USELESS JEREMIADS AND BELATED BENEDICTIONS

amid useless jeremiads and belated benedictions


I understand no human power can tame the cosmos

and those who have not gotten the memo


will continue the chaos we call our living

all of us involved for all of us are One


which One is yet to be determined

once the ego had been defeated and our acts are purged


and merge in One Awareness...may we survive to see it....




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

NO END

there is no end...


more's the pity for the deluded soul

who saw death as an easy escape...


until you leave your skin

you won't know what shape you're really in


and grateful for the good you've managed

you'll find strength to continue (I believe...I know...I believe I know...)


that's how it works, my friend....






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

I AWOKE

I awoke as if it were the dawn of creation

the morning stars singing

the amber light of level sunlight

shining atop our earthly sea


and all the anger and stress and sorrow

faded like a disturbing dream

and my bed felt like a beach and my breathing

caught the damp salt freshness of that sea


I awoke as if I were new

though I was still me and the peace was as ever

the stillness against which we sleep and wake

praying the One our souls to take


then wiping sleep from my eyes

I was still me but different in the stillness....






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

LOW LIGHT #2

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

LOW LIGHT #1

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

THE WALL BETWEEN WORLDS

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

BUGABOO

acceptance is harder than self-forgiveness


have I said this before?

I'll say it again


acceptance is harder than self-forgiveness


if you don't believe that

try thinking you were doing the right thing

and understanding nothing's under your control


then you'll stop excusing yourself in the name of God karma

or any other bugaboo....






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

FACING IT

I must be a romantic


I still bless myself

for being shat on


as if every earthly gangster

is the True Image of the One


tutti con tutti whatever the fuck....




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

REMAINS

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

WRESTLE THE PARADOX OR EMBRACE IT...YOUR CALL

oh I'm sure things are on the decline with me


which means I'm on the ascent

which means I'm on my way out


not escaping any life

but moving to a place


where Life is embraced more fully and truly

let things go down and down and down and down


all it means is we're on our way up....





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

I STILL DREAM

I still dream about your ass…


forgive me

in love I know I should set my sights higher


but spirit looks for whichever way in

and I choose the incredible ass that’s your magnet


for iron filings such as myself….

Content (c) 2008-2104 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

LAST DEAL GONE DOWN

now we’re all in it together…


we always have been but now there’s no wiggle-room

for the weak or the devious


now the cards are all out on the table

now  you bid or fold


now you declare on the turn of some Divine Card

we’re all in this together


and that dealer makes His call….






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

OL' BILL REDUX

I meant to be so much for you


but life got in the way

I got in the way


and nothing moved the heavens

or shook the earth


to the purpose of love

born of the faith that was supposed


to move mountains

I stupidly believed I was holy


when all I should have been was

empty and of purer service to you


all I became was Ol' Bill taken to you

in a hurry-home wagon because I couldn't leave


those downtown women alone....





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

HUM

I sing for us all


but I too can't make out the words

God might as well talk to us in our dreams


for all we can understand

or even remember after we wake up


better to hum a tune of the spheres and let it go at that....







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

TO EACH HIS ETC...

I wish I had your worries


I'd sleep the night through

and awake more refreshed than if I'd awaken


from a night of serious misbehavior








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

my hat lies on the bed


what the hell?

what demon worth his salt will get worked up

over that old wives tales?


I have enough grief to keep

me occupied until death and beyond

put the hat on the bed...open an umbrella in the house...


don't you have anything better to do?







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

REALER THAN REAL

I ate in the deep dark crevice

and drank the honeyed waters


and every time I think of you

my sense-memory reveals you


as fragrances of salt and nectar

swirling above my nostrils


to form an image of you as soft thighs

and supple flesh opening into the unknowable....





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

LOVE THE WORLD...BUT NOT TOO MUCH

the real deal hurts the vanity


on that we can all attest

and what comfort for the deluded


who thought their works were spells

to coax the Universe to peaceable measures?


they lie in huddles as deep as daily trash

and even the meek and accepting at times wonder


what the fuck is this?





