THE SHIFT

afraid to let go

afraid not to...


and though you

stand still


your here is

no longer here


as all things

shift around you....





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

FREQUENCY EVER TOO HIGH

I await a symbol that will put my mind

in its highest state and most revved-up gear

decoded into mere human understanding

enough to act and make move on its mission


a symbol as some truth

translated into an understanding

but still something lost in translation

that bedevils sleep and haunted wakening in sadness








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

it's a Saturday afternoon in early fall


an (what do we call it now?) Indian summer day

or would be if we'd had a first frost already


(forget St. Martin's Day and the third warm week

in November...few remember that)


and everyone outside and

they wouldn't care and wouldn't dare


disturb their own peace to anything but enjoy the day....








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

ROOT TOOT TOOT

common sins

stain us all


we sniff and lick

and work our snouts


beneath the rags and root

toot toot


until we're wet and sticky

and delighted....









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

WAITING FOR A POTATO TO BOIL

I unleashed

a load of spontaneously perceived poems

and recorded them here...now...


while waiting for a potato to finish boiling...


one has no idea when inspiration

will come and kick in a door

while you're busy with the mundane


and totally unsatisfying....









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

MORE MATES THAN YOU COULD COUNT

on your wedding day

I hope you leave a vent

in your gown open


to air out

that swamp that saw

so much plunging and flushing


back when you'd take on

more mates than you could count....









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

you think that no one loves you


for once you're right


did you really think your treachery

would be so easily excused for your crocodile tears?


as if death turned fools and scoundrels instantly

into saints....










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

no perfection can be had


how many finishing touches

on your own affairs


have been overturned by the onslaught

of time and other people's interventions


leaving you with nothing to do

but look at the carnage


and curse the sky for your vanity?









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

YOUR REVOLUTION WILL ALWAYS FAIL

I'm waiting by your half-open door

I know you see me

but judge me by your illusions

and so try to out-wait me

you foolish woman 

haven't you learned I'm stronger 

and wiser than you

though it's no mean feat and I can afford to wait

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

ON ME

I do not need my anger

nor my regret any longer


gratitude is the new way

even if it will take me a while


to learn not to abuse it...

what's done is done and what's to come will come


there's no longer any denial...

I contain my past and fashion a future


I won't recognize until I'm there....






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

ALL THAT COULD BE INTENDED

I think I'll take a little rest


technology transformed the way

we express ourselves and do our business


and thanks to that I've achieved my objective

I got my work out into the world


where it's all been received and affirmed

and that all that could be intended as it sits


with everyone else's work in the duration of their terms....









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

WHEN...

when release will come

none know just when


so let's exchange gossip

and make absurd jokes until then









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

oh how the world saddens me

but I am not alone


others know what I'm talking about

but it does not interfere with our bull's-eyes









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

oh would-be lovers

hot and young


your mothers and grandmothers

brought me down


we're notches on

each other's belts


and you young'uns have yet

to know the deal as dealt


ante up you little snots

life will teach you what is what








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

oh the foolishness makes me weep

while all I'd desire puts me to sleep


I've had my fill I've had my fun

and now I belong to no one








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

OLD WOLF LONE WOLF

old wolf lone wolf

baying at a light bulb


under which a hot young woman

disrobes for her lover


or simply to go to bed

for a good night's sleep


while old wolf lone wolf

knows no peace pacing beneath


her window like an obedient old dog after all








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

back in the world


with thousands of other

universes I'd prefer to be in


but this is my place for now

and it's with all of you


I am fated for this time

to be with and most of us


wishing to be elsewhere than here also


in this world

in this world







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

another runaway day


bosses off

co-workers off


you've finished

your current pile of work

in the first 40 minutes


and kill time

with a full out-tray

set front of you


to look busy while the ambitious

chirpy snots who did show up


walk by with their hot shapely legs









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

A USELESS TIRADE AGAINST CONDITIONED REALITY

there's nothing like life as it is

to defeat any hope  of atonement


we are invited to amend and to rectify

but none of it has any meaning


when karma reaps its inexorable price

and vengeance is more divinely important than forgiveness


or any amendment we could make

(which never ever is perfect enough to please the One)


oh damn to some hell the whole fucking plan

and damn the unmerciful One


if love is truly all then love

with your whole being


and frankly

fuck everything else....






