Justice

Justice

I think the justice of the Universe

Is found in that in the end,

Everything is made useful

No loss so tragic

That from it cannot spring hope

No sorrow furrowed so deep

That from it cannot grow gentleness

No scar so ugly

That from it a light does not shine

No human with imperfections so uneven

That from them

Cannot birth his humanity

Dewey Dirks

Bravest Woman

Bravest Woman

I am a working woman

with children almost grown.

I'm nearly fifty.

I hope I still have a pretty face.

My husband died almost three years ago.

One cold winter day

a old man shot him dead

through our kitchen window.

He was the father of a thirty year old woman

and he thought my husband

was having an affair with his daughter

down at the bar where he used to go.

Life isn't fair sometimes.

Oh God I loved my husband so much.

We were married nearly twenty years.

Lord God he used to like to talk

to people down at the bar.

He used to like to talk

to that woman down there.

He'd go down there and sit, I know.

Lord God he used to like to talk.

I stumble through each day.

I cry through through every night.

Sometimes I think I'm a broken woman.

Sometimes I think I'm broken.

I don't know how I'll go on.

But there's bills and bills

I've got to pay.

A home that needs cleaning

and dishes to wash.

Children who need lots of love.

Children who need advice.

And a house with a hole in the window

that needs to be sold.

How can I go on without my husband?

I don't know if I can carry the weight alone.

Lord God, I'm so alone.

I miss his voice.

He used to like to talk.

Oh God he used to like to talk.

He visits me in my dreams at night

He cuddles me tightly. He kisses me softly.

He used to tell me,

“Jessie, you're the bravest woman I've ever known.”

Now I hear him in the night softly say,

“Don't miss me, please don't miss me.

I'm here with you now. Don't miss me.

Jessie you're the bravest woman

I've ever known.”

I get so mad at him.

Lord God, he used to like to talk.

Liked to talk to the pretty young women.

Liked to talk to everyone.

Now he visits me in my dreams at night

He cuddles me tightly. He kisses me softly.

He says, “Jessie don't miss me.

You're the bravest woman I've ever known.

If you fall down, I'll help you up again.

I'll help you up.”

Lord God I miss my husband

He used to say,

“Jessie, you're the bravest woman

I've ever known.”

Last night I dreamed of a great river

with a boat to carry me across.

On the river bank my husband was standing

I walked up to him and he kissed me

He said, “Jessie life is kinder than you think

Every night in dreams you don't remember

You travel to another land.

There you and I are young again

And together we sit and talk and laugh

drinking iced tea

beside a great cypress tree.

When your days here are done

to that distant shore you'll travel

and if you still want me

I promise I'll meet you once again

beside that tree.

Jessie, oh Jessie

You are the bravest woman I've ever known.

And the love we feel for each other

is that cypress tree we meet under each night

with roots so strong it will never know death.“

Dewey Dirks

Find

Find

Why spend your time

Trying to figure out

Something so grand as God

When you're not even sure

What life it is that flows

In your own veins.

You'll likely spend many lifetimes

Just discovering yourself

If you want to find yourself

Look to Nature

Because in it are pieces of you

If you want to find Nature

Look inside because there are

Pieces of it in you

Remember, any inquiry

Is a good one

So long as your quest is sincere

Dewey Dirks

Dreams

Dreams

If you have a dream in life

If you strive for success in what you do

Sometimes the biggest obstacle

to achieving what you want to is you

Sometimes you fear that you're not good enough

to ever be successful

Sometimes you fear success

will tear you away from your loved ones

Sometimes you fear you're too messed up

to be ever be successful

Sometimes you fear if you find success

everyone will be out to get you

Remember success is not about

writing a perfect book

painting a perfect painting

singing a perfect song

or making a lot of money

What success is really about

is taking your life by the hand

and walking into a bright new day

Where what you believe in

is you

Dewey Dirks

HAppy Thanksgiving

Airs

Airs

I think everyone has an air about them

A feeling that they give away to others

Like ripples expanding out from a pebble

Dropped into a pond

My wife felt like the strings on a guitar

Tightly strung and full of energy

Able to make the most beautiful

Music for your soul

She had great power all scrunched up

In her tiny frame,

Like the massive energy of a brilliant, bright sun

All packed into tiny hydrogen atoms

You are like a summer afternoon for two

Out on a quiet beach---

Hills with yellow flowers

And green grass off to the north

Leading down to a white blanket of sand

As the ocean blue rolls in with the great rhythm of life

When you laugh and smile it's like a school of dolphins

Coming up near the shore to jump and play in the water

Blowing bubble-rings for each other.

