War is a crime.
Use only devices that temporarily incapacitate, but never
permanently harm.
All weapons from handguns to hydrogen bombs will be destroyed.
No political borders.
Celebrate diversity.
Share all.
Each Citizen of Earth has the responsibility to treat all well.
Each Citizen of Earth has the right to be treated well by all.
Citizens of Earth will govern Earth.
There will be no president of Earth.
No substance that poisons Earth will be allowed.
Peace on Earth forever.
No laws, only Love.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

If love is infinity is reality, why is it necessary that we human beings on Earth seem to live in the world of the finite?

The answer is the finite is the pathway, paradoxically, to infinity. It's like a kid growing up. There are steps, stages, each of us must take to reach the summit, infinity. Know truth by untruth. One is all and all are sacred.

Ultimately, we shall realize the Cosmos has no beginning and no end and is, therefore, the last step before our spiritual beings exist forever in infinity that the Supreme Being created:  omniprescence, omniscience, omnipotence.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I am blessed with a burden. I wish to save Earth and all living creations upon it. It can be done. It is utterly doable. But I am only a catalyst. I need your help. I need all your help. Please read what is below again and email me at todh21376@gmail.com so we may join hands and hearts and save our only home, Earth, to live in peace and love forever.


PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE


Turning the World Right-Side In

By

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE:  All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth," usually on Christmas cards. But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths:  millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Then, when I got curious, I used my computer to find out that, according to many scholars, only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.  

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY:  There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. John Donne was prescient. Earth is as impoverished as its poorest Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 7,500,000,000 Citizens on Earth will die. All species will be accorded the same concern and care as Citizens. The imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change we need urgently to prevent. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.  

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH:  If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic;  therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons--from handguns to hydrogen bombs--will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All Citizens will be free to choose their own personal and professional goals, but will do no harm to Earth or other Citizens. All Citizens will be afforded the same resources to live a full, safe, and satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE:  The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, or at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover, through being loved, so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time.  Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH:  In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY:  To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.
  
FIRST VOTE:  The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. All Citizens will have access to  Internet voting, as well as access to cell phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will have to be 18 or older to vote. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will vote on these proposals of each month during the days of the following month. Citizens of Earth will be Earth’s government. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT:  If the multinational corporations that now rule Earth do not abide by the outcome of a majority vote in favor of CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH, Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement, a one-at-a-time mancott, womancott, girlcott, boycott--hence, Allcott--against each multinational corporation unwilling to relinquish control of its global business and give it, and all its assets, to Citizens of Earth. Citizens will continue the Allcott Movement until all multinational corporations have done the same. All personal and smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally to all Citizens. All proceeds in excess of what’s needed reasonably by each Citizen will be saved for future generations. No violence of any kind will occur during the transfer of these resources. Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

CELEBRATE AND SHARE: If you were to take a photograph of humanity and gaze at it, you would see a beautiful mosaic of mankind of different, beautiful colors. If you could step into the photograph, you would hear a melody of languages and dialects. You could have a worldwide picnic with all your sisters and brothers and experience different customs and taste different, delicious foods. And in moments of silence, all of you could pray in your different religions, separate but together at the same time. You would also share the same human laughter and joys and feel the same sorrows and cry the same tears, all in Peace on Earth eternal. All of you would come to delight in these differences, not dread them. You would look forward to celebrating and sharing with your family, not killing them. The spiritual whole would be larger than the sum of its sacred parts.

A QUANTUM LEAP:  The world, over millennia, keeps evolving. Over 3,400 years of recorded history, powers, nations keep shifting, sometimes seismically. Now is the time for not only the grandest seismic shift ever, but also the one that will save Earth and all living creations upon it. It is time for Earth to become Earth--not a scattering of over 200 nations with artificial borders. Technology, with its innumerable advances, has made us into a world when all can become one. We are free to be our real selves, to spend our variegated lives not aggrandizing, but sharing and giving. Rather than dreading our superficial differences--our different skin colors, our different cultures, our different religions, our different languages--we can explore and enjoy them. Let us finally be what we truly have been forever, one big, worldwide family of humanity. No more wars, no more weapons, no more killing. No more hunger, no more homelessness, no more hopelessness. No more ignorance, no more illnesses, no more social classes. This is the quantum leap of which I speak.

PEACE ON EARTH:  Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, is. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more wars, no more dictators, no more corruption. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth forever.

Copyright 2021 Tod Howard Hawks

A graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.

