Friday, August 31, 2012

the end of summer broils mildly today

(90 degrees at this time of year

is slightly different than earlier in the season

as the sun isn't as high or as strong)


but it still makes us break a sweat

as south of the equator the people there

have had enough darkness

and are warming up to their summer's approach


and so we'll speak of particular seasons

particular to wherever on earth you may be

and speak uselessly of ends and beginnings

as for the time being the sun's not finished yet...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
Bodhisattvas consider how we've behaved and vowed not to enter Nirvana until
all sentient beings have been saved. That seems a futile prospect, as far as I can see
unless, of course, we trust that's there's an endgame none of us can see.




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
avatars

are the true eternal optimists


they must be

or they wouldn't have


to reappear

every couple of thousand years


to shake us all

awake again...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
There are no good guys...there are no bad guys...there's just everyone doing
the best that they can...which is more than bad enough...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I envy those who live in their bubbles

such fantasy soothes the ache of responsibility


they think some Merciful God will save them from themselves

while I and mine know the struggle is on us


and no it isn't easy to be aware of the gulf between

what we are and what we should be


no wonder when we reach that point of exhaustion

all we can do is laugh...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Walking before the church on a hot late summer day—a junkie stops a moment—a soft touch for a cigarette and some change approaches him

I can see from where I’m standing across the street this person is not glad to see the junkie come up to him—I can’t blame him—the junkie hit me up twice in the last week and a half and now I avoid him—which is how I wound up here on this side of the street—he wasn’t menacing or surly—but beseeching in the weakness that got him hooked in the first place and left him begging for a hit of somethinganythinganythingatall—

Yes I was revolted and yes I felt guilty and yes and yes and yes I turned and wandered away—reflecting on my broken idea of how I was there for anyone in need—and indulging my own hit of remorse and self-castigation—

Better reflect longer and harder—better come up with a better excuse



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

AN EXCHANGE

The fallen man as I believe, is exemplified by its mine, me, I. The example of our Lord is the complete opposite, love thy neighbor etc. that is what we strive for but it's not our first knee jerk reaction. That is why we are saved thru Christ because God knows we are unable to attain what we are asked to do. No one except Christ is able to obey the 10 commandments. We may be mindful, and try but in the end, it is impossible for us. So, that is why I don't believe in share and share alike. We as humans cannot do it. Perhaps when Christ returns and it's Heaven on earth then it will be share and share alike. Now we have to slog thru it and do the best we can.

NO!

When Jesus straightened the sick and the lame, his words were "Repent, and sin no more" According to what you believe, that's an impossibility. Is this to say that Jesus misspoke himself when he said, "I am what all men may become?" Free gift of grace or not, we seem to be required to act, and to act contra those "evil" animal hungers that control the (after all) animal human body. Speaking from the RC side of things, if someone on their knees at Saturday confession goes out that night to re-open the 98 wounds of Christ with a night of debauchery, they have no excuse for this lapse! They may say "Oh I am unworthy" Bulldonuts! The animal body wants what it wants, but if the higher part of human nature--that consciousness that KNOWS THAT IT KNOWS--does nothing to control and refine those urges into something better, then you're either a slave to some church or a free soul striving for redemption and transcendence in the light of the Ineffable...call it God or lamppost or ashtray or whatever you will...I mean, how can the Unnameable be given ANY name by us? Live by your own lights...that's all we can do. But ignore someone less fortunate in the name of some creed, then see what the One will have to say about THAT!


Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Thursday, August 30, 2012

a new world will grow like stalks

breaking through the ashes and ruin of this old one


but the terrible price tells me

all I wished for this world


will happen without me

and not as the straight march to transcendence


that all of us wish it would be

if I have to be the last of the old


then so be it

(I was never too keen on community as such


too many not holding up their end

and I in my way among them


despite what I thought I was doing)

the vanity that dies now


will resurface yet again

for all the novelty of the new


human nature will never change

and the struggle to engage the higher self


will continue even in what new dispensation

puts us a higher rung of the Jacob's Ladder


we climb on our way to what fulfillment

what reunification what holy only One...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.



Wednesday, August 29, 2012

the afternoon does fly

it's almost autumn already

and the summer is barely a memory

so swiftly it went by


what poet hasn't said all this

in like words and emotions

and who hasn't faced this condition

yearning for all that on earth will be missed?


what comes after this offers no guarantee

no strict rendering of what is to be

but each of us build toward it as we will


rulers and workers and lovers and poets

all varieties of occupation know it

and we will our sorrows and anticipations still...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.


the shadow admits to the sun


this fact is part of the world

that locks us in our skins


we are and are not these bodies

but we know that we know


and the patience required to endure this

is the ground of our testing


sweating in the sun that casts our visages darkly outward...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito.
There's no problem on earth that can't be solved with the help of a beautiful afternoon...a flaming BBQ...a ton of beers and whiskey sours...music, lots of music...and good company...er...pardon me, I must've been dozing a moment there...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
the moon is almost full

and I can feel its increasing pull

on every drop of water in my flesh


my mood swings with the tides

and upsets each plan besides

and again I must determine what's for the best


let all the cycles close down and the new start draw near

whoever I am I'll still be starting out from right here...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
why should I have a friend

emulate everything I do


my own shadow in the sunlight

can do that exactly


if you're going to be a friend

challenge me constantly


with fellowship or argument

so we may toast each other afterward




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
how I weary of this world


we're torn between the merciless ideologies

of those who would take all for themselves

and leave everyone else to die

and of those who would take and expect

some permanent restitution

for their victimhood


and even those who think they've transcended

such earthly illusions are themselves deluded

in their vanity of their fake universal comprehension


but trust the human race vain and proud

and never more so than when they are weak and humble

(and yes I include myself

once you're awake it's hard to go back to sleep)


to have nothing to say

but will go on yammering anyway


our shame and our glory

one indistinguishable thing


how I weary of this world

how I weary of the whole plan


myself needing to disregard the fallen state

and strive for the risen one...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

my wish is a childish one


that we all wake up and realize the interdependence

of ourselves and the whole of creation


and that all our harms and all our defeats

were just the results of our grubby grasping wants


even if this is the Actual Reality of the One

to transcend all our selfish ignorant hurts


oh how we all ruin the Reality by reducing it

to our childish wishes...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
time is your track

you can't go any faster than you're able


stop twitching like a fool

you won't make your destination arrive any sooner than it will...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
as long as there is earth beneath our feet

we will hunger beyond reason

and lust with our whole attention


and in the afterglow of some satiation

we'll regret our weakness and woe

but soon enough we will in our natural season


revive and chase the next temptation

excusing any defeat as to our desire we go...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
well friend

are you happy now

that you subvert wisdom

to an excuse that gets you off your hook?


