OUR LOVE

love sees each of us

hurt in our desire

our well-meaning hope

disappointed


in the light going out

of the innocent smile

that fades so quickly

and the irreparable moment of hurting


a mark that little will remove


oh every every every fear hurting

oh every every hope hurting

is there anything in love


that doesn't hurt beyond bearing?

is there anything in love that will heal the hurt?








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

the tyranny of numbers


the precision of every form

the solidity of matter

the order of every morphing from form to form

from state to state


this is the floor that holds the heavens

above it in acquiescence to the swirl of energy


wiping out and re-forming the matter in which we are tempered







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

A FOOL'S COMFORT

longing is a fool's comfort


if you lost what you had

it wasn't yours to begin with...


and wanting it after it's lost

is the sign of a romantic's madness...


worship the effete artist who resembles your own

idea of power and glory...you are fool enough to suffer


and fool enough to cling to an imaginary salvation....








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

DIVINE DOC

crushed beneath the weight of my mistakes

I'm left to wonder how long atonement takes


or even if it is at all a reality to have

or whether there is a forgiveness that is a healing salve


I am at the mercy of the divine doc

who's busy cutting off my cock


to cure me of trying much too hard to make

amends of which only vengeance could cause you ache














Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

EMPTY

empty pockets

empty mind


empty heart

empty soul


empty emptiness

empty nothingness


empty failure

empty love








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

PETTY TYRANT

you stand there mocking me


please don't let me keep you

from more important things


you have enemies to punish

you have friends you must abuse


you have worlds to demolish

you have souls to destroy


and none more so than your own








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

the worst thing when love dies

is that life goes on

and you remember

all the happiness as pain

ands see all the emptiness

as the life you lived deluded

even if you aren't crushed for this

and can grow

still will you grow slower

hobbled by the new increment

in the plasmic design

all this heartache our common wound

and nobody knows yet how to silence the when

of vanity and listen to the vacant now of stillness

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.                                    

it is running late

for somebody


while another may be

right on time


I await my destination

like I wait to waken from a dream








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

A TRUTH

all answers are where you find them


do not impose your need or manipulate

their actuality


take them or leave them or rephrase your question









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

my end could come at any time

and any time's none too soon


after a while grace is exhausted

luck runs out


and time is up

and you will rage over


all your failures or be grateful

to be done with the shit


my end could come at any time

and for me it's no problem






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

do you expect me to jump up and down?


do you expect me to go on honoring your panic

while nothing more threatens than our own mortality?


how hard your struggle to always be right

how sad your need to control


and how foolish my own weakness and stupidity

for signing on with the deluded notion


that anything could be fixed








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

all this bravado may do no good


do the right thing and it still won't be good enough

to please the One or gain any forgiveness


so hard to face the fact that the source of life

is an unforgiving asshole


but if our amendments and atonements and repentances

are truly on us then let us do without self-consciousness


let us do them purely and then see how true God really is






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I have no tears for the past anymore


only for the consequences visiting me now

when the universe demands its moral balance


and the horseshit of cause and effect

demands karmic debt paid on the one hand


or Newton's equal but opposite reaction on the other

let the petty count costs and the assholes judge and mete punishment


fuck the source of life...we're either free or we're nothing....







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

how prevail against a god

who is evil as such

with demands for obedience

in return for no mercy on our stumblings?


easily

just do what you know is right


if God has a problem with that

then let the psychotic maniac be alone


at the culmination of creation

let the gangster rule spineless archangels


and the non-entities to afraid to live

and let them have His vengeance


no matter what your sufferings

do right and let God suffer His own vanity






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

time rolls over the past

like fallen leaves

blow over a grave


sad the spirit

looking down on

the misspent life


sadder still

its inevitability


the rest is up to God now

the rest is peace of ego's passing






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

the romantic hero

has finally suicided


on the illusion

of his grand notion


of leading people

to their salvations


totally bereft when it came

to managing his own









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

sorrow never ends in the earth


and joy is an illusion

that strengthens us to continue


unreal in either or any case








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THE JUDGMENT AT LAST

the judgement has been made

I pay with all I've got

and all good intent was as nothing

for the expected forgiveness was not


to be had and foolish to pursue

this is how faith makes a fool of you

deluded in some right-brained belief

that as malignant as it is untrue


you cannot save yourself without

losing all you wish to hold

that alone will do you in as you watch

your delusion gather over your head to fold


judgement comes from the process you live

if you can lose yourself and deign to forgive






Content (c) 20082-105 Philip Milito.

