Truth is where you find it.

Truth is where you find it.
Love: All humans have God-value; treat yourself and others accordingly.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 1:17


17And I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. 
I perceived that this also is but a chasing after wind.

Do we find it true
We must experience it
Before we know it

The way of the flesh
Is the pursuit of feeling
Rather than knowing

Wisdom and madness
Are not very far apart
A very thin breath

To the futile mind
Everything’s futility
Useful sans useful

As ends in themselves
Wisdom, madness, and folly
Are really the same

Wisdom points to life
Madness or folly to death
Pointing is the key

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 1:16


16I said to myself, “I have acquired great wisdom, 
surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me; 
and my mind has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.”

Talking with yourself
You may find enlightenment
Or self-destruction

Ruling positions
Require exceeding wisdom
Few rulers have it

It is not for man
To fill the God position
In a human life

To find wisdom seek
But seeking does not suffice
For revelation

Jerusalem kings
Not exactly examples
Of right behavior

If the sought does not
Meet essential human needs
Wisdom’s emptiness

Qoheleth Haiku 1:15


15What is crooked cannot be made straight, 
and what is lacking cannot be counted.

Pessimism reigns
In the mind tired of seeking
Meaning in nothing

Qoheleth points out
The futility of life
Lived by most humans

Most of what we seek
Does not meet essential needs
Crooked and lacking

Straighten the crooked
Army Corps of Engineers
The Mississippi

If it is not there
Then it cannot be counted
That’s quite obvious

Looking for meaning
In that which has no meaning
Defines meaningless

Chase the Wind


Chase the wind as it
Blows around the mountain
Over rocks through trees
Bending and twisting
Chase the wind up the
Hollow to the lone cabin
Where lovers lie entwined
In each other’s arms
Chase the wind through
The window to sweep
Away the promises
There made

© Qoheleth, 2012

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 1:14


14I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun;
and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Mysteries of life
Not my science not by art
Are fully explored

Hungering to know
Never finding the answers
Does not negate life

The journey is worth
More than the destination
Let’s enjoy the ride

When chasing the wind
Keep an eye out for windmills
They will chop you up

All of the deeds done
God and man under the sun
Work out God’s purpose

The mind will get tired
When it cannot comprehend
Beginning and end

Qoheleth Haiku 1:13b


13bit is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with.

When stars collide
Violence fills the universe
Can we call this good

Does God cause evil
In unhappy business
We do not see good

It is God’s design
That the mind should seek for truth
Then does he hide it

Does God make life hard
Some would say it is our sin
Could it be his plan

If God is all good
Then amoral violence
Must also be good

God is all in all
That which makes us unhappy
God has meant for good

From our busyness
Mental exasperation
Calls for a new choice

Remember Me


Children, don’t forget me.
I will soon be gone.
I came to stay with you a while,
But now I’m moving on.
I taught you everything I could—
Gave all I have to give;
And now I’m going to the cross
To die that you may live.
Come eat a little bread with me;
Drink a little wine;
And I will live inside your hearts;
And you will live in mine.
This my body, this my blood,
I freely give for you;
Take them and remember me
Every time you do.

Remember me.
Remember me.
I am leaving now,
And you’ll no longer see
Me in your presence physically;
But by the bread and wine
Know that I live inside your hearts
And that you live in mine.

Qoheleth 2012

Monday, May 28, 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 1:11


11The people of long ago are not remembered, 
nor will there be any remembrance of people 
yet to come by those who come after them.

We may know a few
Their names in books or on stone
Most remain nameless

One is only known
In personal memory
Then one’s forgotten

No one’s known for real
Beyond living memory
But maybe Jesus

To be forgotten
The greatest of human fears
If not know by God

Boredom of boredoms
To face being forgotten
With no memory

Qoheleth Haiku 1:12-13



12I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, 
13aapplied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven;

Who was Qoheleth
What does it really matter
He was metaphor

The key word is “seek”
Does one eventually find
That for which one seeks

Answer one question
Another one arises
Seeking continues

Qoheleth calls out
Directing our attention
Unanswered questions

All things that are done
By nature humans and God
Cries out for wisdom

Applying the mind
Involves process and purpose
Is itself wisdom

Sunday, May 27, 2012

The Last Leaf


outside my window
trees reach out
their boney finger
grasping for heavy
dark clouds
slowly moving
to a silent dirge
a lone withered leaf clings
to one inconsequential
despicable hand
of one diminutive tree
it shivers
an orphan
its family long departed
succumbing to the cold
it falls reunited with its kin
uncelebrated not interred
it lies in bitter death
upon its decaying
ancestors
the stirring of life
gave it
its last push

©Qoheleth 2012

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 1:10



10Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? 
It has already been, in the ages before us.

Would the ancient sage
Were he living in this age
Make the same comment

Original thoughts
To anyone who is thinking
All one thinks is new

I had an old thought
Then I looked at it closely
And found that it was new

There is nothing old
Only things that once happened
Happening again

I refuse to see
The sameness in the same thing
I see something new

I can understand
Sleeping creativity
Seeing nothing new

Friday, May 25, 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 1:9


9What has been is what will be, 
and what has been done is what will be done; 
there is nothing new under the sun.

