Poets (and stories) for Peace

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi6yPJvCFU0&NR=1

or bamboo or ear on flute or nose on cherry blossoms Window as in opening Willow as is in dancing in the wind by lake Window on bamboo in rain Drops tumbling down window like cut crystal glazed by the sun mirroring greens ear as in listening flute as is in song of the reed from bamboo Nose as in tasteing the smell so absorbed and falling gracefully like pink snow petals Window on willow Longing for fields of bamboo till you are not all here or there but somewhere across lines in between parallels unseen

Does anyone want to hear the stuff that they might be in agreement with? It seems not to me. What ever the plan is are people going to be able to afford health care who can not now or are the premiums just going to go up higher to cover no pre-existing conditions and less distinctions upon what we can or can not have as care. If we never got involved with the Middle East calamities, would there be money for health care. Let's see there is less money for how many things now and yet there is always money to kill. What does that say about us, really? I thought that these games were supposed to be given up in childhood. You know back when you learn to share your toys and not break those of others. Did I miss something here?

Those who can not forgive stare at the candle standing tall—well lit. Unhuman reflections of the fallen one encase their heart. They can not care. My memory travels to an old woman's hands carved as the bark on the branches of a tree, to her face that is like an ocean with many pathways. Steamliners have coursed these waters, some over and over, some ravaged by pirates, some were pirates. (Unnavigated before— fates Virgin, with few charts made of her own doing— a fragment of the divine compass rests in her hand to guide her.) Each path moves like the waves of the ocean when greeting you with her smile. Her eyes— small flowering seeds of light that wait for you— will catch you up like that raccoon on a pitch black road with high beams on. Frozen, you can not turn from what she sees. Already she has forgiven you.

I do not want to plot my thoughts against another generations demise, hoard gold, buy stocks in silver mines. If I view it all like a body, where are the blood lines and what is the oxygen? Can you see it from that view each of us pumping our thoughts into to this giant organism and deciding what we will make happen? Can you see it swelling and contracting like a heart like a heartbeat kicking out new born souls and aberrations. What if we are doing that and being watched? What if there is some saline solution that we savor ourselves in? In 9th grade three things happened to me. I realized that though taught to name, maybe we don't see the same color looking at red or blue or green. Or maybe twelve inches is a yard for you or a different math system would work better. And, that the most important things were not the atoms, waves or particles but the space between.

I want to know: How you smell uncologned with sweat on your body when the time table of life dims to where the space is between the words that spill over where we can meet. And in that meeting know know you/me know me in you you in me. Maybe, that space says nothing or something or silence that hears, Because there are people with worse stories that sting their life's music-- we both know that the words don't tell it deep enough. I want someone to hear the spaces between the notes and not get stuck on words or form or past lies and detours. Someone I can say the truth to who will sit beside my soul and want to know its journey and not get stuck in my misgivings but will open their door to the rooms they live in, and say, I know that road you walked on I recognize the trees the scent of pine needles and cones shed across the floor. Yes, when the line winds came there was that tree uprooted and sprawled out on the ground I cros...

This bill silently being pushed will be voted on in one and a half weeks!!!! Stop it or you are not going to be able to get organic food anymore or grow it!!! http://thetruthwarblog.blogspot.com/2009/04/bill-to-outlaw-organic-farming-next.html?showComment=1238779380000#c9086312562551104423

Yes, I know there are typos in my posts. I try hard these days to get posts in here. Often, while typing I don't see the errors, and then read the post later with minutes to go left to get to the next things I need to do before I get to work. So, as I have told people in the writing groups I am involved with. Please forgive my errors for now and forever. Most of them I know are there, and I just have not had time to get back and white out.

I have to say this. Perhaps, my last posts sound irritated or not peaceful. The thing of it is that, there is a difference between peaceful and just plain dumb. I am reminded of a book that I read as a child, 'Catcher In The Rye'. The kid had no real sense of boundaries and just went from one thing to another till, if I remember right, he ends up in a mental institute for a stint. It also gets to a point in society, when the people let one thing after another occur without censor, where it is sheer madness and not a sign of lack of patience to say enough is enough. Even in Buddhism, there is what they call holy anger. There is anger that is insane, and there is also anger that brings us back to sanity. Sometimes, discerning the difference is walking a hard road--'The Razor's Edge', which is one of my favorite books. One of my pet peeves right now, in the midst of the banking conundrums, hedge betting and insurance frauds, are the insufficient funds fees(NSF f...

It seems that someone has actually hit the mark and wrote a book about, in the midst of hearing the wonderful line "you are a valued customer", how devalued customers have become and the rage that is growing from what I hear. The customer comes first is now pretty much a myth or urban legend in the eyes of many, but there was a day, not so long ago, when it was key to business. A few posts back, I posted a real conversation that I had with someone from Magic Jack. In case you don't know what that is, it is a company that has a USB port jack, you plug into your computer and voila you have phone service for the mere charge of $40 a year and $20 for the following years, minus a few pennies to make it sound under the rounded off ten mark. Why I won't buy one. They are having customer service reps on the phone whose English is as bad as what you can see a few posts back in the original cut and paste dialogue and saying that they are in Fla. If these reps are located i...

