outcomes cannot be predicted

as long as we are localized in these skins


know your intent...make your choice...and act

and the result will show you where you're at





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

just because

you woke up to reality


doesn't mean anything

has changed but your perception


and if your perception

makes some kind of difference


it is only in the way you move

through reality as it is....





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good morning

good evening

good all that's in between


good to understand this at last






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every "last chance"

postpones the inevitable


you don't...you can't draw a line

dividing a before and an after


life's ongoing

you're always dealing with it


stop worrying about where you're going

and tend to how you'll get there....





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

the sorrow of life is unbearable

but only because we attach ourselves

to such notions


choose instead the joy of life

it too can be unbearable

with such happiness that would


draw tears from the driest eye

and softness from the hardest heart


as long as you are in this world

choose what you can bear

on your way to the peace beyond


such contrasts....





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I will remember your love

when I've forgotten everything else






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yes you've come a hard way


but a way common to all...

do not exalt your sickness


but do...quietly...honor your cure





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don't have visions


even if they're only

hallucinations


no one will understand you

and you will be


impossible to deal with....





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every earthly morning

the peace is wiped away


by contact with our fellows...


yeah it sucks

yeah it takes the good out of everything


but it is a reminder

of all we share in this world...


and a GRRRRRRRRR!!! to you too....








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to commit deliberate wrong

is to commit suicide






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you only have one life


oh you don't know

how true that is


one life and one life only

that stretches through incarnations


and sojourns in other spheres

one life in the eternal here and now


of the only reality....







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

and so your life will continue


you will not be at the mercy

of divine vengeance or every action


results in an equal but opposite reaction

or whatever you may call it


but you will still be you

and your relations will still be


the ones with whom you've shared sojourns

and your stories will remain the same


until some resolution frees each

to your other matters in the ongoing and complex creation


you thought in terms of here and there

distinctions and difference but it isn't true


it's all right here...all right now...and continuous....







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

you thought you'd escape

the fairy-tale religions

that have shackled blood-lines

to the slow centuries in the earth


but stepping out the traditions

storming heaven from the sad

confines of the wilderness

have shown you there is no escape from


life....





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no happiness

can match

the happiness

of awakening

from the

nightmare

of your own melodrama






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CONTEXT

context

determines whether


someone who says "one with everything"


is having a

religious experience


or at a ball game ordering

a hot dog








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CALL THIS CHAOS BLESSED

man will never learn

and God will never interfere


call this chaos blessed if you wish

but I wish I were anywhere but here






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MAN THE SCIENTIST MAN THE FOOL

the mild conscious human mind

promises to improve and repent and amend


but the ripping rage that explodes out of every

inconvenience or open assault makes hash


of our vows and overturns all peace of mind

to make us wonder which one of these is really us...


and both are us...our common consciousness

thinks it can control its own destiny


rather than accept its place in the whole context

of being...you want to clone mammoths and being them back


to a system they died out of thousands of years ago

just because your hubris will brook  no interference?


what primitive nerve in yourself will you touch

when you've resurrected what you thought you've left behind?





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GASBAGS IN THE GALLERY

nothing yet comes this way

that will surprise the notions we abide


and when it does it's not our call

we play the risks and then decide


this is how we discover where

our reckonings will soon appear


and after that with explanations installed

we yammer to any withered ear






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exhausted by the latest round

of astrological upheaval


I leave all ruins laying on the ground

and will not brook retrieval


I lie open on a bed facing the ceiling

as many times I have in this sojourn


but this time it is a take on healing

and this moment's peace leaves no more fuel to burn






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HATERS BEWARE

haters beware


do your worst

and know yourselves cursed


and however you project it

whatever your objective


know that you will never get there






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holy is the joy

and the suffering too


will I get that some day?

will I accept and understand


there is mercy within the judgment

painful as it may be to our ignorance?


I will find my terror daily

in whatever I go through


holy is the joy

and the suffering too....





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

this is for those

who do not know

who cannot hear

who refuse to see


know that you think

you are invisible

and think you can explain your way

into any posture of justification


but that's not how it will go


you will always

sadly be around

but happily I will be


to you I say with all respect

good-bye good-bye good-bye








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unpredictable

and unexplainable


the world's whim

is our test of nerve


like the strength test

at a a sideshow


slam that mallet

and send that strike skyward


to ring the bell...

today is your day


tomorrow may not be...

daily you and the world match whims


unpredictable

and unexplainable....