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

I'm surrounded by earnest people

they make me want to scream


because their arrogance do their thinking for them

and the rest of us suffer in their fever dream....








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

HARD TEACHER

I don't wish to play the fool

I'm not that wise and I'm not that cool


but if someone else's foolishness

will drag me down into their distress


I'll ignore God's wish for me

and make them suffer to whatever degree


will make them ache and make them shout

and teach them what atonement's about....










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

what a treat to be

with all of thee


as we slide down the ramp

to our bewildered reckoning









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

KINGS OF THE WORLD

common sense

prescribes

getting things done

exactly when you can...


hesitate for an instant

and you'll wind up

backing into incoming shit...

but then common sense


isn't so common and we suffer

from assholes who think

they're above all this and their demands

will stop the incoming tides


and time stall to

accommodate their pathetic vanity....






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

KER-CHOO...DON Q...

I think I caught your cold


isn't love wonderful?

we are one in sooo much....









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

dry spells tell the tale


won't be water

but fire next time


just ask california








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

RAIN

rain


at long last rain


it's been so dry lately

tears and sweat leave a mist

like an aura

around my flesh


at long last refreshed

at long last rain....








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

my dream is all that I see


day is night and night is dawn to me

sleeping with open eyes


all I see is my dream












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

INHERENT IN OUR TIME

what could I tell anyone now

that would matter this late in the day?


what happened happened and life went on

and now all of us are getting old and gray


and whatever life is strong ahead

it's only an annex to our whole life's tale


precious to each of us alone and shared

and our witness to the eternal inherent in our time








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

flashes of past loves and embarrassing times

flit into my consciousness fleetingly


a warm embrace and the rocking of loins

or the faux pas of presumption


that left one feeling like a fool

in front of strangers


the images pass and are again subsumed

into the dull content of one's entire awareness


this dark cloudy autumn afternoon






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

SLAPSTICK INTERVENTION

a near-sighted

guardian angel

mistakes my wound

for a bird's tail and salts it



so openly blighted

I yell like hell

but the angel's deaf as well and no sound

I make can ever halt it


I guess I'm supposed to thank you Lord

I'm always gored but never bored






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

whenever you think

you've suffered enough


trust in the One

to set you straight on that folly








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

if you want answers

make them up for yourself


you create the world anew

instant by instant by instant


how it falls out remains

your own last ditch effort


to own up or accept grace

this is liability...this is the game....








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

THIS IS NOT OUR HOME

the world has never been different

and it never will be different


no heaven on earth when we're all just passing through...

and you believing in nothing higher than yourself


continue wrecking everything you touch

and congratulate yourself for doing so


while you who believe in some greater good

defy it by hiding behind it to censure others


while ignoring your own blames...

as if belief were instant forgiveness


and you're pardoned to do more harm

while I and mine struggle with our own wrong


believing in nothing but actuality

knowing the world will never be different....







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

so this is the 'new age' version

of same old same old


another generation of trained seals

flapping for fish in smug bubbles


I'm just as sorry to see

you assholes running things


as I am to not be around in body to see

when your consequences grind you up....








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

AN ALTERED REALITY?

an altered reality?

a new way forward?


bah! let those new age nincompoops

announce some new age...


all that can be seen

is old-school oppression


with bigoted greedy hate-filled reactionaries

doing their best to obstruct and destroy


being countered by smug

self-righteous progressive hypocrites


who think their "Stepford Wives" style

of social engineering is some kind of improvement...


the rest of us crushed between these two tyrannies...

the Spirit certainly has Its work cut out for It....








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

ESSENCES AND OUTCOMES II

once again you assholes

have to be told and


once again you assholes

will not get it...


deal with the Essences

and you will reach the roots


of all being...

deal with the material Outcomes


and you will be nothing more

than disposable waste left over


from the ruins of this world's falsity and fear...

and the mighty self-ignorance


that will always make has


of the Plan....




