Nothing Left

When there is nothing left to live for,

But you’re too afraid to die,

When the truth you held has vanished

Or digressed into a lie,

When the morning dawns with darkness,

At night the moon and stars don’t shine,

When each day goes on forever,

And you are somewhere lost in time,

When the boredom overwhelms you—

Ennui becomes your state of mind—

When there’s nothing left to search for,

When there’s nothing left to find,

When there’s no one there to hold you,

When there’s nothing left to do,

When all there is is nothing,

Then all you have is you.

©Qoheleth, 2012

A Common Man

(Song Lyrics)

He came to earth in poverty—

But we clamored for a king

Adorned in wealth and power,

Whose praises we could sing.

He lived among the poor folks—

The outcasts of his time;

But uneasy with that kind of god,

We erected him a shrine.

We embellished it with gold and jewels,

Elevated him so high,

Far above the common people

For whom he lived and died.

Jesus, where are you?

What have we done to you?

We changed you and we hid you

Far beyond the common view.

We made you an institution—

You who lived as common man—

And we declared by constitution

Your power in the land.

Jesus where are you?

Why is it we cannot see

The one you came to show us,

The Living Deity?

He was just a common man—

A poor carpenter by trade;

He spoke a simple wisdom,

And he lived a simple way.

But we are so insecure

Before the Cosmic Mind,

We must create a grander god—

You know, the Herculean kind—

We cannot have a poor man

As our God in human form;

We need an Olympian,

Who walks above the storm.

© Qoheleth, 2012

Qoheleth Haiku 2:9

True Greatness

⁹So I became great and surpassed

all who were before me in Jerusalem;

also my wisdom remained with me.

One is a great man

How do you measure greatness

By power of love

Does wealth add greatness

To the value of a man

Or detract from it

Wisdom and greatness

May surely go hand in hand

What criteria

How does one surpass

Everyone else in greatness

How does one measure

Why must one defend

Pairing greatness and wisdom

If not foolishness

Value of person

Defines essential greatness

Not wealth and power

Qoheleth Haiku 2:8

⁸I also gathered for myself silver and gold

and the treasure of kings and of the provinces;

I got singers, both men and women,

and delights of the flesh, and many concubines.

Wealth’s distribution

Is skewed toward the elitists

Who outsmart the poor

Why we equate wealth

With blessing calls to question

Our integrity

What are the “singers”

The producers of music

Or euphemism

Of wealth and power

That which the kings of earth seek

What gives them value

Music perversion

To stimulate the senses

Without meeting needs

Egocentrism

Of the sage and of the king

Is still self-centered

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