Beyond the world of discovery that music has been for me, there was always the bigger world, the universe of questions about what we’re a part of, how it works, and how to best fit into the larger whole.
My love of words, a fascination with scientific, philosophical, and spiritual inquiry, and a quiet determination to learn how to be a better human (and a happier man) have led me on a path of shaping my experience, breath by breath, into poems.
Here are some of them.
July 12, 2020
I am grateful
to be an American.
I am grateful
for the diverse beauty of this land,
and for the richness
of its diverse people and cultures.
And I regret the wrongs
that those who govern us
have sometimes committed,
but I am grateful for our freedom
to right those wrongs,
when we have the will to do so,
and to speak out
whenever we see them.
I am grateful
for what we are,
but I am more grateful
for what we can become.
July 4, 2020
On this day, so many years ago,
our forefathers declared our independence,
so we would be free from foreign rule,
free to pursue our own destiny
as a nation, as a people.
And yet, too many of us were NOT free,
shackled to the land by land owners
to whom they were mere property,
stripped of their own inalienable rights
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
And to this day, those rights are only distant dreams
to all too many of us, as we struggle under the yoke
of a myriad of inequalities.
So I ask myself, on this day, if each of us are truly free,
to enjoy our independence on equal ground
with ALL of our brothers and sisters,
or if our independence is just a happy myth,
that does not describe the world we actually live in.
Freedom is a beautiful dream, one still worth striving for,
despite a million harsh realities that seem to stand in our way.
So perhaps each one of us must first embrace the truth
that we are NOT independent,
that we are bound by a million forces
that limit us as individuals,
but also connect us as a human family.
And there is a deeper truth, that we are INTERDEPENDENT,
that we must achieve freedom for ALL of us,
before any of us are truly free.
June 25, 2020
Hysteria
is not a path to truth,
or to healing.
Consider what you say
as if it were a virus,
mindful of the fear or anger
you may be spreading.
Or consider their opposites,
which are compassion
and love.
Which would you rather
be the source of,
when you cast your words
out into the world?
June 11, 2020
In most of our moments,
the fear we feel
is pain we imagine
in the future.
And the sadness we feel
is pain remembered
in our past.
Without the mind
reminding us
of past or future,
there is only the present,
where, in most of our moments,
there is no pain
to be found.
June 9, 2020
Love is simple.
It is seeing
with compassion,
accepting
without prejudice.
June 9, 2020
I have heard it said that God is Love,
and that God is the Creator of everything,
and that God IS everything.
Can this all be true?
If so,
then I am one
of God’s creations,
and I am part
of everything,
and God the Creator
is in me,
creating
and loving.
June 5, 2020
Don’t be a hater of hatred -
that will only spread more hate.
Be a lover of love instead,
and that will spread more love!
June 3, 2020
As I stand here
with my neighbors,
my brothers and my sisters,
we stand in silent witness
to a status quo
which we can no longer
accept or tolerate.
Standing in silence,
my heart opens
to the pain we all share,
and the compassion
that we may share as well,
if we are resolute
in our intention for change.
Standing here,
I am reminded
that I am a member
of the human race,
and hiding
is no longer an option.
My aging body
said it could not kneel
for a whole nine minutes,
but I asked it to, and it did.
“Now you know
what nine minutes feels like”,
a fellow next to us said,
as I remembered George Floyd,
who had no choice
about how he spent
his last nine minutes.
May 28, 2020
I am not a Democrat, nor a Liberal;
not a white man, nor an American.
I am sick and tired of being tugged at
by the forces of my culture
that yearn to label me
as a faceless member of their group,
proud in its difference
from every other group.
In the words of the prophet Groucho:
“I refuse to join any club
that would have me as a member”;
I am a human being,
and I am simply myself.
Let me be,
and let everyone be,
so we may become the human family,
united in our idiosyncrasies,
that we were meant to be.