Silence is most eloquent.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

The origin of prejudice has nothing to do with the other. It is about the unconscious self-hate of the bigot. If ever we wish to eradicate racism, we must come to that realization;  moreover, we must have the fortitude, the courage, to put our contempt for the racist's pernicious attitudes aside and love that racist to the point when the racist begins, for the first time, to feel loved to be able to love, not hate--a virulent form of prejudice--anyone else. This arguably is one of the most difficult tasks of even an enlightened individual, but is essential if ever we wish to have Peace on Earth forever, rather than total self-destruction.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Can one wish
to become a Hindu deity?
Well, one can wish
that wish, and perhaps
in self-delusion,
come to feel
it has happened.
Or perhaps instead
of becoming a social worker
to help the poor and hopeless,
one chooses instead
to attend Columbia Law School
and then pick up a MBA
and go to work on Wall Street
where one can make billions,
no longer millions,
and live in Greenwich
in a grand home big enough
to house the homeless of Hackensack.
A private jet would be nice
to have to jet about the world,
eating at only 5-star restaurants,
sleeping only in beds
of luxurious hotels real estate agents
in Fargo can only dream about.
How about yearly attending
the meeting of the financially mighty
of the world in Davos?
Wouldn't that be swell?
Well, it depends on who you are
and where your heart lies
and if lies don't bother you.
An avatar you do not make.
Either you are one, or you're not.
Be your real self as soon as
you can to find out.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

The poet recites his poem in a cave:
"I shall rail forever against inequality!"
It matters not that no other is present,
because the poet's audience is Cosmos.
Plato's cave was symbolic and finite;
the poet's is not, reverberating
reality is infinity is Cosmos is love.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

How many of you belong to the AMERICAN FASCIST PARTY (formerly the Republican Party)?

**** Trump is the first (Lincoln was a Republican) to be elected president of the United States of America. During **** Trump's tenure, there were 1,716 mass shootings in America and close to 2,000 human beings killed.

The AR-15, a weapon of war. Heard of it? Have one? It's legal. Buy as many as you like. If you tried to shoot a pheasant with one and you hit it, you'd have only feathers.

It does the same to a child's body. A grieving mother in Uvalde, Texas had to identify her dead son by a sock he had worn to school.  The AR-15 had torn up the body so badly, the mother could not recognize her dead child.

The 2nd Amendment guaranteed a citizen's right to own a MUSKET, not a de facto machine gun. The right to own as many AR-15s as you wish, even one, is insanity, pure and simple.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

LOVE AND LOVERS (31)

by

TOD HOWARD HAWKS


Chapter 31


All people live downstream.

The greatest rage is when you scream so loud you cannot hear the scream.

Danger has anger in it, tragedy rage.

Anonymity vitiates worth.

First, do no harm.
Second, do no harm.
Third, do no harm.
Fourth,....

Pills are now our pillows.

FORTUNE 500 vs. MISFORTUNE 7,000,000,000

Knowledge sees that all are different, wisdom that all are one.

You cannot hoard love.

We are ordained when the sun touches our brow.


Back in their hotel room, Bian sat down with Jon.

"You know, of course, Jon, that the poor and extremely poor of the world earn less than $2 a day. That's about one-in-four of all Citizens of Earth. Unconscionable!" Bian said.

"You know as well inequalities such as fewer rights and resources are primarily  based on caste, gender, ethnicity, and tribal affiliation. Decades of civil war across the globe have exacerbated these injustices.  Now violence on local levels has become
increasingly injurious. Hunger and malnutrition stunt the lives of billions, weakening their strength and energy while debilitating their immune systems making them all the more susceptible to illnesses that hinder or **** them.

"Moreover, without viable health-care systems--especially for mothers and children--illnesses like malaria, diarrhea, and respiratory infections can be fatal. Furthermore, pregnancy and childbirth can be death-dealing.

"Over two billion Citizens of Earth don't have access to clean water at home. Contaminated water leads, of course, to waterborne diseases. Poor water infrastructure abets this deleterious situation.

"The catastrophic climate crisis Earth is now enduring, say experts, will push more than 100 million people into poverty over the next decade."

Jon stood up and gave Bian a big hug and a sweet kiss.


Mr. Ly and his friends had many, many other friends, large groups of whom lived in every nation on Earth. All were anonymous and all were devoted to creating  PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE.

Concomitantly, these groups discreetly followed Bian and Jon into the country the two had just left and began helping the poor:  food, water, housing, health care, education--in any way they could.

Love is contagious.

It was 1956. I was in the sixth grade.
I opened the top of my desk. There
was my wooden ruler. I had an idea.
In my mind, I took my ruler to the big
window in our classroom. In my mind,
my wooden ruler had on it two magic
buttons--one to elongate the ruler, the
other to activate the magic drill on the
other end of my magic ruler. I opened
the big window a bit so I could stick my
ruler outside. Then I pressed the
magic button to elongate my ruler,
which it did. The ruler began to elongate,
first through the tree limbs and branches,
then through the sky and clouds,
then through the rest of Earth’s
atmosphere, then through space,
through our solar system, then
through our galaxy, then through
deep space, and then through
deeper and deeper and deeper
space until it hit something that
stopped my magic ruler from
elongating further. The magic drill
bit could drill through anything for-
ever, so I pressed the magic button
to activate the magic drill bit. It began
to drill through whatever had stopped
my magic ruler from elongating and
continued to drill for a long, long time.
Finally, the magic drill bit drilled all
the way through whatever had been
blocking my magic ruler, so I pressed
again the magic button to start my magic
ruler to start elongating again. After a
long, long time, I realized I could go
on forever, so I began to retract it.
Eventually, it came back through the
open classroom window.