Why Americans Should Never Be Allowed To Travel The following are actual stories provided by travel agents: I had someone ask for an aisle seats so that his or her hair wouldn't get messed up by being near the window. A client called in inquiring about a package to Hawaii. After going over all the cost info, she asked, "Would it be cheaper to fly to California and then take the train to Hawaii?" I got a call from a woman who wanted to go to Capetown. I started to explain the length of the flight and the passport information when she interrupted me with "I'm not trying to make you look stupid, but Capetown is in Massachusetts. "Without trying to make her look like the stupid one, I calmly explained, "Capecod is in Massachusetts, Capetown is in Africa." Her response ... ...

This came from a really funny site that has authorless entries. If anyone knows the authors, please speak up! Pentagon Solutions Dakota Tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. A recently declassified Pentagon document indicates that people in the Pentagon try other strategies. Specifically there are 23 separate and distinct strategies that people in the Pentagon try when they discover they are riding a dead horse: 1. Buy a stronger whip. 2. Change riders. 3. Say things like, "This is the way we've always ridden this horse." 4. Arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride their dead horses. 5. Increase the standards to ride dead horses. 6. Appoint a Tiger Team to revive the dead horse. 7. Create a tra...

Someone made a comment as to my using 'We' on the list of questions a few posts back. I used the word we in reference to we, as the human race! This is a semantic disagreement. It was 'We' not leaving myself out. If I say, "How long is the human race going to", it is a bit cold, depersonalized and it is sounds like I am leaving myself out. I then could be accused of thinking myself superior. If I would say, "How long are the the Jews or the Muslims or the Christians," it is separating myself from them. Now, think about this in reference to religious works that were written hundreds and hundreds of years ago, which we expect to translate literally and were often times written in poetic language. If you add to this that we are all in human form and the consciousness of spirit has to filter down through a mind of certain time period's knowledge and experience, even in saints, and then add to that, holy books were often written way after the ...

This is just a sample of the craziness that is out there today with companies outsourcing their customer service. This would be funny, if it were not so sad!!! It is my experience with considering to buy a Magic Jack from a company (which tries to hide their name, address and telephone numbers) that, tells their 24 chat reps not to give out any information about how to get to the company by phone or their address. The reps say they are in Fla., but none of them speak English, even close to fluently. Since the Magic Jack can be used in any country and comes with a U.S. phone number, the person can look like they are in the U.S., but be anywhere in the world. Here is the conversation that I had. I wanted to put the whole conversation here with the research I did online, while talking with two of their 24hr chat people. If you get bored with this or know it all too well, skip down to my comments at the end. If this kind of thing is not abuse of power, I don't know what is? Ho...

How long are we willing to keep looking at the differences between each other for the sake of disagreement, power and being right, whether it is easy to admit that we are doing that or not? How long are we willing to pretend that things around us are not happening, when they are, because we don't want to admit our fears, vulnerability and recognize that we are not sure what to do about things, so that we can start to face what we need to face as a nation and in the world? How long are we willing to turn away from the interconnectedness between things? How long are we willing to fight the same battles over and over again from one place to the next, while the same money could feed the poor, educate the world and preserve the economy? How long are we willing to keep seeing the problem as something separate from us? How long are we willing to keep fighting battles that are centuries old? How is that we have our federal taxes go to war, the infrastructure, and all the other things that...

[Note: This list of Einstein quotes was being forwarded around the Internet in e-mail, so I decided to put it on my web page. I'm afraid I can't vouch for its authenticity, tell you where it came from, who compiled the list, who Kevin Harris is, or anything like that. Still, the quotes are interesting and enlightening.] Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein * "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." * "Imagination is more important than knowledge." * "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love." * "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details." * "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." * "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." * "The only real valuable thing is intuition." * ...

(click on title and go to link.....you may have seen this before, but it says a lot about the human mind)

Convicted forger A. Schiller was serving his time in Sing Sing prison in the late 1800s when guards found him dead in his cell. On his body they found seven regular straight pins whose heads measured the typical 47/1000ths of an inch or 1.17 millimeters in diameter. Under 500 magnification it was found that the tiny etchings seen on the heads of the pins were the words to The Lord's Prayer, which is 65 words and 254 letters long. Of the seven pins, six were silver and one was gold - the gold pin's prayer was flawless and a true masterpiece. Schiller had spent the last 25 years of his life creating the pins, using a tool too small to be seen by the naked eye. It is estimated that it took 1,863 sepatate carving strokes to make it. Schiller went blind because of his artwork. http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Odd_Pics.html

http://www.rtoddking.com/chinawin2003_hb_if.htm The yearly snow and ice festivals of Harbin, China are spectacular and this site has some of the best shots and also photos from around the world. This guy does a marvelous job and goes every year. People come from Canada to Thailand to create sculptures there that are massive and cut from huge blocks of ice. Looking at this project constructed by so many by people adapted to the cold and those not, brings more hope for peace to my heart than the Olympics, in truth. No mater what your view of Chinese's government, human rights issues or how much money we owe them this festival is something to behold. Were the ticket dumped in my lap, I would certainly go no matter the cold, so just in case you are complaining about the amount of snow and cold this winter, take a looksy at this and think again. http://www.rtoddking.com/chinawin2003_hb_if.htm

