"To be a human is easy, to live a human life is hard; to desire to be a human a second time, we fear is even harder. If you wish to be born into the Happy Lands, there is one easy way - say what is really in your heart, then you'll reach your goal."
-God's Chinese Son, pg 45-

Haikus

Resting as a corpse,
Rocks become smooth in the stream,
Leaves give up purpose.

Clinging on dead twigs,
The sun reveals every color,
Bubbles are lifetimes.

Rapids create sound,
A mind lets go of hearing,
The rain from last night.

Liberated seeds
Wind reveals its true nature
Geese take advantage

Itching in the past
A mosquito memory
Sacrifice the now

Peeking from tall grass
A strand of spider’s silk shines
It’s not just a rock

Clouds swirl overhead,
A breeze enlightens pine trees,
The sky becomes clear.

John Fire Lame Deer in "Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions":
"A medicine man shouldn't be a saint. He should experience and feel all the ups and downs. The despair and joy, the magic and the reality, the courage and the fear, of his people. He should be able to sink as low as a bug, or soar as high as an eagle. Unless he can experience both, he is no good as a medicine man.
"Sickness, jail, poverty, getting drunk - I had to experience all that myself. Sinning makes the world go round. You can't be so stuck up, so inhuman that you want to be pure, your soul wrapped up in a plastic bag, all the time. You have to be God and the devil, both of them. Being a good medicine man means being right in the midst of the turmoil, not shielding yourself from it. It means experiencing life in all its phases. It means not being afraid of cutting up and playing the fool now and then. That's sacred too.
"Nature, the Great Spirit - they are not perfect. the world couldn't stand that perfection. The spirit has a good side and a bad side. Sometimes the bad side gives me more knowledge than the good side."

Stems

When simplicity courses
Through blood and sap,
A tree connecting biology
Of man and simple thoughts,
Life becomes one. A white
Wall is the written work
Of man and simple thoughts,
The consistency of novels
Never made. How to progress
On a circular path, the addition
Of man and simple thoughts,
Defies the dimensions of one.
Just to be, casts out society,
Breaks down the education
Of time, let it be known
In blood. It is the heart and soul
Of man and simple thoughts.

My Motor

When I was young, I took
apart many toys to learn
the workings. The gadgets
of a child explored, to put
back together again, a drive
to know how and why
the wheel spins and speakers beep.
The motors of remote controlled
cars found new use in coming apart,
in concepts coming together,
I never stopped asking and testing
magnets, coils, motors, all foiled
to only know why was the easy
part, giving up was twice as hard.
Moved on to teenage fascination driven
by an image, hooked up Hondas came to pieces.
expensive education of tow truck drivers,
mechanics putting back together
my questions, my riddles. Pieces
of engines became gears in my mind,
turning for why, turning for how. This
classroom of a garage was greasy, I
spent more time reading, tinkering, bleeding
with frustrations and cut knuckles,
the chuckles of family and friends
misunderstanding why I why, to fend
off my own enemies, concepts and theories
never satisfied hunger, thirst, the hole
in my thoughts that was shaped for only one
question. Now, my training in probing, asking,
seeking lends me science to figure me out,
why am I? The taking apart
of thoughts, the pondering
of the self that ponders, I look for the motor
and trace to the Source of Power.