Women
can endure childbirth,
yet some Men call them
'the weaker ***.'

How arrogant!

Even still,
Women who opt
to be sexist in return
be no better:

Yin and Yang
are interdependent.

At the basic stage of learning a language comes pairs of most commonly used antonyms,
words meaning opposites of each other like the earth and the sky,
far away and close by,
love and hate,
metaphorically speaking even you and me.
Except, sky begins right where earth stops,
so if you really think about it only the soles of our feet are truly grounded,
while our heads have always been in the clouds.
Distance is subjective, so depending on how fast a ride is or the resolution of a lens,
sunsets and full moons are that much closer than a lover's touch.
Love and hate are not two sides of the same coin,
or the extreme ends of the same spectrum,
but rather the same side of the same coin,
exuded by the same people at the same people for the same reasons,
interdependent,
coexisting,
one defining the other.
Well, I suppose that leaves you and me.
As in it literally leaves you and me out,
metaphorically speaking,
figuratively speaking,
theoretically speaking,
you and I aren't antonyms after all because,
as it appears we do not define each other or anything in between.
Like the ocean and a bumblebee.
Here I am calm and blissful with sunlight bouncing off of every wave,
dramatic and roaring, heightened with emotions soaring,
bearing an infinity of life, continuously giving, nurturing and upholding,
but all you want is honey;
metaphorically speaking.

when i get lost
i find myself

in the most various of places
as the echo of my paces
reach outer spaces
i delve inward

like the whirlpool
at the center of a ripple
touching the banks of the pond
and defining itself by them
i am
utterly interdependent
externally anchored
and implicitly bound
to the web of meaning
spun around me
and when you found me
lost
in the most various of places
as the echo of my paces
reached outer spaces
i delved inward

and i found me,
my lost self,
all around me
in everyone
and everything else

(it astounds me
how the pronoun 'he'
implies that
which surrounds the
not-so-isolated subject.)

so when i found 'me'
lost
in the most various of places
as the echo of my paces
reached outer spaces
i delved inward.

i delved inward
and saw outward
myself
a shard of glass
reflecting and refracting
the light bouncing
between so many shards of glass
and i shattered

and i dissolved
and i splattered
so many dots of paint
in an impressionistic painting
that got smudged
and delved inward.

so when you found me
lost
in the most various of places
the echo of my paces
reached outer spaces.

and when i
delved inward
i found myself
outside myself.
like the whirlpool
at the center of a ripple.

The word  I don’t like is  "independent"
In this vast universe everything is " interdependent"
There is no scope for vanity
Even for the richest man in the Vatican city

For our shirt we need a button
And a sick man may need mutton
To get our shoes mended, we need a cobbler
If we go to hotel, we want a server

The church needs a preacher
A mosque needs a prayer
The temple needs a priest
And the depressed soul Jesus Christ

For our travel we need a bus
And for our livelihood a money purse
A scientist needs laboratory
A politician wants idolatry

The list is endless
Nothing is useless
The tiniest thing like a pin has its utility
None should over estimate their priority

Screaming your name into the winter winds,
the emptiness its own reply
Marked steps leading to a coven grove, faint crescent moonlight on the snow
in the small clearing, round water, clouded starlight watch above
Praying by a frozen forest pond at midnight
The spirits of the trees acknowledge my presence in their circle
I tell them I have come to see the darkest part of night
Turning up my palms, opening my hands and my heart and my mind
A human receiver, channeling the vibrations of the Earth
Sensations directed inwardly outwardly flow into action
Collecting branches and pine needles
Leaving them at your door, the fresh scent of cool mint and sap
Natural balms to sanctify a new reality

Priestess, I am sorry.
I turned my back on the faith. If only for a span,
But for absolute belief, it took me doubt
Doubt burnt down the church
But the spirit still resides in our hearts, Shakti
We felt the flames of the church on fire,
we watched as the edifice we constructed
crashed and burned around us
Invocations of death and pain, I heard and felt the despair from your mouth, my love, a hateful sword ran through me then, and I could only stand still, close my eyes, and die, as it penetrated us
Kali came to wipe the unreal away
What is left?
Benevolent Mother Goddess
Redeemer of My Universe
You are
I am your equal
Duad
Standing together to face the world
Building amphitheaters in the wood to recite inspirations derived from love
Let me bring you flowers
Let me be your hand
Let me be a swan by your side
Never leaving you again
Dependent on no one
Yet interdependent with each others entire universe
Our voices merging together into a song
By you, divine lover, this universe is borne,
my mother, my sister, my friend
You are my woman
In woman is the form of all things
There is no jewel rarer than you

