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One of the historical challenges
     Of money is transacting across the
          Borders of our world’s many nations.
               Money in one nation or area is often
                    Not accepted in another nation, and
                         Requires expensive (and controlled)
                              Exchanges in order to transfer value
                                   Therefore
                              We need a digitally native, borderless
                        Money permitting near-instantaneous
                   Global transfers of value. This peer to
               Peer electronic cash system is now
          Operating successfully, started in
     2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto. This
Is the truly open Bitcoin Network.
You can see this poem on a background here - https://www.bitcoinpoems.pro/delivery116BordersVsBorderless.html.  This is number 30 in the Problems and Solutions Series.
Yenson Aug 2021
Saw the bean pole and its roots
arguing outdoor with two oppressors
bean pole treated unfavourably
its on foreign soil doused in free milk
but reminded
its just another border crosser
from a rubber dinghy from Calias

Saw the bean pole housed
in nursery and greenhouse to propagate
now rooted anew its given nutrients
but it must do as ordered
for no matter what
its just another border crosser
from a rubber dinghy from Calias

Saw bean pole growing tendrils
leaves unfold green to catch sunshine
but now a puppet amongst others
who bend and shape at will
bean pole see that plant next to you
its taking your nutrients away
go block its sun
do as we say or else
just remember you're just another crosser
from a rubber dinghy from Calias

Bean pole will grow and bear fruits
on foreign soil there's milk and honey
but for as long as the sun shines
the chains and barbs will hold
bean pole is just a stick
carrying tendrils to grow the beans
eaten by those of the land
who to them will always be  
just another border crosser
from a rubber dinghy from Calias
Astrea Aug 2020
Map
Looking at the map,
my eyes find their way to the unnamed borders,
the many lines that divide the land
and the sea,
the civilised,
and the savage.
I dimly wonder
if those lines are truly the ends of the earth,
or are they beginnings of a new world?
nick armbrister May 2020
I do not have any pain
I did not complain
How do we get out?
We met by a miracle
Let's flee to the West
This we can do
For the truth will **** us here
Our truth will end us
You are my life
I am your life
They built a wall round us
Round our city
To keep us in
But they cannot stop us
Will never control our hearts
Nor our will to escape
And prove them wrong
We will break their prison
And breach the wall
A short but intense melody
Catching up with the seen and unseen.

Boundary of day and night,
Where earth's surging spin
Inexorably melts 
Cascading aches and melancholy spills 


Thirsty planets open,
For the ****** of rockets and unfurling of roots.
Nature holds her breath
and decides to wait.
The bursting promise within
the boundary of mountains and water
Life hesitates 

Where serenity of silence rules over this deserted border.
Seen or unseen,the border of unconsciousness.
By/ Angel.XJ 10/05/2020
MAJI JAYAJIT Apr 2020
I met her above the hill as a boy
     far away from the Reality
    I thought  it would be easy
    I thought it would  be simple
            but not the society /
   And it went on ,days were  
                passing like a
    brook into the far woods
She was like that story book   
               I loved to read
    loved to flip her pages even  
                      when
             I used to sleep //
she was like that  baby whom I    
                 like a mother
      loved to cuddle even after
        hundred sleepless nights
            But did the society?
One day she said she belonged to
               a different faith,
  though I never read it on her
                        face,
            I never learnt it
         when we gossipped
      possibly it was our fate
may be we were not  for each   
              other mate !
till that date we have never met
till that day every moment I hardly  
                      spent
God never made the barriers,
                    we did
   God never created religions 
               Society did //
     If I get those days  back again.    
                and I wish
I was not that high school lil Jack,
   I promise  I wanna ask myself
why did not you say anything at    
                   her face?
    why did I accept that as  
                    my fate !
I want to know are you happy  
     are you ok with all those    
                 prejudices,
    with all those myths and.    
                 blatant lies,
   that has nothing to do with us    
                   my friend //
   Then I realized its not that simple
   because you and I , we all belong to
              this Cruel society
     where still some mugs live/
    with their long straucht arms
        to condemn you and me,  
   to outcast my you and your me
    Still I want to ask you dear
why could not you dare to ask
     if not them atleast to me
   it was  really  you or your me
    that asked me to leave ? maybe
its the  differences that told us to  
       apart or  its the society who
               played her tricks,
  to safeguard her  status-quo and  
                   age-old bricks //
    I wish We  had been born
              as adam and Eve,
    I hope  we were  born in that
                        society,
     where hardly any differences
                         exist
this mismatch is nothing only the    
                icebergs' tip
      differences are more than
       that we could ever think
  God has not set the barriers we did,
                 you and I did //
This poem is written to address a particular aspect of our life.
no political or hatemongering motive behind this
Michael R Burch Mar 2020
Not Elves, Exactly
by Michael R. Burch