Then I took my 12-inch wooden ruler
back to me desk. I had another idea.
This time I didn’t need a magic ruler,
just the one I had. But I did need a
pencil and a piece of paper, which I
found inside my desk. I put the ruler,
the pencil, and the piece of paper on
the top of my desk. The I began di-
viding the 12-inch ruler mathematically
in half, first from 12 inches to six inches,
then into three inches, then into 1 ½,
then into 3/4ths, then into 3/8ths, then
into 3/16ths, then into 3/32ths, then
into 3/64ths, then into 3/128ths, and so
on. If I had wanted to, I could have gone
on forever.

This is how Iearned in sixth grade, by
myself, that infinity was reality, not what
appeared to be finite. I speculated, there-
fore, that if one person stared through
the most powerful telescope that ever
could be made and a another person
stared through the most powerful
microscope that ever could be made,
they would wind up staring at each other.

Copyright 2019 Tod Howard Hawks

The Scottsboro Boys, no joy in this poem, only a
remembrance of another instance of Jim Crow injustice,
charges of ****, not agape, no sir, these ******* *****
two white women and should be lynched right now.
**** trials, get some ropes, no hope for these *******,
no sir. Yet, there was a stirring, even in the 1930s, for
justice even for black kids in Alabama, trials aplenty,
retrials too, a shoe could drop in the courtroom and
you couldn't hear it. ****, let's get on with it! Where's
the rope, you dope! You're white and can't fight your
way out of a paper bag. ****, you're KKK. You do
what you please, at ease with dark nights when we
burn them as they twist dead in the wind. Who got
the ropes, you *******? Why you wearing that white
sheet? ****! You don't know how to burn a dead
******? Take off that white sheet now and get the
hell out of here cause you doesn't deserve to be among
us. You gone--out of the KKK! Get in your pick-up
truck and leave now and don't never come back. We'll
burn this ****** forever!

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Ungun Earth.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

There are tragedies throughout the ages.
The adage is what comes goes.  God knows
this is true. But don't be blue,
because love is right around the corner;  
just take the turn. If you are burned,
love will be your salve. Blue skies
will stop your crying, dying
in your hugs and laughter.
After a few moments, you'll forget
your sorrows. Tomorrow is another day.
Come to me, my love. You are the dove
that flies in my heart. Hold me close.
Never let me go. I love you so.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I met Al at Menningers.
We were both patients there.
We were both on Men's Work Group.
The more I got to know Al, the more I
liked him. When we both got out of the
hospital, we spent time together.
He bought a farm north of Lawrence
and began farming organically, unusual
for a guy who grew up in Sutton Place,
one of the most expensive places to live
in the world, smackdab in the heart of
Manhattan, NYC. His great-grandfather
was a partner of J.P. Morgan. His father,
who owned five mansions around the world,
chose the one in Virginia in which to blow
his brains out against the wall of one of the 23
bedrooms. Al was up at 6 every morning
in his overalls to begin driving his tractor
in the fields and didn't stop until the sun
went down. You'd never know Al was a
billionaire, unless you became a buddy of
his, which I did. He was a bit eccentric person
at times, however. For example, he enjoyed
buying mostly classic foreign cars which he
had fun driving around for a few months,
then driving each into the field next to his
small house and left them there. From time
to time I'd drive down from Topeka to his
farm, then the two of us would go to a
steakhouse just outside of Lawrence, then
eat and chat. Al was one of the nicest guys
I ever met.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Sing to me, o southern hill
where my mother lies,
she near the river
where other children
only her eyes could spy,
her fingers feel.
Willow trees, arcing oaks,
pillows made of amethyst and
amaryllis, beechnut spread,
linen spread by old Mill Creek,
cattle grazing, hazy August
afternoons, all alone was she
except in fantasy.
No love from Mother,
her Father farther
away than Ozymandias.
Tears she used
in her high tea;
no spoon had she.
She wept beneath a yellow sun,
a sister to the gentle sea,
the golden waves of wheat.

Tod Howard Hawks

This is an ode to the odious.

Racists, bigots, neo-Nazis, even an ex-president of the United States, members of militias, groups of sick men, and women, who **** those different from themselves:  Blacks, Jews, Asians, indigenous peoples, immigrants, human beings who have skin brown, yellow, and yes, black;  gays and lesbians;  human beings who practice different religions from their own--that is, if they practice any religion.

You are craven. You embrace only anonymity, except the few who spread your lies on social media. You all are terribly mentally ill.

I have a proposal for all of you:  **** ME FIRST.

I promise I will never **** you, because I **** nothing. All forms of life to me are sacred, even yours. I feel so sorry for you. You were not loved enough growing up, if at all.

Before you shoot me dead or run over me with your car or ******* up or set fire to where I live and burn me to death or lynch me after you have castrated me then burned me, I will say a prayer for you and tell all of you I love each of you.

