when done right, poetry can leave me breathless
reprogramming my brain so deeply, I forget how to breathe and my heart ache comes when potent poetry weights heavy enough to relax this body, skipping a beat.

This is actually where I met poem, inseide these ribs between heart and lung
one of those times that poem had stopped both.
I became aware that poem was going off about how few people listen
'what!?' I exclaimed, leaving poem speechless, as i heard poem into speech.

'who are you anyways?' I continured
'and how did you get inside this moment while this body neither breathes or beats'?
and with that realization
'how long do we have?"
i asked in a cardiovascular panic

poem smiled, as if poem could smile
and if poem could hear as I did
the tinkering shatter and subsequent clatter
of the worlds mechanical clocks falling to pieces
sounding together.
a big sound, even for poem, who's got all the time in the world

poem continued by having me look into the rising sun
'do you recognize your heart on the outside of your body?"

Sunrise and poem sang sweet songs for me as plant life
the sacred by which this planet is alive.
this planet is alive!

poem was gentle with me here
challenged by the humility of worshipping leaf
who's life work is to capture, to indulge and enjoy, sun

'you are no less leaf than sun' reminds poem
'be at home, it's alright to need plant
for that is plant's work
as sun is ever, unfathomably, giving
be at peace with this'

'and so to must you understand your humyn work'
...

poem invited silence to join us
letting me down with reflection into the living beating heart of this body, the ever expanding lungs of breath.
my constant interaction with life
my being, as breath

when poem visits now, ocean's tears still come from this body
as sunsets write poetry with my reflection or shadow
as the rhythms of this body, beating and breathing sing
-you are one-
listen to your body, whom is poem remembering to live life as one
and walk at dusk to be sunset
or enjoy being that leaf midday
accompany the music of your heart with those lungs
in this body whom poem says is one
listen to your body, knowing all life is one

raised beds like nothin ya ever did see

farm friend folks
check out how steep and deep
Dirk and Nicole's beds are
they're upwards of 2foot high
super lots of woodchips etc. holding
it all together.

super productive garden

The Warriors Who Turned to Peace by John Mohawk - Haudenosaunee Law of Peace

We're trying to make peace between peoples in which the foundation of the peace is the tradition which they embrace, and it's held up by their honor and nothing else.

The Warriors Who Turned to Peace by John Mohawk - Haudenosaunee Law of Peace
"It would have been interesting if the contemporary war on terrorism had been built on principles of pragmatism. Instead, the model most often heard is the crusader model, which assumes that the other side is wrong and evil. Both sides invoke God, and whatever victories are achieved, however pyrrhic, are attributed to God. The characteristic of such holy war is that it has no endgame until the warriors of one side eliminate the warriors of the other side. That never happened during the Crusades, and it won't happen now. Wishing it so is not practical."

Jesus Kurt Cobain Christ

Jesus Kurt Cobain Christ bought me a hamburger from a cornerstore in washington state.
'who's this with a bike? i'll buy you a burger, let's go in..."

Normally I would have been the first to converse, captivated by his woven cedar hat trailing eagle feather. But Jesus Kurt Cobain Christ didn't remember the weaver's name and so we sat in the shade at that timeless intersection between national park and indian reservation where this man's family walked well before Jesus had dusty feet and continue today well after curt cobain left, and I think Jesus Kurt Cobain Christ is still drinking

'i'm ben, what's your name cobain?'
'I'm Jesus F%#in Kurt Cobain'

Fair enough, a name isn't more than a code and names aren't so important when it's a conversation over a burger.

'food's up' Don Juan called.
I don't know his relation either, though I know he doesn't work there. Jesus Kurt Cobain Christ offered me money for groceries but I couldn't find food in the adjoining grocery store, the beer probably being the most nutritious option. god bless america.
we sat down to that meal at a crossroads between now and then, a gas station grocer resteraunt beer store with a sign for surf board rentals and neon lights that told me: we make enough money to stay open: this must be a food source for people...

that burger and fries was better than any real food, and that's the problem i figure. with fatty factory beef and bacon, processed 'cheese' and iceberg lettuce. together they're better than anything it seems.

I located ketchup and mustard in anticipation for failed flavour while jesus and don juan chatted about heavy weight boxing.

I wa glowing from days of hiking on the beaches, watching eagles learn how to fish, finding feathers, finding seals. i was facinated to be hosted by a person fro this place, enthralled by the layers of contradiction pressed like sedementary stone into the shape of Jesus Kurt Cobain Christ, older than most mountains.

I met Jesus Kurt Cobain Christ
and riding away amazed
at rich experiences
in incredible places

words from the road

"I knew it, the beer's cheaper at walmart..."
-overheard while I was buying 1 l of guiness for 3 bucks at the grocery store

patient land
sitting calm in the sun
covering herself

More whole than language or thought
these forests are alive as only
wind and rain
know

knowledge manifest

Now do more americans have guns, or do more americans just shoot road signs?

