A tear in the day

Mighty summer reigns,
Blisters and sweet sweat,
Distant memory bell rings,
Of how we try to forget.

Spring showers,
Behind dragging feet,
Melted flowers,
Hearts overheat.

Sun rays sneak,
Blue skies cover,
Peace we seek,
From one another.

Just a little pain,
In another way,
We all need just a little rain,
A tear in the day.

Mine today if for you,
A friend now more than ever,
When I see you again Andrew,
We will make it rain forever..................

FTBAS

My Mustard Seed

My Mustard Seed

Doubters never do and will always try to convince us we never could.

The pain that once brought us to our knees now has us standing our ground.

To see the doubter coming and greet them with a smile but not invite them in.

We stroll on by and say to self but for the grace of God there go I.

Continuing on our path knowing we are loved even forgiven.

With never the need to be in doubt again!

FTBAS 1.13.14

Me

Choice,
Chance,
Moist,
Glance,
Sideways,
Likewise,
Eyelash,
Lips,
Chin,
Neck,
Eyes,
Crown,
Rush,
Tremble,
Held,
Vow,
Mother,
Child,
Future,
Pain,
Soul,
Beast,
Released,
Free,
Open,
Arms,
Wide,
Forgiven,
Loved,
Peace,
See,
Me..................

FTBAS 1.6.14

Blown

In the darkest night
I squeeze my pain
In the middle right
I've gone insane

Touched
Broken
Lost
Open

Bursting aloud
Crying alone
Silver cloud
Rock to stone

Holy
Spirit
Finally
Forget

To achieve is better
To be lonely is never
To sew the letter
To the wind of ever

Blown.........................

FTBAS 12.12.13

Before one moment

That we are just human
That you feel the same
In rain we get wet
All in pain they came
To be free to forget
In time click wails
Daylight to dawn moods
Darkness soon fade
Healing salve soothe
Life blood pulsate
State of mind
Of what is late
Before one moment of time.............
FTBAS 11-27-13

Points and presentation

Points and presentation

To be real in present
Above the seal in everything
Below at the heel of innocence
Around this simple thing

The no going back
Triumphant sounds of discourse
Dante gone black
Angels with out remorse

Free Tea and deeper
Open season
Feed the keeper
Quit the teasing

Dynamite and wing tips
Christmas pound cake wishing
Credit and Pink slips
This party is pushing………..

FTBAS

Step through

I was out in my pretense
Doubted innocence
Blasted for convenience
Lying forever with in this
Described not on me
Changing in sunshine
To the shadows blend
For the scabs below me
The pain above me
The life before me
Contemplating I see again..................

Salt of the Earth

 Pier fishing is at its best a roller derby of cultures and at its worst a clash of the Titans. You never know what to expect. I pulled up to the drive on fishing pier around 2:00 pm. Only a few cars about as I found my place for the evening.  Right now my only neighbor was a small Asian woman fishing her heart out with four poles, two on each side of the pier. For the next three hours while fishing I watched this woman scurry from pole to pole reeling in fish and checking her lines. After she was satisfied she would sit in her fold out chair with her back to the sun. She would adjust the small clamp on a shade umbrella and smoke a small cigar. Her constant up and down catching small fish, that I would use for baiting my lines, that sat steady and sitting still, having been cast out deep into the bay. She was amazing to me in her small dark features.  I could see she walked in pain, bent backwards like always being held back by some invisible string. Still she never tired as I watched her repeat this cycle countless times over and over. 

 After about three hours I walked over and introduced myself.  Her name was Rose from Seoul Korea and over the course of the evening we talked of life. Understanding her completely was very hard. I am very Alabama and she very Korean but our language barrier could not stop our desire to communicate. I would give her the extra bait fish I would catch and she would share a nugget of her life. As a young woman an American soldier had married her and they had a son. They were divorced and she raised the boy alone. It must have been very hard on her because even after 30 years in Pensacola her English was very hard to understand. I felt we spent much of the night repeating ourselves and I am sure Rose felt the same.  I learned her son had graduated college and was 24 years old. He had had a hard time finding work at first but had finally found a job. While talking with Rose I could see all the lines of the years driven deep into her face. Weathered hard lines by many long hours of worry and work, beyond those lines were eyes as bright as a newborn.  Filled with courage that I only wish I could possess.