**** me first.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

We spend all our lives at Circus Maximus.
We are preoccupied by the external,
forsaking the locus of our sacred worth
that is our hearts and souls. Rather,
we gaze transfixed by ludi of clowns
who make us laugh, at inspiring athletes,
at plays and recitals, at celebrations
of our victorious battles, at gladiators
who thrill us by killing other gladiators
and lions and Christians, even at
public executions. Politicians sometimes
come to orate. But never do we hear
a word about love and being loved.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I just finished watching the movie LEAN ON ME (1989).

I graduated from Andover often considered the best high school in America. But the school I just watched in the movie is better than Andover. The school is Eastside High School in Paterson, NJ.

Morgan Freeman, who I consider the best actor ever, stars in the movie. If you have never seen the movie, see it now. If you have already seen it, see it again.

The story of the movie is a microcosm of the state of Earth. The new principal of Eastside, Joe Clark, played by Freeman, saves the high school and the lives of all associated with it--students, parents, teachers--through his love and the love he regenerates in all of them.

As I have said before, only love can save Earth, the love of all 8,000,000,000 of us.

Lean on all others.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

We are lilacs in bloom.
We're conceived, then born,
then begin the rest of our lives.
Without love, we will have no
fragrance.  Without love,
humanity will not become
a bouquet of goodness.
Without love, the perfume
of kindness will not waft
through our years;  no sweetness
will we taste. Let us therefore be
lilacs in bloom so we can share
our world in peace, so love can
permeate all lives.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I makes $7.50 an hour. I sweep up behind others.
I's gittin to be an ol man. My two uncles got lynched outside Greenville.
I quit school when I were 13,
but I served my country in Vietnam to **** our enemies.
Lost most of my left arm. Makes it harder to push a broom.
I takes the bus to home and work.
Thanks to Mrs. Parks I don't have to sit in the back no more.
I go fishin to get away from it all.
Catfish--that's what I like to catch.
Fry 'em up real good.
When I was a kid, had to get off the sidewalk
to let them white ladies go bye.
To be honest, things hasnt changed much in Mississippi.
Don't go out in the night--you might get shot for no good reason.
I's still remember the KKK in them white robes.
All them burning crosses.
Now them folks where coats and ties.
Well, I gots to *** back to work or theyll kick me out.
You have a good night, ya hear.
Thanks for bein so nice to me.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I won't live no more  
in that old shrunk white house.
I'll live in them woods.
I'll live in them fields.
I'll live in them mountains
or on the beach.
I won't have to listen
to all them dumb ads
on TV, all them commercials
about fat burgers that will **** ya,
cheap, glossy fake diamond rings,
new cars that look all alike,
insurance guys that make me sick.
I'll lie under the sky and sing
to them stars, kiss the sun good morning,
enjoy the company of deer and squirrels,
find the freshest air and breathe it,
the clearest water and drink it.
I'll be free 'til I die, and free forevermore
when I do. I won't live no more
in that old shrunk white house.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

What if we silent sit in an empty room
and speak without an uttered word?
What if unconscious poems well up
in us, no trying need there be? What
if strands of grass grow and flowers
bloom while azure skies and white
clouds blow by without a sound be
heard? And what if a kiss for one is
a kiss for all and our hearts and souls
are one without us ever knowing?

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Reality is infinity is Cosmos is love.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

So you Republicans hate Blacks, Jews, Latinos, Asians, yet so many of you go to your churches on Sundays and pray to God. About what? About what Jesus preached? About how he said to love one another? Hardly! You may mouth these sacred messages, but do you live them? I think not. VOTER SUPPRESSION is equivalent to heresy. Republican politicians across our nation, under God, in over 40 States are bringing back RACISM in full force. Are you not repulsed by this immoral retrogression? WHY DO YOU NOT SPEAK OUT!? My only conclusion is that you are gutless. You are moral hypocrites. You are racists of the first order and human beings of the last.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

There is a difference between personhood and behavior. Everyone's personhood is divine, inviolate, whereas so many people's behavior is often uncaring or hurtful or even much worse. It is not unusual to react to one's untoward behavior with at least displeasure if not outright hate, even ******. But this latter response is unknowing. When one encounters bad behaviour to any degree and wishes it were not so, do not exacerbate what is already deleterious by making it even worse through punishment. Instead, constrain this negativity, but love this forsaken person. Love is the cure for all who suffer pain. It may take a lot of love to heal a hurting soul, even a lifetime, perhaps even longer. But love is the antidode for all emotional maladies. But for one to be able to love others, one must first be loved, preferably by one's parents, but if not by them, then by someone else who was loved and thus has love to give those who desperately need it. This dilemma is what our world most suffers from. Wealth, fame, power--all are illusory and therefore feckless. They are but unconscious efforts to compensate for lack of love, and that is why our world has been turned inside-out for millennia. Only being loved, and then being able to love, will we be able to turn our world right-side in. Then and only then will we have Peace on Earth forever, and for the first time.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Life is as predictable as a pair of dice. At times not so nice, at others, glorious. The notorious mix of dreamy-eyed moments with dreadful surprises, not knowing how or when. We are at the mercy of the winds of vissicissitudes. Our attitudes, our presuppositions are tenuous at best. At one instant, your head will be resting on my pillow, at another, on a hospital pillow because you are dying of ovarian cancer. Uncertainty is our highway;  there are many detours ahead. Kiss when you know it is possible, hug when you know the same. Love, in any given situation, is always the antidote. Memories are but for the future, so live now, always with your heart.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

