My Better Eyes

author’s note:

Pollyanna gets a bad rap.


MY BETTER EYES

I

Hard for me to see
god in me

but often even harder
to see god in the other.

Nonetheless
I occasionally make the effort
to open my better eyes

especially when I feel the need
to feel the love
that opens up when I see god.

II

The idea of “god within”
can be useful when dealing with conflict
because
if I can see god in the other
the other may feel
the love coming from me
and then respond
by opening his own better eyes.

No, I can’t know for certain
where god lives
or even if god does
but I can see what best serves--
in other words:
I'm keeping that god concept
in my toolbox of beliefs.

III

But to be honest
that tool usually goes unused
when most needed--
too often I succumb
another belief
long accepted as fact:

you can avoid hurt
by seeing the demon.

But in the aftermath
of that bad choice
when I retreat to my solitude
I’ll again feel the need to feel the love
that opens up when I see god

and so
I’ll again make the effort
to open my better eyes

and by opening, again see
those painful truths--see
how I actually create more hurt
(for myself, for you, for all of us)
by keeping my better eyes shut.

At such times
I encourage myself
with these words:
if you’re strong enough to see
both your best and your worst
you’re strong enough to learn
how to keep your better eyes open.

© 2019, Michael R. Patton
Searching for my Best Beliefs: poetry ebook

Obedient Scrub

author’s note:

I now realize: I may have written a Taoist poem.


OBEDIENT SCRUB

Though I hammered
and rammed
the wall did not crack
but instead, seemed to grow
even more resistant.

So
I decided to use
a different tactic:

I began to scrub—
hoping to erode
that obstruction.

But after decades of persistent effort
I realized a painful fact:

though I’d made significant progress
at this rate, I could work ‘til death
and that defense would still seem
too much a part of me.

Nonetheless
I’ve continued this slow attrition

because

I feel better when I obey
the desire of my heart—
the desire

to wear down that block wall.

© 2019, Michael R. Patton
my war for peace: poetry ebook

Anchor Stone

author’s note:

“These aren’t just words talking.”
          -- Mary Oliver


ANCHOR STONE

I hesitate to explore my anger

because I know a flood
of grief and doubt awaits
beneath my foggy roil.

But still I dive down

because the fighter within
wants to battle my fear
of drowning and learn
how to swim

and because
this intrepid scholar
desires to discover
what lurks beneath

and also because
my beleaguered self
sometimes finds relief--

if I go deep enough
into those murky waters
sometimes
below all the hubbub
I’ll again touch
the anchor stone:

a wisdom within me
and yet, not from me:

beyond reason
yet, solidly reassuring--
wordlessly whispering
what I’m still too dim to see:

all is as it needs to be.

An idea I’m able to accept
when I resurface
by telling myself:

if this life had been other
than what it was and is
I might never have known
that core anchor stone.

© 2019, Michael R. Patton
Listening to Silence: poetry ebook