I have a few words
for you today
it’s time we had a talk
about the way
we don’t really
see eye to eye
or even
each other
anymore

just so you know,
I didn’t go
under the knife
for vanity
but to take action
in response
to the realization
I could do something
to relieve the weight
of my many mistakes
decisions made
without understanding
and I carried the pain
of consequences
my whole life

The journey of excising
what no longer works
feels more dramatic
than what it does
and actually gives back
freeing up oneself
from outmoded ways
of being
is called coherence
we should teach it
to our children

The biggest misunderstanding
about karma
is the belief
that there is some moral
judgment,
there is not.
I am my own
witness
judge
executioner

The judgment is the net sum
of the practice itself
what is exercised
constantly
whatever we strengthen
grows roots down
and through the fabric
of our evolving shapes
the weight of consequence
is measured against
the willingness
to self-correct

Our identities are made
from thousands
of micro decisions
down to the cellular level
from genetic dispositions
meeting environment
micro macro radicals
the quantum framework
of dreaming ourselves
into being

My poetry is the functional digestion
written
in the technical code
of “adulting”
i.e. language
meeting the expression
of all the grief
facing all the nakedness
from the losses
felt in the process

I’m not so “evolved”
that I can afford
to brush off
the importance of
relationships
to all things
beginning with me
as a mammal
my nature is social
no technology can yet
replace the ineffable quality
the pleasure that comes from
human exchange
we have to stop pretending
we don’t need each other
to make it through
the next decades coming

All kindness matters
nothing is ever lost
it all adds up
in the growing
conscience
we are gaining
as a connected collective
it’s time we acted
like the smart, educated
global intelligence
that we also are