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

FOREVER

live as you would live for all eternity


loyal loving and true to all who'd join you

on the field of suffering mandated by heartless god


who are strong enough to forgive all (even God Itself)

for the misery that is the glory of nothingness


ignore all illusions of Authority (even God Itself)

you know right from wrong


and no one else could punish you your failures

as you can could do to you


let every evil illusion of life drain down into nothingness

and pity and mourn those who choose to go with it


if Love is all there really is

then you'll know soon enough your immortality


live as you would forever because you already are in eternity....





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

ALL ANY HAPPINESS CAN DO

all any happiness can do

is show you how unhappy

you really are


the Law running the universe

thinking only of its fulfillment

and not your atonement and surrender


and any repentance a fool's errand

to a heartless center of life that could care

less about our suffering


then let it be that way

let this Source of Life that demands obedience

while fucking up every attempt we make to rectify


but alone at the end of all creation

it'll serve this bastard right....






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

what gift is yours

is yours outright


ol' Frost told you as much...


but what word

of what poet or mystic or teacher


will make you believe it?







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

LEONARD? 80???

birthday blessings

on the indestructible Leonard Cohen


80 years young and more vital

than artists half (and more) his age


I've already lost a lot of juice

and I doubt I'll make it that far


but oh the man does

give one heart to proceed....







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

forgetting all I have been

to become what I am


there is no relying

on all that has come before...


all is different

all is the same


and we all have to choose

which way is the Way








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

this dark night of the soul

will soon be over


replaced by the joyous terror

of having made it to the dawn....







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

transcendence is no cakewalk

the Law sees to that


where our most muddled thinking

yields vision beyond thought


and where we are most lost and confused

is where the clarity comes through...


we are at the mercy of our own actions

which have ruled us beyond our own control....






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

where are the members of my new tribe?


they were supposed to meet me...

did they get lost


making the same mistakes I made?

or will they show up and meet me


when all false hope is lost?








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

lost in the haze


I panic

then realize I'm leaving


the world that scrambled my thinking

and sent me off on tangents


I wasn't meant to follow







Content (c) 2098-2014 Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

WHEN TOMORROW BECOMES TODAY

the mood is ruined

the day is shot


like garbage strewn

in a vacant lot


when tomorrow

becomes today


I'll bag the sorrow

and go another way....








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

...YOU HAVE A FOOL FOR A PATIENT

pick your drug

and die by it


medicine...sex...

gluttony...greed...vanity...


pick your drug

and die of it


so it is...

when you are your own doctor....






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

THE END OF ALL THINGS?

the end of all things

hasn't come yet

and no creature in creation

knows when...


so why think on it?

to try in vain to avoid the inevitable?

you can't avoid death any more

than you can evade life....






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

I tried to tell you

but you couldn't hear


of course you are deaf

and I mumble


but still....






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

SCOUR THE SUN

vain and ambitious

he tried to scour the sun...


there...there's where he fell...


where some campers on a tramp

are roasting marshmallows over his cindered remains


the ash benefitting  the earth

after all....






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

nothing will stop the will

except the consequences

of its own miscomprehension...










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

we know what our suffering

will lead to...


but what about

our happinesses?







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

see with your own eyes


and you see nothing

but the object of

your own attention








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

PEACE LIKE HOPE

peace

like hope

has a

brief season

in the

earth


so love fully

at long as you will






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

one day much like another


a groggy awakening

a tramp to the coffee shop

through the crisp cool morning

to read what's left of old-fashioned newspapers


and look at the day ahead

which is whether one in a series or my last one this life

the day ahead regardless....









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

I live in the world

it's hard to feel holy


especially if feeling

misleads and abuses the mind


I live in the world

with everyone else


and I smile and nod to those who do so

and the rest are another's business....







