Three Shots…and…
He heard three shots. It was late and given where he lived, not unusual. Jimmy lived in the city; some call it, or did the ghetto. He preferred central city, but it is the same. The shots were close; at least they felt that way. Jimmy ran to the window and carefully pushed the curtain back and saw a body lying on the sidewalk, just down the block from his two-up. He ran to call 911, but the sirens were already loud, maybe coming around the corner from the precinct.
He ran back and took one more look, Oh god he thought, that looks like Ali, his high school friend and classmate. The reality of that discovery brought a sense of fear to his mind. “What should I do?”
It did not take him long to move. He grabbed his coat and ran down the stairs and out in the street. By then most the hood was there. Screaming, fear, and anger filled the space where everyone was standing. Staring at the body, Ali was gone, dead at a very young age, what happened?
Jimmy knew that Ali and his family were often the brunt of cultural hatred. People, if they meet someone different, think their dangerous, or something. Since 9/11 it had gotten worse. “Why? Why my friend, a Muslim young person?” The Hood was so culturally mixed. “It doesn’t make sense” He thought.
It was a sad night, Jimmy hardly slept as I am sure his neighbors experienced the same sense of fear, loneliness and anger. Everyone knew that someone in the hood was not happy with an Arabic family living nearby. Could that be the reason, or was it theft or a promise broken. Ali was a friend but not a close kind of brother.
Everyone showed up for the funeral at a Mosque on the other side of the city. It was nice, but different as funerals go. What a way to learn and experience another spiritual practice. Three shots, a young life, what now? Jimmy took the bus home, a strange sense of quietness over took him. He had learned something about life today, death has a lesson for all of us. Three shots, silence broken, life take, & life continues…Ali, thanks… (Nov. 2006)
ko shin
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Dodge Poetry Festival
You might want to go to youtube and see many more poets at this festival, enjoy!
Here is one of my poems from hopefully a new book, "Inner Passage"
Walk the Path…
What does it mean to walk the path?
What does it mean to be compassion?
Not dominating but compassionate
Not fear, but acceptance
Not exclusion but inclusion
Not war but non-violence, peace
Not hate but love
Not judgment but open and honest conversation
We no longer need to be lost, but our found,
Is this my karma, or, the Path?
The answers, no not answers but the moment
is where I experience all of this and more…then…
Move to the next one, free, open, it’s just a breath away…
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
Friendship
I watch a family of deer
feeding on the corn in the large bucket
set out for winter feeding
the older deer ate first and then the young
but there was a compassion there
and an order...a love...a compassion
but is that not true of all creatures of this universe?
friendship is like that, an order, a freedom, a love
beyond words or ways to tell about it...
returning from a visit this last week-end to Roger and Pat's home
was like gathering about the table in love
I am so grateful for this friendship, since childhood
and all my friends, thanks Roger and Pat, we love you!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Celebrate Family: Adia and Kids October 2009
Wonder family, wonderful visit! A little cold, but this is Wisconsin, snow too...
Friday, October 9, 2009
Wonderful NYC Poet E. J. McAdams
The one picture of some adults sitting in the back of a book store in Brooklyn NY are celebrating poetry and a reading by our favorite poet E.J.! Congrats Bro!
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