The Kindness Engine

Kindness is the creation of clarity


Life is never empty of pain


Value empathy not insularity


The path to balance writ plain


Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

Hatred Is Created By Self Narrative

Hatred is created by self narrative

Narrative is human to the core

To find the way to peace

Create stories in your mind no more

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

Ecosystem

There are dragonflies

In my earliest memories

There are no clever thoughts

No grand ambitions

Only their loud hum

In the heat of summer

The taste of sweat

Upon my tongue

The feel of damp

On my neck

The river is near

Giving and taking

Sleeping then waking

Frothy then serene

The mountain is near

Giving not taking

Bending and breaking

Its peak still unseen

There is my mother

Provider of food and love

There is my father

Before me and not above

We are of here

This valley

This land

We are from here

Our family

Our band

All I know

Is nearby

Or at least as

The bird flies

The river knew my name

When I was baptized in it

The mountain knew my name

When I walked upon it

I became of here

In my crib

As the wind blew

Through it

I cannot forget

The hum

Of horseflies

Nor the pain

Of their bite

Nor the pull

Of the river's current

It's inhuman might

It all escalates outward

It all internalizes inward

The river takes me elsewhere

The mountain fades from view

When I am motionless

I can hear the dragonflies

Humming there still

When I am motionless

The river carries me there

Once again

The mountain's peak

Still out of view

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

Fate Is Not My Future

The opposite of pain

Is acknowledgement of pain

The path to control

Is the acknowledgement of none

Fate’s not my future

It is what I’ve done

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

The Equanimity of Waterfalls

The waterfall knows no equanimity

In early spring it rages

From the remnants of melting snow

In fall it is bone dry

Depleted

From the heat of the scorching summer

In winter it is still

The water cold and iced upon its rocks

The effort is

Throughout the seasons

To keep the waterfall in your mind

From early summer

When it is steady

Calm

Flowing

The water will escape its state

It always does

As will you

The effort is holding

Equanimity in your mind

When late spring is gone

And the water is a storm

Or drought

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014