in this instant of dislocation

no before

no after


I find my place

just as

the moment of my absence


dissolves

to find me here







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I'm at a loss to say anymore

some new thing rises before me


and it may be no different

than what came before


or it may be so utterly fresh

I won't know what to make of it


I hope it's the latter

I'm so tired of being right about all the bad stuff






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I rest by the roadside

the sun tritely blazing


boy am I tired

man am I cooked


I cool my head under a spigot

by this truck stop parking lot


and decide to wait until later

to resume my way








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

A SMALL LINK IN THE CHAIN

the work will never be finished

as long as creation endures


and we must be content with

the little share our efforts make









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

DECORATIONS FOR BRAVERY

the rest of the way is going to be rough

there's no denying


my feet have stopped bleeding

the welts across my chest and back


are crusted and almost black


these calluses and these scars

are emblems of my strength going down

that rough rest of the way






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

POWER PLAY

in the grip of creation's duality

in the earth we are faced with two tyrannies


the reactionary tendency to freeze life

in some static vision of an imagined perfection


excluding all but the likes who adhere

to such a soul-destroying stasis


and the smug self-serving progressive action

of imposing a fantasy of conformity


as if enlightenment were a fiat accompli

to be followed on pain of rejection for our individuality


and since our worldly state is to grapple with these conditions

how can any of us really know


which adherent of which tendency will be

the enemy we face today?






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

BUSY CROWD

all souls

criss-cross each other


the ones in bodies

you must beg your pardon


when you bump into them

while the disincarnate


pass through us never minding

the non-intrusion







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

TREES AND BIRDS

how strange to see

the empty morning streets

of deep summer


giving a sheen

to the leaves of the trees

as birds sing out


to each other

like white noise in a trance








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

waking up to Reality


I've never felt

so alone


or so alive








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

SUSPENDED

somehow I'm to find the strength

to travel some soul's path into infinity


but if all is here and now eternally

then why do I feel so tired?


for every unmerciful judgment weighed against us

there's allegedly a mercy embedded somehow


while I hang suspended between knowledge and ignorance

choosing a way that I'm already on....






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

what will the clowns do today?

what mischief will these miscreants manage?


as Biff Rose once put it

it's kind of pretentious to charge money for a performance


when you get a better show in the street for free






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

TAKE YOUR AIM

take your aim at God…but if you miss

run like the devil….

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

FULL STOP

dead end…full stop…the One gouges your price out of you…then leaves you to die…

the pre-condition to live….

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

CASCADES OF CACA

aren't you glad

some much shit

is happening to others?


you fool!

you're doing it wrong


or is this how you ignore

the cascades of caca

reigning down on you?






Content 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

PSALMS FOR SELF-AWAKENING

psalms should be lamentations to God…but awakening on some level…to some degree to God’s Reality…I see now what empty meaningless fluff this is…

better to talk to yourself to strengthen the spirit than die mumbling to an empty sky….

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

OUTWARD BOUND

waiting for my eyes to close


I see everything I've been

alive in one eternal moment


enough ego has finally been

effaced for a view into the lived life


to see what was fair or foul

and to be ready to accept it as such


waiting for my spirit eyes to open fully







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

SHADOW OF YOUR DOUBT

love is brief and weak


but as powerful as granite

in the hearts of those who embrace it


you could do far worse

than to try it


it might upset your notions

of yourself even while you live


in the shadow of your doubt







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THE PAIN OF WHAT WE CALL LOVE

lady I tried but could not get over

I thought what I spoke of is plain

I thought what I saw was evident to all

but no one else did and I couldn't explain


each live is its own universe

and we've lost the gift of relating

and for the few that do at sufferance

they're bewildered to no abating


lady I tried to love you

but there was so much you'd none of

you are going away with all the others

leaving only the pain of what we called love


and since that is the way it is I quote the man who said

"so lady I'm going too"






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

IT CONTINUES

looking at the young'uns

at a low hum of desire

that is merely the dying animal

facing his end


I see that their beauty

a match to all carnal dynamite

is but a sputtering to me


they might as well be my grand nieces....






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

HANGING

hanging in the usual hell


it dawns on me

I should not curse the One


I've been tired of life in the earth

for so long and wanting to remember


what I did to deserve all this misery

that maybe I should show gratitude


this slow painful death is God's way of answering my prayer






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

FACE DOWN IN THE JUDGMENT?

so when the heavens themselves go berserk

and the god is a raving vengeful maniac


there is nothing to do but endure it

and either survive it with nothing left of your own


or you die of it never knowing its worth


God is not love

but should we even endure


would it matter face down in the judgment?









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I'm poking my way

up through the ice


they thought I was a throw-back

but I'm the first of my kind


coming up to the ice

and pressing my face


against your ass as you sit there

taking measurements you can't figure out







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

MIDDLE OF JULY...WHAT DID YOU EXPECT?

