SMARTEN UP

I'm not foolish enough to think myself wise

but I may be wise enough not to play the fool


for the sake of my own imagining...

if you take this to heart beware...


you learned from either a wise man

or a fool and how good is that


if he himself is not sure

which one is which?




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

THE LESSON AND THE LEARNING

what we know and how we know it

are as nothing compared to how life actually is...


and as nothing to say we know this so

compared to how each of us learn the as is


finding what we think we know

empty compared to who we are...


and this we have to learn over and over again

until we are beyond knowing...know what I mean?




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

WHAT CLOCK MEASURES THIS?

you know one day this earth will be gone

consumed in the red giant

our sun will become...


billions of years ahead...granted


but still with no time to lose...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

POPES AND LIGHTNING

So Il Papa has stepped aside

and twice lightning affirmed it


making way for Malachy's 112th...

will this one then be the last Pope


and the true end of an age?

let omens buzzsaw through the heavens


and the earth tremble...

the superstitious will cower


and the enlightened will step forth

arms opened to the sky...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

A CURE

I didn't think a cure was possible


see what happens

when you stop listening

to doctors and other experts


I took a shot of kindness

each morning

(unregulated doses)


and now here I stand

before you


without my bell...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

BIRTHDAY #60

as I lived so I'll die


and as I die

so I shall continue

to live


there's no rest

until reunion with the One

and no reunion


with the One

until some things

have been settled


oh for those like me

who yearned

for a static final heaven


must now know it will be so...eventually...


not rest at all

until there is wonder

and no wonder until there is awe...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

HARD ENOUGH

the world as is is hard enough

without the mistaken notions

of righteousness and integrity

bringing more evil to light

than fear or ignorance or hatred

can do in their pitiful dominions


just because you had some sweet vision

in an easy moment

don't think anything has changed


the change would be in you and only

if you gag your conscious self and let

the real you call the shots with all the agony that entails...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

A SWEATING WORLD

we're all in this together


if we can only remember

if we could only accept it


in our own hearts...


we loose our jitters


over every miscalculation

over every glory grab and even in this


we're all in this together...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

A WORLD APART

a world apart


we stretch our hands

to each other

in this one...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

THE JOURNEY

this much accomplished

and that much more ahead


the process goes on

aeon after aeon


and no rest until reunion

and no reunion until you've amended


and no amendment until you've

walk that road barefoot...


with nowhere to go but on...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

I WILL SEE YOU AGAIN

I will see you again


at some point in infinity

I will see you again


and we will be friends

or we will be family


or we will be lovers at last

with less of the crap we endured


to achieve that here and now....




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

ONE PERFECT FIT

each of us is his own universe

but shares with the One and with each other

our space here on the earth


and beyond...and beyond even that...

there is no division

there is no separation


there is only the One Perfect Fit

and our striving to return to it...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

HOLY MOMENT

so the holy moment passes...

and life in all its earthly crap

continues unabated...


the holy reality is ever there

the endless love underlying

all the chaos of our worldly estate


but that we are all here together

enduring the same sad sojourns

through this strange material plane


binds us tighter and makes each of us

aware of our Oneness...our Only-ness...

with pity and sorrow for those who've lost


their common connections to this One Reality

and hopes our own Lights will draw them on with us...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

WHO AM I NOW?

who am I now?


who spent a lifetime

in denial and waste

unable to face the loss

of what I loved


swaggering through life

with a sharp tongue

and masterful disdain

for all common happiness?


who mocked and cursed

all the sheep and wolves

who keep the dynamic

of earthly life in swirling chaos of heart?


who am I now?


who lived through his three-score years

and didn't believe

forgiveness could be granted

and now lives to see it come


and all the years of heartbreak

resolving into the story I'll tell

St. Peter (if he can keep himself awake...

having heard this same tale countless times before...)


who has regained...not too late...

the healing he thought was a fable

told by metaphysical hucksters

whose wager was ownership of soul?


who am I now?


who was I ever?

nobody special...but still unique...

as was each I've hated and loved

was happy to see go or was sorry to see leave...


and all of us in each's own path

heading to the only 'place'

there ever was or will be...

with love to all here now in the earth


and all beyond who sneak back occasionally

to see how we're doing here...who am I now?

who are we now? we are who we always were

and always will be...


and that's who we are...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Phiulip Milito. All rights reserved.