From: Life is a ***** Quotes;
"The *** was
                       so good even the neighbors
                                                                ­        had a cigerette"

'Hahaha good one' I said
                                            'and even better yet'
(the ***) (souled union)                                          'with and no one dared'

'lit one up'
                  'and called it ever after'
                                                          ­'for the inner fire glow'
                                                           ­                                        'merged with thee outer'

'already and forever willing'
                                                   'in the truer feng shui'd'
                                                         ­                                       'human endeavor'

'in the tantric'
                            (say like dow)          
                                                          'Tao'
­
                                                                ­         (and mean as way)

                                                               ­                                                   'of'
         ­                                                                 ­                                                       'All'
                                                           ­                                                                 ­               (be)
                                                                ­                                                                 ­                    'Being'

That is love truely expressing itself through oneness with the One Law of Love!!!
The X (factor) is yours and possibility is interdependent upon the X of you!!!

From the Eternal and smokeless fire, Sa Sa Sunny

Our world is beautiful
If you stop and truly view it
Even with all the violence and anarchy
The grass still remains a lush green
And the water continues to flow

The fruits grow ever riper
With the starry night shining so bright
The animals live together interdependent
In blissful harmony
Given no choices otherwise; simple LIVING

OUR WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL
                                                                IF WE STOPPED RUINING IT SO
WITH OUR POLLUTION AND DESTRUCTION
                                                                                 *FOR TRULY IN THIS HEAVENLY PLANET
*WE ARE THE PARASITES LEECHING IT OF LIFE.

Built on a foundation of wormwood
Cause Absinthe makes the heart grow ... Blonder

Oops, having one of those moments
But isn't that sexist, Redler?
Yea, if you believe in duality
And I'm Dogmatica to an end
My end is Anisotropica
I got there through Riparia
And the Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function
BRDF for short
Basically, seeing all sides independent of illumination source
And, of course, interdependent of POV

Okely Dokely

Peas out

And care rotz

All humans on earth are one.
We descend from the same family of common ancestors.
We are, in a quite literal sense, siblings,
and like siblings we depend on each other's love
and care and responsibility.
We are interdependent not just in our families and communities,
but in nations, and increasingly on a global scale
- just as we are also interdependent with nature,
with earth and the universe”.
So, different souls  and cultures but one earth,
so, different stars but one universe.

Language is an intricate map. One that we've collectively agreed upon as a means of communicating about the 'territory', or experience. Life.

We can draw a tree, and we can write the word "Tree", but neither are  trees.
We can draw a pipe, and we can call it a pipe, but it is still only an image of a pipe.
http://www.exoticexcess.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/this-is-not-a-pipe-by-rene-magritte.jpg

Language is not the territory.

Language is but a toolbox. A toolbox filled with lots of cool toys and fun sounding words and some interesting etymologies.
But sometimes the task at hand requires a tool we've not yet conceived of, let alone one we have in our toolbox.
Different languages have different tools, but many will suit similar tasks, even if not exactly the same.
This is no reason to assume that, because our particular map is imperfect, that the territory is somehow more absurd.

The absurdity arises when we fail to recognize and respect the fallacies of language. A spiritual person will understand this notion immediately.
This, however, isn't necessarily to say a religious person will grasp it, and likewise is also not to say that a totally secular person won't.

In fact, I find that many of our conflicts with ourselves and others only arise because we squabble about our interpretations of the maps instead of realizing that the maps are in fact tools to achieve an end, but not the end itself.

Once we can step back from our ego
Once we can admit that we can be wrong
Once we realize we've been deceived
Can we begin to again grow strong.

Borders are maps. Humanity is a territory.
Dogma is a map. Reality is a territory.
Education is a map. Life is a territory.

