coffee space...

Swimming today

Through muddy thoughts

Layers of insecurities

Loveless distractions

Swallowed gently

Yet forcefully

As I take my seat

On my way to nowhere 

Yet everywhere

Only to hear

Hello there

Finally silence

Within

Without

Join the masses

Keep the pace

Or don't

Breath in

Breath out

Keep the faith

Coffee face

2015 VRW

The Melody

Strum me a chord and I will bow to a melody so deeply fixed in memory that I have forgotten how it begins.

Strum me a chord and I will bow to a melody so deeply fixed in memory that I see faces and pew filled spaces with more meaning.

Strum me a chord and I will bow to a melody so deeply fixed in memory that even the most concealed tears of the heart willingly flow.

Strum me a chord and I will bow to a melody so deeply fixed in memory that I see clearly where I’ve been and where I am going.

Strum me a chord and I will bow to a melody so deeply fixed in memory that time becomes a best friend, not a foe.

Strum me a chord and I will bow to a melody, break out in harmony, and never strum alone.

*2014 Vaughn Wood

Antipathy's Way

I’ve been thinking

Soul searching, says Antipathy

As the battle furies on

Inside my immaculate conception

Of self-preservation, survival.

My lesions are bottomless

Beneath my victim guise.

I find comfort in controlling the masses

And their assessment of my demise.

These wounds may never heal

But the appearance of such is intoxicating.

I may not be what I seem

But my pride is saving me.

I say I forgive

But I say an abundance to please.

My rod and my staff, they comfort me.

Surely my spite will lead me

All the remaining days of my life.

In this truth I snub and nullify -

My way is God’s way.

It’s my right, my “I’m OK!”

*2014 Vaughn Wood

"To be wronged is nothing, unless you continue to remember it"

   - Confucius

  

the world we live in...

I wake to my normal craving of literary inspiration

A word or phrase worth remembering

All the while the news proclaims another shooting

Of the innocent nearby

But I barely bat an eye

Why?

One man's freedom

Is now a mother's good-bye

whipser of clarity

A whisper of clarity is clatter to the masses

Who revolt against the notion they may be wrong

Listen, you will hear it

Look, you won’t believe it

Stop, you will see it

                     

Man’s definition is capable of being redefined

Construction reconstructed

As one’s illumination is confronted

Growth is a painful practice

Stop it, and you will be haunted

~2014 Vaughn Wood

buried alive...

The moment I laid eyes on it I knew

there is life beyond this grave.

I was not meant to be restrained

by my own lament.

These concrete walls only leave one detained

from the freedom to envision a better tomorrow.

I tell you, the dead do rise

to yet an enlightened state

beyond an end of a life once hallowed.

So rest in peace my shadow of despair.

I see light

as my hope takes flight

beyond the zombie stare.

~2013 Vaughn Wood

contented continuance....

It’s not too often you get a moment with one so wise

Wisdom appears in many shapes and colors

But one must be careful

So do lies

Time granted the season for an Orchid to bloom

A moment of awestruck luster it was

Then with one surrender

A peaceful landing did loom

From where did it come from?

Where did it go?

Nowhere, yet somewhere

A simple I am that I am 
and please continue

~2013 Vaughn Wood

Tears of Joy

My body, my blame

Don’t think of me in the same

Old way you use to

I’m clean

Not as you seem

To believe all that you want to

I’ve stared into a mirror deeply

On some days somewhat forcefully

And never have I left notably

Without aquatically declaring

I’m me

You are you

And that’s beautiful

My color is not my deed

Genes declare my need

Please don’t feed

The animals inside

Our head

It is I

And it is We

And We are unstoppable

If we can only see

This jungle’s tamable

Aquatic proof we exist

Flows from cheek to fist

A reality in this mist

I love me

Consequently

I can now love you

~2013 Vaughn Wood

Manly Parody...

A man will never be fully content unless he is whole.

Absolute and complete wholeness is not achievable in this human frame.

Therefore the absence of want is achieved only when honest inventory is taken.

Honest inventory brings a man momentarily to a higher level of wholeness, 

that is until honest inventory is necessary again, which is always. 

Introspection

Clarity

Epiphany


So goes a man in route of becoming, potentially never arriving, but being content with that.



~2013 Vaughn Wood

Chariot ride...

Gregorian chant swallows me whole as it clears the air in my car.