I'm not anywhere yet...


I tried going out this morning

and felt like the soles of my feet

were peeling off onto the pavement


upper 90s...temperature and humidity

through the city wide sauna

and no relief in the shade...


let life come to me this morning...


if life itself feels the same way

we'll have peace today


everyone and everything too hot to bother







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

GROWING JOY

I've given enough

just to stay upright


but my decline

confirms my completion


and but for a little

wistful sorrow


it's a growing joy to be done

with the futility of the world







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

RISK

anyone putting

his spiritual money

where his mouth is


runs the risk

of shortchanging

himself


especially standing for more

than he could bear to lose










Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I think very little now


no need to think

when I know


and knowing

what I see


I think I'd better flee

no time to think


when on the run from the world










Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

HOW TRUE A FOOL

how true a fool

to think to the end

he can set things right

and make amends


but if thought is otherwise

then what can be done

but throw up hands and say

"alright Lord You've won!"









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

MERCY IS A HARD THING

mercy is a hard thing to define

let alone experience


the tough love of the One

is as inexorable as the processes that power


this material creation...

and if love is nothing more


than the power to endure this endless horror

then I better find some quick....






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THE GROUNDS OF OUR PLAYING

each of us has our path to follow

and each of us suffers accordingly


but being in this all together

at least we won't lack for company








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

DON'T LOVE IT

I don't love being the fool


but every time I try to set things right

the Universe gets in the way


why am I even bothering if the outcome is beyond my control?






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

VISION OR HALLUCINATION?

I look into the thunderheads

and imagine I'm seeing the


Vortex of Creation bearing down

on us


but let's be real

if this is even the merest representation of that process


what is it but my illusion presuming to know

what the actuality truly is








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

LOVE IMAGINED

love imagined

fades from the mind


and settles in the joints

and the heart


and the soul

such a done thing


that you wonder

what it is keeping you going





Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

LOSE THE NEED

sometimes

you get so tired

that you lose the need

for sleep


and trudge on

numb in your limbs

and your eyes

full of your dream








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

FOREWARNED ISN'T QUITE FOREARMED

I wish I could put my dick

in every hole of every woman I see...


old goat going berserk

in the face of age and its diminishing power?


no...just the animal bodies we inhabit

roaring out its defiance at the closing of its time


the last desperate urges of nature firing off

as the soul prepares to leave....









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

LOVE'S PERFECTION, EH?

love's perfection

is only in the mind


if one accedes to it

and the other doesn't


well why hold a grudge?

if the other is too cowardly


to break fast to face

then it's on them even if the whole


cowardly disrespect affects every other soul

in creation


this is how one heartbreak can shift

the way for all of us


the sin of selfishness in the other

affecting all the struggling down the chain of being







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

KISS-OFF

now that you've kissed me off

I feel a little cleaner...

could it be I saw through you the whole time

or just don't care anymore about anything?

like for you the 'not-too-deep' serves us well

each wringing the other dry then parting with a 'thanks'...


however all things good and bad come

ultimately to some smooth break or messy end

but it's always so much easier when your heart isn't in it...

balls to bitches mouth it is not a total plan of domination

and not how the thought that someone's getting serious

really can go now...the excuse rendered not face to face but

done at a distance...sweet lays...coward....









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

METAPHYSICAL POKER

the next moment

will show the face card

your royal flush

or your mere one-of-a-kind


if you're stupid you'll bet the farm

and wish you hadn't

if you're smart you'll stand back

a little and either fold or shoot it


no matter what you do

it's on you to do it

listen (you're told yet again) to your

inner voice if it bids you to fold


but if it tells you to bid do it

knowing your three-of-a-kind will blow out the pair









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

no commitment

to living your life

more authentically

will make the way any easier


the world will always be

the same old hell it is

it's up to you to be

a brand new you to keep firm on that way








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

A BLESSING ON REALITY

my love is warm

and so is my heart


may the One affirm

us as we start









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

ROOM FOR EVERYONE

men are men

and women are women


but I stand with all

who fall in-between









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

RARE ENOUGH

blessed (or just an extraordinarily

good) morning

with the sun slowly growing

as it slips over the horizon

and its copper light 

slants horizontal 

onto the building across the street

yeah that's all that's happening right now

and all that needs to happen right now

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

A HOIST FOR JEFF LYNNE AND ELO RE: ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME

Isn't it about time Jeff Lynne got his just due from the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame, if it has any cred at all? ELO has suffered from lazy critical thinking (not even critics, but REVIEWERS!) who are intent to keep them tied to their Beatle et al influences...at its core, ELO had its own unique, distinctive original one-of-a-kind sound in itself (I could provide a list of unique, 'pure' ELO songs, beholden to no one else, if required to do so!) and his musical innovations in arrangements, and the production to realize them expand, fulfill and ultimately dispense with the notion that Lynne's contribution to popular music is merely adding a string section to a working R 'n' R band
but it goes beyond that...his 80s and 90s production work is known and widely hailed...Harrison, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, Del Shannon (remember him?) the Wilburys, his work with the Beatles on the 1995 Anthology record..He let the artist have his voice, but his production was so distinctive and unmistakenly Lynne, you've have to be deaf or have a tin ear to miss it...Jeff Lynne has one of the strongest, most distinctive artistic identities in all popular music, and it's way past time he got his due...