We mustn't allow our perceptions of maps to occlude our ability to live as we are, an interdependent family of meat-bags twirling around a rather uncaring furnace in space.
This is where dogma comes in, and tends to ruin it for the 'little' people.
This is where money comes in, and substitutes itself for value.
This is where entertainment comes in, and substitutes itself for truth.
This is where ACTA, SOPA, PIPA, the Patriot Acts, and the NDAA come in
And move us one step further towards the Vierte *****. (Fourth kingdom. The Nazis fancied themselves to be the Dritte *****, or Third Kingdom).

Recognize the signs. Fabricate your own map. Then learn to leave it on the shelf.

like pieces of a jigsaw
their faces were joined
interlocked in places
overlapping at others
like Picasso himself
had painted them
with linocut or oils
an imperfect portrait
harmoniously
                  asymmetrical
created by these two
fragmented profiles
lips interdependent
remaining in want
fulfilled for a moment
in this "their moment"
a cubist vision of beauty
not in appearance
or form necessarily
but in what it shows

"I have turned around twice with my eyes sealed
and the woods were white and my night mind
Saw such strange happenings, untold and unreal
And opening my eyes, I am afraid of course
to look-this inward look that society scorns
Still, I search these woods and find nothing worse
Than myself, caught between the grapes and thorns."
Anne Sexton, Kind Sir-These Woods

Examine the looking glass
And confront the sleep-deprived coward,
Who wastes away his hours
In a forsaken tower.

Uncomfortably sporting skin I deprecate,
The skin of a hypocrite I've endeavored to escape.
Hankering for an empathetic reader to
Not pass these words by,
Because by circumstance, they can relate.

What state of mind would an artist
Be in without an audience?

One that is unfulfilled, starving, and jarring,
His or her work habitually
Unnoticed in enveloped darkness,
Then discovered a millennium later
Like a caveman's carvings.

But I am hardly an artist,
And that which is inducing your eyes
To sway left to right is not worthy
Enough to be classified as a work of art.
I am certain my mediocrity has worsened thus far,
Or it may be that I'm simply playing a card.

Either way, I would not blame
The aforementioned, hypothetical reader
For not making it this far.
My apologies, the blueprint I had in mind,
In the process of writing,
Became unintelligibly marred,
Like an optimistic womb-man
Relinquishing a newborn
From her blood-splattered ******.

A month or two ago, my oldest brother Tay
Directed a question towards me.
He inquired as to whether or not I loved myself.
I was ashamed to give him an earnest answer.
Yes I could have lied, but a lie only does so much concealing....
I have said too much already,
And I realize what you're reading is much too revealing,
Loathsome and lonesome as I am...

For Anna, poetry was primarily
A psychological exorcism of inner demons,
And for me it's the same.
I also throw parties for them,
Which are organized by someone very close to me,
He goes by Pity.

It's possible that he has inspired
The spontaneous, salty droplets of water
Emerging from my eyes while I sleep,
Explaining why I've occasionally awoken with damp cheeks.
His most cherished companion is a former Christian
Hell-bent on personal redemption.
It's quite easy to see how my interdependent desires,
Thoughts, and actions are in continual contradiction.

I dabbled in a taboo I'd never thought I'd stoop to,
And consequently I'm confronted with
The stigma I've been reduced to.
I pursued a thrill until it
Transformed into an obsession,
Now I glance at the looking glass,
Unable to bear my own presence.



Originally written in 2013
Revised in 2014


(c) 2014 Brandon Antonio Smith

I love you.
Yes, you;
I love you, reader.
For I love the human race.

I love that we can conquer our fears and defeat our weakness.
We can use our strengths to not just help ourselves,
but each other by being interdependent;
which brings me to my next point:

I love that we can come together when times get hard.
We can rely on each other,
we can work together, even after we have fought
over our different beliefs; speaking of which...

I love that we can have new and different ideas.
We can think independently and become stronger because of it.
From the conservatives to the liberals, and everything in between,
our differences don't matter because our similarities are stronger.

But Lastly, I love that we CAN love.
I love you, reader.
The same way I love my future wife
and my future children,
and I don't even know them!
Nor do I you...

