auto or stick

By sitting there with them day in and day out did he slowly savvy what they were about. Their talk boiled down to four topics which were the four that now follow that now follow here: 'twas pussy and drinking and jokes about dick and crashing a motorbike – auto or stick. That's it and that's plenty to have talked about to have recreated with hand gesture mouth to have now repeated these woebegone days in more than one language in more than one way. And though he spoke none of their small-island talk he let no restriction his listening balk but sat there and laughed with them at the punch-line for from a few snippets he could read their minds. Not really mind-reading but cleverness that to distill from nuance a semblance of fact to sit with Brown People and merge with them well and learn how his own Bali stories to tell.

© americanifesto / 場黑麥

in simpler fonts

The western convictions are seeking a hold but will they prove stronger than conventions old and conventions proven to balance the realm with not good nor evil affixed to the helm? With haste there comes greediness worry and want and seeking one's riches to display and flaunt and this all runs counter to what the gods know and this does lead mankind his hatred to grow. Is it therefore better to while away the shortest and finest of each wasting day, to wallow in a job ones hates and despises in order to earn only long-delayed prizes? Or should one much rather live life to the full and cast off possessions and ignore the pull of all that the media says we should want and write our life stories in simpler fonts? We cannot take with us the things we now hold and will not still want them when we have turned old therefore we ought spend all our riches and hours on memories unique to us and to ours. Who am I to offer this foolish advice? And can my poor warnings be shown to suffice? There is now no telling wherefore we must wait and look at this writing at a later date.

© americanifesto / 場黑麥

an hypnotic daze

The swell of the century does sound its call and all of us surfers come hither enthralled to stare at the beauty of the pounding waves to dare to wade out in an hypnotic daze. This isn't a lie here it's not a tall tale about those Grigovian high-mountain vales so please do just skip this one, give me a pass, forgive my glaring and base lack of class. The surfboard is mounted the gas-tank is full and such is the majestic incessant pull of those big-old breakers there pounding the sand that I will now bring this here piece to an end.

© americanifesto / 場黑麥

hollow and lame

The moon and her phases oft dictate what's felt what people one meets and what hand one is dealt. When her face is waning life often seems drab but when it is waxing everything's ab-fab and corks they get pulled and ladies' hides get tanned and there is a party all across the land. As soon the mask of moon-sister gets smaller those bright happy people lose their rosy pallor and slink back to hide in their cool comfy caves to await the return of those waxing days. Then all's once more better and times they are grand and every gesture deserves one more standing raucous ovation from everyone pleasant and every moment's a gift treasure present. There's no man immune to her regular pull for each market is at once bearish and bull and bullshit and clap-trap and hollow and lame just like this here poem – here we go again.

​© americanifesto / 場黑麥

inside yet strong

The lefts were on fire and so were the rights and quick was the coming arrival of night. The next day did blossom much like that before and still were no publishers lined at his door and still was no wife laid there with him inside yet strong were the walls of his small-nurtured pride. He'd gone out and done it and ridden that surf and proven to none but his own self his worth and surfed not in front of where people could see but where there was just about, oh, nobody. Now he must make payments for bike and for rent and see that his dollars are consciously spent not on bull frivolities or worthless junk or on things to lug in a big steamer trunk but on things that stay with him up in his mind – his need to own trinkets he has left behind. With strong waves approaching tomorrow he'll drive to Bingin to test if his wits are alive and ready for shredding this big-boy boss swell or if he should just stay at peaks he knows well. But time will reveal what the Fates know by now: there's some who write poems some who work a plow but each man his pathway must follow anon and mind his own business out under the sun.

