I tried to be good in life.
I was honest, worked hard, and was kind,
But all I faced was strife
Bad thoughts permeated my mind.
I became angry.
I was sad,
Downright outrageously mad.
Enough of it I’d had.
I put on my camouflage,
And climbed to the top of a shady knoll.
I waited in quiet.
Hoping to catch Karma out on a stroll.
I waited for days, for months, for years.
Finally, I spotted Karma on the trail.
When she approached, I jumped out
And began to wail,
How, Karma, could you possibly fail?
No one has paid!
No vengeance has been served,
And here I am withered and unnerved.
Karma whispered
Those people for which you have spite
On their door I could arrive, in fact, I just might.
They may fall down the stairs or lose their sight
They may end up alone, or confused, or scared,
I am Karma and I will not tell who I’ve spared.
You’ll never know what I do.
None of what happens is up to you.
Best let go of your hate,
or I, Karma, may follow you back to your gate.
From birth to death and back again
An arc that’s bending now to then
A spiral in this time and space
Around a pole that has no trace
A mystery the jesters sing
“Best thing in life is not a thing”
And yet, it’s really all we know
Our joy and sorrow’s how we grow
We wish for more if truth be told
But life is more than growing old
A life well lived in playing out
Leaves us at last without a doubt
Saint or sinner, calm or deranged
All in the end, forever changed
LATE AGAIN GAUTAMA BUDDHA
I am late again Gautama's teachings
Where’s this child? All I found was Dukkha, karma, nirvana
A man crucified. A well-rounded God
Feel them in my tendons
Hear them in the quiet
See them in the wind
Smell their fragrance
A constant in my life
Like a steel manacle
Arrested and limited
I must pay the price
Sins from lives past
Karmic justice served
Grow I must or else
Be trapped hereafter
So I speak the truth
I am compassionate
Eschewing victimhood
Pleasing higher beings
Good karma moved quietly,
Revolving back with purpose,
Finding the hands that gave
Without witness,
Lifting the hearts that remained
True in the shadows-
Returning softly
We get sadistic,
As per the passage of time;
We must pay for it.
Words do not always need to be loud;
they can be quiet,
kept hidden behind the outburst of a closing door,
or the hasty shutting of a window,
or the abrupt pulling away of a chair:
all of which can be called silence.
It has its own comfort zone,
at least for me now,
filled with the lingering air,
as though the air were scented with the perfumes of Arabia,
which could never sweeten Lady Macbeth’s little hand;
yet the perfume was not silent;
it carried loudness within.
Karma returns in silence.
Although the path toward heaven or hell
never remains unheard,
it is a long, hard road until the last dawn.
It is only me, myself, and my karma,
bearing every other entity within me
and negotiating with them
through my only companion: Silence.
I need to be heard in silence,
need to be nurtured in quietness,
need to perform without being noticed,
need to remain steady in my stillness.
I wish to be trapped in silence;
it might be a celestial trap,
where the trap itself is worshipped,
because it is a religion.
Teardrops are drawn up
Into the darkest of clouds
To gather and wait
Becoming sharp icicles
Daggers for those who caused pain
Brilliant execution
Orders followed
Self preservation
Far from battle
Cloistered warmly, safe
Divinely chosen to sit
In Bill's house on the hill
Awaiting the body count
Lives snuffed out
Two years ago
Did not go away
Now back to haunt
Karma is real; payback
In other lives and places
Time's a continuum
Matter's indestructible
Cheer there is such a thing as political karma
Sneer as your career fell off a pier Keir Starmer
No panacea clear nadir we jeer at sheer drama
Come forth King of the North such a charmer
Life so rife with strife & won’t make it calmer
But better go getter trend setter & vote farmer
Coup not out of the blue...Andy the embalmer
Outwitting Keir who’s been spitting like a llama
Might not become a peer or knight in armour
Rejection then ejection he’s an election harmer
A phony baloney Tony crony no Barack Obama
More banal bananarama than BBC's panorama
Out of date mate like melon & ham from Parma
Chance of return from exile same as Dalai Lama
Lost to a show pony time for a holiday in Palma
Black and sticky
Karma filled up
Wears me down
Achy swelling
Universal truth
Virtue uncultivated
State changed
Rebirthed anew
Matters energy
Never ending
Reformed anew
With karmic debt
Repayment due
Suffering, (dis)ease
Attachments galore
Cosmc disconnect
Lovers’ Tale:
Death and Life are opposite sides of the wheel,
But do we truly know how they feel?
Separated from each other,
Couldn’t love a person any other.
Misunderstood by everyone,
Thought Death will bring down our sun,
We locked Death underground in hell,
And Life in skies as her heart fell.
The anger and hatred will never be forgotten,
For now, she is the Mara we made with our hearts rotten.
Oh! And Death, he was the angel from heaven, now Satan.
That is why the realm of men will never be a safe haven.
Men wrote Life as something to look up to,
And Death as something to look down upon.
But in these lovers’ perspective,
It is very fictive.
This is the fate they have accepted,
Of punishing those whose decisions had them corrupted.
Life is now believed as an endless cycle of Karma,
And Death is believed as an endless rest.
This is because the reality broke them,
And now reality is cruel just like our hearts.
("Let There Be Life", 2026, original encaustic)
I went for a walk in the woods
And all around me
There was rot and decay
And within that, because of that
There was life.
We can resist
Reject and dislike
What it does
Even kick and scream
But It will always win.
(6/8/26)
(“Dark Pool of Light Nebula #3”, 2011, original oil)
Excited and inspired
Hurt and in need of healing
Bored and disillusioned
Three sides of a coin
We toss
Again and again
Compulsive gamblers all
Until the game is done
And the ferryman collects
(6/8/26)
(“Crappy Collective Karma Happens Too Merit Badge”, 2014, original oil)
Seeking completion
We’re all part and partial to
One or the other
(6/8/26)
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