But I still love you <3

One gloomy day is all that took to find you
Sharing our stories and bonding with the progression of time
Our moral connection strengthening and there is nothing that we together can't go through
So interdependent in each other to find that mutual bliss

I knew everything about you and you about me
But we were just confined to the virtual world
Experiencing each others presence in the mortal realm was our everyday chatter
We finally found time to make that dream a possibility and struck with excitement, we rested

The next morning I woke up, so merry to finally meet you
To my greatest fear you seem no where to be found
Your identity is non-existent, you disappeared from the face of all social matrix and your so called friends seemed something out of a fairy tale
Heartbroken and left alone, going through an alienated feeling which is severely hard to express

I thought and thought about our memories, an odd yet controversial thought
How can a mortal just fade away from your life in an instance?
Is it cause you're carried away by the hardships faced by a teen or am I one among the party of virtual friends who are bewildered by your disappearance
Made me question my virtual bonds and the many virtual beings that shaped my life

O life
That force that draws dependent
On nothing yet on everything
The good and evil, confused and enlightened
It moves through us as light shining through the clouds
That darkens our outlook
The stars vanish as the sky's light fades
No longer can we reach further, jump higher
The bay's light snuffed by nature
No color, no green, but grey
As muted as the circumstance of silence
Where one's own thoughts are not quieted, but amplified
The inverse of the typical pattern
Where as the noise outside increases, the thoughts within become clouded
Thoughts like stars, once visible now invisible
Absorbed by the grey
Overtaken by the grey
Gone
Replaced with the noise from outside
A small town replaced by chain stores
A young mind replaced by no mind
A people replaced by a nation
Stars and stripes, vivid and billowing
Real yet ethereal
The stripes' colors run across the fabric of the flag
Confined only by the end of the fabric
by this binary reality
Without this confine they would run forever
Like a stream
Like a stream of consciousness
a visualization of the confines that bind us
The shackles we fight
The irons we drag, day in and day out
Our symbols, our world are governed by laws
And we struggle to break them
To understand them
To exist is an act of civil obedience
to prosper as an act of disobedience
We develop
we create
we imagine
we inspire
we think
we critique
we wonder
We live in limbo
Questioning our very purpose
As we feel the driving force within us
Push us to disobey the laws that govern us
To prosper or to fall
To pass or to fail
Eden was a place of perfection
designed to nurture us
to allow us to prosper through adherence to rules
But we cannot prosper without disobedience
It is what compels us to live and learn
It is what comprises the very essence of us
We could not live there
But we cannot live here
We are nomads of existence
Travelers on an endless journey
We find ways to amuse ourselves
Inventing distractions and novelties
Most bittersweet
They are tokens of our achievement
Designed to take the place of indicators of progress
for an endless journey has no mid-way point
No end
Just a beginning
I called to life:
What shall I do?
What shall I be?
I am a cynic
I exclaimed with true heart and soul
That this advancement
These tokens
are meaningless
That they are not the panacea to our problems
They are the parasite that ails us
I urged
I begged
I cried
I felt that ideas were dead
No chivalry towards the mind

I have changed

Our journey has no end, only beginning
There are no good days
No bad days
In the grander scope there is nothing
But in that same way
there is everything
With every token we craft to celebrate our achievements
We huddle together, a group of beings alone in an endless timeline
Moving forth ceaselessly
But together
With one another
Defending against threats
Celebrating against boredom

O life
That force that remains dependent yet independent
Interdependent
Moving through us, connecting us
Bringing us together
Forming our humanity
The only thing we have and the best thing we have
A path embellished by us
Luster none surpassed

No despair may conquer us
No reality may threaten us
Life is the lantern in the dark
that beckons us.

O, life.
You exist for all but are visible to only some
You leave us pondering, wondering, yet living as one.

Happiness piques interest.
When happiness peaks it is
always nervous,
treading blindly,
violently
joyfully spinning and shaking my hair.
Liquids pouring in and out,
steadily.

Ripping, interdependent happiness
worse and better than solo sadness,
calling out or whispering,
strategically,
Admit that I exist. Admit that I existed!

Heaven is anticipation.
The edge of coming--always.
Heaven is walking out and into the clearing,
about to dance, the most primal dance.
About to eat, the most satisfying meal.

Culmination, the foreplay before death, is life.
Mortality arouses me,
viciously.
It blinds me, then allows me to see.
Pulls the covers on top of me.
Alive and gyrating on air
with isolation or autonomy,
happiness is coming all over me.

