Hidden spider deciders money providers
Spin sticky silky thread
Thru DC office and bed.
Congress preaching but reaching
To fill election chest the best
Buy media bloat to demean and to float
Buzz saw words near and remote
With truth they rewrote
To get every vote.
Then dysfunctional vacation
Civic abdication
Issue constipation
Laws bad for the nation.
Hidden spider activation for their
Provider’s accumulation
And aggrandization.
An argumentation of political donation
Sent to Supremes for adjudication:
“Every corporation be
A person just like you and like me
Corporation speech free
To spend gobs of sticky money.”
Puppeteers of congressional careers
Thru fears of two to six years.
Dance to sticky thread pull
To keep election chest full.
You can mope and dither
But the spiders still will slither.
DC kept tangled sticky ball
Every voting fall.
Unless you find an end
To apprehend.
Unite in peaceful insurrection
On every street and intersection!
Make the fear of non-election
A congressional infection!
Enact a proper law
The Supremes cannot withdraw.
Spider deciders not supreme
End the lobbyist regime.
Solve our burning issues
Stead of crying into tissues!
Solve gobs of jobs,
Revenues, homeowner blues,
Health care, clean air,
Earth repair!
If corporations not a person!
© David W. Oliver 1/25/10
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
TRUTH
TRUTH
TRUTH is a shattered mirror of shards,
Strewn in bits shiny and bright.
Each finds his own shard and knows in his heart
That surely his own shard is right.
Do not cut with the righteous sharp edge of your shard
In greed or to win in your fight.
Wounds fill the dark chasms that lie in life’s path
With the blackness of hatred and fright.
But turn you shard; reflect light from above,
A small beam in the chasms of night.
That we all may see to walk a safe path
When we all turn our shards to the light.
© David W. Oliver 9/7/99
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Sacredness
Sacredness
I like violence and destruction:
Their sacredness.
…………………………….
Little birthday girl, hair in curl
Sitting at the front
The birthday kiddies wiggle and giggle,
Sitting on the floor
In tux, top hat and magic wand,
The magician steps through the door.
He points to the emptiness inside his magic hat;
Kiddies’ faces all aglow
Taps his hat thrice, speaks the magic words:
Rabbit - Presto Magico
In struggling fight, pulls with all his might,
Out of nothing white rabbit appears
Gifts it to ecstatic birthday girl,
Amid the kiddies’ cheers.
Something from nothing has appeal,
‘Tis magic, not really real
Her birthday dreams transformed to
Ecstasy, being special
Soft snuggle bunny, sleepmate, playmate,
Day and night inseparable
Something from something is the ideal
Not magic,’Tis really real
……………………………….
We stand on the hotel balcony, Daytona Beach
Looking out to sea, the reception for Corey and Chris
Our children, to be wed the morrow.
Two lives, individual, to be transformed into family.
Goals transformed, behaviors transformed –
Not to know the sleep depriving cries of hungry wet infant
Till those wonderful demanding days arrive.
They know the transformations of merging, body frenzy, feeling crashing love
That transforms to peace and release of fulfillment.
Then to follow, all unknown and unseen, sperm seeking egg.
These too merge and are transformed.
Individual goals and behaviors transformed to the birth of a single cell.
Who multiplies to become new individual life.
Transformation: violence, destroyer of what was
To bring into existence, to birth,
What is and shall be.
We stand on the balcony looking out at total blackness.
Black clouds obscure the stars and galaxies that gave us
All the heavy elements of our planet and our bodies
Born in the implosions of supernovas, a star’s death.
Now those clouds crash against one another,
The collisions generate thousands of volts that rip electrons from air atoms,
Make bolts of ionization and electricity that crash into the sea
In spectacular blinding flash and following thunder clap.
We count seconds to know the distance,
Embrace in silent awe at the majestic heaven display
Of beauty, violence, destructiveness -
Gentleness, fecundity.
…………………….
The south facing difficult site on Vicars Island, Lake George,
It has a thirty foot cliff edge.
We trek up the rutted hilly path across the island,
Many portages of gear from dock to site
Black squall clouds gather on the south horizon.
We nail and rope the tent securely to the platform
Weigh down anything that might blow away.
Grab our wet jackets and sit on the cliff edge in the sun looking south.
The blackness marches toward us, streaked with lightning flashes.
Thunder louder.
South wind a gentle breeze on our faces.
Grey wall of waves rushes toward our cliff.
Cold wind snatches wet jackets as we stretch them on.
Waves tops are so swept that spray and air and wave are one
With all its glory the horizontal torrent drives into us
As lightning and thunder claps strike and boom around us.
Squall passes north; sun comes out.
Shuck wet jackets to lie like lizards on the warm rock.
Sun sparkled jewel drops fall from the leaves
To evaporate with the rock puddles and rejoin the sky.
As sweat rivulets begin to tickle our skin,
We stand and leap from the cliff edge
Crash open the lake surface and plunge below
Look up - silver air bubbles rise and expand toward the surface
To burst open to rejoin the sky.
Climb the cliff ledges to lie down again as lizards
Await day’s destruction by gorgeous sunset.
.............
Brutal beautiful tearing blinding bolts from heaven
Rip oxygen and nitrogen apart to make delicious nitrogen oxides,
Washed by rainfall, essential nutrients to hungering roots of
Grasslands, grain fields, flower gardens, ferns, forests, tree vines, vineyards.
Too much, fossil fueled acquisitive man, drench with too much:
Great blooms on waters scarf dissolved oxygen
Eutrophic lagoons and oceans kill oxygen-life
With tar sands and global oil shale their geologic tombstones.
Walk softly with love
In sacred awe.
...........
.............