STANDING ALONE

Standing alone is the only way
to gain a gathering. That’s the
paradox no one seems to under-
stand. If one wishes to be true to
all others, one must first be able
to stand alone. All great leaders
know this instinctively. One must
embrace one’s truth, then those
who are keen enough will sense
it ineluctably, and the many will
become one. Earth urgently needs
one to come forward with truth
so that billions of others can join
and all can become one. The courage
one needs is first to be able to stand
alone, not an easy thing to do, but
necessary. Be brave, be intransigent,
be yourself.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

This is an invitation to the world to love instead of to ****.

Our greatest existential threat is ourselves, our own inaction. We, and all other living creations on Earth, are on the cusp of extinction.

But you--especially you as poets--can begin a wave of love around the world using the Internet, not for profit, not for oppression, not for war, but to love Earth and save it.

Each of you is a match, which when struck, can start the fire of love around the world, and even those who misuse power to keep their power, letting so many of their sisters and brothers worldwide continue to go hungry and homeless and hopeless, to be tortured and enslaved, then finally to be forgotten, even those cannot escape the flames of love.

Go to your hearts and souls where your love lives, then use the Internet to tell the 8 billion Citizens of Earth you love them all, and you care for all of them, as you care for your children, your spouses, your friends.

Use the Internet for love. Use the Internet to save Earth. And use the Internet to ask all others to do the same.

(Please see my commentary PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE below on my site.)

Once the fire of love is started, it cannot be extinguished by racial supremacists, despots, or any other groups or individuals.

The more you share love, the more love you will have to share.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

The meaning and import of "power" is often misconstrued.

Most think it means the capacity to subjugate, to oppress, and, at the very least, to rule over others.

What it really means is to empower others, to liberate all.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Why not love?
Why not try love?
Why not purify
instead of mortify?
Why own Earth
when we can share it?
Why remain strangers
when we can make
billions of new friends?
Why not join hands and hearts
instead of enslaving, starving,
torturing, ******, killing?
Why not become
a piece of world peace?
Why not love?

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I am one with sensibilities of an adagio. There are few things
I cannot describe with words. A beautiful adagio, I think, is one
of them. Its beauty is ineffable. All are musical poems, but one
is tinged with sorrow. I am thinking of Barber's ADAGIO FOR
STRINGS. PACHELBEL'S CANON, on the other hand,
is gentle and evocative, as is Albioni's adagio. You're sitting on
the sofa holding your sweetheart in your arms listening to
Bach's AIR ON THE G STRING as you give her a sweet kiss
on her neck. You dim the lights. Vivaldi's GUITAR CONCERTO
begins to play followed by Marcello's ADAGIO IN D MINOR
and then you give her another kiss, this one on her lips. It's
getting late, but there's still time to absorb the exquisite PAS DE
DEUX by Tchaikovsky from the NUTCRACKER. Now she
kisses you, not once, but many times. You slip in Beethoven's
MOONLIGHT SONATA, Debussy's CLAIR DE LUNE, Satie's
elegant TROIS GYMNOPEDIES, and Chopin's PRELUDE,
OP. 28, even though they are not adagios, but because they are
etheral. And before you and she go to bed to make love, you listen
to Rodrigo's CONCIERTO DE ARANJUEZ FOR GUITAR AND ORCHESTRA. No better foreplay exists.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

If I touch your rosen cheek,
if I pour your golden hair
upon my face to bury it in
brilliant glow, if I place the lips
of yours upon my own and
leave them there forevermore,
if I press my finger now to
your neck of silk, to begin an
endless journey down your side
unbridling all to bare beauty
to behold, if I told you what I
see, if I told how it made me feel,
you would think me crazed and
amazingly your thoughts be true,
so lean your head on pillow blue
and I shall make love to all of you,
then afterwards again and again.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

At least they roll the credits slowly--
I mean, at the end of DOWNTON ABBEY,
the hundreds who worked their butts off
so you and I could see the stars on screen.
We human beings have been delusional
for millennia. Pharaohs, emperors, kings,
presidents, not to mention tycoons, millionaires--
now billionaires--and "prominent" people
from all walks of life, those who attended
Eton and Andover, the Ivies and Oxbridge
thinking as though they are inherently
better--superior, as it were--to all others
when, in truth, all human beings--indeed,
all creations--share the same divinity.
What a grand illusion it has been, Civilization,
from Sumer to the present! Willl we ever see
truth? Will we ever know that we are all one?
Or will we all perish from catastrophic
climate change or nuclear holocaust before
we achieve enlightenment?

