He just read about an Irish woman
who saw visions galore
and was placed
in a place
where they store
those who see visions galore.

While, for him, life is not a bore,
sometimes he would like to see
visions galore
and be placed
in a safe, quiet place
where they store
those who see visions galore.

Sometimes the world
is with him too much
and everyone is in
such a rush,
to get who knows where
and so he just
sits there and stares
and thinks
the safe, quiet space
would be the place
they put those who
see visions galore
and that’s why he
would like, more and more,
to have visions galore.

But then he actually had a vision
and it was all about
the clamor and division
in the places
they put those
who see visions
galore.

So he changed his mind
vowing never to have
visions of any kind
hoping his just one vision
would not be found out by
those bureaucratic minions
who put visionaries
in prison.

So he’ll just sit in his study
far from the madding crowd
and be content to be
where it is peaceful
and not at all loud.

We are like the ancient Israelites. We keep looking for and demanding a savior king.

Many thought it would be Robert Mueller. Well, if the full report is anything like the summary (Heaven forbid), Mueller won’t be inaugurated any time soon (and he may turn out to be a dutiful serf to the Wannabe King, the Occupant of the White House) and, in the words of a popular and already hackneyed phrase, the report is a “nothing burger.”

Or…maybe there will be enough there for the House of Representatives to do their duty and maybe the purveyors of justice will be found in the office of The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

And the beat goes on…
and, eventually, justice will be done
and victory will be won.

Keep the faith, keep looking and keep protesting peacefully.

This incendiary intolerance (in this case, in the guise of prayer) is evident all over the place — yesterday in Pennsylvania’s statehouse:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/03/27/gop-lawmaker-prays-jesus-forgiveness-before-states-first-muslim-woman-swears/?utm_term=.383b842b699b.

Who knows where the consequence of this kind of hate speech will lead?

I’m saddened, I’m angered, I’m embarrassed.

I’m about to drop being called a Christian, at least as white, evangelical, “individual
salvation in Jesus Christ” Christianity in America defines it:

“Don’t call me a Christian anymore.
I just try to follow the all-inclusive,
all loving, all merciful, prophetic
and revelatory window to the God
of all creation, Jesus, for me and
you. Oh, and I try to follow the
words of the Buddha and Lao Tzu,
too.”

I once described myself as a Buddhist
Christian or a Christian Buddhist at a
staff meeting at a church I served as
the interim minister. The evangelical,
fundamentalist associate minister, went
apoplectic. If he could have invoked the
raining down of coals of fire on my
head, he would have done it, and they
wouldn’t have been coals of kindness
as described in scripture.

Lord, have mercy.

a row of bronze boughs
glistening through black tree limbs
reflect morning light

it is morning the monday morning
following the publication the previous
evening of the hastily written summary
statement of the investigation i have
finished reading the three meditations
in my inbox and about to start the three
poems in my inbox my usual pattern
being to finish the poems and then start
the coffee come back to my desk and
click on the headlines of the day i will
not do that i will start the coffee and
then take a very hot shower washing
my body in a symbolic act of cleansing
my life heart and soul of the worlds mach
inations of greed cowardice and power
about an hour after taking that shower
i will visit my ophthalmologist to have
my vision checked while this visit is
very important for my sight i will think
of it also symbolically as an act of
seeing life more clearly loving life
more dearly following love more
nearly day by day

The childish king
can now sing
about this thing
and that
and rat-a-tat-tat
and that’s that.
The investigation
has fallen flat
and we have
to put up with
the orange-capped brat,
maybe for
five years more
and let’s hope
our leader, the dope,
will have to face,
along with his base,
history’s judgment.
That’s scant comfort
for such an encumbrance,
but in the moment,
let’s hope
the republic isn’t
made into a joke,
laughed at
by tyrannical rats
(using the Occupant’s phrase)
and demagogues
looking for jobs
and given to say
there goes the good,
old US of A.

The commentator said, regarding the Occupant’s base,
“That is a layer of ignorance that cannot be penetrated.”
A whole new level of dense she demonstrated.
Sixty million strong, how could they be so wrong?
They are the impenetrable throng.
I shake my head and wonder just how such could be
and then I think back to all three —
my grade school, high school and even college classes
and just shake my head and concede, yes,
there were more than just a few asses.
I sit in restaurants and see tees
with sayings that make me want to flee.
I see red caps
touting MAGA worn by drivers of Cadillacs.
I catch snippets of comments by personalities at Fox News
and know I’m flying over a nest of cuckoos.
Yes, I’m afraid the commentator is right —
impenetrable ignorance is one of our nation’s major plights.

I just saw that my book The Nine A.M. Jog ranks #6,478,780 in books at Amazon.

The good news is that it could have been 6,478,781.

Hey, I just saw that my book The Ten P.M. Walk ranks #5,491,634 in books at Amazon.

Wow! That means my book The Ten P.M. Walk is 987,146 places ahead of my other book!

That’s almost a million places higher.

Always look on the bright side of life.

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=yfp-t-s&p=always+look+on+the+bright+side+of+life#id=1&vid=37214d3309840a0d37f06d6608575297&action=view.

The soliloquy began
and the prophet stood his ground,
“Why are the wicked ruling
classes allowed to
oppress the weak…?
Justice goes forth perverted!
And I will take my stand to watch,
and station myself on the tower,
and look forth to see what will
be said…to me
and what I will answer
concerning
my complaint.”
And the answer came,
“Wait. Be patient.”
And being patient is
to suffer. Suffer now, but the
vision will be fulfilled.
Write the vision in bold print!
Woe and woe and woe — in time
for those who live unjustly, who
oppress, who laugh now but
will cry — in time.
All things — in time.
“For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the
glory of the Lord, as the
waters cover the sea.”
“I will quietly wait,” says the prophet.
For what? For the fulfillment of
the vision — for justice.
I will be patient, I will suffer
the goading and gloating and revelry
and mocking of the unjust and the
oppressor. I will wait quietly
— in faith, hope and love
and I will be there in peaceful
protest as I await the dawning
day of justice, mercy and peace.
I will trust the vision; I will trust
the promise. I do trust in patience,
in suffering, in faith, hope and love.

The full moon shone brightly
through the night and in the
morning it began its muted

descent just as the sun was
beginning to shine brightly
and would all morning long.

To this event all creation
was drawn, this new dawn —
except much of humanity,

which was distracted by
whatever it was by which
it was distracted in that

particular moment, some-
thing it deemed supreme,
something about which it

would scream in utterly
distracted preoccupation.
In the mean time, the trees

and the bushes and the
flowers and the grasses
and the birds and bugs and

the rabbits and the chipmunks
and everything else came out
to the dawn, including the

earth, the humus from which
humanity came, and all one
cell creatures — being drawn

to the light in something
like an act of worship except
much of humanity who reserved

that observance for one hour
a week when they would go
into an enclosure, turn on

the lights and talk about
raising money to keep the
enclosure from deteriorating

and then having the bugs and
vermin and weeds and what-
ever take over.