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Tag: self-awareness

The Recipe

Published on June 13, 2025

You want to see the world a different way?
They say you only need a different light.
You choose to flip the switch, or change the bulb,
or light a candle. You get to decide.

You may choose colored filters to compare
the view that might be, from the one you know.
Another person might increase the watts;
or point the lantern differently from you.

There may be something hidden in the dark
that great illumination brings to sight;
by contrast, what is washed out by the sun
may in the darkness share some secret code.

Of course, despite what source of light you choose,
the critical component is your eyes.
No matter how much shadow you dispel,
you see just what you want to see is there.

You want to see the world a different way?
Perhaps all that you need to do is look.
It’s all inside your head, in any case.
The recipe dictates what dish you cook.

13 Jun 2025

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Stop Feeding the Wrong Wolf

Published on April 17, 2025

You want to start a revolution?
It’s like when you start to covet:
begin with the things you can see,
the wrongs you find within your reach.
Stop feeding the wrong wolf.

You want your neighbor to reform?
If you can, make a change yourself:
solutions don’t start somewhere else,
and magically come back to roost.
Stop feeding the wrong wolf.

You don’t like what your leaders do?
Stop following them, blind and mute.
If you’re awake, get out of bed,
and take your share of blame.
Stop feeding the wrong wolf.

You want a new and better world?
Decide how who you are fits there,
and if it doesn’t, work on that
before you look outside your door.
Stop feeding the wrong wolf.

17 APR 2025

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Don’t Preach Me

Published on June 14, 2017

Don’t preach me religion
like there’s something you can prove;
being good at treading water
doesn’t mean you can move.

Don’t preach me politics
from the safety of the status quo;
saying that you understand
doesn’t mean that you know.

Don’t preach me civic pride
like I don’t know much history;
acting like the bigger gun
makes the purer pedigree.

Don’t tell me to walk the line
when you’re circling around me;
I don’t believe your anything
has much to do with me.

Don’t preach me right and wrong
like there’s some space in between;
words like that make useful weapons
if you don’t know what they mean.

Don’t preach me morality
like some gold we’re gonna find;
being sane in a crazy world
don’t mean you ain’t lost your mind.

Don’t tell me to seek the truth
when your mouth is full of lies;
I don’t believe your anything
just because it’s super-sized.

Don’t preach me religion;
don’t preach me politics.
Don’t hand me your medicine
when you’re the one who’s sick.

Don’t preach me your civic pride;
don’t preach your right and wrong.
Don’t preach your morality;
I’ve got my own damned song.

14 JUN 2017

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All Possible: a poem of lies

Published on April 16, 2014

The sky above is never blue,
the earth is flat as pie,
youth is eternal in the world
and villains never cry.
True riches can be hoarded,
real pain fades by and by,
belief is always justified
and nothing good will die.
The truth in this is plain to see:
so long as I am never me.

16 APR 2014

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