A Life of Drama
His book
had become
its own living entity
unto itself. Every time
he thought it was
finished, and these times
were many, something else
was sure to change
again within a week
or so.
Among many other
gifts,
this book
had delivered
him
a life of drama.
This life
we live
is filled with
involuntary immediacy,
as Lou Salome
pointed out.
Now, with this book
in his life, every unexpected
arrival was a bigger
shock. Each departure
had a greater
reverberation. Words
between people
lasted longer
inside the mind.
Tiny details
took on looming,
symbolic
significance.
Every squirrel
he passed as he was walking
his pit bulls, then later his
Siberian Huskies, along the sidewalk;
every song playing
in the grocery store or from
a passing car;
every cloud;
every wind that blew
or door that slammed
shut;
every woman
laughing
down the street
and every man turning
the corner so you’ll never
see him again; was loaded with
spiritual significance.
The unseen
correspondences
that make up the real
layers and levels of
existence
had become
both
more meaningful, and
less important.
Everything
was important
beyond belief; and
nothing was, because
everything changes
and gets redeemed.
The religion of poetry, and he
suddenly
realized
it was a religion
that had become his,
left nothing
and everything
to chance.
Dr. Dale Williams Barrigar is a poet whose own poetry transformed his own life: suddenly, and then gradually. It’s good enough for him.
Saragun Springs 
Hello Dale
“Words between people lasted longer in the mind” is a perfect sentiment. It means life and excitement for the future (as I see it).
And it speaks of salvation via creation. It can be interpreted, in creation, that God made the universe because he was lonely.
Thank you for writing it!
Leila
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Leila
Your words elucidate my poem perfectly; and thank you for posting it, and them!
If I were to give someone advice on how to be happy in this hellhole of a society we inhabit currently, it would be this: CREATE MORE THAN YOU CONSUME.
Creation means different things to every single person and it’s up to each of us to define it in our way. One thing it means is even the way you walk down the street, I can say that for sure. You can walk with purpose, bouncing along and observing all the details around or daydreaming about (imagining) future art projects. Or you can slog along, going slow with your shoulders humped because you’re too busy holding up your phone and staring into one minuscule, mindless bit of non-info being shot at you one after another over and over again only to keep you enslaved. One of these = “creation” (even if you never finish the project you’re dreaming about, because it will influence you positively in other ways, which will in turn influence the energy field around you etc etc) and one = “consuming” (letting THEM direct the pathways of your mind to its own diminution).
How we use the internet is a great example. If you’re using the internet to read and watch everything good you can about Leonardo da Vinci, and to study his paintings and drawings, then the internet is a great gift for creativity. If you’re using it to consume mindless, non-challenging, repetitive, shallow materials that are designed to do nothing but keep you clicking and scrolling so THEY can make more money for themselves, what you are doing to yourself quite literally is killing your own soul and giving your brain a form of dementia that is going to HIT you a lot sooner than you thought it would.
“EMANCIPATE YOURSELVES FROM MENTAL SLAVERY, NONE BUT OURSELVES CAN FREE OUR MINDS!” sang Bob Marley. This is not true less than it was then, it’s MORE true now!
Thanks again, Leila!
Dale
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L
Another way for all to be creative is imagining the possibilities about God (and why we are or are not here), instead of just accepting (consuming) what THEY tell you on this subject, whether they tell you God does, or doesn’t, exist. Native Americans used to go on vision quests BY THEMSELVES, ALL ALONE. It’s a great model and one doesn’t need to live alone on top of a mountain without food for three days in order to do this. Thomas Jefferson is another great example of this. He accepted much of what was said in the Christian scriptures; but he also rejected much of it. And he came to his own vision of what MIGHT be going on, without trying to force anyone else to believe (in) him.
One possibility about God is that he is all-powerful but does not control everything, which would mean a paradox (not a contradiction) in terms and can account for many of the “bad” things that go on in this world. The world is a drama whose outcome has yet to be determined, because God hasn’t written it yet. And maybe he was so lonely that WE are his characters AND his collaborators. He doesn’t tell us everything just like a good fiction writer doesn’t tell us everything (because that would be boring and dead). He knows everything about his own world to the same extent that a writer knows everything about her or his own world, which is everything, plus all the surprises (and if it’s good work there are many surprises). (And perhaps there really is another character involved, too. His name starts with an S.) I also personally believe very much so that GOD HAS A SENSE OF HUMOR, and that he is possibly like us in this way more than any other.
The great characters, like Moses, in the Hebrew Bible do not just accept everything God tells them, even when he speaks directly at them. They challenge him, question him, talk to him, turn away from him, but the one thing they never do is NOT CARE.
Not Caring is the great sickness (and sin) of our time; brought to a kind of perfection in the White House.
It should also be said that our beliefs are not meant to remain static, they are meant to endlessly evolve and change, nonstop. If one believes different things about God on different days, that is not a bad thing, it’s a good thing. AND it’s part of creation. The word certitude is not part of creation.
Thank you so much, Leila!
Dale
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Hello Dale
There’s much in what you say. I find that I cannot completely believe that the universe is just some random thing.
There is a reason for everything and no human being can say what it is all about because no human knows.
Like the problem of evil. God didn’t kill a bunch of people in NYC yesterday. A man did. People try to blame god (or power) for what we do.
Anyway, it keeps moving along and just because we are a damn long way from being the most important thing in the universe it does not follow that there is no higher state of being.
Thank you, looking foward to tomorrow.
Leila
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