Brutal beautiful tearing blinding bolts from heaven
Rip oxygen and nitrogen apart to make delicious nitrogen oxides,
Washed by rainfall, essential nutrients to hungering roots of
Grasslands, grain fields, flower gardens, ferns, forests, tree vines, vineyards.
Too much, fossil fueled acquisitive man, drench with too much:
Great blooms on waters scarf dissolved oxygen
Eutrophic lagoons and oceans kill oxygen-life
With tar sands and global oil shale their geologic tombstones.
Walk softly with love
In sacred awe.
...........
Niagara thunders down the cliff edge that it slowly eats away
And carries off to deposit at the ocean.
Hold the bow rail of the Maid-of-the-Mist two handed
It plows toward the deluge and shudders to a halt
Mighty engines matched by the greater force of river.
Horizontal torrents of water and wind from Niagara’s down draft
Cascade against us as we throw back our slicker hoods
Feel and rejoice in nature’s force.
Why are we alone?
Rest of the crowd huddled by the cockpit house
Backs to the torrent!
…………………..
Alaska cruise ship hovers at the glacier edge.
One hundred years ago this whole bay was ice, for one hundred fifty miles.
Huge calves of ice thunder into the water;
Waves lift the ship’s bow under our feet.
The new born icebergs melt in time to rejoin the sea water.
Millions of years ago they were sea.
They evaporated into the winds that wafted them to mountaintops,
Became snow, then ice and glacier
For the slow journey back to sea.
…………….
Look at the Rock Cycle.
Hot magma plumes from hot inner earth core
Rises toward the thin earth crust and cools
To descend toward the core and rise again
Great inner earth convection currents.
At the inter ocean rifts, magma surfaces and cools
Births islands and new ocean floor,
Causes continents to drift on tectonic plates,
About an inch a year.
What creative violence!
Oceanic life is born, dies and lies in the sediments,
Natural processes of gentleness and violence.
These bodies of our ancestors do not all decompose
To return their carbon to our atmosphere.
Some of their remains are carried over eons close to shore
To be interred by sediment from the rivers
Then subducted under the continents in long term burial.
Some subducted material melts and rises up through the igneous rock,
Pushes into up-lifted mountains.
Earthquakes split the land.
Eruptions send molten rock down mountain slopes and hillsides,
Spew ash and fumes into the air, carbon into our air.
Wet air from the oceans blows over the land,
Cools as it soars above the mountains
To caress them with rain and snow..
Births our fresh rivers and lakes for the hot dry summer.
Nourishes all growing things during the hot growing seasons.
Not just gentle and refreshing.
The rains and melting snows wear away the mountain sides
Carry the soil and ground rock to the coasts for its burial duty.
Carry soil for fertile fields, mixed with pulverized rock
That water will permeate to refresh roots
And roots will have their needed micro-nutrients.
If not for the internment of life that dies,
Volcanic gases would increase
To insulate our earth with CO2
Heat our planet too much for life.
Gentle and violent, wonderful transformations
Over time spans we cannot fathom.
……………
In my parents time the chapters written here were not yet comprehended.
Each chapter teaches reverence and sacredness.
There are many more exciting chapters to read
If we but take the time to see and love and read creation.
So I like the sacredness of violence and destruction.
Separate them from controlling or harming other persons or earth systems!
Gandhi.
Arrested and sentenced to four years by the British court
For civil disturbance
Because he walked his Salt March to the sea
To collect salt that by law must be bought from the British occupiers.
At his sentencing he stood small and thin
Barefoot and bare chested,
In his self spun and woven loin garment.
The judge stood tall in formal black robe and white wig.
The judge bowed in awe to little Gandhi as he pronounced sentence.
Gandhi was violent and destructive
To British dominance over other peoples,
Their use of other peoples and their resources for personal gain,
Treating them as underclass wogs.
Gandhi had the intelligence and intuition to do this
In England, South Africa, and India
In ways that engaged the best of British values
While destroying the worst of their behaviors
To which they maintained blindness.
I look on Gandhi as a paragon of life well lived
Dedicated to both violence and destruction,
Directed to transform us to live
More in accord with the golden rule.
I see the Prophets, Gandhi, King, Theresa,
Mandela, Borlaug, Yunus …..
Exemplars - lives of the golden rule
And confrontation of blindness, selfishness and injustice.
Be aware
When you stomp your accelerator
To feel the surge of cockpit seat against your back
In personal power and excitement:
The cement of the roads comes from
The shells and bones of the living who preceded you here.
The blacktop, the oil, and the gas are from their bodies.
Life of the sea, land and air –
In living, dying and internment under the continents –
They swept carbon from our skies so that we, their descendents,
Live in comfortable climate with great energy at our disposal.
As we exhume and burn their bodies for our energy and pleasure.
Be aware; beware -
We return our ancestor’s carbon to the skies
Insulate our planet home
Heat it to the higher temperatures of earth’s earlier times.
Temperatures to which our children and their children
Shall accommodate –
Less fertile land, less fresh water, higher oceans.
Transformations we fashion do endure.
We have a sacred trust as stewards of transformation.
In violence and destructiveness they are
Sacredly creative of the next
That shall be.
All you have, you received from those before you
Lives, deaths and burials that now give you breath and energy
To use your violence to destroy the destructive.
Dare hold open your eyes of reason
To the bright glaring light of sacredness!
Dare embrace the caring and empathy of sacredness!
Sacredness of your violence and destruction
Your stewardship
To
Transform now into
What is next
What will be
Long after your time
In the time of your descendents
Your stewardship
Sacred
"All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One." Black Elk.
