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.