Can you hear me in there
am I really in here
along alone all all alone alone,
on a wide wide sea
so how have you come to me
alone on the sea,
the wide the wide wide sea
so how have you come to me,
to sit on my knee?
Oh I have wandered the stream.
My feet have felt the stones in the creek bed.
Everybody is the same so I cannot complain.
Everybody is the same so I cannot complain.
my soul washes from the sea
my love my love
the wind will always blow your hair.
In this moment which is never really
here or there
we are an illusion that others see
for we cannot see ourselves
and when we see, we cannot see
and it is that we cannot see
that is our crutch and our seal
stuck from the wax of our burning candle
David Jackson
What Party is this Church
I live in the South. It’s called the Bible Belt for a reason, it’s a very religious place. It is a birthplace of fundamental Christianity. Apocalyptic thinking is not new, Christ has been coming back since he left. It is been said that impeaching Trump would cause a Civil War because of the attachment of this president to that very apocalyptic thinking. It has been said that Trump has been “sent by God”.
When one thinks of the apocalypse, it therefore follows that there are two major figures in Revelation, the Christ and the anti-Christ. There are false prophets and various and sundry others, but these two stand out. Is Trump Jesus? Judging by what the two men are reported to have said, Trump is probably not Jesus. They seem to say opposite things these two, and Trump’s been here all along, so he could not have returned. Scratch Trump being Jesus. The other figure is the fourth horseman, the anti-Christ. Well, Putin does ride a horse, and Donald Trump doesn’t. This anti-Christ had been reported to be many people over the centuries. Could they be all wrong and it turns out to be some Russian interfering in elections? See what a web can be woven?
The separation of church and state and the First Amendment were meant to keep apocalyptic thinking out of politics. Religion is about faith and belief. We are asked to trade judgment and critical thinking for faith. When that type of thinking is placed in the political world or the scientific world it leads to chaos. Separating our two worlds, one of faith and one of logic, is a basic function of the human mind, a basic tenet of our lives. It was appropriate to separate them in our government.
Faith-based science doesn’t work. Pure logic doesn’t work with religion which requires suspension of logic. Both faith and logic have a place in our individual thinking, but we separate them. “Faith doesn’t repair the car, and logic won’t get you to heaven”.
Mixing religion and politics was not in the plan and is doing a lot of harm. When we put religion in our government, we also put politics in our church. When give unto Caesar becomes preach for Caesar, our religion is compromised. When we have to ask what faith is my government, we have to also ask what party is this church.
David Michael Jackson
Put a Poem in the Box
They are scattered,
these magnetic spots I have created,
like leaves hidden in a vast forest,
these DNA words left in boxes
to find
in the attic
where boxes of words are kept
until some child of words opens the box
and browses the words
and
pauses
silent and not so alone
after all.
David Michael Jackson
The Challenger Roared, a poem
I carried that sign,
I wish you could have seen me
Wake up wake up sweet darling
weep for me
tell me you care now and
tell me you were there,
the Challenger,
the Challenger roared
past dear dear Heather
into the darkness of our hearts
Lost in America Poem by Ken Peters
can’t pay the dues
the ground fees are too much
one neighbor’s a racist
the other’s a sexist
couple across the way
are homophobes
politicians are for sale
doctors are entrepreneurs
ministers spew hate and fear
a used car salesmen told me a lie
so did a president
people talk at me
want me to be
just like them
my heart is a cage
blood rats
spinning the wheels
but I’m too tired
to feel rage
had enough
– Ken Peters
April 14, 2012
Rebel Statue Poem
We can move the church
and native graves out there
but we can’t move the
Rebel statue from the square.
The Nukes Poem
And I didn’t know
what to say,
the correctness of the thing,
the oneness, or the
randomness of the thing,
in the morning,
in the evening,
in
nothingness,
which is where we end up when
we try,
or when we don’t
try
without hope,
which is why God
put
us
here
or more trivial
and evil by the connection,
lockstep,
or
stupid expression of
athiesm, or
what, stupidity?
What did we expect,
that the hordes would not rise?
One wonders
either way,
like the 200 nukes in Pakistan and India
If you cover yourself with manure
then radiation cannot affect
you.
The NUKES are sAFE mAN
nO pROBLEM
everything’s fine,
and if you happen to be from another galaxy and
find this
amid the fossil remains,
well,
we blew ourselves up.