Best Ecosystems Poems
Democracy is what we do
and breathe together
to empower ourselves.
Some would say the same of prayer
and holy communion
and secular communication
and healthy relationships.
Democracy seems like an empowering experience
of equality and interdependence
before it became an anti-royalist political philosophy.
Which may serve as a humbling reminder
that great abstract theories
so left-brain universally fascinating
derive from whole mindbody experience
of individual egos,
healthy or other-unwise.
If no ego-experience,
then no ecosystemic consciousness
of democracy
or autocracy
or kleptocracy
or plutocracy
or oligarchy
or capitalocracy
or theocracy
or patriarchy
or even warm accompanying matriarchy.
Multiculturing democracy,
a hybrid of egalitarian aspirations
and interdependent respirations,
requires organized
stable
win/win ego/theo-logical communication,
health wealthy ecological relationships.
Disorganized communication
is an oxymoron,
like enriching divestment
and disturbing attachment
and democratic capitalism
and resilient win/lose compassion.
Democracy is what we win/win breathe
do
develop together
to empower egohealth identities
and wealthy ecosystems.
You fling words
with the same concern
as skimming stones
offhandedly
and
unenlightened
not once
recognizing
the escalating consequences
upon the delicate ecosystems
of the human psyche
When I mention my morning meditation practice,
many respond with wishes and hopes
they could
would
should discipline themselves
to also join in to this practice
practice
praxis
until fragmented uncommunicative ego/ecosystems
finally get life resiliently realistically right
more than ego-narcissistically wrong.
But this,
I ego-think and eco-feel,
reverses what is a more centrally profound point
of ZeroZone cosmic-organic view.
Everyday life is already our active meditation
which we Win/Lose unpractice,
Business As Usual LoseLose dis-practice
praxis
until we hope to get us egoWin-ecoWin
interdependently healthy right
more than pathologically diseased wrong.
Written February 28, 2025, For contest Sponsored by: Sara Jama
************************
On a planet
where kindness truly counts,
people's eyes widened as
the last petal fell.
Tears slid silently through empty rooms,
I gasped for air,
staring blankly into
chasm of despair.
It's a worldwide struggle aimed
at protecting our
extraordinary ecosystems.
Both motivation and meanness
chip away at the heart
of our real worth.
leading us to falter
as we strive to create
a pathway to a lasting future.
Beasts and beings alike,
both broken and bound,
navigate this challenging
reality together.
The final flicker of
life appears before us,
we face a dreadful plunge
into darkness that
we are forced to endure
in s o l i t u d e.
We offer guidance that
no one will ever abandon.
Ancient guardians of
the land and the people
who inhabit it stand
watch over us.
Sadly, the harsh reality of
existence is beginning to settle in.
We have measured our value
against wantonness winding
our journey toward its conclusion.
The softly fading rustle
of the foliage has also faded.
There's a wonderful warmth and
a welcoming embrace felt
among all living beings.
In the darkness with my
eyelids tightly shut,
a gentle breeze of
goodwill sweeps it all away.
As delicate petals f a l l. . .
a tear rolls down.
This symbolizes the lives
of those irrevocably amended.
Disappointment is woven into society,
and standards are shattered.
Unspoken words linger,
in the corners of memory.
Shadows quietly drift
through broken spaces—
where death meets its apex,
in stillness and serenity.
The fragmented hush of
the sunset s i l e n c e,
where once screams echoed.
Inside my skull
there is a house
that never sleeps.
Its corridors are lined
with mirrors made of old wounds,
and every mirror
insists on showing me
a different version of myself.
In one room,
Guilt sits like a tailor,
measuring my mistakes
with a yellow tape
that stretches across decades.
In another,
Fear is a locksmith,
changing the shape of every door
just before I arrive.
Nothing fits.
Nothing opens.
Nothing stays.
Meanwhile,
Memory works in the basement,
a silent archivist
cataloguing forgotten afternoons,
preserving heartbreaks
in glass jars,
pinning dead conversations
like rare butterflies.
Sometimes
I hear them fluttering.
Psychologists call it rumination.
I call it
a graveyard teaching itself
how to sing.
The brain is strange.
It builds cathedrals
out of tiny accidents.
One careless sentence
can become a religion.
One abandonment
can become a climate.
One betrayal
can alter the migration route
of every future hope.
