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Go Ahead, Be the Opposite of Love


by Darryl Price


"Living is easy with eyes closed/misunderstanding all you see.'--John Lennon

 

That's an ache that's always inside me. How you'd rather

treat people as if they don't matter

as much as some nice sounding words in a song. Their voices

as less than an annoying wind? Because they have

not experienced your own personal hell? That's bitter

and hateful. Will you really start and end your life there

from this awful place of emptiness? What can be

 

the result of it but harm to

everyone you know and love? When will you listen to yourself sigh again?

Because I know you are one with

all others on some level and that

plane has got to be just, centered, real

and eternal. Lives matter. All life is

sacred. You could choose to heal the

 

world now from the place where you

are standing, by committing a kindness of many selfless acts,

by thinking and sharing your compassion, by

joining a good feeling in the world, up with

your heart and not with your fists, by

letting yourself be blessed in the presence

of others rather than be deceived by

 

feelings of envy. All violence betrays the

love of God, the love that is in essence

God. Please remember who you are not.

You are not the deceiver. You are

the bringer of peace. You are the

soul of forgiveness. You are the one

who is you. Give us your blessings while you have them.




Bonus poems:




Meaning Intended(Hand-Print on a Cave Wall)


by Darryl Price


There's only one time. But the mastery of it
may take several lifetimes. We don't have that 
or indeed very much time. Knowledge of the 
it of it all will have to turn into 

wisdom on its own free jump. The golden key, 
fleece or skeleton, is where you turned it --
in time. So once you retrieve it you 
won't need this riddle to solve its unending mystery 

anymore. You'll still be here. Gravity will still be 
here. The moon and the stars will still 
be here. You'll still want to love and 
be loved. It doesn't dissolve you. But it may 

throw you back in the river. Just for fun 
is up for debate. You may need to 
lighten up. Or take the whole thing a 
tad more serious. One thing's for sure, you're going 

to be asked to live up to your name. 
Angels hide in the light, so do devils 
pretending to be angels. You choose. The manual
of heart and soul survival is there for you  

to write. All that stuff about time was to 
see if you had any patience or not 
without being told to look inside yourself. It's
always been the honest way in alone that comes   

with its own way out. Of course you could  
go creative and realize that there are as 
many ways as there are souls of beings. 
You'll still bleed. But both crying and laughing are  

beautiful gifts meant to get you over the inevitable 
hump between sanity and madness. Find your way.
The rest as they say is universal history. 
We are the music we make up our minds

to speak to others with. Sooner or later we
will be back among the stars seeing from  
a different point of view, but the message  
is the same: we are here, here we are.



Bonus poems:




There is Nothing

by Darryl Price


to say about the weight of sorrow. It 
simply bears down upon everything like 
another lost generation shoegaze 
album. There is nothing to live up to? 
Sometimes it rains. Put that in your pipe and 
smoke it in front of your television. 
They only espouse all that devil nonsense 
because they don't like you. It's a way to 
keep you stuck doing all the same dull things 
over and over again while they rob 
you blind of all those nasty feelings deep 
inside. Sometimes it rains. A lot. They might 
see fit to pull you out of the pit when 
you've finally finished cutting yourself 
to pieces on all the thorns tossed upon 
your secret desires. What's the difference 
between a daisy crown and a new sports 
jacket? You could make them both out of all 
the phony money in the world and they 
would still only serve to stop you if you 
should decide to go off in any new 
direction. Beatles, anyone? There is 
something to live up to. Your parents will 
believe the lie. They won't believe you. Your 
friends will believe the lie. They won't believe 
you. And they'll only let you stay if you 
say you believe in the fear, too. House of 
smiling liars. Cars full of engineered
lies. Colleges of awarded lies. There's  
always some jerk in the crowd who wants to 
smugly know who they are. They are the ones 
who just don't care if you live or die, boy!
The asleep ones who vote for hate every  
chance they get because they are told what to 
do. Think for yourself. See them yet? They are 
the closeted ones who count the gold coins 
alone late at night because they trust no 
one else. You are considered dangerous 
if you search for meaning in optimism 
as a unique human being. They don't 
care about other people being sick 
or hurt. I think they've made that perfectly 
clear to you by now. They hate lovers. They 
love all forms of power. Still can't see them 
yet? They are all around you. They are the 
snickering ones joking about your pain. Vote!




A Little Something

by Darryl Price


Either join the noise 
of living or be 
cruelly drowned out of 
its amazing, alarming, 
soothing, undeniably 
timeless

chorus. Ha! You're 
still there. You're just not 
being heard. You still 
add to, because you 
are still in motion. 
Your whirl makes its own

wondrous approach. It 
just might even change 
the overall pitch 
of certain things. Like 
butterfly wings do. 
That's what they don't want 

you to know, because 
you are not disciplined. 
You are the power 
of you. In spite 
of their best efforts 
to convince you that 

you need training to 
even exist, it 
is not only their 
world. Give yourself a 
break. You're a fine one,
cared about by me.



Satellite

by Darryl Price


All I did was fall down 
the painted stairs, smashed at your 
feet. All you did was turn 
on your tiny white sneakers and 
walk away. Job done. But I 
lived in that slow motion video 
for many years. Minute after minute. 
Waiting for you to cross your 
skimpy arms again over your white 
shirt chest. Again and again, looking 

for every clue to the meaning 
of life in the way you 
threw back your hair and reached 
for the sky, like it was 
your last chance; anyone ever had 
for true happiness. Was this a 
silent prayer or an absolution? Each 
time I step into that frame 
I am reminded of how little 
time we are given to be 

in each other's company. No attempt 
was made to make contact with 
the alien, but I found myself 
completely plugged into your orbit going 
forward. Now I am your faraway 
satellite getting endlessly flung around the 
very idea of you wanting to 
be kissed in a tender embrace 
of your own joy and sorrow. 
Tell your heart I said hi.   




Girl with Yellow Umbrella


You're so

beautiful

it's hard

to believe

you exist.

 

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