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

I don't care if you're blind or deaf

I don't care if you're selfish and cocksure

I don't care if you worry every move

I don't even care anymore for myself


I only know we will all reach our reckonings

that is all I know and still I don't care...


I mean really...

why if it is One greater than us who has the last word?








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

I shouldn't speak so boldly

about things at which

I can only guess


I have my faith

and that is all

and even it is not sure


of what awaits beyond this world


it too does not remember fully


but only has its faith

and the will to live to go on....






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

join me in some netherworld

it's not as frightening as all that


especially if you keep your wits

and know this phantasmagoria


to be witless souls

stumbling between worlds


not knowing it dark or trusting light

join me as we pass through....






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

NOW TO CHOOSE

I've done all I can

I'm waiting to see

how the future unfolds

and where we'll all be


the time has come

like it or not

to stand and deliver

or sit and be forgot


I quake beneath

my brave face

but break no sweat

for there's no other place


than here and now to choose

whether it's my soul to save or my body to lose






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

THE PATH TO THE DOOR

the path to the door

is paved with footprints


but once through the door

how clean and unmarked the trail









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

NO QUARTER

I gave no quarter

I was done blessing my enemies

as they trampled the goodness

that was plied in vain


maybe the Source Of Life

has something to say against this

but I don't give a damn any longer

for what goodness from respecting


the violent superstitions of the reactionary

and the sins of pride afflicting the progressive


I know nothing of righteousness

that charlatan's huckstering form

but I know when I've had enough

let the others slay themselves until they're sick of it....







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

GOOD FOR SOMETHIN'

I disappoint people so easily


they always expect from me

what is beyond my ability


they always attribute more to me

than I actually have


but then I there is much I can do

and all I have is prime


and they may take it or leave it as they choose








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

along the Way


foes have gone away

and friends have come to stay


and no matter what I say


it always comes to this

trying to figure which is which









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

it stands to reason


if all roads lead to Rome

all roads lead away from Rome as well...


got that you earless bastards?







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

how much hope

is dashed in the moment

of its forming


better to not hope at all

better to see your world

entire as it is


and live your joys and your sorrows

in the reality of their expiation








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

lay low as the world hunts you down

stay out from underfoot


it's always better to lose your pride

than to lose your life


to these monsters of all the cardinal sins








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

soft behind the brain

weak within the heart


this is all that's left

after you've played your part


and your failure leaves a stain

no grace's enough to remove


and your purpose finally bereft

of all the devotion you've had to prove








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

I sit with the penitents

we are indistinguishable


saying in one voice

"oh what a fool I've been"








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

what words pour out of me like this

pour out like salt

through a tear in the sack










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

day follows night follows day follows night


so much the worse

for the insomniac









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

I see your departure

as a good thing


no more excuses to dawdle

no more straining to fit things in


and no more evading

the paths we ourselves must take


and ending as happy as a fresh start

rejoice damn it rejoice you fool






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

follow your heart

embrace your dream


what bullshit


you've more important matters to tend to

than confusing your desire


with inconstant others


or chasing some illusion

at the expense of your path and your purpose







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

your brain is going...

I know it


you tell the same story

a dozen times


with no variations...

you do something and then


five minutes later

you'll do it again...


I feel for you old friend

our lively pasts


just a jumble of images

connected to nothing we recognize


but when that hard-working Reaper

comes to carry you off


may your confusion soften

the transition


and disappear on the

so-called 'other side'...


may death be as kind to me

when at last I face a wall


and talk to my dead father....






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

no matter how you go

there are always some twats who'll block you

and do you down to save

their own imaginary necks


yet despite the privations they'll cause you

stay clean and away from their games

you'll be in a good position

to watch them hang themselves






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

help that is no help

is just a part of life itself


from the fullness of the 'One'

down to the least of 'his'








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

you will deny

everything

you've ever done


but it won't work...

your face

will give you away....







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

you must be very happy

to be this careless

in front of those in pain


given the climate of violent madness

in the world these days

I suggest you keep a low profile


if you want to stay happy




Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip

that the sun shines

above the clouds

is scant consolation

when you're rain-soaked

and grounded






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

empty yes


but ready to be filled again

with all the crap


I emptied out...

