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

Strange

Strange

Imagine for a minute

How strangely

Arranged the world

We live in might be---

Well, you can be certain

That no matter what

You happen to imagine,

It's arranged stranger than that

Everything that lives has a soul---

Tiny bits of the divine

Distributed in equal measure

Among many trillions of living beings

When comes the day

You happen into your own soul

You'll likely think you've found God

We all alive in a giant sea of life

On a tiny blue dot up in the sky

Life here extends fifty thousand feet

Up into the air

And about eight thousand feet

Down into the ground

Look around my friend, you live

About eight thousand feet

Up from the bottom

In a grand ocean of souls

And most of us live our entire lives

Without ever knowing it

Pretty much everything

In the Universe is connected

To everything else

In a vast, vast, intricately woven

Sea of connections

And those goofy little ditties

Of creativity that we call intelligence

Are just the ability

Of our minds

To notice and utilize

The tiny, tiny fraction

Of all those connections

That we are adapted and able

To find relevant

And the links of causation

We've built our sciences

And logic around?

Those are just special cases

Of inference that we're adapted

To perceive and use

Life is art in motion

An artist is one who is able

To find tiny pieces of what's enchanted

And put them to paper,

Canvas or string

Though often it remains hidden

By the illusion of our waking dreams

In our Universe, love, humor,

Grace and beauty prevail

And deep in our souls

We each already know it

Dewey Dirks

Addictions

Addictions

Everyone you ever meet

Is quite addicted

To a number of things

Though many times

We only use that word

When we believe

An addiction is harmful

For the rest we politely use words like

'habits,' 'character,' 'hobbies,' or 'rituals'

And as an excuse for keeping our addictions

We say things like,

“I can't help it, it's just the way I am”

Don't be looking down, my friend

At those who have addictions to drugs or booze

Because you have a few addictions too

No matter how squeaky clean or healthy

You might figure yourself to be

And you can pretty much be certain

Some of your addictions aren't very good for you

By far the strongest addiction

Everyone you ever meet has

Is the addiction to their own point-of-view

Your point-of-view can be a disease---

A demon of your own making

That can cripple you horribly

Or drag you down

To a rotting hell in life

No matter what good

Might come your way

Or, your point-view can be

A drug like no other

With as much clarity as a fresh spring morning,

With a magic as deep and beautiful

As all the stars at night

And more powerful than anything

You could possibly ever put into your body,

Your point-of-view can give to you

A living, blue-sky paradise on Earth

Regardless of what

Terrible strife or tragedy

Life might throw your way

Remember, the more you tend to see

The more you tend to forgive

And the windows in your mind

You use to look at life

Really are what you tend to get back

It's not a matter of where you look

But much more a matter

Of what you happen to notice

Dewey Dirks