Ten Prayers Gilbert Ramsay

The Story Before anything, before everything, there was a story A story! And no one to tell it? God knew it Or maybe thats just what God is: a Tale without a teller No matter! Everything that is, is because its in that story There simply isnt anything that doesnt come up in it sooner or later The story has a life of its own! A life, and a light Its the light that we live by The darkness goes on forever But the light still shines just as much

How to Begin Forgiveness; that's what we invoke in beginning Forgiveness is Lord of all conscious beings The beneficence of doubt before conviction snaps shut The resistance at the gate before the binary cut We kneel before you as we scratch out the lines of our proof Our eyes implore you, lest in our striving for truth We should find only wrath...

The Covenant Stop reading now if these words are not true Some things you believe though they cant be proved Things you wake up for, things you invest in The future unseen, which you put all your trust in Not all will accept this. You must leave them behind One day you will realize you cant reach their minds Look close in their eyes they begin to cloud Seeing the world from behind a shroud

What to Wish For Those who talk big Let them mean what they say

Those with dreams for the future May it turn out that way But let us not go hungry And the bad things we do? Lets hope theyre forgiven You know, wed do the same for you And the day it all kicks off When promises fall flat Please, let it never come to that Knowledge The Knowers know The Seers see What looms above What lies beneath The blinding heights The black abyss The Seers note The Knowers list They count the rings They cut the ice They hang balloons from the edge of the skies Their buoys bedeck the seas like bunting They know the width of every sunbeam They count the atoms in the air Have knowers power? Should seers care?

When You May Not Fight You may not fight when you may not fight Not to defeat evil Not to avenge a slight Not to preempt trouble brewing Not because he had it coming to him Not for love and not for money Not for justice, not for fanny Not for the camera, not for the kicks Not to get even with the pricks Your hands stay still behind your back As your nose is broken and your eye is blacked As your house is torched and your car is jacked And your girl is fingered in the back Your eyes look straight, your shoulders level Your heart beats like a judges gavel But when you fight, this is how you do it:

You put everything you have into it Every muscle, every nail Every sound bite, every email Every breath and every ruse Every writ and every suit Every mainmast, every matchstick Atom bombs and classic slapstick You fight till every wrong turns right Till night is day and day is night Till black is grey and grey is white But you may not fight, when you may not fight

The Sheep I am a sheep: Upon all fours The planet is my smorgasbord My friends and lovers flock beside me I live the life of fucking Riley I shouldnt have to spell it out. I am a man And at my throat Is death And at my back is failure My brain is stuffed with genitalia But you wont see me bitch and whine Ill lay my table and Ill dine A thousand enemies in sight Ill wish myself good appetite.

Humanity Say: I am a human, I shall not flee From a billion years of the struggle to be From a million years growing knowledge of that fact I stand with my reality intact Whispering voice, you ask by what right? In my chest, in my brain by night Your words are nothing, void, unreal I am here. That is all.

No Two Ways

It is or it isnt, thats the beauty of it One thing, no moving parts, no breakable bits. No half measures, no pussyfooting around No head in the clouds versus feet on the ground No cosmic eggshells, no giants corpse No kids, no marriage, no divorce No replacement, no guarantee of it No questions asked: its take or take leave of it

The Cleft Where good branches off from bad, right there, in the cleft Is a place you can sit and catch your breath Dangle your feet above a river Think about sticking it out forever But above the canopy, the night coagulates And bad intentions malignantly marinate And the battered moon urinates