Tuesday, July 12, 2016

A Sort of Love

A Sort of Love

There is a sort of love
With an interweaving of souls so strong
That it is unbreakable and knows no end
With roots running so deep
That it can reach beyond the valleys of death
And can find a way through the abyss of any sorrow
Whose branches reach so high
It can cuddle among the farthest stars at night
And touch the midday sun shining bright at noon

It can fly among all the clouds of Mother Earth
And can dance with every raindrop
Bringing supple, life giving water
To every creature and all plants
That grow in rich, brown soil

There is a sort of love
That creates a tender embrace between hearts
Reaching beyond the never ending eons
To wander together and wonder and rest
Far past the ends of time

Dewey Dirks

Monday, June 27, 2016

Two as One

Two as One

When two people fall in love
It doesn't always mean
That they will end up living together
For the rest of their lives
It doesn't always mean
Everything will be wine and roses
From there on in
It doesn't always mean that
They will never love any others
Besides just them

When two people begin to touch souls
And the deep blue rivers of a true love
Start to flow between their hearts
It doesn't mean a lot of things
That some people suppose it means
What it does always mean
Is that something very special will happen
And nothing for either of them
Will be ever the same after that

It also means that if they are really meant
To be two traveling through life as one
The Universe itself could not, would not
Keep them apart past the time
The are supposed to be together

Dewey Dirks

Monday, June 13, 2016

Path to a Spectacular Life

Path to a Spectacular Life

If you want to live a spectacular life
Then live each day as well as you can
To the best of your ability at the time
And pretty soon ten years will have passed
Full of good days

As each day passes
Make sure to stop and notice
All that is beautiful
In what is going on around you
Although sometimes is hard to see,
Mother Nature weaves much that is kind
Compassionate and caring into all life
Every single day

If you have a dream in life
Then break it down into many small parts
And each day work at it for a little while
Virtually anything can be accomplished
If you work at it in many small pieces
A little bit at a time

Make sure to talk every day
To someone in your life
About whom you care very much
Even if the only one you can find to talk to
Is Mother Nature herself
Or someone you love who has passed on

Dewey Dirks

Monday, May 30, 2016

Line to Tow

Line to Tow

Everyone who lives
on Mother Earth.
Everyone you ever meet.
Everyone you ever know.
Everyone you don't know.
All of us here have a line to tow
---things that we each
need to learn in life.

Some need learn
to control themselves,
some need to learn to let go.
Some need to learn not to
doubt themselves so much,
some need to learn
that they're not always right.
Some need to learn
to be more giving,
some need to learn
that they're as important
as those they try to help.
Some need to learn how powerful
their spirit really is,
others need to learn
we all are just living specks
on one tiny blue dot
among billions upon billions of others.

Some need to learn more patience,
some need to learn
when enough is enough.
Some need to learn
they can take care of themselves,
others need to learn
it's OK to let others help them.
Some need to learn to be
more trusting of others,
some need to learn to be
more cautious.
Some need to learn
to not be so believing of their culture,
some need to learn to have faith
that nature knows
what she's doing
by evolving people.

Some need to learn not to
act without a little forethought,
others need to learn
when to have some faith
and jump into the unknown.
Some need to learn
to love wonder and learning,
others need to learn
when they've learned enough.

Some need to learn to ask
themselves a few questions,
Some need to learn
to have some faith
in the answers they've found.
Some need to find out
what they need to learn,
some need to learn
what they need to unlearn.
Some need to learn love and affection
come in many kinds,
some need to learn how to give
of their soul
and love with their entire being.

Dewey Dirks

Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Granular

Granular

Human perception is granular
Made up of lots of bits and pieces
That we happen to notice
Of the world around us
It never is really a complete picture
Of all that is possible to take in

Our worldviews are composites
Made of ideas and notions and expectations
Like the picture on your computer screen
Is made of many thousands of tiny dots of color
And the resolution of what we each perceive
Is made better when we increase the number
Of worldviews that we draw upon
Don't rely on the views
Of just one culture, religion,
Scientific discipline, or philosophy
All the better to paint
Your picture of the world
With as large a palette as you can muster

Dewey Dirks

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

The Ways We Have Fun

The Ways We Have Fun

Many times we think
Of the things we learn in life
In terms of what we are taught
By the strife, struggling and hard times
We each face in life
And many of us think it is only the difficult times
That have anything to teach us
But the lessons all of us can learn
From the ways we each entertain ourselves
Are just as valuable and important

The ways we have fun in life
Point the way to knowing
What we find truly valuable and fulfilling
The ways we have fun in life
Teach us each of laughter,
Of happiness and how to relax
The enjoyment we get in our pleasure time
Show us the way down the path
Of letting ourselves be who we really are

Much of our daily banter and blustering
Is about a supposed maturity
That we imagine to be very adult and serious
When the only real maturity to be found
Is in the journey back
To the sort of acceptance and love
That you knew how to have
When you were four years old
In the end, all any of us hope,
All any of use are,
And that all we aspire to be
Are the children of infinity

Dewey Dirks

Monday, April 25, 2016

Validation

Validation

My cat, Mau Mau, sits at the open door of my home
Thinking cat thoughts, wondering cat sorts of things
As he watches the evening sky
Turn from blue to gray to black
He breathes cat breaths and his heart
Beats with a cat heartbeat

The rhythms his cat thoughts,
Cat breaths and cat heartbeat make
Are their own reason for existing,
And he is comfortable with no more validation for living
Than the life spark coursing through his veins

It is good, I think, every so often,
To strip away from ourselves
All the heavy trappings of our culture,
All the striving, and talking about
What's gonna be on the TV next week,
And worrying about paying the bills,
Down to the sorts of rhythms our human
Heartbeats and breaths make,
And feel once again for ourselves
That same sort of validation for being alive
That needs no more reason
Than the simple fact that we exist

Dewey Dirks

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Views

Views

This morning I sat for a long time
looking at the scenery outside my home
There were tall green trees and leafy bushes,
tan rooftops, red ochre walls,
and a playground with blue and yellow slides.
As I looked out my open sliding-glass door,
I noticed that the shades of colors were different
depending on whether I was looking through
the glass window, or through the wire screen
that covered the other half of the door.

Through the glass, colors were of a deeper shade
while the colors through the screen
were a little more pastel as the wire mesh
diffused the morning sunlight shining bright outside.

Same scene, different views,
through different perspectives and I knew that
if I opened the door, and stepped outside,
I would see all the morning colors from
yet a third perspective as well.

Everything you ever look at in life is just like that---
You'll get different views of the very same things
depending upon the filter of expectations,
assumptions, preconceptions and ideas
you happen to be looking through.

It is good to learn to stand back
from one singular perspective and view
whatever you're looking at through
several different filters in order
to get a more well rounded view
of what your looking at.

Become a collector of ever more points of view.
You'll find soon enough that no single point of view
has a corner on the market of truth
and you'll discover in yourself
greater empathy for ever more people.

Dewey Dirks

Saturday, April 2, 2016

Pictures

Pictures

I have a number of friends whom
Have reached deeply enough into themselves
To have touched something of the great starfield
That lives deep in our souls
Although I'm sure that some of them
Have not yet realized that is what they've done
Many of them have good amounts of insight
Into Nature and Human nature
And it is always a pleasure to talk with them
About the paths we all wander in life

Two of my friends who see with much clarity
Have a couple of traits in common
Although I don't believe they've ever met one another
Both are American, born and raised in the American ways
Of the seventies and eighties
One of them has studied the martial arts for many years
While the other has studied yoga for a very long time
Their minds are both lithe with the thoughts of two cultures,
Their ideas swim in the oceans of two societies traditions
And this trait, I think, allows them
To both see from better vistas of view

Although it is possible to see with good clarity while depending
On the ideas of just a single culture
And knowing the thoughts of more than one society
Does not guarantee clarity of view,
As a general rule, it is easier to see life more clearly
When you can draw upon the great variety
Of human thought rather than depending solely upon
The notions of just one society
The more you teach yourself of the grand palette of colors
Humans have created for themselves
To depict the paths we each wander in life,
The more it tends to allow you to paint
A clearer picture of the world for yourself

Dewey Dirks

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Many Sided

Many Sided

The truth is not always beautiful
Nor is it always cold or hard to accept
Very many of the things
That people argue over
Are actually many-sided truths
Whose distinguishing characteristic
Is that opposing ideas
Can both carry equal portions of truth
Like a gem that shines one color
When you hold it a certain way
And a different color
When you turn it another

Failure to recognize that truths
Are very often multi-sided is the source
Of much of the discontent in the world
And the reason why a very wise man once said,
'Say not “I have found the truth,”
But rather, “I have found a truth”
Say not “I have found the path of the soul”
Say rather, “I have met the soul
Walking on my path”'

Dewey Dirks

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Win-Win

Win-Win

Someone famous once said
'There are those
Who want to abuse you,
Those who want to be abused,
Those who want to use you
And those who want to be used'
But they forgot to mention
Those who want to share
And to be shared

Whomever seeks to create
Win-win relationships
With those that they journey beside
Will find themselves
Among the unspoken legislators
Of human discourse upon Mother Earth
Symbionts are the hidden tillermen of Mankind

Dewey Dirks

Thursday, February 25, 2016

I See You Now

I See You Now

When we were young
we used to say to each other
that when you die
your soul goes back
to the Summerlands
to live with the Earth Mother
in the rocks, the sky, and clouds
and the leafy green trees.
Now, we both knew to believe that
but back then they were
only so many words
we told each other
around the table
to comfort ourselves
the loss of our loved ones.
Until today...

Today I saw you there
lingering in the pearlescent light
of the sun coming
through the window.
You filled the room
with a love song
and I filled the room
with tears of joy.

I walked outside
and I heard your voice
in the gusty wind
rustling through the trees.
You were there
waiting to meet me.
I heard your laugh,
I heard your lilting voice,
saw you raise your colors,
heard your rebel creed,
and yes, the tears
of your sorrow too---
all part of white spring clouds
and the deep blue sky
all around me.

They say each soul
is a limitless eternity,
that in life we each
condense like drops of water
into the confines of our bodies,
and that when we die,
we cross the blue doorway
to become once again,
part of the timeless time
of boundless infinity.

In the darkness
we traveled through
you taught me how to see
the unfeigned shine
of the sun, the moon,
and the stars filling the skies
with the breath of light.
Now I know how to look
and I see you now,
as you once and always were.
A single drop in a vast ocean
and the whole ocean itself,
singing the songs of life
along with all eternity.

Dewey Dirks

Sunday, February 14, 2016

The Four Quests

The Four Quests

All of human endeavor
All the things we do
All the ways we act
All the things we make
Al the things we think
All the things we say
All the things we feel
All the things we don't say
Can all be gathered into efforts
To satisfy four quests

We strive
To increase our adaptability
To the ceaseless change
In the environment

We quest to find beauty
In ourselves and in the world,

We seek to increase
Our awareness and understanding
Of the Universe around us,

Or the things we do
Are an expression of love
Or a request for love

Now, beauty is only an auspicious
Arrangement of Nature
And adaptability
Is just the knack
Of making auspicious things
Endure through time

And what are understanding
And auspicious arrangements of Nature?
Well, that is what love is---
That and something we each need to feel
That extends far, far beyond
The conveyance of any words

Dewey Dirks

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Small Happenings

Small Happenings

Amanda was a young woman,
Very petite and very pretty
Tending bar down at the Inn
Long blond hair and kind words
With a sincere smile
And an honest way about her

I watched her carry ice in from the back
In two five gallon buckets
After she was finished
I said, “You know, you're the first
Person I've seen in quite some time
Who didn't make that ice
Look like it was heavy.
And you're just a tiny thing.”
She smiled back and said,
“I study the martial arts
And I'm very strong but it fools people,
'Cause I'm not very big”

As she turned to help another customer,
I watched her move with the grace
Of a forest cat, lithe and free,
And I thought of tnt---
Which is much force in a little package,
Of swallows who are very small birds
Yet every year fly many thousand of miles
To journey between distant continents
With great strength of wing,
And I thought of how the greatest portions
Of love in life are always found
In the smallest of happenings

Dewey Dirks

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Manifest

Manifesting

If you intend to manifest anything at all
You need to remember four things;
That you are breathing,
That the place
In which you dwell is very big,
That there are many others here with you,
And that all things are one thing
And ten-thousand things
At the very same time

You also need to remember
That your conscious mind
Knows what you really want to happen
Only about half of the time
But your spirit always knows
What you really want and need all of the time
And your spirit is the only thing about you
That is powerful enough
To manifest anything at all

You also need to remember
That while all you need
Is already inside of you
And you need to look no further than
What dwells within,
Manifesting anything is always
An interaction between you and the Universe
And always represents an agreement
Between you and Life itself
The Universe is all around you
And all inside of you at the same time

Manifesting is much more
Than just wishing very hard,
It is you reaching deep inside yourself
To touch your soul
And your soul reaching out
To touch all Life

What happens to you, my friend,
All that you encounter,
All that you see and all that you do
Are dances you dance
With Life itself 

 Dewey Dirks

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

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 live 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

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Monday, January 11, 2016

Dances

Dances

There have been times in my life
When I've felt unspeakable pain and fear
And times when I've seen
Those whom I love
Suffer mind breaking pain as well
While I watched, unable to help
Of the two, I can tell you
The second is far, far worse

I've known love with another
That runs so deep in our souls
It will never know death
I've also seen and felt
To the very core of my existence
The simple joy
That quietly lives in all things
Like a pond of pure, clear water
And I've listened to something
Of the great lilting melody
To which all life moves

Joseph Campbell once said
"Find a place inside where there's joy,
And the joy will burn out the pain"
Which, I think, are very wise words
That couldn't be more true

When I was a young man
Hanging out with my dad,
When he was talking
Every once in awhile
He would become so emotional
That he'd almost burst into tears
At the time, I didn't know
There was no shame in it
And I was embarrassed by his openness

Now, many years have gone by
I've crossed many deep canyons,
Danced grand dances
With those whom I love very much
And I've climbed many mountain tops,
And, I too, find myself with tears
In my eyes welling sometimes when I talk
And now I know what dad
Was feeling way back then;
His tears were memories
Of the dances he'd danced
Dropping by to visit him

Dewey Dirks

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Saving Yourself

Saving Yourself

There is only one person
who can save you
and that is yourself.
The only things you need
to save yourself from
are your own
fear and prejudice.

You overcome your
fears and prejudice
by learning to
care for yourself
as Mother Earth
cares for you.
When you learn
to have compassion
for your own shortcomings,
you also learn to have
compassion for the shortcomings
in everyone else
and all the world as well.
As your fears and prejudice
begin to subside
you'll become ever more aware
of many things that
you've been doing right all this time
and many things
that life has been doing for years
to help you along.

A lack of compassion for others
is a sure indication
of a lack of compassion
for yourself.
If you want to do your part
to save the world
you need only to set yourself right
after that everything
will fall into place.
Lighting the bright flames
of love and compassion in yourself
goes far in lighting
the flames of compassion
in all whom
you come into contact with.

In the fullness of time, you'll find
the world doesn't need saving
so much as it needs
to be loved.
Likewise, you'll come to find
that you don't need saving either.
What you need is to love
and to be loved.

Dewey Dirks

Thursday, December 24, 2015

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

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

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

Sunday, December 6, 2015

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

Friday, November 27, 2015

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

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

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

Friday, November 13, 2015

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

Sunday, November 1, 2015

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

Monday, October 26, 2015

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

Monday, October 19, 2015

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

Wednesday, October 14, 2015

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