The Walls of Sin
I can weave my words in verses.
I can try to write in prose.
But until I see some action,
I will never find repose.
My words may lull my readers,
Or wake them up from sleep,
But until the deeds have followed,
Their impact can’t be deep—
For words are far too easy,
And deeds are often hard.
For every verse I fashion,
I find a broken shard.
It tells of visions shattered,
It speaks of things undone.
How many are the losses
For every battle won?
Our spans are so uncertain—
Except in that they end.
We seek some satisfaction—
Before we are at end.
What action do I look for?
Should it be yours or mine?
It’s an ebbing, of the madness,
That might need a grace divine.
But no god will come to aid us
And no leader, heaven-sent.
We can wait for gods forever.
We can follow—and repent.
I am looking for the vision
That can see the trap we’re in.
I am waiting for the action
From the heart that’s cleansed of sin.
For long, a tide’s been rising
That brings us more of lies.
We can work towards its turning,
But only if we’re wise.
We are busy with our duties
Or sundry pleasures, so
We limit heart and vision—
And query, even more.
Can truth be gleaned from fiction,
Or virtue born from vice?
Can warmth be found in beings,
Whose hearts have turned to ice?
If we see the faults of others
But not our own, we sink
Towards a dark suspicion
That stems from how we think.
If we note the act of evil
But not the ones of good,
We feed the fire within us
With more of kindling wood.
The anger and the hatred
Can burn away the soul.
Could Yeshua or Gotama
Make such a being whole?
We sicken from the slaughter.
We hide our hearts away.
So darkness is ascendant.
What hope remains for day?
But see, the ones who're shielded
From mayhem and from worse—
They too have lost their senses,
And they can't be cured by verse.
When people cease from hearing,
A deafness then prevails.
The orphans may be screaming,
But all their pleading fails.
When people cease from seeing,
Then blindness is their fate.
What end is there to hatred,
Except in more of hate?
We need a gentle cleansing
Of body and of mind.
We need to turn from hating
To relearning to be kind.
Towards the ones we care for,
We might be soft and kind.
But what about the others—
That we’ve put out of mind?
We can’t be saints or angels,
But should we yield to rage
That blinds us to the spirals
That churn through every age?
Should we close our eyes to madness,
Be cocooned, within our nest?
Should we tend to duties, pleasures—
And wave away the rest?
Do first, that which is local.
But then, look up and see
What's past and what is distant
And how they came to be.
The future is created
By what we now will do.
And all the past is present
In thought—and feeling too.
Can a being, who’s conditioned,
Be free of habit’s snare?
If we’re driven by the madness,
Can we learn again to care?
We are trained, from when we’re children,
By the candy and the stick.
So we grow up to be zombies
And we make each other sick.
But as those who are discerning
Grow in number, it will turn—
This tide that has been rising—
This fire, in which we burn.
Can we find an end to conflicts,
When we’re not at peace within?
Can we see the pain of others,
When we’re blinded by our sin?
It is feeling that will free us,
But not what is expected.
It’s the heart that is within us,
Whose call we have neglected.
It is thinking that will lead us,
But not the thoughts implanted.
It’s the sense, that was within us,
That the nonsense has supplanted.
It is action that will heal us,
But not the kind we praise.
It’s the action of refraining
From running through the maze.
This maze is our creation.
It’s the prison we have made.
When we cease from blindly racing,
The walls of sin will fade.
Observe your own reaction
That traps you even more.
Inhale, and see it rising.
Exhale, and let it go.
When the cattle are stampeding,
The one who pauses dies.
So also truth can perish,
When all around are lies.
But when there is a slowing,
Proceeding one by one,
Then truth is heard and spoken,
And sanity has won.
2017 May 31, Wed.
(parts in blue added 2017 June 4th, Sun.)
Brooklyn, New York