© David W. Oliver 11/28/09
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Thoughts from Bill Moyer’s Journal
Thoughts from Bill Moyer’s Journal
Congress is bought
But not for naught
Cris Dodd, Barney Frank
Take lobbyist money to the bank
More bonus compensation
Less Wall Street regulation
MIC lobbyist writes the law
Helps to serve the dogs of war
Fed says banks too big to fail
Tighten laws and CEO’s will sail
Wall Street wants less regulation
Economic stagnation
Pundits announce deep recession
Homeless see real depression
Money talks in Washington
Without money, pols can’t run
Bernie Madoff sits in jail
But corruption will prevail
Hedge funds go unregulated
Mortgage loans stay constipated
Rubin, Geitner, summers
Economic bummers
Something rotten in DC
Not so good for you and me
Wall Street has anointed
Ben Bernanke reappointed
Didn’t see the housing bubble
Now the country’s in big trouble
Financial reform illusion
Derivatives causing confusion
Golden Sachs very golden
Explains why Congress is beholden
© Gene DiConstanzo
Golden Rule Rules
Golden Rule Rules
Seven Rules!
Care for the weak
Speak truth to the King
Love others and self
Let the child in you sing
Foster their gifts
That your child may be giving
Nurture our earth
That your child may see Spring
Five Attitudes!
Attitude for past is gratitude
Fashion the moment with passion
Cope with what’s next with hope
Create your acts, anticipate
Employ your joy
Three Oppositions?
Secularly
Scientifically
Religiously
We often see
Oppositionally
As controversity.
A trinity?
Like:
Rationality,
Emotionality,&
Value-ality
Parts of
Personality.
A basis of:
Impartiality
Collegiality,
Immortality?
Replace:
Banality,
Brutality,
Veniality
With
Mutuality?
Apply:
Curiosity
Constantly
Universally!
Try to see:
Through
Empathy
Divinity
in
You and me!
One Why
Livin’ is Givin’
Monday, December 28, 2009
Go Tell About the Mountains
Go Tell About the Mountains
Go tell about the mountains
Over the hills and everywhere
Go tell about the mountains
The mountain tops aint there
When I was a little child
I played in mountain streams
Now they’re filled with rubble
There go my childhood dreams
Go tell about the mountains
Over the hills and everywhere
Go tell about the mountains
They’re grubbing coal up there
When I was a little child
I swam in crystal lakes
Now they’re filled with toxic ash
I pray those dams don’t break
Go tell about the mountains
Over the hills and everywhere
Keep telling bout the mountains
Till everyone’s aware
Now I am an adult
My childhood dreams are gone
I still pray those dams don’t break
My children kept from harm
Go tell about the mountains
Over the hills and everywhere
Keep telling bout the mountains
Till everyone will care enough
To make it stop up there
Words © David W. Oliver 6/30/09
Mimic song to Go Tell it On The Mountain, John W. Work 1865
Go tell about the mountains
Over the hills and everywhere
Go tell about the mountains
The mountain tops aint there
When I was a little child
I played in mountain streams
Now they’re filled with rubble
There go my childhood dreams
Go tell about the mountains
Over the hills and everywhere
Go tell about the mountains
They’re grubbing coal up there
When I was a little child
I swam in crystal lakes
Now they’re filled with toxic ash
I pray those dams don’t break
Go tell about the mountains
Over the hills and everywhere
Keep telling bout the mountains
Till everyone’s aware
Now I am an adult
My childhood dreams are gone
I still pray those dams don’t break
My children kept from harm
Go tell about the mountains
Over the hills and everywhere
Keep telling bout the mountains
Till everyone will care enough
To make it stop up there
Words © David W. Oliver 6/30/09
Mimic song to Go Tell it On The Mountain, John W. Work 1865
Pebbles of Life
Pebbles of Life
Pebbles thrown into the ever changing ocean of creation
Make tiny ripples moving outward on its surface.
On and on through time they move and add and add
Till mighty waves crash against the hard black rock
Of certainty, domination, and indifference
To wear it into soft sand at the waters edge.
There little children splash their afternoon
In the final lapping ripples of great waters.
The children make their castles in the sand.
They fill their empty buckets with sand and water and pebbles;
They throw some pebbles that they find that afternoon
To make new ripples.
© David W. Oliver January 26, 2008
Pebbles thrown into the ever changing ocean of creation
Make tiny ripples moving outward on its surface.
On and on through time they move and add and add
Till mighty waves crash against the hard black rock
Of certainty, domination, and indifference
To wear it into soft sand at the waters edge.
There little children splash their afternoon
In the final lapping ripples of great waters.
The children make their castles in the sand.
They fill their empty buckets with sand and water and pebbles;
They throw some pebbles that they find that afternoon
To make new ripples.
© David W. Oliver January 26, 2008
Wind-Less
Wind-Less
In the corridor of North Dakota and Texas
The US wind blows the bestess.
Don’t build up new wind towers
For more green electric power
No grid - for transmission - to th’ rest of us!
Solar-Less
In th’ US Southwest desert
Cloudless, but Sun that’s omni-present
Mirrors concentrate hot daylight
Fused salts store it over night
Why is solar-less our plight?
Forty-one votes for dissent;
Sixty votes for Senate’s consent
Grid-Less
Why’s getting’ a grid so very hard
With green ‘letricity in high regard?
Ya have ta ask every politician
In each and every jurisdiction
“No!” They yell; “Not In MY Backyard!”
Dollar-Less
When you borrow and you just spend,
You’ve nothing left to invest or lend
Borrow to feed you guzzling cars
Send $600 billion to sheiks and tsars
Your children can pay it back again.
Job-Less
Too few jobs across our nation.
Family providers in desperation.
We’ve done the green energy research
Why our manufacture jobs left in th’ lurch?