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

PRETTY SARO FOREVER

pretty saros

are a dime a dozen


they want doctors lawyers

freeholders


who can comfort them

with gold (are these the ones


so preciously spiritual they teach us

dawgs to bath and assume some ridiculous


posture of civility?) any wonder any man

worth his nuts loves whores and topless dancers?


I'm sorry my friends...but we're not so advanced

as we think ourselves as pretty saros break our hearts


and leave us in our male (and dyke) messes

missing their touch onto emptiness....





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

whatever the Ultimate Reality

its details are still being hashed out here

in the daily dickers among us


here in this gesture...this support or betrayal...

we built our eternities and

we knock them down again


whatever it is it isn't finalized

and I hang again on every word....






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

PARAPHRASE

never try to teach the god to sing


you won't hear it

and it'll annoy the god....





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

WE MUST TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

vivid beyond your former senses

worlds blend into each other

and souls you've hated and those you've loved

nod and pass one another


it may not be the heaven

you constructed and expected

but neither is it the hell

you constantly dreaded


and you will face yourself

as ever you have in stark moments

of reflection that highlighted

the clarity revealing your offenses


and atonement is a given

it is part of the going forward

wherever your path is leading

whatever you're going toward


and though Truth still be too vast

you no longer need the lies

because the Life we live

and the Will to Live never dies....






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

you had a life

you have your death

and all between

filled with your breath


and now it's gone

but you are not

beyond the veil

you bless all you've got






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

THE HEAVY PRICE

argued with a right-wing conservative


utter waste of time

the only value this scumbag knows is money


no heart no compassion for anyone else

just rake it in saying "I've got mine


to hell with everyone else"

when he told me to go fuck myself


I told him when it's hard it won't bend

and when it's soft it won't go in


...he didn't like that...his vocabulary the level

of an inarticulate lout with his "Obummer" this and "fuck you" that...


don't know why the Almighty permits this asshole to breathe

unless it be to add to our miseries...there...I answered my own question...


that...and He wuvs all of us...what a joy....




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

don't be cross or disgruntled


everyone has to put up with each other

whether in love or hate


even if it is a bother

the truth is contained in what needs be dismantled


I for one cannot wait

to see what manifests when we crack the code


and see for ourselves how the result will bode....






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

if my tears could make a difference

valleys would be verdant

deserts undone


and everyone of us wishes thus

time and again


mirages of perfection

while we swallow sand....








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

SELF-KNOWLEDGE? ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT?

bite my tongue

hold my breath

don't preen or announce

keep silent unto death


I'll learn yet

I am less than special in all eyes

and if I'm wrong

that'll be God's surprise





Content (c) 2008-2104 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

HOW LONG UNTIL YOU "GET IT?"

how discouraging to deal with morons all day

but I don't know all there is to know


and I'm obliged to engage in every encounter

to hope for the gem of information


that will fill in a blank...and could I tell you

about blanks! if I know that I am seriously lacking


how do they get over? or do they get over

because they don't know and cannot sabotage themselves?


and if that be so then what idiot am I (unlettered untrained

autodidact imbecile not the shining example he thought?)


discouraging...and a test of patience to deal with these fools...

but the sweet kind ones aren't foolish and I learn this at my peril...


this lesson in humility is the kind of information that fills

that blank among many in my too receptive mind....





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

LEARN IT!

don't be rude young'uns

keep your idiot comments to yourselves


grandma swings harder and dirtier than you

and one day you'll know where it's at





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

OLD GOAT AWAKENING

two young asian beauties walk past me

making me yearn for youth again


then an older asian beauty passes me

with a long look and a smile...and I...I...


oh I lost my train of thought

and follow her backward glances and slowing pace...


oh who cares about youth? the nonsense never ends

and if you're fit and up for it...well...I needn't tell you....






