140 characters to sum up the day
140 characters to find a new way
140 characters for what I gotta say
140 characters timeline’s slipping away
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
The Random Provides Information
The random provides information
The information provides facts
The facts provide observations
Of how the random reacts
Gene G.McLaughlin 2013
The Hive
Does the hive make choices better?
Did I ever really make a choice?
As I type this letter by letter
Is this really my own voice?
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
22 Years
When my father was my age
He had 22 more years left
He looked at the future
As an endless array of choices
Without death as an option
It was though
For good or bad
It always is
It is the boundary of
One’s vessel
Not it’s ripples
Across the inward ocean
It is hard me to view all of this
As an infinite journey as he did
Knowing what I know
Yet I will fight to view it so
The shrug off the knowledge of
Where the path to the ocean
Meets the water
Making 22 years into
A transinfinite journey
There is an eternity between moments
Endless ripples between the ripples
The ocean is never still
Even when there is no motion
Looking out from the shore
At the path’s end
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
A Spring Zen Prayer
Permit me to let go the things I am not
The things that are denied me
The things that are not to be
The things that cause me anger
The things that I cannot control
The things that are of me, but haunt me
The things that are of not of me, but haunt me
The things that the world imposed upon me
The things that I imposed upon myself
Permit me to know the things that are hidden
The things that become lost to me repeatedly
The things I must learn time and time again
The things I know are true, but cannot accept
The things that are of all things and not just me
The things that are of me and unmoving and real
The things that are not the narrative of it, but the pulse of it
The things that are silent and neither want nor give
The things a rock knows when the hammer falls upon it
I am the wind
Never allowed to settle or still
I am the ocean
Many things that look to be one from a distance
I am the sand
Both shifting and stable at once
I am the fire
Grown from spark to inferno to cinder all in a day
Let me begin each day and try to hear the silent sound
Let me begin each day and try to see the color of air
Let me begin each day and try to feel the back of my mind
Let me begin each day and try to smell the heat of the rising sun
Let me begin each day and try to feel the love I know pulses through the world,
but is sometimes lost to me.
If I cannot, let me accept my struggle and failure
Living not wanting to be that which I am am not
And rising tomorrow to try again to see
I am not it, but of it
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
Ecosystem
There are dragonflies
In my earliest memories
There are no clever thoughts
There are no grand ambitions
Only their loud hum
Only the heat of summer
Only the taste of sweat
Only the feel of damp
The river is near
Giving and taking
Sleeping then waking
Frothy then serene
The mountain is near
Giving not taking
Bending and breaking
Its peak still unseen
There is my mother
Provider of food and love
There is my father
Before me and not above
We are of here
This valley
This land
We are from here
Our family
Our band
All I know
Is nearby
Or at least as
The bird flies
The river knew my name
When I was baptized in it
The mountain knew my name
When I pissed upon it
I became of here
In my crib
As the wind blew
Through it
I cannot forget
The hum
Of horseflies
Nor the pain
Of their bite
Nor the pull
Of the river’s current
It’s inhuman might
It all escalates outward
It all internalizes inward
The river takes me elsewhere
The mountain fades from view
When I am motionless
I can hear the dragonflies
Humming there still
When I am motionless
The river carries me there
Once again
The mountain’s peak
Still out of view
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
From Hunger, From Shame
From hunger
From shame
Buckling under
The blame
Of the things
That speak to you
In subterfuge
In rage
Trapped in
The cage
Of the things
That make up you
True to the facts
To which the body reacts
Are desires
Fully intact
Of the things
That make up the core of you
Free yourself
Of their burdens and expectations
Seek for yourself
Love’s feelings and sensations
Genes G. McLaughlin 2013
I’m Gonna Have a Drink
I’m gonna have a drink
Let it wash over me
The way
You ain’t
Supposed to drink
Or at least
When no one sees
I’m gonna do some wrong
Let the night take its course
The path
You’re not
Supposed to choose
Or at least not
When you got something left to lose
I’m gonna cause a ruckus
My fists will speak my words
The way you’re
Not advised
To fight
Or least not
Over drunken slights
Eventually I’ll come to regretting
What I myself have done
They way
You only can
Wearing yesterday’s clothes
Looking blearily at the rising sun
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
Don’t Believe In Me
Don’t believe in me
Don’t believe in yourself
Believe in the facts
And nothing else
What of faith
That which you can feel
Like the lucky tingle
When the cards start to deal
Who really knows
Certainly not me
All I got
Is what I can measure or see
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
I’m A Lot Like
I’m a lot like my father
Who lies quiet in the grave
I’m much like my mother
Yet not quite as brave
I’m a lot like the wind
Struggling with direction
I’m much like the water
Mirroring my introspection
I’m a lot like my sister
Struggling with myself
I’m much like my lover
When she takes me someplace else
I’m a lot like the rose
Beautiful and thorned
I’m much like a weed
When I feel lost and scorned
I’m a lot like nothing
When it all feels disconnected
I’m much like everything
When each morning I’m resurrected
Gene G. McLaughlin 2013
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