Free Speech

Learning Line

Learning Line

He talked with divine surety

his words soaked

with disdain all the while

He appeared to view

every home as a foxhole,

with hoards of beady

black eyed foreigners

evil from across the big waters

waiting to do us all in

He was the kind of guy

you despair talking to

after the first four sentences

Just then my wife called

saying that it was time

to go on an errand

and so, as the ignorance

in his words dripped

off my computer screen

I left him behind

and walked outside

It was a stormy sky

just before sunset

To the west, the sun shone,

a hopeful bright orb

swimming slowly down

to bed behind the mountains

for the night

Clouds above us hung

as a haphazard masterpiece

with broad stokes

of whites and grays

The air all around

sang in joy with shades of gold

while off to the southwest

the sky was very dark in the throws

of a August evening thundershower

After the toxic conversation

I had been having online

the beauty of the evening

was like stepping

into a fresh cascading shower

after trying to fix

a troublesome, old truck

greasy and broken

Struck suddenly breathless

at the beauty all around us,

I looked up at the sky

and thought of a remark

I heard the other day,

“Some live in heaven.

Some live in hell.

Same place.”

Never so much a matter

of at what you're looking

ever more the matter

of where you stand

most of what we each perceive

is of our own making

We all have a long, knotted

learning line to tow

unique to each and every one

Tasked with undoing knots

we each must puzzle

with our own fears and ignorance

until we realize

what we think we battle

is largely a reflection

of ourselves

Until you've walked

in the shoes of another man

and you've felt the weight

of the tow line he carries

it is better to let him struggle

with his own views in his own manner

without judging him to harshly

Remember, the more you know,

the more you are willing to forgive

The more ugly faces you see

when you look

at your fellow humans

the more likely it is

your own fears and ignorance

are what is back looking at you

Dewey Dirks

Men of Peace

Woven

The Questioning Way

The Questioning Way

Curious,

question all

you think you know

and find

you find more

by asking questions

than by

asking answers.

Curious,

touch

the dark night sky

and find a lilting song

in your own soul.

Curious,

touch

the sun and moon

and begin to see

the beauty

hidden in the silence

between all things.

Curious,

touch deep

the green hills

and Mother Earth soil

find strength

and equality

in yourself

and in the world.

Curious,

wander

the long road home

and find

paradise is a way

of travel.

Dewey Dirks

School

School

We were out by our pool

barbequing hamburgers

and hotdogs

at the last family party

before the start

of fall semester at college.

...First he held his hands

high above his head

and happily explained,

“I'm empty clear up to the sky!”

Then he studied the grill

very seriously and asked,

“Where does it go to school?”

I glanced back at him and chuckled,

“Grills don't go to school, budro.”

Now he looked puzzled,

“But where did it learn to color

the hotdogs all red

and the hamburgers brown?”

Then I knew

at four years old

and three feet tall

he had much greater stature

than I could hope for

when it came to seeing

wonder and mystery.

And I realized

that for me at least

college had started

a week early.

Dewey Dirks

Everyone Is

Everyone Is

Everyone is a fool

For at least

Five minutes a day

The trick

Is to try to keep it down

To just five minutes

Everyone can be as wise

As hope

And human wisdom

Know how to be

For at least

Five minutes a day

Consider yourself

A resounding success

If you can

Get it up to ten

Dewey Dirks

Storms

Storms

Mayhem thunders

through our lives

like a hurricane

terrible in its violence

but temporary.

Confusion and ignorance

are more insidious

They hide the truth

in our souls

like a thick fog

lifting only

after the winds

of change and knowing

wash it away.

Confusion, ignorance

and mayhem

are tied together

in that it often takes

the storm that is mayhem

to clear away the fog that

is confusion and ignorance

and the storm often grows

out of the fog bringing its

own demise.

Peace is mans natural state

so common in our lives

that we often

hardly notice the calm

focused as we often are

looking for storm clouds

on the horizon.

It is the bane

of our civilization

that our institutions

and entertainment

have become instruments

of the oppressive

endlessly trying fool

us into believing

we should fear

our brother and sister humans

Remember, my friends

Governments that oppress

the societies they serve

are themselves storms

and like all mayhem

cannot long last.

Dewey Dirks

Morning Coffee

Monday Morning Coffee

Eight am and it's

morning coffee

at down the bar.

Today I met

someone new.

Many, many years

separated us

but we found

much in common

talking about

San Francisco,

her seven year old son,

the latest iPhone troubles,

and my drinking days

thirty-five years past.

Back at home

I looked over

my Facebook stream

---wise words from

Teddy Roosevelt

and Buddha---

Political jokes

and pictures

of tigers and fawns.

Never to walk under

the same blue sky twice,

Each day,

a fresh life.

So long

as you have breath

to breathe

never too old

to learn

something new.

Dewey Dirks