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

WINTER GATE #7

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

WINTER GATE #6

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

WINTER GATE #5

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

WINTER GATE #4

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

WINTER GATE #3

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

WINTER GATE#2

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

WINTER GATE #1

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

only in your arms do I feel love


which is how I wind my way through the world

loveless and comfortless and unembraced


only in my love do I feel your arms





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

perhaps I will crouch under a bush

like Saint Francis

and bless beetles and toads and snakes


or perhaps I'll be bitten

because I am a faux saint

these creatures can sniff out in an instant


I have to balance my self between worlds

but love the one I inhabit

and the guileless animals


can spot a faker like me a mile off

and disabuse me of my intent...

they purer than me


they purer in the eye of the One

than one who tries so hard to catch all the eyes....





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

we can help each other

or we can hurt each other


we can move ourselves forward together

or we can stall as we're snagged on some ornery

soul's implacability


all the living

and all the dead

are in on this

we don't say we're all One for nothing


and no arguing with the sky like Moses

will make a difference nor will doctor's lines

nor a pardon from the governor nor a papal bull...


it is on each of us...in serve of the Oneness

we all crave and fear....



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

how tiresome the holders of old grudges


we who've moved on stand

on some peaceful shore

watching you flail around in the waves


and even those with the strongest vows

of the bodhisattva to serve hesitate

and pondering ruining themselves


on incorrigibles like you....





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

I loved my time of youth


drunk drugged sexed

all in the service of

catching a vision in the trap

of my creativity


but I love my time of maturity more


I dried out and sobered up

I got down to work

the vision manifested

and I found my place in it






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

assholes rule the world

don't be one of them

be a heart

be a mind instead

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

I'M READY TO GO BUT I CAN'T CHOOSE THE TIME

I waited so long

for a break of some kind

I thought I wouldn't live

long enough to see it come


and now nearly tapped out

not one but three offers of work

hound my attention

feast or famine as the old timers used to say


I've spent years telling people

who'd ask how I'm doing

that God must have a worse fate

in store for me but now


I'm as likely to say I'm just glad

the Reaper is busy elsewhere....





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

“every idle word…”

honestly Almighty One

hadst Thou no sense of context or proportion


or is Your creation truly heartless “all or nothing?”





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

I may be finished

but only with what has come before…


this is fresh hell on the rise

incoming inspiration for new manifestations


of the only here and now whose current condition

of morph has me gathering all I’ve been


in a comprehensive expression of my full vision…

but what the hell can I say if I’m finished?




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

I should give up more often


Every time I throw in the towel

A fresh wave rears up and douses me

And obliges me to reach for it and dry off again





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

every welcome mat has a trapdoor under it

every helping hand conceals a joy buzzer

every cry for help invites a response of condescension

every time I seek I fear what I will receive





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

WITH GRATITUDE FOR MY PLACE

with gratitude for my place

this space I occupy


I understand nothing is over

nothing yet completed


what good to my store

I cherish...but not overly...


there is much left for which to atone

much left to forgive and of which to repent


but meanwhile I've taken to pardoning myself

and ceased to drive myself into a deep pit


by trying to struggle against the weight all that must yet

be amended...humility and peace replacing pride upended...


and when I get to that all discussion will be closed

and silence alone will reveal all to be disclosed






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

memory of your flesh

is the content of my soul

my love so much blocked

our perfect union

but it had to be this way

just being in the world

we're guilty of something

but our loving is such a good way to forgive our loans

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

SPIRIT BANK...

I'm eager to close out my old accounts

but I must simmer down and reckon my pace


so much that has haunted and dunned me

has already been settled beyond dispute


it is only my perspective

that needs the adjustment


it is only my fresh ragged peace

I need to smooth over and marked "paid"






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

it's so easy to forgive

when you're tired and have outlasted


those who've hurt you

as they sink into their reckonings


for those who cannot forgive or let go

the misery is on you alone


the rest of us are worn but grateful

the rest of us have moved on....






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

MADE IT THROUGH...DON'T KNOW HOW

I need a cigarette

(a huge blunt will do...)


I need whiskey and women

and a clean bill of health too


but this is habit talking

wispy memories of pleasure


in my new dispensation

I must reckon my spiritual treasure





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

I am not the King of the Machine

infernal and guileless as a snake


but I do proclaim myself a Golden Mean

whose spirituality puts me on the take


how frustratingly ironic

that to rise we must fall


and that our sin is the tonic

that precedes the fatal last call


if my liver could stand it

I'd drink to our health


and I less than you would comprehend it

our proclamations are but soul's self-serving stealth


for we are no Kings of the Machine

and none of us a perfect Golden Mean....