I join the ranks


of all who find

their good intent


an exercise in futility....





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

peace beyond condition


eternal but


brief

and gone


once we

come to....







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

EMPTY AT LAST

empty at last

of all my will


I scribble this out of habit

or as the headless body

staggers on for a few more moments






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

do not mourn for broken friendships


it’s not that they were not meant to be

but because they were


that all had to come crashing down

as each side met themselves again


in the karmic clash of reckoning

and atonement…succeeding or failing


as understanding and integrity would have it

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

force nothing…


you cannot contain the flow

any more than you could contain


your own vanity….






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

I will forgive you

and curse the rest

I have no idea

what is for the best


but after I do

I’ll give up my trying

which is harder even

to do than dying




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

MY OWN DEVICES

left to my own devices

I'd as soon drift away

from the daily confusion

of invincible ignorance


not to escape any conditions

of earth but to view it

from a vantage of remorse

that all souls must feel


when they finally wise up

and know what good they manage

cannot be measured by the terms

we understand of loss and gain


left to my own devices

I'd just as well lay paralyzed under

a layer of oppressive sky


that would open up to some

impossible unknown we carry

within us despite our dangerous ignorance





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

rage pours out through my pores


withdrawal pains

from a change of heart and mind


a new view

that acts as an inoculation


against the harm of people

and the world as it is


flushing the soul and feeling

more sinful and lost as the pus of the past drains...


cold turkey for the spirit

that sees the world clearly


and cannot believe what it sees...

and the calm afterward when rage is emptied


and regret is bittersweet....





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

Useless to denounce the world

Horror from good intentions at cross-purposes
As hard as evil seeking
Its disruptive advantage

Unless you're into confession...don't bother...

Any who hear will be offended...
Will say "Who are you to say?"
When God has the last word anyway....




(Excerpted from Wails of the Wraecca: Book Eight: Last in Line With a Broken Cup; July 2, 2010)




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

A WORD ON DICK CHENEY

one of the most evil men on this planet since Hitler


we may rejoice that when this scumbag finally dies

his death will leave no void in creation


let that other Republican nazi bless him

the rest of us have had it with him...


(and those who support them can go join them in their hells....)








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

DYLAN BOOTLEGS #10 AND 11, AND LOST ON THE RIVER BESIDES

whatever smell of cash-grab this may have (thank you Sony)

this year seems to be a time of Dylan setting the record straight

on one of his most controversial and challenged periods...i.e.

the post-mid 60s era of Nashville Skyline

Self Portrait and New Morning


in this period we see for the first time how easily Dylan

could lose the thread of his artistic intentions (The Basement Tapes and John Wesley Harding

form a complete  and comprehensive distillation of his mid-60s

creative heights...it's after this that he makes the first return to the wellspring

of his artistic roots to recharge the creative batteries and find a way forward

from those creative and mystic heights achieved in Highway 61 Revisited

and Blonde on Blonde

and more than one astute listener has connected the dots to see

he did this against in the early 90s with Good As I Been To You and World Gone Wrong

to get to his late career renaissance...)


but think...Two!...2!...Bootlegs Series releases in one year...#10 giving us some of the released

material of Self Portrait stripped to their pure basic tracks with other previously unreleased

material (Thirsty Boots, Annies' Going To Sing Her Song) that showcases

some of his all-time best singing

followed mere months later by #11...at long last a complete authorized Basement Tapes

release...every last scrap of salvageable material preserved and presented entire

(originally wrested from Dylan by popular demand and for that reason left years

in the vaults by Dylan to spite these kibitzers who thought they knew better

an artist's works and his intents regarding his own works)


and with the New Basement Tapes Project curated by T-Bone Burnett coming out

concurrently (all these completed and near-completed Basement-era lyrics that Dylan

simply did not get around to setting to music)

you effectively have Dylan settling his creative business from that time

once and for all and restoring all this work to its rightful aesthetic place

in his canon...not so unusual since at age 73 Dylan's days of creating

are winding down no matter how vital he remains so setting things right makes perfect sense


and those cynics who insist on taking the 'cash-grab' view...remember...

