Fredisms
a child, a cloud,
a child in your arms.
ice cream on a stick.
a class of students.
with a lover in bed.
church bells and rice.
a child in my arms.
a rocker on the porch.
a cloud of memories.
no more.
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Beacons of Life
There is a community
for all of life.
Let’s find it
and be beacons for others.
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In the super market
In the super market
I watched the mothers
Carrying their babies.
‘I miss being a parent’,
then thought again.
‘I miss being carried.’
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Quiet Passage
I call it Quiet passage
from else where
to here [a pit stop]
and off again.
Natives mention
hollow bones.
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Just a thought.
Just a thought.
If early Africans had entered the New World,
like many voyagers from Europe,
like many voyagers from Europe,
African Americans would be bi-lingual.
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Sense
Sense
Does this/that make sense?
is a question
Who am I?
is a better question
I AM beyond words,
so you take it from here.
f
Back yard buns.
Back yard buns
I love your backyard buns,
sun warmed and ready to savor.
Back yard buns.
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“Hey woman.”
“Hey Woman”
I met a female
acquaintance
and thought
‘hey girl’.
and thought
would I say
‘hey boy’.
and said
‘hey woman’.
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make believe love
make believe love
(from across the street)
she struts naked
past the shade pulled low
all above her belly button
is hidden from view
each night I see her
we make believe love.
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Treasure Hunt
Treasure Hunt
No need to hunt
outside your home.
Each in out breath
is a bless’d treasure.
Have one right now
long in, long out,
relax and smile.
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Crunches
Crunches
Bare feet
On thin ice
Over Arctic water.
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Love
You want it?
You got it
You got it?
Share it
You need it?
Receive it
Love
Do Be Say
why the fear of doing being saying
to who about what when where?
before flesh in flesh after flesh
who knows before and after?
You?
doing being saying
is only in flesh.
before has gone
after is coming
now is now
Do Be Say it now
Now is all I AM.
Talking out loud.
Ducks say quack quack quack.
Dogs say woof woof woof.
We go yack yack yack.
Is there a difference?
Ducks and Dogs can relate
with each and every mate.
We study books and the law
and still can’t communicate.
When ducks and dogs get cross
they duke it out to be boss.
Yet, there is a difference.
They are one with nature.
We think, talk and write about
this and that important story.
What I hear down at the lake
is woof quack yakety-yak.
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206
alone.
The dog,
my friend
Kaia died.
With no love
for an other
filling in,
my days
wither,
Quietly.
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205
one about Kaia.
mind is a crock of stories
galore. Shocking. Loving.
bales of covered hay
for her outdoor dog house.
a bed, covered on the deck,
two in the house plus mine
when she could jump up,
twirl, flop, and snore up a storm.
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203
What you gonna do
What you gonna do
when they come for you?
flight
fight
pew
folks will pray for you.
Gun violence
in America.
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204
She came back.
She came back.
IN YOUR DREAMS!!!
She came back.
He came back.
Back in the good ol’ days.
I wish I was back there.
Let’s wake up.
There is no back.
When we return
through that door
each and every step
offers a new choice.
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202
We are them!
News flash!
(on inheritance)
Look at all the folks (from babies on up)
staring into rectangular appendages.
We already got them,
the robots.
With a little more programming,
forget about manufacturing them.
We are them!
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201
How can I focus?
On who what where
and how can I focus
when what we call truth
is full of hocus-pocus?
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200
Fear
Fear
I have it enough
to know flight or fight
is my first response.
Deer in the head lights
frozen in between
this and that.
Knowing
I AM that I AM
rarely enters the picture.
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199
a Spiritual perspective
How far can it fall
from the tree?
When you get to the core
apple is apple,
no matter what you call it.
a Spiritual perspective
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198
an Observation.
the Bloody Truth
from the Fertile Jungle
looks back at you
from the bathroom mirror.
an Observation.
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197
We are one organ.
We are one organ
Not just you and me
and baby makes 3.
There are wilder beasts
bees fleas donkey knees
blood cells & Buddhist bells
all creation and imagination
see it and believe it
believe it and be it.
There are infinite pipes.