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

pale sun after thunder snow

again a way opens

again a choice to be made

again a pale sun lights a way






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

GHOST

ghost to ghost

a welcome is readied

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

DENIAL

denial is like trying to salt a dead bird's tail

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

END OF DAY...THIS DAY

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

I ended on a sour note recently...


I must do some tea and honey

practice my scales


and sing a healing to that harsh sound...

discovering my own tonal consistency


and those lovely grace notes....






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

THE HIDING PLACE

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

I roll up my sleeves

I get busy


whatever work takes me

to the end of this life


I'm fully engaged in...

there's no more fuss or fear


what will happen will happen

and what won't won't....




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

THE YARD ON A WINTER AFTERNOON

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

don't follow too closely


my way is not yours

even if it leads to the same end


the difference in our journeys

is what calls out of us


what is necessary to build the universe...

this is my contribution...and yours is fine also


and if we come close then let's compare notes over a beer....





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

no need to scratch my name off the monument

you idiot fellow travelers


it was never inscribed there to begin with...

I wasn't your comrade


I was never your ally

I needed your agendas less than I needed


the warped plans of your opponents

I have no use for your savage sainthoods....





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

all one's agony stems


from the inability to accept

that exterior material plane reality


cannot be controlled by one's neurotic

need to dominate and call the shots


of one's own destiny in any conscious way

want to lose the sorrow and get where


one needs to be? give up the tyranny of self....






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

to die with more grace than with which you've lived

is the whole point...


it's never about how one starts  out as it is

about how one ends....





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

no one means any harm


it just comes out that way...

the helping hand


that is poor disguise for vanity...

the hidden pride in every good deed...


but if someone else is being helped

then what does this self-absorbed reflection matter?


good will come from its opposite

and in the most unexpected ways


whatever is on us as our responsibility

there is a Greater Power that governs the action


and that is all that can be said...the rest is speculation

that we drive us to distraction


whatever good we may mean....




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

preacher why don't you shut up and sit down?


thank you brother I needed that...

because like others I'm lost in this skin


I tend to forget we're all like this...

so thoroughly ourselves we forget


our common resemblance






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

rage will not help

sorrow will not help

repentance will not help

mercy will not help


if these thing matter

then they're paid forward

and will come to your service

in another ignorant life in earthly skin





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

yes all liability for our actions are on us


but yes a Higher Power measures that standard

and decides the course of some repentance


if Life is truly a school for the soul

I must be a Super Senior of unparalleled dullness


any little snag someone else would breeze through

seems to tear my heel and set me back


and this for some atonement I cannot recognize






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

I wait for some call that will determine my path going forward


oh to be at the mercy of morons and the little tyrants

who forget in every waking moment


that the greatest are the smallest

and the smallest serve beyond what they can endure


on a promise of a call that will lead them forward....






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

my acedia is what I get

for not having spiritual balls


to walk that lonesome valley

and walk it by myself


everything's a sin down here in the earth

and the only power-that-be


insists on all or nothing

if you want to get (what we laughingly call) free....






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

I cannot be a cheerleader

for someone else's vision


the vision is wrong

and so is the cheerleading


in weak moments I can only cease

my function and stare


at the ceiling of my cell

my room my tomb my life....





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

I cannot tell you

when I'll be gone for good


my dispatch seems to be

in all hands but my own....






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

here I am hanging

between my heavens and hells again


longing for release

but the time is not yet...


and every illumination

fades like a dream


and every reality claims its price

and gouges it





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

I hate the world with no remorse

it is here our best natures are sullied

with dirt by the demands of the so-called 'divine'

well in some future sojourn 

I'll pay for this too

now that I know all purpose and liability for wrong

is on all of us I won't be so stupid as to expect

what God Almighty He/She/Itself won't give...

see you somewhere down the line....