(after Robert Frost's "Mending Wall")

Something there is that likes a wall,
that likes it spiked and likes it tall,

that likes its pikes’ sharp rows of teeth
and doesn’t mind its victims’ grief

(wherever they come from, far or wide)
as long as they fall on the other side.

Keywords/Tags: Robert Frost, mending, wall, fences, good, neighbors, southern, border, spikes, pikes, barbed, wire, electrical
Claire Pham Mar 2020
Nothing Is Okay
God bless america
Praise the Lord
Nothing’s okay.

PRAISE THE LORD
for red hats with white text
And my neighbors and friends who spit
Racial slurs like they are snot
“Pop. Pop. Pop.”
Scream the fireworks in red white and blue
Or god help us
Are they gunshots…
Who the hell
Broke us this hard
Who can we yell at
Who do we spit on?
How do we fly away?
God bless america
Flee flee flee
Revolution dirt
Nothing is okay.
Praise the lord.

The soiled bones of the ones we keep in cages
Tear mother from daughter
Like oil and water
Paint the line on the ground.
Border.

Cause when we were kids
Did we take sticks and draw borders in the dirt
Instead of drawing flowers
Separate.
Divide.
Black.
White.
The gay rainbow inbetween.

Praise the lord. It's a marvel.
How is it still that color?
It sits there, soaked in heavenly, white, angel cake paint.
But
The blood and sweat from the breaking fingers that hold that building up...
Should have made a stain on it’s immaculate pearly walls.
The angel cake white house.
That awful castle that stands “above” this hell
But possess the ****** hands that created it.

Bible. Border. Broken. ******. bones.

God bless america
Praise the Lord
Nothing’s okay
Kimmy Dec 2019
For all my friends and family i know you are all feeling
frustrated, helpless, and ready
to give up. It’s not your fault. You are not the cause of our suffering.

You may find that difficult to believe, since we may lash out at you, switch from being loving and kind to non-trusting and cruel on a dime, and we may even straight up blame you. But it’s not your fault. You deserve to understand more about this condition and what we wish we could say but may not be ready.

It is possible that something that you said or did “triggered” us. A trigger is something that sets off in our minds a past traumatic event or causes us to have distressing thoughts. While you can attempt to be sensitive with the things you say and do, that’s not always possible, and it’s not always clear why something sets off a trigger.

The mind is very complex. A certain song, sound, smell, or words can quickly fire off neurological connections that bring us back to a place where we didn’t feel safe
, and we might respond in the now with a similar reaction (think of military persons who fight in combat — a simple backfiring of a car can send them into flashbacks. This is known as PTSD, and it happens to a lot of us, too.)

But please know that at the very same time that we are pushing you away with our words or behavior, we also desperately hope that you will not leave us or abandon us in our time of despair and desperation.

This extreme, black or white thinking and experience of totally opposite desires is known as a dialectic. Early on in our diagnosis and before really digging in deep with DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy), we don’t have the proper tools to tell you this or ask for your support in healthy ways.

We may do very dramatic things, such as harming ourselves in some way (or threatening to do so), going to the hospital, or something similar. While these cries for help should be taken seriously, we understand that you may experience “burn out” from worrying about us and the repeated behavior.

Please trust that, with professional help, and despite what you may have heard or come to believe, we CAN and DO get better.

These episodes can get farther and fewer between, and we can experience long periods of stability and regulation of our emotions. Sometimes the best thing to do, if you can muster up the strength in all of your frustration and hurt, is to grab us, hug us, and tell us that you love us, care, and are not leaving.

One of the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder is an intense fear of being abandoned, and we therefore (often unconsciously) sometimes behave in extreme, frantic ways to avoid this from happening. Even our perception that abandonment is imminent can cause us to become frantic.