We are one organ.
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196
3 bits
Care Giver
Give & Receive.
Complete the Circle.
*
Change.
live life
fluid flux flow
*
Fear
“I love you sweetie.
You’re going to die.”
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195
Memorial Day all ’round.
Memorial Day all ’round.
Mourning the loss
Hailing the victor
losers and winners,
since caves and trees,
a lesson still unlearned.
One becomes another,
’til there is no other.
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194
Quickies
Talk to with me
Talk to with me
I say
wrapped in this blue terry robe
leaning forward
on left elbow and right hand
moving the TUL
needlepoint pen.
Why to with . . .?
I some times talk to others.
Talking with others is a step up.
Receive Ingest Respond
Ingest Share Listen
One way is ‘me says’
The other is ‘we share’
All that to say the TUL
is my favorite writing tool.
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192
a warm body belly snuggle cuddle
a warm body belly snuggle cuddle
you got it?
yeah, me too.
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191
The time is near
The time is near
my old friend said
as the train approached the station.
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190
No Thing has arrived.
No Thing has arrived.
Imagine greeting no thing
at the front door.
No clothes. No body. No thing.
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189
Stay True to your self
Stay True to your self
That’s what we say
smiling stern don’t really matter
how.
It is your self I Am talking about.
THINK
Is there your self?
Who says?
OK, enough thinking
STOP.
Your self
Gone.
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188
Now What?
SEER, please speak loud and clear.
Rumble off the mountain tops
Rain fire upon the living
Flood the lands with salt.
Wash away the characters
including strong and survive
and live and love, all 26.
No more characters.
Now what?
No more characters.
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187
BRING BREAD IF YOU GOT IT
BRING BREAD
IF YOU GOT IT
The more you bring
the better I sing.
Paper money
like sticky honey
The more I get
the less I fret.
Oh yeah,
bring the honey money,
Hunny
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186
No matter what you say
No matter what you say
about universal health care, corporate taxes, abortion rights, charter schools, affirmative action and Trump’s wall
(a picture is more potent than a thousand words.)
draw a (who wants what) yes/no line from the above words to the appropriate pictures, below.
Where do you stand?
Just saying! No judgment! Just a simple question.
https://www.vox.com/…/1816…/history-congress-women-diversity
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185
Am I here?
Am I here?
Dance yourself off the edge.
Who, me?
Yes. You!
Get what you want.
I want nothing!
No thing is one step away.
You mean jump?
I mean let go words and spaces.
How I’m gonna do that?
Be Hear Now.
I am here.
Let go words and spaces.
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184
What do you say?
When we cut spending
in half
on bullets bombs and BS*
we will have enough
to fix the people’s teeth
free.
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183
Bonus Points: Drafted while hearing Futaba Inoue
& Jean-Pierre Rampal,
Rampal Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
Classical, 1975
Ave Maria, Charles Gounod
*male cattle dung
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Don’t Go!
Don’t Go!
Go where?
Away from here,
now?
I AM all ways Here
Now.
Hear Now!
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182
Home where ??
Some one says
You’re so honest.
I say
Seeds must be planted
to get results.
Honest seeds reap honesty.
Honesty starts at home.
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181
for you brown fearin’ lyin’ folks . . .
for you brown fearin’ lyin’ folks . . .
for you folks that fear brown,
get over through under it.
Once you go brown,
there’s no turning around.
for you folks that say one thing and mean another,
when lies meet truth, you flying up or burning down?
Meanwhile,
I’m gonna jus sit here and jot down the words.
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180
4 Questions!
4 Questions!
My memory is not yours,
so let us decide now.
I have one foot in heaven,
another in fiery coals.
Yes or No?
***
In 1787 negotiators agreed that cows were 3/5ths of the whole.
In 1865 that law was rendered obsolete.
Cows, slaves, same thing , right?
In the 1950’s and 60’s Malcolm X began using ‘Black’
and ‘Afro-American’.
Before then, common names were nigger and Negro.
Question!
When did Afro-Americans become fully-accepted Americans?
***
When spirit has flown the coop,
why is the coop entombed,
and held in reverence?