no you haven't listened

no you did not hear

and I in my own ignorance

have nothing left to say about it...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
what avatar rises again

to course-correct our plunge

in what fate fulfilled in what Grand Design realized?


call this One what you will

this One appears now

not for some happily ever after


but road-service service toward what Ultimate

we have yet to remember...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
human nature DOES tend to swerve toward the self-serving...but human nature also strives for "Love God with your whole being, and your neighbor as yourself"...I personally have never understood the emphasis on the FALLEN Man over the RISEN Jesus...if Jesus IS the risen savior, then why concentrate on all the pernicious ideologies that hold us to the evils (if evils they be) of the earth? Can we really talk of antagonistic points of view when all of us in some measure, separate the fullness of living with a 'them vs. us" illusion that's brought nothing but misery into the world?Know that your concerns at root are no different than anyone else's...Our welfare as a race of beings, wrought from what mystery animates the universe, is the same--"Do onto others...", because you WILL ultimately reap what you sow...why this should still be a question after thousands of years is something I'll never be able to wrap my mind around...


Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

there's no need for hatred or vengeance

no need to despise or to condemn


we all have treachery deceit and insecurity

in our human make-ups


just as the negative visage of Judgment

shows forth as the positive sign of Mercy


so are all our bitter hurts

just the shadow side of love...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
this is where the times turn around

and we that were young are now the elders


and our elders pass in their painful dispositions

and our young ones are our shame or our delight


but no one can mock or judge another

it's like looking in your own mirror


and wondering who facing back at you

is your ruin or your salvation




Content (c0 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
nothing clears the air like honesty...


no wonder too many of us are smothering


it's easier to come clean with another

than to be honest with ourselves


and the quality of that 'coming clean'

can only be gauged


by how much one turns away when you speak

or the one speaks to you and you hear your own voice...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
for the moment we are safe in our skins


news of distress or catastrophe (if any)

has yet to reach us


and though our nerves may titivate

like a fly on a lump of sugar


for the moment all is quiet all is still all is silent



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
a day and a day and a day passes


and the more one drops in body

the more one lifts in mind...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
the unattended moment passes


and here we are back

in the dimness of our myopia


and every blazing object looks like

a smudged shadow moving against the sun...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
sunlight glistens on the dripping drops

after the morning rain...


this instant is the prime reality

this and our blank consciousness


apprehending the moment....




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All reserved.
the trouble with selflessly surrendering yourself

is having to sit calmly

waiting for the unenlightened

to drag you down with them


into the pits of their hell

which you mistakenly

thought you would be spared


ah but we are all One

and none of us are spared...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
reactionaries tend to saw off

the branch of the Tree Of Life

on which they're sitting....





Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
it seems all politicians are liars...

except when they say something you endorse




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Monday, August 27, 2012

our earthbound minds are the death of us


see so many locked in their animal understanding

trying to drag everyone else down with them


into a feral pit of imaginary blind lust and hunger

oh I've a ways to go before I can do without


this ravening insanity of flesh

a ways to go before before I can even


come close to emulating the Perfect Man who freed us from this


and waits in infinite patience for us

to awaken to this fact


who knows when by an earthly measure?

in the heavens it's always just about to happen


and so hard to stay strong until when that time

here on earth finally happens...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

On Dylan's TEMPEST

when you step beyond the boundaries

power at full

the goods delivered

and unstoppable to all

but the One who bequeathed the gift of achievement


then pass into that area beyond fulfillment

your work will stand

and you will have rejoined the cosmos

from whence you came

the gift for one and all who can receive it


and for you the pledge honored

in its doing


let us not tear down such a one who bears this boon to us

all of us are enabled and all of us have our chance...



Content c0 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
absolutely amazing!


the more I suffer the lighter I feel

as if the heaviness exhausted itself

on our human limitations


and all that remains is the hint of relief

that comes as we bear the weight

with stronger unexpected grace


or is it just unsuspected strength forged

while we collapsed and claimed

we couldn't take any more?


if it were left to me I'd probably ruin it

with deep reflection and though...but no...

that's not the case...it's totally incredible!


not know whether to cry or to laugh...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
losers and winners

only exist on the earth


those who kibitz from above

laugh or weep according to who in skin

they may still identify with...

recognizing their own speciality in bloom


in someone else struggling along to pass 'go'

collecting $200 or not...metaphysical Monopoly...HAW!




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
now to give all this speculation a rest


I know as much or as little as you

I have no special wisdom

I have no reason to be hopeful or glad


I'm just shoving my own way forward

and rubbing other shoulders as we go

and where we drop is where we stop


grateful that the silence will give us our rest...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
oh to be finally be awake

with all your beliefs really gone


and you supine on the killing floor

of your own consequence


that is hardest of all to bear

that is the cold truth of looking up


into the empty heavens and knowing

all you've searched for is so far beyond the sky


that even though it is buried deep with in you

you still got lost on the way


at least close this sojourn on earth

with learning that much


maybe next time your load would weigh you down

and you'll have a fighting chance to do right...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
if you've no wish to believe in mythology


that's quite alright for reality


even science now proves eternity (somewhat)

or do you really think the ground you walk on


is new and improved?

or that the dirt is not billions of years old?


and where it came from and where it will go...oh

so beyond comprehension what you wish to believe is

of no consequence except to your own progress...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All right reserved.

the better part of suffering

is to know you're not alone


cold comfort for sure

as God's justice is cold


but that's the way this world is built

pain joins all parts of creation


in one beating heart

and the Living Water of all those tears...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
another stage of maudlin blessings

do not heal our wounds


believe your fairy tales if you will

but the recuperation's harder than you know


and will cost you your false faiths

your delusions and your desire


to heal is to die

and to die is to be reborn...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

good God haven't I been here before?

it looks so familiar


past styles reverberate in new forms and

old echoes in new voices


vast and mysterious

but trite and predictable


we're nowhere near some cosmic end-game

though some of us wish we were


the new tyrant sounds no different

than the old style one


the reformer mirrors the tyrant's style

and still thinks it's for a greater purpose


good God the new liberation still enslaves

I've been here before watching the same bread and circus games




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
the 5th Age arrives

who are we now?


remnants of ages past

back to endow


the spirit with hope

and the flesh with spark


the 5th Age arrives

now when do we start?