Factories find countries with large installations
Wind – Sweden (unemployment 4%; green exports 11%)
Solar cells - Germany, China
Thermal solar – Spain, Europe - North Africa
Grid - Switzerland, China
Geothermal – Iceland, Costa Rica
US?
David W. Oliver 12/27/09
In the corridor of North Dakota and Texas
The US wind blows the bestess.
Don’t build up new wind towers
For more green electric power
No grid - for transmission - to th’ rest of us!
Solar-Less
In th’ US Southwest desert
Cloudless, but Sun that’s omni-present
Mirrors concentrate hot daylight
Fused salts store it over night
Why is solar-less our plight?
Forty-one votes for dissent;
Sixty votes for Senate’s consent
Grid-Less
Why’s getting’ a grid so very hard
With green ‘letricity in high regard?
Ya have ta ask every politician
In each and every jurisdiction
“No!” They yell; “Not In MY Backyard!”
Dollar-Less
When you borrow and you just spend,
You’ve nothing left to invest or lend
Borrow to feed you guzzling cars
Send $600 billion to sheiks and tsars
Your children can pay it back again.
Job-Less
Too few jobs across our nation.
Family providers in desperation.
We’ve done the green energy research
Why our manufacture jobs left in th’ lurch?
Factories find countries with large installations
Wind – Sweden (unemployment 4%; green exports 11%)
Solar cells - Germany, China
Thermal solar – Spain, Europe - North Africa
Grid - Switzerland, China
Geothermal – Iceland, Costa Rica
US?
David W. Oliver 12/27/09
Science vs Religion
Science ⇔VS ⇔Religion
The scientist blokes and religion folks
Often argue ‘stead of laughing at jokes.
What might such serious people find funny?
Why we people’s frailty and our addiction to money!
So when the authorities rave and rant:
“You must either take this or else take that!”
Just laugh and follow this silver rule:
“Always take both; unless you cant!”
© David W. Oliver 12/27/09
The scientist blokes and religion folks
Often argue ‘stead of laughing at jokes.
What might such serious people find funny?
Why we people’s frailty and our addiction to money!
So when the authorities rave and rant:
“You must either take this or else take that!”
Just laugh and follow this silver rule:
“Always take both; unless you cant!”
© David W. Oliver 12/27/09
Values
Values
Care for the weak
Speak truth to the King
Love others and self
Let the child in you sing
Foster their gifts
That your child may be giving
Nurture our earth
That your child may see Spring
© David W. Oliver 4/14/1990
Care for the weak
Speak truth to the King
Love others and self
Let the child in you sing
Foster their gifts
That your child may be giving
Nurture our earth
That your child may see Spring
© David W. Oliver 4/14/1990
Skippy Jar
Skippy Jar
There’s a land that’s very far
Out beyond that distant star
Where He hid the Skippy Jar
That holds the Magic Key
It’s the Planet of the Hand
Not left nor right you understand
But of Curiosity
and This Is What Was Told to Thee
And neither had the Magic Key
Science loved by Hand of C
Old Scrolls were loved by Hand of T
And so they argued violently
Just what is that Magic Key
Hand of T said it’s a scroll
No, no equations of control
Said C: I truly disagree
Just what is that Magic Key
A Magic Key to all the gold?
All the power one could hold?
All the knowledge to behold?
If I have that Magic Key
Hand of T through scrolls did plow
Found the map and made his vow
I will leave right here and now
To get that Magic Key
But that observant Hand of C
The find of map did fully see
And he vowed too: “I’ll follow thee”
To get that Magic Key
A Magic Key to all the gold!
All the power one could hold!
All the knowledge to behold!
If I have that Magic Key!
Now Hands walk on their finger tips
When they have to make their trips
With calluses very hard
To protect from cut of rock and shard
Not be cut and have to feel
Not be cut and have to heal
Then Hand of T found Skippy Jar
By slinking fast and sneaking far
But Hand of C was no ones dope
He tracked T with his telescope
T shook the jar with all his might
He grabbed the biggest rock in sight
And smashed the jar from left and right
He threw it down from greatest height
By this time came the Hand of C
And even Hand of T could see
That just one hand is not enough
To open jars of wondrous stuff.
They both took hold of Skippy Jar
They shook it hard and threw it far
They pushed and pulled; it was no use
The jar stayed shut through all abuse
They thought and then they said: “lets twist”
This stubborn lid may not resist
They tried to twist with all their zeal
But twisting’s hard when you cant feel
They had to file their finger tips
Cut calluses with sharp rock chips
Add feeling to their mighty grips
And twist with empathy
The twist of one must match the other
Like gentle play with friend or brother
You sense the twist at other end
And match it like you hear a friend
What could it be that They did see
A scroll of old? New Chemistry?
Writ on cheap mirror: “Empathy”
As feeling hands they had it free
Our Planet Earth
Our planet’s not this weirdo place
With walking hands a sentient race
And Skippy Jars the wisdom case
Where Gold is in the Golden Rule
Power in self and compassion cool
Your trip brings knowledge for you to retool
Where living and giving are the finest school
Where you look in the mirror only to see
Your knowledge, and values and empathy
Played out in your actions for eternity
Hid in a jar for posterity.
© David W. Oliver January 12, 2008
There’s a land that’s very far
Out beyond that distant star
Where He hid the Skippy Jar
That holds the Magic Key
It’s the Planet of the Hand
Not left nor right you understand
But of Curiosity
and This Is What Was Told to Thee
And neither had the Magic Key
Science loved by Hand of C
Old Scrolls were loved by Hand of T
And so they argued violently
Just what is that Magic Key
Hand of T said it’s a scroll
No, no equations of control
Said C: I truly disagree
Just what is that Magic Key
A Magic Key to all the gold?