MAYBE

maybe next time I walk the earth

I'll be a little wiser

I'll be a little stronger


I'll have greater faith in my own mind

I'll be at peace with whatever transcendence


but it all starts here and now

the absolution that heals all the bullshit

and continues until the Fullness of Time


we will never be able to imagine in our 'until-then' maybes






Contents (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

BURDENS

burdens are carried from life to life

they grow heavier as you grow stronger




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

PITY

pity the child who never grew up...


his burden is heavy

only to him...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

BROKEN SPIRITS AND HAPPY FOR IT

I pity those who love the world...


they are short-changed every step of the way

but they don't know better

and bless with full hearts


the heel that grinds them to dust...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

THE WORLD AT LAST

I can't leave fast enough...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

LEGACY

a milestone

a millstone

a tweak and

a guess


fame

and achievement

are dicey

at best


if I were you (and you as such)

I wouldn't really want that much


an old home

a headstone

and give away

the rest..




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

NEARER MY GOD TO SEPARATION

one more tour and I can go home


your lips to the ear of the One

who looks the other way


when all the shooting has begun...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

SATISFACTION...OR NO MONEY BACK

the guarantee is useless

without the promised result...


oh we're not liable...it's not our

responsibility...we're only required


to pick your pocket while the Law

helps us get away with it


one assured guarantee is that

everyone has rights except the victims...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved,

TAKE IT FROM ME...PERHAPS

I know how

I think you feel


and so give

worthless counsel


since I'm

really only


advising

myself...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

SOME FUTURE WORLD AND TWO OF ITS CITIZENS

howling at twin moons


the cantocanine alerts its master

to a bright star passing between them


the new-bred mutt shakes a head

as four droopy ears dangle


framing a three-eyed pug-nosed snout

(how much it resembles its master


even here even now...some universal

constant no amount of breeding


and genetic fiddling will completely erase)

while the master adjusted his tri-lens face


to examine this bit of stellar trajectory...

he calculates its position


there in this world where his colony thrives

he and his faithful friend (as given...some things


cannot be changed...) turn and walk back

to the comfort of their settlement


through blowing violet sands flecked

with tiny orange diamonds


the cantocanine baying in F#

while his master stores in memory his take on the star


it approaches and does so rapidly

taking its aim between the custodian satellites


nothing to do about it at this time

as the devastated abandoned


earth is currently retrograde...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

PAX

oh I should let them be...


everyone's entitled

to their own imagining




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

WHERE WILL YOU BE...

when the end comes?

...hiding under the table


head between my knees

inconsolable


or laughing in joy

clutching my belly...


depending on what end you mean...

the universe or my own singular?





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

FUNNY

...how people would rather grab

at any bit of apocalyptic fairy tale


to avoid living their own lives responsibly

than to face the raging fires of Process


surrounding them and those they think they love...


how many in their own 30s sci-fi classic

picturing themselves the wise nodding head of a sage


as earth and sky open...and the credits roll...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

UP FROM THE SOUTHERN SKY

up from the southern sky

Wormwood creeps


comets and asteroids

herald the arrival


a small solar system barging

into ours


launching the old-style Apocalypse

long foretold


I don't know or care

if it's true or not


if I'm meant to survive

then I'll survive and if not


I'll be welcome wherever God takes me

and I won't have to stress or weep anymore...




Content (c) 208-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

say your prayers

and make your amends


but you'll still have your judgment

when the whole thing ends


I wish you well

and hope there's grace


but each of us finds our own way or not

to the very same place...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

ASS-END YET AGAIN

maybe the street-corner cranks were right

about apocalypse and dread


and so what if they are?