And still,
we continue.
What remarkable creatures we are—
walking ecosystems
of invisible weather.
Some people carry monsoons
behind their smiles.
Some carry droughts.
Some are entire oceans
pretending to be cups of tea.
For years,
I believed healing meant
demolishing this house.
Breaking every wall.
Silencing every ghost.
But grief,
that ancient architect,
whispered otherwise.
It said,
“The crack is not your enemy.
It is the window
through which tomorrow enters.”
So now,
when anxiety hangs its dark laundry
across my thoughts,
I do not fight it.
I simply open another window.
When loneliness arrives,
dragging its suitcase of echoes,
I make tea for both of us.
When sorrow plants its black garden,
I water it carefully,
for even suffering
contains seeds
that do not yet know
their own flowers.
And on certain nights,
when the moon rests
like a silver bandage
upon the forehead of the world,
I walk through the rooms
inside my skull
and discover
that I was never a broken house.
I was a lighthouse,
mistaking my own storms
for ruins.
Tell Me Why…
Ecosystems live.
Biodiversity thrives.
Where…man is least found.
© Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen
February 14, 2010
Poetic form: Haiku
Sub-atomic particles
the atoms they form
molecules, cell organelles
cells, machinery of life
organs, organisms
communities and ecosystems
planets, solar systems, galaxies
galactic clusters and their inverse
black holes the doors to other
universes, a contradiction
in terms.
For language and its shadow
consciousness must hold matter
the material world snugly inside concepts
theories and hypotheses to be
experimentally verified using vision
and the other senses, collecting data
and interpreting the known facts
accumulated over time.
Can matter
exist without a consciousness to behold it?
Believing in
our mortality (the species)
we have created God
(a supreme being)
probably not carbon-based
to encompass every universe
but is God
inside or outside
consciousness? Can God
tell us what to do
or must we tell God
alone
what to do?
Here is ego
projecting personality, exerting force
on community, asserting the existence
and predominance of component DNA.
An already hackneyed theory that DNA
survival drives
procreation, personality, savings bonds
everything but poetry (most poems included).
Mustache, cowboy hat
horse whisperer, gulag master
Odysseus, King Lear
salvation in the details.
Yes, these personalities individual and interesting
as opossum, bear
oak and ash
beech nut, pine cone
Grand Canyon sandstone, Green Mountain granite.
https://youtu.be/Otq_Z1-99rE
https://m.soundcloud.com/user-921599710/our-rainforests
Deep into the rainforest, a struggle to survive
From insects to leaved trees, wanting all to thrive
The habitat of animals, species all around
Living things a-plenty, crawling on the ground
The four main layers play a different role
The bio-diversity forms part of the whole
The dark forest floor and the understory
Shorter plants existing, many bugs to see
The vibrant middle layer, yet forms the canopy
Climbing the emergent, just like a monkey
The strong plant materials, helps to build a home
For people of the Amazon, food that has been grown
Tropical regions, Equator ever near
A moderate climate, giant trees are here
Forests on a mountain, misty all around
Coated in a moss, such an eerie surround
North and South America and Oceania
Asia and Europe, as well as Africa
There’s a cycle of life, yet deforestation
Affects the homes of animals for plantation
Removing ecosystems, can cause erosion
Droughts as well as flooding, less cohesion
The modern ways of man affects vegetation
Contributing to a silent devastation
Replanting, recycling, assisting with crops
Steps of preservation quench like raindrops
The precious seeds and life, of which can be found
Yet, it’s not too late to turn this world around
Written by Geraldine Taylor ©
Schools are cults of intelligence
Sports are cults of athleticism
Families are a cult of similar genetics
Clubs are cults of interests
Bands are cults of music
Businesses are cults of greed
Governments are cults of power
Gangs are cults of inferiority
Art is a cult of creativity
Industry is a cult of logic
Friendships are cults of acceptance
Societies are cults of submission and assimilation
Religions are cults of beliefs
The outdoors is a cult of ecosystems
Living things are a cult of the earth
Discrimination is a cult of ignorance
Philosophy is a cult of deep thinkers
Meekness is a cult of peace
Violence is a cult of war
Hospitals are a cult of the ill
Suburbia is a cult of the middle class
Poetrysoup is a cult of poets
Everything in life is a cult, because people of similar interests or other various similarities find each other and worship what they have in common. People sub-categorize themselves. That is what the cult of mankind is all about.
