Want is the shackle of meaning
Disassociation the denier of art
Awareness the being of feeling
Acknowledgement of I as a relational part
Air and ether and cosmos
The other and fires and sprawl
God is ever present within us
The sum and total of all
Gene G. McLaughlin 2017
Inspired by Gord Downie’s final record Introduce Yourself
Do you fear it?
What breathes beyond this world’s veil
Do you think of it?
Or are thoughts of it beyond the pale?
Do you have love for it?
The actions and movements of your life
Are you at peace with it?
Or does considering it cause you strife
Will you pray for me?
In those moments when you do
Will I reciprocate?
This I wish to do for you
If the bullets fly
Will you hold my hand?
If the rains wash us away
Can we drag each other to land?
Will you remember my name?
When you slowly come awake
You say you wish to start anew?
I give you my name and heart to take
Let us come to new terms
Define ourselves in different ways
Let us make a new covenant
And set the long broken one ablaze
Gene G. McLaughlin 2017
What happens when the mysteries dry up?
The questions you had
When it began
Today
Solemnly
Watching the cars go by
Metal birds without song
What do they sound like
To the robin soaring above?
To him
Below are quarries and mines
Hot pavement
Metals stones glass and heat
Specks of seed, trees and meat
Loss dots this world
Like flowers in a field
Constant in its attempts
To crack through
To claim
To conquer
To forget
Everything is reborn
That the robin can see
The nature of everything
Twists deforms destroys dies and denies
That its time is over
Or at least the question it posed
Is answered
To some
Resurrection is the birth
Of questions without answers
The placement of layers
Around the core
Waiting
For when the blank slate of inquiry
Begins it again
Gene G. McLaughlin 2017
I cannot ease your pain
Include suffering in your expectations
Conscious existence in full contains
Elated joys and sorrowful lamentations
Gene G. McLaughlin 2017
The sirens and bird calls
Merge in the distance
Becoming one to my ears
Both are alerts of an oncoming storm
I can see the shadow of what approaches
It’s outline partitioned by the bright sun
No storm ever comes as one
It comes in parts
What you choose to brace for
Wind
or
Water
or
Lightning
or
Mud
Depends on where you’re standing
Gene G. McLaughlin 2017
Beyond the tight binary loops
That bind and divide simultaneously
Beyond the preselected groups
Driving us toward homogeneity
Beyond the demarcation which dilutes
The resilient strengths of humanity
Lie the path to love’s roots
The beginnings of equanimity
Out of which shoots
New growths of solidarity
Gene G. McLaughlin 2017
Everything I Love Is True . . .
Feel free to complete the poem in comments, I would love to hear what people have to say.
The subject was pain
Not related to you
Only what me
And mine
Have been through
Empathy is
My needs met
With little
Or no
To do
From you
Gene G. McLaughlin 2016
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