Fredisms
When I look in the mirror,
When I look in the mirror,
reflected is the me
I see in words.
When our forebears
saw their reflections
prior to any words,
what were their
thoughts?
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the Stories
the Stories
you and me
them and us
sex and death
one happy heart
pale sky blue wind
doggie makes three
here now is presence
you are not any one
change is change
beyond a mind
living love
Life.
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the Ever Present Now
the Ever Present NOW
is each living
breath.
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Talk vs. Action
Talk vs. Action
Right now,
we are writing speaking
and acting prayer-full,
until this threat ends.
They all do end.
Then back to
tanning on the beach
plenty of toilet paper
and us versus them.
Folks say,
“this COVID-19 virus
will change things”.
I say,
“only action, not words
will change things”.
What action will I take
to make a change?
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a Virus
the Central Park Five
served serious time.
Our short confinements
due to this virus
should be a cinch.
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I lie,
I lie to you,
to be safe in here,
and keep fear out there.
I lie with you,
imagining fantasy
with an other is reality.
I lie,
until lies
become truth.
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the Whale.
In the belly of the whale,
they say Jonah lived.
See the whale below
the floating gulls
above the
ferry.
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How will you do
How will you do
when there is no you?
No here or there, where
thought reigns supreme.
No life or death, no you,
no me, no thing to be.
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Storms
Each life storm
has troughs
and crests.
Then the next
storm hits.
Each living day
could end.
NOW
is what
there is.
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Splash . . .
Splash, . . .
Like you and me,
all form shall pass.
Between now and then,
what will my pebbles
ripple the pond with?
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a short 1, 2, 3
a short 1, 2, 3
hold it and stroke it
your hair
open wide and relax
the dentist said
hot sweaty heat rising
from the radiator cap
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I throw the windows open
I throw the windows open
and just now realize
any window, a dream
made real, will live on
in the mind made real.
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acorns
acorns
hold
a seed
For
wood
poems
shelter
animals
and life
on earth.
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Capitalists Unite
Capitalists Unite
Which choices best support growth
in an expanding capitalist society ?
some of us OR all of us.
school debt OR learn for free.
lung cancer OR no cigarettes
mine is mine OR mine is ours.
factory farms OR family farms.
plastic is profit OR profit is clean air.
private prisons OR help the people.
profit/people ?
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Do you know,
Do you know,
living and dying
are not separate,
yet I embrace one
and fear the other.
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Creatures of habit.
Creatures of habit.
We struggle beneath the weight,
bearing us down and out
the door to the right is open.
We can take the easy way
through the wide open door
or breathe still mind open heart,
to where rubber meets the road.
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I love you
‘I love you
and don’t want it
to ever end.’
Know this.
Each breath
is a new beginning.
Each breath
is a new beginning.
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I lie,
I lie,
I lie to you,
to be safe in here
and keep fear out there.
I lie with you,
imagining fantasy
with an other is reality.
I lie,
until lies
become truth.
f
She says . . .
She says
‘Find it and face it’.
I say
‘Find it and be it’.
For years it chased me
down 13 flights of stairs.
One afternoon I stopped
and turned.
It entered me
and there was no thing
to FEAR
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I forget
Many times
I forget
God speaks
to me
not just
through me
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Return em?
Return em?
Shoot em
when you
get em.
Run away
slaves.
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I love you
I love you
and am afraid
my heart is open
too wide.
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Sun shine
Sun shine
Find me.
I AM
beyond thought.
Now what,
beyond thought?
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“I am sorry.”
“I am sorry.”
When I plant the seed,
no amount of sorries
can change the fruit.
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each moment.
each moment
matters
be
see
feel
hear
taste
breathe
Love
in each moment
matters
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Are you OK with that?
Levels Ov Involvement
is a study in and of itself.
Some will just say, Huh?
Some see Of, and move on.
Some read the words start to end,
then wonder if the spelling is correct.
Some will know all the words as printed
and recall ‘I have experienced the levels’.
Some will add an emoji, for a modern reply.
Some will read Ov and whisper, to no others
in the room, ‘Wow, this guy can’t even spell Of’.
Some, or really most, will never know I even exist.
