Each Time We Pass (Reposted)

EACH TIME WE PASS

……………………………………………………………………………………………For Jean Giono

Each time we pass
In the corridor or on the street
Let us look at each other and laugh
Let us never be thinking of something else

Until one day in the midst of all the noise
And having pardoned one another for disturbing the silence
Let us begin to laugh
And wait for the idea to catch on

“We have to choose between two alternatives
Progress and peace”
As a beggar once said
And let us choose peace

Let us retrace our steps to the eighteenth century
And try again
Let us admit poverty and famine
Discipline ourselves in trust

Let us stop manufacturing
And make things again
Take the patience to make things
That last a thousand years

Let us close our schools
And begin to teach again
Let us learn to love life with passion
And to prefer death to life

Give back his function to Time
And leave all the destruction to him
Let us think in terms of centuries again
Leaving birth and death to control our population

Let us plant fields of flowers
Use our seeds to feed the birds
Bring deer down from the mountains
And light our skies by the stars

One day in the midst of all the noise
And having pardoned one another for disturbing the silence
Let us begin to laugh
And wait for the idea to catch on …

Elegance

ELEGANCE

The elegance in the room
That no one notices normally
And is rarely spoken of
Remains when everyone departs

Breath

BREATH

You breathe in, you breathe out
You stop a moment and remind yourself
That we are all creatures of habit
The habit of breathing, for one

Choices

CHOICES

Riverside sign warns:
“Deep water and strong currents”.
Shall I sit a while?

Travelling

TRAVELLING

Here a trunk
…full of souvenirs

There a wardrobe
…full of costumes

A comfortable chair
…to enjoy the present

A mirror
…… for reflection

And an open door
…with a WELCOME mat

…for the future

“In the night the walls disappeared
In the day they returned”

This is room enough

…for a journey

Every Time You Succeed

EVERY TIME YOU SUCCEED

Every time you succeed
In analysing the whole problem
To the point where you see exactly what’s wrong
And begin to investigate
Just what the answers are
You realise again
That it’s no use
To try and be clever …

The Inevitable Celestial Typo

THE INEVITABLE CELESTIAL TYPO

Cherish your dear ones
One fateful keystroke upstairs
And it’s “your dead ones”

Passing Clouds

PASSING CLOUDS

I spent the morning in heaven
I spent the afternoon in hell
In the evening I sat in the garden
Serenely sipping lemon tea
And listening to the birds

Judgement

JUDGEMENT

Whatever I did today
Was it of any use?
And to whom?

Perhaps for a moment I had
A moment of simple beauty
Of silence undisturbed

If only they weren’t
All so busy doing
Something they found useful

Would I improve things
Change everything
By sharing?

Not a bad idea
As ideas go
But they do

And besides
It’s attitudes not circumstances
That create events

And all those useful things
They were doing
Instead

In an eyeblink
All this distraction
Is already so perfect

Just so

What Is

WHAT IS

What is
Is what is
What it is
We do not know

Maybe what is
Is what
We make
Ourselves know