But there are times, like a chickadee’s 

Frustration to tell you that it needs you, 

Or that ratty crook clacking its warning 

to its pals that you, yes you, might just take them on.

And you go to lift a rock and there they 

Are and have they been waiting for you

To lift a rock and why did you and they

Pick that rock when sometimes they 

Aren’t even there? Something didn’t care. 

And still, they come as if from nowhere, 

especially at times that ought to be Usual.

These exceptions then will never not be

Around for us you and me who seem still 

unready for the comfort in the wonder 

they offer in such gentle surprises from out of nowhere.

A Splendid Virtue

 a splendid virtue called disobedience”  

(Oriana Fallaci, from Letter to a Child Never Born)

actually, within its circumference, I might have chosen

noble, for that’s what it takes to bear its necessity, alone,

and never so much as in that instance, no decision, just a tic,

thoughtless, of course, but mattering so much more, a flash of 

lightning striking, an energy of the cosmos marking deliverance.

placidly, in countervailing compensation, hope, like the child’s wistful

wishing, wide-eyed from under covers, silently thinking and not

speaking, reaches out into the stillness, and fades to pale yellow…and so

in each crucible of determination, like a bee hunting a hive spot,

difference hovers, “against the wisdom and certitude of ages and sages."

What is there in obeisant allegiance?  filling orders, timing out the day in 

an overseer’s drum beat, shining boots with your tongue, or hoping perhaps

somewhere the lightning will strike and wake us to be human.

For not to obey is to show the palm in the face of acceptance and calm.

It is not being nice and smiley-faced as bile surges into your mouth.

It is disrespect in the face of demeaning, shameless, mindless authority.

It is, perhaps, the most profound and useful virtue available to you.