Are you OK with that?
f
LOVE
Can I have it all,
at the same time
hiding out,
wanting
to be
with you?
‘There’s no way
you can have it all.’
‘Pick this or that,
and make it work.’
I Can have it all
at the same time.
LOVE
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Earth-lings
Earth-lings
There has never been peace
between humans on this planet,
yet there has always been life,
in one form or another.
I ask you, ‘How necessary are we
‘lings’, to earth’s survival?
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teacher love
teacher love
when
ticktockticktockticktock
ticktockticktockticktock
ticktockticktockticktock
struck 3
you were gone.
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summer 1974
Waiting . . .
Waiting . . .
I wonder how long
it lives at the door?
Death.
Life.
How long will I wait
to be forest AND fire?
Wake Up!
Do you really think
the two are separate?
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Reflection
Reflection
Reflection
Folks say, “You’re Black”.
I say, “OK”.
A voice says, “Be who you are”.
I ask, “Does who transcend hue”?
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Kool Aid
Kool Aid
We laugh and say,
‘they drank the Kool Aid’.
Others look at us and say,
‘they drank the Kool Aid’.
I laugh and say,
‘there’s a lotta Kool Aid
out there’.
Kids today say,
‘no more Kool Aid’.
‘Let’s open our hearts
in service of all life.’
f
Goddess Supreme
Goddess Supreme
We can use your guidance
to cross these troubled waters,
beneath the gathering clouds.
Appear as a tempest or a dry leaf
crashing to the forest floor,
but come to mend hearts.
May our discord cease
as your joy pours forth,
melding light with night.
Help us accept life and death,
to know love connects all hearts
as one, and to Be Hear Now.
f
1 liddle tail
What is on
in
from
to
mind ?
mine
yours
ours
there’s
no
return
from
illusion.
Is
there ?
Who
says?
You ?
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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.
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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
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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.
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alone.
The dog,
my friend
Kaia died.
With no love
for an other
filling in,
my days
wither,
Quietly.
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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.
f
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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We are them!
News flash!
(on inheritance)
Look at all the folks (from babies on up)
staring into rectangular appendages.
We already are them,
the robots.
With a little more programming,
forget about manufacturing them.
We are them!
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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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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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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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an Observation.
the Bloody Truth
from the Fertile Clam
looks back at you
from the bathroom mirror.
an Observation.
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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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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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Quickies
The time is near
The time is near
my old friend said
as the train approached the station.
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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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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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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.
f
Don’t Go!
Don’t Go!
Go where?
Away from here,
now?
I AM all ways Here
Now.
Hear Now!
f
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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4 Questions!
4 Questions!
My memory is not yours,
so let us decide now.
We have one foot in heaven,
the other 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?
f
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.
f
178
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?
f
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 the results..
“Where did those words come from?”
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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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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.
*****
Folks say,
I wanna’ find God!
I hear,
Look no further.
I AM that I AM.
I AM all ways
Present.
f
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.
f
I dance
I dance
I dance to my own beat.
Sometimes,
that means stepping on toes.
f
nothingness
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.
f
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.
f
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’.
f
161
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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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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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.
f
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.
f
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.
f
154
Let us love
Let us love
in the open
here and now
entwined
musky
dew drops
on the cotton sheet.
f
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?
f
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.
f
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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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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Words can’t hurt you.
Words can’t hurt you.
Actions can.
“Hang ’em high!”
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You wanna live?
You wanna live?
Make waves.
Big little
fast slow.
don’t matter.
Make waves.
f
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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Balance
When I am balanced
in each moment
and between,
what more or less
is there?
f
Currents and Diamonds
Floating downstream is easier
than fighting the current,
yet
resistance to pressure
creates a diamond.
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We like happy faces . . .
We like happy faces on Facebook.
We avoid the face of pain, suffering and death.
Many folks experience all these faces
in their day to day living.
Do you?
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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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all that to say . . .
all that to say,
Head Land, Heart Land,
and Now Land
balanced
is . . . I AM . . . land.
f
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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Excellence and Mediocrity
Excellence and Mediocrity don’t co-exist,
without one affecting the other.
When one seeks excellence without question,
avoid mediocrity.
f
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.
f
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’.
f
‘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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