A little poem

I whispered promises

In tomorrow’s ear,

And heard the laughter

Of yesterday…

Who overheard.

A soldier's poem

A Soldier’s Poem

Remembering

Soul, soaked in scream,

I never sang.

I unknew loving.

I killed a yellow man,

(Pounding him with the first, the second,

The thousandth bullet of our rage.)

Part me was in his shroud of dead flesh.

Memory (now)

Is not the calendar of the evening news.

It is the every breathing act.

Healing

My child knows me only as seed.

And what can I share in stories

Told in blood, scattered flesh,

And all the things I came to do

At the edge of duty.

Look at me

Wearing shame and rage

And all the other medals

Of the rituals of that code.

So I give out my pain

Not dilution, not sacrament.

Reconciliation to the always-will-be-ness of it.

Acceptance is a solitary, daylight act.

And so I end-begin.

Task for the day

Spend 15 minutes thinking about whether there is anything you can do to make the universe care about you.

When

When you think you are educated, ask yourself what that really means.

When you think you love someone, ask yourself what that really means.

When you think you are enlightened, ask yourself what that really means.

When you think you are a human being, ask yourself what that really means.

When you think you speak for God, ask yourself what that really means.

Virginia in the news

I grew up in the segregated South, where it was common for elementary schools to put on a black-face minstrel show as a fund raiser. That, in retrospect, was ignorant and offensive. But that was the reality of the culture. Probably most Southerners of that time could be found to have made some racist gesture. But most of us have long since put that thinking and those attitudes aside.

The Governor of Virginia has been accused of such a racist gesture. Black-face is cruel and stupid, and the media has called the discovery of this yearbook picture a “bombshell” and a “deep controversy.” To me, this is one more example of the attention-grabber presentation of news stories. We get lots of reaction with little investigation.

In this instance, I would ask what, in the almost 40 years since this yearbook picture, the Governor’s record of words and actions say about his attitudes toward racism. Have they changed significantly? Has he matured? How has he incorporated these into his public life?

This is the proper role of the news. Look at the evidence, not the accusations alone. The news is the whole story, not just the bombshell.

making art

Many times I hear artists talk about the courage it takes to make art and the uncertainty that is part of a career in art. That certainly is true. But people living under war, turmoil, poverty, racism, bigotry and sexual repression must live with uncertainty and act with courage every day just to survive.

For me the real courage is not in making art, but in making art that says something that must be said, no matter the consequences. That is the courage of vision and conviction, with the uncertainty of its acceptance in the world.