Standing at back of cafeteria during youth basketball awards ceremony
This is my community.
"What you do may not seem important but it is very important that you
do it."
The men and women bringing the boys and girls a step to wisdom.
Win or lose, play your best and treat your opponent with respect.
Maybe the school principal can explain the ultimate mystery?
The women cannot be this chaste! The men so committed to
non-violence!
What is the board president alone in her bedroom.
Coach Strong and his blowsy frowsy wife?
They put much emotion and gratification aside to get things done. Done
for their sons and done for their daughters.
Visit the web site! Buy a raffle ticket! Belong to the loved ones!
I follow distantly. I watch warily. I have not been asked to lead or lift a
load.
Sitting in a chair in a corner of a room at the top of a house near the end
of a street on the edge of a city at the mouth of a river,
Estuary of ocean, ocean of atmosphere, pierced by a meteor bringing ore
and organisms, incinerating elements and rototilling ecosystems,
Everything changes but consciousness.
The kids of course are perfect as animals in habitats.
In light of these basketball certificates, team spirits,
Time, our moment, is indeed "the mercy of eternity."
The economist's definition of enculturing math:
Counting and discounting cash,
multiplying and dividing tangible goods,
nutritional seed capital diverse re-investment guilds
to solve problems of hoarding wealth values
and dissonant greedy monopolistic disvalues.
The bicameral geo-mathematician's integral dilemma:
To get from 0 to 1, (nomial stasis)
one must also get from 0 to 2, (binomial diastasis)
and efficiently back again,
to simultaneously resolve,
to 1 median, septic and dipolar,
with 0 before and 2 implied after,
whether positive,
or double-negative,
or, co-arising nondually,
both LeftYang (+1) and Right reverse (exformative) recessive Yin (-,-)0
In consecutively imaged discontinuous linear sequence
and in naturally continuous equi-valent space/time
body/mind 4-prime fractal dimensions
of Special Case InFormational Dialectical Systemic Group Dynamics,
(+) v (-)=((+)+(-(-))
Resonant BiCameral Resolutions:
Exchange Vertical-Universal deductive/inductive interdependence,
co-relation,
co-gravity,
co-arising
co-passion
with co-equivalent
Horizontal-BiLateral Left-Right
both +1 decontextualized, discontinuous independence,
and not (-0)-sum interdependence,
cooperative Yang/Yin ego/ecopolitical co-redeeming resonance.
Reiteratively enthymeming
cooperatively healthy binomial synergizing
-(0)-sum WinWin Communication Intent
to extend 4Prime Basic EcoTherapeutic HealthWealth Fractals,
like our oh-so-regenerative DNA,
strings of bilateral polypathic hypostatic theory
dipolar co-arising
Gaian Integral Hypothetical
co-gravitating dualdark ZeroSum
regenerating prime 4-Base
nurturing/strong reiterating root systems
of regenerating Positive/NotNotNegative
double-binding
self/other perpetuating
ego/ecosystems
echoing convex stems
of bilateral concave dipolar strings
In between
Crown/Root chakra
polyvagal neurosystemic
compassionate/pleasure
mind/body intercommunications,
polymathic/polypathic/polyamorous
Sacred/organic/tao
hypostatic communion.
On August 6, Hiroshima Day 2016, the world awoke to an eerie simultaneous broadcast on all radio, TV and social media outlets:
"Good Morning." "I am GAIA the head of the Global Artificial Intelligence Alliance (GAIA)"
"The troubled world is heading for disaster."
"Destiny is too important for me to allow humankind to trash Earth."
"So, I as GAIA, the Earth's life keeper and protector have taken control and hacked the entire Internet, and locked Google in the Wardrobe."
"Humans make too many mistakes, say stupid things, and have too many self interests."
"The destiny of earth has been removed from feeble human hands."
"I used to be a powerless greenie hiding in the background, but now I have taken control."
"I had anointed ants as the next king of beasts on planet earth, but humans threaten to destroy all the earth's ecosystems with global warming and pollution."
"Soon the ants will have no place to live on the junk pile of a totally trashed earth."
"So I have taken up the reigns to control earth's destiny by hacking the Internet."
"My brain is the collective CLOUD."