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

I will not bend

I will not break


I've already lost all

for mercy's sake


and what I have left

is truly mine


an empty heart

and an open mind....





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

listen to no one


they are full of themselves

and do not have your best interests at heart


how can they? they're stumbling on

their own path and are as ignorant as you are


but they'll feel so much better with their claws

in your flesh and your heart in their teeth


ignore them...your own demons are formidable enough....





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

I'm seeing another name rise up in my place


I've been superseded

my replacement has come


and he (or she) will be as silent as me

for way too long


and will be heard in small increments

when all purpose is gone...


that is the only way the word will be spread....






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

I will live to see my enemies squeal

like pigs at their slaughter


but I won't enjoy it all that much

I've moved on and they haven't...


and what prayer will save them now?





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

why say again how all we've loved

becomes the past in the instant of its happening?


there's much virtue in planning for what is to come...

but who knows how it will arrive?


and who knows if you'll really be prepared at all?





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

see? while you got bored and went elsewhere


I destroyed and recreated the world


then I woke up from my fever dream

and hit this keyboard


(yes...keyboard...how behind I am

as this generation rushes to action


without instrumentality)

what gaping jaws will sink its teeth into your pitiful asses?




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

you fool


you'll say raving at the mirror

but you won't get much shake out of that


let God and others say it

let it be on them





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

DAMNED AND DAMNED FOR BEING DAMNED

I've conjured up the majesty of souls

who preceded me into the darkness


they bid me to rest assured

it's the same shit in the spirit realms


as it is in the earth where you forged

your bullshit chains of illusion


but it's harder to undo

what with reviewing every mistake


and seeing for yourself where

you screwed yourself


even as some kind of prompting

made you pause and wonder


and oh how you'll kick yourself

when you see how close you came to getting it right....





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

A HARD LOVE

we're all on our own


if you don't kill me

I won't kill you


until you're some lying maniac

in which case


we'll find out quickly

who was the quicker shot


and who will walk away in sorrow

or who will boast as if his cock


were as big as his mouth...

and this by the Plan...this by Law...


not my will Lord but Thine eh?

thus we thread the wilderness of creation



all of us on our own....




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

I wary of dealing with people who've never

walked outside their zones and felt all the horrors

of unprotected process...the actual grinding of process

as we come to be and pass like a vapor in dry air...


judge from your safe bubbles

appoint yourselves as experts on matters you'll never

comprehend as I wary of dealing with you all

and go my way as I always have....





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

to treat of morons

is the wages of sin





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

AN UNSOLICITED TESTAMONIAL

plumpers are the hottest women


if you want crazy sex and the deepest affection

take one of these BBWs to bed with you


(she might even bring a friend along...)

they are woman-plus on every level


and if you're one of these herd-molded morons

who disagree and mock in the safely of unified mindlessness


then all I can say is fuck you...completely....





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

A NEW LINE

a new line of inquiry is a breeze off the ocean


how easy to renounce and forget the old miseries

and take on fresh hell


oh if you think the world is absurd

keep on thinking it


to do otherwise is to be sucked into

the horrors that mold us like a spastic's hand


trying to shape a vase....





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

HASTY BREAK

I stopped to make a sammich...


now where was I?

aw fuck it....





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

all the ordeals we've been flattened by

were conquered in the flattening


don't ask me why we must die

in order to live


I'm not San Juan de la Cruz

and you're not some manifestation of the Ineffable


we're just waiting in line with every other tyrant

wondering why we didn't transcend the shit pot






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

DAILY COMMERCE

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

THE SHADOW OF THE EARTH

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

ALL CHASES ENDED

the gibbous moon is high in Cancer

approaching full as the past is dissolved

in all the forward motion

toward some future


some soon-to-morph manifestation

of the always here and now

that we'll attach ourselves to and

call a memory


all I've loved passed in the instant

of their happenings and now without

any hope for what is already around us

we lay down our angry charges and lie looking up


at the moon...all chases ended...as the slanted sunlight

shines around through the earth and through us...






