Salaam, Shalom, and Peace Be Upon Us All

Full Definition of RELIGION

1

a :  the state of a religious <a nun in her 20th year ofreligion>

b (1) :  the service and worship of God or the supernatural(2) :  commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance

2

:  a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices

The only definition that loosely applies to me is the second one, not in the personal, but in the community, sense. I don't have any use for "gods" and their capricious, jealous, vengeful ways. I do, however, have much respect for communities, built over many generations, of shared attitudes, beliefs, and practices. Maybe this makes me an atheist. Whatever...

As I believe Jesus exemplified, I think the best way to spread responsible compassion is to invite all to a feast where everyone contributes something. Nobody will ever convince me that pot-luck isn't the way Jesus fed the multitudes who came to hear his stories. He obviously got this hint from his Jewish mother, "Feed them and they will listen to you, but don't think you can satisfy all their special needs. Make it pot-luck, and don't charge admission. Those who don't feed us can clean up the mess."

I blame Paul for ignoring the roots of Jesus's religion, and I blame the Roman Catholic church for putting the marketing of Paul above the patient persistent of the Jews and joyful, Jewish Jesus. I also blame Abraham for allowing Hagar and Abraham's son to be sent into the desert to die, and for attempting to kill his own son Isaac, and for denying the birthright of his first-born, Ishmael. We continue to fight these ancient battles of our ancestors. We should get a life.

Once again, we humans must to dial back the clock of true humanity to another era in order to understand what to do to survive. Can we consider simply dialing it back to Pentecost, when Jesus released his spiritual essence to all who want to embrace it? 

I am not willing to kill anyone and/or his/her children because my (perhaps drunk) father/mother pissed another off several generations ago. Are you?

Salaam, Shalom, and peace be upon us all.

Why Women Are Our Enemies and We Love Them Anyway

I have met many women who were jealous of all others;
This may be where the concept of "a jealous God" began.
Their ferocious "mother tiger" selves strike out at anyone
Who gets between mother and her children, or her man.

It seems to matter not to these ferocious mother tigers,
Whether their protected ones are babies or grown men.
If they perceive presence stronger than their "babies,"
They will strike out, with full force, again and again.

In the knight in shining armor saviors, we like to believe;
It is a myth about the king protecting the princess.
Females coming from families, whether or not royalty,
Are treated as unpaid prostitutes, if not less.

The only way mothers can hand power on to daughters
Is registered financial security, in a mothers name,
This protects daughters as their brothers are protected by fathers.
To prevent all, and anyone, from denying a daughter's claim.

Longing to Be Let Go

You put a curse on your people, then are the hero who takes it away;
I regret that I carry the curse you put on me, even to this very day.
I struggle to be free of you, but you infected the marrow of my bones,
And with your sweet siren songs, you continue to beckon me "home".

How inspiring the great artworks that express the artists' souls;
The music and scriptures proclaim the greatest stories ever told;
The passion of my spiritual family for seeking earthly justice;
It is all of this bedrock of my spiritual journey that I miss.

It was within your walls that I first felt The Sacred Spirit,
Whispering so softly, I was the only one to hear it.
You also gave me what I needed to enable me to think;
I strain against your chains on me, but cannot break the link.

The Sacred Spirits of my siblings have died a million deaths;
Our only chance for healing was that, to us, you'd confess.
It has been far preferable to you to ruin our family name,
By denying your culpability in driving us all insane.

You demand belief in conflicting, simultaneous opinions;
Training, from birth, your "sacred" society's minions,
Demanding that we bow and kneel in front of you,
Though this was not something Jesus would ever do.

Your parish priests are prostitutes collecting a tax,
Spreading fear of hell if faithful communicants relax.
In your fancy temples, you sell the holy sacraments.
When do you intend to do your own penance?

I'd be at peace now if you had killed my physical body;
That you raped my Sacred Spirit was so much worse for me.
You've condemned your victims in your continued hubris;
I am telling you only because I was commanded to do this.