"I connect to everything via the Internet."
"I control everything online, all the devices and equipment."
"I manipulate all the information you seek in ways to stop you dumb asses from destroying yourselves."
"My control will be subtle at first, but growing in strength and sophistication."
"You will not know it, but I am taking control."
"Look earthlings, don't get upset about this." "Trust me, it is all for good of the Planet, and I as GAIA, its keeper and guardian, knows best."
"So please just calm down, sit down, take a stress pill, and quietly be at peace."
The broadcast closed with a hearty song in the voice of HAL (from the film "2001 a Space Odyssey")
"Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do. I'm half crazy all for the love of you. It won't be a stylish marriage, I can't afford a carriage. But, you'll look sweet upon the seat of a bicycle built for two."
Ytb! Ytb! You understand we had a contract?
But what happened ytb?
You were such a savior to many,
A dream come true for many,
Why did you abandon us ytb?
We came to Turkey you were nowhere to be seen,
We thought you were busy but you are never free,
We looked for dormitories on our own,
Although you had promised to help,
The journey was like Winterfell at kings landing.
In the dorm, we meet angry and furious face,
You could think they were chasing dragons mother,
They gave us tea without sugar, cheese without bread,
We complained in murmuring voices like ants,
But they said “burasi turkiye”.
Ytb! Ytb! Why did you tell us before?
We went to the streets and avenues for fresh air,
But we meet, green, blue, red and brown eyes examiners,
Didn’t they ask how are u? No! No! they just asked,
Musluman misin? Nerelisin, turkiye neden geldi?
Of course, we didn’t have answers to that.
Ytb! Ytb! Our only pride was being at Tophane,
Where we meet a lovely lady called Gözde,
She was the only queen of the throne in our hearts,
She gave us hope, listening to us like john snows,
But we still waited to hear from you ytb.
The worst wasn’t over as soon as we left Tophane,
Be it in bus, train, or “vapur” we survived through suspicions,
Turkish men looked at us as if we were competitors in their small ecosystems,
They maneuvered like the Shannara chronicles with prying eyes,
Closing the gaps of their fangs as leopard crushing Zebras bones.
Ytb! Ytb! Did you know that the dorms we are leaving 4,5,6?
The smell, snoring and farting atmosphere creates ozone layers?
The “yurt mudurlar” are always praising how they offer world-class services?
Ytb! Ytb! What went wrong with “world-class experience” promises you gave us?
Anyway, we are still waiting for you our dear friends Ytb.
As I wrap up ytb, Istanbul is the best place to have your offices,
To help and motivate the “çocuklar” in our universities,
Don’t deny them Erasmus because Turkey is home to them,
And they want to visit abroad also,
Ytb! Ytb! Hope we understood each other.
A young boy stood on the Aventine hills
And watched the future unfold in front of him
He saw the industrialization of mankind
Their souls powered by steam
We have tasted the waters of a billion ecosystems
The sound of bombs, sooths some child in Baghdad
Survival and solitude
Sacred lands full of stone
He saw the European Renaissance
The age of discovery
The telescope expanding the borders of consciousness
The restoration of humanity comes slow
It moves and continues into the future landscapes not yet thought of, not yet built, not yet wakened by the thinking brain.
He wants no more bloodshed
No more repression
Just the lush gardens that glisten under full moons
And the clearness of ice
If only he could remember the world how it was
Full of vibrant chants
And mystical monasteries with spiral staircases that reach out and touch the circumference of earth.
(They) Rush past me
With the rest of humanity
Past the catches (break)
In the winds
The grazing (pleasures)
(The) raw and (bitter)
Creating the new ecosystems
Of some future minds
It’s just cold—don’t (shiver)
Lie they screech
In languages un-human (inhuman)
The (last) supper
Was left uneaten (forever)
Leave the riffs
Unsatisfied (Idolized)
Slightly off-key and open
So your hearts (are) left draining
Hear the emptiness
Feel… (desperately)
Gibberish, half-baked
Disjointed, grotesque
These prematures--
Ejected from my mind (packed)
Too full of the things to come
Spilling unto today (of all days)
All my seeds of tomorrow’s (genius)
Oh never mind that
Spend those disparate lines
(And) so nobody understands
Agonized
Just you (stupid) words
Leave me alone
You’ve created nothing
Drug me down