 I wondered and thought in those moments alone watching the tips of my pole sway in the gulf breeze. How we all have our journey and how we are all alone with it. The peace of knowing that these moments if treasured and understood could be seen as not just miracles but a calling of being understood.  Rose told me I was a good son “She could tell”. Rose had had a stroke the year before. Her right side of her body had been paralyzed. She worked through it by fishing. The doctor told her fishing apparently was good for her. To myself I thought “well I guess so” and “now I know why she walks the way she does”. We all have strings pulling us and I could now see that Rose refused to let hers hold her back.  

(Fishing note: when you fish with live bait you cut the tail so they can bleed and attract the big fish you are hoping to catch). 

 About 6:00 pm a beast of a truck pulled in front of mine. It was loaded with fishing gear and an electric service chair. Out of the truck came a mountain of a man wearing confederate flag swim trucks.  From the driver’s side came an even larger man with long hair and beard. It only took ten minutes for us to be introduced because the driver had cast his line over mine. Within minutes we were conversing of fishing and life. The driver said “folks call me Bear” and I replied with “well of course they do”. Bear told me they were truck drivers taking a break for the weekend.  His friend Paul was the rebel with the swimsuit clause and Donnie was Bear’s brother who was paralyzed from the waist down.  As the evening progressed Bear offered me a beer and I accepted. As we indulged the subject of shark fishing came up and Bear said “well Donnie I think I will just rig you up and throw you over for bait”. Without a blink Donnie replied “well I ain’t got no problem with you throwing me over for bait but you gotta cut me and that ain’t going to happen!”  In that moment I saw that these two brothers had shared and dealt with so much pain in their life that the only thing left to do was joke about it. Courage, pain , peace, brotherly love, beer and fishing. 

 The next day driving home I was in the moment thinking about my to do list. Cruising up the highway with my future plans rolling through my mind. Traffic suddenly stopped to a crawl and I was already thinking of how the delay would affect my future plans when I saw it. A terrible wreck with a big rig truck off the road and crashed through a large tree. Slow in passing I saw people kneeling over someone as to give comfort.  I drove on knowing there was nothing for me to do. I thought of Bear the trucker I met the night before and Donnie his brother in the wheelchair. I thought of Rose and I prayed for us all, the Salt of the earth. The pain we all face. The hope we bring by not giving in to that pain. For hope in the inspiration of others we meet on our lonesome journey.

FTBAS 8.6.13

Works

To give in silence
Holding a trembling hand
With just a glace
You change the land

The power of one
Son screaming light
The only one
Who you put up to fight

So many children
With out a dime
Long in this building
Ending our time

Just wait
The horizon is near
Just wait
Here comes the fear

Taller and stronger
Slim and beautiful
Harder and faster
But none fulfilled

With the power of one...................

Just wait
The horizon is near
Just wait
Here comes the tear

Simple peace
Gutter love
Crippled prince
Sonic dove

Father mother brother friend
Doubtless and tried
Beginning in circles on end
Now that time has lied

To use the power of your one!

FTBAS 7.29.13

In my ignorance

In my ignorance I see a whole species laid to waste. A species whose greatest achievement will be destroying our own home. Even against the moral story of our greatest book we still concrete and asphalt our Garden of Eden to satisfy nothing but greed and power. Our bodies reject it, our souls scream out for nature and its pure energy. Our minds are fooled by the consensual numbing of intake, visual, audible, and physical. Prescription drugs, alcohol, illicit drugs, food, sex, TV, face book, internet, porn, shopping just to mention a few are all devices we use to numb ourselves to the true reality that we are slaves raising slaves for somebody else’s children in a corporate concrete world. Why else would a national championship be more important than health care?
FTBAS