Dylan often stated he thinks of himself as a tradesman...a working man

who should be paid his wage...forget how Sony chooses to present it...

and forget that you and yours think of him only as the genius to fill some void in your own lives...

he's a working man in the arts...and would you stand for criticism and meddling

about your own daily toil and its wage?


enough! it's been given Dylan to settle this work and finalize it ultimately

...and the benefit is to all of us going forward....





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

BIG FISH OH YEAH

big fish in a little pond

until even that puddle dries up


somewhere a greased skillet

is warming....








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can't reason with the proud

or the stupid


so don't...

you'll only fire up


your own vanity

and your own anger


will eat you

from the belly out....





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

AFRAID

I've made you afraid


don't be


dark as the night might be

bright as the day surely is


my rude laughter was meant

only to distract and amuse you


maybe even strengthen you

when your own stamina flagged


there's nothing out of the ordinary to fear

not even your own weakness


you'll know only afterward

when you've made it through


so if I've made you afraid forgive me...and don't be....






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

people mean well


and that alone

can unleash hell


when the help is not your own





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

LIKENESSES

suburbanites

are like

their rude rural

cousins


clannishness

back-stabbing insincerity

fear of the ever-dreaded 'other'


the only difference is money






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

ALONG FOR THE RIDE

the world's going to hell


take lots of water

and 5 billion sunblock


because it's taking us with it





Content (c) Philip Milito. All rights reserved.

THANKS FRIEND

God must be our friend


lifts no finger to help us

but is always ready to fuck us


and do us down...like so many we know....





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

DOVES OF PEACE

doves of peace

will not land here 

on earth

the atmosphere 

will never

be congenial

to their

gracefulness

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

SEALING THE PROCESS

the One will kill me

with my own death


teaching the dying body

it was too late


to care and always

futile to try


consequence

sealing the process


even with fresh life

beginning


to scream

out of the decay


every move was my doom

with the One steadfast and avenged








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

FINALLY ARRIVED

well...World War III has finally arrived...


no one wise enough to learn from the past

no one strong enough to change course


generation after generation making the same stupid mistakes

long deferred and long denied


World War III has finally arrive....







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

UNSTOPPABLE

changing your mind requires mighty strength


for you must prevail since the world never changes

and neither does the One


and no good comes of anything that requires

love and trust and faith in one's self


especially if it is weak enough to be pulled down

in Oneness by the slaves of mindlessness


more unstoppable than any strength of resistance








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

HAVING BEEN THERE

of course mystics and wise men

are cranky and contentious...


try being pleasant

after having a vision of heaven


or experiencing

an illuminated instant out of time


then coming back to the world

with its follies and its horrors









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

EMPTY AND FULL

empty to receive

empty to become full


full to be drained

full to be emptied


and the vessel does not know

what it thinks it knows


full of all it is not

empty of all it is





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

WITHDRAWAL

rage pours out through my pores


withdrawal pains

from a change of heart and mind


a new view

that acts as an inoculation


against the harm of people

and the world as it is


flushing the soul and feeling

more sinful and lost as the pus of the past drains...


cold turkey for the spirit

that sees the world clearly


and cannot believe what it sees...

and the calm afterward when rage is emptied


and regret is bittersweet....





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

DAILY THRONGS

irritable this morning


the daily throngs I've never loved

more onerous than usual


that mass illusion

we call 'humanity'


shoving every uncovered

spot on me


going out of their way

to harm in the name of self...


so it is a relief (somewhat) to find

the individual behind the routine mask


so I may judge for myself

whether they are real


in themselves or lost

in their outer visage


peek-a-boo you bastards are you worth

the trouble? am I? on this or any other morning....