A high tenor’s brief but powerful solo is rejoined by fraternal harmony:

Alleluia

Alleluia

Alleluia  

I've never been more aware of where I am.

I’m amused how much I don’t care where I’m going.

Three years have passed since considering a priestly vow.

Perhaps then in the confines of such cathedral isolation

I would have learned how to need nothing but Divine adoration;

Such desired consecration,

Just not humanly possible.

            (crescendo followed by a rest)

An angelic sister’s chamber choir joins in;

Pure pitch and melodic notation.

Proof that although men can sing,

They were never meant to sing such a hymn, alone:

Alleluia

Alleluia

Alleluia  

I am my own cathedral

and in my heart is such a song.

But then I begin to want and worry;

Proof that although men can sing,

They were never meant to sing such a hymn, alone:

Alleluia

Alleluia

Alleluia  

~2013 Vaughn Wood

unmasking happiness...

Sermon on the mount, or private discussion among friends?
Read it closely; don't exaggerate or defend.
There is clear evidence of an honest, powerful presence,
in the company of just one man,
whom all are welcome to call, friend.

Never hypothetical, just full of simple meaning:

Happy people are not spiritually medicating;

Happy people are not prone to performing;

Happy people are comfortable in their own skin and the skin of others,

Happy people are content in the now, whatever the now is.

Intoxicating, public display, is not very spiritual at the end of the day.

All humanity is short of perfection;

Personal perfection was never meant to be derived; 

Perfection (as you may perceive it) will leave you lonely

-short of what it really means to be alive.

This historical visit among friends centuries ago,

speaks more loudly against dangerous, religious folk.

It reminds us that happiness can be achieved,

as we value ourselves and each other, not just obnoxiously believe. 

Therefore being fully confident and certain of one thing:

Our happiness tomorrow is determined by the real you and the real me.

~Vaughn Wood 2013

Truth Be Told

Character that is built from the depths of being honest with oneself and others Is more productive than confidence that is only skin deep.

~Vaughn Wood 2013

Melanchalling...

It’s going to rain. I just know it.

I feel it in so many ways;

A flood of emotions,

A melancholy state;

Within and without.

A cloud is hovering:

I should have

I could have

I would have

What good are these now?

Mere residue that is washing away;

On my head,

In my head,

And the ground below my feet.

The spring foliage yearns for it

With their arms outstretched;

A thirst that must be quenched.

Their life depends on it.

I wish I could welcome the gray

With such eager anticipation,

But I don’t!

I wish I could

I wish it would

Disintegrate!

I love it when the sun breaks through

And light beckons the way,

But not today;

The clouds will have their say;

On my head,

In my head,

And the ground below my feet.

Go ahead, wash away yesterday!

A footprint

A regret

Make all the dirt a muddy clay;

Cleanse the smog filled skies;

Do your duty, gray!

Then pass on by, cause

The sun is on its way:

I can

I will

I hope

On my head,

In my head,

And the ground below my feet.

~Vaughn Wood 2013

A Dream Away

Dreamers are not always liked or preferred
although admired from afar
by those certain that a penny is just a penny
and a child is only cute and silly
with a limited view of life

The Dreamer walks through fire
while flames are tamed
by an ocean breeze
or a lovers embrace

The Dreamer is never wasteful
and flavors are never limited
when ingredients are chosen
from the land of imagination

Dreaming in real time is a lifestyle
where chaos is potential notation
and confusion is a vehicle for creation
which should never be interrupted
or too easily interpreted

The Dreamer hopes to never wake
in the city where dreams die
and the people stop hoping
yet continue to live a lie
passively aggressive
peacefully aggravated
powerfully weak
completely incomplete

Dreaming is an Eternal state
of intentional rest and peace
awake or asleep

The Dreamer is a dream
of the Creator who dared to dream
imagination birthed illumination
dreaming is in the gene

So why silence the dreamer
or wish his or her ideas away
life as it was meant to be
is only a dream away

~2012 Vaughn Wood

The Idealist Curse

Jumbled letters on a page
with no apparent purpose
unless imperfectly rearranged.

The idealist discards too quickly
the assumed non-quintessential
via a filtered memory and selective hearing
birthing a limited view.
perfect imperfection,
lovingly unlovely.

Imagine being presented
a still shot of this very moment
which enraptured everyone and everything
in consequential motion.

This time in the now
would be but a small grain of sand,
a molecular minuscule,
in the ocean of jumbled letters on a page
with no apparent purpose
unless imperfectly rearranged.

