Tag Archives: Death

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF GOD

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21st Century American poets
Sing about God’s “disappearance” –

But it’s not God who’s disappearing, it’s America’s spiritual culture –

What a waste! – our allegiance to a nationalism of no love –
To upper-echelon materialism –
And, also, to this ersatz “heaven” of global capitalism.

This raises the question, however,
Whether anything can exist without a center –
Especially since our own center is an “ego”
Which we’re rapidly losing confidence in.

The primary duty of working poets at all times and places
Is to sing about joy in the presence of God –
So that each of us might, in turn, have our own individual joys reaffirmed
And our true center hold.

When American poets started giving up God –
What was left was a group of negative images and a few slick verbal tricks –
What was left, in essence, was a deep emotional depression – artistically made invisible.

But what came next, of course, was Satan –
Grinning ear to ear –

Death trailing behind in all its manifold forms –
Entering our lives like the tide –

This is the price we’re going to be required to pay
For American poets being so willing to let the “real” God go.

DOWN HERE ON EARTH

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If “life” after life were guaranteed
It might be easier to accept wasting this one.

But are we really so different from the leaves
Which bud, sway awhile in the wind,
And, eventually, join an autumnal heap –

Are they also going to heaven?

Or, rocks, which we know eventually turn into dust –
Will they one day find themselves reconstituted as “heavenly” rocks?

Paul tells us that we’ll have a resurrected body, just not our own flesh and bones –
But imperishable, perhaps hard as emerald.

Other people believe they can go on living – at least in memory –
Which is why they spend so much time building monuments to themselves.

But aren’t we all going to “drop” – eventually – just like the leaves?

And should we complain about this –
Given a lifetime of free activity,
And, hopefully, love –
Hasn’t that been a terrific bargain?

If death is real –
Then, logically, each passing moment is a unique miracle –
With the love we experience constituting our only “true heaven” –
And what we should be praying for –

Especially since – after we pass over –
Love will probably be the only gift we’re permitted to retain.

PAIN ALL AROUND

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When a society
or a person
Does something bad –
Really Bad –

They quickly forget it –
so as to be able
to do it again –

As Americans, we think mostly about
how good we are –
(and getting better every day) –

But if, by accident,
we’re ever reminded of our bad,
we tend to “duck and weave,” arguing many
others have been much worse –

That’s why the old-time religions are right
about sin.

We love it so much that
We “marry” it –
And hold it close to our hearts

Where it inexorably bites us deep
Unto death

Satan sitting on our chest
God up in his sky

Pain all around.

CAN TRANSCENDENCE BE ACHIEVED IN ONE GIANT LEAP?

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Not normally. I think it comes more often in a series of modest hops, skips, and tiny jumps.

Moses went up to the mountaintop and got an entire set of laws for his people – in one trip.
Buddha sat under his friendly tree until, one day, it came – suddenly.

But there’s another way:

Every time you hear what you recognize as the truth – about anything –
Immediately accept it!

It’s not so much that these little truths can add up to transcendence, even though sometimes they might, but doing so strengthens your courage – and that does matter –
After all, experiencing God is not for the weak-hearted.

The same holds true for love, beauty, and justice – immediately accept and affirm them whenever they appear in your life.

This is a spiritual journey deep into the valley of the Holy – that is, the closer you get to God, the more exciting life becomes, the more intense the colors – the more “real” everything appears.

Your conventional self usually resists taking chances like this – especially in traveling towards God. However, the acceptance of a blind stasis, is your real Satan – i.e., the being, force, or energy that desires you to “stop” and “die” in every possible manner.

So, if Satan is “Death,” in all its various entropic forms; God, of course, must be “Life,” as represented in all its amazing manifestations. However, don’t make the mistake that God and Satan reside “geographically” in Heaven or Hell; they live, instead, in your heart where you are constantly having to make choices.

That’s why it’s imperative for you to develop healthy spiritual habits so that, without even thinking about it, you’ll always choose life.

A superhuman leap occasionally may achieve transcendence, but it’s only small steady steps in the right direction that will reliably get you there.