David Sparenberg

IN the HUMAN WORLD

In the human worldwe have heroesand villainsand cowards. Those who defend lifetaking risks aboveand beyond self interestthose who destroy lifeand those we do not carewho play games ofselfish detachment and…

Faces

The world is full.Filled with hardships.Filled with courage.Filled with suffering. EverywhereThere are human faces.Everywhere the pathosOf conscious mortality.Everywhere the pathosOf human faces. The world is full. Filled with struggles and…

Touchstones

It is good to joinwhat should be joinedand it is good to partwhat should be parted. It is evil to joinwhat should not be joinedand to partwhat should not be…

Gautama

The world kept rushing by.And with it anger. Finallyhe freed his emotions from the tangled world. From a palace window he could seethe shore of an ancient sea.In his heart…

All Flowers

All tonguesThat have spoken in prayerAre equally beautiful.All places of worshipAll over the EarthAre beautiful. All facesAll racesAll deeds doneThat have shone with loveShineAnd are beautiful. Harsh worldDo not fall…

Remember Lahaina

  Those with holes instead of eyes do not see. They are blind.   Those with holes instead of ears do not hear. They are deaf.   Emotionally numb devoid…

Warrior’s Choice

Within discipline to become: an eco-person within an eco-person soul within soul humility within humility courage within courage empathy within empathy fire within fire dignity within the prayer of dignity…

Resistance

It is in this way that the rebel…says yes and no simultaneously. Albert Camus, The Rebel   No nukes and no thermobaric weapons no unregulated AI no child pornography no…

The Day Arrived

The day (once more) when the world as we know it stopped the Doomsday Clock, barely in the nick of time, stood still the power of political death over individual…

Edward Abbey

Edward Abbey park ranger desert solitary author – avatar of beautiful traumatized Earth wrote to us with a pine needle with tip of the tail of a gopher snake, “there…

Truth is Radical

A Prose Poem or Ecosophic Meditation Look: Civilization ended in a post-midnight place named Auschwitz; with the terminal moment of anti-event, at the irreversible dropping of The Bomb on Hiroshima. …

LA VIE EN ROSE

They wanted love. The young. The desire was inside them. A candle in the night. A match in a bedroom of fireworks.   They wanted to tumble in pairs into…

HE STANDS on the ROCK

He stands on the Rock the beautiful rock beside the flourishing Tree of Life.   He stands on the Rock on the beautiful rock beside the flowing river of light.…

The AGE of FLOWERS

I am of flowers. I came out from the butterfly. I came out from the bee, the dancing bee – the hummingbird’s feathered breast.   Once upon a time, a…

Trauma

House: house made of wood is on fire. Fiery winds blow our ashes away. Burning forests and the grasslands.   House: house made of clay. Raging waters wash towns away.…

CHORUS of CHOICES – In 10 Notes

One: Earth is in danger.  We are the source of Earth’s endangerment. Troubles are real.  Consequences are rapidly becoming global reality. Two: Each person living on this Living Earth must…

Happy B-Day USA

I love my children. I love my grandchildren. And have deep concern for the youth of the Earth. Who and what do you love? What we value defines who we…

Resisting End-Time

In a recent report, the United Nations set out some top priorities everyone can practice in helping to counter climate change and keep Earth (humanly) habitable. Here is the short…

Shame

The burden of absence savages the heart. How to give voice to the horrors of grief? In the valley of tears rivers from Eden run red with the salt of…

Fatal Flaw and Fatal Folly

  Most in the white West are not raised to expect seriousness.  A carefree lifestyle is that of privilege.  Individuals, of course, suffer hardships from disease, domestic or social violence. …

War

written on the eve of Earth Day, 2022 i spit an iron ball at you i spit a ball a meteor of fire… i spit into your eyes i spit…

A MORALITY of SUNFLOWERS

  The angel of death with a man’s face; the mother of life comforting children.   Here is where we are a planet shaken by war.  People riven.   We…

EUCHARIST of WAR

Eat this. There is not much time for eating. We fight and food is scarce and getting scarcer.   Maybe this is our last supper? Perhaps the world is ending?…

Again There Is War

  There is war. Again there is war on the European continent – war of type and magnitude not experienced in Europe since Hitler and the racism imperialism of Nazi…

