Ice

They say the bridge will ice before the road

Because the ground is warmer than the air;

The ground, it seems, is kind enough to care

For those above it. It will bear the load.

The air is free; but freedom can corrode

If it becomes a freedom not to share

Or to consider common goods unfair--

The conman's shield and not the helper's goad.

So air, by flowing fast and wildly free,

Produces ice that makes the bridge unsafe,

And through its motion makes all others' cease;

Its right to move is its security

So duty to another starts to chafe

And its great freedom threatens others' peace.

This Morning With It Brings

The place of peace is not a place of rest.

Peace bubbles up through cracks; it will not be

Slapped on like tape. Peace always seems to crest 

Outside the confines of monotony.

Move; exhale; be part of something more

By stepping out and joining with your friends;

Keep moving on, and then, for an encore

Move yet again. The motion never ends,

For peace is not the target but the path.

It cannot be obtained, or set in stone.

Like all the others--love, or joy, or wrath--

It is not placed within a heart but grown.

To be at peace is to become yourself:

You cannot do it lying on a shelf.

Everything's Very Stupid

Nothing works like it should anymore.

I don't mean this like "old man yells at cloud."

Yes, TVs are quite nice, and I adore

The Internet as concept. We're allowed

To think beyond technology, you know.

The tech is great; but when I watch TV 

Or browse online, my troubles only grow

With every single thing I seem to see:

The jobs we need aren't here; the planet's ill;

Society (which never helped that much)

Has stopped the little that it did to fill

The gap of have and need. We have to clutch 

Each other close, or tear it all apart;

And either way I think it's going to smart.

Slowly Dying

If you would wish for one thing, let it snow.

Let big fat flakes descend across the land

'Til they form dunes more powerful than sand

That only seem to grow, and grow, and grow.

Wish for a snowfall, darling, just to show

How nature can be subject to command;

Subdue the flames humanity has fanned

And let them merely flicker, banked down low.

For if you do not wish, it will not fall

Or if it does fall, it will come as rain

To wash away what little soil remains;

Oh, let it come in answer to your call

To cut against the existential grain

And clothe with white our indemnible stains.

Fear

What do you fear? Alas, what should you not?

There are more things to fear than molecules,

And yet beyond that more I have forgot.

The few of us who do not fear are fools,

Only sustained in hope by their own folly;

To live life unafraid is nothing more.

At Christmas people tell us to be jolly;

Be jolly, then, but not so you ignore

The world around you. Be an honest man

And recognize our frail, decaying polity;

Admit that fear; face it as best you can

And only then engage yourself in jollity.

To be afraid, and still be good, is power;

That is the strength we're called to in this hour.

Sincere

There are so many things that bother me

That is is difficult at times to say how many;

Or to admit the possibility

Of minimizing it so there aren't any.

I'm always on alert (not always well) 

And twitchy in a broad, generic way; 

I know you know it, know that you can tell

When I'm no longer close to a-ok.

It doesn't matter which thing may be bad

Because I trust you to relieve them all

Whether I'm anxious, tired, or just sad

Because you'll catch me, I can safely fall. 

And if perhaps sometimes you're bothered too 

I hope you know that I'd also catch you.

Ashamnu

There is a concept, dear to me,

That says we cannot quite undo

Our own responsibility 

For what was done wrong that we knew.

We knew that there was sin afoot

(Whatever term you use for sin)

But thought that if we did not put

Our stamp on it, then we could spin

Ourselves away from it. But no;

The things we did not act to stop

Are part of us now, even though

We did them not. It's a fair cop:

Too often we ignore what's bad

For fear of making someone mad.

Not

 You are not more special than the rest.

Oh, you are special; don't think otherwise,

But not more special. No, you must excise

The part of you that thinks you are the best

So far as that belief might be expressed

Through only caring when your body dies

And not when others do. That thought lies.

We are all special. Death, then, is a test:

Whose life did you believe in? Whose, dismissed?

And only care about the folks like you

Or who did what you wanted them to do?

Or did you know that people who exist

Are special, every one. Yes, that one too.

Not yours to wish undone or devalue.

L'Tzion

A thousand generations, give or take,

Might be enough, perhaps, to be away;

But to return--is our return to make

Another homeless? I refuse to say

That just because we've long longed for the land

We have exclusive title to it; no,

That is a horrid and a false demand

That we should flourish but no others grow.

Let us abide, ah, let us still remain,

But not at the expense of those still there.

We should best know their common source of pain

And knowing it should be a source of care.

They also love the land, and we know whyfor;

Let us not kill to have what we would die for.

Perfect Design

Nothing has been made that does not need

Upkeep and maintenance as time goes by.

Time will corrode the mountains high,

Silt up the river, set the field to seed

(Exhaust the crop and then exalt the weed),

Tear buildings down, and make their walls a sty

(Or bury them so they can't see the sky).

Time does all this not from disdain or greed

But by its nature. And so we must fight;

We must push back the power of decay

With constant work, unthankful and unceasing.

And since the shit is constantly increasing

The need for this will never go away:

But many hands can make the hard work light.