Anticipation 'Just Facing some Finer Day'

(With thanks to Carly Simon)

It gets more difficult for me to concentrate
too many concepts, too many concerns, too many knives to juggle.

I want to spend some time without mindful thought
nothing to decide beyond which book to read, 

or what to have for tea.

I want sentience to be less an encumbrance and more of a gift;
time to be embraced, not an endurance marathon.

I want to choose my expenditures with determination and joy
not with caution and dread.

I want to sleep until I wake, relish each moment;
exuberantly alive ‘til I rest.

Ronda R. Scott-Marak 
© 8 February 2016

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right Here I am, stuck in the middle…

(with thanks to Stealers Wheel)

I am so disheartened by the civil war around me:
friend against friend, family against family, rather than united against foe.
The sky may appear blue, my blood may seem red but neither truly is;
All I see is dingy with internecine thrown mud, crimson with fury, and black with hate.

What has torn apart connections after years of struggling together for a common goal?
Why do people care more about ideology than actually pulling together to win?
Why has intransigence and intransigence become the norm, locking arms against each other when previously we locked arms for strength in numbers and safekeeping against the abhorrent?

When did we decide loathing each other and name-calling 
were better strategies than standing together?
When did dogma become so gargantuan in size and scope that must cast us all into shadow;
tearing apart alliances, friendships, and shredding respect and reason?

At what point did it become safer and healthier to speak to people with whom I mostly disagree 
then to those with whom I thought I had common ground?

Ronda R. Scott-Marak
© 1 February 2016

Cosmosis

"And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Hamlet Act 1, scene 5, 159–167

The globe is a microcosm of life;
a veritable encyclopaedia of ideas,
Oxford and Larousse dictionaries worth of words,
all of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations,
and a compendium of knowledge worthy of the Smithsonian Institution, British Museum, Hermitage, Newberry Library, Bodleian, and Alexandria.

Why are so few ideas acceptable, why so few words in use?

We are woven into Life’s structure;
animal, vegetable, mineral
Air and Water our warp and weft.

We are enmeshed in sundry networks
of nerves, veins, and mass.

We are formed from and into each other,
stardust to ashes, mineral to sand, tears to oceans,
labouring from birth to last laboured breath.

How is it we gather like magnets around iron;
remaining in opposition to any other cluster?

Why is each sub-group convinced of their superior rightness
the unfailing Truth of their own righteous beliefs?

If Humankind is animal what says we are better than the other beasts?

If vegetation grows towards the light, bathes its skin in rain and dew,
appreciates words and music how are they lesser lifeforms?

If we are all made of minerals what makes our compilation worthier than the content of salt and sand?

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 13 January 2016

“I Read the Posts Today ‘Oh Boy’”

(with thanks to Lennon and McCartney)

Lies
Cruel world and words
Grey deeds;

Venom

Broken promises

Rash acts;

Enmity

Brittle silences
Harsh rejoinders;
Spite

Brother against sister,
against friend;
Tears

Ronda R. Scott-Marak
© 4 January 2016

When the Light comes Rising

(With thanks to Susan Cooper)

I am not a Christian. 

I am a Pantheist, a Jew, a believer in Spirit and Light; 
I find satisfaction in the yearly defeat of the Darkness. 
I love the colours, the fragrances, the feel of the winter holidays, the giving, the sharing, the warmth of Good Will. 
I invoke the Light and embrace the Spirit of the Season. 

It is neither Father Christmas nor the Hogfather delivering presents, not the birth of a promised child of prophecy, not the candles of Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or the bright glittering trees, not the songs of joy, or the laughter of children building constructs in the snow, not the smell of rare or common spices that yearly infuse me with the spirit of giving and love. 

It is the Light once again come Rising, 
and with it Hope that in the future Light and Peace will again prevail. 

Ronda R. Scott-Marak
© 25 December 2015

“It’s Just Another Day”

(With thanks to James Paul McCartney)

Each day is another challenge
comprised of stair treads up and downhill slides.
We mainly go through life unaware of the burdens:
leaping over the hurdles, and avoiding the pitfalls.

Some obstacles that we soar over would destroy another;
others that some might consider amusing encounters could be the fissure that swallows us.

No one knows what the next moment brings,
what its toll could be on the next thing encountered.

Never assume you have all the answers; 
you may not even know the questions.

Be kind…

Ronda R. Scott-Marak

© 17 November 2015

Wonder

“I'm not afraid of thunder, I am full of light, I am full of wonder.” 

(With thanks to Emeli Sande)

How does one quantify the human spirit and its ability to become?  
How does one measure the depths of compassion and empathy of any sentient being, 
its drive and determination, its desire or its will? 
How does one determine what was before and what potentials the future holds?
How do we know what follows; what happens next?

I am not so stiff-necked and self-assured to believe without any doubt or hesitation that I know all there is to know, and can determine without the whiff of hubris that others either know less than I or know more than humans can ever know with predictable logic and certainty.

I believe in the god in everything, not the God of everything.
I believe in Good and Evil, Light and Dark, Probability and Chance; 

I am not terrified by Uncertainty, only Doubt.
I believe in every tinge, tint, and shade of Grey that life can devise.
I believe in what I can see, hear, touch; also trusting what I can feel, sense and intuit.
I believe that anything is possible even when little is probable.
As long as life continues, and just maybe after…

There is Infinity.

Ronda R. Scott-Marak
© 9 November 2015