The Divorce

Twin Towns of the west

Lay your differences to rest

Ox-bow the winding course

That prompted this divorce

Your green river, only cleaves

Into this valley, as it weaves

Down from Mount Pine Ridge

And limbos under Hawksworth Bridge

It does not cleave your brotherhood

Nor does it sever neighbourhood

The river serves to unify

Not, your rapport, to nullify

Your coupled arrogance and pride

Is what has fostered this divide

So, like the river change your course

Your children cannot stomach this divorce

© José V. Guerra Awe

Water’s Edge III: The Coast

As waves sail past the jagged edges of

This headland’s seemingly abyssal cliff

On their journey to the coast

I cannot help but think

How water and earth

Are like fingers intertwined

Solid met by liquid

A striking contrast are the two

And as rock fills the void

Of water’s everlasting hunger

The nature of this Ying and Yang

Unfolds before my very eyes

The very wave that has been

Crashing, deep within my core

Always and forever will be

Transforming and transporting… of Itself

This wave is absolutely… undoubtedly, Me

For I am my own life’s entropy

And the tide that ebbs and flows

That takes and so returns

This collective force

This… brotherhood of waves

Birthed from the same undying fountain

It is… Humanity

For we are all conceived of the same life giving source

Infinitely diverse; but we are All waves

The entropic force of Life

And everything we’ve ever wanted

Everything we’ve ever sought

Always and forever will be… within ourselves

So, Headland turns to Arch

Arch turns to Stack

Stack finds its way back home to sea

Where waves transport it to a distant coast

A new dimension… where in time

Its form will manifest

© José V. Guerra Awe

Death

This is not a story of sorrow

Or one of termination

This is a story about Awakening

About Impermanence and Freedom

Once there lived within

The deepest caverns of

This ever changing shell

A miser clinging to his wealth

A spellbinding sorcerer was he

That with masterful illusions

Deceived me and convinced me

That he was an immortal

“A god amongst men,” claimed he

To serve him was my only purpose

And for Fear of everlasting torment

I yielded to his bidding

My liege rested

On the seventh day

Of a long and arduous week

And I was free to roam

I trekked through hall and alleyway

Of this labyrinthine necropolis

At the end of which I found a ladder

A wooden marvel shining under beam of light

Though I knew I would be penalized

I climbed as fast I could

And as I reached the summit

Found a door labeled “Perception”

I’d step foot into a new dimension

A haven of Impermanence

Where no one had a Self

And all things inter-were

Walking this new countryside

'Twas there I came to know

A Rider on a pale horse

With whom I reconnoitred

Though he never spoke a single word

I heard his every thought

And before I was returned from whence I came

We devised a freedom stratagem

As I’d afore suspected

My absence did not go unnoticed

And with crack of whip and sound of horn

My vengeful despot cast his curse

But I bore armour of Enlightenment

Spear of Inter-Being

Shield of Impermanence

And Helm of Freedom

It is so that I denounced my Self

And challenged his resistance

His clinging to my life…

A wealth that was always mine to live

And I delivered him onto Death

And with the swing of a merciless sword

My Self was brought to judgment

And it is so that I am onto you a free man

Manifested in the present

Unbound by past or future

Free to Inter-Be

Impermanent and Alive

© José V. Guerra Awe

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Yesterday... this ghost, this apparition

An echo in the darkness

A lingering vestige of a past self

An attachment clinging to the present

It is death – the absence of reality

Today... this glorious change

Unequivocal and constant

A powerful and steady heart beat

From which flows the essence of Life

It is reality – unhindered and infinite

Tomorrow... is a curse

A spell that we ingest intravenously

Using heated spoon and hypodermic needle

With it come a ball and chain, and cracking whip

It is birth – a coma we will never wake from

Yesterday is gone and long forgotten

Tomorrow is a supposition

Today is tangible; it’s malleable, and real

Where do you reside?

© José V. Guerra Awe

Beast

Confined to a cage,

A cell built upon apprehension

Self-loathing and insecurities

Cell engulfed by force field of resistance

And concealed under cloak of fear,

It endures: ageless and immortal

Eyes glaring, never blinking

Its focus: undeterred

Surefooted... restless

It paces, hauntingly, hither and yon

Breathing... deep... steady

Absorbing the miasmal phobia that enslaves it

As its body enters remission

Its mind philosophises

Every fibre of its being mutates

As it delves into the atoms of its impediment

And as beast evolves

The soma dissipates

And while new serum is prepared,

In the interim of applications,

Awareness breeds understanding

Enlightenment melts shackles.

It growls as it gnaws its prison’s walls

Teeth naked, fearless, unencumbered

I can feel its presence in my every thought

I see it in my shadow and in my reflection

Eyes glaring, never blinking, focus undeterred

Breathing... deep... steady

Teeth still naked,

Its heart beat pummelling the walls of my resistance

It yearns for freedom, for transfiguration

And as soma further weakens, comes infusion

Its paws become my hands electrically imbued

Its teeth... my impervious regalia

Its restless feet... my surefooted wanderlust

Its glare... my focus, undeterred

© José V. Guerra Awe

Scarecrow

Farmers have gone from horses to tractors

They’ve faced all kinds of improbable factors

While the scarecrow waits patiently in yonder field

Waiting to see what the farmland will yield

He’s seen different styles and worn many faces

All that with time the sunlight erases

Empires toppled and castles erected

He’s heard wedding bells ring and seen lovers rejected

Constitutions were written, great inventions invented

Distant planets discovered and world wars prevented

But the scarecrow holds true, diligent in his vigilance

Through the harshest conditions he upholds his stance

A true cosmopolitan, a worldwide sensation

The scarecrow’s a child of about every nation

From 8000 BC to post green revolution

His immortality is anything but retribution

And though his curiosity has forever been masked

A perplexing question for aeons has asked

“If I stand here safeguarding crops of all kinds

Who is the sentry of the food for your minds?”

© José V. Guerra Awe

War Drums

I want to dance...

I want to stomp my feet

To a swinging Jazz beat

Or a funky Soul flow

I want to sway my hips

To a spicy Salsa

To a Guaguanco

I want to tap my hands

To a feisty Punta

To some Ethnic Grooves

Most of all,

I want my heart to beat

My soul to move

To a thumping drum

I want my thought’s strings to strum

My vocal chords to hum

A symphony...

For peace

Yes... For Peace!!

Peace because...

The drums of war

Are drowning out the lively beat

I mould my life to

Peace because...

The screams of dying innocents

Are louder than the lyrics

To my favourite song

Peace because...

I want to feel the boom of a bass drum

Not the sonic boom

Of a fighter jet

Peace because...

I want to hear the rat-tat-tat

Of a snare drum

Not that of an M16

Peace because...

I want to hear the crash of a mighty cymbal

Not that of broken homes, broken dreams

And broken windows

Peace because...

I want to feel the thud of a thundering beat

Vibrating on my floor

Not that of balled fists against a poor man’s door

Peace because...

I want my subwoofer

To rattle the walls of my house

Not the rumbling engine of a tank

Peace because...

I can’t dance to this new sound

To this new beat

My feet won’t move

And my hips won’t sway

My ears can’t groove to the rhymes they spit

Or the tunes they play

War Drums can’t soothe my soul

And militant political propaganda

Is NOT poetry!!

So...

Give me handshakes

Not hand grenades...

Give me Cupid’s arrows

Not fifty calibre bullets...

Give me love songs

Not battle cries...

Give me ART!!

Not WAR...

© José V. Guerra Awe