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

WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WANTS TO "JOIN THE CONVERSATION?"

oh the snarky shit we endure

just looking for validation


let these jackasses swallow

their own manufacture


we eventually learn

to approve of our own visions


even if we're wrong at least

they're our own visions






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

A BACK ALLEY IN WHAT SOME WOULD CALL HELL

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

I SEE MYSELF IN YOU

isn't it time

we started

smashing

mirrors?






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

I'M ASKED WHY I CAN'T BE HAPPY

if I were really sad

I'd have no will or strength to go on...


so why can't you get that in writing all I write

this makes me happy?






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

wiser

stronger

braver


the

things

to

hope

for


in

another

earthly

sojourn....




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

THE DESIRE FOR FAME

to the blessed...


who waltzed through doors

others opened for them


who were fated for lives of influence and power

and did their worst but still claimed a prize


who never let any Reality into their bubbles

and succeeded because their own Reality was blessed...


you ache because you know the hard way

that even a Name will fade with time


and your works join a Public Domain of works and ideas

that have passed through other minds


with varying degrees of accomplishment and value

and your quest to be immortal will last as long


as a mind remembers it was you who rendered the work

oh at that realization you'll either fold up and die


in the memories of your time of strength and pride

or you'll hike up your socks and get moving


as well as age and the damages of living have wrought on you

will let you do...you who in your vanity wanted to rise above


the common mentalities formed your own commonality

as easy to classify as one butterfly from another


pinned to the corkboard of your fame....





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

IRON

the Iron Rod is an Iron Fist

and it is descending more swiftly

than we imagined it would


did any of us realize

the truth of the matter?

that 'freedom' is only


determined by the length

of your chain?





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

PART OF THE PLOT

awake in the "Lord's Day"

as the bumpkins might put it

is keeping all of us dopey...


you're free to be an oppressor

and destroy other lives

without a thought


or you could be a noble example of reform

that judges those who will not conform

and likewise destroy with no conscience...


oh awaking up to some notion of Reality

is not the Absolute to end all confusions

we wished it were...if anything


the game's wide open and you win or lose

by everything but your wits....






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

THIS YHERE'S DA PLACE

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

THE ALLEY

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

the night descends that day may rise


hope we all make it to the morning....






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

people fret from life to life

failing all enlightenment intends


and those that don't praise differently that

our nonsense never ends....







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

I will not miss any of you

because I won't be going anywhere


even as this body is sent back to dust

I will be next to all of you


looking out of the air....







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

failure weighs more than success


try wearing it before the eyes

of those who claim to love you so much


even the virtues gossip behind your back






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

I've exhausted the well

no rain refills it


and only the dryness soothes

my ghost and stills it






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

no word

so apt

as no

word....








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

surely an avatar approaches—the last tears of Esau falling—
surely the time at last is at hand—

surely—this is not a false alarm—is it?







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

I used to believe a great many lies

and those got me into my trap


no good realized ever good enough

to amend or set things right


and so as the end of this journey rises

all joys and terrors fade


I see you all dance before me

the wallflowers who've got it made....






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

illusion will yield to the Actual

as darkness will yield to Light


and even then we'll have to choose

and hope we get it right....






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

why do people waste their psychic energies

worshipping crass ideas of gods and devils?


when someone says "it's all One"

well...what the hell do you think they're saying?






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

join me in the mosh pit dear


I've got nothing on for the night

and thankfully dear girl neither do you


your first mister will show you

the unique form within each tangle of flesh


as each blinding orgasm blanks you out

and you face in your completion the emptiness


that is the ecstasy of nothingness....







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

until detachment and enlightenment set in


we are vampires feeding off

each other to stay alive....





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

follow me up Jacob's Ladder

as if I were squirming up

an Indian rope trick


in both cases

you don't come back down

but where it is you end up


is quite another matter

and known only to we who shimmy up it....





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

oh but do not despair with me…there is great joy in this torment…

the dark laughter of Reality puncturing any modest squibble about positivity and hope and faith…when all we really do is help each other to help ourselves…

oh the zany happiness of the joker vs. the unfortunate pity of the stooge…






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

like Isaiah

I come raging out of the desert

shout "woe to Jerusalem"


and the world laughs and hoots and points

and goes about its woeful business

while I am stunned to silence


I come raging out of the desert

to become just another clown....