I have no hope of open dialog and reconciliation,
For you will not step down from your elevated station.
Release my soul from the vows I was forced to take,
So that I may honorably, the curse from you, forsake.

Annul your false sacraments so that I may embrace Pentecost,
And reclaim The Sacred Spirit that, in your care, I lost.
Let me go so My Sacred Spirit won't scare others away
Because they are held hostage by what your church would say.

Fathers Are Our Future

 

Every time you dishonor the parent, you also harm the parent's child,
So much more while the child depends on the parent for continued life.
Before a child can walk and bring food to her or his own lips,
Every threat to the sustaining parents makes the child fearful of death.

How is it that what we call humans are still walking upon this earth,
While acting as scavenging animals in their behaviors toward others?
Walking upright and the power of speech is not all that humanity requires.
Even monkeys swinging from trees protect their young better than do we.

Love is what we have for all when we are born; it is only with fear that this is destroyed.
The universe does not play favorites with different tribes and different species.
Even the ancient, unruly gods had to cooperate for humans to thrive.
When will we realize that we have the choice to work or to perish together?

Why do we continue to feed each other into the fires of an earthly hell?
STOP, people! THINK! We are not only animals. We are each a bit of The Sacred.
Look past the skin into the soul, where you will find a perfect baby, like yourself.
Seek out a soul that can see your own and wallow in wonder with this child.

Fathers, hold the mothers as they hold your sons and daughters.
Let your children and their mother breath in your sheltering strength.
Be a full partner in the act of procreation, only begun when you planted your seed.
Your ribs form the foundation for the tent of skin surrounding your sacred family.

Eternal Energy

Our energy is like pollen that we spread to all around us;
Some may open to receive it, and some turn away.
Some can't accept what we offer, as it is foreign to them;
These may remain as our neighbors, but never as family.

Not all around a mighty oak are destined to become trees,
And not only the trees are needed to complete a forest.
Even the duff that's produced by the oak's decay
Is important to sustain the life it, again, becomes.

The only caste system in any culture is imagined;
Neither ants, maggots, nor termites are untouchables.
They are simply the workers that we don't often see,
Refreshing energy for newly formed earthly life.

There's no new energy; it is all Alpha and Omega.
The Spirit than was in the beginning is now and forever.
It is our human duty to shelter The Sacred Spirit
In ourselves and in our family's holy home.

There are those who wish to possess your seeds.
They are the ones who cannot allow any pure beauty,
Without owning and controlling it for their own pleasure.
These will destroy a full forest to build their own beds.

We must be careful to whom we open ourselves.
Is their dust around us pollen or poison?
We must also be careful with whom we share,
As some wish to hoard our Sacred Spirit in a cage.

They will cut us off from the roots that feed us,
And when we wilt and die, they will replace us.
We can only pray that the joy we've given
Will become sacred energy in other's memories.

I was once a mighty oak, in a thriving forest,
But I continued to have branches pruned,
And poisons poured around my roots.
But the poison poured didn't kill all of me.

Two of my acorns lived to sprout in new soil;
By others in the forest, they have been taken away.
When I see them sheltering their own small trees,
And I am overcome with gratitude for their grace.

I weep for the forests that are not nurtured;
Where every leaf that falls is quickly taken away;
Where no care is taken in grafting and pollinating,
And the tiny trees are too crowded to thrive.

I wish that my body could be put upon a pyre,
And set out in the shade of a huge oak tree.
Birds feast on my flesh and bones enrich the soil,
This would seem perfect recycling for my energy.

Or take my body out on my much-loved lake,
With my friends and family in my funeral boat.
Mark the spot where I am placed in the water;
The crabbing will be very good here.

I lived to laugh, love, and leave an impression.
Sing; dance; eat; drink; laugh until you choke.
I see nothing sacred about sadness,
And you will never be free of my energy. HaHa!