I'm not with the government

or the military


I and mine have no place on their lists

for who will live

and who will die to keep the race going


as they wall themselves into mountains

that will be their tomb as their entrances lie

at the bottom of new seas...ha HA!




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

CHANGED? TO WHO?

I stand outside myself and watch

the process by which I will transform


into what I've no idea

my intentions obviously not up to it


but the Source of Life will have Its way

what we say doesn't matter


I see my thought crystalize into matter

and I become what I am...a corpse on the rise...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

ASCENSION BLUES

hello I'm here 

please don't come near

I have not yet ascended

my whole soul's history upended

40 days and 40 nights

a million calms a million and one frights

God may bless and God may wow

but I never knew how horrible this could be until now...

Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

WHITE FLAGS TO WHAT AVAIL?

please excuse me

but you're making me twitch again


I'm not quite sure

how to approach you

in your time of crisis


so if I hang back

please try to forgive me


all this agony

is as unfathomable as any other

assault by the universe on our fragile perception...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

RELIGION IS HARMFUL TO YOUR SPIRITUALITY

the madness is upon me again


for an instant of what we call time

I thought it was possible

to change my fate and gain some grace


but look how quickly


that instant passes

and I am no longer mad but sad about

that faith that claimed to move mountains


serves me right...


I never wanted to move mountains

but if the One would not let

Jesus or Elijah or countless martyrs


off the hook who was I to think


I'd catch a break...oh I blame the madness again...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserve

SEE...IT CONTINUES

each day the light grows longer

the days brighter the sun stronger


by summer the tree will give enough shade

to the perpetual grass crowning a grave





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

OLD BYGONE WORLD

things are such that twenty-somethings now look back
on their middle school years as 'good old days'...oh each head
stores what it knows and knows what it stores...at the speed of Light...
which nothing but Time can surpass...or rather...the suspension of Time...



so long again old bygone world


no longer any places

to physically go to...


they're all gone

but for perhaps


one more generation or so

images of that world will


exist in the private galleries

of each mind who lived in it...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

THIS IS HOW WE DO IT

the new tyranny has arrived...


same as the old one really


but more trendy

more smug

more entitled

more self-centered

(not the kind of people

you want to bring you a rope

when you're hanging off a cliff...

they may not approve

of your breathing...)


and yeah I know

this is the current template

in this disgustingly hypocritical New Age

this new group-think

as much against some imagined 'others'

than any previous mindset that ever existed


but hey

age has its delights

(especially decline)

and so I decline my chance

to keep up with this crew

I'll be happier to go

than they'll be to see me leave


let these do their damage

as ever

they'll find out the hard way

their children are not their friends


and what will age mean for them

in what future world

they will not imagine

or understand?




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

LOLA SZLADITS STILL RESTING IN PEACE..I HOPE

what do you know? said Lola Szladits to me


mam...not as much as I wish I did...I replied


her scowl faded as she conceded an honest answer

and let the subject pass...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

SINKING IN

knowledge is after the fact...


knowledge is looking over the wreckage and saying

"shit!"

knowing nothing I've learned will apply

the next time you make a move and afterward say


"shit...again!"





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

SOLACE

the world is such a foul pit

that any direction you take

will lead you nowhere...


there...isn't that a load off your mind?




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

TESTIMONY

these writings are the rock

to which I've chained my freedom


no glory achieved no vanity satisfied

but a purpose served and fulfilled


despite my half-assed stumbling

and what good it is to those who've received it


well better this than the empty ache

of failure and waste and loss...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

TYRANNY OF SELF

deep inside ourselves

we know we live forever


and that is where our mistake sets in


we think of eternity

as some static condition


but it is beyond conditions

including our blindness to how eternity really is...


we shape it with every act and trash it

with every insolence


and that is where our mistake sets in


we have kingdoms within us

but we are not any source in ourselves


deep inside ourselves we decide our forever

and usually that is where our mistake sets in...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

SOMEONE ELSE'S TURN (IN A WAY)

leaving behind all he's known

he wonders what will come after his time


he wonders for naught

he will be part of what another leaves behind


and who'll wonder what lies ahead

for whom will then come after...


look at all that surrounds us

many beings of the One Face...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

MILITO FURIOSO

Seek ye first the good things of the mind, and the rest will either be supplied or its loss will not be felt. – Francis Bacon.