~2012 Vaughn Wood

Condensational Glory...

Time stands still
A moment
Void of thought, sight or sound
Willfully
All conversation muted

Liquid
Like a tropical rain it gathers
Condensed, cold matter
Clinging to that which
Is served up tall and bitter

Only I can see it
Aquatic wonder
Gravity's power
A sweet surrender
A letting go
Dripping
From glass to finger

~2012 Vaughn Wood

A Man is Quite Simple

A man is quite simple,
although battling complexity
as it collides with masculinity,
like a well made bed
appearing, well you know...
together

Like a trumpeter, puckered,
who is compelled to blow into thin air
and a sound, complex in nature, eventually resonates
attempting to reach a note so high and pure
in hopes of turning a head or two
only to find the crowd a bit displeased,
yet convinced in complexity's own head...
he nailed it

Simplicity is much less the exhibitor -
longing to love,
yet even more so to be loved,
smiling while trying,
deeply believing,
the effort is worth the while
to turn not one head,
but just one heart his way

An out of tune one stringed instrument
is a man in trouble though,
stretched beyond reach of harmony, beauty
in sight nor sound,
clever, never
is a man so simple, yet profound

Crowded hallways
are full of such simplicity, and yes, irony
where men work willfully
to make something of themselves and others
to find their laborious motion
has indubitably left them, and love,
unfounded...
merely breathing,
surviving,
one foot after the other,
placed honestly and firmly
on the good earth provided

"Wake me,"
says the man while removing
yesterday's mask,
unveiling a fear of a future,
or the lack thereof,
battling paralyzing uncertainty

Will love ever see the real beauty
in such a simple authenticity?
Where past, present and future
is lost in a much stronger honesty,
in the arms of  long awaited safety.

When will love lean heavily,
securely,
happily,
on these broad shoulders of simplicity?


~2012 Vaughn Wood





 

The Many Flavors of Freedom

The flavor of freedom is fashioned by its context.

Case in point, one departs a childhood home,

excited for freedom’s dorm,

to find freedom a lonely and empty space,

where regret and poverty commonly moan.

I use to pine for freedom from the masses,

a simple space with time alone.

But one’s own company is like all others:

Enjoyable at first,

eventually, disagreeable.

The young crave for freedom and affirmation

to marry a love so divine.

As years go by, the sublime fails to glitter

and autonomy is beloved more than time.

Once granted, freedom’s ill will takes a bite,

No longer preferred, but willfully endured.

Every land of the free

has plots full of spacious solitude

where freedom is reserved and buried,

six feet down restricted,

lay a soldier's supposed free,
yet cold, grave.

If you desire freedom,

be careful what you wish for.

Freedom may be more than you ask for - 

the test of what one can sustain.

When confronted with no other choice,

freedom can lose its luster.

Freedom is a two edged sword

that is hard for anyone to fully swallow.

But in its glory it’s worth the battle,

and at its worst, it presents a reality,

and becomes mysteriously,

 life’s crowned,

king of parody.

~2012 Vaughn Wood

perspective

There is always more than one view of our circumstance;


Up close it's always intimidating and breeds momentary insecurity,
mental anguish and reaction.


When viewed from an angle,
the possibility of escape and hope of plausible detour lingers - a moment of decision.


From above, the view is surprising in light of its smallness,
as it is swallowed up in the mix of all things good and evil.


When finally viewed behind us, reality overcomes chaos,
 and wisdom takes a bow.


~Vaughn Wood 2012

Flawlessly Imperfect

Life is not a difficult puzzle that we finally master

Or a list of goals and possessions we finally acquire

It is the paint spatter outside the lines of disaster

Beautifully radiant where it lies

In the company of one’s own imperfection

Life is not a record of wrongs and rights

Or a long delay before the final curtain

It is then, now, and whenever

Romantically savored, full of flavor

When perfectly happy with imperfection

Life is only devalued when perfect is the standard

And genocidal elite believe their own distortion

Forced entry of the impossible

Societies venom, well-aimed ammunition

Humanities slow burial in the filth of status quo

Life is not an ongoing journey of getting every answer right

Or a painless world that crawls in bed each night

It is a gift of order and disorder, chaos and calm

Lasting no less than one’s own lifetime

Perfectly happy with one’s own, and others, imperfection

~2012 Vaughn Wood