Love must exist outside time
because your voice sings in the same rhyme
Somehow it all just finds me
these imprints in my memory
of how your voice led me
and try as i will to forget
it comes back in a flash
and that must be what Merlot is for
or a fine Chateauneuf du Pape
so I forget how much I was drawn
though a ship through a storm
to your side. Like butter finds scones
or jelly finds toast, like
angels carry prayers and
hands find hosts.
I was assigned and when I run
and hide, like Jonah swallowed
by the whale, the tale is full
of bad stomach acid and ale.

I once kissed the Blarney Stone
and must have swallowed a lepruchaun
because i caught the rhyming syndrome
like turretts of great irish bards
I think in verse
and while its terse
it makes a point
even if out of joint
i throw a few noses
in space. Grace or a curse
I don't know what's worse,
that thoughts come in iambic
slop or not having a thought at all.
Perhaps its lineage or legacy
from great writers in geneology
or perhaps ancient DNA,
from shores of emerald sheep huts
covered in moss. It comes
with the freckles and carrot ruddy hair
my apologies to faint and faire,
I tried to subdue it, but it keeps coming out
even when i shut my mouth
my fingers dance like marionettes
in siloettes in a french country fair.
Oh dear.

home improvements

All the Professionals agreed
the eyebrows needed trimming
the bikini needed waxed
the legs, oh darling, scratchy
and the keratin comes last
the hair needed straightening
the color can't be grey
the tummy could use a tuck
the nails- completely frayed
the pedicure comes with a rub
of reflexology honey of course,
and if we have time
lets exfoliate and hydrate
and facials are half off till eight.
Lets see, without the tip
that will be five-hundred thirty six
cash only dear, theres the ATM.
God might have made you perfect
but he made us to improve it better
said the sign above the cash register.

Time stood still
when i saw you again
five years still the same
I am still standing in the rain
if you wondered.
You are bubbled absent
trouble not immune to fame.
How does all that adulation
fare upon your greying frame?
Are you eating well enough
I want to feed you pasta
and grain wholewheat
the occasional sweet
and perhaps some pino griggio.
Lovely to see you
i think i will believe now
that angels do visit you
especially one called Gabriel.

Your lullabye
stuck in my eye
and i can't get it out.
I shook my head
by the side of my bed
i'm ready to twist and shout

The Hypocrites Food Stamp Oath.

There is an Icon in my pantry-

 a Jesus hanging on my wall-
my candles sport madonnas -
and my rosary will fall-
out the zipper of my purse-
from medjugordje, and what's worse-
there's a font of holy water-
from Lourdes in a perfume bottle-
and Le Mont Saint Michel-
scrolls around boxed cookies from Charles de Galle
duty free. present to me.
There's a pillow stuffed lavender with John Paul II smelling
nicely my room, four bibles in four languages
adorn the coffee tables
There's a benedict metal under the cross
labelled sacred
There's even a prayer in my head
a song dallying round
and that beggar on the street
must be on too many drugs to eat.

Monestary--

 I took a stroll with my smartphone
 that turned dumb on me
as I clicked gleefully images of a monestary
 in a gallery stuck in T-Moble servers
or possibly the NSA
who now knows I quite adore Roses
of every hue and mosaics galore of things called
'Visitation' and blue Madonnas, 'Annunciation'
and gladiolas
yes, I prefer sitting with statues perched on grottos
 than hustle bustling stations of rushing commuters
in drag called business casual attire
 or congressionals calling out 'liar'
 to Secretaries of HHS and what a mess
 they proclaim. The President lied
 and the tsunamic tide
of upset has hit the power circuitry 
in unambigiously mean vitriol .
I prefer a stroll
through rose-land peach and red,
pink and orange and did I mention
Saint Anthony standing without ceremony
holding Jesus in the middle of the Road.

I was yours before time before the rhyme sublime subdued a mind racing through graces and delusions. I was yours through moutains and hills and far away stills of images and moving panoramas in vistas of pilgrimmages on knees climbing holy stairs. I was yours there too. Right behind you counting the holy climb and still am yours though behind a curtain or prisonish grate like a saint I was yours then and now again awaiting some heaven sent deliverance some sign from the sky that i won't die before the goodness of the Lord quietly replies--yes. Its your time.