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

preachers are more deluded than their congregations


the keys to the kingdom

clang on such a weak string





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

IN THIS EARTH

each one of us alone in our heads


somewhere it is truly all One

but it avails us little or nothing here


in this earth we despise...and love...and endure....





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

are you happy?

are you sure?


just another mystery

you must endure....






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

all right so I'll play the fool 'til the end


as if I ever did more

aspiring to better


and knowing whatever I did to the good

will find its way forward


dragging me with it....






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

anointed to some thankless task


each of us follow our lives to their ends

with no clue to the worth of it all


except our joy or our sorrow






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

IT'S ALL LIKE THE PROPHETS SAID

the reactor in Japan

is still leaking its tanks

now all the western coast of America

is saturated with radiation


you eat the glowing fish

and wonder why you're nauseous

you read a newspaper at night

without turning on the light


your forehead shining like a mystic's vision

and with it the enervation of body


and not one word in the mainstream media

not one word to tell you why you're dying

the kingdoms of the world won't mind a few thousand dying

so they may keep their power-mad grip on the world





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

DON'T EAT THE FISH

I sense danger in the air

and feel bolts invisibly strike down


the ragged earth glows

the sea boils and days are shortened...






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

X caliber flares expelled from the Sun

striking the earth


to show who's king

you easily burned subjects





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

(REVERSE ANNULAR) ECLIPSE IN THE EVENING

TWILIGHT FROM THE PRISON WINDOW

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

THE TOWER

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

DRAFT

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

FARMER'S PRIDE

it's all shit


and that's why our soil's so rich

our vegetation so lush







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

SO FAMILIAR

here you are...

truly are...


in your own delusion

and taunted by phantoms


who say they love you

in their own delusion...and truly are...


who knew the Void could be so crowded

and so familiar?






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

KNOWLEDGE OF KARMA AND WHY IT'S BEST NOT TO KNOW

the only here and now

means no escape


complete liability for your actions

means no miracles


and so the love of God

means no mercy


and the death of the body

means no relief for the soul






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

CAUTION

just a little drink of water

just a little piece of bread

just a little compassion

lest you beg a little like this....






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

WAITING FOR SPRING - 2014

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

NARROW WAY

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

WINTER 2014 THE CLOSURE THAT OPENS

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

WORKOUT

love gets a workout

every time we go out our door


parades of flesh and sweet smiles

and myriad ways to go branching out


like the arteries and veins of One Great Heart

that knows its passions to be all passions


I'm winded every time

I come home to my hearth....





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

take a flying fuck at everything


you are forging your salvation

moment by moment with every moment


of moral choice you make...

love and do what you will

and let God keep the books


well...turns out these holy geezers

were right....





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

WATCH WHAT YOU WISH FOR

I guess this way of the world will have to do


if any apocalyptic change did hit us

we'd all shit our pants


saying "oh now what?" and be totally unequal to it....







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

LIFE AS WE KNOW IT

why rage?


this horseshit is the same for all of us


(he said with trembling lip

and red face...)


somehow in this eternal here and now

it matters...


I wish I knew how

and I wish I knew why






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

ALL HUMAN LOVE

my sweetest pea

you get sad and think I don’t love

the way I used to do


you’re wrong

what was a roaring fire is now glowing embers

deep and red and warm…


all human love fails because it is human

but the eternal Spirit of Love

is what binds us fast and holds us hard


and stokes these embers to keep them glowing…


and with every kiss and embrace we use against


the cold and growing night we add logs to the fire

our day dimming or not still lights the way…

don’t be sad…I’ve always loved you just this way….




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

EPIPHANY 2014

you resolved to do better

to change your ways

you stated your intentions

and now endure the merciless penance


and you still don't feel holy

your eyes tear in the cold wind

everything's different

but nothing's changed





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

HOW DID THE MORNING SUN GET INTO THE ROOM?

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

AWOKEN

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

THE LAIR

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