“Cursed is he that does not know when to shut his mind.” –Samuel Butler.


So, you want to know why I hate the world today. Do you understand I am not talking about the Earth, that cruel planet of pain and beauty beyond description, but of the world that we—oh lopsided crown of Creation—make of it with our limited comprehension and our limitless egotism? Would you begin to get it if I started to say why I am so disinclined to praise the mess we’ve made, and will continue to make in all our days here?


I withstood a lot of crap trying to make myself understood—that I wasn’t some mandarin moron nodding sweetly on some mountaintop about ‘suchness’—another way of saying ‘ain’t that the shit?’—‘who’d a thunk it?’

I go crazy looking at every facet of every actuality from every possible angle and even then—so what? I could have stumbled on the True Secret Of Life—and still wind up being just another county heard from! And who else would listen, except to hear key words and phrases to hang a self-satisfying argument upon? “Oh, I don’t believe that! In MY HUMBLE OPINION (yeah, right!)...


Oh what bullshit our so-called Oneness lets us in for…

I came up at a time when the Great Poets (not the academy-approved vase makers) drew from Hosea, Isaiah and Jeremiah...the Ginsbergs, the Rexroth...Kenneth Patchen especially...the one most put down by the fake custodians of our so-called culture...who came out like the old-time 'Voices Crying In The Wilderness' and spoke from a moral stand that no longer exists...not now when every murderous liar thinks he's a Law Unto Himself!  Listen to It's Alright Ma...these days it's reduced to an empty grammar school lesson...a balm for children that will turn into a grand lie when they grow up and rationalize their place in the Machine...used to comfort themselves that their ethics are straight even as they screw someone else out of their potage (look that up and don't think you're absolved with an easy "T'was ever thus!")

A Jeremiad...here and now?! Forget it...the entire past of our egomaniacal race is wiped clean...but the sins persist at the roots of each of us! There will never be Peace on Earth...we were never meant to stay here! And the future of this race will be harder and harder put upon...your foes will still exploit you and toss you aside when they're done...and your friends? They will ease you into a coffin of complicity...the schoolmarm's Permanent Record a browser history of the Akasha.

So have it..have it all! You are not free...and never will be...as long as you wear skin in this world...and a veil draws across your mind and you forget the whole purpose of your being! I face it...we all face it...and the Mind that frees us can just as well enchain us. It's on each one of us...choose wisely. Because it isn't only about you...what each of us do has an impact on the everyone else...and there is the hardness of trying to do right.

It is not I alone who is mad with grief at Reality As Is! We all face it...and we all are done down by it!
Our own Minds...the Great Friend...the Great Foe...and each of us struggling to know which one is which!


Haewt!...er… I mean…Basta! Come hear…
Paladins organize and group…we are about some business…




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

THE TERRIBLE WISDOM

as every myth falls aside

that sustained our inner narratives


we no longer look up into the sky

and see ourselves reflected


instead we look deep within ourselves

and see the sky in us...


a reflection of it after a long history of being

fooled by our own misconceptions





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

TO MY RUSSIAN READERS...

...in the hopes that today's sky blast

is not the first volley

in some cosmic endgame


and that you will find truth

in all happenings

despite "official" silences...


even if that truth is as unknowable

as any 'what-will-happen-next?'

