They're a lot of sick people out there, lonely people, homeless people, hungry people, hopeless people, people who drink lots of alcohol, sniff *******, shoot ******, swallow amphetamines by the handsful, starving children, children who are captured and forced into the worldwide, multibillion-dollar business of child *** trafficking, billions of people who are still treated brutally because of the color of their skin, the slant of their eyes, the religion they practice, people of color who are disproportionately thrown into squalid, for-profit prisons for years, victims of all kinds of inequalities, iniquities, and God knows how many rich people, mega-rich people, who wittingly and unwittingly promote, participate, and prosper in these malevolent practices abetted by known and unknown people who are never caught, never held responsible for their evil deeds, their complicity in these atrocities by people and politicians and presidents and potentates and despots and kings. And so many of us turn away from all these horrors, watching sit-coms on TV, playing the back nine, cheating on their spouses, making gobs of money, going to their houses of worship and mouthing chapters and verses, remaining unconscious of the implicit duty we all share in helping our fellow man and woman and child. Shame on us all.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

You got 20, 30 minutes, so start singing
your songs.

You got 20, 30 minutes, so start writing
your poems.

You got 20, 30 minutes, so start writing
your novels.

You got 20, 30 minutes, so start acting
your parts.

You got 20, 30 minutes, so start making
your money.

You got 20, 30 minutes, so start saying
your vows.

You got 20, 30 minutes, so start raising
your children.

You got 20, 30 minutes, so start saying
your  goodbyes.

You've had 20, 30 minutes to live your
whole life.

That's it. That's all.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I was in 6th grade when I proved the infinite, not the finite, was reality.

I took my 12-inch ruler and pretended it was a magic ruler. It had three buttons on its bottom end:  the left, the middle, and the right. The left button elongated the ruler. The middle button activated the magic drill bit on the top end that could penetrate anything. The third button retracted the elongation.

I took my magic ruler to one of the big windows in the classroom and opened it. I pushed the top end of my magic ruler through the opening and pressed the left button. My magic ruler began to elongate, first through the limbs of trees, then through the sky and clouds, until it went through Earth's atmosphere. It kept elongating. My magic ruler went through our solar system, then through our galaxy, then through outer space deeper and deeper, elongating and elongating it seemed like forever. Finally, it stopped. It had hit something. So I pressed the middle button to activate the magic drill bit. It began drilling through whatever had blocked the elongation.

The magic drill bit kept drilling and drilling and drilling, then drilling even more. Finally, it drilled through the blockage, so I pressed the left button and my magic ruler began to elongate again. It elongated for a long, long, long, long time. When I realized that it could elongate forever, I pressed the third button to retract it, which happened very fast. When it came back through the open window, it was again an ordinary 12-inch ruler.

I took my ruler and sat it on the top of my desk. Then I got a pencil and tore out of my spiral notebook a piece of paper. I wrote down the number 12 and divided it by 2 and got 6. Then I divided 6 by 2 and got 3, then 3 by 2 and got 1 1/2, then 1 1/2 by 2 and got 3/4, then 3/4 by 2 and got 3/8, then 3/8 by 2 and got 3/16, then 3/16 by 2 and got 3/32, the 3/32 by 2 and got 3/64, then 3/64 by 2 and got 3/128, and so on. I realized then that it did not matter in which direction I went. All directions never ended. I had proven infinity, not the finite, was reality.

So why the illusion of our seemingly finite world?

The answer is, we know truth from untruth, a paradox that is paradoxically not paradoxical. The illusory finite is paradoxically the pathway to infinity. It's like a kid growing up. There is a lot of things to learn, and it takes a long time to learn them.

There was no Big Bang. No telescope, however big, will ever see the end-edge of the universe. If we attain enlightenment of our souls on Earth, then when we die, they will become one with the infinite Cosmos that has no form, no beginning, no end:  It is eternal love.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

There is a difference between personhood and behavior that the vast majority of humanity still does not realize.

Personhood is sacred, inviolate. Every human being who has ever been, is, and will ever be, is sacred at her/his core.

Behavior, on the other hand, which is too often hurtful, if not much worse, is the consequence of the pernicious lack of both awareness of her/his sacredness, and concomitantly, her/his failure to assimilate it into their being.

Only love can nurture the realization of personhood. And because so many human beings are never loved enough, if at all, they are left only with their behavior that, all too often, manifests itself in myriad nefarious ways:  slavery, bigotry, racism, torture, killing, war, and, in its own way, the worst:  global inequality, which should be called iniquity.

To achieve Peace on Earth forever, all must come first to the realization of the difference between personhood and behavior, then find ways to ensure all human beings are loved and loved and loved.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

America is as rich as her poorest citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant.

We are more concerned with goods than goodness.

May we be servants to all others and masters of ourselves.

If a man doesn't keep his word, he soon finds out he has a limited vocabulary.

The mountain is deeper than it is high.

Repentagon

If you are going to err, err on the side of generosity.

"Evil" is the word "live" twisted.

I open my heart so I may enter yours....

The poem is the sound, publication an echo. The sound is more important than the echo.

Are you shocked to find out that I'm human and therefore imperfect, or are you embarrassed to realize that you are the same...?

One cannot impose what's right;  one can only evoke it.

The Second Coming will be the coming to the realization that each of us is sacred, that all things are divine.

The only thing our country recycles well is pain.

Take the high road. There's less traffic up there.

It is easier to find a publisher than to find your heart.