​© americanifesto / 場黑麥

deep with toes

The tea has been drunk and the yoga is made and now is the time to breathe deep with toes splayed. The thoughts that are swirling up there in the brain will just keep on coming again and again and will only stop if the life-thread is broke or the swirling ego is brought under yoke. Acknowledge them kindly don't ask them to cease for they are to humans what pigs are to grease but if they're not given the power they crave then they will retreat back to their ego's cave. With stillness and silence all battles are won while sitting unmoving through night day moon sun while quieting angriness giving up greed relinquishing sadness want lust worry need. This process takes practice; indeed it's just that – it's small daily steps all conspiring to get to Nowhere with Nothing but with all chores met; now is there a way life much better can get?

​© americanifesto / 場黑麥

feathers or mane

He lives by one principle – one iron rule – which is of course quite simply: Maximum Cool. He's let go of worry and shut every gate and he's not concerned that he's early or late but just does him wholly and fuck all the rest with a bright badge of pride stuck firm to his chest. Not word or deed ruffles his feathers or mane for he just retreats into himself again and wallows in Nothingness all the day long with a pure vitality vibrant and strong. So please do not fight him for he'll always win he takes jibe and insult straight onto the chin and shies not from using his most favorite tool which is of course nothing but Maximum Cool.

© americanifesto / 場黑麥

foe angrily bark

With discipline, practice, and some devotion a life of Happiness can be surely won. One need not much money or fine fancy clothes or wireless access or paint on your toes – just a place to rest the head when night arrives as well as fresh food and clean water supplies. Now gather these things in a pile at your feet and learn how to contain and hold back and mete the fury that's brewing out into the dark and do not at a friend or foe angrily bark.

​© americanifesto / 場黑麥

at early waking

Here is hope and gone is sorrow but they might return tomorrow lingering at crack of dawn and haunting him with weakened spawn. With the yoga and the 'tation he can ponder situations and prepare his mind to take all slings and arrows life might make. So is now and such is folly here upon this sun-baked trolley taking us from spots unknown forever drifting all alone. Oh the well and oh to wander through the stars twixt here and yonder that do make up all we see that still reside in you and me. So rejoice at early waking though the knees be soft and quaking though the hair be white and slow for there is nothing you don't know.

​© americanifesto / 場黑麥

not neither be

If all permutations of a single god designed to help humans as we drag and plod were given a name and that name were well-known then how on this green earth could True Faith be shown? By speaking such things as can never be spoken we worship the smallest of cheap shiny tokens of a vast grand majesty whose name is Naught whose essence can neither be known nor forgot. Now have done with learning set judgment aside and rejoice as need want and loneliness die for right where you're standing is where you belong so long as your heart-line is ringing with song.

​© americanifesto / 場黑麥

soft healing light

To worry about things that one can't control is to allow fear to commandeer the soul. Such worries are prayers for evil to come and theirs is a weighty and terrible sum for once they've been thought they do not go away and darken the brightest most cheerful of days. When thinking such bad thoughts one tends to look down and to the left, but try to flip things around and look up and to the right, see what you find – for me this clears out and enlivens the mind. So next time when sadness and similar moods do make one's thoughts turn dark and one's actions rude then try looking upward and then to the right to quickly discover a soft healing light that gently and kindly can guide one back to the still tender silence that makes one anew.

​© americanifesto / 場黑麥

flesh and tighten

He stands at a crossroads he cannot defend for they who use violence meet a foul end. His poor dedication to that which is True must now be made vibrant and lively anew. It's bye-bye to drinking and stumbling around to making decisions neither wise nor sound to hurting his essence with lies and deceit to not really caring what foodstuffs he'll eat. The Way is quite level and easy to walk – it's doing away with all manners of talk and shedding all worry and thoughts from the past and building foundations on concepts that last. Let him now return to deep humility and let loving kindness the day of light see and let him not waste his great treasure on that which again eludes him in two seconds flat. With foresight and patience he can reach this goal before his bad habits take a lasting toll and he finds himself without much left to give and his mind resembles a poorly-built sieve. So set aside things that but concern the flesh and tighten the spirit's resilient mesh and repeat the patterns that work without fault with words in the mouth that the Mother exalt.

​© americanifesto / 場黑麥