~When I hear 'Jesus said if you ask in my name it will be done', I hear and understand that what you ask and intend in the name of LOVE is most appropriate, the remedy to the problematic conditions being sought to be overcome and we are creating possibility on our part which nonetheless does not mean that others are an extension of our will, so therefor lead by exemplification. That action is already the first success and fulfillment.
Connect be with the one source and you are doing your part. Do not think that some God is failing you, or you're not connected or ready but that we are interdependent with one another and must understand in our consciousness that which is only a subset of information, that we are blinded by that light, that consciousness (what wakefully we are aware of here) is not the totality of what 'I Am' Is or the We and Any All.
Have faith in love for it is an appropriate force to wield. Otherwise faith is a force we all wield as it is anyway, regardless of other definitions. Bring light to the notion (accept rather than deny) that we do know the difference between what is love, appropriate in real time, as time and all with flows along. We can remain rooted and grounded from within and as love, from which we are first off and All Is Sprung, ANYWAY.
'Every knee shall bow.'
It is love that is in time will not be deniable. Tragic most so when death is the revealer, that is to say when taken to the grave and not while breathing, heart beat, beating here still...
We can try to rebel, experiment this here otherwise. Succeeding in these failings and the tragedies are most acute, always understood at various levels by thee involved, and or till some true forgiveness wipes fresh once again. Ultimately a self correcting force (LOVE that is), having our own will is just an integral loving part of it, itself. It Is All, shares every bit of itself, narcissistic in a wondrous way...we may become It's (possessive yet free, within the bounds of all nature) celebrated witnesses to the infinite perspectives and simple prowess indeed it all and we are nonetheless.
Key; it is all about what is here now already. More so is here, in addition too what we consider beyond, rather than more so all else is within the here now. For anything that might be useful to know, understand or practice for some afterlife...
It is infinitely more pertinent, potent and poignantly powerful in and for the here now of our embodiments.
I have suggested our will, and willingness is the ultimate path maker, breaker and taker. Amazing to understand that all that is most acute that will make what may be a difference none short of what heaven and or hell is like, right here on earth, embodied.~
~Temple body, temple earth!!!~
~This will or which I can call the X-factor is changeable by our whims ultimately and only. That it can shift, be shifted, will and does so even subtly, if acutely aware or not. Though all that can or does follow can be instantaneous, that is our will and the powerful deep reaching impacts.~
I look forward to this;
~'that', 'greatest show on earth'~
~and the 'greater things', yet..to his-story, her-story and our story and stories as we claim or seem to know them or not!!! This prowess is wondrous, it is!!!~
Umm WOW!!! heart emoticon heart emoticon smile emoticon
~The problems are here and inherent, illusory yet (may be) easily discerned, solvable yielding an ever increasing wonder of the unfolding futures of universal desires, some would call our 'inherent rights' and some 'our rightful inheritance'. Our past and present will support more so by our gregarious natures than have to have it condemn ourselves and one another with our otherwise self pitying defiant wreckages, by other nature. And remain in some status quo of too many everyday offensive defensive ploys.~
~I leave the further ponderous wonders as they have always been, yours!!!~ ~ heart emoticon heart emoticon R

Would not then the Law of One be the Law of Love. No rules just nature within the infinite (I call it the deep and dark, dark referring to the unseen yet it is sentiently known and most readily embraced) deep dark sea of love from where all is sprung. Not only suggesting that all manifest is descended this way but more is available on the demand of our real needs. Yes love is responsive reactive willing in infinite facets this way!!! So I prefer to say love is all there is rather than love is all you need. I call the wild cards the X factor that is our individual willingness's which All are and is interdependent upon. Yet too I know this X factor is a fractal spawning too of loves nature to share All and so All feels for All when otherwise fragmented inwards into obscurity. Love is not obscurence of one another, love coalesces it's own essences. You know I invite All to tell the greatest story here by being bold in meekness. All love All, Ra!!!

spill
a glass
of water
on the floor,
quit staring
and leave it
as it is.

interdependent.

