How may we find our initiative?
How may we find our
Initiative?
Is it buried? Lost?
Hidden in plain sight
If we had eyes to see
Between us?
Does initiative come from
Outside
Is it taught to us
Or is it here
Already
Among us?
:- Doug.
Archive for the 'Conversations' Category
Flowing metamorphosis
Ripping grey cloths
from over our heads,
poking holes
to allow—
to be part of—
one flow
we are
here & gone & never gone:
woven within
Creation & destruction
life & death
nothing final
flowing metamorphosis
entertain no hope:
this surpasses
:- Doug.
We can only be full
We can only be full
when we are empty
only completely empty
are we completely whole
:- Doug.
Write your last three poems backwards
Write your last three poems backwards
backwards poems three last your Write
Write your next three poems backwards
sdrawkcab smeop eerht txen ruoy etirW
:- Doug.
Our task is not to pack
Our task is not to pack
knowledge into people’s closets
but their will & imagination
to call out to play
:- Doug.
The right people are those who want
I would rather those who came were the right people than that we only fill the room. The right people are those who want to get to work and engage others.
:- Doug.
Be strong in saying this
I want to be strong in saying I want to bring to the fore the hearts and minds of the people in the room, and engage them in making this a better community.
:- Doug.
I no longer want to fill the room
I no longer want to fill the room—I want people to go out of the room and fill the world.
:- Doug.
This question can inform
For what do I long
in this work,
at this moment?
(It is larger
—rightly so maybe—
when preparing
than when doing.)
This question can inform
doing, person, uni-verse
:- Doug.
There is a cosmic wind blowing
There is a cosmic wind blowing
We face it, stand in its midst, deflect it
We welcome, redirect, and cause
:- Doug.
to face the word “death”
It may be courage that we need: to face the word “death,” to look upon a real person dying, to confront our own.
:- Doug.
to do some important compassionate work?
What do we want from this session? To give pieces of information people can put in their closets? Or to awaken people—to injustices in dying in our community—to opportunities for compassion? Or to advertise our organizations? Or to gather people who care to do some important compassionate work? I choose the last of these.
:- Doug.
After paper is shreds & pen is broken
After years of writing
—contracts, letters, Wills, poems—
I find I have been forming myself
working on what remains after
paper is shreds & pen is broken
:- Doug.
A good invitation will take us further than a great lecture
A good invitation will take us further than a great lecture.
:- Doug.
No member of my church has died since the new Pastor came.
No member of my church has died since the new pastor came. Not a single one in 8 years. People only fall asleep. Not just during sermons.
:- Doug.
Ir is the name of the window
Ir is the name of the window
Through which I the poet enter—
Irrelevance
Irreverence
Sometimes its meaning skips the Ir
:- Doug.