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179
Isn’t it odd
Isn’t it odd
Isn’t it odd the news
left and right
is about D. Trump?
What’s that about?
I say it’s about a master
performer
hypnotizing us.
Let’s give the man a standing ovation
for his mesmerizing and brilliant
performance.
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178
Recorders of the recorded
Recorders of the recorded
Barack Obama and Adolph Hitler make recorded news.
Recorders and reporters pick a side
and respond accordingly.
What’s your side?
Are there more than 2?
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177
Words get away
Words get away from me. Some times,
they have their own guidance,
separate from mine.
They (the words) leave me (this guy) in the dust.
When the dust clears, I witness what has transpired.
“Where did that come from?”
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176
Put your self in Her place.
Put your self in Her place.
If She does regard,
Mother Nature doesn’t regard one state more important
than any other. Not yours. Not mine. Not another.
Mother Nature just is.
No judgement or conditions.
We breathe Her in
and chop Her down.
We love and hate Her.
We abuse and praise Her.
We fight over Her
and then pollute Her.
We claim dominion over Her
in the name of Him.
Mother Nature just is.
Put your self in Her place.
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175
*another short story
I hear death is out
(was going to say sex)*
of the question.
Why? I hear
It feels so far away
and hear it is
a ticking heart.
*another short story
What’s there to question
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174
A wish.
‘Don’t leave home
without it’.
Donations dry up.
Political parties fail.
We step forward
with our hearts.
A wish.
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173
One fell swoop.
If spirit in one fell swoop,
revealed all of our darkest secrets
and prevented us from harboring more,
(stripped us naked so to speak)
there’d be mayhem and the world
that we know would change for ever.
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172
SLAVE & I wanna find God!
SLAVE
It’s not black and white.
Aren’t we slaves to food and sex, power and possession,
life and love, hoping and wishing, yesterday and tomorrow ?
Think about it!
Most of all, I’m a SLAVE to me, mine, mind.
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171a
*****
Folks say,
I wanna’ find God!
I hear,
Look no further.
I AM that I AM.
I AM all ways here.
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171b
Been there. Done that.
Been there. Done That.
Listening to NPR
‘the Moth’ stories
on Veteran’s Day afternoon.
Lying here crying.
Thinking how odd it is
when words so far away
can strike so close to home
so many years later.
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170
Has it always been
Has it always been
me mine I ?
My pimple dog man wife cat kids
body cancer country.
Who cut up the pie and gave each piece a name?
It’s time for a sit down, to negotiate a few major changes.
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a Simple Mind
a Simple Mind prefers simple conclusions.
Just for now
Just for now
I am enough.
Cells
that come and go
ripples
in the ocean
grains
on the beach
air
passing through
a snowflake
here and gone
the least and the most
cells ripples grains air
a snowflake
here and gone.
I am enough
just for now.
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168
I dance
I dance
I dance to my own beat.
Sometimes,
that means stepping on toes.
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167
nothingness
It’s all food,
It’s all food,
somehow,
no matter what we call it.
Pain Joy Life Death,
it’s all food in service,
since before the first breath.
Let’s get past our little bellies,
my thoughts of me mine I,
and breathe in Be Hear Now.
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165
the loving Heart of Grace
We were conversing about a Smart device controlling our lives. I added my 2-cents, then heard from inside-out,
“It may be time to develop ‘inner smarts’, so the ‘outer smarts’ are limited, by the loving Heart of Grace.”
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164
There I was,
There I was, confidently losing weight.
Today, the scale revealed a 10 pounds gain.
That mind is a world-class character, to befriend.
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163
here at Eglon Beach
here at Eglon Beach
4 men stand in the shallow surf
casting their Silent Lures
for salmon.
a Gull lands. an Egret lifts off.
the Sky is cloudy, sunny and eye blue.
it Crinkles my gaze through the windshield,
here at Eglon Beach.
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162
Mayonnaise & Children
Mayonnaise & Children
have some thing in common.
They both evolve from eggs.
Some folks will say mayonnaise
Is not a they.
I say
‘If that makes you feel good, stick with it’.