You have great power too---

I don't know from where it comes

But it is like a soft breeze out there on the beach

Able to sway time itself with a secret, whispering song

Dewey Dirks

Give it a Whirl

Give it a Whirl

Now, I don't know

If I can change the world

But I'll tell you this---

I'm gonna give it a whirl

My friends, forget about

Whether you might or might not

Make a difference

Just do what's right,

Do the best you can,

Be yourself,

Be the best one of you that you can

And the rest will take care of itself

On your long journeys,

If you happen to help

Just one other,

That is enough

Am I gonna change the world?

I don't know,

But I'm giving it a whirl

Dewey Dirks

Turning Your Way

Turning Your Way

If you stop for a while

All the striving and fixing

And scamming

And trying so hard

To get life to turn your way

And just look and listen

And touch what is around you

With your heart and soul

You will find

Life turning your way

And if you look into the past

Touching what is there

With your heart and soul

You will find

Life has long been

Turning your way

Dewey Dirks

Thank Life

Thank Life

This life we each breathe...

So much to see

feel and experience

in everyday life

that can be called

nothing besides miraculous

very small, large and in between

A wise man once said

there are only two ways

to look at life---

as though nothing

is a miracle

or as though

everything is a miracle

I've tried both,

and have to say

I seem to notice more of life

when I look for miracles

They say

if you are living your life

as you should,

you'll be swimming

in a sea of coincidence

From where do they all come?

Some say God puts them there

Some say we ourselves

put them there

simply by noticing....

So, I stand on brown earth

and green grass,

look up at stars each night

or the bright sun

and white clouds

of a winters day

and thank life....

that is my way

Dewey Dirks

Natural

Natural

Not knowing

what the future

might bring,

the cultures of Man

move naturally together

towards an unknown tomorrow

in an unspoken dance.

Our sounds are the same

as the sound of rain

in stormy darkness

pattering a natural song

all the night long.

Our market economies

and the governments

that support them

one day will outlive

their usefulness

---perhaps sooner than you think,

and fall by the wayside

going the way of

the feudal societies

that once ruled men.

Soon enough we all will stride

to the tune of a new day.

Rest easy friend,

our halting dances,

follow the Earth music

as all others do

on our blue and white sky marble

and the paths that

we men tumble and tussle along

trace the grand song of life

just as flocks of swallows

turn and twist in unison

on their long path south

flying to melodies

that have never been

set to paper.

Dewey Dirks

Something New

Something New

My late wife and I lived together

For over twenty years

It was a charmed romance

In many ways

When you know someone that long,

You've heard pretty much

Everything they have to say

About a dozen times over

But whenever Laino and I talked

There was an endless summer in her voice

And what she had to say

Just never got old to my ears

My time with her helped me learn

That every single day

Really is something that is fresh

And although you see and hear

The same sort of things over and over again

If your love for them is soul deep

Each passing day forever remains

Something new

Dewey Dirks

Benefit of a Doubt

Benefit of a Doubt

Don't despair others their beliefs.

Everyone you ever meet

knows a thing or two

that is as wise

as the Earth Mother is old

just as everyone you ever meet

believes a few things

that are as screwy as a bent corkscrew.

To greet every day loaded for bear,

look for pieces of yourself in others

and pieces of them in yourself.

Meet all in life with the benefit of a doubt

and as much kindness as you can muster.

Dewey Dirks

Mystic

Mystic

Normally we all believe

it is us who experience life,

and we each build

well lived lives

by accumulating scores

of memorable moments.

So, when you experience life

in some special way, you say,

“For me, it's been

a memorable moment.”

But every once in great awhile,

you have an experience

where it seems that Nature herself

takes time out of her busy, busy day

to pay attention just to you.

When life experiences you in this way

it becomes something mystical.

When comes the day you realize

Nature is always

experiencing you in this way

just as you are experiencing her.

When comes the day

you find that both you and the world

are forever as young lovers,

meeting in a vast, vast sea

of happenstance and coincidence,

falling in love just now,

discovering each other,

over and over again, every day,

then you're a mystic.