Groove In G | Playing For Change

http://www.youtube.com/v/6LQhamwJcVY?version=3&autohide=1&autohide=1&feature=share&autoplay=1&attribution_tag=b_hRMLu4tML5K74qfvV5TQ&showinfo=1

God Is

Love.
A Family.
A Holy Family.

Repeat after me. God is a Holy Family.

The Origin of Halloween

http://www.youtube.com/v/iWys4k4Eca4?version=3&autohide=1&autoplay=1&autohide=1&feature=share&showinfo=1&attribution_tag=KH3uhPpu3n9DapVH3h47bQ

if God is real
he hears my prayers
as old as they may be
and stored unspoken years
abated, silenced by the sea

if God is real
he knows my cry
in vapid desolation. And never
did i waiver in my dedication

If God is real he knows
i'm true and have been all the while
 For mystery and mercy over misery
i exist still quite undeservedly
I am here for you unreservedly
and that may be the only reason
still I am in earthly form.

What will it take for you to shake
the thorns that imprison your soul
and steal all joy from the purpose
of your toil.

My wait is long my song
unsung, I cannot hold much longer
the grasp on this rope has burned
my hands and my hope needs yet a tinder.

You are the poetry of my voice,
the reason i can sing. To which naked
emperor must I plead do not take my
sunshine away.

http://www.godvine.com/Bible-and-Sand-fb-gv-4151.html

6,000 lbs of food on 1/10th acre - Urban Farm - Urban Homestead - Growin...

Don't Worry | Playing For Change | Song Around the World

Anonymous - Obamas oath to defend the US constitution

This made a valid point until it said "we are legion" "we do not forgive"--then it just was creepy. really creepy.

Gov. Gary Johnson slams NSA spying

Stop Watching Us: The Video

Long Live Pope Francis

 "Prophecy makes noise, uproar, some say ‘a mess.’ But in reality, the charism of religious people is like yeast: prophecy announces the spirit of the Gospel.”  Pope Francis.



In todays episode of "Unless you are living under a Rock" you know about the AMERICA article. THE AMERICA ARTICLE. The one where Pope Francis gave long interviews to Jesuits who wrote all about him in a long article. Not a spontaneous fly by the seat of your flying. If you don't know about it just google Pope Francis America Magazine. America Magazine is the pre-eminent national Jesuit publication in America. Hence, the title.

     Commentators far more learned than I in things ecclesiastical are breaking it down. My synopsis is this: Pope to Conservative Wing-Nut subsidiary division: Get A Life Already.

     This is a kinder, gentler, Pope. One who calls himself a 'sinner' -not as Fr. James Martin, S.J. points out in a self laudatory manner like "sinner redeemed" or "beloved sinner"- but in a more self depricating way where he is convicted of his humanity. Like all of us. Sinners. Skanky even.

     The headlines grabbed the political hot buttons. They read like "Get Over Yourselves" on the gay marriage and abortion shame politics. They read like - "you guys are obsessed" with things that are demeaning and diminishing the mission of the Holy Spirit.  Catechism is useless if not first predicated on the message of God's saving Love first. Otherwise it degenerates into a petty legalism that is more off-putting than inviting. Sometimes it runs riot over Love.

    The obsession has a pay-off or no one would do it. And the pay off is huge. Republican shame politics that drives some of the corruption of the gospel message is hard to miss in Washington where no one seems to make anything but issues. If you can generate a meme where we are the good guys and they are the bad guys you can use it to fundraise. Piles and piles of money are raised in fact on self-congratulatory dinners where people back slap at hundreds a plate on how they are the good guys fighting the corrupted evil guys who think 'marriage matters' for everyone.

  The word "traditional' tends to be a rallying point for more lobbying money. Traditional families, traditional morality, traditional male-female, traditional everything. Send in that Fiddler on the Roof guy. Yes, tradition is good. Some of them- slavery was a tradition and it was not so good. Women traditionally had no right to vote until 1920 in America. Hence, everything 'traditional" isn't intrinsically good unless it was a good tradition. I digress.

     Other words are lobbying rallying fundraising catchers like "catholic vote." Because unless you vote like us catholics think you should you can't call yourself catholic. Only we are catholics. You are catholic lite, or cafeteria catholics or , my favorite, just maybe Presbyterian.