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

There was a time
when I was a boy
and girls mystified me.
There was a time
as I grew older
when girls were
about my age and
I was more excited
than mystified.
There was a time
when I was almost
20 and girls were
no longer girls but
young women who
hugged me and kissed
me and I was no longer
afraid of the night. The
stars embraced me just
like her lissome arms
did and moonlight fell
on our lips as they met
it seemed like forever.
There was a time when
I undressed her button
by button until she stood
in front of me panting
and naked and I picked
her up and lay her gently
on the white sheet and
through  her moans shared
with her our ecstasy.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

It is such a short journey, life. In moments, one moves from infancy to old age seeminlgly in seconds. Life is but a shooting star. First, you are here, and then you are there. What has happened? Of what consequence? Your mother's breast, then a red wagon perhaps, a playground of sand and swings, a crush on a fair-haired lass, your first kiss, a miss at the ball that goes whizzing by. Which school to attend, which profession to choose, which sweetheart to capture yours, your children suddenly, this city or that one, a house to become your home, springs of hope, summers of heat and trips to mountains or seas, a fall of desiccated leaves, a winter that portends getting old, all in a flash. Highways of success, dead-end alleys of despair and defeat, then finally you meet yourself. Do you say hello, or do you simply walk by? Your love leaves you in death, leaving you only with memories sweet and now still. What has happened? Where did it all go? Who knows but God and the robin high on an oakwood limb.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

All the 8 billion people on Earth--I call them "Citizens of Earth"--are the real government of Earth. Collectively, they should make all worldwide decisions. The technology to allow this to happen we already have:  enough cell phones for a group of 20 or fewer to vote on proposals that they themselves have created. No more despots, no more dictators, no more totalitarian rulers, no more wars, no more killings, just Citizens of Earth who, during the last two weeks of every month, will phone in their individual votes. (Please see and read and share PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE by googling it). A life of love and loving. Doesn't that sound better than having your father or mother, or your sister or brother, or your daughter or son be killed or maimed for life? Think about it. Then act, speak out, if you are so inclined. It's your home, Earth is.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

We move in the wrong direction.
Out, not in. Money, not what is moral.
Power, not compassion. Finite, not infinity.
Goods, not goodness. Knowledge, not wisdom.
Aggrandizement, not sharing. Others, not One.
Why are we blind? Because we do not see with
our hearts.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Would that all we were Antigones! King Creon forbade the burial of Polynycises, Antingone's brother, but she buiried him anyway, incurring the wrath of Creon who ordered Antigone to be buried alive. But before Creon changed his mind, Antigone had hung herself. And what of Prometheus? He stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mankind. Enraged, Zeus had Prometheus chained to a mountain and sent an eagle every day to eat Prometheus's liver, which grew back every day. This torture lasted years until Hercules killed the eagle with one of his arrows. Courage to do right was met with torture and death. How many human beings over millennia have emulated Antigone and Prometheus? Not enough. Mythology is one thing, reality, sadly, another.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

What are we to make of one lifetime? Any given lifetime. Is there a goal for everyone? If there is, clearly each goal is not necessarily the same as all the others, though it might be the same, or at least similar to, one or more than one. If there is no goal to any of them, then what is the reason we live? That would be nihilism. Why, in fact, has the human race proagated for untold millennia? In some respects, human life has evolved progressively positively, but in many other respects, it has devolved disastrously. The way each one of us has lived our lives is a function, I believe, of whether we were loved enough, if at all. If we live a loveless life from conception onward, we wind up unconsciously compensating for the emotional dearth we have suffered by accruing wealth, achieving fame, aggrandizing power. If we look at the 3,400 years of recorded history, there have been exponential advances in warfare, but humanistically relatively few by comparison. As of 2021, there are 10,000 diseases that can and do afflict us, but only 500 cures for the ones to which we fall victim.. We have been fighting countless wars against our fellow man and killing millions and millions and millions of them, but discovering an exiguous number of cures for illnesses that often **** us. Why this gross, this grotesque, disparity? And we now find ourselves on the cusp of extinction from catastrophic climate change and the existential threat of nuclear holocaust. So, are we here on Earth simply and inexorably to destroy it and all its living creations? Or are we going to have soon enough a worldwide epiphany:  to begin and never stop realizing that first we all need to be loved to love others;  that there is but one land, one sea, one sky, one people;  that the boundaries that now divides us are not on maps, but in out minds and hearts;  that while we live on a small planet, it is big enough for all of us if only we are first loved so we can then love all others.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I read, it seemed, a thousand books.
The looks I took through windows tall and wide
did not hide from me my sorrow and sadness felt
as I gazed upon the leafless trees outside.
The Mayor of Casterbridge did not move me once;
Othello did not touch me. The tears, the fears,
did not abate as I sat in wooden chairs;  
I simply starred at winter. I did not know how blind
I was, seeing with only one half of one eye.
I'd go into the stacks to cry;  a certain kind of comfort
were all the lonely books that kept me company.
No sudden symphony of enlightenment did I hear
as I leaned against the shelves, themselves my only friends.
The end seemed more near than spring seemed soon
to blossom. I often was content to read the poems
of William Blake and Tennyson and Coleridge and Keats
in dark corners where no one stood but I. But as darkness
grew to end the sun and color skies pure black,
I knew it time to say goodbye to rhythms and to rhymes
and begin my stroll along endless paths to sleep away
my hidden horrors, and as well, my sorrows sodden.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Crimes and recriminations, swear oath to the Constitution, so help me God, Charlottesville, good men on both sides, a merry-go-round of sychophants and con-men, love letters to dictators, not up, not in, partying with Epstein, ******* prostitutes and playgirls, Maga rallies and riots. turning Oval Office into black box, pulling kids, even babies, from mothers's arms, a wall too far, no bridges, can't read or write English, pandemic a "Democrat hoax," Mar-a-lago back swing, under the bus, orange skin and orange hair, no empathy, blaming others, one impeachment after another, take 'em to court 50-60 times, racists, neo-Nazis, white supremacists, KKK, won by a landside, storm the Capitol, hang Pence, **** Pelosi, another day in democracy, Air Force One, America last.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