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
so the young man intends

to propose marriage to his live-in sweetheart


they've tested the field

they feel up to the rigors


I just hope he won't be too hurt

if she answers 'no'


and she won't be too hurt

if she answers 'yes'



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
many call suicide a cowardly act

a running away from life


I disagree

I think it takes a supernal amount of courage

to be able to step into some unknowable Void


whether there's absolutely nothing after this world

or there is and some divine pronouncement

punishes the sufferer for taking his own life

either is enshrouded in a deep dark incomprehensible mystery


and all our opinions on the matter just the blatherings

of people either so far from the edge

they speak in the majesty of their ignorance

or too close to the edge

and are dulled to the reality of incomprehension

that frames our time in these skins


so let the petty in their safety pontificate

(I also have nothing to say

miserable as I am I am not ready just yet

to call it quits)


for the departed a bravery of spirit

a prayer and a hope that their choice

does them no worse than staying alive

in a world that daily become a place in which

it is not worth living...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All right reserved.
my salvation is killing me...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Friday, August 24, 2012

why cry for the spirit when flesh is so hungry?


feed both

and let others divide their own truths


why say it's all One

then deny it when you're pushed to a choice?


let others create worlds to justify their own dark hungers?

why deny your bread in blindness?


why starve for visions when your eyes are open?




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
"curse my God and I'll rip out your heart..."


oh sweet sacred pure adoration

help me fly from such as this situation

where the holiness of a devout believer

prompts the swing of his cross like a cleaver


across the worshipping heads at prayer

who are secretly sorry he is there


and will the God he defends

bless him for his devotion as holy henchman

or blast him from earth for misusing the Name

calling his own oaths down on his own blame?


to soothe let us have news of his demise for a start...


then gladly will the prayer arise

zealot finally empty at the eyes...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
great paradoxes try the soul

with merciless penetration


so your will to fly unencumbered

is the sign of your deepest frustration


to love one must hate

to heal one must cut


gross contradiction answers the soul

with a muttered "but..."




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
what sorrow for the past

that lives falsely in the imagination?


your leaky nostalgia

will mislead you when most


you need perfect recall

and despite all to show integrity


will give not the truth

but your version of it...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I wouldn't have any backup plans if I were you

nothing we've known will be left standing


if we survive this total breakage of our diminishing era

what new rising from its ruin will teach us new ways to be


who we are...and maybe it will be an advance from what has been

but even if that is the case human nature will still be the same


and among those who will strive to go forward

will again be those who will try to drag us back...





Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
the zealots and other psychos were expecting

asteroids and super volcanoes  and searing solar flares

and reversal of poles and the the earth turning over

and Jesus piloting the Mother Ship to retrieve us


but no no no to these childish fantasies

of the spiritually mentally and emotionally disenfranchised


The Apocalypse is slow and daily and happens

as crime has always happened


one last hammered nerve

one last broken heart and the shooting starts


except in numbers now unbelievably huge

as everyone looks over their shoulder not knowing

which face will be the one who delivers you from life

which zealot which psycho...which foe or which friend...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.


don't know what to do

don't know where to hide


bullets are flying

and peace has died




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I'm obliged to take out

life insurance

just to go to work

in the morning


'ever thus' 

says you?

'now more than ever'

says I




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
humankind moves toward

its own suicide


and the One who can do all things

sits and weeps for us






Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
oh you must love your misery...


see how many fools as self-deluding

jump to your imperious demands

as if they'll get a return on their investment


either by being patient and waiting for you to fall

or by savagely coming after you and taking their due

by force your bloody heart dripping from their fangs...


and you writhing in an ecstasy of deadly self-flattery...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
go ahead and hate me


you look in my eyes

and see only yourself


and suffer from the fact

hating me because I won't give

the false affirmation that "yes yes dear



it's alright everything will be alright"


go ahead and hate yourself

you're already an obstacle to everybody


and you get what you ask for after all...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
the vain love mirrors

except when they show the hard reality

behind the image...


faded beauty or defeated pride

the vain love mirrors

as long as they lie


the eye of the beholder indeed

mirrors never lie as the blind never see...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
proud of yourself now?

you could've gone forward

in the midst of all this social breakdown


but instead tried to backtrack

in the midst of all this social breakdown

and now are worse off than you were


blind vain and frightened and blaming

evryone but yourself for your misery...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

we will always be who we are


that will comfort some and agonize others

but if "I Am That I Am" means "Things Are As They Are"


then it also means "You Is What You Is And You Ain't What You Ain't"*

that should take care of more than half of your frenzy


that should stabilize whatever fears wreck your rectification

now all excuses are flushed down some cosmic tube


now there's no hiding..."Peek-A-Boo"...har har...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
more than one source has reported

the world beyond is much like this one


except that the forms are more blazingly vivid

ultimate in the source of their essence


no wonder we homesick ones on this side of the veil

long for what we barely recall


the passage through all thought forms as a liberation

from the weight of sorrows that is the frozen forms in matter


oh razor-sharp edges of dreams we slide around unharmed

(oh poverty of words to describe the indescribable)


and how many of us longing to awaken to that place

right here all around us


just ask Milosz: "It will be exactly like this life. The same room.

Yes, my child, the same. At dawn the bird of time in the foliage, pale as a corpse..."*





*Translation by Kenneth Rexroth.


Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
if you want to transcend then stop trying so hard


you're only getting in your own way

just tend to your daily business


and follow through on what is your lot

when your road gives out naturally


then you'll continue walking

wondering how you got beyond the chains of matter


even as all you were is eulogized where your body dropped...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I tell no one to reach for the stars


they'd only be grasping at the air

and I respect their sorrows too much


to play them for fools...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
no one should have a thing to say

we're all ignorant

we're all in the wrong


none of us have

the total picture

or the power to work


its implications

we think we're wise

as others in their alleged wisdom


laugh and laugh

and get insulted when they're laughed at...

well that's truly a shame says


I who dare in ignorance to say so

I who in my own foolishness dare to play wise...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Phiulip Milito. All rights reserved.



at least for me Grace does not supersede Karma

and Will is not stronger than Destiny


for whatever reason I cannot know in this skin

the One has forbade me even amendment


and all for which I strive is snatched from me

just as I'm about to achieve it


or given to me and assured of coming

to little or nothing


let the Positive Thinkers bray all they wish

they don't know how blessed they are


and for those of us not so fortunately disposed

we make our atonements as we go forward


not trying to undo sins we're already paying for

but at least a fighting chance next time we walk in flesh...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
Sunday School's let out...


don't be like some republican whose idiocy

is the product of "legitimate inbreeding"


we all heard the sermon and ponder it

then forget in the flurry of Sunday activity


a day at the beach with coolers full of beer

iPods blasting the ear and pretty girls in bikinis


cavemen with technology while the pastor has his tryst


ah to be One in human failing

an excuse for every misdirection


and don't get me wrong

I too fail but stop my moaning in time for a swig


and a few franks and an eyeful of beauty on the sand...