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161
a Bit of History
a Bit of History
Mr. Trump has widened a wound, never fully closed and still festering, since Europeans landed on these shores and brought weapons, religion, a vision of riches, measles, smallpox, cholera, savagery to kill ‘savages’, and wiped out 90% of the indigenous people.
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159
Buddha Babies II
Buddha Babies II
Buddha babies are everywhere.
Be the leaf drifted down landing beneath the surface.
Be the feeling carried on each breath wide awake.
Be the heart truth no matter how pain full fully exposed.
Be the Buddha Baby everywhere Buddha babies.
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110
Open and See
What are your true colors?
Open and See
canvas sails touch the sky
ever so slowing
moving by.
a blue field
Spring meadow
pink lily dripping dew.
before words.
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114

3 Littluns
3 Littluns
Wishing and Hoping ain’t Doing and Being.
Which appeals to you more?
***
Resistance and Surrender are essential building blocks.
What lets a beating heart swoon?
***
.
Some myths may be dispelled
or last a lifetime.
20
the Pain of Leaving
the Pain of Leaving
When I experience me and you
and us and them
being one and the same,
how much leaving can there be?
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36
Good Friends
Good Friends
We left Vietnam,
with our friends
hanging from choppers.
We’re leaving Syria,
with our friends
hanging from trees.
Smokey the Bear says,
‘Always leave your friends,
with a loving heart’,
or something like that.
‘Trees are our friends too’.
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158
the Whizzing Wind.
the Whizzing Wind.
Make it up. Go with it,
riding the mare bareback.
She lathers! We’re moving fast,
against the whizzing wind.
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157
the Mirror
the Mirror
People in power want to keep it.
Doesn’t matter the position or system.
Some are community-minded.
Others are Me-mine-I minded.
Each may become the other.
Look around and see Me-mine-I in the mirror.
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156
A verbal written voice.
A verbal written voice speaks up.
loud and clear.
“I can’t physically prevent you
from putting ME in the world.
A more effective protest is through
Mind’s Eye.
You look down and see what I AM thinking.
out loud.
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155
3 belles
Evening tides,
a dark seascape,
on a moonless night.
A foot in time,
one still behind,
not here, not there.
Eat your heart out.
If no light pours through,
do it again.
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154
Let us love
Let us love
in the open
here and now
entwined
musky
dew drops on the cotton sheet.
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153
a Flurry of Words
a Flurry of Words
It’s all about me, don’t you think?
Thinking may raise Demons, Goddesses, the stink of Turd Town, built in another land.
Thinking is not feeling.
Thinking is crinkling my face and scrunching down to avoid day and night, the wind-carried ash,
landing like snow.
Here, we flush our solid waste.
Turd Town incinerates theirs’.
Which way is best, do you think?
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152
Who breaks the law?
Who breaks the law?
illegals
Who makes the law?
Legals came here,
killed the native buffalo food
chained a people’s body and mind
dropped atomic bombs on 2 large cities
and we still make the law.
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150
Peak Living
Peak Living
A man was surrounded by peaks,
and woke only after knowing the valley
and all in between.
the Buddha
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150
in between Black & White
In between Black & White
Black says You’re one of us.
White says You’re one of them.
I say At least they agree on one thing,
that the Virginian 1924 Racial Integrity Act
is still intact.
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149
the BlackWhite divide
The BlackWhite divide in America is based in fear
From the beginning;
We need more hands, to prosper.
I been bought to a strange land.
We can’t lose what we got.
Father, daughter, brother, mother, all sold.
We will kill to stay on top.
It’s better to be angry and alive, than dead and gone.
Jesus will save you!
I wanna be saved!
[Years later!]
My Black brothas and sistas,
tell Him out-loud and proud
what He is gonna do for you.
[Chorus (out loud and proud)]
Jesus will save me!
Jesus will save me!
Jesus will save me!
[SILENCE]
Keep them down, any way we have to.
We got to get up from here, and come together.
. . . any way we have to.
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Words can’t hurt you.
Words can’t hurt you.
Actions can.
“Hang ’em high!”
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148
You wanna live?
You wanna live?
Make waves.
Big little
fast slow.
don’t matter.