     So the question remains, because the demonizing of the other side in polarizing politics is so prevalent and so keyed into the egos of needy young "what else am i supposed to do with my theology masters degree) people in Washington, will the Pope's comments make a difference. Will his plea to get some 'balance' back and stop 'obsessing' have any resonance. When he says STOP obsessing on gay people or what they want to do (some 2-5 percent of any given population) will people actually Get A Life and stop slandering gay people and those who think they are really wonderful nice humans?

   Will people start to think of jobs plans, ways to incentivize green technology developments, or how to harnass solar power for cars top the agenda over slandering people and ruining their social lives? Will people care more about decent affordable housing and exploitative housing practices? Or the other issues that plaque the despirately poor like shortages of good jobs at living wages, or child care costs for working single mothers?  or the fact that it costs the price of a small car to get dental work for people over 50 who have normal people over 50 dental issues?

     What energy and funds have been spent on bullying, ostracizing and demonizing gay people and anyone who said 'leave them alone'  that could have been productively spent on things that affect everyone?  Where does it say in Matthew 25, those who like gay people and want to treat them like humans go to my left to the netherworld??  There is not one mention of gay people in Matthew 25. When the Pope says get a balance, it is his nice way of saying- How Does This Love Your Neighbor?

   That should be the hallmark of every act, policy, lobby campaign, and budget inquiry in any Archdiocese- How Does This Love Our Neighbors.

    That's the only law you have to be worried about.

 

 http://edition.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2013/09/19/pope-father-martin-amanpour.cnn.html

   

 

   

In Memoriam

To the Fine Jesuit who wrote this. Rest in Peace.

Its timely, insightful and urgently needed reflection now.

http://www.americamagazine.org/issue/533/article/little-gray-cells
http://www.americamagazine.org/issue/533/article/little-gray-cells


      Jesus never asked anyone of the thousands on the hill what their political views were on any subject before  feeding them. Neither did he ask anyone their political views before healing them. He did not impose a canon law litmus test as a pre-requisite to attending any event or listening to him. He did not anywhere anytime kick anyone out of a gathering for harboring views discordant with his, to the contrary he sat and ate with Pharisees, Scribes, and top biblical scholars of his day who thought he was off his gord.

   The brain dead mediocrity of theological thought that merely parrots doctrine as a form of spiritualism goes nowhere but to oppression and Jesus came to free from oppression. All kinds of oppression. Even the oppressions of petty dogmatisms.

   Someone with a little catechismal stamp  of approval is no closer to God for memorizing anything than the person who devotes their life to good deeds. Perhaps this is why the Pope is rattling so many conservative catholic feathers when he suggests that even people with lack of 'formation' on dogmatic issues are going to get to heaven if they seek God with pure hearts.

    The conservative catholic world likes conformity without critical reasoning in part because it is easier to not think for yourself. It is easier to be spoon-fed what others want you to think and feel without exploring what you actually do from the base of your own intellect.

   The tradition of non-critical catholic thinking came about because societies were organized around a language that not everyone spoke- ancient latin. In the dark and middle ages most people could not read in any tongue in Europe much less latin, so the official scholars had to tell you what scripture said.

  The invention of the Guttenberg Press made translations of a bible into every common language possible and people started reading and reasoning for themselves what Jesus actually said, as opposed to what a priest said he said.  It didn't take long thereafter before people figured out that some of what the priests or bishops said Jesus said or wanted was a bit off the rails. Take 'indulgences' for example for buttressing and beefing up  the building fund of the new Vatican building to pay people like MIchelangelo and Rafael from the coffers of starving German peasants parishes. Now it is accepted that
extorting people with the threat of hell lest they buy indulgences is not exactly proper. The pay to play game doesn't exactly work for buying your way into heaven- see, e.g. that widow's mite.

    The commandment to Love God with all your MIND as well as everything else suggests that he wants everyone to use it to the fullest of its capacity. The fact that Jesus came that we all should have Life abundantly and in fact this was the point of his mission (I came that you all would have life and have it abundantly) suggests that any soul crushing dogma that demoralizes, diminishes, denegrates, or desponds life into despair is decidedly NOT Jesus.

   Its time for the church to stop persecuting itself in the name of misguided 'discipline'. An open heart requires an open mind.  I recommend a committee immediately to restudy and reexaming all canon laws  that is not composed exclusively of Dominicans but has a fair balance of Jesuits and scripture scholars from all traditions in it. The Inquisition is Over.

Many  Thanks to Fr. James Martin , SJ. for forwarding the above article.