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August 8, 2020
Eleven Commandments
By Gary Lindorff
Maybe it's time to update the Ten Commandments, such as "love what you like. Cherish what you love." (What if we are living in Paradise? Would it make any difference?)
::::::::
I am walking back across a field of white clover
And alfalfa
Honey bees are working the field
Behind me is a hemlock forest
And a path that follows a ravine
Up to where I left my friend
Sitting by a waterfall
(He is a little older than me
But we are both old men now
His hair is white
My hair is gone)
The day before yesterday
The port of Beirut exploded
75 years ago Hiroshima was bombed
First Commandment: Let the bees work the field
I'm going to be honest
I passed so many things I don't like
To get here
The list was endless
It would give anyone a headache
It's my list
And this is Vermont
I love this state
And yet I find so many things not to like
Second Commandment: Love what you like
Third commandment: Cherish what you love
I like those hills those flowers
I like that porch that locust tree
So I love those hills
Those flowers
I love that locust tree
I cherish them
Now there is a fly on my screen
Proof-reading my sentences
Stopping to rub its little hands together
When I was crossing the field
Were the clouds saying
There is a man crossing the field
He is noticing the bees working the field?
Fourth Commandment: Let the clouds have thoughts
I try to identify the plants
Growing behind the guard rail
As I walk back to my car
Burdock, poison parsnip, goldenrod
Chicory, mullein, but what's that one
With the vertical rows
Of bell-shaped yellow flowers?
Fifth Commandment: Not everything has a name
Some things don't need a name
Un-name some things
I un-named the poison parsnip
But its name came back again
As I crossed the bridge I looked into the stream
It looked just like I thought it would look
Clear and shallow
Running over a slab of rough concrete
Before it passed beneath the street
Sixth Commandment: Something about
Water under a bridge
There is something in the road
I let a string of cars rush by
I walk out to inspect the object
It looks like a dead animal
It is a black mask
Seventh Commandment: Some things should be left in the road
I unlock my car
I check the time
I drink some water
I eat something
My car is pointing north
Soon I will be driving north
Back to my home
Eighth Commandment: Honor the seven directions
The seventh direction
Isn't a direction
It is the heart
It is your heart and my heart
It is the great heart
I am heading back across the field now
Through the alfalfa and clover
Where the bees are working
Ninth Commandment: Thou shalt not steal
From the bees
(Ask them for their honey
Thank them for their labor)
In the corner of the field
I vanish into the forest
To follow the path up the ravine
I drum loud enough for my friend to hear
When I see him descending through the trees
It is his white hair I see first
I sit at the foot of a hemlock waiting
Listening to the whispering
And the rushing
Of the stream below
And behind it all
I hear a distant tape
Of rock and roll
It is just in my mind
It is good rock and roll
But it is out of place here
Tenth Commandment: Turn the radio off
And listen to the waters
My friend is standing there
How was it? I ask
He says
We are living in Paradise
Eleventh Commandment: What does it mean
To be living in Paradise?
Find out what that means
It sounds right at the moment
But time passes quickly
Like the water of a waterfall
The moment you stop gazing
Into the heart of its spirit
(Article changed on August 9, 2020 at 11:20)
(Article changed on August 9, 2020 at 11:25)
(Article changed on August 9, 2020 at 11:50)
(Article changed on August 9, 2020 at 16:16)
(Article changed on August 9, 2020 at 16:25)
Gary Lindorff is a poet, writer, blogger and author of several nonfiction books, a collection of poetry, "Children to the Mountain" and a memoir, "Finding Myself in Time: Facing the Music" Over the last few years he has begun calling himself an activist poet, channeling his activism through poetic voice. He also writes with other voices in other poetic styles: ecstatic, experimental and performance and oracular.
He is a practicing Transformational Counselor (with a strong, Jungian background) and a shamanic practitioner. His shamanic work is continually deepening his partnership with the land. This work can assume many forms, solo and communal, among them: prayer, vision questing, ritual sweating, and sharing stories by the fire.