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

YOU HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO KEEP MOVING

to carry the weight of infinity

in every movement of grace


manageable in the world

this lowest level of cosmic energy


solidified into brute matter

I now know


is more than I can manage

worshipping my wounds with every attempt


to heal and leave it be


I guess I'm nowhere near that yet

and why fret a future that has yet to arrive


and bound myself with worry for an unchangeable past


when the here and now is heavy enough with all

we would amend but for the One's unforgiving vengeance?








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

JUST WHAT DO YOU NOT GET?

people think I'm talking about

some ethereal beyond vs. some earthbound here and now


do they still not realize there is only One Reality

and that as above so below...always here and now?







Content 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

NECESSARY FALL

happy with how everything is?


I wish I could share your blindness


I know more than I can handle

and I'm paying in spades


for stumbling over the acceptable line

to take on more weight than I can lift


the One's lack of mercy and forgiveness most evident there


in the place of my necessary fall








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

HEARTS

hearts

huge as joy


burst with joy

once the skin falls away


and no matter what we face

going (as we say) 'forward'


hearts at peace

with the end of this unending worldly grief










Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

JUDGMENT ALL THE WAY

like Jesus braying on the cross

"Father why has Thou forsaken me?"


I am feeling crucified myself


life at a dead stop

no move possible

no action coming to anything


just roiling in the consequences

no amends or repentances or atonements

are enough to mitigate


or to draw down grace of any kind


done in the world with nothing else to do

but endure this grief and await


what release will resurrect what remains

of the broken soul








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

WHAT CAN BE SAID? HERE YOU ALWAYS STILL ARE

I made it...through something...


have no idea what

since all my speculation is just


another county heard from...

but as I awaken anew


I feel a seeking of harmony

much like a dog howling


after a fire engine's siren









Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

HERE YOU ALWAYS ARE

out of Blinding Light


come the wispy pure patterns

of Thought that underlay


all the forms of creation

until they solidify


into the structures of

the lowest form of energy


into which I have reawakened







 Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

WHAT WE CALL 'IT'

blackness

nothingness

no awareness

no consciousness


but a throbbing ruby light


from which

consciousness

awareness

shapes forming out of nothing


to glow in lightening shades of black


growing in shade to brighter

to light

to Light

to LIGHT







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THE BLACK HOLE THAT IS GOD

the black hole that is God


absorbs all back into itself


of necessity we sometimes skirt

the event horizon


but it is mindless heartless process

that allows nothing you cherish to endure


to live you must die


but reborn as what new increment to

what heinous eternal process?






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

CONTRITION ENDLESSLY

merciless life

rules the roost

runs the game

shits on you


endless strife

its eternal truth

and only shame

gets you through








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

CATHEDRAL TREES

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

you do not have the last word on anything


you make your move

and hold onto your butt


and whether you land on your feet or not

is the only control you possess


the rest is the churning of Immanent Will

subsuming your last utterance along with you


into the resolution you cannot evade








Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

I don't dare waste any time


life is precious

and short enough


to flee a bore

or a contentious love


and if someone finds

this amusing


let them keep their humor


when it's their turn to turn....

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

HOW WE DID THINGS

when the grid finally goes down


we'll return to how we did things

before technology did our thinking


and doing for us

but for those young enough


to have not known this way

oh what dangerous pains-in-the-ass


these will be....








Content 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

THE PROCESS OF GRACE

the offense engenders the curse

which in turn calls forth the evil

which enforces the harm

and enchains the pain


which cries out for mercy

which draws forth the conscience

to ponder consequence

which leads to examining the soul


which calls for forgiveness

which in being granted unseals grace

which washes clean and medicates the wound

which allows the healing


which is the stance of gratitude

which precedes the blessing






Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

WHAT WILL COME

Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

life is active and ongoing

say the clairvoyants


to which I say

yeah just like hell







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.

NOT ALL CREDOS ARE CRED

she proselytizes for a positive attitude


as if dawn mattered

to an eternal morning







Content (c) 2008-2015 Philip Milito.