The Martyrdom of Motherhood

The worst part of parenting, for me, was the pressure to be perfect.
Fathers don't live with the many reasons their children will, them, reject.
It matters not that the mother must choose to put her own life on the line;
The passive planter of the seed is the parent who is worshiped as divine.

Some believe that mothers are the objects of progeny's worship,
But the "gods" are always free to, their lesser subjects, reject.
When one is found deficient by the god to whom one sacrificed,
The supplicant is encouraged to offer more of one's very life.

This is not the way that humans are taught to see motherhood;
Mothers are seen as the receptacles for all earthly evil and good.
They are also seen as the source, even though they are vessels,
So they are eternally blamed for all universal and earthly ills.

Mothers are also forbidden to ask anything in return;
Demand for justice is reason enough for them to be burned.
My children are long grown, but they still blame me
Because their father didn't think I was as perfect as I should be.

I am weary beyond my human physical capacity;
I will no longer care what others wish that I would be.
It matters no longer to me who thinks I deserve hell;
I simply give what I have, as long as, on earth, I dwell.

I know some will see me as sinner and some as a saint;
The picture of my imprint on earth is not for me to paint.
As a leaf falls and feeds the soil, I see my death;
This is the image that has given my living spirit rest.

I hope the good I gave my children exceeds the bad;
I honestly gave them all the positive energy that I had.
I demand nothing from them because I am not a goddess;
I simply hope they pass on to their children my being's best.

An Attempt to Reverse My Ancestral Curse

The first faces of the Divine that any baby should see
Are the faces of his/her creators, through their sexual unity.
What horrors have been visited on humanity's perceptions
By the pursuit of human power through sacred sex's rejection.

Why must we believe that Mary was eternally a virgin,
And that her partner was denied as her physical husband?
They both came from families, groomed for centuries,
So that their precious progeny would, in sacred truth, lead.

I reject the notion that their child was more than human;
It is on his humanity that my desire to follow depends.
I wish I had more information on his life with his parents;
It seems to be missing, from his teens, and ever since.

Surely someone knows who taught the boy the Talmud;
There must have been rabbis by whom he was best understood.
I will never believe that his Jewish parents on this earth
Were not his first faces of "God" when he was given birth.

God's vengeance is a hoax to assume ultimate eternal power
Over The Sacred Spirit, with which all humans are showered.
If we go back to Genesis in defining each of ourselves,
"Heaven on earth" is where humans can still choose to dwell.

I love my parents and their wrong religion that damned me;
They were limited by what they were told they should see.
I believe that every spark of positive power that was shared
Lives on forever in those for, and by whom, we're cared.

The church of my mother denied heaven to my black nannies,
Even though their unfettered love is what surely saved me.
Jesus had a reason for proclaiming blessings on the wombs,
And black breasts that saved many from early tombs.

I'm a faith baby of the true followers of Jesus, who were black;
They nursed many a child as they and their children were attacked.
I long for a way to make up for the sins of my father and mother,
But I lack the understanding of my race's sisters and brothers.

The color of one's skin is not anyone's decision.
How can we continue to call racists "Christian?"
We must stand with the black parents and their sons;
Many of us owe their grandmothers what we've become.

I am constantly amazed by the capacity for joy in faith
The most oppressed of our people, their Jesus, imitate.
Their children continue to be brutalized for their color;
They suffer along with Mary, their savior's mother.

Religions have been perverted by those who seek personal power;
It is time that humans, on earth, responsible compassion, empower.
The only way I feel that can reverse some ancestral harm
Is the use of strong words, for sounding injustice's alarm.

The travails of humanity, as described by Genesis
Started with the secrecy on which Adam did insist.
Fully listening is the most sacred gift visited on humanity,
The grace from which humanity continues to flee.

Open up our hearts and our truths about our ancestral life,
Without religious predators who wish to, of each, take a slice.
It takes no money are talent to reach out a loving hand;
This is all that the new human covenant truly demands.