I too love it when Sunday School lets out...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.


no one needs preachers and raving prophets

shouting about righteousness when their own accounts

are seriously in arrears


let these neurotics expiate their own error

stay in a closet as Matthew suggested


no one is special no one is exempt

no need to be Elijah losing his head as John

while Jezebel parades in Salome's skin


and has a revenge that only lengthens her times in the earth

yes we all think we're part of the Godhead and yes

we all make the error of thinking that makes us God


the Whole may be included in all parts

but no one part functions without the Unity

of All making One...that's where we stumble...and listen to raving neurotics...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I follow the path as far as it goes

afterward who knows where I will be led?


I already passed a turning point

and saw ahead of me what I saw behind


every door on earth remains shut

and you only get your key when your time here is up


living in your eternal now but for who? for what?

for when? for why?




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

I was ready to greatly tie up this morning's string of posts

with some confession of personal anguish (Lord again?)


but I lost it


my laundry was ready and I had to get down and get it

(I live in a building of low-lives who aren't above

messing with other people's goods)


see how easy it is for the world to interfere

with all this higher stuff


(as if it were higher stuff and not an addition

to the illusions that by our own idiotic assent

hold us to the mundane)


well maybe our worldly doings only matter in the world

but their meaning their purpose their power their essence

comes from beyond this world (else karma wouldn't be a question)


whatever the actuality what has been wrought

is on our tally like it or not


and rather than tie myself to the sins the vengeance of the One is already

making me pay for


I'll amend as I go forward and not sweat about where that'll lead to...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

again there is talk of the necessary fall

and a rise in grace commensurate

with one's acceptance of fault and one's amendments

of error going forward on the soul's quest


how rocky the road

how crooked the trail everyone must stumble along

if this fall was necessary

will the atonement truly be as compensatory?



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I've written before of eyes staring up

out of the dust of worldly defeat


well now I'd really better worry


those eyes have gone blind...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
what was I thinking when I first set out

on this life?


a straight unbroken march to transcendence?


no woeisme here friends

I too gambled on my ignorance


and now knowingly pay out a bucket-load

of breakdown


the wisdom of the defeated in the dark room of my being...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I do believe God favors the wicked child


while we in our sufferings endure scanty blessings

the wicked run riot with their selfishness


and rarely does anything happen to stop them


but they are merely mortal

and one day their "luck" will run out


but not until so much harm is done

life is not worth anything to anybody?


if God and His angels rejoice that one stray lamb

return to the fold


then what wisdom is that? does the One truly think

gratitude is uppermost in the minds of the evil?

but then if anyone can punish any presumption (including


what I've displayed in this writing) trust the Last Word to fall


even on these privileged evil who think the universe

serves them and them alone


some plan fulfilled and all of us the pawns...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
what is it about our tangled lies

of pledges and declarations of love

that take all the good out of everything?


because we all project our ideals

on the mirrors of the faces of our beloved others

rather than truly see ourselves there?


because we're hungry and frightened

ignorance and vicious beyond measure

to protect our insignificant egos?


I'd rather do without love

but that isn't possible since in our Oneness

as creatures of some sacred promise


we all share the burden of enduring hard truth

while defining ourselves in our falsity?



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.


trust your disbelief


adhere to your vacant downfall

and know that out of the abyss


you will rise in fire

like Elijah in his chariot


if that's too arcane for you

imagine one of those glass elevators


climbing the side of some monument to avarice


either way your doom is your rebirth

and your involvement with sin be your salvation



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.



you will not pretend much longer

that your path was some special quest


oh it actually is

but will you know the value in that way?


you will bless the devil

thinks he's nothing but your delusion


but what will be your excuse

when these simple beliefs fall in confusion?


creation and the Laws

have no mercy to expect


you may just find the hard way

you have not been blessed


because you imagined a paradise

that in no way resembles your living...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I work for cheats and liars

so do you

every single one of us

know the false is true


we fan their goddamned fires

we get no gratitude

and when the kingdoms of the world fall to dust

these power-mad bosses will take us too


and will their hell be our heaven?

was Blake right after all?

I work for visionaries believing

nothing but their fall


while we rise? to what paradise? while

passion consumes the hungry and peace is cold as ice?




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Monday, August 20, 2012

something new this way does pass


its odor is familiar

and its path resembles others cut by previous demons


yes the essence is eternal but this form is new-born

a fresh harbinger of the next age's complications


I'm glad I won't live to see its majority

I've had it with all its ancestors...let others fret this


something new that this way passes...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
don't be proud of slaying everyone else's dragon but your own


one day you'll fall asleep in your imagined safety

and your dragon's hunger will awaken famished


and while it breaks free into myth and legend

the countryside will wonder "Whatever


happened to that odd twerp?" (heh heh)





Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
only the weak demand power

the strong know enough to be done with it


thus the strong need their strength to endure

the damage wrought by the weakness of tyrants...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
violent fantasy overrules the heart

people's desperation cuts off all possibility


and as the world we've known crumbles around us

so the rage reaches out to rip every strand


that would bind us to a thrown rope of rescue

welcome to the time we've feared


and welcome to the emptiness rising behind it

that will gather all we lost in our passing...





Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
hopelessness only arises when one stops

to think about one's situation


be given a moment to think things through

and one's given a moment to despair


yes it gets weary yes it seems endless

yes it is nothing one intended it to be


but when one's entire past started a mere instant ago

the door closes behind and the only direction is forward...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
you have the choice of regretting everything you've ever done

and of accepting the consequences and amend moving on


everything is on us everything is our business

and we can disregard these facts and riot under the sun


or we can savor our memories of lusty earthly living

and say they were emblems of some other times now gone


and settle into the long evening of age

where all our living is alive in one transfixing remembrance


there is your choice

to detach and appreciate


or to attach and die of sins

that have already done their damage


whatever you choose goes forth with you so choose wisely

it is so difficult to know the difference between wanting live and wanting to die...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I feel the movement of demons in the dark

but they are only formication beneath my skin


what lobotomy of mind will spare me from

the ignorance of my fears?