The 19 murdered and martyred children and the 2 murdered and martyred teachers who taught them in Ulvade, Texas were a collective  Christ. They, like, Christ, were crucified, but by an endless stream of raging bullets that pierced their hearts and souls, killing all of them. **** Trump, Cowards Cruz and Abbott, and other members of the American Fascistist Party (formerly the Republican Party) also used the same trigger that has now murdered and martyred thousands and thousands and thousands of Americans. Indeed, all other members of the American Fascist Party have implicitly  been pulling the same trigger. The Second Amendment was drafted and ratified to protect the right of all citizens of the United States of America to possess legally muskets, not AR 15s. America is now apparently not only dumb, but also, and most egregiously, numb.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

What is a life but a second with you
in a room with no furniture but our
bed. We shed our clothes as though
they are our past and I lift you gently
onto white linen sheets. I shudder
with excitement as I slide beside
you, your golden hair a trail from
your naked hips to your turgid *******,
pink as cherry blossoms, ***** as
Spring’s harbinger, white crocuses
sprouting by a winter’s stream. I
dream of you even as I’m with you,
stroking your gracious, lissome arm.
I give your neck a kiss. I wish not
to miss any part of you. I am on
a journey of love and your body
beautiful is my destination. Though
I have traveled this path before,
every movement of the palm of
my hand feels anew. I caress
your tender ******* that elicits
moans like voices of heaven’s
angels that give wing through
our gift-giving of ****** sharings.
Now it is time to touch your soul,
the epicenter of your being. I am
seeing again the provenance of
your goodness and greatness
that complement your pulchritude.
I am blessed by your spirit. We
are untrammeled when the two
of us make unending love.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

Nannie and I would grab our empty “TV”  milk
cartons and run to the bus stop up the hill.
Soon the bus would get there and we would
get on. We would sit up front. Not many were
on the bus Saturday morning. We were on
our way downtown to see a Tom Mix movie.
If you had an empty “TV” milk carton, you
could get in free. Often, but not always, we
had the same bus driver. He was an old man
who, for some reason, knew that Nannie and
I were the children of Rae Antoinette Tod, the
granddaughter of W. J. Tod, the rich and fa-
mous founder of the Tod Ranch, the famous
cattle ranch just outside Maple Hill, Kansas,
about 18 miles west of Topeka where Nannie
and I grew up. Maple Hill essentially was where
the lush, rolling Flint Hills began, some, if not
the best, cattle-raising country in the world.
Nannie and I would chat with this old bus
driver as we made our way downtown. This
old man would tell us of the days when he
had worked as a young cattle hand on the
Tod Ranch. He would always talk about W. J.,
our great-grandfather. He would always tell
us what a great, kind man he was to everybody
who worked for him on his ranch. But never
once did the old bus driver mention how rich
and famous W. J. had been. He never men-
tioned that W. J. had become president of
The National Livestock Association, for ex-
ample. The old bus driver talked only about
how W. J. treated all who worked on the Tod
Ranch, even the cowhands, who the old bus
driver was once one of, with respect. I have
never forgotten what the old bus driver repeatedly
had told us about our great-grandfather, and
even as a boy, I realized then that I wanted
to be like my great-grandfather had been,
not rich and famous, but much, much more
importantly, kind and respectful to all.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

All 8,100,000,000 Citizens of Earth will govern Earth, not 200 politicians and dictators. There will no longer be nations with artificial borders, only Earth. There will be no more wars. There will no longer be any weapons of any kind from handguns to hydrogen bombs. There will be no money. All Citizens of Earth will equally share the resources of Earth. Aggrandizement will be supplanted by love. All needs of every human being will be met equally. Air and water will be cleansed. No longer will any Citizen of Earth become a source of profit, as there will no longer be profiteering. No longer will there be discriminations of any kind. There will no longer be jails and prisons, only Love Centers where those hurting from lack of love will be loved until unconscious hate will be transformed into love of self, then love of all. And Earth, now on the precipice of self-destruction, will flower into Planet Peace.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

If you asked virtually any person on Earth if he/she would like to see Peace on Earth, he/she would say "Of course." So why isn't there Peace on Earth today? The answer is the vast majority of those in positions of power, probably unconsciously, would really be reluctant to give up their power, and all of its accoutrements--title, wealth, status, to name but a few.

