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Bill Watkins, Traveling Poet

~ Words For You, Just Ask

Bill Watkins, Traveling Poet

Tag Archives: Poetry

The First You

03 Sunday Nov 2019

Posted by Bill Watkins in Originality, Poem, Poems, Poesia, Poetic Blog, Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Joy, Love, Originality, Peace, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Truth

Children2

So you have trouble fitting
in sometimes, you look up
at Dad and Mom, what they
did and who they are or were,

and think there I am somewhere.
Do not be so deceived!  You
are neither with Mom or Dad,
represent neither one but a

Strange combination of them
never before you tried.  You

are in fact, the first You ever made,
so gather strength, listen to
the rain, the voice inside that
pushes us past the pain,

Rainbows await the patient
and the wet; games lost are won
the moment you reach across
and shake hands heartily.

God is the sunshine, or a fiction,
or the joy after a hard nap,
Dreams things that come when
we ask for help.

We cannot do this on the
path already chosen for you,
so break off and find the true—
the Truth that you are a

masterpiece, if you so believe.

To Peace

23 Wednesday Oct 2019

Posted by Bill Watkins in Decisions, Peace, Poem, Poems, Poesia, Poetic Blog, Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Alcoholism, Decisions, Joy, Love, Peace, Poem, Poetry, Spiritual

Star Peace123

We live and decide, sometimes
decisions above us somehow,
making themselves as we powerlessly
inch around where others have
often gone before us.

We do the thing we dream or see,
but from where did the dream come?
Did it come from good or evil?  Man or
God?  Devil or angel?  Is the thing we
do good not just for now, but eternity?

Where do we want to be when we
give up the earthly fight becoming
Spirit—all the love, genes and things
we ever did in the air, our legacy?

Riding a motorcycle, throwing up
devil horns, playing it all loud,
drinking a flammable liquid, taking
a drug to alter our state, acts of
desperate high, don’t forget loose
sex that risks disease…

These are for our moment, not
forever, and get us by until
some lives do just that, they
“get by” and defer on big decisions
until “later.”

Sometimes later fails to arrive,
and we suddenly let a doctor decide.
We take the drug, do the thing told,
because the alternative is original
thought, which has less roadmaps,
we could get lost—

I’d rather die with this doctor I know
than the unknown curve in wild,
unfettered nature.

One finds strength in numbers,
looks around at dollars made drinking
“what he’s drinking,” doing what
they’re doing, add some job security
with your mayonnaise and you got
a pretty manageable sandwich…

But the soul… “Dust thou art to
dust returnest” was not spoken of
the free.  And we all are, so watch
your step because sometimes you
get just what you asked for, ma’am
and sirs.

That shiny car… guzzling gas and loud.
That bright new bike, gaining roads
at higher speeds, don’t crash, I lost
a friend that way.  A six-pack of beer,
so exciting when we skip studying
what’s in it, C2H5OH ethyl good
for rockets, but us?

You can dazzle in the short term or
deny your highs to live out a long,
meaningful, helpful life toward Peace.

If you want war, have it.  Be loud, live
fast and know the blaze of glory
is in the eye of beholders, absent you,
if you die young.

It comes back to the old wisdom about
honoring your parents.  If you
want a long, good life, honor those
people who brought you.

If you love your anger and self-pity
at your hard times so much, refuse
to forgive and believe in a power
greater than you, spit on your
parents’ advice and memory
because “they were bad,” you have
made a choice, own it and good bye.

Me, I’d rather sacrifice my passion
a bit, have and exude Peace instead of
playing around with this life dishonorably
and die.

Love Multiplier

02 Monday Sep 2019

Posted by Bill Watkins in LAPD, Poem, Poems, Poesia, Poetic Blog, Poetry, Police

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Joy, Love, Peace, Philosophy, Poem, Poetry, Yoda

Yoda1

You want to spotlight the gangs
from your loud chopper above;
you want to wage a war to feel…

to feel… Something.  To feel safe,
to get paid; to find your situation,
your three square meals and a cot,

your off the boat and into uniform
guarantee of work.  The wide path
to destruction is so easy to acquire…

So, maybe say “No.”  Maybe flip
the gospels upside down, imagine
that which comforts you most—

Died and was not there.  Perhaps
we could benefit from the naked
walk in nature, trust higher powers

the natives in “America” call Great
Spirit, mother earth, peace of effort
exuding graves under white decoration

and advance.  We built churches and
cities on sacred grounds because we
did not do what the bible said to do.

We talk the big game, but then when
put to the test, we often fall through
the water Jesus walked, fish to net—

Because our faith is as strong as a
guppy against a hungry racoon,
abstinence to the drunk who forgot

to pray…

We could send love out to our
communities and get the peace
war officers claim to protect.

