When I was a young man
A heedless headlong consumer of life, was I
Above and beyond the norm or necessity
I wore paths deep and wide
To the pleasure centres of my brain
And I rode my soul like an easy *****
Oh happy daze of hedonism
How sweet life tasted then

If there was drink to drink
We drank it
If there were songs to sing
We sang them
If there were fights to fight
We fought them
We had fast feet and faster wits
If there was hell to raise
We raised it
Excess and adventure in equal parts
How fast, how high we flew back then

And then the magic playground
Became a bleak and dangerous place
Peopled by predators and prey
In an ever changing food chain
And I was only one step away
From the totally oblivious
One brain cell ahead of
The permanent reality challenged
Then friends began casually dying
Barely noticed in the rush to join them
Now the race is on
And I have grown old and slow

                                              By Phil Roberts

Upon this starry night
In a breath of sparkling life
My grand-daughter was born
In a world full of beauty
As well as traps and snares
She faces her first dawn
And we can give no more than love
Nor offer more than guidance
And vow only to be constant
For that is more than so many have

And so I whisper to her

You are made of bright newness
Innocent of prejudice
So to yourself be true
For many would give you their bigotries
Sell you their corrupted histories
But your truth lies within you
You, the blood of my blood
The child of my child
Have moved me beyond reason
At the wonder of creation

                                     By Phil Roberts

I want to see her one more time;
One more time to say the things
I should have said before;
One more time to say I’m sorry
and how much I deplore
the ill-concealed behaviour
that she could not ignore.

I want to see her one more time;
One more time to gaze upon
that so beloved face;
One more time to visualise
that look of peace and grace
so unappreciated
while it was commonplace

If only I could see her one more time,
I’d be able to expiate my crime,
express  contrition
for that disgraceful act
unintentionally hurtful
and more a lack of tact.
If I were granted only one more time.

Many consider terrorism and religion to be synonymous, consciously or subconsciously...and I don't know exactly why.

But religion and terror were never the same and never will be. Religion is a way of life and an assumed path towards the great soul. Terrorism means cutting people off from that very path and the way of life.

I don't know much about any region coz' Mr. X never had any religion even though 'I' have one. But whatever I've come to know of religions, I've understood that religion is a beautiful experience in itself and every religion is intensely complex and extremely simple. Its a way of life which has its own faults and own benefits. And when you see from a different perspective altogether, like I do now, you'll see that all religions are one, just like every human on this planet. We're all the same and even our religions have so much in common that we often realise, we have just one common goal. To reach the Supreme. To reach what is unknown through this path of life. Thus according to logic, as we have the same goal, we must unite to reach it. But that's not how it works in this world.  Does it?
Maybe its because we have forgotten what Religion is or what we are looking for. We have forgotten God.
And yes, I do use the term 'God' even though I'm an 'all logic' person because even I believe that there's so much unknown out there, that only what is 'unknown' decides every aspect of this Universe. Only 'God' decides and only 'God' humbles us by this extreme expanse of the 'creations'.

The Muslims were never in fault neither were the Christians nor the Hindus. Not even any other religion which ever will be a part of human history can have any fault. It was just a group of people who infused terror in the minds of people from the very beginning and this will keep happening till the very end. Its a way of life you know.

I make this comparison here not because I believe subconsciously that these terms can be compared,  but because I see people mindlessly and heartlessly polluting noble routes which were once mapped by the noblest minds years ago. Yes, with time the routes must change but they'll never falter to lead us to where we want to go.

And amidst all this terror and chaos we just have to keep one thing in mind. Religion and terror were never the same and never will be. Don't revolt against religion or even make harsh comments against it, but revolt against terrorism. Revolt against the terrible brutality caused by a human against another human. Revolt against what YOU feel is wrong from the deepest corners of your heart. It's all up to you now. Do what is right. Revolt in your own way but do it right. Don't think of changing the world. Just change someone's mind.

So many wars against so many religions
So much hate because we don't believe the exact same thing.
People put so much faith into their religions,
they sometimes forget about what their religions about.
I do not like the idea of religions very much
If your a Christian and you believe in God,
Why have so many religions just cause
Someone does one minor thing different
I looked into it, and the differences between us is so small
Let me answer a question.
Yes, other Christians believe in Jesus too!
Guess what? they also go to communion,
get baptized (shocker) and pray!
Why can't we have a church called Church.
Where everyone could worship God however.
So theres no more discrimination because of religion.
Because i don't put my faith in religion,
I put it in Jesus Christ.
Amen.

Beth figured she’d marry a man with a full tool box
capable of building a house anvil strong,
                              
a man who’d plug her good and help raise
children with squares jaws,

he’d  praise her Christmas fruitcake,
provide every American good thing;

she added
wrong.

The source of words
is the very source
of human thought.

If we are to under-
stand one another,
we must find the source
of our words.

The sources of
our streams of consciousness
are as varied as nature;
from the highest pinnacles
to the bowels of the earth.
The nature of the sources
matters little.
The highest may be polluted;
the purest flow may come
from the deepest spring.

Recognizing our own source
is essential
when our streams merge.
Our thoughts commingle,
and still remain our own.
In the foaming tumble
over the boulders
of daily living,
it is well to remember
our innermost selves,
like the river,
need the aeration
of an outlet and a
                                few
                            ­           deep
                                                breaths.

On­ce we have come
to our under-
standing,
we need not remain
below those we now
stand under.

(the beauty of words
is the very beauty
of human thought)

In the breeze of cold wind
Shivering in temperamental emotional pondering
I engulf in a journey of motion steering
Who are they who makes head aching problems?
People who succumb to their will, like me!
Suffers a low, unbalance gold fee
I’m widening the patience I have left
Though I’m tired of these awful mess
The aura of fine is at my will
A choice to pay the bills
Its a challenging flight of my well-being
Time is fast approaching for me to be back Home
To feel warm again is what I long for…
The hands of cold oceanic waves paints an empty wall
                                                            ­          In Deep Blue….

in the week when I fell in love
once every night
I rolled sevens like eleven times

seemed like my luck
was rabbit's footed  
and four leaf clover abundant

seven years bad luck ended
with a breakfast of
hog jowls and black eyed peas

and the garden grew fine
untended tall corn turnips
sunflowers like

a Van Gogh painting
that suddenly had
a door to the church

open , and two white irises
in a field of  purple
amazed flowers

such was the week the
dalliance of harvest moon
early in November

on toes right round
conversing with god
the edge very close
almost falling down
when the strawberry
lips of the betweens
came and I came and
all was frozen in the
true sense of the word
she called me  by my
name at the time
superman

sleep deprived five dozen hours  
I am on a desert highway, without a nickel
my thumb begging for a ride which wouldn’t come
until dawn    

but I don’t know all that dark is ahead;
I only know the night is moonless, the cedars
the pinyons on the far mesas are moving like mournful buffalo,
long gone except in my waking dream  

on the road two eyes are all I see
green, sparkling as prisms of light in all that black,  
electrified ***** of mushy matter, glowing in sockets
in a canine skull    

I fear strange dogs
and other fanged beasts--I pray to a god
I do not know is there, imploring empty space
and dark matter for salvation    

it comes when the lights of a diesel  
birth, rear, and shrink the shadow of me  
and allow my vexed eyes to see, an asphalt stream
with nary a scary creature but I