All the power one could hold?
All the knowledge to behold?
If I have that Magic Key
Hand of T through scrolls did plow
Found the map and made his vow
I will leave right here and now
To get that Magic Key
But that observant Hand of C
The find of map did fully see
And he vowed too: “I’ll follow thee”
To get that Magic Key
A Magic Key to all the gold!
All the power one could hold!
All the knowledge to behold!
If I have that Magic Key!
Now Hands walk on their finger tips
When they have to make their trips
With calluses very hard
To protect from cut of rock and shard
Not be cut and have to feel
Not be cut and have to heal
Then Hand of T found Skippy Jar
By slinking fast and sneaking far
But Hand of C was no ones dope
He tracked T with his telescope
T shook the jar with all his might
He grabbed the biggest rock in sight
And smashed the jar from left and right
He threw it down from greatest height
By this time came the Hand of C
And even Hand of T could see
That just one hand is not enough
To open jars of wondrous stuff.
They both took hold of Skippy Jar
They shook it hard and threw it far
They pushed and pulled; it was no use
The jar stayed shut through all abuse
They thought and then they said: “lets twist”
This stubborn lid may not resist
They tried to twist with all their zeal
But twisting’s hard when you cant feel
They had to file their finger tips
Cut calluses with sharp rock chips
Add feeling to their mighty grips
And twist with empathy
The twist of one must match the other
Like gentle play with friend or brother
You sense the twist at other end
And match it like you hear a friend
What could it be that They did see
A scroll of old? New Chemistry?
Writ on cheap mirror: “Empathy”
As feeling hands they had it free
Our Planet Earth
Our planet’s not this weirdo place
With walking hands a sentient race
And Skippy Jars the wisdom case
Where Gold is in the Golden Rule
Power in self and compassion cool
Your trip brings knowledge for you to retool
Where living and giving are the finest school
Where you look in the mirror only to see
Your knowledge, and values and empathy
Played out in your actions for eternity
Hid in a jar for posterity.
© David W. Oliver January 12, 2008
Go Forth Again
GO FORTH AGAIN!
I AM OF THE 21 ST CENTURY LOOKING FORWARD GOING FORWARD
NO LONGER CONTENT WITH WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE…
I WILL WORK FOR BETTER TIMES “CAUSE WE BUILT
THIS CIVILIZATION BURNING FOSSIL FUELS”.
WHAT WE GOT IS HOT! WHAT WE HAVE IS ALL WE NEED FOR COOL.
WINDS BLOW! SUNLIGHT SHINES! AND DEEP ROCK IS HOT!
SO WE STRIKE OUT FOR A FERTILE WORLD!
A NEWER MIGHTIER WORLD
THE ONE WE WILL MAKE TO OUR LIKING.
FOR AFTER THE DIGGING AND BURNING AND PLANET HEATING COMES
A GENTLE PLENTY.
A BETTER TOMORROW WHEN WE WALK SOFTLY WITH LOVE ON OUR
GREEN EARTH
CARE FOR THE PLAINS AND MOUNTAINS FOR OUR PLANET’S
ETERNAL PROMISE. A PROMISE OF FREEDOM AND PLENTY.
GO FORTH YOUNG AND OLD.
GO FORTH AGAIN!
Altered from Walt Whitman, America, 1888
Words © David W. Oliver 7/4/09
I AM OF THE 21 ST CENTURY LOOKING FORWARD GOING FORWARD
NO LONGER CONTENT WITH WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE…
I WILL WORK FOR BETTER TIMES “CAUSE WE BUILT
THIS CIVILIZATION BURNING FOSSIL FUELS”.
WHAT WE GOT IS HOT! WHAT WE HAVE IS ALL WE NEED FOR COOL.
WINDS BLOW! SUNLIGHT SHINES! AND DEEP ROCK IS HOT!
SO WE STRIKE OUT FOR A FERTILE WORLD!
A NEWER MIGHTIER WORLD
THE ONE WE WILL MAKE TO OUR LIKING.
FOR AFTER THE DIGGING AND BURNING AND PLANET HEATING COMES
A GENTLE PLENTY.
A BETTER TOMORROW WHEN WE WALK SOFTLY WITH LOVE ON OUR
GREEN EARTH
CARE FOR THE PLAINS AND MOUNTAINS FOR OUR PLANET’S
ETERNAL PROMISE. A PROMISE OF FREEDOM AND PLENTY.
GO FORTH YOUNG AND OLD.
GO FORTH AGAIN!
Altered from Walt Whitman, America, 1888
Words © David W. Oliver 7/4/09
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Resplendent Earth
Resplendent Earth
So beautiful, Oh planet earth, resplendent to our eyes
Green of the land, blue of the sea, and white clouds of the skies.
Life’s home in all the galaxies – in air, in sea, on land.
In our love your fragility now lies in our hands.
Conserve your beauty given us, protect your gifts of life,
Equality of people’s rights and liberty from strife
Catch wind and sun for energy, draw heat from underground
Give land and sea fertility; let peace and life abound.
Words © David W. Oliver 6/30/09
Music: America the Beautiful by Katherine Lee Bates 1895
Wind Up Toy
Wind Up Toy
Wi nd up toy, wind up toy,
Source of children's carefree joy.
Wind the spring till fully tight,
Walks or skips to child's delight.
Wind the spring sans regulation,
Spring will break - child's consternation.
A truth each little child does know:
You have to wind to make it go.
Wind up toy, wind up toy,
Source of adult's mindless joy.
Wind the risk till fully tight,
Grow the leverage, your delight.
Spread derivatives sans regulation,
Why wait, have instant gratification.
Buy more stuff without a pause,
Still believe in Santa Claus.
