Category Archives: Poetry; Solitude

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More Equal Distribution of Material Wealth is Needed Across the World

 

This is an amazing building in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay. It is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra.

Many hands have built it. Many lives enjoy it. Each room has its own swimming pool.

The business it supports has given employment to many people.

Then, I think of the homeless of the world…

I think of those without running water when I see many, many private swimming pools…and my heart weeps that we use our intelligence for luxury, while our brothers and sisters have no place to live, no food to eat, no water to drink…

Why can’t these same beautiful minds create a building  to shelter the homeless?

Why can’t these same beautiful minds create a way to bring water to every person in the world?

Where I was born has been a blessing to me. I have a home, food to eat and water to drink whenever I want it. I live in a condition that only exists for 75% of the world’s population. 25% may seem minute—but NOT when we are speaking about HUMAN BEINGS in need of water, food and shelter, not to mention health concerns.

SOME FACTS:

1. According to an article posted on http://www.slumdogs.org/homeless-facts/…”Housing is a basic human need, yet the statistics of United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 2005 notes that, an estimated 100 million people -one-quarter of the world’s population- live without shelter or in unhealthy and unacceptable conditions…

2. Over 100 million people around the world have no shelter whatsoever. The health consequences of this level of homelessness are profound. The Action Aid in 2003 had found out that there were 78 million homeless people in India alone. CRY(Child Relief and You) in 2006 estimated that there are 11 million homeless children live on the street. The statistics are grim. What is worse is that very little is known of what it means to be part of such horrific numbers.  (SOURCE: http://www.slumdogs.org/homeless-facts/)”

3. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over 610,042 people experience homelessness on any given night in the US.

 

Other interesting sites with more information on the Homeless:

1. http://www.endhomelessness.org/library/entry/the-state-of-homelessness-2014

2. http://invisiblepeople.tv/blog/about/

3.http://moveforhunger.org/hunger-and-homelessness/?

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I am not saying that beauty and beautiful buildings are not wonderful and good. I am just saying we each have so much to be grateful for and if each person did ONE act a day towards helping another human being, we would all be happier and it would be a more peaceful, just  world.

 

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Od’s Story part 1

John Flanagan’s story of Od captivates your heart! Please direct your likes and comments to his site: johnpoetflanagan@wordpress.com. The story is worth your reading time!

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the Heart

“so fill your heart with what’s important and be done with all the rest…”  It is so easy to fall into the mind blaming…what should I have done…what could s/he could have done…why did this happen to me...if only  game.  It is easy for us to wallow in our own grief and forget that there is hope for us…there is life out there…our heart needs to be filled with desire and love.

We can choose to stay in the dung heap, or get up out of it, and find a new direction and a new way of being. Each day truly offers a new opportunity.  Each day offers new people to meet and new friends to make! We are made to spread love in this world…and, foremost, to be gentle with ourselves and give love to ourselves.   When things become too much, when people have left you for another, when you are just fed-up with all that is going wrong–GOOD! This observation is a SIGN to you to MOVE FORWARD! That is the time to throw all that grief out of your life and BEGIN again!  Life is a series of beginning and endings…but if something is ending…something new is about to begin! Keep your life going…weep a little for yourself, be gentle with you, and then leave it behind…and go forward with your heart…”filling your heart with what is important!”

Heart outtake

Heart outtake (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

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it was just a flower garden

IMAG3572she got up early

and toiled in the soil on the hillside

hoping to pull the weeds

before the hot sun struck her back…

it was just a flower garden

a simple flower garden

into which she tried

–to find meaning

–to give meaning

–to be meaningful

finally she had to leave and rest

and found herself seated on the front doorstep

and all of her life passed her by–

the tears fell one by one–

pounding the cement

with each memory

 

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morning entrance

Perennial

Perennial

Looking out over the backyard,

my eye takes in a delicious view…

the dew is gentle on the perennials —

whose guest appearance is more abundant this year with the copious amount of rainfall–

in the distance, I can see the fog lift up the grass..

the fields stretch for miles

bordered by a silhouette of forest…

the birds have already begun their morning dialogue

the birch tree is stretching to grow…

and the majestic sun-fire is entering to light our day–

Morning to you all!

 

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an oblique glance

an oblique glance

came my way

as tears

washed through the inside of me

how humanity

finds sorrow difficult to face head on

we sandwich our funerals in between our tasks

we excuse ourselves if we are asked

we run

we hide

we fear

we do not want to be its pawn

yet into every life

grief enters

perhaps if we entered its song

we could right ourselves from the wrong?IMAG2523

 

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Overwhelmed

DER HORENDE by Toni Zenz

chaos

building in my mind

squeezing the orange

one more time!

pain floating

in and out

how the inner voices

leap and shout

Toni Zenz, “Der Hörende”

(“The Listener,” bronze, 1957,

Pax-Christi Kirche, Essen, Germany)

why?…why not?

judge…do not judge

smoke-filled

brain fog smudge

BE …OPEN up MIND

leap on that being

turn it into becoming

let out the primordial scream

 

 

LISTEN

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Whisper Quick

In Loving Memory of my brother,

Airman Roger  J. Johann

July 24, 1935-May, 4, 1955

 

IMAG3657

Life is a whisper quick–

as he balanced the cigarette on his lip

I was just three, sitting on his knee

the kitchen chair, him and me

then he passed the cigarette my way

naïve I was what can I say

when a puff of smoke I did inhale

and I felt ever so pale

big brothers have their ways

and we did bond deeply in that stay.

It was Christmas Eve and I was four

I was waiting for him who I adored

Snuggled in his bed asleep

He picked me up and down the stairs we did creep

There underneath the lit Christmas tree

Colored chalk and blackboard waiting for me!

Off to England and Iceland next

There he was the Air Force guest

Then the day became the night

His life was lost on that flight

Only nineteen, it was not fair

So young and so much to give for freedom’s dare

The North Atlantic took him to the Lord

And his eight friends who were aboard

Now the years have come and gone

Still I remember his gentle song

My Mom sat with me

Beneath the window breeze

Pointing to the sky

To the military formation for me to fly

There were the planes one by one

Except for yours, they flew their song

How deep her sorrow for you she wept

In her heart, the love she kept

How many young people have given their life

For freedom, that day, became your wife