The ancient cynic
Could not find anything new
For what did he look

Different points of view
Qoheleth Heraclitus
One reality

Constancy of change
One may see only the change
Or the constancy

We all get tired
Everything becomes a bore
Then the morning comes

The cycle of life
Brings us to the very point
Where our lives began

Circles in circles
The only infinite lines
That the eye can see

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 1:8

8All things are wearisome; more than one can express; 
the eye is not satisfied with seeing, or the ear filled with hearing.

Looking for meaning
In the material world
Is without meaning

Seeing creation
And not see its creator
Depresses the mind

What is wearisome
That which weighs upon the mind
Sans enlightenment

Seeing no meaning
In the ebb and flow of life
Robs life of color

The eye seeks to see
That which satisfies the mind
But it never does

That which gives meaning
Lies beyond the range of sight
And that of hearing

Rivers


Rivers

Rivers once impassible
Now spanned by bridges
Connect the once separated

Rivers flowing to the sea
Eat into the soil
Carrying me along with them

If I wish to see the sea
Rivers would take me
Or I could just sit and muse

Rivers do not seem to change
Don’t let them fool you
You will not see the same one twice

© Qoheleth 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 1:7


7All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the streams flow, there they continue to flow.

Drops of water fall
A lone drop changes little
But a myriad

Evaporation
Does not destroy poetry
The water cycle

What appears sameness
May not be the same at all
Just appearances

To eyes of boredom
All which one sees in boring
Excites another

Boredom indicates
One needs creativity
To meet the fun need

Monday, May 21, 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 1:6



6The wind blows to the south, and goes around to the north; 
round and round goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.

Around and around
We go around and around
Till we all fall down

Have you seen the wind
It blows north and south and back
I have not seen it

Our lives go around
Gusts of power and weakness
Like the blowing wind

Retaliation
What goes around comes around
Is that God’s design

Where is the boredom
In the blowing of the wind
Or one’s perception

God is the constant
If creation reflects God
Is God the constant

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Sun


The Sun

With dependable
Regularity
The sun rises
Announcing
Each new day
Boring some
Comforting others
Confusing many
Reminding all
That we need
Constancy
Change
and 
Clarity

© Qoheleth 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 1:5


5The sun rises and the sun goes down, 
and hurries to the place where it rises.

The course of the sun
Qoheleth’s cosmology
A mythology

We cannot expect
That the ancient Qoheleth
Would know what we know

Qoheleth of old
Had a poetic world view
That would improve ours

Sameness in the sun
And it course through the heavens
Sneaks behind the earth

Sameness is order
Though causing boredom for some
Gives others comfort

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

God of the Forsaken


(Song Lyrics)

You are God of quarks and photons
Of the universe and more
You are God of health and sickness
Of the virgin and the whore
Of capitalist and communist
The union man and scab
You are God of Mohammed
Of the Buddha and the Bab
Of Jesus and of Moses
Great Spirit above all
God of our redemption
Of Eden of the fall
You are God of limitations
And without boundary
God of the neutrino
And of infinity

(Chorus)
You are God of the Forsaken
Of the broken and the torn
Of the burned and the forgotten
Of the dead of the unborn
You are God of choice and God of chance
Of immutability
Of change and transition
Of time and eternity

You are God of stocks and Wall Street
And of Tobacco Road
You are God of care-free life styles
And heavy crushing loads
You are God of crucifixion
Good Friday Easter morn
You are God of resurrection
The rejoicing the forlorn
You are God of plains and mountains
Of the lotus and the mire
Of the deserts and of wetlands
Of the nothing the entire
You are God of human squalor
Of the mansion on the hill
God of all our boredom
And God of every thrill

(Chorus)

(Bridge)
There is nothing that evades You
In the rise and fall
I cannot escape your presence
You are God of all

You are God of celebration
Of the dirge and of the dance
You are God of hearth and cradle
Of the ladle and the lance
Of storms and of tranquility
Of serenity of peace
You are God of war and turmoil
Of the loss and the increase
You are God of mind and matter
The Spirit of the earth
God of convalescence
Of digression and of birth
You are God of jail and prison
God of liberty
You dwell with the enslaved
You live with the free

(Chorus 2x)
(Bridge)
(Tag)
I cannot escape your presence
You are God of  all

© Qoheleth 2004

Qoheleth Haiku 1:4


4A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. 

Once I too was young
Those who follow me grow old
Change remains constant

Qoheleth saw it
As stable terra firma
Yet it too will pass

We can’t change the world
We cannot get hold of it
We can change ourselves

Nostalgia remains
As the generations pass
Take comfort in that

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 1:3



3What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun?

Material wealth
Amounts to very little
In the grand design

Why do we struggle
For things that only provide
For physical needs

There is no real gain
Beyond the material
Of our amassed wealth

Take a breath relax
Let your thoughts settle on this
The value of gold

A very thin breath
Essential value of gold
Yet it is a breath