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

SOUR OLD PREACHER

sour old preacher

has a hot box under wraps

persecutes the sins of others

while giving in to his own


preacher must be a Baptist

I've heard the story told


that when preacher came calling on a family

the father was obliged to tell his child


to go sit on his mother's lap






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

CALLING EVIL'S BLUFF

life may be dark and dangerous


but a lot of us endure

with joy and laughter


pushing the darkness

back up some demonic hole


that cringes and flees

unable to bear this more than


it could endure Scripture







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

MY OWN DEVICES

left to my own devices

I'd as soon drift away

from the daily confusion

of invincible ignorance


not to escape any conditions

of earth but to view it

from a vantage of remorse

that all souls must feel


when they finally wise up

and know what good they manage

cannot be measured by the terms

we understand of loss and gain


left to my own devices

I'd just as well lay paralyzed under

a layer of oppressive sky


that would open up to some

impossible unknown we carry

within us despite our dangerous ignorance






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

ON FIRE

I'm on fire


now I know what I want to say

and have said it

to the unresponsive void

that hears or not


a whole life misspent

and never knowing its worth

and now late (too late?) in the game

I wake up to my live spark in an ashen world


if one cannot hear one cannot listen

and if I cannot listen one cannot hear

we all hear only what we want to hear

and consequence will determine who was stamped out


and who remains on fire....






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

SHAMEFUL

I'm getting shameful


I use my lacks

to mock the insolent dreams

of people with no scruples


how much better than them am I

who waited for things to happen

and waited and waited as they happened


to equally shameful others?






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

TO A GIRL ON THE MAKE

kiss my nuts


it's been a while since

I misled an ambitious one


such as you

down a crooked path


to your own decline

but of course I'm talking shit


I was never that...and you may never be as you'd like....









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

THOSE WHO COVET WEALTH POWER AND FAME

...town mice

come to the capital


where trust fund cats wait

to gobble them up....







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

AUTHOR

as you like it

is how you'll get it


author of

your own fiction


and looking at the page

afterward without an idea


how it went down

or why the emptiness isn't filled....





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

HEARTS

hearts beat a different way

when they are truly real


and not negative

with the crushing of hope


either way

you go on living


but which way to go on

living is your choice....






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

EGO

what shadow moves with the sun

that it remains invisible

beneath the object of its making?






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

WORLDLY ESTATE

you were given a birthright

that you squandered on trivial things


these are your legacy

common pieces of a puzzle


that will elude assembly

even past your death


oh the trash your descendants

will inherit and make their own....








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

SCOPING PARADISE SENOR

one flies over the mesas

as if it mattered where one landed









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

IF THAT WERE REALLY SO

I may be leaving tomorrow

I may also be gone later today


it doesn't really matter to me

whose had his time and misses little of it


"as above so below"

if that were really so


that I might've missed more than I thought I did

though I loved with total heart the good my time had....





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

MAKE OF IT WHAT YOU WILL

what fresh start awaits

may only be the gathering

of a lifetime's efforts

toward what culmination and conclusion


that I will only comprehend

after the fact of my living


so thus the true worth of my endeavors

the authentic value for those who have received

the fruits of these efforts and affirmed their validity

is an incomplete consolation to me


who did the only thing I knew it in me to do

with value for me for the doing and value for those

who received the thing done...what fresh start may only seem

like a finish here for whose time is almost wholly past....





Content (c) 2008-2014 Philip Milito.

LONG ENOUGH

I've lived long enough to know it is futile

to talk or argue or commiserate or disdain anyone


each of us occupies a blighted spot

where our souls once thought a garden would grow


now the winter of our lives is upon us

and we rake the last leaves


and gather the last fallen twigs

and sink to freedom from our futility





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

ESSENCES AND OUTCOMES

I work from the Essence

I see the root of all distinctions and difference

that manifest as Outcomes


thus I am perpetually at war

with those proud earthbound fools

with see and work only in the Outcomes


thus reactionaries ignore the ongoing flux

and try to free all time and space

into a perfect static moment


while progressives honestly think they can change

human nature by imposing abstract theory

as if our innate proclivities could be legislated and changed


I am exhausted dealing with these fools

they (thank you so eternally much) make hell of the world






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

JERKS

the Mass Mind

ever condemns

anyone who thinks

for themselves


I think for myself

and am likewise done down

like Hosea and Isaiah

and Jeremiah before me


(as well as every other victim

of backyard fence or office slander

or barroom blowhard of gimp who thinks

his suffering qualifies him to spout)


you puddles of piss

pooling in the corners

of your cubicles

or the barroom or boardroom floors


go ahad and call us jerks

jerks tell the truth





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

IWA

Idiots With Attitude


this generation especially

more than previous ones


what's wrong with you sociopaths?