Another thing that you may find confusing is our apparent inability to maintain relationships. We may jump from one friend to another, going from loving and idolizing them to despising them – deleting them from our cell phones and unfriending them on Facebook. We may avoid you, not answer calls, and decline invitations to be around you — and other times, all we want to do is be around you.

This is called splitting, and it’s part of the disorder. Sometimes we take a preemptive strike by disowning people before they can reject or abandon us. We’re not saying it’s “right.” We can work through this destructive pattern and learn how to be healthier in the context of relationships. It just doesn’t come naturally to us. It will take time and a lot of effort.

It’s difficult, after all, to relate to others properly when you don’t have a solid understanding of yourself and who you are, apart from everyone else around you.

In Borderline Personality Disorder, many of us experience identity disturbance issues. We may take on the attributes of those around us, never really knowing who WE are.  You remember in high school those kids who went from liking rock music to pop to goth, all to fit in with a group – dressing like them, styling their hair like them, using the same mannerisms? It’s as if we haven’t outgrown that.

Sometimes we even take on the mannerisms of other people (we are one way at work, another at home, another at church), which is part of how we’ve gotten our nickname of “chameleons.” Sure, people act differently at home and at work, but you might not recognize us by the way we behave at work versus at home. It’s that extreme.

For some of us, we had childhoods during which, unfortunately, we had parents or caregivers who could quickly switch from loving and normal to abusive. We had to behave in ways that would please the caregiver at any given moment in order to stay safe and survive. We haven’t outgrown this.

Because of all of this pain, we often experience feelings of emptiness. We can’t imagine how helpless you must feel to witness this. Perhaps you have tried so many things to ease the pain, but nothing has worked. Again – this is NOT your fault.

The best thing we can do during these times is remind ourselves that “this too shall pass” and practice DBT skills – especially self-soothing – things that helps us to feel a little better despite the numbness. Boredom is often dangerous for us, as it can lead to the feelings of emptiness.  It’s smart for us to stay busy and distract ourselves when boredom starts to come on.

On the other side of the coin, we may have outburst of anger that can be scary. It’s important that we stay safe and not hurt you or ourselves. This is just another manifestation of BPD.

We are highly emotionally sensitive and have extreme difficulty regulating/modulating our emotions. Dr. Marsha Linehan, founder of DBT, likens us to 3rd degree emotional burn victims.

Through Dialectical Behavior Therapy, we can learn how to regulate our emotions so that we do not become out of control.  We can learn how to stop sabotaging our lives and circumstances…and we can learn to behave in ways that are less hurtful and frightening to you.

Another thing you may have noticed is that spaced out look on our faces. This is called dissociation. Our brains literally disconnect, and our thoughts go somewhere else, as our brains are trying to protect us from additional emotional trauma. We can learn grounding exercises and apply our skills to help during these episodes, and they may become less frequent as we get better.

But, what about you?

If you have decided to tap into your strength and stand by your loved one with BPD, you probably need support too.  Here are some ideas:

Remind yourself that the person’s behavior isn’t your fault

Tap into your compassion for the person’s suffering while understanding that their behavior is probably an intense reaction to that suffering

Do things to take care of YOU. On the resources page of this blog, there is a wealth of information on books, workbooks, CDs, movies, etc. for you to understand this disorder and take care of yourself. Be sure to check it out!

In addition to learning more about BPD and how to self-care around it, be sure to do things that you enjoy and that soothe you, such as getting out for a walk, seeing a funny movie, eating a good meal, taking a warm bath — whatever you like to do to care for yourself and feel comforted.

Ask questions. There is a lot of misconception out there about BPD.

Remember that your words, love, and support go a long way in helping your loved one to heal, even if the results are not immediately evident

Not all of the situations I described apply to all people with Borderline Personality Disorder. One must only have 5 symptoms out of 9 to qualify for a diagnosis, and the combinations of those 5-9 are seemingly endless.  This post is just to give you an idea of the typical suffering and thoughts those of us with BPD have.

This is my second year in DBT. A year ago, I could not have written this letter, but it represents much of what was in my heart but could not yet be realized or expressed.

My hope is that you will gain new insight into your loved one’s condition and grow in compassion and understand for both your loved one AND yourself, as this is not an easy road.

I can tell you, from personal experience, that working on this illness through DBT is worth the fight. Hope can be returned. A normal life can be had. You can see glimpses and more and more of who that person really is over time, if you don’t give up.  I wish you peace.
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