A thruth each little adult should know:
Cnserve and save to make it grow.
Wind up toy, wind up toy,
Source of grandkid's future joy?
Wind the earth with CO2 coat,
Won't get hot till time remote?
Widespread drought across the nation,
Not a reason for carbon regulation.
Melting glaciers, an aberation -
Not till after my generation -
Only our grandkid's consternation!
When isce of Greenland, West Anmtartic go,
Oceans rise forty feet or so.
With all Antartics ice demise,
Two hundred feet the oceans rise.
Surely these are scientist's lies.
A truth that out grandchildren will know,
If we had acted it would not be so.
David W. Oliver 12/11/08
Wi nd up toy, wind up toy,
Source of children's carefree joy.
Wind the spring till fully tight,
Walks or skips to child's delight.
Wind the spring sans regulation,
Spring will break - child's consternation.
A truth each little child does know:
You have to wind to make it go.
Wind up toy, wind up toy,
Source of adult's mindless joy.
Wind the risk till fully tight,
Grow the leverage, your delight.
Spread derivatives sans regulation,
Why wait, have instant gratification.
Buy more stuff without a pause,
Still believe in Santa Claus.
A thruth each little adult should know:
Cnserve and save to make it grow.
Wind up toy, wind up toy,
Source of grandkid's future joy?
Wind the earth with CO2 coat,
Won't get hot till time remote?
Widespread drought across the nation,
Not a reason for carbon regulation.
Melting glaciers, an aberation -
Not till after my generation -
Only our grandkid's consternation!
When isce of Greenland, West Anmtartic go,
Oceans rise forty feet or so.
With all Antartics ice demise,
Two hundred feet the oceans rise.
Surely these are scientist's lies.
A truth that out grandchildren will know,
If we had acted it would not be so.
David W. Oliver 12/11/08
About the Categories
Beauty of Earth
Poems about the beauty and fragility of our planet home and our privilede to care for it for as our creative gift to our children and their children.....
Climate Challenges
Exhortations and challenges to action based on the the future life we face if we treat earth, air and water as endless resources to be exploited rather than respected and preserved.
Climate Follies
Silly or satirical poems about our ignoring the consequences of our actions.
Nursery Crimes
Familiar nursery rhymes given a contemporary rewrite, preserving some of the original flavor of political satire. Perhaps these are doggerel and crimes against poetry about crimes against children.
Shards of Truth
Musings about truth, sacredness, empathy, choices, purpose, and meaning.
Spirals and Circulars
Poems about how our lives spiral up, spiral down, and circle
Stories
Short stories that are possibly suitable for group discussion, posting on a bulletin board, publishing in a church bulletin. They primarily deal with climate change issues or personal values.
Stories by Guests
Short stories by guests that are possibly suitable for group discussion, posting on a bulletin board, publishing in a church bulletin. They deal primarily with climate change issues or personal values.
Poems about the beauty and fragility of our planet home and our privilede to care for it for as our creative gift to our children and their children.....
Climate Challenges
Exhortations and challenges to action based on the the future life we face if we treat earth, air and water as endless resources to be exploited rather than respected and preserved.
Climate Follies
Silly or satirical poems about our ignoring the consequences of our actions.
Nursery Crimes
Familiar nursery rhymes given a contemporary rewrite, preserving some of the original flavor of political satire. Perhaps these are doggerel and crimes against poetry about crimes against children.
Shards of Truth
Musings about truth, sacredness, empathy, choices, purpose, and meaning.
Spirals and Circulars
Poems about how our lives spiral up, spiral down, and circle
Stories
Short stories that are possibly suitable for group discussion, posting on a bulletin board, publishing in a church bulletin. They primarily deal with climate change issues or personal values.
Stories by Guests
Short stories by guests that are possibly suitable for group discussion, posting on a bulletin board, publishing in a church bulletin. They deal primarily with climate change issues or personal values.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
STARDUST
Stardust
God is Change
Transformation - One to Another
Stardust<>Life
Beginning<>Ending
Destruction<>Creation
Bitterness<>Gratitude
Apathy<>Passion
Despair<>Hope
Sorrow<>Joy
Sorrow<>Joy
Anger<>Welcome
Taking<>Giving
Indivisible Twins.
Embrace Them;
Rejoice Your Interval
To participate.
You, transformed from Stardust
CoCreator
In His Image
Triune.
Congress of
Feeling Valuing Reasoning,
Gratitude Passion Hope.
…….
On the hot summer day
Looking up, saw birds soaring.
On the thermal they spiraled
To rise higher and higher.
Then glided to their home
Pull of earth propelling them.
…….
We circle blindly
Asleep to what we seek
Needing help from those who see
Or help from pain enough to wake
Wake to find our thermal
Spread our wings to soar
Spiral up and glide to home.
As Stardust
∞
© David W. Oliver 6/8/09
NURSERY CRIMES
Nursery Crimes
© David W. Oliver
About crimes against the nursery and perhaps rhymes that are crimes against poetry
Twinkle Twinkle
(Beautiful Planet)
“Twinkle twinkle little star
How do we look from afar?”
“Beautiful: blue, white, and green
Fairest planet ever seen
Please stay pretty as you are,”
Said the little twinkle star.
Baa Baa Black Sheep
(Security Immaturity)
Baa Baa black sheep
Have you any oil?
“Yes sir, yes sir
To ease your work and toil.
Borrow from the Chinese
Pay it all to me
So that I can threaten your security!
And drive you into bankruptcy!”
Old King Coal
( Insidious Subsidies)
Old king Coal
Was a very rich soul
Contributed his money free.
He gave to his lobby
His congressional hobby
And collected subsidies with glee!