I laugh and spite in the high noon of life

but at night it's regret I find myself in


I feel my own sorrow move in the dark

and within the comfort of tears...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
oh how deep and oh how scary

the simple sunset seems


with all the torment of your daily living

relived in your incomprehensible dreams


stir in the dead zone of 3 a.m.

as the atmospherics of the dream fade in regret


and face the morning cold and clean

with the images of your vision that you will soon forget




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
the summer was rooted in cement

everything blocked

everything stopped cold where it stood


and all the wrath of karmic payback

picking our pocket of every last coin of grace

every whit of the price as they say

paid if not gouged


and what is left but knowing

you cannot amends for what you are being punished

done is done as far as that goes

and all you do is tie yourself more tightly to that karma


you make amends and change your ways only going forward

even if your current life's fate

is to be crushed down with every move you make


the god may be unforgiving

may have no pity or mercy for you

and even if you say not my will but Thine

even if I Am That I Am means Things Are As They Are


it is still on you to amend your ways

no matter what is thrown at you

no matter how much your guardian angels

are merely the One's henchmen


and now as the approaching Autumn begins to crack

these solid pavements

where will we find ourselves

cold bones of the passing of our time?



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.


Saturday, August 18, 2012

I gave advice deep from my ignorance

I did not want to offend

so with many prologues and warnings

and general disclaimers

I went ahead and intruded on someone's process

even though they asked me to weigh in


I could've been honest and begged off

explaining I was not up on the topic


and it was really none of my business anyway

(I don't know those involved and how could

I comment on abstractions?)


but instead I opened my mouth to crow

and crow I did as if entire orchards rose and scattered

like dust challenging the clarity of a view

that streamed on my voice


when I was done

they looked at me for a second too long


then being offended

I spoke from my vanity to pardon myself

while my shame painted my insides red


that's the last time they'll ask me anything of import

while it may not be the last time I play the dunce...


my advice to myself?..."miss no opportunity to close your mouth"





Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
...couldn't leave well enough alone

couldn't not meddle


hadda peek in the cookie jar

hadda look deep in the closet


wouldn't stop 'til I found the hidden gift

wouldn't stop 'til I knew it was the one I wanted


years later I held it on my lap

it was beastly heavy and I had trouble grasping it


doesn't matter what it is

it was what I wanted and once I had it


I was bereft of any enjoyment

I regretted getting the thing


children ransack attics and basements and I wonder

what they'll end up doing with this...little as I know what to do myself...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.


I don't know when I'll go absolutely silent


I may finish typing this out

and find myself with absolutely


nothing left to say

and would that be a bad thing


if nothing I've ever said matters?


for those that found something useful in my rants

may they serve you better than they served me...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
oh yes my imagination

certainly knows no bounds


but my ass certainly knows

the weight of my brain...





Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
is this the end you envisioned for yourself?

broken down in your circumstance

with every dream mocking you as they swirl around

the inside of your limited skull?


you cannot envision your end

(until your a grade-A shaman

and can completely comprehend

the visions that attend your physical fading...)


whether you die on satin sheets

or pass out for a final time in a dirty alleyway

death is still death

and your lifetime's load is still what you lug with you


when you join with some aether

that accepts or rejects according to your own lights...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Friday, August 17, 2012

no wonder the priests hated me


when I'd confess

I'd plead the fifth...


when business is it of theirs

when a Greater Judge


has me on life without relief

letting me judge unmercifully


for myself?





Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
everything stopped up solid

then everything rushing like a torrent


and so many of us

prepared for neither...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
slowly we die

by the doctor's misdiagnosis


all doctors vainglorious

who imagine themselves gods


these chimpanzees

with Cracker Jack prize diplomas


diplomates of dimwittedness

who couldn't diagnose a headache


without further tests

slowly we die


by their studied stupidity

and the money generating world


that is the milieu of their daily work

that feeds on our misery like vultures...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.



here under the dark of the moon

the past breaks apart


the end of one cycle

rolls over to a beginning


and the whole damn thing

starts over again


our loves wiped clean

and our strengths sorely tried


in a few long minutes

the moon will turn new


and purged of ourselves

we'll still be who we are


that never changes

that's of no help


we'll feel in our blood

the shift of the phase


and only our consciousness

wild and depraved


will come to grief

will be our baggage


going forward into the now

that does not forgive


going forward into ourselves

and our enigmatic choice


to accept our breakage

or to forge a new alloy of heart and mind


to greet a new moon

that will soon turn old...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

with all the rudeness of a bumpkin

you insult all good wishes with self-centeredness


disguised as insecurity and exposed as insincerity

and just when you think you've vouchsafed acceptance


ah then is when you will not have it...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
a rumbling in the summer sky

eyelids sliding down the eye

woozy with humidity

pondering the fate of humanity


will have to wait

I nod on this chair

and I'm fresh out of water and I begin

to doze against the ozone discharge...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
amazing to be living at this supernal time

of terrors and revelations


and all most of us can do is cling

to old shameful habits of bigotry


and hubris as if we could stay

the advance of the denouncement


and contain all awareness to an old system

of presumption and insecurity


even with a New Age at hand

the world itself won't be different at all


believers will still believe and

deceivers will still deceive


only the social fabric will be a new swath of chintz

and the rewards a heightened awareness of shame



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
we forget our good manners when we presume

we are dealing with inferiors

many of whom must look down on us

in order to stare at and shame our faces



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.


no one knows what the Plan really is


we are watched over by forces we cannot comprehend

and they say nothing as we make our moves

that come out right or turn out all wrong

yet shape our consequence like clay

assumes the casket's form and we lie

with further delusion of bewilderment barely aware


we do not know what the Plan really is...





Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
how sad to watch the ones you love

go away from you


to see them disappear from the earth

or turn into strangers to you


and new friends will resemble them

our patterns remain the same


like begets like and like it or not

how sad to see it all come again...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
so she talks over whatever you're saying

not really wanting to hear...

frightened in her skin

and ungracious as any provincial


uncomfortable in her skin

in any situation she cannot control

she will claim rudeness as a right

and a privilege of the imperious


oh pity her when real disaster

chips away at her world

and she cannot order the table correctly

and she disappoints her equally deluded betters


there is nothing to say of such a one

and so much the better for those who aren't involved...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
don't be an idiot

for the sake of someone else's delusions


you need them less than they need your attention

which is to say you don't need them at all



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
any devil will screw himself


his is not to tempt us into some imaginary hell

but to lead us to a salvation

of simple love


that only the complex evil of devious minds

could not overturn

being content with dragging the weak into


self-reflections leaving all screwed and bewildered


laugh at this devil

he will shrivel from sight


laugh at yourself

you'll know your place


it does take great rectitude to resist evil

any devil will screw himself



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

playing out a string

exhausting a line of thought


is bound at some point

to lead to diminishing returns


but who is wise and strong enough

to keep silent?


who dares walk the wilderness

without the accustomed crutches?


I quiver with everyone else

when a large winged shadow sweeps the ground

and when it's gone I also come out to play


happy and grateful it wasn't my turn yet to go

but knowing someday it will be

I savor the silence and exalt the finish of these thoughts...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
give a wide berth to the avenging reformer


he is not concerned with mercy or forgiveness

or a universal love


but only a convenient agenda in which

he alone is loved...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
it's way too hot to crave this body

want this possession

desire this outcome


the swampy air is a great leveler

and the challenge to summer

to persist in engendering this growth


while we're weighed down with all we've got

and it's (all together now) way too hot...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
the mundane world is such a comfort


and guards us from the full heat of the forge


after all the sky can't always be blazing away

with the visionary eye burning out on the splendor


the wild and self-loathing may go blind

on theatrics and hallucinations


but who mans the molten flux of process

sees them and in pity sends in those would assist


bedding down bandaged

in the mundane world that is the only place


where to heal or to wait...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I'm waiting for a potato to boil...


ah another day in the fields of vision

tending to this...and that...and otherwise...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I speak for the one

for the two

for the three


and for all

who need voice

except for me




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
jabber like an idiot

and people will gather around


but utter one deep thought or exhibit

any hard-won wisdom


and people will flee from you

as if their very lives were at stake


so yet again the conundrum

who is wise and who is the fool?



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
funny how the facts are considered obstacles

and a realistic appraisal of life is considered negativity


the human heart may find it hard

to accept the idea of a universe without purpose


but who says that's so?

the purpose may be beyond mortal comprehension


too vast for any to ascertain

and the fact will be bourn out in a Reality beyond our scope...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
it's a long day's work

and a hard day's pay


but we work until sundown

because there's no work at night


so we do it

and it's either done


or we leave it for the next ones

who'll come at sunrise



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Monday, August 13, 2012

God's Plan is too vast and heartless

for us to concern ourselves with it any longer...


if love and forgiveness never satisfy the One's vengeance

then let Him rage on His power-crazed throne


we will concern ourselves will mercy and grace

we will do what's right as best we can


and do it for love of all our souls

and not some petulant reward of life or death


let God and all power concepts be gone

we've suffered enough of their delusional existence


if the belly aches feed it

if the heart aches salve it with grace


if nothing we do matters then it doesn't matter what we do

better to do right and live than thrist for dominance and die parched...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
who wishes to please you wish to please themselves

well let it be so...


wouldn't you tell a slight fib of well-being

to one whose hope is all gone?


wouldn't you want your passage eased

as you slid out of the wreck of your lifetime?


none of us may deserve it but we are all entitled some comfort

this is not God's business but our own...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
were all the prophets delusional?


it's one thing to aim for what is beyond our understanding

and another to think your faith alone could make mountains dance


turn to the god who you think will save you

that One that will leave you hanging by your own thread


while you viciously pray to that Ineffable

(with images of a stake driven into the Sacred Heart)


as if anyone but yourself could save you...

be your own prophet


describe your own arc intersecting your time

and divine intervention incoming


then follow your exhortations to the end of your life

and if you didn't get it right so what? you are not God


your only job was to clear your throat and sing words beyond all delusion...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
no wonder people think I'm odd...


I laugh while they cry

I see light where they see darkness


and when they are thrust into that unknown zone

they snap back (if they're fortunate)


and assume the familiar old paradigm

of killing the messenger


of hounding me farther into the desert outside their comfort...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I think it's hilarious

that the eye of the raging storm

is the most peaceful place to be


a cradle of calm

in which you lie

looking up at the walls of whirling chaos


surrounding the suspension of hope and despair

that every turn of process holds in balance


and that passes for the field of grace

that gives us our out

should we know enough to seize it...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

no one agrees to any proposal until one can reap a benefit

whether the scheme succeeds or not





Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
to pay a compliment is to expect one in return

presumptions of honor one always expect the the other to learn




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
people need  a weakling to disrespect

until the weakling wises up and builds strength

and walks free letting the disdain slide


which in turn invites people's hatred

it's never too late


to kiss off people

just don't be there and let them wonder

what to do with their own blades




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.


one understands nothing 

until one forgets everything







Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
people cannot understand why I lean on building walls

and stare with glazed eyes at some eyes at some middle distance in the air


oh he must be stewed or pussy-whipped or shell-shocked

and walk away in their smug ignorance not know how fortunate they are


I wanted to peel back the sky and have mind-blowing visions

and I did and now live in the remnants of my personality


each tiny gesture from someone to me overpacked with sensations

that only set in motion the opening of some portal in my own sky



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. Al rights reserved.
I jerked off over the Virgin

and Isis and Lilith


and all the other names

of feminine principles that are one pole


of the string our guts adorn

but why me? the age-old question


of the ignorant chosen one

who stumbles through hell after hell


for what divine fulfillment?

for what resolution of what infinite purpose?


it is not our to ask

but only to suffer accordingly


for the One whose love goes no further than

what instrumental value we have and


what crazed aspiration we tarnish in our blasphemous raving?