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sometimes

admittedly


the world works


knots of contention

untie into peaceable

resolutions


collapses of common concourse

are remedied by

unexpected and unexplainable

repairs

and all messes are cleaned up

and all turns out fine...


yes

sometimes the world works


just not often enough to

as we used to say


bet the farm on....




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WE'RE SOOOOOO REFINED NOW

yes yes

we can progress

above all else

we can enlighten ourselves


now that we're soooooo refined

and malicious ignorance is trounced

have you noticed how Elmer Fudd's

lalling* is far less pronounced?





*speech impediment in which r, l, and m sounds are pronounced with a lispy, w sound (indicating poor control over the tip of the tongue.




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DOOM AND HIJINX

life on earth

has always been hell


punctuated with

hilariously ironic comic relief


so really...what does it matter

what mask some evil one wears


or what instruments he uses

to make you die laughing?





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HAVE A NICE DAY

welcome to the world

where nothing goes right


where all failing systems

are replaced with new faulty


increments that will fail in the face

of further upgrades spun in profusion


because humanity still clings to the illusion

that it has mastered itself


it is humanity's hubris that is

sinking us deeper now more than ever


vanity pushing us on to more and more

empty achievement while those who'd


be masters of this world cannot see this

blaming everyone else for their own blindness....





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UNDER THE GUN

we're all under the gun


such is life here in the earth

but our qualities show


whether we weep before

the worldly firing squad


(and each one of them will get their turn)

or we stand defiant and sing out


the song lingered after the shooting stops....





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where we all end up

is anyone's guess


I keep at my work

and hope for the best


others will do

whatever they must


that's how it's done

and in this we trust






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FOR MOTHER TERESA

a greatness rises


every time a saint among us

sinks to the ground


exhausted and final





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nothing to cry over now

the regret lessens to a small itch

in the peace that always surrounds us


that we are too distracted to hold

or to take seriously

and that now takes over in our defeat


that weary peace that absorbs

the diminishment of all our sorrows





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OUT OF THE RUNNING

ridiculous


a failing body

and a contrite regret


the spirit cannot renew it

to avail of hopes and desires unrealized


the old goat still and expert on the female ass

and all of its splendid manifestations


easy now to indulge

because said goat is out of the running


and can now let that low steady heat

warm bones and sacks and memories


and all the sense-memory they contain

as if this were all to life there is


ever faintly ridiculous....





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THIS IS THE CLOSURE

this is the closure

not self-imposed

not deluded


it is coming down on me

my time in this world closing

and who but the One knows when


or where or how this will be

when all I know is it will be at any time....






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don't wait to die

rush that finish line

with all the vigor for life

you possess

live your life like that

rather than suffer

the fatality of

waiting to live....

Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito.

WATCH YOUR MOUTH

I'll never give you the pleasure

of watching me fail

take your unearned leisure

and chase your own tail


for while I bust ass to get it right

you will take the struggle for granted

and I'll make good and take flight

while your idle words nail you and can't be recanted







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

THERE'S NEVER TIME

there's never time to stop and think

because all of us are on the brink


and knowing nothing tends to last

we'd better make a move and fast


because whether it's a blessing or curse

there's no help in the universe


heave that dirt and lift that stone

we're all at it and each of us alone






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

THE CHURCH AT THE ABYSS

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I will end up as I will


but at the very least

I will end up


let someone exhale

the faux eulogy


no one knows

each other anyway


and we will end up as we will






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

PINCHING

my deepest sufferings

have returned to me

but now they are like

the pinching of a shoe

rather than the rending

of a soul


rage dulled

by the thickening of age





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PROSPECTS

fear and weariness

stagger the day


the collapse of hope

has triggered


yet another need

to withdraw


as the job runs out soon

and I can't wait


another five years

for the next one






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

we talk to each other

in a common language

and still hear

different things being said


words are fictions

communication impossible

and we're not even sure to whom we speak

when we talk to each other





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

you will not comprehend

your dreams any longer

once you've made peace

with your hungers






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ALL TALK

all talk

is shouting

into a void


and all

response is

the echo of


nothingness


face that

truth and

you too will


hold your

tongue...face

that and you


too will be void....








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TIMELESS MATTER

dirt beneath our feet

there since creation itself

came to be...


and some of it was living

like the 480 million year old

snail fossils


in the rock quarry

in Vermont...


to be excavated...

shells in pillars staring back blindly

at the tourists....





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

SNAPSHOT

would we live in our most perfect moment


a snapshot of some scene

revelatory and gone

in the moment of its happening


and we going with it....






