Intentional focus
Now is the moment
This one
Pivot point to before and after
I felt it too
Your heart throbbing
Between cautious fingertips
Barely there
Almost
David Trudel © 2013
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Monthly Archives: March 2013
Deer
A deer leapt through the brush
Thunderlanding a few meters away
Relieved more than alarmed
I walked forward on my downwind path
Obliquely away from the deertrail
Which calmed the deer
Who was looking ahead
At the other one that I hadn’t noticed at first
Stock still against rocks and trees
I was relieved
Not having seen deer here for some time
One species among many that call this forest home
Or way station for island hopping windriders
So when they started grazing on rare native fawn lilies
I was only mildly pissed off
And sent them a psychic entreaty to curb their appetites
Until dusk shrouds surrounding suburban streets
Where gardeners obligingly plant deer salad
A raw deal
David Trudel © 2013
Filed under Poetry
Patriotism
What a country!
The best country in the world!
God’s country!
Jingoism
Nationalism
Patriotism
We shout this nonsense to the wind
Reinforcing imaginary lines drawn by vested interests
Just like pro sports inventing hollow hometown fervor
With hired guns from far away
Lured to your town for higher pay
Fanning the frantic madness of beersoaked youths
And middle aged dreamers
Who distractedly fall for sequined circus charms
And acrobatic displays of impossible prowess
When they are dissected on the jumbotron
Everyone becomes a gladiator vicariously
Forgetting that they’ve paid for the excess excessively
Not just money
Time and effort and emotional investment
That’s been shifted from other possibilities
It’s a false reality
Just like nation states are a false reality
Let’s visit one of those overused cliché images of earth from outer space
No lines
There are no borders to be seen from up high
Countries are just ideas
Borders carve up territories for overlords
Becoming fences to keep us in
What significance do borders have for ravens or salmon or grizzlies
Not very much
Yet for us, overmuch
We yield our sovereignty to the imagination of colonizers
We let the oligarchy herd us into feedlots of junkfood and unreality TV
Anaesthetized against the trauma of truth
The truth that we are prisoners paying for the privilege of a fiction
Locking ourselves in
Turning away from any escape
Because we’ve been French kissing fear
Forgetting last night night’s rape
And the one yet to come today
It’s all personal when it comes down to it
There are no real lines
Carving up truth
David Trudel © 2013
Filed under Poetry
In The Garden Of Your Mind
Fred Rogers was a gardener of young minds
Planting seeds with greenthumbed assurance
Calmly waiting for nature to take its course
Never in a rush
Like we are mostly
Not wanting to plant seeds but buy hothoused plants
Already grown
Not wanting to learn lessons of experience
Or experience small attempts of repetitive failure
Since we’ve learned to value self-esteem above wisdom
Which isn’t very wise
Or even as smart as we think
But then again, how many of us take the time to think
Instead we short circuit nature through shortcuts
Too busy to observe reality
So we live in delusional fantasies
Where we think buying a floral bouquet makes us green
Or self-absolve our collective guilt through signing online petitions
All the while contributing to this excessive consumerism
This insanity that’s driving us to the edge
Which we don’t see because of that delusional mindset we bought into
So we don’t hit the brakes
When the lemmings up ahead cliffjump into annihilation
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood
David Trudel © 2013
Prompted by this PBS Digital Studios remix of Fred Rogers:
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Filed under Poetry
Tagged as blank verse, creativity, dystopia, Fred Rogers, free verse, In the garden of your mind, inspiration, lemmings, metaphor, modern life, Mr. Rogers, poetry, self-esteem, shortcuts, social activism, social commentary, tranquility, wisdom