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
a spell raised me

put me back in business


why? to what end?

why should the One who abandoned me


give a fuck for what has happened?

then the awful thought comes


I must not be done yet


oh God oh God oh God oh God oh God...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Miito. All rights reserved.



fire climbs the inside of my skull

a cacophony of demons block out earthly sound


I stumbled past signposts

of a language I didn't know


but the facts of hell discount such blundering

you're responsible for your fall


and while the god weeps but stands paralyzed

I'm reduced to nothing as He watches me fall


thank you of saving One

thank you for your love


it did nothing for me

but deliver me to my perdition



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
my eyes are bleeding

my ears are muffled and clipped

my fingers burned off

my legs scorched and blackened


I'm pinned to the ground

by gravity and shock

I peeked behind the veil

and this is all that's left



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I've spanned the gamut of my awareness today


and still I'm at this computer typing

these spontaneous outbursts of realization


and when I'm gone

this stuff will either be remembered


and recorded or go down with the grid

with greater achievements than mine into the hole


and that pushes me beyond my awareness today


the rest a blank to be filled or not...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I thought I had had enough

but what did I know?


my faith was a child's prayer

for more toys and

for mommy and daddy to live forever


well they do and I will

(the toys don't interest me)

but oh the shit we endure to get to that so-called paradise...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
there is no release until death


so play your hand while you may

the rest of us will be at the bar


drowning sorrows

and remembering ecstasies


and mocking you with each turn of the card

how tritely and pitifully common


how merely and very human...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
there's nothing I can say

to convince you

you're your own worst enemy


why is it my business?

because we are all One

and when you imbeciles act up

it drags the rest of us back


support your bigoted social standards

vote for the tyrant

who'll kick you to the curb down the line

go on thinking your entitled to your foul opinion


you'll be the death of the rest of us

and that's just fine with you


each a king a god in his own feeble mind...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
how quickly the summer goes


already the shadows lean long on the street

and little yellow leaves

begin to fleck the concrete


and years that once took years to transpire

now play out in a single long month


oh how quickly everything goes

pause for just a second and the whole week is shot...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
it only takes a song remembered

to be transported back through a rift in time

to the past


The Band "The Moon Struck One"

on a mild late night summer porch

with a waning gibbous moon

slipping through random bars of cloud

waiting for my father to get home

from his second of three jobs

his life was broken upon

to sustain us


or Stories "I'm Coming Home"

just play that and I'm 19

in the cool late summer/early autumn

pining for some sweet pretty little things

I can no longer distinguish between

but whoever they were

they really fired me sweetly up


or "Born To Run" in the waning summer

of a troubled year in young adulthood

where who I wanted would have none of it

and the usual rites of booze and pot passage

were observed with the strictest adherence

to a sensitive Beat-fueled vision of art and love

as one single creative thing


it only takes a song to remind you

you've never been anywhere else but here



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
somehow this day

I cannot work up a sweat

over the sadness of creation

or the madness of the world


my capacity for suffering is exhausted

and all I love I hold

in a sweet remorse

that stays with me in this weary peace...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.



as long as people kill to possess

an earth where there is room for everyone


it is in the earth they'll stay

flesh mind and soul consumed


into the Unmanifest

as if they'd never existed at all...


so expect no change in anything since so many

believe that's the case anyhow...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
tyrants succeed themselves

with such regularity


you're never sure when one has gone

and a new one has taken over...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
back to business

shovel the crap

toss it on the roadside

take the rap


the boss man tans

your ass with his whip

every time you fire

from the hip


he don't wanna hear it

he don't wanna know

just climb that pile

or be buried below


find your strength

in all your anger

think how you'll hang him

like a coat on a hanger


back to business

you become unstuck

by hoping to throw him

'neath the wheels of a truck


then a new one rises to power

he'll show you all fine

how to make a silk purse

from that swine


back to business

the new boss's solution

is to forget all

about revolution


and you'll

still be shoveling crap

tossing it aside

taking the rap...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

I had a vision

of people walking around

smiling and

tearing up their money

while rows of wispy clouds

zerba-striped the blue sky

the Sun illuminating them

like bars of gold


soon as the moment passed

the vision faded

I checked my pockets

my money was still there

and no one smiled

under the ordinary ribbed sky


for an instant

I was free

to peek through

the bars of my flesh cell




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I'm on a brief hiatus from myself...


it may not last the morning

the this moment is all there is


ruined already by my stopping

to note this


and this briefest of brief moments

is like a vacation


I do not really want to come back...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
no desire this morning

but to walk beneath the clean blue sky


and be uplifted

by having no other desire than to do this





Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

to the whores who worship and lust for men of worldly power


I say I can't wait to see you

hooking on the street after your little extortions fail


and the man you toppled will make a comeback

after enough time goes by


and you'll still be trying to sell your common tale (pun?)

to the bottom-feeders like you for whom


exploitation is a way of life...yeah... the kingdoms of the world alright...



Contednt (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I almost fainted when I saw my electric bill


the power company smiles when the summer is extra hot and humid

they have us by the nuts and never stop squeezing


and we say o.k. I'll give up some hooch some dinners

at the pretentious diner and pay the blood money


the air conditioners hum continuously

but sometimes it feels as if the universe itself were on the side


of the evil and the unforgiving greedy...


(if God's a Republican, we might as well go to hell...)



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.


a working man will always have a place at my table...


the rich can eat shit at $1,000 dollars a plate

but a working man has earned his food


and he'll always have a place at my table...





Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
c'mon keep up


the flood waters are rising

the super volcanoes are beginning to rumble

and people still act as if it's just another day

in a lifetime full of 'another days'

where the earthbound continue their sad games

while the universe rearranges everything beyond their world

and delivers them carnage they'll never imagine


c'mon keep up

let's run like hell


even if we can't outrun apocalypse

at least we're running...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
well you've chosen your path...now what?


run along it gayly strewing flowers only you can see?

trudge mud up the hill in the rainy season?

beat the shit out of anyone who glances in your general direction?

sit beside the disconsolate in suffering compassion?


and every good intention that faces its inevitable hard trial

will you abandon it and curse the universe

for not shining your shoes to your satisfaction?

even when we do right the going is so tough


what have we to do but even regret having to choose a path?