Little Miss Muffet
(Selling Your Tuffet)
Little Miss Muffet sat on her tuffet
Debating her vote all day.
Came a moneyed provider
Sat down beside her
And she sold her true vote away
Jack Sprat
(Why Not Chicken?)
Jack Sprat was mad for beef
His wife likewise insane.
So cows did belch
And pass their gas
And fill our air with methane
Humpty Dumpty
(Eternal Hot Summer)
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Waiting for spring, winter and fall
All of the scientists
All of the smart men
Couldn’t bring them back again.
Jack and Jill
(Pump Those Aquifers)
Jack and Jill went up the hill
To fetch a pail of water
All wells pumped dry;
Their parched throats cry,
No water ever after!
London Bridge
(Oceans Rise)
London Bridge is going under
Going under, going under
London Bridge will survive
As all our oceans rise?
Pop goes the weasel
(POP the Price)
All around the city streets
The guzzler chased the diesel
The guzzler thought the chase was nice
Till POP went the gasoline price.
Itsy Bitsy Spider
(Shout Again Some Day)
We Itsy Bitsy Spiders stood up and gave a shout
“Time for a policy to get th’ CO-2 out”
Down came the lobbyists and washed us all away
But the Itsy Bitsy Spiders will shout again some day!
Jack Be Nimble
(Fossil Fools)
Jack be nimble
Jack be cool!
Jack stop burning
Fossil fuel!
© David W. Oliver 6/30/09
MATRIARCH OF PRIDE
Matriarch of Pride
Nkosasna drove our land rover along the elephant track
Rutted Kalahari sand, three hundred meters deep.
Acacia, mighty baobab spread their branches here,
Where rain falls into the depths, as does the animal blood.
Ukwane, !Kung hunter gatherer, modern tracker now
Pointed to pride of lion; Matriarch led to acacia shade.
Guided to our canvas tent by armed warden of the wild.
Woke at night to lion roar, their walking through our camp.
Nkosasna driving. Ukwane tracking, we followed lion spoor.
Dawns light shadowed disturbed sand, cape buffalo limped away.
Two lion tracks – not the male - One the Matriarch.
Why did they stop each kilometer with droplets marking sand?
Around a bend, in acacia shade, the Matriarch lay down.
Head sunk down between her paws; oldest sister stalked away.
Great tear on farther thigh, bloody gore upon her chest,
We drove away to river bend, saw hippo and giraffe.
Returning saw a vulture perched, on near acacia tree.
Matriarch head slumped aside, sister guardian nearby.
Ukwane called the wardens, shut this track to all safaris.
Grant Matriarch wild respect; huntress for pride and cubs.
Next day we stopped at distance, with binoculars to report
Matriarch sprawled on unhurt side, vultures waiting in the trees.
Next morning sister guardian gone; scraps of skin, cracked bone remained.
Vultures flown, hyenas gone; droppings fertilize the trees.
We passed the pride one last time, moving on to other camp.
Sister guardian standing there; New Matriarch of Pride.
© David W. Oliver 7/5/09
Thursday, December 10, 2009
WALK SOFTLY WITH LOVE
Walk Softly with Love
Catch the wind in the sky
Catch the sunlight that shines
Take heat from our earth
Make our families thrive.
Light our schools and our minds.
Grow the gifts of our children
Grow them with life singing and giving.
Walk softly with love on our planet,
Green Earth.
Keep our deserts in bounds
Keep our reservoirs full
Make our soils rich
Keep our oceans alive.
Make our wood lands grow wide
Fill our forests and skies
Fill them with birds flying and singing.
Walk softly with love on our planet,
Green Earth.
Let the animals roam
Let the fish swim the seas
Keep migrations alive
Let the butterflies flutter
Grow the microlife of our earth and our seas
Let the life of earth’s past lie sleeping not burning
Walk softly with love on our planet,
Green Earth.
Keep the mountain tops soaring
Not pushed in the streams
Keep the lakes fresh and blue
Not dammed toxic ash
Use our land for nutrition
Not feeding our cars
Grow Canadian forests to spread cross their land
Not strip out tar sand cooked for energy demand.
Walk softly with love on our planet,
Green Earth.
Our cool planet, Green Earth
Cool our planet, Green Earth
Walk softly with love
On Green Earth
© David W. Oliver 6/26/09
I Denali
I Denali
I Denali, am majestic mountains, majestic valleys,
Glaciers of frozen fresh water, forest, and tundra,
Permafrost, and Life - grizzly bear, caribou, wolf,
Moose, Dalls sheep, vole, and tiny mouse.
I live now near polar North, my Earth’s work to
Radiate Sun’s heat to frigid outer space and
Balance out the sun flux that beats at our equator. I now
Keep our temperature for fertile growing.
My time is not your time, watch sweep-hand seconds,
A TV commercial second of thirty thousand dollars and more, to
Interrupt your flat screen staring entertainment and
Increase your purchases and consumption of …
My life is billions of earth sun circuit years.
I have drifted over the surface of our Earth
Colliding with and splitting apart from continents
My second is the hundred thousand earth sun circuit years of
Glaciation-warming cycles. I knew the wooly mammoth,
Giant beaver, giant sloth now gone extinct in my second of time.
My minute is the million year volcanisms; their greenhouse warming.
All ice melted then and oceans rose five hundred feet from
Glacial Earth to ice free Earth.
My day is tens of millions of sun circuits
A day ago my mountains were under sea
They rose and rise now an inch a sun circuit.
My year is billions of sun circuits
All ancestral life of earth born and dieing repeatedly
Buried in ocean sediments, earth graves covered by
Weathering of mountain, blown desert rock dust.
