radical druid Posts

Life is not a ride.

In the sense that this is NOT an amusement park.

Yes, there are ups and downs, sideways and frontways and backways. It often seems like we’re spinning in circles. But it’s more like a washing machine, I think, than it’s anything like a Tilt-O-Whirl.

Ups and downs. But it’s not an elevator either. It’s not like there’s a set place where you start out (like the lobby or P1) and at some point, one floor at a time, you eventually get to the penthouse suite. Sometimes, you never make it past the laundry or the mail room. And depending on the prison you construct for yourself – for aren’t they all just prisons, just some with better amenities – sometimes the laundry, or mail room, or kitchen, is just fine. And the best place for you.

Like Elba taught Napoleon, we are all in fact just islands. Some are in much better climates than others.

No, life is not a rollercoaster or an elevator. If anything, a better metaphor would be an escalator. Constant motion one way or the other. And you’ll notice that when you’re “trapped” going either way on an escalator, you only have a couple of options when you decide mid-stream to change your course:

First, you can turn against the current. You’ll be faced with all kinds of folks fighting you, pushing back, complaining that you’re going the “wrong” way, stepping on toes, egos, and delicate eggshell exteriors along the way. It can be exhausting.

The other option? You can swan-dive off the side. But like they say about Dallas-Ft. Worth, it doesn’t matter whether your destination is Heaven or Hell, you’ll need to change planes in Dallas. Likewise, when you jump off an escalator whether it’s churning up or down, the destination when you leap is always down. Gravity’s like that. Momentum doesn’t mean a thing when you’re in free fall.

But you CAN do it. Just stand still. Breathe. You don’t need a parachute – because from the moment you’re born, this body cage you’re “stuck” in is rotting. It’s a one-way ticket. There is no tomorrow, no future, no pie in the sky, no better world. This is it. You are it.

Tag.

You’ve got the rest of the day.

10 NOV 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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We think that endless study is the answer. Endless something or other: sitting, thinking, discussing, debating, considering, studying, chanting, reciting, bowing, hoping.

There is no method for total awareness. No guru, no teacher, no “course”. No journey to it. There is nothing THERE. It is already HERE. Whatever It is. You MAY use complicated means to catch a glimpse of it, but that’s just a glimpse. You’ll never forget it – it IS what It is, BUT you have to make reservations (i.e., work a little on yourself) to get there.

And the path is unique to you. Nobody else walks it. Nobody else can, will, might, ought to, could, should, may, or does walk it. It’s all on you. It’s YOUR life.

It’s like a light switch, but not between rooms. It’s a light switch that goes on so you can see the WHOLE room. And not just the room but everything outside it.

Once that switch goes on you don’t flip it back. There’s no HALF enlightenment, no partial AWARENESS. You are either AWARE or YOU’RE NOT. Anyone who says differently is selling an installment plan with payments you probably can’t (and shouldn’t) afford.

But there’s the rub: with only your own ideas, it’s difficult to climb outside your own little box. So, you NEED to study, ask, etc. UP TO A POINT. Right?

After that, you just ARE. You either are a good person, or you’re not. Ethical or not. Moral or not. Compassionate or not. There are no half measures. 99-1/2 won’t do.

So don’t try to be liberal, non-racist, compassionate, inclusive, considerate, open-minded, kind, gentle, creative, cooperative, fully human.

Just do it. There is no try.

05 OCT 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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OK so here’s a little something new. I’ve been playing around with Speechify for audio books – just to keep the reader quality consistent, as it is often not quite right for a lot of audio books that aren’t read by their author(s).

So: I “cloned” my voice in Speechify. It’s a little weird, the experience of reading aloud to yourself, but it is very interesting to say the least. The strangest part is when I asked the AI me to read my own work. Hmmm. It has been a long time since I’ve been to any poetry slams. In the interim, I’ve heard recordings from Jack Keroauc, William Burroughs, WB Yeats, TS Eliot, and a lot of folks reading Shakespeare.

Ultimately I decided that the cloned voice wasn’t good enough. Especially since I was able to create two or three using different dialects that made me sound like three different people!

And here’s the end result of all that seemingly pointless rumination. I would use my own voice. I decided to try recording the last piece I wrote, A Poem is a Sermon, to see what it would sound like to perhaps start if not a podcast, then at least a semi-regular release of spoken word pieces. Some just voice, like this initial sample, but perhaps some in the future with background music and effects. After all, I do have a sleeping 32-track Korg DAW and every instrument I could possibly need except a mellotron, baritone guitar, and Celtic harp. LOL.