Dewey Dirks

Good Company

Good Company

The universe we living in

Is not so much a thing

As it is a process---

An action in continuous motion

It is also not so much a thing

As it is a vast colony

Made of many trillions

Of symbiont creatures and things

And you are a reflection

Of that universe---

Not a thing,

But process in motion,

A symbiont colony made

Of a great many other things

When I first learned this

I thought, 'So what?

What difference does that make?'

But when I began to behave

Like I understood

That I was connected

To everything around me

And everything was connected to me

Things changed

I realized that I welcomed

The world and everything in it

And I began to see it welcomed me

Where before I was all alone

Now I am forever more

With good company

Dewey Dirks

A Lullaby in Your Name

A Lullaby in Your Name

Living in the busy kaleidoscope

Of moments and people

Moving all around you,

Drink of the wonders

Of ten-thousand things

Living in the gentle embrace

Of solitude,

All alone in the crowd,

Bathe in the blue water river

That flows quietly

Through all things

Just beyond the ends of time

Look! Listen!

Something beautiful there,

From beyond what any man knows,

Sings softly a lullaby

In your name

Dewey Dirks

Discover

Discover

The more aware
and at peace
a person is
with his own
inner nature,
the more he
is aware
and at peace
with the Universal Nature
because his inner nature
is itself a piece
of the natural world.
Look outward
and you discover
yourself.
Look inward
and you discover
the world.

Dewey Dirks

Computer Talk

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Once Climbed

Once Climbed

If you have ever been

To the desolate streets of crazy town

Or if your mate in life

Has ever passed through there

If you've ever known

The long and dark storms of shell shock

Or fought off a massive

Dirty, white crack gorilla on your back

If you've lost your soul mate

Or a tender, sweet child

To the drifting sands of time

You have been through

Some of the worst storms

That wander the Earth Mother

And if you look at where

There are the deepest scars

You'll see that out of them

A light softly now shines

There you'll find as much strength

As you'll ever be needing

My friend, you've been to where

The shit is piled up in drifts

Thirty feet high

Rest easy at most everything else

Life sends your way

They are but rolling hills

Compared to the ragged

And lonely, gray peaks

You've had the occasion

To once have climbed

Dewey Dirks

Good Songs

Good Songs

They say

Life is a school

And we are here

To learn what our soul

Already knows

Though the eons

We each wander the days

Wondering why

Strive, strive, striving

Ever wondering why

Where we start today

Built from what we've discovered

In all the days before

Rest easy, my friend

And welcome each new morning

With open arms and an open heart

Our lifetimes are precious gems

That shine differently

Each time

We look at them in the light

The lives we each live

Are lilting songs

Do you not want to hear

A good song more than once?

Dewey Dirks

Glasses

Glasses

There are those who view

The world through

Rose colored glasses

Then there are those who view

The world through shit colored

Glasses as well

Just as everyone else,

Their expectations, assumptions,

Motivations and judgments

Forge the lens through which

They perceive all they see

Put down and set aside, my friend

Your assumptions, motivations, expectations

And judgments and you'll find yourself walking

Pretty much amazed all of the time

Under an endless sky

Neither pink, nor brown

But singing quietly

A deep and varied blue

Dewey Dirks

Sounds of Joy

Sounds of Joy

If pure and clear joy has any sounds

I think they are four;

The soft and welcome purr

Of your cat resting on your lap,

The contented voice of a tiny baby

As he says 'nom, nom, nom,'

The quiet talk of the breeze

High in the trees

Deep on a slow Wednesday night,

And the gentle whisper of “I love you'

After you heard her say it

Ten thousand times

And it's still true

Dewey Dirks

Water Flower

Water Flower

There are bits

Of randomness and uncertainty

Built into you and I and all things

Creativity arises from the dance between

Those parts of us that are uncertain

And those parts of us

That seek to paint order

Bedtime stories

Like the one that says our Universe

Suddenly sprang into existence

Out of nothing in the middle of nowhere

In a giant bang for no good reason

Or the one that says

God and a bunch of his angels

Created the Universe in four days

Out of copious amounts mud,

A big ball of box string,

And some of those red doilies

That his wife uses in her hair

Are tales we tell each other

So we can pretend we actually know

Our creativity, the life we each breathe,

And our Universe itself, I think,

Are birthed as emergent behavior

---Recursive words of action

In the mysterious language of eternity

Born of Kodachrome fractals,

Kaleidoscopic randomness

And a distant, hidden, grand order

Each of our lives is much more a matter

Of the thoughts we think,

What we feel in our hearts,

And the joy, sadness, and laughter in our souls

Than it is anything of physical existence

And our world?

It is a water flower

Bloomed of sprouting seed

Sweet love, immense thunderstorms

And brilliant sunlight

In a quiet eddy of a deep blue pond

In a land vast beyond imagination

Full of happenings

That have nothing to do

With any of us

Dewey Dirks

Potential

Potential

When Nature gave

Humans the potential

to destroy the ecosystems

of the Earth,

it also gave us the capacity

to preserve them.

Which way is it to be, my friends?

The choice of what we do

with our intelligence and ingenuity

is up to us.

Dewey Dirks

First Time Home

First Time Home

Each morning

I sit at the kitchen table

And watch in silent amazement

As the city slowly shakes off its sleep

My soul

Is a clear, living, liquid crystal

It prisms the white sunlight

Washing the morning

Into rich, rainbow color waves

Across my minds eye

A blackbird flies by to perch

On the playground fence across the way

And for a little while, together we share

The coming day

Early morning light

Moves around us and through us,

Quietly painting

A new days silent love

Across desert stucco tan buildings,

Gently swaying green tree leaves,

And into the kaleidoscope sky

Like a fresh, rinsing bath

Its touch is softer than a whisper

And its taste is a hint

Of bees honey and ginger spice

I know the roads I've taken

Took a wide turn some time back

I didn't know where they were headed

But I really like what I can see and touch

And it's not like I ever really knew

Where I these roads would lead

When I started out so long ago

But I know now what they mean

When they say that you travel far

Until you finally return home

And see it for the first time

I remember mornings like these

Long, long ago---

Many times I watched them

Worlds away

Never knowing what I was seeing

Dewey Dirks

The Song

The Song

You can hear it in the morning

brewing in the coffee pot

As you sit at the kitchen table at dawn

Later in the day, when you're busy at work

You can hear it in the rustle of papers down at the copy machine

And though you're too involved think about it

Still, you dance along

You can hear it when your wife calls at noon

You say “I was just thinking of you”

And she says “I just thought I'd call”

You can see it in a dogs eye

And in the toes of a tiny kittens paw

You can feel it in the hand of a stranger

As he helps you up from sidewalk

After an icy night fall

Just as you can feel it in the smooth wooden handles

Of old, well worn tools

You can taste it in a freshly cooked cob of corn

Or in the water from a hose

Out in the yard down at the farm

It's the nothing

That makes everything whole

And the something that fills the cool air

Of empty beaches and elementary schoolyards

That makes you want to visit

On Sunday afternoons

Everything that lives, everything that is

Dances a grand dance

And sings a grand song

Living is music

And the secret in life

Is to listen for the melody

And then sing along

If ever you wondered at the gossip

Of a bushy brown squirrel

Or sat in the car with your girlfriend

Outside the airport for two hours one afternoon

Watching 737's take off

You've noticed for awhile

A few of the notes in life's long song

And felt the gentle rhythm

That nudges and twirls us all

You'll never know where you're going

Unless you can tell where you've been

To know where you are right now

You have to learn to appreciate

The things that are right in front of you

Dewey Dirks

Open Windows

Open Windows

I sit sipping my coke

And the moments slowly

Swim by me and and through my mind

The waitress and bartender

Come by from time to time

As we talk idly, I smile outwardly

Because I really enjoy their conversation

And smile inwardly too because I can see

Their soul sparking in their eyes

I don't really know when the storm passed

But now I find myself in a new sort of storm

This one is much different than before---

It's made of a beauty and joy,

Anticipations and sweet innuendo,

Happenstance and coincidence,

Moving now slowly, now quickly

Past me and through me all around

Full of enigma and mystery

Sweet to taste and soft to touch

Now, when I look at someone

Sometimes I see their joy

Other times I see their pain

Reaching out to touch me

Through the open windows of their souls

I know that when we touch, it increases

The joy and softens the pain

And I know that it's really not the storm

That has changed so much as my eyes

Dewey Dirks

Two

Soar

One day, my friend

Perhaps much sooner

Than you think,

You will spread wide wings

That until that moment

You won't even know you have

And you will soar

D.D.

Empty and Full

Love is an eternal vessel

That is forever empty

Yet endlessly full

At the same time

There is no such thing

As having no love

Because it is

Gifted upon you

By virtue of living

Though sometimes

It remains hidden

By your own fear

And ignorance

Look deep, deep

To the emptiness inside

The breath of life

Fills it with love

Just now,

And all of the time

It is always empty

So it can forever

Accept the love

Given to you by others

And yet is always full

So you can

Eternally give

Your love away

Dewey Dirks

A Little About Love

A Little About Love

There are a few things

You need to know about love---

It precedes pretty much everything else

And is the strongest force in the Universe

From where it comes, no one knows

It is a vessel that is

Empty and full at the same time

And if you begin to give it away

It can never be exhausted

It is gifted upon every creature that lives,

And it is with you always

If you are willing to look

The humans heart is big enough

To hold many different sorts of love

And it can keep the love

For many not just a few

Love can cross the deep valleys of death

And is so powerful

It can even overcome human stupidity

When you begin to understand all that,

Pretty much everything you do

Will be much easier

Dewey Dirks

Listen To The Rolling Wind

Listen to the Rolling Wind

Rest easy your heavy brow

On a moonlit night

Listen to the rolling wind

Deep in the tall green trees

There together,

Your heart and the wind

And the trees long sing songs

Of the grand dances of life to you

On a moonlit night

Listen to the rolling wind

Deep in the tall green trees

There to be heard

Are tales of great hardship

And terrible strife

And of the overcoming of all of it

There to be heard are songs

Of grand voyages

On vast seas uncharted

Full of wonders unknown

Rest easy your heavy brow

On a moonlit night

Listen to the rolling wind

Deep in the tall green trees

There to be heard

Are songs of a great love

Long and deep and true

On a moonlit night

Listen to the rolling wind

Deep in the tall green trees

There you can find yourself,

Your love, and the Universe

Singing to you in the ginger breeze

Dewey Dirks

Enigmatic

Enigmatic

A wise man once said

That the more real you get, the more unreal

The world gets, and I've found that to be true

One of the great mysteries of life

Is that while most of us pay attention

Only to the waking dream that surrounds us all

Looking endlessly for continuity

And a respite from change,

The life spark in each of us, that carries us each along

Is something intangible---

Forever still like a gentle painting

Of quiet summer afternoon

Yet always moving with a force from a timeless time

Common as the brown dirt beneath your feet

Yet mysterious and enigmatic

Far beyond any words you can find to use

Floating like dandelions seeds on a morning breeze

We all wander in the bosom of a life force

Far more intangible, mysterious and enigmatic than our own

The more you notice, the more you see

Much that is both beautiful and which cannot be explained

Wake up and look around you, my friend

Until life appears so complex

It becomes simple once again

Dewey Dirks

Learn

Learn

You can learn from your mistakes

You can learn from your shortcomings

You can learn from your strengths

You can learn from what you do right

You can learn from the mistakes of others

You can learn from their shortcomings

You can learn from their strengths

You can learn from what they do right

You become the best of students

When you learn from life itself

And when you listen to your own advice

Dewey Dirks

Up For Guessing

Up For Guessing

Long ago I wrote that there are

Only a handful of things that a person

Can know with any great certainty

And I said the only absolute truth

A person can be sure of

Is that they're breathing

Now, fifty-five years down the line

I've seen things happen so terrible

That they reached

To the marrow of my bones,

I've seen things happen

So beautiful beyond

The conveyance of any words

That they imprinted

Their images into my soul

And I've rediscovered several times over

That both truths and reality itself

Are as malleable as the combined imaginations

Of seven billion human minds can make them

Fifty-five years on,

I've still only found a few absolute truths

---That I'm breathing

And that breath is a gift all by itself

Far beyond any human measure

And that the great rivers

Of love run as deep as the farthest reaches

Of all the stars at night

Everything else

Is pretty much up for guessing

And that is a very good thing, my friend,

Because within uncertainty

Are hidden freedom,

Hope, and the seeds of creativity

Dewey Dirks