An April Fool’s Lament 2017

So there he was   

On his way to find out

“When will I be a butterfly?

Who has that secret map leading to the treasure of treasures?

What books need to be read? What poems have the great insight? Who has possession of that great book of illumination? If I read it will I becoming any closer to knowing the answer? What songs should be sung ? When what songs are played do I to stop anything I am doing and dance when I hear them? Where is that great hermitage and what meditations and prayers will connect me to the source of everything? Is it the real truth that peace and love were the intentions of the universe? Does the existence of silence mean that there is nothing other than what we see or is it that the silence is the source great ineffable consolation?

See the geese returning from their winter retreat. What do they know that we don’t? Hear the sweet song of the chimes? Where and who is the source of that sacred wind that causes the chimes to console the ever-wandering spirit? Isn’t music proof of the sacred? Do tea ceremonies really work? Do religious ceremonies and spiritual exercises of any kind fuel anything? Is it true that the Book of Wisdom was written by a woman or is it that woman is the essence of wisdom? Is it really evil that feeds desires and invents those attachments that keep us from knowing the truth? It is the commencement of April and Eliot is wrong. It is National Poetry Month, right? It is not just resurrection but birth and the joy of life we are waiting to celebrate. That long cold lonely winter is over.”

Paradise was never lost it was within just waiting for him to stop asking questions and live it.

He Thought,,"It ain't over yet!"

On the Road to Find Out – Cat Stevens

https://youtu.be/wYscrcSfoFI

It ain’t over – Rodney Crowell

https://youtu.be/EFrpzPR6TLY

Cousin Caterpillar

https://youtu.be/nu0brlGGQ2Y

If you want to sing out – Cat Stevens

https://youtu.be/LWGxYlQudOA

 Here Comes the Sun - ( G. Harrison) Performed by JF Sobecki and Friends

 https://youtu.be/PAGlEpPGQmE

The Layers

Related Poem Content Details

BY STANLEY KUNITZ

I have walked through many lives, 

some of them my own,

and I am not who I was,

though some principle of being

abides, from which I struggle

not to stray.

When I look behind,

as I am compelled to look

before I can gather strength

to proceed on my journey,

I see the milestones dwindling

toward the horizon

and the slow fires trailing

from the abandoned camp-sites,

over which scavenger angels

wheel on heavy wings.

Oh, I have made myself a tribe

out of my true affections,

and my tribe is scattered!

How shall the heart be reconciled

to its feast of losses?

In a rising wind

the manic dust of my friends,

those who fell along the way,

bitterly stings my face.

Yet I turn, I turn,

exulting somewhat,

with my will intact to go

wherever I need to go,

and every stone on the road

precious to me.

In my darkest night,

when the moon was covered

and I roamed through wreckage,

a nimbus-clouded voice

directed me:

“Live in the layers,

not on the litter.”

Though I lack the art

to decipher it,

no doubt the next chapter

in my book of transformations

is already written.

I am not done with my changes.

Amdg

“One day I will find the right words and they will be simple”

        - Jack Kerouac

“The only truth is music”

       - Jack Kerouac

 

Copyright JF Sobecki LLC 2017 All Rights Reserved

The Emmaus Dialogues: Act II Scene 1 “Credentials” – draft 5.1

( the following is a sneak peak of an extract from the yet unpublished play "The Emmaus Dialogues")

                                                                                   

So two pilgrims walk into a bar….

It usually begins something like that doesn’t it? 

Pilgrim 1:  So my mother is in the hospital and she says that her doctor is “very nice” and that the food is excellent and that she is quite pleased to be there. I ask if she is doing any better and about her prognosis. She answers, “I don’t know. I didn’t ask and no one ever said. But, the doctor is very nice.”

Pilgrim 2:  I think I know what you mean. Sometimes if we look at what is important to us it might indicate to us what we really need.

Pilgrim 1:  Oh, I don’t know if that is what I meant at all.  I believe we can easily get focused on the wrong things. My mother should be focused on getting the medical treatment she is paying for and getting healed and not nice personalities and good food.

Pilgrim 2:  Yeh, I guess that just because a doctor has his or her medical doctoral degree and passed some type of examination that the credentials aren’t really a guarantee of proper treatment. Besides, just because the hospital has all it’s beds filled doesn’t mean it is a “good hospital.”

Pilgrim 1: It seems to me that the problem is that we live in a  “credentialed society” and it seems that our culture demands “seals of approval” or “Certificates of completion” as some type of indication of qualification and we don’t really go any deeper than that.

Pilgrim 2: By the way why are we going into this bar? I would prefer to go to the one down the street where the bartenders are all graduates of some hoity-toity college of mixology and spirits. You know that bar where all the formerly employed investment banker MBA’s hang out.

Pilgrim 1: But you and I both know this bar’s reputation precedes itself. I have a great looking bar tenderess who always pretends to listen well when you complain about something personal. Besides they have a great Irish troubadour for entertainment.

The two find a table with three empty chairs and sit….

The exchange continues without missing a beat

Pilgrim 2: I guess it doesn’t make any difference what bar we are in when all we are doing is drinking is Guinness from a bottle !

Pilgrim 1:  You are right! What’s the big deal about credentials anyway? Life is about doing your best with what you have while remembering always that it is never about you…but how you treat others.

Pilgrim 2: What? Aren’t we missing a discussion about competence and how, when and why do we trust others?

Pilgrim 1: Fine, I know society relies on and needs credentials, ratings and rankings because we have thrown true integrity and conscience out the window. We would need less reliance on credentials and such if we all just focused on doing the right thing, for the right reason and doing it the right way?

Pilgrim 2: Now you sound like a Buddhist…

Pilgrim 1: Or…remember what the teacher told us to just love others as you would love yourself…You know, treat others, as you want to be treated.

Pilgrim 2: OMG! Are you some kind of outrageous ethicist or moralist?

Pilgrim 1: Well, I wonder what would have happened to the great teacher if everyone demanded to see a holy certificate or a “license to heal anyone ?” But, you know, what I do know is that in this world the focus on competition has gotten everything twisted…. you know competition and greed… pushes us all off course. I really think these competitive and greedy aspects drive most of us to rely on credentials of all kinds to prove ourselves worthy.

Pilgrim 2: Yeh I guess. So you wanna just split a pitcher instead?

Pilgrim 1: OK as long as you are the “dd”

Pilgrim 2: Sure, but remember I have a DUI and my drivers license is suspended. Anyway, Here’s to your mom! She was right…. as long as she likes the doctor and the hospital food is good…. and of course if they “do no harm”…who cares about the credentials!

Pilgrim 1: Salute’

Pilgrim 2: Cent’ anni!

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(and now for your viewing and listening pleasure - no credentials required!)

amdg