Here it is. If it interests you, if you think it’s OK, if you like it, let me know. Feel free to share it. It’s got my name and copyright information spoken aloud at the end. Just simple attribution to me is fine, or not. Whatever you decide.

In any case, I’d love to hear from anyone who’s interested in hearing more. Thanks!!!

radicaldruid.com/mp3s/A Poem is a Sermon.m4a

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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To me, a poem is a sermon, meant to start a whisper slow and lowly, just above the congregation’s expectant murmur pepper with a few harsh backhands, gaps, and nervous coughs.

In a good sermon you never really know what to expect.

That’s why you’re nervous a little.

Understandable.

And that’s just the beginning.

In the right hands and the right throat the hum can grow, slowly, moving right past the early adopters and tugging on a few of the usual holdouts. It’s not too much work because they’re pretending either way. They’re leasable.

With the increased volume the hum starts to get to you physically. The energy is building; you know it. You recognize the signs. They may call it the Almighty something or other, but it’s something you already know. What you can possibly KNOW is human sized. Your brain can’t even comprehend how much larger the ASO (that’s Almighty Something-or-Other, you remember, dearly beloved?) is. Never mind your phonetic chuckles there. You get the point.

Ok. So maybe your foot starts tapping or you start nodding your head to the meter of the speech, whatever you think it is. No judgment on your rhythm skills.

Moving on.

From the hum it grows into a conversation. The flow goes back and forth, poet to audience, preacher to congregation, each moving the other to greater eloquence and determination, if not to achieve the goal of their point, to achieve the point nonetheless.

Needless to say at this point it’s a little louder up in here.

But sooner or later, through a series of ever climbing and falling peaks and valleys, these waves upon the ocean that represent our seemingly independent but really quite unequivocally connected ocean, these waves crest.

And break, upon the shore, like tears: of passion, grief, mourning, pain, sorrow, joy, heartbreak, pleasure, surprise.

Now you’ll need to eat something.

That’s what buffets are for.

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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You have a beautiful idea. It’s magnificent. A well crafted and elegantly, yet kindly, worded statement on the human condition. It may well change the world.

You think: I must write this down or record it in some way – for fame, posterity, etc.

And then you are distracted.

And then the idea is gone.

You feel sad. You want to know why.

It’s not because you’re stupid or absent minded or drunk or tired or just plain out of it. Although honestly that hasn’t helped me much. Some of it CAN be fun. Just saying.

Why can’t you remember that idea, that perfect slogan, that zenith of creativity sagacity and charm?

Why?

Because you grabbed at it.

It didn’t belong to you.

That should be a lesson for EVERY damned body.

02 Oct 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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radicaldruid.com/mp3s/JRL/01 – Half Crazy.mp3

I’ll tell you that I almost lost it
once or twice but now I’m doing fine.
(there may have been an incident
that put me down somewhere along the line)

I’ve been held back, and I’ve lost track.
It got to be too much and I got lazy.
They tell me parts don’t make the whole,
but no one’s ever really just half crazy

I’ll tell you I was loco over you
but now I’ve come back to my sense.
(Still, any man who’s studied Freud
will tell you there’s no middle of the fence)

And I’ll admit, there’s quite a bit of time
where what I did is kinda hazy.
I’m no exception to the rule,
‘Cause no one’s ever really just half crazy

You told me that I’d done things wrong,
that I’d forgotten how to talk to you –
and furthermore, you’d gotten sore
that I could never give you what you’re due.

That may be so, but I don’t know,
the right and wrong of it still kinda faze me
Seems like we’re two sides of the same mind .
No one’s ever really just half crazy

You acted like you didn’t want the things
I did because they were insane; and made me question who I was
and every thought that came into my brain.
I’ve been a wreck. In retrospect,
you really should have known you couldn’t save me.

But knowing’s just one piece of mind
and no one’s ever really just half crazy.

1997

UNDERTOWN MUSIC (ASCAP)

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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Ever near.
Ever close.
Ever true.
Ever aware.
Ever present.
Ever nowhere.
Ever nothing.
Ever ending.
Ever lasting.
Ever here.
Ever now.

Never who.
Never what.
Never where.
Never when.
Never why.
Never how.
Never which
Never whom
Never once.

Never ever.

Never mind.

02 OCT 2026

© 2026, John Litzenberg. All rights reserved.

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