Closer and longer
Softer but stronger
Diamonds and stone, together, alone
The universe grows
It breathes new life
The stars that arise and turn darkness alight
While living and breathing
It connects to us all
The rising tide speaks
But we don’t hear the call
The forest it cries as its family is sheared
While the ocean is choked
But can’t cough to be cleared
And those footsteps on terra
Have such disregard
The machine of progress leaves it broken and scarred
The lives that we live are in such disarray
The connections we need
Just an arms length away
Still we can’t grasp
What we don’t understand
So we don’t see the signs
And we don’t take a stand
All that we need lives inside the soul
And all that we want is just waiting to hold
And all the clear vision
Just past the haze
That can’t be attained with money
Or war
Ideologues and zealots who bang at the door
Only their way is right
You dare search for more
Those alternate views
Just cause for a fight
Be part of what you are
The land, sea and stars
Be kind to all that lives
You are one of those things
Do not shun the weakest of life
Those small things you think yourself above
Show respect, connect, and love
The higher mind is nothing more
Than a brilliant device for hate and war
But when it’s used in that way it should
It can only be used for all that is good
Jan 11, 2012
(Written after Seeing J. Keepnews fusion jazz set in NYC)