If we took the time we wouldn't need cars
because we'd be able to walk
and then with the time
we'd have the chance to talk

It seems we're teaching our children to speak with very little to say
adopting new technology with little thought to our way

Do people drink more beer here, or do they just litter more?

I live to realize
how i am connected
though not as a result of activity
but of existance
that i am a vibrant reflection
an expression of
life force

Do they drink while driving, or drink at home and litter all the next day?

I've watched freedom
and it looks like people living on land with nothing to lose. learning skills throughout the days, living with all the life, learning how to recognize and aspire to be as close to those plants as plants are to sun.
Freedom, doing what one needs without the violence of 'should', living one's life, not any other.

washington clear cuts

those receding hairlines
mountains trimmed, shaven
pock marked faces
erosion come land slide

as i cycled that bicycle to witness
those blank faces
mirrored many of those in
those cars

"why is that fool on teh bicycle smiling"
i could almost here them say
"he's not even there yet" (the park, the destination)
and I would laugh an explanation
that cycle touring is about being where you are
sometimes even less than where you're going,
kinda like my thoughts on life
enjoyment

smiling towards the surrounding, replanted, devestation
i laughed at the falling of the limited seed stock
filling valleys with a half dozen gene sequences
foolish to see a forest as trees, and even more foolish
to not see those trees as the result of millions of years
revolutions of this star, this sun
an infinite, like salmon,
being out competed, sponsored by human involvement
tree planting and hatchery
let's not fool ourselves, we're coping, not helping
for our work is not to procreate the fish, the trees,
but to live our responsibility

____________________

Charles Dickens writes in Coketown Hardtimes (1854) 1969 p.65

"Hope drives us to invent new fixes for old messes, which in turn create even more dangerous messes. Hope elects the politician with the biggest empty promise...
Hope, like greed, fuels the engine of Capitalism
Poor [americans] see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires"

I work to deescalate my need to do
by practicing ways of living that
encourage me to be.

backpack roads

20 miles of logging road on a sunday
me and deer and plant life and river
oh river life, some life! that pulled me over and through
places that were new I followed bear creek up, north
passing over to follow west twin river down, north
to juan de fuca straight, my eyes found canada again.

I didn't expect to meet this geography,
and then to meet this land in human form.
Josey greeted me by the beach
a human married to the life force of a place
and to be giving, oh so giving, as the land.

to love a river is to sacrifice oneself to change
change heard in a rivers tumbling stones under water, over winter
change of running salmon, spawning, learning, birthing
to love a river is to reconcile control
to listen

They bolted, chained and cabled thousands of tons of wood
to slow this force, and river collected it all, placing it on a bend
while Josey listened and placed rocks appropriately
letting river do rivers work, protecting his cabin
respect

to listen well enough to a rivers work
is beautiful
and i'm blessed to have met, been gifted and learned from
a man who does such things.

Thanks Josey!

Gifted backpack that allowed me to leave the bike
and adventure the beach...

gah...gah...gah...god

God is no less 'him' than 'God'
for both gender and language are a means of disassembling a whole
a whole which is creation, which is creator.

What makes sense for me is that Life is whole, that is, when we comprehend existence as
complete, we have begun to explore how we are a part of this, a part of creation, creator.

defining self as part of, not different than,

In this way there are appropriate ways to be in each place
and everything we do necessarily must be part of complete cycles
as those things that break cycles, or lead life out of balance, alter the very life force that supports our existence. Our species can not survive without all of life, so why do we disrupt Life?

For all ways of living there is appropriate technology
and for the people we share life with, appropriate ways.

Often I say a blessing:

May my intention be to experience.
I trust that I am a part of all that is.
Today I live, knowing my life force belongs.

i've been thinking

and if life is a simple process
of coming into existence
relating with the rest of life
and passing from existence

how do i conduct this life?
or,
what is the best way for me
to experience this life?

to stop terrorism

Terrorism can not be stopped by addressing symptoms and not the cause. Violence is bred by injustice, poverty, inequality and other violence.

hope drives...

Charles Dickens writes in Coketown Hardtimes (1854) 1969 p.65

"Hope drives us to invent new fixes for old messes, which in turn create even more dangerous messes. Hope elects the politician with the biggest empty promise...
Hope, like greed, fuels the engine of Capitalism
Poor [americans] see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires"

The ocean can be so gentle.

world class beach, world class time

Coming to America, the great olympic penisula, has been one of the best spur of the moment decisions i've made.so i smiled lots

because of the beauty
and feeling alive

you can judge the winter storms by
the size of the drift wood
(these two join together at the stump!)

and i slept well
with no need
of a tent

washington !?! who knew?

mountains bending rivers
This is the Hoh River

Without a doubt
I move faster than these trees

116
Take someone who doesn't keep score,
who's not looking to be richer, or afraid of losing,
who has not the slightest interest even
in his own personality: He's free
-Rumi (Open Secret)