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VIEWS 9

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VIEWS 8

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VIEWS 7

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VIEWS 6

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VIEWS 5

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VIEWS 4

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VIEWS 3

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VIEWS 2

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VIEWS 1

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ON A HILL AT SUNRISE

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EARLY SUN

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nothing I can tell you

will you hear


nothing I can say

will matter


and so an end

is welcome


and so a start

will be quiet


and I won't make

that mistake again


to talk as if

I could reach someone


to not be silent

when nothing can be said





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

the inability to communicate

is the distinguishing feature

of the human race


when one doesn't hear

what another says

there is no sharing


but each's mystery

is surely preserved....








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HOW PEACEFUL THE WORLD

how peaceful the world

when people stay in their homes


latch the door

double-turn the lock


it keeps the streets free

for old-time lone wolfs like me


to prowl unmolested

through city forests more dangerous


then the wilderness regions on maps

and in their cold patient pulsing


through everyone's bloodlines

whatever cubicle they inhabit


or whatever street lies open they roam desolate

and wise to the emptiness of what they call 'freedom'






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

inspecting the instant


here is the sky


here is the blunted edge

of a building...the brick covered

with worn away white paint


here is a muted expanse of sunglow

emerging from the gray clouds

of a diffident Sunday morning


here are the streets empty but for me


and here are some structures

of the daily man-made world

idle and waiting for tomorrow

and another week in the life....

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

VOW

I'll give you my strength

for as long as it lasts


there are no forevers

but the one we inhabit here and now


in this vow...in this acquiescence...

it is always time to live and love


and all of mine is yours

as far as it goes....





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

BREAKTHROUGH

my head is unbowed

this May day


somewhere on the Akasha

the essence of my achievements


are imprinted while the finished

earthly thing in themselves


endure in and for their terms

and like many another artist


before his monumental work

he knows it is its own thing


while he himself with his purpose completed

stands watching and fretting as the world's vicissitudes


churn our creative acts into world-as-is...I've reached

a calm and at least my head is unbowed....





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

a flitting of eyes

the rooftops illuminated


the aura of the day

surrounding each other


while a dull roar

floods the ear


and in patience

is endured








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

HERO ON TRIAL

it's not that I don't trust you...


but extravagant boasts and predictions

of victory are tiresome unless they deliver


the promised victory...

and do you believe your mouth is as powerful


as the processes that be,,,and can withstand

the actual grinding out of your ordeal?


you will stand for applause and entreaties

as you face the dragon of our mythologies


slaying it or it you...

it's not that I don't trust you


but forgive me if I hedge my bets

hope is as strong as its weakest spot


and you have failed this before....





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

noble words and fancy pictures

this is our art this is our say

and music sets the tone of track

of every experience we endure


our expressions are further strictures

composed of a multi-imposition

vision and its score and our lyric beseeching

this is our utterance which our aspirations assure....





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

DAILY HUSTLE

the ordinary day is the arena

where our histories clash...


and we look at a new storefront

and see an old one superimposed on it


taken from a previous experience

in that very place or we see an old friend


or lover and on this vision of gray

and weight gain and memory morose


under the younger brighter version who were also

just starting their journey


through this time and this is what it got them

which for many will be good and firm


and for others will be a reminder of every missed

opportunity in the daily hustle....






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

my invented demise

will come when it will


I abandon the fashion

of mystic homesickness


and all of us mill around in

a spring afternoon


where an exit will open

and any time will see you blend into the day....







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

A SHOT OF WHISKEY

give me a shot of whiskey


I'm sitting on the porch

of this desert general store

watching the down-leaning sun

stretch the cactus shadows along the dust


late afternoon in another spring

and the whiff of decay that leavens

the sweet smell of the noon

even as it rakes the sand at my feet


soon the cool of the evening

will cap-off the day of blistering memory

with softer scenes I cannot relive...

give me that shot of whiskey


and let the twilight soothe my bones....





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

where are my ticket stubs?

what goes for my eyes?

I had some vision of heaven

that was only a booby prize


here I am dying away

sad than this life is done

and ready to kill the one who says

that I had my fun


mind your own business

you meddling control freak fuck

you're empty without someone to oppress

but with me you're out of luck


at least with me I'll soon be gone

but with you shithead you'll have to stumble on....







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

the sky brightens in a cleft of cloud


the gray buildings

like monuments from time immemorial


the adventurer daring to put

a foot to the ground


true a wind could take you anywhere

but unlike Bilbo


my heavy shoes anchor me to my way...





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my work will be ash one day


and a wind will carry those remains

like a cloud of blackbirds


over a dry field....








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how funny

the first morning of a new age

should be gray and damp and misty


how appropriate....










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