Do you remember the song the age of Aquarius.....and the prediction was about when the moon is in the 7th house and Jupiter aligns with Mars. Well folks, that was this Valentine's Day, and here is my poem. BTW the question I pose, as promised a few posts back is forthcoming. Jupiter Aligns With Mars by Roseroberta The moon was in the 7 th house— on Valentine’s Day no less— a time for truth, justice, peace and love. Prometheus the fire bearer sat on the subway steps waiting for the A train to come down the tunnel where several forgotten Gods hung out. He was just thinking how to best light their fire, when the A train came blaring by, with Miles at the helm— a ghost train loaded like Pandora’s box with dreams of King and a whole generation of Xs still lost in the ruble of blackness and tunnels railroaded and derailed, and Prometheus sat on the subway stairs. And as the train passe...

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ~Aristotle Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. ~Hector Berlioz An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field. ~Niels Bohr Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school. ~Albert Einstein What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child. ~George Bernard Shaw Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century. ~Perelman I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. ~Mark Twain Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. ~Jim Rohn Education is that which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. ~Ambrose Bierce In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad....

I wrote this letter to Obama in Sept of 2007. There are, looking back, some grammatical imperfections, but I have not touched a word of it. I do not have a Mensa IQ nor am I a prophetess, but looking back on it, I was stunned by, not the grammatical errors, but the significance and left with the impression that, if I realized that???? I am reposting this, because of what the letter represents looking back at the last 8 months of economic events. I am posting it again, while posing this questions. How much do we want to be lulled to sleep? How much do we want to turn honest requests for discourse into a realm of aggression by calling it confrontational? How much do we want to rewrite history, so that he word liberal is aligned with communist and not open to thought? How much do we want to be in denial about what we have created and what needs to take place inside us to have the phoenix rise from the ashes? I was sitting in a coffee shop the other day. I heard a conversation wher...

This is an organization that I support. The organization is based on principles of integrity that transcend religious denominations. Please check out there website. I also suggest that you download the Global Marshall Plan and read it. This plan could be what saves us all, if we are to be saved. http://www.spiritualprogressives.org/ The other organization that I came across recently is: http://www.thepeacealliance.org/ They are trying to create within government a Department of Peace. They also have some interesting perspectives that are worth investigating.

I found this small bit of writing that I had tossed aside and forgotten about. I read it in a writer's class to get feedback about what people saw me doing with it. People said to me (mostly poets) that they saw it as a poem. Personally, I see it as the beginning of a story, which I am continuing. Why I am placing it here though? People said to me that they felt it is something that can be felt by many people, so I wanted to share it. I would be interested to hear how others respond to it, and, if they see it as a poem or not: Looking At Normal I am looking at the face of anger. I am looking at the face of aggression, of rage, of wanting to destroy, of feeling no happiness staring back at me in the mirror of a face sagging with age alone and tired trying so hard, and it never feeling like enough. I want to find this small corner, to hide in, to curl up and not be seen like when I hid in the closet as a child, when I wanted to run away, and t...

When I was in Japan, I had helped a woman's son through teaching him English. We met two times a week, and had an amazing connection with each other. His mother was amazed, because his teachers taught that he was a problem and not very bright, which was not what I found. Through this experience, he became better at his normal schoolwork as well. His mother cried and cried when I left Japan. I had no idea of how much I had meant to her. The beginning of the year brought death to my doorstep, but in a positive way. Between moving to Japan and leaving a Buddhist practice that I had been in, I had lost touch with my first husband. We had both married on the rebound, after being friends for years. We only stayed married for 6 months. Just long enough to help him work through some things. Because of some previous events in my life and how I was at the time, I always felt a bit guilty about things that had transpired between us. For years, I had had the feeling to try and find ...

This year seems to be a year for not only new beginnings, but also renewal. I have started doing a new meditation that seems to be doing a superb job of clearing out old garbajeo LOL (if you want to know about it email me), I have started to participate in a women's writer's group that has been operating int he Twin Cities since the 70's, which is an honor to participate in. Plus, I have a proposal out to do a workshop that came out of the renewal of relationship with my first husband, who has made his way through some really serious twists and turns of life, and I am now there to befriend. Then a relative that I have been looking for online over the last ten years, I seem to have found. This is number three found person of the year, and it appears to me that this is no accident. If my workshop proposal goes through, there will be an online invite. Things are moving along in this new year that we are not even two weeks into. I have a feeling that it is going to be a goo...