Everyone Thinks

Everyone thinks

The other side stinks

That they feel entitled

To that not earned

Like Nero

We fiddle

Don't move to the middle

Whilst we burn

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

Deny Their Limits

Deny their limits

They are frameworks of

A flawed failed past

The gospel of joy

Is holistic

Including things once judged broken

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

State of the Internet 2014

Selfies flowing constantly

Into the internet stream

People reacting violently

To opinions they have seen

Upworthy nudging inspiringly

With carefully crafted memes

Cat pics generate spontaneously

That fill all the space in between

Set your phone down quietly

Before you want to scream

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

Be Human

Smile

Lose ground

Until

The end

Feel joy

It goes around

Without us

My friend

Be human

Do not fear

Feel love

Do not pretend

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

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

She Who Is The Speaker Of Her Dreams

Dreams can die together

They are viral

Every intertwined

Dreams can grow forever

They are vital

Slow to unwind

She who is the speaker of her dreams

Should not be scorned

Embolden this world do not lessen

You have been warned

The dreams which you dismiss

The dreams which the crowd denies

Is that which in perpetuity is lost

And all that loss implies

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

Closer To Dead Is Closer To Free

Closer to dead

Is closer to free

Truth no longer

Hides from me

In the corner of my eye

There I see

Shadows approaching slowly

I do not flee

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

Charred Organic Postcards

Books disregard

Limits of time

Space and Censorship

They are

The final charred

Organic postcards

Until the fiery

Complete end

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

The Hill

I haven’t a clue what went down at Calvary

Centuries ago

You can put the things in a giant endless box

That I don’t know

I do know much of narratives

The stories we tell ourselves

There are true things in stories

That we create for ourselves

If you tell me Romans might have feared

What they didn’t understand

If you tell me Judas might have betrayed

Someone he loved and respected as man

If you tell me that 3 men were crucified

On crosses plunged deep into the land

If you tell me those that had love for them cried

As the the blood dripped from their nail struck hands

I’d believe you for the most part

I know these stories to be mostly true

I’d believe you at least in part

Because from experience these thing are true to you

People have ever been sacrificed

People have ever been betrayed

Maybe one was named Jesus Christ

Maybe he died today

No narrative sustains

That isn’t one that compels

No stories remain over centuries

That aren’t written in our cells

I’m somber not from a leap of faith

That is not my road

I’m somber for the parts I know are true

Those lying deep within our code

Sacrifice, love, and loss

Things which are often represented

By a lonely hill once bearing a cross

Which many hold when their sins are repented

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

So Much of Spring Is Faith

So much of spring is faith

A red flower

We were not certain

Would bloom again

Alive once more

It is the unknowns

That winter creates

Which give birth to wonder

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

The Heart Will Beat Till It Don’t v2

The sun will burn till it doesn't

The heart will beat till it don’t

Worry is a thing I wouldn't

Do because I won't

Manage the details and aspects

Of that I cannot control

So I’ll let the world sort through it’s cycles

And ease the burden and toll

Of the weight that builds up sometimes

At the base of my neck and my spine

I'll listen to the wind, rain, and earth’s hum

And my thoughts will become once again mine

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

When Spring Overwhelms Me

The rain the sun

The bud the pollen

The flower the leaf

The fruit the seed

Spring undeniable

Again in its glory

Winter’s toll taken

The fallen both recalled

And unremembered

Now is the time of

The unencumbered

And new responsibility

Awakening comes slow

Then sudden

Like the flood of the

Mountain stream

White and cold with

Anger and breakneck

Speed, ice no longer

Controlling and slowing

Its pace, What did I

Believe yesterday?

It seems so distant

I am who I was, but

There is the reckoning

That maybe I was wrong

Believing the cycle broken

And the world to be colder

Than it once was

Winter is nothing if not

A capable illusionist

Claiming things broken and

The cycle ceased

Yet it comes again

The rain

The sun

The bud

The pollen

The flower

The leaf

The fruit

The seed

Unbroken

Just in time

Overwhelming me

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

Evolved Not Granted

Kindness and empathy exist

Without us inventing them

Traits evolved

Not granted

Lessons learned

Over millenniums

Not centuries

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

A Great Forgotten Record of the 1990's Big Chief - Mack Avenue Skullgame

In 1993 I bought a record called Mack Avenue Skull Game.  It was was a fake soundtrack to a 70's urban movie that never existed.  For a while I thought it was a real movie and it in the days before the internet it could take a while to find your way to the truth.  The band was never overly famous and never hit it big although they did have somewhat of a following and when I saw them live once it was a full room.  The album itself reminds me of a Tarantino movie.  It is a record made by white people and is a respectful homage to 70's black music that stands on its own.  I equate it with Tarantino's Jackie Brown.  I listened to it on Spotify recently see how it held up 20 years later.  The record is still strong.  The music is still gritty and tight and the vocals are occasionally remarkably.  It drives forward with momentum and never dwells too long in one place.  What sounded somewhat out of place in 1991 is much less out of place in 2014 as the world has come full circle and if Big Chief were touring today they be on the summer circuit festival making crowds move in the summer sun.  It is a record that was out of place in 1993, but it did make many people like me find our ways to the original 70's funk records that inspired it.  On Spotify there is no related artists tab, because Big Chief kind of stood alone for 1993 any related artists would be from a generation before.  Personally I am grateful for the record as a gateway to funk.  I don't believe Big Chief made a record after Mack Avenue Skullgame, but for me it stands as a great record that time forgot.

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014

Donald Barthelme - On Angels

The death of God left the angels in a strange position. They were overtaken suddenly by a fundamental question. One can attempt to imagine the moment. How did they look at the instant the question invaded them, flooding the angelic consciousness, taking hold with terrifying force? The question was,"What are angels?"

The Who The What You Love

In pain

Or distress

Or in the end

You don’t remember

The cause of them

At the end of it all

You recall

The who

The what

You love

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

Mercy An Element of Kindness

Mercy an element of kindness

Worth it's weight in salt

Cruelty a symptom of weakness

A soley human fault

They are equally

Us

Gene G. McLaughlin 2014