I don't understand computers
technology, mobile phones-
things that are not tangible
but
I do understand
nature's cycle
like the journey leaves undergo
from falling off
in the autumn
and
reappearing
in the springtime
as buds and blossoms,
migrations and hibernations
of birds and animals,
all interdependent
on each other
and their environment

illusive incantations illustrate iridescent impermanence,
inspiring intellectual integrations past impartial intentions,
interdependent identities ingrained in innocence improve infrastructural spaces,
invite implausible involvement to instantly inform change.

She watches herself
As her fingers reach for the white ball
A miscued hit
Lends a hand to an ailing duchess
Its no mere coincidence
That now the ball sits at rest
On the palm of her hand.

"I need a closer look
This game has my attention
A shame to be stuck with inertia
Curse the pipe that took my legs
I ****** my hands
And cast the gesture of a lighter
Someone is watching
Stealing a glance
Shy
Of playing God with folly angels
This cigarette won't light itself
Find a peg and follow your gumption"

I observe
She goes for the settlement of doubt
Reaching gracefully to her companion
Beckoning the question
What to do next.
Gracious he was on hints
But cheap on specifics.
Such is the unwritten word
Absent in mind
Conscious in the experience and interdependent of reality.

For the woman had it in her grasp
And need not focus on her fear
But rather knowing what you know
Because the unknown will illuminate
In the getting to know
What you already know.

i was born in the wrong season because spring
never grew anything of importance out of me.
meeting you, i felt something growing inside
of my chest. it was that gnawing feeling you
get when you're hungry or a complete mess
for someone who won't close the distance.
but it seems to me, we never even reached
spring. nothing ever grew from my palms,
nor did the distance between us close it's
gaps. now i am learning to grow roots that
have no correlation of the composition of your
dna. any territory where i'm prone to being
hooked, line, and sinker shall be detained. my
chest can grow it's own garden, where it is not
interdependent of the soil, of the sun, of the
water, and my god, growing in this shade is
taking it's sweet ******* time, isn't it?

- kra

"This"


Drinking coffee at a modern day
Greasy spoon
A Mcpoet of no repute
I write from lack of action
And satisfaction
In a social framework i used to
Blame and criticize in all
Honesty i think differently now
About the interdependent co-arisen
Universe appearing as this
Coiled fathom long body mind
That i hold so dear i lie
To myself to obtain the comforts
Powers and other
Habitual illusions of thought
Which are but minuscule vibrations
In the emptiness of the all in all
That science can not fully comprehend
And guesses upon the question of
What was the shape and form existent
Prior to the theoretical
Big bang

Never shut out hope from your life...'coz when you shut out hope you basically shut out life.. Life is hope and hope is life.. They are interdependent...they need each other...one can't exist without the other.

the imbecile boy found love again
walking aimlessly & self-conscious
with the year's regrets falling
behind like fat blossoms in
a summer shower out of
my longing i had invented her
it was by happy accident or
a subtle shift of scenery
in the numinous grove that
i entered that spring with an empty heart
so i wrote her all these songs
so i could live again
cue the hallelujah choir singing
'this is ours, the impossible'

my rib-cage expands
every time i think of her
like recalling a beautiful dream at breakfast
through a yawning smile
my prophetic dove lying next to me in bed
the first flicker of reanimation
with the heat of her veins
interdependent with mine
stripped to the waist
with tresses of her hair across my chest
& shoulder i'll thrive in a forest of it

i launched 'i love yous'
from a sun-lit country porch
& they traveled 300 postcard miles
over roofs & the tops of old elms
to collapse into her ear, exhausted
now i am the pen, she is the paper

she is delicate but
my love has wild-cat claws
& live pink lips above smooth
wingless shoulders & i am hypnotized
by the adoration & light reflected in her eyes
i built this cathedral of words for her
these towers like puffs of smoke
& exultation rising in our slow dream
i carved this river through the broad valley
where the fish nibble at
dazzling afternoon raindrops
while i get lost in her body awhile
this kaleidoscope is a place i could stay

repossession & co-awareness
now we're strolling across the air
together in perpetual acceptance
gliding like the first morning orioles
through six panes of clear blue sky
over the circumambient hills of the new age
toward the alabaster sea
with her bright compassion pressed tight
against my side for the journey
we laugh softly as our hands engage
never again to disengage