Take, for example, a hypothetical figure who is the head of a large, important UN agency sitting at his/her desk peering out the large window of his/her office at the East River high atop the UN building. If you were able to ask him or her, "Do you want Peace on Earth?", he or she would, at first, consider your question ludicrous, and then consider it a personal affront.

But after you left, he/she would begin to think what the reality of Peace on Earth would mean personally to him or her:  he or she would no longer be able to peer our his/her large window at East River high atop the UN building, because there would be no need for his/her position, his/her agency, the UN itself. Instead, there would be Peace on Earth where everyone on Earth would be an equal to everyone else.

This mind-set would essentially be the same for anyone in a position of power at any level worldwide. There are, right now, billions of poor, to extremely poor, human beings on Earth.

Below, I reprint my notions of how we, as a world of equals, could create Peace on Earth. My commentary speaks for itself. We would collectively, by worldwide, democratic majority vote, be able, finally, to turn our world from being inside-out to right-side in.


PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE OF ALL RACES WORLDWIDE

by

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE: All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth,” usually on Christmas cards. But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths: millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Many scholars believed only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY: There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. Earth is as poor as its most destitute Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 7,500,000,000 Citizens on Earth will die. The water and air of the world care nothing about a nation’s border, nor does the pandemic. But the imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change do need urgently to be prevented. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH: If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic. Therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons — from handguns to hydrogen bombs — will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All Citizens will be free to choose their own personal and professional goals, but will do no harm to Earth or other Citizens. All Citizens will be afforded the same resources to live a full, safe, and satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE: The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, if at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover, through being loved, so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time. Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH: In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY: To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.

FIRST VOTE: The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. All Citizens will have to be 18 years old or older to vote. All Citizens will have  access to Internet voting, as well as access to cell phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will vote during the first two weeks of each month, every month, on the proposals of the previous month. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. Citizens of Earth will be Earth’s government. There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT: Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement--not boy-, not girl-, not woman-, not man-, but the nonviolent Allcott Movement against each multinational corporation and every mega-rich individual unwilling to abide by the democratically held, worldwide vote in favor of the CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Citizens will continue to use the nonviolent boycott against recalcitrant multinational corporations, and, in a similar manner, will continue to use viable pressures against the recalcitrant mega-rich of the world. All smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally among all citizens. All proceeds in excess of what’s needed reasonably by each citizen will be saved for future generations. Consequently, Earth, which for millennia has been turned inside-out finally will be turned right-side in.  Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

CELEBRATE AND SHARE:  If you were to take a photograph of humanity, you would see a mosaic of mankind of different, beautiful colors. If you could enter the photograph, you would hear a melody of languages and dialects. You could have a worldwide picnic with all your sisters and brothers and experience different customs and taste different, delicious foods. And in moments of silence, all of you could pray in your different religions, separate but together at the same time. You would also share the same human laughter and joys and the same human sorrows and tears, all in Peace on Earth eternal. All of you would come to delight in these differences, not dread them. You would look forward to celebrating and sharing with your family, not killing them. The spiritual whole would be larger than the sum of its sacred parts.

PEACE ON EARTH:  Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, is. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more corruption, no more dictators, no more wars. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth forever.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks

A graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.

todhawks@gmail.com

Time is but a breeze
wafting through oak leaves
first green, then yellow,
finally brown and brittle;
a breeze blowing through
her soft, long hair first
brunette, then blonde,
finally grey;  a breeze
lifting swallows high
into blue sky, winged ones
aiming for the sun and
the morning star beyond.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

THE AMERICAN FASCIST PARTY

There are two, maybe three, members
of the American Fascist Party (formerly
the Republican Party) who still believe
in democracy, who are not racists, who
believe that all Citizens of the United States
of America still have the sacred right to vote,
who still have compassion for those who
sadly gaze at the Statue of Liberty while
searching through heaps of garbage hoping
to find enough to eat to live another day,
who huddle on frozen concrete in groups
of five or six to survive Febrary's -15 degree
nights. Those I've described are called human
beings. Those I haven't are called hateful bigots,
Neo-Nazis, crazed members of the American
Fascist Party.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I used to hate,
but once loved, I
feel sorry for you now.
I feel sorry you
were never loved.

You who loathe
and discriminate, I
feel sorry for you now.
I feel sorry you
were never loved.

You who wish
the colored hell, I
feel sorry for you now.
I feel sorry you
were never loved.

You who'd torture
and even ****, I
feel sorry for you now.
I feel sorry you
were never loved.

You are humankind
but still unkind, I
feel sorry for you now.
I feel sorry you
were never loved.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Things cling.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS