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

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

Never Without

Wings

Wings

They say that life begins at forty.

Everything

before that is practice.

In my experience,

that's true.

As time has passed by,

one of the things

that has surprised

me most is how much

I knew by thirty

and how little of it

I realized that I knew

at the time.

In many ways,no man or woman

ever grows older

than eighteen.

After you take care

of all the business

each day,

spend the rest

of your time

being as young

as you can.

You knew best how to love another

by the time

you were six years old.

Most people

spend much of the rest

of their lives re-learning

how to love

that well again.

As the years roll on one of the best

things you can learn

is how to take

your own advice.

One of the best things

to remember

is what it was like

to be a kid.

Each day, spend time

doing three things---

working or creating something,

doing something fun

to entertain yourself,

and talking

to someone you love.

If you are able,

make your work

the same thing

as your play.

Everyone arrives at a fork in the road

in their late twenties,

again in their forties,

and yet again

in their fifties.

Each time, one path

leads to stagnation

while the other

leads to a frontier.

Each time, if you take

the wrong path,

you'll find yourself

in a ditch

and climbing out of it

will be the only way

to move on.

As the years roll on

if you keep

learning and loving,

you'll grow older

but your heart

will never grow old.

The years

weigh down;

No mind,

it's just ballast

for flight.

Learning and love

 have wings.

Dewey Dirks

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