Make waves.
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147
147
The Nature of Nature
The Nature of Nature.
We plant and grow apples.
Bugs eat the apples.
We spray the fruit and kill the bugs.
The bugs evolve and eat the sprayed fruit.
We use stronger spray to kill the bugs.
We eat the apples.
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146
When I am balanced
When I am balanced in moments and in between,
what more or less is there?
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145
Floating downstream is easier
Floating downstream is easier than fighting the current,
yet
resistance to pressure creates a diamond.
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144
Fentanyl & Crack expose the divide
Fentanyl & Crack expose the divide between Black and White folks in America. How?
In the 80’s and 90’s Crack landed in Harlem and Los Angeles.
How many ‘let’s support the people’ programs were implemented?
Recently, Fentanyl has landed in Ohio and Appalachia.
How many ‘lock ’em up and throw away the key’ programs
are headlined?
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143
We like happy faces . . .
We like happy faces on Facebook.
We avoid the face of pain, suffering and death.
Some folks experience all these faces in their day to day lives.
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142
I love you
I love you.
How can you love what you don’t know?
You don’t have to know, to love.
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141
all that to say . . .
all that to say,
Head Land, Heart Land, and Now Land
balanced
is . . . I AM . . . land.
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140
Winging Away
Kaia is winging away, as we all are, day by day.
Note: My grief wets this keyboard, only for her.
My blurred vision, pained heart, and memories of happy us,
have me stifling a tear-filled scream.
Sleeping on a comfy bed,
under the dining-room table,
is my darling, Kaia,
winging away.
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139
To the bathroom mirror I said,
To the bathroom mirror I said, ‘You look pregnant’.
Looking and being pregnant are very different.
One is a story, the other an experience.
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138
Excellence and Mediocrity
Excellence and Mediocrity don’t co-exist,
without one affecting the other.
When one seeks excellence without question,
avoid mediocrity.
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137
I love you sweetie.
I love you sweetie.
I love you so much,
when I think how much,
my heart spills everywhere.
That’s what I said to Kaia this morning.
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136
If I had the choice of owning . . .
If I had the choice of owning a gold mine or a creative mind,
which would I choose? Which would you choose?
This is where question 1 comes into play?
A friend just reminded me, ‘Your creative mind is the gold mine’.
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135
‘Better times ’round da corner.’
‘Better times ’round da corner.’
That’s what they say in church. They say,
‘It’s better upstairs and worse downstairs.
Pray to go up, sin to go down’.
I say, ‘Tell me what to do on this floor now,
not yesterday or tomorrow. I’ll ask for guidance,
when I am in those places’.
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134
I sometimes mix up Indians.
I sometimes mix up Indians.
There are India Indians and American Indians.
India Indians are named after the Indus River.
American Indians are named after an error.
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133
Test 1
Test 1
Some of what equals sum?
or
Sum of what equals some?
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132
Why did we drop an atomic bomb
Why did we drop an atomic bomb
“To save lives”.
twice?
“To confirm consistent results”.
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131
Love a Spade
Love a Spade
Even a spade may be an instrument of salvation.
When that’s all you have to dig up weeds,
and plant new seeds,
Kings and Queens don’t matter.
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130
Life is one big learning lesson.
Life is one big learning lesson,
that can be divided into days, hours, minutes and seconds.
Each of these being separate experiences,
taken together, called life.
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129
Some Thing & No Thing
Some Thing & No Thing
Some Thing lives on the hill.
No Thing lives in the flood plain.
One day Some Thing looks down
and thinks out loud, ‘I want No Thing’.
Question: How many things do I need, to know joy?
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128
One Man’s Take!
One man kneels and says
This ain’t right!
More men kneel and say
This ain’t right!
Men with rights say
It was right, is right and will be right,
so get your asses up, and go back to work!
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127
a Short Story
Heaven spent a week in town.
Folks hugged trees and each other.
Day and night welcomed night and day.
Is was all and all was one.
Now weeks later, is and was complete a sentence.
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126
You wanna’ stand up?
You wanna’ stand up? Just do it!
You wanna’ stand out? Stand up!
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125