Navel-gazing on a seat of comfort

 

Consumerism seems to rule supreme in our new world,

then I hear on the radio that a place

in India currently experiences the woes of drought

and somewhere in Japan recently had earthquakes

that left people in fear of worse aftershocks

so they sought sanctuary in their cars rather than in their tents

(at least they had cars), while refugees in Manus face

a bleak future after outliving the challenges

of the open seas and being detained onshore by wily officials

determined to zip close tight state border security,

leaving survivors with no end on sight, condemned to live inside their heads,

their hope flickering out like a dead candle, their lips sewn in,

some lives snuffed out in self-immolation while governments

take their time, wait and see, and play with the chess pieces of human lives,

and in Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria, peace remains illusory

while hospitals and welfare aid workers become new targets

for exploding new technological devices, oh how cheap life has become.

But it is hard to pontificate from the armchair of comfort

in Sydney's inner west while sipping latte

at a shopping complex, and flicking through magazines

that sell dreams of fashion, style, and culinary delights

inaccessible no doubt for sufferers in our wider world.

I struggle within the transitory third phase state of my life

to see how we can change the insanity

that has befallen our fractured state of being,

apart from navel-gazing.

 

Architecture of thinking

 

'Everything is political', it was once pronounced

in the early seventies and of course,

we can also say in the same breath today

that 'everything is cultural'.

Within the sphere of thinking, we set boundaries

that impose inclusion and exclusion,

defining ‘difference’ and laying down

'uncommon ground'. 

Is this not the natural state of affairs beyond which

we simply draw upon unreachable ideals?

 

Our world is malleable, much like a clay

continually being sculpted, and I aspire to open wider

humanity's curtain of consciousness

to let us see a whole new horizon, bridge the gulf

between inner and outer, dance the realm of possibility

and sculpt our world (back) into a wondrous state

of non-being/being that keeps on track our evolution

into creative, positive light that materialises love,

utterly mindful of ensuring that we all have a fair share

of the earth's resources and assets.

 

'Mindfulness' replaces the institutional ‘sacred’

enacted by ‘gurus’ to heal psychological affliction,

hoping perhaps to fast track the capture

of humanity’s collective self, and discover the missing link

between the ego and the SOUL to find, not dormant peace

but peace that shapes the contours of our continuous becoming —

materially and spiritually, and crafts creative peace

that constantly renews our architecture of thinking.

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