Poetry Prose and Other Words
by Ken Ingham
Emergence
Believe me friends
The truth is not that far beyond our reach
I’ve glimpsed it several times my self
Once while at the beach
Gazing at that perfect line
Where ocean meets sky
Time stood still . . . my heart slowed down
Something waited for me when I die . . .
Another time
While meditating in a chair
A radiance began to flare
Brighter than but somewhat akin
To sheet-lightning, without rumble or rain
And much too vast to be contained
Within my humble brain
I thought I left my body then
As soon as I became aware
I found myself back in my chair
The light went dim again
After that I often tried
To find that place
That I can’t describe
Occasionally I did succeed
But always only fleetingly
So mysterious so profound
Those heavenly disconnections
From the ground
Try it!
Find a comfortable place to sit
Relax your body, fingers, toes
Close your eyes and look inside
Breathe slowly through your nose
Let the waves of thought subside
Imagine not needing any clothes
Idle your senses, expand your essence
Enter that deep purple zone
Where rods and cones deprived of light
Concoct a vision of their own
A vision of Utopia as nothing more
Than a collective state of mind
Where all perceive the days in store
As better than the ones behind
Where history is widely perceived
As net progress toward a common goal
Engendered by spreading awareness, belief
That we are part of a larger whole
Our bodies are part of Gaia’s body
Our souls are part of her soul
Our brains together comprise her brain
Only by us can she know and be known
Her numinous mind an emergent property
Arising from the chaos of our own
Utopia can accommodate imperfection
It’s the trend that really counts
If we’re moving in the right direction
All our steps will have a bounce
Perfection is an elusive goal
Beyond a gap we never close
Its image helps direct our work
And changes as our knowledge grows
As our current best explanation evolves
Is grasped, symbolized and articulated
Transformed into culture
And assimilated
Good ideas don’t go away
they mature with each generation
- peace
- animal rights
- sustainability
- slavery supplanted by arbitration
Why should some work overtime
While others are unemployed
Victims of a circumstance
They didn't know how to avoid?
Let thy neighbor share thy job
There's plenty of work to distribute
Pass the burdens and benefits around
We all want and need to contribute
Eventually most of the work will be done
What’s left will be a source of enjoyment
As we join together to sustain
A whole new natural economy
That maximizes unemployment
By emphasizing maintenance
Of everything ever manufactured
From computer chips to rocket ships
Roads buildings infrastructure
Paint and varnish, polish and buff
Protect from weather rust and ruin
There’s pleasure in fixing broken stuff
Or using the parts to make a new one
Loosen the screws, disassemble
Arrange the pieces all in a line
Consult the manual, so that’s how it works!
Admire the clever design
And whatever items are made anew
Are crafted with pride and care
With intent to make them last forever
Easy to upgrade and repair
Making full use of recycled materials
Land fills no longer there
When we rub our hands against
Ancestral handles smooth ’n worn
We feel at once the common sense
Of saving things for those unborn
That sense of continuity
Between the generations
Reinforced by maintenance
Sustained by education
The centerpieces of our species
Are the neighborhood schools, solid gleaming
Ever improving symbols of our gratitude
For being alive, engaged, not dreaming
For having been raised in community
And taught the truth from K thru 12
In colorful windowful classless rooms
Where older children help the young
And thereby learn about themselves
Where students learn to love to learn
By watching parents continue to study
If you no be learnin’ you no be livin’
That be the motto for everybody
Where biology is taught in the local preserve
And recess is often prolonged
Where the only bells that ever ring
Are those of the Bluejay’s song
Nurture respect for all living things
For Nature and the Gentle Way
For the calloused hands of history
By which we prosper every day
If you know be learnin’
You just be wastin’
Your precious life away
Show children how to grow things green
To know from whence their sustenance derives
How to make music, dance and sing
Whistle yodel harmonize
How to identify flora and fauna
Birds by their voices, songs and calls
The flute of a thrush at dawn
And again when evening falls
How The Whip Poor Will repeats his name
After dark, as do Chuck Will’s Widows
Night Herons complain with a quock or a quark
Mockingbird verses have 3 to 5 dittos
To know wild mammals
From the cast of their scat
Insects by pitch of buzz or drone
Deciduous trees by weave of bark
Conifers by shape of needle and cone
Teach them how to deduce and compute
To distinguish fiction from fact
How by reducing consumption of carbon
One can avoid a Pigovian tax
(that levied incentive that makes us think twice
before wasting natural resources)
Conservation, like Language and Math
Is one of the perpetual required courses
Share with them what we have learned
Through anthropological empiricism
How past civilizations failed to adapt
To Nature’s limits and thus collapsed
And that’s how ecology became our catechism
Religion - let the children
Discover their own
While meditating on a koan
In an old growth forest near their home
Beneath a vault of massive trees
Feet in touch with moss and leaves
Pondering Gaia’s mysteries
Imagine!
Streams meandering through neighborhoods
Houses kept to the higher contours
Roof-water flowing above the ground
Not below in dark storm sewers
But soaking and filtering through worm-worked soil
Replenishing the aquifers
With cool clean Aquapristine®
To quench the thirst of connoisseurs
Wild flowers in each backyard
At the edge of protected green spaces
An elaborate labyrinth of genetic exchange
And with Gaia’s good graces
There will be
Panthers interbreeding
From Key West to Nome
Wolves from Mexico to Maine
Bears eagles and whales
At home with man
At the top of the food chain
Forests mountains deserts prairies
Their depths accessible only by foot
Entry requires a valid permit
And a promise to leave things put
Rules, rules - will there always be rules?
Yes - don’t despair
Just make them good ones
And make them fair
Try to improve them over time
Make them easy to remember
By insisting that they rhyme
For example:
1)
The fruition of the human species
Must not exceed that which allows
The on site mulching of its feces
And the same for chickens pigs and cows
2)
Graduation from l'École secondaire
Requires full compliance
With practical standards of how to repair
A major appliance
3)
Stay in your lane, pass on the left
When pedaling where once were traffic jams
Keep your skateboard on leash when in motion
Always yield to busses and trams
4)
Earth First! People Second!
Animals are not for food or hire
No motorized recreation
No manufacturing weapons of fire
5)
No more roads in the national forests
Maintain the riparian zones
Log only with helicopters and horses
Nurture recovery of native biomes
6)
Thou shalt not kill
Thou shalt not steal
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house
Love thy neighbor as thy self
But do not make love to thy neighbors spouse
Thou shalt not lie
Nor worship false idols
To blaspheme is most lowly
Honor thy parents as long as they live
Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
Amen
Glory be to Gaia
Glory be to clean air, her breath
Glory be to clean water, her blood
Glory be to earth her body, fire her spirit
Glory be to all species
And now . . . .
Your meditation is almost done
Your head begins to nod
You turn your face up toward the sun
You sense somehow there is a god
With opening eyes you contemplate
The meaning of the place you've been
Determined - Yes! - to actuate
The values culled from deep within
You vow to focus all your powers
On the only goal that matters
To discover how we all can live
In peace, in love
In collective awe of
This beautiful planet of ours