as if a starting gun were fired

some new race is placed before us to be run 

with patience

and panic--

growing aware of plenty of no time left

to get to where we always are--

                  here in these limited skins

that'll groan and bear full weight of the terrible consciousness

of the actual grinding of universal process

                                                                           crushing

the bones that bear the flesh that envelope the organs that pump

the elemental sustenance

through the corporal body

that holds the mind and awareness

that this is us and all we do--

                                                   on every level through

each dimension--

we are always here in Creation

the Universe finishing and restarting

in each instant of our lamentable notion of linear time--

so here in the echo of the fired shot

here the course opens

and here we go

                            not moving a muscle--

no need to--

we are where we're going

patient because we're already there-- 

in a panic because

in these skins

we don't quite recall 

where that is

 

                                            Content (c) 2008-2009 Philip Milito.

the saga continues

the struggle goes on--

heroism built

on a heap of cliches

                                                                             *

you will not miss me

in the fulfillment of your need

as my absence will provide it--

                                                                             *

mastery of small things

turns the vast actualities of process

man the initiate

biting a nail

                                                                            *

the Gold of Love

from the dross of bewilderment--

each of us

in that translation of divinity

                                                                           *

                                                  Contents (c) 2008-2009 Philip Milito.

maintain your mystique

if you wish to speak

of mysteries defied

and of aspirations denied

call from behind a veil

and explain the quester's tale

to the quester so he won't roam

a path that is not his own--

better still don't be weak--

don't even bother to speak

but hide so you won't show

just how little you yourself know

                                          

                                       Content (c) 2008-2009 Philip Milito.

no expectations means no hurt

no hurt means no experience

no experience encourages expectations

which brings hurt 

which brings experience

which teaches 

no expectations...

                                                                           *

my ears hurt when you start yowling

it's like you floss with barbed wire

no one to silence you

my ears are too busy bleeding

and I imagine Hell quite easily---

                                                                           *

awakening from a dream

into another one

and awakening from that one

into yet another one

which awakens from that yet another one

into yet yet another one

and so on....

awakening dream into dream

endless chain like facing mirrors

one into the next

into the next...

as if I were sleepwalking

and calling myself alive..

                                                                            *

hoisted petards

like statue pedestals

by our acts we are known

by our legends overblown

I wouldn't have bothered

if I had known

I'd be leaving memories of me with others

that do not resemble me at all

but that they saw in an objectivity

incomprehensible to me

         

                                                 Content (c) 2008-2009 Philip Milito.

I've been saying good-bye

to the earth

for most of my life...

I mean

you never know

when one of those 

good-byes

will take...

                                                                             *

like Shiva--

when you awaken

worlds will end...

                                                                             *

thoughts

should never

be confused with

Thought--

                                                                         *

my entire life

right before my eyes--

all I've looked at

all this time

such as time is--

such as Life be--

                                                                            *

the Ineffable

invisibly reveals itself

so brilliant

beyond our eye's capacity

that all we can do

is look

and see nothing but what

our eyes believe--

     the Ineffable

supporting all

that is and isn't--

there--nothing to it--

nothing to it

at all---

                                   Content (c) 2008-2009 Philip Milito.

I 

saw

little 

to

be

afraid

of

that

is

how 

fate

gets

you

as

ever

it 

is

what

you

do

not

see 

that

snares

you

tired

of

being

blind

for 

the 

sake

of

your

vision

                             Contents (c) 2008-2009 Philip Milito.

42 years ago today

I first put pen to paper

in earnest to write poems--

a 14-year-old bedroom visionary

who felt some urge

and thought he had something to say

even if he had no idea what it was--

for years--decades--afterward

I scribbled and scribbled

slowly but surely

replacing daily living

with these mounds of blackened paper--

now--with some things said

(and said over and over)

I've run out of different ways of saying

and the daily living I disdained

is all that remains for now--that 

mounds of blackened paper--

blackened with words

few have read and even more had heard

but no difference to me nor that fugitive audience

nor the teetering world at large--

words preserved on the Akasha--if nothing else--

but in their tangible material form

not all that likely to survive whatever cataclysm awaits--

I know none of this for sure--"what endures what perishes"--

I've read Plutarch's History of Horseshit

and though Runyon says the odds are always

six to five against--considering the way of the world

they might as well be even--

so here they are--preserved in some eternity

along with everything else--

for whoever will or will not

receive---

                                Content (c) 2008-2009 Philip Milito.