(some kind of miracle there were no fatalities)


and that despite death's eventual claim on us

you also will be allowed

to meet your own mortality

with as much grace and dignity


than the heartless heavens will allow...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

STANDARD INSTRUCTION

to those who've come this way before...


be of good cheer

the way will be clear


when your desolation and regret make you sure


that nothing you do will kill your soul


(unless of course you go out of your way

to kill all you touch to make God pay...



then the Outer Darkness swallows you whole)


but nothing you've done hurt anyone but you

but that will do damage to everyone too...


done to the least of Mine says He

means doing it as well to yourself and to be free


of that you must be assured

that this fever of self must be broken to be cured


so to those who've come this way before


if it all seems familiar then you must know

you have very opportunity to choose how to go


to find the way so you may return no more...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

who else walks in your footsteps?






Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

I'VE BEEN HONEST

I’ve been honest with a neurotic girl

 who now calls me a liar

because she chooses to believe

what she wants to believe…



there’s no winning—

no way to communicate

when anyone refuses to accept

what is being said…





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

COMING TO TERMS

I envy those who've gone before


their pain has ceased

and their struggles are done


and all they've left us was

fading achievements and memory


mine has some value

it was received and its validity affirmed


it served a purpose that was not in vain

some good was realized


for whatever it was worth

that's beyond understanding to tell


but it endures its terms

as we all endure ours and I envy those who've gone before


they left their burdens and continued on...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

OUTSIDE ALL TIME

nothing will disturb

the melancholy

of sweet recall


where one's own

resonance

fills one's skin


with the totality

of every lived scene


gone all gone

while one's

in place


and holding fully

the event in one's self

and outside all time...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

MEA CULPA

I depended on grace

and grace was not there


I depended on love

and love was a lie


I depended on forgiveness

and forgiveness was not forthcoming


I depended on everything

but Reality...and sadly...It did not disappoint...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

I'm happy when I'm miserable...


it's the only thing in life

that I can bank on...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

THE WAY

my feet are cut

by the rocky road


absolute darkness

and moaning voices


surrounding me

as I leave a trail of blood


that only the hounds

of hell can trace





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

WE TOSS WRENCHS

hard teacher

unpitying planets

the clockwork of creation

measured in movements


of stars and galaxies

and the spiral drift

surging through our bloodlines

tying together


each particle of our

conditioned reality

while an Ineffable Source

plies the Heart and Mind


at the center of All

to move us in the strict vectors of our choice...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

MY DUBIOUS DAY

after my morning exercise


(cursing my imaginary Almighty

for again not saving me from my consequences


and being at enough of a disadvantage to know

any amendment I try to enforce will fail


because no grace will reverse the intractable

world I've made for myself and I may not live


long enough to ever see this corrected...

after all this delusion swirling like smoke


from a pipe of hashish through a brain beaten

by lack and paralysis...after every sworn pledge


and every corresponding failure to follow through

and the cool empty desolation greeted like a release...)


I begin my dubious day...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

SEEING OUR WAY THROUGH A BREEZE

this cataclysmic weather

may not be that under which

we planned to retire


but who ever thought

a dwindling rest in the shade

was a fit end to an active life?


it was given my generation

to lose all for which we worked

except the ability to keep a forward trudge


like forefathers before forefathers

we will drop where we stop

and when has that ever been any different?


this cataclysmic weather's a pain in the ass

at the most but our boots are unsoakable...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

BEWARE THE ASSURANCES

beware the assurances

that people will make to you


your benefit will dwindle

in proportion to their commission


I am grateful for those

who've been truly grateful


and our trust is as strong

as it is rare


but it took so much

to distinguish them


from the grasping hands full of 'gimme'

and the equivocal 'much obliged'


oh beware who doesn't know

each other's interest is one...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved/

THE RECORD

nothing lasts

outside the memory

of who experienced

the occasion


the once-only happening

recorded on the soul

of the person who endured

what shame and what praise...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

the mist rises off the snow

the fog devours the horizon

early spring

begins to gnaw

at the weak winter 

of our demise

but it is illusive

it is the middle of February

with variable March

still to endure

we cannot rush time

the way warmth hastens the ice

and snow along its trajectory

back to sky and then to sea....

Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

UNEXPECTED GOODBYE

how exhausted you make me


my every expectation

was a lie


my every accommodation

a betrayal of myself


and now a shared life

wasted and lost


how tired I am...how empty the parting...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

LAST LIMIT

I think I've reached

my last limit...

after this

the look back

at the world

to find it gone

and awareness

of all whom I couldn't reach...

at this brink

in this morphing

past old definitions

that I thought myself

to be I find no peace

no answer for you...

Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

WATCHING IT SNOW

well I sent out my probe

into the whiteout air


somewhere out there

in the blinding swirls


and muffled howls that are winds

but could be other transmissions


sent out far from where I am

I decipher my place at this window


and imagine my double

watching it snow...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

ANSWERED PRAYER SUCH AS IT IS

I asked for an opening

and one finally came


I asked for a clean shot

where I could stand or fall


on my own merits

and here I am taking it...


well...what has changed really?

nothing...nothing at all...


I'm still beleaguered

and I still have to deliver the goods


it's still on me to do what I do

and if this opening leads to yet another pit


if this clean shot is dirtied in a fail

well it's always been on me...and I asked for it...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Phiulip Milito. All rights reserved.

MORONS BEYOND NUMBER

morons beyond number

must also be blessed and forgiven


no wonder I'm such a bad christian


I can't stand these motherfuckers

and the minute I can slip out from under


the knife they hold to my throat


I'll kick their nuts then claim

bad hearing...HA!...there's a lesson they'll never learn...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

WHAT QUALITY OF LIFE

I can't even go to a goddamned concert

without going through rigamarole

with ticketmaster


hey nailed tickets...

whadda mean 'having trouble processing

your order'?


whadda mean 'time's up'?

what the hell 'set up an account first'?

fuck you and everyone who goes along with this...


I'll stick to the little clubs

pay at the door...no watered drinks...

actually talk to the musicians between sets...


at least while this lasts...

but this new generation of androids ruin this too...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

UPDATE

those who live by their apps

die by their apps


(see...I told you assholes

nothing changes...)





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

people who praise art are fakers...


when every act of every soul

adds a stroke to the masterpiece

or another line to the Grand Poem...


did ancient Aztecs create such

beautiful pottery knowing that

thousands of years hence

some rich slobs would pay out


outrageous sums to put these works of art

on their coffee tables (and bust illegal maids

for denting them when they dust...dishonoring

their own ancestors?) function and expression


were one to them...as it isn't for us nowadays...

beauty is a function of art...and those who praise the surface

and those who manufacture just surface...


are fakers...are swindlers...are to be made to be

ashamed and denounced...


so says this faker...who tried so hard to be pure

and wound up another one angry that no one pays fair...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Phiulip Milito. All rights reserved.

THE MYSTIC AND THE LANDLORD

the worst and the best

that can happen

is that you will die

and thus live


I wonder if

San Juan de la Cruz

ever worried

about the rent...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

HOW OFTEN

Forgive me my love—


How often I’ve hurt you

Aiming my barbs at myself—






Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

HOW IT WILL GO ALAS

You will believe nothing

Until consequence is upon you

And you’ll spend your last living moments

Cursing the intractability of process

Instead of forgiving yourself your vanity




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

COLD SILVER SKY

cold silver sky

looking out the window


a child again observing the morning…





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

A SMALL POINT

A small point on an infinite curve—

This is your life—your being—
And all you deserve—

You make its space on your own—
And you inhabit it

With all you wish you had known

Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

A DRAW

I know you don’t understand a word I say

Neither do I and I’ll be damned

If I put myself in the position of explaining…




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

WHO YOU LOVE

Who you love

You’ll love again

But each time on earth

Changes us

And you may grow

To hate whom you love

Or grow

To love whom you hate

Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

THIS ASPIRATION

You who wish to destroy

Everything you see and touch

We will pity and pray for you

For all you’d harm could be healed

But you will be harder to handle

Having only destroyed yourself

In this aspiration

Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

YOUR 'HELPING HAND'

your 'helping hand'