Tears

I am speaking with you. We are talking together, speaking of ordinary things, using ordinary words. It is good talk too. The everyday is as much at risk as the…

My Eco List

  This is not lifeless Saturn or Jupiter, the Moon, Venus, or Mars. Because a neighboring planet is named for a Roman goddess does not mean that women originate there…

Applying Nonviolent Noncooperation

I suppose I could have titled this writing Applying Nonviolent Noncooperation to Pernicious Consumerism, or to Malignant Normalcy.  Notwithstanding, here are my thoughts…. For as long as it remains profitable…

POEM to the EARTH

  i have sought to love you unworthy that i am   i have sat in the tall grass looking out over water watching a setting sun   and i…

CHOICES (a partial list)

If we must choose between civilization and barbarity we must choose civilization. But only if the injustices and atrocities of civilization do not exceed those of barbarism.   If we…

MOTHER and CHILD

Of all visions accessible on this living Earth, no natural sight is more beautiful that a mother and child.  If the mother and child are human (no matter of what…

Majority Report

There is something at the very core about us that needs to change.  This cannot be emphasized often enough.  We need to change how we think.  How we think of…

In Search of America

  The disparity between America’s ideals and America’s main street realities are always vast and often stark.  This has always been so, most apparently and appallingly for Americans of color…

THIS IS for YOU

Wherever on this distressed and yet magnificent Earth you live, this is for you. Right here, right now: Let’s be open and honest before one another.  Please.  Look at the…

Remember Gandhi

Remember Gandhi.  Practice nonviolence.  Adhere to nonviolence.   Refrain from attacking people as the means to achieve an interpersonal goal.  You seek to change policies and systems that make policies,…

Mr. Floyd

My maternal grandfather’s family name is Floyd.  His mother was a Cherokee woman and Grandfather Floyd’s cousin was from the Choctaw nation.  The cousin was considered the Robin Hood of…

GATHERING at the CENTER

This poem was originally written on request and publicly recited by then Seattle Mayor, Norm Rice (a Black American) for the reopening of Key Arena and the Founders’ Fountain at…

Autistic Boy

The mute boy as slender as a willow sapling looks at the world with eyes big and bright by light intake and color.   He does not look at the…

Freedom

inspired by & freely adapted from a poem by the French poet Paul Eluard   On every door at every gate in every doorway on all the windows, mirrors of…

Impeachment: What Is At Risk

Today, as the public phase of impeachment hearings are underway, I am watching while reading from the Life of Frederick Douglass.  Sadly, I admit to not trusting the American people…

NOW-WAR and the SAKE of LIFE

“the wound of possibility” Soren Kierkegaard Earth is our home; Earth is our origin.  There is not now any more than there has ever been a single, sane human being…

Entitlement of the Gun

I write these words in an agony of urgency.  Already this year, 2019, there have been 31 mass shootings in the USA; more than in any other nation.  Over half…

Sufi

Each expression of beauty is an act of love.  Every manifestation of love is an act of beauty. To make a warrior’s choice in the clarity of human evolution is…

Independence July 4, 2019

Today we will name The Day of Peace. And when tomorrow becomes today The Day of Social Justice.   When the weekend rolls around first will be The Day of…

AS WE SAY – Have a good day

A day without hatred or fear a day without prejudice, suspicion or persecution a day without being lied to being swindled or mislead a day without bullying, without abuse, violation…

What The Climate Crisis Is About

Listen: it isn’t about me about ego and it isn’t about you your property income taxes but about EARTH about life about spirit and grandchildren about seven generations and seven…

American Gun

Another mass shooting in America!  They are so frequent they are anticipated.  I favor stick gun control, and the application of the Second Amendment of the Constitution should be challenged…

The Rise And Fall Of

When a house is on fire an alarm must be sounded.  An alarm is not always sounded solely out of fear.  Sometimes an alarm must be sounded out of love,…

Satyagraha

Truth-force, what is it?  Truth is the expressed porousness and the vulnerability of soul, in the same way that soul is the humble courage, non-exploitative perception, reverence and gratitude of…

The Condition

Love, let us never forget that there are people in this troubled world, men especially, who are very different from you and I—who think abstractly and pride themselves on the…

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