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
run-of-the-mill sodden visionary


stares up from his puddle of scorn

and berates the universe

for letting him sink into his habits


how many such fools litter creation


blaming everyone but themselves

for their wrong-headed salvation

and the wrong end of their aspiration...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
oh how depleted rage makes one feel...


as if any petition to the cosmos

bore any weight but what we assign it


I'll play no fool unless fool I'll turn out to be


as if any goodness in our hearts

could sway the vicious cosmic processes...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
everything's upended

everything's uprooted


and not a single belief sustains

in the overturning of our old paradigm


so break every promise you made

the conditions no longer justify


everything's shot to hell

and let your joy be trying not to join that...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.



well now you're alone

truly alone


what are you going to do with it?


no forgiveness or mercy in God

no love or kindness in his intractably disgusting creation


what are you going to do with that?


since we're all hell-bound then take my advice

(it's as cold and easy and ignorant as anyone else's)


enjoy your pitiful time


be drunk ceaselessly as Bauderlaire commanded

eat mushrooms and have disrupted visions


and consumed in embraces and fluids the sweet bodies you crave


have a ball have a blast

make your eternity last and last...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.






a bag full of quarters

a purse full of dimes

will get you a parking space

only in this world


curse God all you want

tell Him He's a vicious unforgiving scumbag


but He is King...He will not be mocked...

and no matter what what contrition show

no matter how many lessons you've learned

no matter how much love and grace and mercy

and forgiveness you show

it won't matter


God doesn't care about what he has preached

He will not be mocked

and He'll make you suffer to no end and no relief


a bag full of quarters

a purse full of dimes

will buy you this hard knowledge


and you'll ever wonder why you tried...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
"How Beautiful it is

To do nothing...

and to rest afterward..."

--Spanish Proverb



ah how my Latin brothers and sisters understand...

(I'm Italian...Second instead of Third World

but it is all one isn't it?)


there's such a sense of freedom and joy

in being done...


even if it is the defeat of a lifetime

and your last card is played

and you wind up with aces and eights


even if you lived quietly and neighborly

and did nothing more to impress the World's eyes

but do good quiet deeds and dismiss

any notion of reward


when you're done

you don't have to try so hard

when you're done

you reaped the full load of gain or loss

that is your lot


and for whatever afterward

your measly prayers appeal

the reality is already set

and you'll find your apotheosis in your fall


but oh merciful One

what peace and what joy

when you are finally undone


then will your wistful acceptance

receive the gifts it could not imagine

before...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.



Friday, August 10, 2012

words scatter

the eyelids drop


can't pull an all-nighter

even with stimulants

these days


these days

the drug of choice

is 30 cups of joe


and even they lull me to sleep


old man harried by his imagination...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
it is in my nature to keeping pressing on

even if the air won't part and let me through


futile for getting anywhere

but not for strengthening the muscles until they shred


it is in my nature to not understand

the meaning of stillness and peace


when such instants happen when I'm exhausted

and my numbness is my imagined zen purge


it is in my nature to be unnatural

type A titivation hiding in type B lassitude


and wondering why my happiness is contingent

on disappointment...the excuse for failure


as it is my nature to imagine all that is

lost around the edge of my focus...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I laugh at a void that doesn't laugh back...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
these forms we possess are one-shot deals

tailored to our time and the place we inhabit

in these particular skins

these aggregations of molecules and life force

these particular manifestations of our time in this place

that add to our lengthening list of identities

that at some point will add up to the total sum

of all the lives we've endured


oh tell the tales of woe and wonder

that each sojourn engendered in its progress

the details exciting sobering thought-provoking


but the Essence ever the only constant

by which our beings are weighed and measured

all pure weight awarded and each thumb on the scale discounted



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

in any new dispensation


our moorings are torn

from the beds of sands beneath ageless seas


and we are adrift in a flux

that shattered generation after generation


of empire and custom and limits of consciousness

only the mercy of a god could contain


or the mercy of our blessed smallness...

grains of sand taking flight with each gust


to settle in new arrangements of some pliant landscape

the dust and dirt as old as creation itself


the energy itself there from the start

but the arrangements of matter as unstable as mere thought


in the same as ever dispensation...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
the view has always been wider and deeper

than any human eye could see...


now the light of realities gone before Man came to earth

reaches our shabby polished lens...


what will make us blink now?

what reality that has always been


will make our heads throb

and our spirits reel?



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
now we aim to see if Mars can be

habitable for an Earth colony


(just in case we need a fall back for the race

and sadly it looks like we might...)


what will that mean for astrology?

astrology has..of necessity...been an earthbound


activity...we could not see the star's and planets relations from any other view...


but if a Martian astrology arose

what would the implications be?


heliographic study...the Sun and a back drop of fixed stars?

what would an occultation of Venus and the Sun be then?


what would an eclipse mean with two Martian moons?


what would happen to the colony

during an Earth retrograde?




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

enough of these mocking metaphysics

pat as a feel-good speech on being positive


better you learn to get real and feel in tune

with all the chaos your attention will focus into order


any order is a start...if you don't quite get it

at least a start will be made that can be corrected


going forward as the new mantra puts it...

funny all these catch-phrases to candy-coat


the necessity of doing what we must...

how far we are from the original flush


of meaning and intention

how far we are from simple Actuality...


what's to come has already been

and we're always in the thick of it...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
why are you so anxious to go?

you've already arrived


and only need release your white-knuckle grip

and open your glue-trapped eyelids


to see that it is so...

it may be true this is nowhere


but when you get it you see

you can be anywhere


and that anywhere is everywhere you are...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
we're all on the same path

it's crowded and nerve-hammering


and sadly we claw at each other

to get through an opening in the air


wide enough for everybody...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
no way around life

you can go only through it


and if you survive that stalk

you will have release


the only way forward being

to lay down and pass...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
treading through mud

we walk this world


as our frustrated spirits

learn patience the hard way


locked in flesh

subject to conditions


and vision meaning purpose all

fading in and out like mirages




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

this way through the wreck of the world

is not the door for which I was looking


but it is the one that opened for me

and the only one through which I can pass


so I walk on and enter and as the door closes behind me

all ahead looks like what I left yet it's different


it is the fresh path on which I'll cut my feet

it is the new view that will see in rocks in a different light...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
preparation is everything


you do not walk into a crowd

and spontaneously combust with vision and insight


as if you were a conduit of divine fire

blazing the inner eye with its truth


slow and steady as with all else in life

delivers you to the quiet of contemplation


preparation for the compassion we all evade

until it catches us in our proud fall


and realization is everything...



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
we're all such visionaries


sending our minds into the stars

and trying to dwell there

with our feet still on the ground


forget it

you have to leave the ground to get there

and no matter how advanced


your mind is

(or you think your mind is)

you're still in a body


subject to all the ache and woe

to which bodies are heir


and of which visionaries despair

if their illumination proves false...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
when words are gone

images will reverberate


and when (and if) they do so

with meaning as deep as words


then they will connect with concepts

of such vastness


that words will finally pass

and all concept become tangible...




Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.





my thought broke

in the middle of my formulating it


perhaps it was something important

more likely it was not


but more thought comes in an instant

and it is equally fragile


and any thought will lead to any road

since all roads have one destination



Content (c) 2008-2012 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.