Your honorable Ancestors cleansed Earth’s sky of too much CO2
To give you breath of oxygen by their life and death and burial.
A year ago my Athabascan people named me Tallest One, Denali.
They lived with me in harmony.
A second ago, few hundreds of earth sun cycles, I saw your wooden sailing ships
Reach my continent to conquer it with your Ancestor burning culture.
You come to me in your domed rail cars and busses to look in awe at my majesty.
Your frenetic activity has warmed me, Denali, seven degrees and
You rip off mountain tops and push the rubble into valleys
To needlessly burn your Ancestors for energy to drive your frenetic entertainments.
I Denali mourn for my older brother Appalachians - despoiled.
We, my brothers and sisters of Greenland, Andes, Himalayas, Antarctica have Wolves You need to know.
My Wolves rest and feast in artic winter on snowshoe rabbit, vole and mouse, then
Cull migrating caribou herds of the weakest young and weakest old for health of herd and land.
Smoke and gasses of your burning your Ancestors have hungered my Wolves.
My glaciers melt, reflecting less, dark earth absorbing more from sun
My sea ice retreats, reflecting less, absorbing more from sun
My permafrost defrosts, three degrees of warming,
To release into our skies the stored greenhouse CO2 and methane.
My Wolves accelerate the warming to cull your frenetic herds.
Deserts expand in Americas, China, Australia, Africa …
Low islands and low coasts fled as oceans begin their rise.
Rivers run dry and aquifers pumped dry of fresh water
My wolves already maraud your hungry and migrating herds of frenetic refugees
Trees climb my tundra slopes, some lean drunken in my softened earth
Villages, of those who lived here with me in harmony from last ice age, are
Smashed by winter storm unprotected by the winter ice or tip in my softened earth.
I Denali tell you:
“You have the knowledge and technology for harmony with my majesty.”
Listen to the wisdom of those who lived here before your wooden sailboats came.
They lived in harmony with my majesty as you can in plenty for all.
"Do not wrong or hate your neighbor. For it is not he who you wrong, but yourself." Pima proverb.
"Respect for all life is the foundation." The Great Law of Peace.
"All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One." Black Elk
© David W Oliver 7/10/09
I Denali, am majestic mountains, majestic valleys,
Glaciers of frozen fresh water, forest, and tundra,
Permafrost, and Life - grizzly bear, caribou, wolf,
Moose, Dalls sheep, vole, and tiny mouse.
I live now near polar North, my Earth’s work to
Radiate Sun’s heat to frigid outer space and
Balance out the sun flux that beats at our equator. I now
Keep our temperature for fertile growing.
My time is not your time, watch sweep-hand seconds,
A TV commercial second of thirty thousand dollars and more, to
Interrupt your flat screen staring entertainment and
Increase your purchases and consumption of …
My life is billions of earth sun circuit years.
I have drifted over the surface of our Earth
Colliding with and splitting apart from continents
My second is the hundred thousand earth sun circuit years of
Glaciation-warming cycles. I knew the wooly mammoth,
Giant beaver, giant sloth now gone extinct in my second of time.
My minute is the million year volcanisms; their greenhouse warming.
All ice melted then and oceans rose five hundred feet from
Glacial Earth to ice free Earth.
My day is tens of millions of sun circuits
A day ago my mountains were under sea
They rose and rise now an inch a sun circuit.
My year is billions of sun circuits
All ancestral life of earth born and dieing repeatedly
Buried in ocean sediments, earth graves covered by
Weathering of mountain, blown desert rock dust.
Your honorable Ancestors cleansed Earth’s sky of too much CO2
To give you breath of oxygen by their life and death and burial.
A year ago my Athabascan people named me Tallest One, Denali.
They lived with me in harmony.
A second ago, few hundreds of earth sun cycles, I saw your wooden sailing ships
Reach my continent to conquer it with your Ancestor burning culture.
You come to me in your domed rail cars and busses to look in awe at my majesty.
Your frenetic activity has warmed me, Denali, seven degrees and
You rip off mountain tops and push the rubble into valleys
To needlessly burn your Ancestors for energy to drive your frenetic entertainments.
I Denali mourn for my older brother Appalachians - despoiled.
We, my brothers and sisters of Greenland, Andes, Himalayas, Antarctica have Wolves You need to know.
My Wolves rest and feast in artic winter on snowshoe rabbit, vole and mouse, then
Cull migrating caribou herds of the weakest young and weakest old for health of herd and land.
Smoke and gasses of your burning your Ancestors have hungered my Wolves.
My glaciers melt, reflecting less, dark earth absorbing more from sun
My sea ice retreats, reflecting less, absorbing more from sun
My permafrost defrosts, three degrees of warming,
To release into our skies the stored greenhouse CO2 and methane.
My Wolves accelerate the warming to cull your frenetic herds.
Deserts expand in Americas, China, Australia, Africa …
Low islands and low coasts fled as oceans begin their rise.
Rivers run dry and aquifers pumped dry of fresh water
My wolves already maraud your hungry and migrating herds of frenetic refugees
Trees climb my tundra slopes, some lean drunken in my softened earth
Villages, of those who lived here with me in harmony from last ice age, are
Smashed by winter storm unprotected by the winter ice or tip in my softened earth.
I Denali tell you:
“You have the knowledge and technology for harmony with my majesty.”
Listen to the wisdom of those who lived here before your wooden sailboats came.
They lived in harmony with my majesty as you can in plenty for all.
"Do not wrong or hate your neighbor. For it is not he who you wrong, but yourself." Pima proverb.
"Respect for all life is the foundation." The Great Law of Peace.
"All things are our relatives; what we do to everything, we do to ourselves. All is really One." Black Elk
© David W Oliver 7/10/09
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