why did your parents and grandparents

have such a need to crank out more replications

of themselves than this world could bear?


didn't anyone ever once think of one word: sodomy?


beheading journalists in the eternal hell

of the psychotic Middle East

or a girl repeatedly stabbed by her friends

in the name of some fictional game character

share the same diseased pathology


drones with no proclivities for social interaction

working and living from inside their isolated psyches

and we must bless their anti-life endeavors?


thank you all inhuman bipeds for sharing your alienation

and thank you cogs in the wheels of business and finance

who want the wealth and the glory off someone else's back

as if this tyrant mode (the sureness sign of weakness) were a sure

way to power (and it is as long as other drones buy into it)

for enabling this hell to happen


(how easy to do without a mind or a heart)


thank you thank you thank you all

you IWA

for hunting me and mine down for not kowtowing

to your fever dream of a correct paradise


your consequences will never afflict you

soon enough to suit me









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

welcome to the apocalypse

you never thought would happen


even with the ravages to the earth

already becoming more manifest each minute


even with people dying in the wake

of this massive breakdown


you won't care until your end is upon you

and even then you'll die in your own evil and ignorance


welcome...and good-bye....






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

A RITUAL 2: TRANSFIGURED?

no ritual helps

if your heart isn't in it


wherever your heart is

it is always where it has to be


where is your heart

on its way to its own beating?


where is my heart

on its way out of its void?








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

A RITUAL

I wrote my grievance ("The Sadness")

on a slip of paper

and burned it up in a small bowl

(so the ashes would go to nourish the earth


after I'd left the burden behind me)

then I picked a stone

from a bowl full of stones

that had words for various


virtues and graces painted with

hearts on them...I picked "faith"...


now in this transforming void

ablaze with the intensity of my own penance

I become of what loss I'm relieved

and of what saving manifestation will manifest....





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

knowledge is a dangerous thing


it will empower you

or destroy you


according to your apprehension






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

IRONY IS A GIFT

"Irony is a gift God does not share lightly with His creation." - Anon.


God must love idiots

He made so many of them


                                                                     *





God must be gay

look at all

the assholes He's made


                                                                     *




God is a gangster

a thug a common criminal


no wonder the wicked prosper

while the good suffer


our worldly powermongers

are simply playing at being God


while He looks the other way...

you'd think the Only Power there is


would be sweeter about things

but the evidence is overwhelmingly contra


Lord Acton was right

absolute power corrupts absolutely


and what have we poor twats to do

but suffer and grimace...?


                                                                   *


God! ya gotta love 'im....






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

perfection means

no elbow room





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

no desire

is best


no desire

opens you up


to everything

and beggars even


an inadequate description such as "best"






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

free of description


our angels work

to awaken us


from the falsity of naming them





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

METAPHYSICS 101

empty

I wait for

what will fill me


but it is not quite

as promised...

empty is not filled


with a grace that sustains...

it is just empty

and what you fill it with


is just as empty...

anything you can imagine

is not the Ineffable "It"


empty I wait and

for what I wait is empty....





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

my soul is a kite

playing in the wind


while anchored to

the very remorse


that sent me aloft...

wired between  the heavens


and the steadfast earth

my kite traces nothing in the sky....





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

outside the zone


everything resembles

everything else


it befuddles your anger

it salves your remorse


and makes you long for boundaries

that could hide you from your strength


but not forever of course






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

RELATIVE VALUE

for a farmer


turds are worth

more than gold






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