is an increment

to your self-laud


how proud you are

of yourself

for trying to have it


both ways

when either one is yours...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

CALLING

I’m calling from the Abyss
I’m calling from the Source of all our heavens and hells
I’m calling from the bottom so deep I rise to the bottom
I’m calling from the earthly prison
I’m calling from the desolation outside the jailbreak
I’m calling from this mound of shit I’ve called a life
I’m calling from inside the seed that fell into the fertilizer
I’m calling to the deaf ears of other seeds picked out and devoured by
Infernal crows
I’m calling to the Lord of All that demands this transition
I’m calling from this translation of ethereal whispers
I’m calling from this last dissolving platform of the past
I’m calling from inside my dissolution
Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord of all
I’m calling I’m calling I’m calling

Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

APPROACH OF DEPARTURE

but for approach of departure

I have no anxiety about the world


it will always be a hard way

on a beautiful but cruelly appointed earth


it will always be a painful love that binds us

it will always be sin to be saved


and the pressure to live to choose to endure

will never lessen...will never cease...


so the content of our being

will always be loves abused and hurt


despite all good intentions and so will hates

that consume and control and that no prayer dissipates


and what comes after this world? who remembers?

there's the only anxiety before departure...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

A SUNDAY MORNING IN THE WORLD

passing the church

I remembered how seriously

I took eternity when I was a child


(even frightened myself one night

trying to imagine forever

living on and on and on with no end


terrified even then of the immensity...)

that child grew passed that notion

forgot its reverence and sampled the world


and now an old man passes a church

after years of seeing wizards behind curtains

and a little envious of those who never let go


of fears and awes that regulate their lives

and the child who slipped those bonds of acquiescence




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

WISH

as long as I outlive

everyone I know


I'll be happy...

as happy not know know


if this doesn't happen

and the surviving few


tell tales of me that

even I couldn't better...let alone


recognize myself in...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

I COULD'VE LIVED WITHOUT THIS SHIT

the only 'free will' we possess

is choosing between methods of execution...


some hang themselves

with a surplus of rope...


some betray their friends

and commit suicide by vengeance...


I choose not to give the Universal Forces

any satisfaction...


I'm going to withstand my punishments

and endure to the end...


not that much of a choice

granted but I've become ornary


I could've lived without this sit

but it's all that's on offer in the earth...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

MY NEXT MOVE

it's out of my hands...





Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

THE DELUSIONS OF VOCATION

do it right

and you'll serve your brethren

in delivering on your part...glory

merely a side benefit...


do it wrong

and you'll be a raving tyrant

terrorizing weaklings

while you lie in your room


blaming everyone else for your failure...

how close we all come to the latter

while pursuing the unfathomable former...

if we knew for sure what we were doing


we'd stand aside...and that too would cost us dearly

we're called to serve...and must in our ignorance choose what...



Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

FEBRUARY 2

today is Imbolc

Candlemas

St. Bridget and her candles

celebrating the Return of the Light


(not to mention Groundhog's Day...

a distinct tie-in...

James Joyce's birthday also...

maybe not so distinct


but he'd see a connection)

it is midwinter...

the hardest winter ever in this

generation's experience...


and so what? in six weeks

we'll shine like mulch in the sun...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

INTRACTABLE WORLD

hoping for grace is a waste of spirit


accept your liability

shoulder your responsibility

and don't wait for mountains to dance before you


our actions irredeemable

in this intractable world

but forgetting the grief and continuing to your ends


that is a benediction of spirit that may absolve consequence...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

I BELIEVE MINE UNBELIEF

fools storm heaven

thinking they will win entry

on their own terms


their efforts will gain them

something but it won't be heaven

at some point your will will give out


and a greater Will will subsume their error

and outline them for a harder course


no preaching here

no wagging finger of oppression and hubris

everyone will gain what they've set


their caps upon...and if those caps sit lightly

on the swelled heads of vanity...well then you'll know

why we're such lopsided crowns on the head of creation...




Content (c) 2008-2013 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.