Well Thought Advice

From the porch the white haired priest looks out upon
A sight to behold taking place on his lawn.
Toddlers yelling and screaming ha ha! 
Lovers sighing and singing la la. 
Shoes that are tapping away in the night. 
The sound of men preparing to fight! 
Schoolboys are running, their shoes in the mud;
One falls headlong, then the sound of a thud!
Laughing ensues, the two boys do fight;
Their brothers in arms scream them on in delight!
Girls in their dresses walk around in disgust,
Disgustedly looking at the boys in the must.
A spark of annoyance in each of their eyes;
The boys and the girls do each other despise.  
Elderly women fussing and gawking. 
Many young men boast though still walking. 
The ladies do laugh as they watch them go by; 
They snicker and squeak when they do draw nigh. 
Old timers smoking their pipes in the shade. 
They smirk and the joke at the youthful brigade. 
Man breaks from the group to speak to the maid.
Her blush earns for him from the men a "well played".
The priest looks again; the scene changes hue,
No longer does sunlight reflect in the dew,
No more does the afternoon sun in full
Take out its fury, exacting it's toll. 
Sunlight that streams over hill and vale, 
By which we may see all that's said in this tale, 
Now lowers his head in a yawn neath the clouds. 
No more can be seen but the lights in the town. 
And under those lights dance the night away 
Old women and men; young boys at play, 
Imitating with pride their great hero's 
While the ladies and gents in sighs and O's 
Did take it in turns to approach their crush; 
In the dark were made many a blush.
And from his porch the priest chuckles and laughs,
For he knows all to well life's well worn paths.
He stands and he enters his house with a smile,
He goes to rest, prepares for the isle
Down which he must process in the morning 
Which will be overflowing, outpouring
With many a dreary eyes and faces;
Each reminiscing on the nights fare paces.
Will he reprimand they who did enjoy
The nightly revels which they did employ?
No, not he, but he'll remind them of this;
A saying that's important if one seeks bliss. 
Life at its best requires some work 
Lest merriment be a sour earned perk. 
And all of us toddlers, lovers, and old timers too, 
Will learn, are learning, and remember true 
Love that's made visible by a chance
That happened one night by circumstance. 
Let us seek ardently and strive patiently and maintain perfectly that which is most worth while. 
Let us seek communion with friends, brother, sister, father, mother, and infantile.
Obtaining balance and communion with God
We'll soldier through life's problems and onward plod! 

                              Well Thought Advice (c) Luke Bennette, March 2013

Life's Cross

To be or not to be? What a question!
Is this to be a rant, a confession
Of how obstinate and stubborn a man
Can be when he refuses to get a tan
By way of sunlit walks upon the shore
Or by way of spending time evermore
Trapped, self imprisoned by his own deceit,
By the mind that is itself made replete
By repetitions of melancholic
Nihilism in a false sopranic
Voice that screams of dreariness, woe, and pain?
No need have we for the dreaded refrain
That is sounded in several different ways
By such analogies of darkened days
Of dreamlessness, of weighty minds gone dark;
For how can one dream unless first he is?
How a flame unless he is first a spark?
And from what possible source comes a kiss
Without first owning a pair of lips that
Can join that of another? You're minds at
A strange place if you think that taking arms
Against yourself will solve the great alarms
That have plagued your health for so many days,
Months, and possibly years. Such things are meant
That you should seize the day and woo your love
By means of staying your right vengeful hand
In order to face the great heaven above!
Let the dead bury the dead, live on in
Silent memory of them and hope to win
Some peace through living still in this dread land.
For to be or not you certainly are;
To consider otherwise is quite bizarre.
And if you should seek not to be what then?
You still are! A firm realization
You yourself made when you said that the dark
Holds mysteries unknown; a nightingale
Sings one to his or her death, while a lark
Encourages life to go on. A snail
Has more life than you though he go so slow
And carries more in state than you in yours!
Consider not death, such thoughts are for bores.
Live your life, though a cross, and simply be!
Life's fare cross; joyful reality.

                      Life's Cross, (c) Luke Bennette, March 2012

Strife be my Peace

I gave you these things for the good of your
Soul; to nourish your heart, and to make you whole.

I sought you, even in the dark of your

Pain; yet you sought not my face when I called

Your name. And so I turned my face,

I went my own way without you behind

Me, because you paid no attention; blind

Have you become in your wallowing death,

Unable to breathe, you have a labored

Breath that speaks to you of your burdens so

Procured for you by your sin. Hear you its

Taunting voice? Feel you its callous hands? Fits

Of rage and anger in choice manifest

Themselves, and do of you demand actions

Twofold, another choice so to speak, test

You and break you down! Sure weakness

Is a dreaded state that causes you much

Pain and suffering, for sure; but to touch

Upon such matters with more pain and such

Suffering that you cannot escape, this

Does not elevate you O foolish ape!

