Feeling

We are not feeling beings;

We are beings who feel;

Pain and sorrow, love and joy

Certainly are real.

They are something that we have;

They are not what we are;

In the same way the heavens

Are not defined by stars.

We think, we act, and we connect--

A sacred trinity:

Mind, body, and spirit

Our anthropology.

©Qoheleth, 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 2:7

⁷I bought male and female slaves, 
and had slaves who were born in my house; 

I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, 

more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem.

Material wealth

What does it profit a man

Should he lose himself

Culture’s no excuse

For owning human beings

Humanity cries

Slave owners equate

Human beings to livestock

Who would ever guess

Wisdom discovers

Material wealth fleeting

What has true value

More than keeping up

Our life goal is to surpass

The Joneses next door

The smug elitist

Sees his class superior

To all other groups

Qoheleth Haiku 2:6

⁶I made myself pools 
from which to water the forest of growing trees.

Cooperation

Between humans and nature

Improves or destroys

Grammatical form

For myself / I myself made

There’s a difference

When self-centeredness

Improves the environment

Evil becomes good

Alters evolution

Interacting with nature

Is that evolution

When should we plant trees

At least when we cut trees down

To improve forests

Is doing good wrong

When it creates good outcomes

End justifies means

Procrastination

Procrastination haunts me;

The hounds of hell pursue

Me every waken moment

Trying to make me do

The many things I should.

Ennui, my friend, still daunts me;

Energy pays the due,

As it sings its sad lament

In the darkest hue,

Robbing life of good.

Then devastation flaunts me—

The many things I rue;

For some brief amusement

I may have shared with you,

But never thought I would.

©Qoheleth, 2012

War

War

It spreads like a disease—

This thing that we call war.

When the box is opened,

One battle calls for more.

When one group of people

See another fight,

They suddenly remember

They’ve been denied some right.

Then giving up all other rights,

They run to join the fray.

There discounting human life,

They face their judgement day.

One after another joins

‘Till the whole world’s at war.

And no one quite remembers

What they are fighting for.

So they justify it

With “God” or “Liberty,”

But the loss of life and land and limb

Speaks to the tragedy.

Oh, the height of foolishness

Man in war displays:

The extension of his ignorance,

The reduction of his days.

He sinks beneath the quicksand

As he slowly loses grip,

Unconscious that war is no more

Than a fool’s power trip.

©Qoheleth, 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 2:4-5

⁴I made great works; 

I built houses and planted vineyards for myself; 

⁵I made myself gardens and parks, 

and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees.

Surely there’s value

In making life livable

In growing good fruit

Human busyness

Creates human business

Pleasure and profit

How much does one need

The places that one can be

The food one can eat

Excess is foolish

Even one who seeks wisdom

May be led astray

Houses and gardens

One each should be sufficient

We always want more

Variety adds

Spice to life’s experience

Satisfies a need

Lost in Southeast Georgia

Lost in Southeast Georgia

(Song Lyrics)

(Chorus)

The night can get dark in southeast Georgia,

When the moon refuses to shine;

A man can get lost in a memory

And never find his way through the pines.

I had lost my job and my family;

The bottle had become my closest friend;

We had reached an understanding--

It was driving me around the bend.

I woke up in a haze one Monday morning

In my car on some deserted road,

Parked beside an old abandoned graveyard,

Hidden in a moss-covered grove.

An old black man worked among the tombstones,

Cleared away the weeds with tender care;

On a tiny unmarked grave he left a single rose:

The only sign a child was buried there.

(Chorus)

I asked the old man how to get to Kingsland--

I thought I needed to get back to town.

He started talking as he kept on working;

And so I just followed him around.

He said, “I don’t get paid for what I’m doing--

Cleaning white folks’ graves all the time;

Most of the folks here are forgotten;

But that one with the rose, you see, is mine.

I loved a girl when I was younger--

I knew in my heart our love was right;

But folks around here would not let our love come to be,

Because I’m black, you see, and she was white.

Still we met each other in the darkness--

A child was born, they said they could not save;

They buried her unsung in this lonely oak grove;

But they would even mark her grave.

(Chorus)

Suddenly a light flashed all around me:

I heard a voice that I had heard before,

“Don’t get lost in the in the days behind you;

Right before you stands an open door.

You should know that I’ve always loved you;

I just had to call you one more time;

For though you’ve lost your way, I have called to say,

‘The rose within your heart, you see, is mine.’”

The night can get dark in southeast Georgia,

When the moon refuses to shine;

A man can get lost in a memory

And never find his way through the pines.

©Qoheleth, 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 2:3

³I searched with my mind how to cheer my body with wine--

my mind still guiding me with wisdom--

and how to lay hold on folly, 

until I might see what was good for mortals 

to do under heaven during the few days of their life.

Seeking for value

What is there worth pursuing

Of all we pursue

Of wine and wisdom

We may give either control

Each may control us

Wisdom over wine

One must remain in control

Of one’s behavior

We define folly

The opposite of wisdom

Seen as amoral

Folly has value

As alcohol has value

In how we use them

On what should we spend

Our hours and our energy

That which benefits

It’s morning it’s night

Another day slips away

And soon life is gone

Qoheleth 2:1-2

¹I said to myself, "Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself." 

But again, this also was vanity. 

²I said of laughter, "It is mad," and of pleasure, 

"What use is it?"

How is pleasure wrong

In that God created it

When we pursue it

When we meet our needs

We experience pleasure

It’s information

Pleasure is pleasure

It is wasted on itself

If we don’t meet needs

We do not have need

For simply having pleasure

That is vanity

Pleasure is neutral

Being either good or bad

It’s how we use it

Perverted pleasure

Takes those things that we should praise

Making them madness

Laughter like pleasure

Has no meaning in itself

Must be connected

Qoheleth Haiku 1:18

¹⁸For in much wisdom is much vexation, 

and those who increase knowledge increase sorrow.

Downside of wisdom

See reality clearer

See futility

Still I want to know

I have a hunger to know

More than I know now

Ignorance is bliss

I prefer the vexation

That comes with wisdom

Sorrow increases

Becoming educated

So children hate school

As eyes are opened

One sees more human cruelty

Sorrow increases

You must define terms

When you talk about wisdom

Of heaven or earth