Reality

 

 

                                         Reforest the trees,

                                                               Disown the car.

                                                          We an Eden’s army

                                                               Are.

 

                                                          Ten billion trees,

                                                             The staff of God,

                                                          Shall rise with our                  

                                                             Green army’s aid.

 

                                                          Reforest the trees,

                                                             Disown the car.

                                                          Cool Earth’s orbit

                                                             By a star.

 

                                                          Reforest the trees,

                                                             Disown the car,

                                                          Build deep soils

                                                             Life will share.

 

                                                          Reforest the trees

                                                              Disown the car,

                                                          Mantis comes through

                                                              Stars, a stare.

 

                                                          Reforest the trees

                                                              Will bring about

                                                          Heaven on Earth,

                                                              Put war to rout.

 

                                                          Reforest the trees

                                                              Our mantra frames,

                                                          The God of Adam

                                                              Eden dreams.

 

                                                          Ten billion trees,

                                                              Ten billion more,

                                                          Bulwark the entire sphere!

                                                          Moments grow to eons

                                                              For the seed

                                                          Planted right here.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                            Lindbergh

 

                                                          Land like Lindbergh!

                                                              Beam the plane,

                                                          An ocean span alone

                                                              His reign.

 

                                                          Resilient, he’d flown

                                                              A dream

                                                          On sandwiches

                                                              And reckoning.

 

                                                          He stands tall.

                                                              His smile glints.

                                                          A solo flight

                                                              The story prints.

 

                 

 

 

                                             

                                                              The Greeks

                               

                                                          Hope evolves with misery,

                                                              Pandora let us know,

                                                          A resignation to the fact

                                                              The lid has let out woe.

 

                                                          Supplant despair with industry.

                                                              Refine hope into aim.

                                                          Pygmalion made the beauty that

                                                              He married in his name.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                   Torture

                                                         

                                                          ‘Broken on the wheel’

                                                              Just broke bones of men;

                                                          Did not gasp all cells of

                                                              Organisms or stop rain.

 

                                                          The wheel is responsible

                                                              For turning us to ghouls.

                                                          Arid are the yards that circum-

                                                              Scribe our modern schools.

 

                                                          We were meant to save life,

                                                              Not jeopardize the ark

                                                          By reading “USA Today”

                                                              And dimming down the dark.

 

                                                          Blur us as a species

                                                              With machines that do our work:

                                                          We were meant to apex life,

                                                              Not be a cosmic jerk.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                  Wheels, Too

 

 

                                                          A group of us shared on the hill

                                                              What most of us would keep:

                                                          Memories of animals alive

                                                              That dream our sleep:

 

                                                          Times when the rain fell,

                                                              And elders lifted up their eyes

                                                          To the lightning summer-sculpted

                                                              On cloud-purple skies.

 

                                                          We saw a horny toad and one

                                                              Reminded us to say

                                                          He was ‘grandpa’, come from

                                                              An ancient cornucopia:

 

                                                          When snow restored in winter

                                                              And streams flowed on the land

                                                          And pinon trees drew pinon jays

                                                              Down to cone-laden stands.

 

                                                          Some cried for present courage

                                                              To face the social will –

                                                          The freeway drones, anonymous,

                                                              The skies with carbon fill –

 

                                                          Each journey an iota,

                                                              But then the group let go,

                                                          And drove away in cars again,

                                                              Leaving residual.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                              Franklin   1

 

                                                          Franklin wielded a baton;

                                                              He gave life currency

                                                          By having wind take up a kite

                                                              While down below, a key

 

                                                          Glowed. He was transported,

                                                              And on his way to France,

                                                          Did he relax within? No.

                                                              He watched the currents flounce.

 

 

 

 

                            

                                                               Franklin   2

 

                                                          Frugal as a printer,

                                                              Franklin’s stature grew

                                                          Until he entertained the French

                                                              With wine the wealth knew.

 

                                                          Fascination never far,

                                                              Service to the crown:

                                                          The skull of Homo sapiens

                                                              Reign of his renown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                               Franklin   3

 

                                                          Franklin was a courtly man,

                                                              Gave out inventions free –

                                                          Warmed mankind with Franklin stoves,

                                                              Charted moving sea.

 

                                                          He was convinced Poor Richard’s rise

                                                              His brother could afford;

                                                          Suppressed the Philly fires and

                                                              Electrified our word.

 

                                                          His French could charm the ladies,

                                                              His humor has no date,

                                                          And every year an almanac

                                                              Made people feel complete.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                           The Tao of Casual

 

                                                          The hike will be in super-norm,

                                                              Not to impress, the goal;

                                                          As casual as the way we breathe

                                                              Is part of our control.

 

                                                          Ability to live on Earth was learned

                                                              Over a time

                                                          It took for language to exist

                                                              And poets delve its rhyme.

 

                                                          Institute the racial memory

                                                              Of deep reunion

                                                          With the other species:

                                                              Lord, I learn my station.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                    Resolve

 

 

                                                          If all it takes is study, Lord,

                                                              Then give me books to read.

                                                          Diligence shall foreordain that Earth

                                                              Retain her seed.

 

                                                          Intelligence shall be a place,

                                                              Right now, a destiny.

                                                          After Global Warming’s over,

                                                              Evolution’s free.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                 Planet Poet

 

                                                  

                                                          Devas do direct their thoughts.

                                                              They mind the holy sun.

                                                          From just seeds they rise aloft,

                                                              Each species shaped as one.

 

                                                          What I think will come to be.

                                                              I share within all time

                                                          A language, and a will to face

                                                              The laws that make it rhyme.

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                           Anthem

 

                                                    

                                                          For discipline to draft disciples

                                                              Vigor must arouse

                                                          Quickened correspondence to ideas

                                                              I espouse.

 

                                                          Links then form true passages

                                                              For more than one soul.

                                                          They become a way a people

                                                              On Earth can be whole.

 

                                                          Put these goals in amber, then:

                                                              Reforest the trees,

                                                          Gird green Earth in soils.

                                                              May the poles refreeze.

 

                                                          Every insect welcome nation,

                                                              Every worm the goal

                                                          To leave trails of casements;

                                                              Love shall overrule.

 

                                                          As long as we orbit

                                                              And the star’s heat grow

                                                          We will shelter every species

                                                              On this world we know.

 

                                                          Separate, we scared ourselves.

                                                              Unified, we stand,

                                                          Around this tree, till death depart,

                                                              One circle, hand in hand.

 

                                                          For discipline to draft disciples

                                                              Rigor must release

                                                          Anguish at dead-ends, and

                                                              Repossess time’s fallow pace:

 

                                                          Time to contain radiation,

                                                              Resource solar fuel,

                                                          Time to let go evolution

                                                              And attend her school.

 

                                                          Draw down carbon from the sky!

                                                              Glacier peaks again.

                                                          Hallelujah with the knowledge

                                                              Earth is saved by man.

 

                                                         

 

                                                                

              

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