Rather you deepen the gauge upon your

Soul by a scythe, reap what you have sown more

Often in the flesh. Thus your spirit faints,

Your mind voices often its many complaints,

And death draws closer to you day by day.

Turn back and plead that you may be saved! Saints

Have procured such mercy from me as this

Which you now desire and need for such bliss

As you seek to obtain in these worldly

Things of power, money, and diamond rings!

What are these things to you who know life?

Why do you invite perpetuate strife?

              Strife be my Peace, (c) Luke Bennette, February 2013

Surmounted

I strain my ears as you speak the babel,
A necessity born of the rabble.
I grunt and I groan, inside my frame shakes,
Hearing muddied arguments, my heart aches.
False reality leave me now for good!
That I could escape you, I surely would...
But having gone up the mountain to flee
What falsely is seen, I am truly freed;
Yet know also what is necessary
(To return to the rabble, and so plea
The cause of truth, with gentle clarity.)
And so now you know, for knowledge the fee
Is service to others eternally
That they may, as we do, thus truly see.

                        Surmounted (c) Luke Bennette, February 2013

Exit the Merry Go Round

In life we see but one struggle;
Man's search for truth, in full.
Yet only through strife comes he to conclude
That within himself he doth still elude
The dreaded answer which he seeks to find;
The truth is already within the mind.
And so we see in many men,
Whether eight, or nine, or twenty times ten
Years of age (in youth's or strong veterans)
The inner struggle which inside us spans.
A wide variety of characters and choices;
For the struggle takes on many such voices.
But if man seeks to overcome this drama
He must take a hint from the Dali Lama,
From the Pope, from a simple hermit;
But first he must himself be open and permit
The hint that has hinted within his soul,
That single voice that is the whole
Of what mankind seeks upon the shoal
Of eternity, the landmass of this earth;
It beckons from across the water's girth
To walk towards life and give up death.
So in the drama we are of life bereft
Because we find the answer and still forsake it,
Upon our golden answer we foolishly sit.
Ill content and ill at ease with what is offered
We listen to the drama that is proffered
By our senses and confirmed by our reason too.
We struggle to answer the voice that is true,
We stop short of happiness divine
And day after day in a drama we pine.
One day we are young, the next we are old.
One night we pout and another make bold.
Yet we never acquire what it is we seek,
We are too broken, to tame and weak;
Unable to give our all for what's worth.
The answer we seek is a new rebirth.
An exit from this drama we play,
And into a communion with each other. Pray
What is the name of this voice that we hear
That wills to be heard through the chatter of fear?
It is true character from which all the rest
Find their fullness, in it they are best.
So struggle on if you will, but as for me
I shall give in to the epitome
Of character that is made free.
Thus the conclusion of this drama is known
To be in Jesus Christ, which I hope to have shown
By these words that have come before;
Now you must exit life's struggle through the open door.

                    Exit the Merry Go Round, (c) Luke Bennette, February 2013

The Apple and the Snake

Knowledge is power? That's what they say.
When did power become, so to say
Someone smarter than another, say
More than is needed? Knowledge will say
The way you will be greeted by say
The masses uneducated; by say
The people who you care about; by say
The politicians who smoke you out. Say
You know everything so to speak, say
That you have come to a peak; but say
You've gotten there, what then? Will you say
What you know? What have you gotten? Say
You know all things, but do you have love? Say,
I bet knowledge comes from up above; say,
From God, who's perfection is love. Say,
Do you have love? Or know what it is? Say
That knowledge is power, what next? Say
That power makes you less perplexed? Say,
Isn't there more to knowing what is? Say...
Believing and doing what's rightly known?
Knowledge is power, as I hope to have shown.

The Apple and the Snake, (c) Luke Bennette, February 2013

Reaching Out

Grief bourne of pain upon the back of man's faint mind
Cannot long hold up, as man surely finds.
Pain born of grief holds the man's mind in check
Impedes his progress, and doth the mind peck!
So torn between what is and what could be
Adds to the weight of a man's misery,
And lends truth value to the parable;
Don't turn your head when your hand's at the plow.
But if such things should cease to be resolved,
Then grief continues, a pain that revolves
Around and around, causing darkness fast;
Such as the moon. But darkness cannot last...
And light returns again regardless of
The mind that ignores that beautious love.
So bear thy part, and when the darkness comes
Listen to your heart, the beating of drums
That echo inside your memories clear,
Listen for the sound that will abolish
Fear and trepidity. Ignore what's false,
Let unchanging light of eternity
Echo inside of your mind, and so be free
To reach out, back towards God, eternaly.

                     Reaching Out...(c) Luke bennette, February 2013