To save Earth, you have to planet.

Beliefs expressed anonymously are coward's clothes.

Out on a limbo.

Racism is one of the worst forms of mental illness.

We used to just waste human lives. Now we turn lives into human waste.

Someone once asked me, "Do you have a hobby?" I thought for a moment, then replied, "Yes, I do. I collect beauty--beautiful music, beautiful art, beautiful memories...."

Labels are for ketchup bottles.

In our nation's capital, we have more probes than probity.

An avalanche, a mountain's revanche.

All people live downstream.

The greatest rage is when you scream, you cannot hear the scream.

Adobe abode

NRA or NEA?

Danger has anger in it, tragedy rage.

The sound of a siren has become our national anthem.

Do not confuse your pain with your worth.

Knowledge is finite, wisdom infinite.

Wealth is not worth.

A paradox is paradoxically not paradoxical.

Love is my religion, and my politics, too.

I am crazy with clarity.

War has no warranties.

THE GOOD NEWS:  Our next world war will be our last.
THE BAD NEWS:  It will last only 10 minutes.

Know truth by untruth.

The deciding vote cast is the bullet fired by the assassin.

Less commerce, more mercy.

Things cling.

You don't need a policeman or a teacher or a priest to teach you right from wrong. You only need to have been loved.

When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit.

Those who remain silent in a democracy are complicit in its destruction.

I have 8 billion friends on Earth. It's just that I haven't met them all yet.

I saved a billion dollars today. I didn't buy a Caribbean island.

Do you want Peace on Earth or would you rather just own a huge piece of it?

How many friends does a person need?  Only one, her- or himself.

We have many religions on Earth, all believing in the same God, but calling the same God different names.

The only way to become a traitor is to cease to be true to yourself.

I will die for anyone, but will never **** anyone.

The only thing worse than a despot is the people willing to brook him.

Don't tell me your title. Bring me your heart.

There are no illegitimate children, only illegitimate parents.

It is never the wrong time to do the right thing.

A politician makes calculated decisions, a leader moral ones.

Noble instead of global.

All works are autobiographical.

Lincoln used a little to say a lot. Most use a lot to say nothing.

Most are familiar with the epigram "Ties that bind." Despots's favorite is "Lies that blind."

Power should empower, not oppress.

Ideals are ideas with an "l" on the end. The "l" stands for love.

What does it matter that our flags are waving if our spirits are flagging?

What good is it to receive a medal if we have no chest to pin it on?

All wars are internecine.

In war, censorship is the first amendment of the 1st Amendment.

The CIA has the freedom to warship as it pleases.

The cannon of ethics.

Victory without honor is not triumph, but turpitude.

I am a racist, a human racist.

We are made taut by what we are taught.

It is easier to study novels than ourselves. It is easier to write essays than to assay our own worth.

Self-acceptance is the synthesis of all that is strong and weak in us. These alloys become allies, forming a better, more durable, more flexible mettle.

Rebearth

Poetry is like the ocean wind:  It blows only for those sails that are open.

Avoid a void.

We are all in treatment. It's just that some of us are treated better than others.

Most affluent people think the common good is a mutual fund.

Onership

Pretension, smugness, fatuity:  even high society has its richuals.

Some like heavy-metal music. I like precious-metal music:  Beethoven, Bach, Mozart.

A square is a neurotic circle.

Meanness is smallness.

Let your love be a moral poultice.

Allude to yourself.

Be all you can be:  Be yourself.

We are ordained when sunlight touches our brow.

I have an infinity with God.

Soular energy.

Light is the ultimate luxury.

If I were truly your superior, I would sit beneath you.

We are tied together not in knots, but in a tapestry.

It is not right to profit from another's misery.

You cannot hoard love.

Utopia is those streets paved with kindness.

Will is the intent to allow.

More enduring than fame is flame.

If a man were a tree, fame would be his branches, greatness his roots.

All great men have met before.

Unfortunately, the relationship between parents and their children are junk bonds.

To be a perfect human being is to be imperfect.

Who among us has not hurt?

The shame and stigma belong to those who remain ignorant and fearful of, and therefore bigoted against, those who have the courage to seek the help they need to help themselves.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Sweet dreams, my dear Patsy,
why'd you have to die? I cried
when you sang CRAZY 'cause
that's the way I am. I would have
been a singer, but cannot sing
a note; the ring of your sweet
voice made me feel so warm.
The way they swarmed you after
every song you sang made my
heart swell and swell. I longed to be
with them, but understand, you see,
I live in North Dakota, not in Tennessee.
Heaven is your home now. I hope
I'll meet you there. But 'til I die,
I'll keep on playing records,
only ones you always sang.
So sweet dreams, my dear Patsy,
so gentle and so kind. I'll hear
you singing in everyone in
everyone of mine.

TOD HOWAD HAWKS

Slights amighty, awful, dreadful deeds, winter
blizzards in the heart, that's what life's about.

Slaves of old, slaves of new, all of them knew
of endless toil then death, that's what life's about.

Billions poor, few are billionaires, children
starving round the world, that's what life's about.

Torture, ******, killings all, wars that never cease,
air and oceans now foul and fetid, that what life's about.

Crusades and inquisitions, all in name of God,
hangings, crucifixions, that's what life's about.

Money, megalomania, titles, medals, prizes,
self-indulgence plenty, that's what life's about.

Did someone mention love and loving, or was
I hearing things? Those should be what life's about.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS