Friday, February 28, 2014

today I turn 61

so much I loved...gone...


and yet as my days shorten

my life lengthens


tomorrow I'll still be

just starting my 62nd year


but really the time and place

could be any time...any place....





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exhausted...yes...


but not so exhausted

I cannot appreciate


surviving....





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don't dwell on troubles

or overly celebrate triumphs


they are as a whisper

in a hurricane....





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pride falls

becoming

the humility that arises


unless your mind is so clouded

you can't tell up from down

or whether there's a difference

without a confusion...a lack of sense


to which to be relative...

or to tell which is blessing and which is curse....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
a new hole

in the ice


I emerge

shivering


so nearly dead

I didn't know


if it was the Light

or mere daylight


up into which I plunged





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PONDERING THE CHANNEL




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NIGHT PROMENADE #2




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NIGHT PROMENADE #1



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BEACON





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Wednesday, February 26, 2014

people will moan and hector you

but don't let them get over that far


you are unique and on your own way

so be bizarre if you are....




Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
don't know from highest or lowest

don't know from wise one or fool


I just know some of my best insights

come when I'm at stool....





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good Lord

even as my day craps out


I'm the moth eaten Lothario

of my own hunger


if we truly live in eternity

then I understand


why desire drives us through lifetimes

and why this nonsense never ends....




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every thought I have


is yet another world

I must leave behind....





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I'm pleased

the sun still

rises on my day


the only instant

of the only reality






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I forget nothing

but still I hold no grudge


since we're all guilty

and our own worst judge....





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I'm covering my tracks

so even I can't find me....





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you wonder why you're here...


funny

everyone else does too....





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the young golddigger

thought polishing

an old millionaire's pipe

would be working...


and work she does

especially when

she found out

it wasn't hard....





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give the Devil his due

when he comes to call


if it stands it stands

if it falls it falls






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the barbarians  got

inside the gates


put up a scanner

but didn't widely issue swipe cards


and the employees

heard us when we came outside the gates


and yelled Fools! Open the gates!

we're the rescue team!


so they ignored us

and when back to their work


and we...we knew

our day was done


some gave in too late

and others were


stoic in defeat

but either way


the slaves ate heartily

while we died off the grid....





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somewhere

in time and space

my thoughts of you

will form

a picture

of me....





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how beautiful you are...


I must forget the flesh

and focus on the long haul


for if your body is

this stunning in the light of the eye


your soul must be

a radiance beyond endurance...


the very reason you're as beautiful as you are....






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I forgot for a moment

that I am immortal

but this body isn't....





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as far as how life operates


I could only say

this isn't the way I'd do it


though I'd be

hard pressed to say


just how I would....





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often you'll find yourself

where you need to be

after a state of confusion

makes you wonder where you are....





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I speak to the air

no one listens


no one hears...

on the one hand


I can understand

no one wants to be lectured


(even the soft advice

has an edge of rebuke in it...)


but to get one's experience

across without the preaching


is the problem

and to dismiss the attempt


outright is not the solution...

we follow our own paths


and yet we are not alone...

if we learn to listen


rather than just hear

then speaking to the air


might mean reaching someone

who's out there to receive it....






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what would make me happy

could only make me happy


if my intent is in tune

with the Will that powers


all process...

to be One with that is the goal


of all souls...whether or not they think

they know what their happiness would be....






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Tuesday, February 25, 2014

OF THE WHOLE

to be one part

of the Whole

with emphasis

on the Whole

and only slightly

on the part

so the part

can take its place

and become One

with the Whole...

oh to find myself in that

to be that one

of many that form

the One

that is the only intention

and that would

make me happiest....





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here in the flesh

God bless the flesh

the conductor

of spirit

that joins

the two

that joins

the many

that is itself

as holy

as spirit

except for those

who think themselves

trapped in it

they are only

trapped in themselves

here in the flesh

God bless their struggle

to come to terms

and find their peace





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MILES

miles from where I've come from

miles to where I'll go

here was not many miles to come

and from here not many more


I'll have nothing to declare

when there's nothing left to show

that I am simply going where

I'm sure I've been before






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PLAY THE FOOL

I was made to play the fool

there was so much for which to atone

that I doubted every rule

and shunned what was mine alone


I did not think I was holy enough

so I disdained a religious life

and now see clergy wild with love

for flesh and gold and pride


come falling from their perches

and dropping arrogantly with no shame

they also immune to the Word that searches

still for mouths pure enough to guess the Name


and thus I doubted every rule

and thus was I made to play the fool





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anger is a temporary madness

so said Horace back in

the golden haze of Ancient Rome


and so it still is

here in the chrome dust

of the Modern World


for a long instant

sanity veiled...hidden....



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there must be Grace in creation...


otherwise the world would have destroyed itself

ages ago....






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THE HOUR OF THE VOID

in the interim

a last quarter crescent

above the haze of the eastern morning


between night and morning

the hour of the Void


and all hearts beating within your own

and all dreams dissolving in the milky air

and all eyes opening to this....







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Monday, February 24, 2014

you...

a crane standing

off the bank of a river


I...

the fisher...pole distended

out into the crystal water


us...

and the Eye that sees

and becomes this scene....





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HEED IT

done is done

and a fresh start begun

from my present station

to the same destination


I've been heading for

since I became sure

none of my effort and pain

was only in vain


there was a reason why

I had to to groan and cry

as there was some reward

in being assured


that the lesson brought joy that was needed

and continuing joy in having to heed it




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Wednesday, February 19, 2014

BETTER TO LET SLEEPING CATS LIE





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In yet another skin

I see yet another aspect

Of this all-encompassing always

For those whose love and aspiration

Propel them into the Light unblinded

Their journey will have been resolved

They will be done


For all the rest enslaved

The World will hold them

And the Moon will still be Hidden by Clouds

And the Sun will blaze

And blaze on and on

Until in its end the dying red orb

Will expand

And it will burn away all previous worlds we’ve known

And blaze until It destroys all the earth


And on that pleasant note at last

I bid you adieu








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I hid in the corner

You threw open the curtains

The cell I inhabited was transformed into

A mere room

I lifted myself

Wobbling to the window

As you showed me a world

I’d never seen before







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Peace comes to those in pieces

Those whole in their determination

Make easier targets

For the Hound Of Heaven







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You stand before me

Throwing banana peels under my every step

Ah Lord every debt comes due and every helping hand

Has a joy buzzer in it

I forgive You

But do You forgive me

And will I ever forgive myself

Here comes yet another slide

Before Your indifferent Presence







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I made peace with the six

The number of unity and beauty

Or so say some of the sources on matters that

Rule the processes of creation

Do I feel uplifted…transformed…utterly changed…

I’m as eager to find out as any who have had an interest

In whether I endure or perish


But I made peace with the six

At least one more burden off my shoulders







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I knew you wouldn’t get it

Wasted breath

Trying to tell you

My heart and its tentative mercies







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The answer is no help






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I decided to leave

No one objected

Oh sweet success

To be exempt







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She said nothing

The more I spoke

The quieter she remained

Well played my eternal dear

What powerful control

Over the situation

And dominance over my confusion

She said nothing

She didn’t need to…







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I had a notion

It was the wrong notion

It led me elsewhere from where I had to be

But I didn’t know where that could be

Because I never got there





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A creative gift returns

But too late to matter

It is not to be used

It was not the reason for me to be here

Enduring this sojourn






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No one answers the ring

Let them go to hell

We’re having a high old time

Remembering what it was to be alive







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I struggled in a corner with a hacksaw

Invisible and biased

She was looking out another window

The bars refused to be cut

She ignored the silence and began to prattle

I faced my corner


Blessed are deceiver and deceived

Both beggar presumption





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I meant to tell you everything

My heart was not up to its resolve

Was there wisdom and honesty once?






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Tuesday, February 18, 2014

LISTEN AGAIN

listen again


the water bubbles beneath the ice

and the winter wind grows sweeter smelling by the day


in the lengthening twilight

listen again


just as the blood slides through your veins

so does the quickening of life pass through


your form recreates you in this instant....





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FRESH START SOMEWHERE





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NOW WHAT?




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Monday, February 17, 2014

ILLUMINATION IN ACTION

the world is enough to make me want to lie down and die


so hopeless to work toward some justice in life

when the Lord of Life demands this wretched state of affairs


as the way to learn what is just or unjust

and how even the best intent is foul and disruptive


of healing that will cure whatever strand of karma that

need be corrected and amended and repented and atoned for...


it is not ours to call...it is not ours to say...

we put ourselves aside


and find ourselves in response to the needy other

who is us in a different skin and on a different path


when we are passed learning...when we know we are One in this...

only then do we act with the one true accord...only then do we stop


wishing to lie down and die....





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EACH OF US

each of us pick our way forward

slow and steady as the shifting of silt in the harbor


we're so hot and bothered about our own results

but nothing is manifest until long after the deed is done....






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I WOULD SAY 'AHHHHHH' BUT I THINK I USED THAT AS A TITLE ALREADY

now where was I? oh yes...


our slavery in this world


well there's nothing much to do about it

except look for every chance to slip passed the notice

of the system's guards


you find a blind spot between the sentry posts

and you cut that wire like you're live depended on it

(and you damn well know it does!)


never use the same cell phone twice...break it and toss it in the trash

anything you can do to disturb the peace...do it...


there are no rewards for doing the right things

and only punishment if you're caught trying


fuck the assholes who run this world

they will go to perdition...


unfortunately none of them will do so soon enough...


something about God's Love for all creation that...to put it mildly...


kinda fucks everything up...





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REAL PEOPLE...REAL TIME

I awoke from a dream of a sexy plumper

doing me more thoroughly

than an encounter in wide-awake

daily life could ever do


to you mass-mind morons who find it disgusting

fuck you...forever...you are starved and sexless

you don't deserve a place at the table...

you are anti-life...and that's why I'm anti-you





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LAUGHINGSTOCKS

my brothers and sisters

we are more alone than we know


we are laughingstocks to the world

and we even doubt our own ideals


when confronted with some other

who claims to be one with our intent


as long as we are in flesh we must be

wise as serpents and innocent as doves






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GOD-ENDORSED SHIT

I'm talking quick

because I don't have much time


I just paid my taxes

but every fuckin' year

it gets worse for my accountant

who has to affirm that she's done

'due diligence' but of course

this is just governmental bullying

(they believe everyone's as crooked as they are)

(and while we're at it we can thank the Liberals for this,,,

the smug self-serving sellout artists

who cheapen everything with their bankrupt ideals...

the scumbags...)


I'm talking quick


but honest but not too honest

say what they want to hear and no more


no government gives a fuck about you and never will...


as long as there is an earth


there will be these soulless assholes serving evil

and thinking they're doing right....




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DAILY SURVIVAL

I'm working on a new invention


it combines a pot high

with the edge of speed

so you don't get the nausea of mushrooms


oh I know there's stuff like that out there

but mine would be blood-test proof

and the asshole who think we owe our lives to them


for our employment would absolutely spin at our output





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GOD AS PAULIE WALNUTS

the previous message was sponsored by


Aging Ersatz Prophet Organization...

are you sick to death with the loss of our freedoms

and the primacy of the Machine and its Control?


tough shit...

suck it up...

God Almighty Himself wants it this way


and you know what shit we get if we don't obey?




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SCREED

I can say nothing to you you'll hear


you are part of the New Machine

new technology based on the old blueprint

based on holidays for the bosses

but no holiday for their laborers


you got yours

you could care less about anyone else

you submit you comply

and grow a callous on the heart


you cultivate like a trophy

and when has that ever been different...

when the bosses call the shots

and we dance to that tune or die slowly?


and me...my part in this?

I was raised on dissent

I recited The Waste Land and Howl

I listened close to Desolation Row


I was trained by Woody and Ginsberg

and Patchen and Rexroth equally

and slogged through love

and experienced things reading Leonard Cohen's words


confirmed after the fact...

I was raised in their traditions only to find

they were the last of their lines

they were the last voices to be heard


who spoke of the human heart

and the shit in which it beat relentlessly

and I am as aimless now as any bedroom visionary

wishing for a magical overthrow of Reality As Is


as if Full Frontal Metropolis were a possibility...

explain that to your children before you submit them

to drugs and the ignorant theories of psychologists and social workers

married to the Status Quo of normalcy and capitulation...


but if you even think of rising up and challenging

this wretch state of affairs at least know you've got

you work cut out for you...Evil has dominion of the earth

and if you think you can overcome this and win some


moral victory think again and think hard...

for the real work of relief from this oppression

will be one kindness between each of us to the other

and every agenda of the ersatz masters of the earth


will only hunker down against it at every instance

it reveals itself...

nothing in this earth will prevail against it

unless every soul that doesn't buy in stands firm


in its refusal to be done to death by sociopathic cogs

in the infernal machine...the New Machine that is only

a new face on the eternal grief of being in the world

where Evil has its dominion...


I have nothing you'll receive from me...and God help me

I have as little to say as the next man...we're all at someone's mercy

and we can only hope it is mercy

and if that makes a difference then this screed won't be


totally in vain...for why speak if no one"s there to hear?






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Sunday, February 16, 2014

no one wonders too much about the pain

no one wonders too much about the rain

no one gives a flying fuck about the shame

it's everyday's business and everyday's the same


I'm used to all the ceaseless crying

I'm used to all the endless lying

and though I'll never get used to the dying

it's everyday's business and everyday's trying


useless the work and useless the art

useless the rancor that drives us apart

useless the finish that ends the heart

it's everyday's business and everyday's a fresh start






Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
at any moment I could be gone

from this life of woe and sorrow


but at this moment I'm empty and content

and I'll worry this other shit tomorrow






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love me now


come from me dreams

materialize from the head of my snake

float up like a thick mist

raining into my veins


and love me love me love me...






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BROTHERHOOD

some days are harder than others

while some days preview heaven in full glory


and other days I'm scratching with my brothers

and that is always the same old story






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THE POINT OF ALL THIS ADORATION

I gave up my fake piety

and fled the altar wringing my hands


but since then all good things have come to me

my lover does me and fully understands







Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
isn't there enough in your mind

without adding envy?


you covet what is not yours to have

and resent the receiver of their gift


and what do you have but muttering

in the mirror and looking cross-eyed


at yourself for not being the cartoon character

you tried your whole life to be?







Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

TRICKSTER GODS

beware those trickster gods

like Hermes hammered on Hennessy


you who worship and emulate them

embody them in your concourse with others


be mindful of the display you show

deceiving who misplaces trust in you


for one day you'll want the unvarnished truth

and it wouldn't be there for you....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

oh here it is again


the mushmouthed mawling

of disgruntled fools


married to their imaginary agendas

and firm in their intractability


oh how the opposites reflect each other so perfectly

facing mirrors blind to each other


and this the world's way of solving nothing....






Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
it's easy to despair

that idiots have a right to an opinion


but is your elevated stance

such an improvement of sensibility?


if there are two sides to every argument

then both sides are wrong


because they divide the whole truth

and cannot even begin to comprehend


and how much each is a mere part of a ruined whole....






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Friday, February 14, 2014

as always I cannot imagine what is yet to come


I guess and act and fuck up

continually


and have to be content with knowing

our tyrant God keeps the books


oh I am so ready to depart this sojourn

so ready to continue this ongoing trek


of soul to whatever the One will allow....





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eat my ass you horrible bastard


you're not about to drag me into your personal hell


you want to destroy everything you love

you do it on your own...


there's a reason we are all One

and all each individual one of us


and if you don't know by now you give up the each

to join with the All...well then fuck you for dragging all of us down....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I will give you my love

whether you give me your body or not


you are my true lover

and you always will be


and it doesn't matter what we do

or how we do it


the unknown world

is the ultimate bed of our eternal delights....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
I followed what I thought was a higher path


and all I get is grief from assholes

who think that I think I'm something extra


while the 'loving God' who demands obedience

saying nothing we do is good enough


bur my bad as far as thinking there was a higher path...

there's only one path and we all stumble along it


with no love no forgiveness no mercy...and fuck that....





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a lifetime of useless raging


finally realizing you can never win

and your greatest enemies are

the ones who love you so


I might as well stand like a statue in a grotto

and watch penitents pass lighting candles

and laying down bouquets at my feet


as if I could help them if they couldn't help themselves....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
rotten from top to bottom


this is Life

this is the Plan


none of the spiritual stuff I write

is at variance with these periodic rages


that are braided together so tightly

you can't destroy the knot without


ruining both aspects...

it is ours to suffer shamelessly


and find in that the grace and mercy and peace

that obeys the implacable demands of this heartless Almighty


vanity and disgust on every level

and pain at the hands of Love


and no joy but detachment and emptiness....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

ELUSIVE

who am I speaking to?


is it the love I've always waited for?

is it the love I lost when I through she wasn't the One


or she was the One but I just couldn't have her?

does it matter who I'm speaking to


when I'm not sure sure who she is or who I am

(yes...this late in life...I'm not sure who I am...)


and I wonder in my speaking who hears and cares....






Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

THE GATE...ONE LAST TIME







Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

ANOTHER VIEW OF A SAME VIEW






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Thursday, February 13, 2014

remember now

the other times

when you remembered

other times


with black fear

and relentless foreboding

and what future beckoning

appearing just as bleak


you lost much hope

you lost much pride

but still you endured...


with each stand you take empty

and pure to receive the living

you remember now....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

the well is running dry again


but after this winter's prodigious snows

come spring


the well will overflow again....





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I would have you here with me

but for my disgrace

(which no one else seems to see

though it is too plain to my eye)


and yet you are here with me

and my eye dims

as does my sense of disgrace...

it seems I failed no one


but myself...blackened no ideals

but my own expectations...

I did more good than I could realize

and wondered why so many loved me so


I couldn't see any of it until now

because you are here with me....




Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
when the teacher is silent

you will know your grade....




Content(c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
people worship gangsters

because they haven't the courage

to stand on their own conviction

or fight if their integrity is challenged


and since every person thinks

he's a law onto himself

the strong will engage to the death

while the weak imagine themselves strong


with clenched fists and teeth...

cop or criminal...rich pig or manipulative poor...

from the highest and most to the lowest and least

tyranny is all that is respected and coveted...thus


people worship gangsters

that is to say...themselves....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
silent man and yakking woman


and somewhere between them occasionally

communication....





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every time I engage

my fellow bipeds

stumbling on the common street


I'm reminded of some saying

about avoiding those in whom

you do not perceive wisdom


if that were the case I'd walk

alone for weeks....




Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

FOR L.C.

smothered

by every bond

by every vow

by every expectation


smothered

because your loved ones

tell you to be yourself

then damn you for being yourself


in the war between men and women

every "I love you"

is a welcome mat

set over a landmine


watch your step

hold your own





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
take the good with the bad

says the old common wisdom


but really...

arsenic with oatmeal?






Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

how quickly

the weather changes

when the breath

of idiots stirs


and how soon

the bright day darkens

when their sounds

block out silence


and the dimming sun itself

sounds like a hiss

on the horizon's edge

while night waits


and how brief that instant

of transition in the slow twilight....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
calmness is something

I'm becoming reacquainted with...


even the momentary rage subsides...

unable to do the damage it used

to do so easily and so swiftly


is it just a return to the world

to finish out my sentence in the jail

of the world or close my term

in this school of life?


or am I just getting old

and the diminishing strength has enough power

only to support a hearty 'fuck it'

over all the matters of the world

everyone thinks is so damn eternally important?


or is it both?...age bestowing

the wise counsel to accept

your position and acquiesce to its conditions?


I'll have plenty upon which to contemplate

in this calmness with which

I am becoming reacquainted....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
how love holds

through all the stresses

is a marvel

no doctor can comprehend

nor priest explain


every reason

for our doings

is its own cleansing

its own caustic

its own dressing


and finally its own meaning

the closing wound

that holds love

through all of our stresses





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
it means little

to those in pain

when you sympathize

out of empty courtesy


even joyful celebration

shared by everyone

is composed of each person's

own degree of happiness


joy and pain

each too private to to be comprehended

even as they are held in  common

are our own gleam on other's shine


thus it means little to say or do

anything we all know to be true






Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.
after years of bitterness

and destroying my health

in hopelessness

at ever being active in life again


I was gifted with a perfect position

a life's experience applied without

breaking a sweat and mine to lose

because many in the place like me


and know my quality and have my back...

oh I raged often through these

fallow years probably failing

some obscure test of faith


but even that cannot diminish the joy

and gratitude of making it through....





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I enjoy watching people squirming...

it gives me

such a sense of solidarity







Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.


Tuesday, February 11, 2014

RECONNECTED

reconnected

to the earth


I'm muted

to the relief of all


and none happier than me

who no longer lives


subsumed in some grand notion

of having to explain the cosmos


as if my life depended on defeating

God in some arm wrestle


I abjure my inflated delusions

I'm not Abraham haggling with a bush


I say I've started to conquer myself while others

say "he had too much time on his hands...."





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

THE TENDERNESS

again the tenderness flares up


I don't know where I've been

or who I was all these years


but again I recognize landmarks

and a destination nearing


and you that destination

where the tenderness flares up again....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

YOUR WORK

your work ties you to your destiny

and suddenly you remember

what it is you had to do here

(or at least accept that this is so...)


it took a lifetime of shames and wastes

to draw me to this common grief

of wishing I'd awakened sooner to this destiny

when I was younger and what difference


it would have made....






C ontent (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

HINDSIGHT

amid exchanging recipes and malicious gossip

you rule your rude little queendom


the 'burbs are dying

the world so changed around you


all you can do is cling tighter

grow more snarky with the feared others


and in weak moments admitting you weren't

a very good friend while you waited to hear "oh it's alright..."


no you weren't a very good friend

but obviously it didn't trouble you sufficiently


to do anything about it

but who expects respect from well-off only children?


who but a fool would think he was not part

of the hectoring of inferiors?







Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

JUST A WORD

just a word to tell you

how much your silence means to me


it eases my conscience

so when you need help


my silence will send out

best wishes


and an easy insincere "love you"

absolving nothing at all






Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

OLD DEVIL MEDIA

old devil media

is the PR firm for the Control


they work to spin you

they think they can control


they think they can put you

in your place


but every talkbacker plays the game

they're powerless little worms


who want that taste of power

while proclaiming their own bogus existences


they want to be 'part of the conversation'

they want to be part of media


so they can be ersatz masters of the universe

media corrupts everything


and God help me if you try to tell the truth

on you they will save their most powerful venom


they have lost their soul for the price of their tongues

and being immoral have no conscience


about what they're doing...

but that's why media is the voice of the Control


it's no better or worse than any tyrant (any boss)

who wants to exploit his workers


but what does it matter? we're all involved

we all do what we must


and judgment will come after....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

TRAVAILS OF HUMANITY

we are all

dogs

poking through

snow drifts

to look for

a place

to shit







Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

THE BILL

so we did wrong and were wronged

so we did right and were slighted nonetheless


we had too many easy days

so you know hard days had to come to upset


everything for the sake of balance...

what can be done and what can be said?


we run all accounts and still feel sore knowing

every debt comes due....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

EVERYONE'S HOOT NIGHT

finally content

to be back wholly in the world?


to stop pushing for early release

to evade your reckonings?


I talk like this to an average person

and they think I'm some goofball


out of a monastery or asylum

at the mercy of exhausted mythologies


while they accept the world they live in

as an end-all and be-all


and which one of us is right or wrong?

the glory of what we call 'God' is the very universe


they admire as a chaos in mindless awe

which is the only way to approach the matter


from which way or another hardly matters

we all go down 'that lonesome valley'


and wind up in someone's folk song

immortalized for accepting the fate we all share


hanging at the bar waiting for our turn at the mike...

and that my friend is one way we find ourselves


exactly where we are....




Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.



Tuesday, February 4, 2014

THE RED TREE





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

SNOW TENDRILS





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

AFTER BIRTH



Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito

THE DARK NIGHT OF THE HEART





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

HUGE AND TINY

huge love

in tiny touches


the fleeting caress

the simple wish


the almost thoughtless

show of affection


automatic and more pure

than any driven desire....






Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

LURKING IN MY BRAIN

I see you lurking in my brain again


I thought I'd forgotten you sufficiently

but what we leave behind silently claims us


and you are making your play again

I do not haunt very easily


when all the past is my present content

you're there with the bullies and other haters


who came to teach woe on some karmic mission

do not be crestfallen that I barely remember


the grief you caused since so many worse things

have taken your place in this mess of mind


and heart broken and unbroken so many times

it looks like its mere beating to me


you'll have to lurk hard to find where I am now....






Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.



SMOKING LAMP

I have a smoking lamp

filling the catacomb

with acrid awareness


disheveled tombs crumble

and bones get up and walk

ignoring my presence


they have business

that is none of my business

except to hope


I will not join them here

doing this skeletal shuffle

under the living feet that trample them daily


...when I awoke the room was filled

with acrid awareness...dream fading even as I here relate it....






Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

Saturday, February 1, 2014

SURVIVED...COULDN'T TELL YOU HOW...

got out with the skin I'll eventually lose

intact for now and all "flipped bird" about it


but I still have the same challenges in my way

the same friends the same foes the same interchangeable faces


and the same eyes peering through these slits

nervous about everything on a calm day


but strangely calm when chaotic winds blow the skies apart

and the ground crumbles under my feet....




Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

CAUTIONS ABOUT CIRCLES

I found myself outside the circle again


it closed while I contemplated my past

and was shamed to see how much was my own doing


(not to give a pass to those went out of their way

to cause harm with complete self-satisfaction...


trouble comes to all but woe to the one who brings it...

so I'll have to watch out for my own glee)


but I must admit this new view shows me more

than my previous stances


opens my heart and cleanses my ego...

and as I feel around the circumference


all I have to remember is to not make too much of it

else I wind up vain and stupid again with yet


more circles to close from which I must free myself....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.