Or we can keep throwing up those
choppers, wage war with cops
and uniforms allowing fear to

fuel anger to fuel hatred so we
can continue to suffer.  Yoda
shakes his head.

Turn around, if the wrong path
you are on, young Luke or Leia…
Spread love not fear, ground

your horrible first instincts, wait,
listen, and only act if moved
by something truly good.

I Got My…

01 Sunday Sep 2019

Posted by Bill Watkins in Poem, Poems, Poesia, Poetic Blog, Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Joy, Love, Native, Peace, Poem, Poetry, Truth, USA

Headshot -- Bill Watkins

I got my eyes from my mom,
she got hers from Scandinavian
Winters and endless days unseen
between songs, Viking memories
and Celtic dreams.

I got my soul from pain, rap music
and jazz from Dad and the strange
winds in life that turn Welsh into
“American,” stolen land and the
sin of slavery to work it.

A black nanny raised me, as one
raised Dad, his dad I’m sure
the same, in the deep south
still awaiting freedom and the
return of Native people—

whose gold was wisdom and love for
the land.  Unfortunately the
British and Spanish crowns, among
others sought metal and cash only,
skipped that which could

have been truly brought back
to save them more than even
great bible messages!

I got my humor from God
as I understand God, at the time
I prayed for one it was the
Judeo-Christian kind, biblical
certainly, then add to it some
Alcoholics Anonymous truth
and flavor, Al-Anon for the
family members or friends
of drunks.

I got poetry from the same
source a year before in 1995,
started to tell the truth,
has led me to more and more
until I now demand it from myself
and others.

I got some wisdom, as I spoke
of before—from the Native
American chiefs, who lived close
to and with the land.  They were
one with the Earth, listened and
knew how to live here.

Harmony and song, between us
and our lives;

the poetry of birth, landing, leaving—
dreaming and living those dreams.

The vision, inspiration—being
true to our callings;

Yell the truth with me, “We
Stole Land.”

***

I got my injuries from mistakes,
what hurts me most teaches
and challenges, the game so
fair it seems unfair!

I got to go, soon to remove
myself from Native American
land, I got my plan from the
conscience I got, when I
got sober and started to work
the twelve steps.

I got some peace listening to
the Tao Te Ching; Bibles and gospels
of nature, trying the impossible
task of capturing truth in words,
paper and ink, computer screens
and social media posts…

I’ll be saying this with a sigh,
as Frost said, somewhere ages and
ages—you know…

I got my song for the day, and
it’s been good, a day is life, karma
play, working no longer alone but
for the Great Spirit, the inkless god.

I’d rather be a poor original than
a fancy, loud, flying fraud

“Discovery”

09 Friday Aug 2019

Posted by Bill Watkins in Native, Poem, Poems, Poesia, Poetic Blog, Poetry

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

God, Love, Poetry, Truth

Killing Natives1

The military view, combined
with general notions consistent
with Darwinian survival, Jesus’
wide path to destruction and Lao
Tzu’s unchangeable world

looked across the Atlantic Ocean
once upon a time, conspired yet
further with perverse crowns
over a people obsessed with
deifying people ever since
Samuel walked up the hill
and asked the LORD for a king…

And stole land.

We called it “Discovery” and the
right of Christian nations.  It
was a competition, a way to
beat France and Spain if you’re
British, a forgetting we’re all human,
and to take land others occupy by force
equals robbery.

Then Karma gets attached and you
have black slaves work that
stolen land, promise to pay them
after a bloody war to free them,
then renege on the promise.

Karma keeps chomping at our
own butts, as we turn our guns
inward, murder our own president
in 1963, use the guns further to
murder children at schools,

but continue to go on MSNBC
and CNN to tout the Greatest
Democracy the world has ever
seen!!  (Unless you are living in
a reservation because a white
military forced you out of your
inheritance, land and livelihood.)

We live in stolen land, the beaches
are nice but the karma pollutes
sidewalks of concrete with litter,
asphalts of broken rocks, waterfalls
of crime on crime, jails filling up
because we put kings instead
of Higher Power over our lives,
took orders like good little
soldiers as we took up arms, left
our fathers’ graves and planted
a new Europe on top of Native
American burial ground.

Litter on Westminster Bridge

23 Tuesday Jul 2019

Posted by Bill Watkins in England, Poem, Poems, Poesia, Poetic Blog, Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

England, Love, Peace, Poetry, Truth

Westminster1
Westminster2

Composed on Westminster Bridge,
9 July 2019

***

Sifting through litter on the bridge,
Attained is a spot of relish.

The hot dog is wet with lies,
Slithering down the drain
That is industrial progress,
Yelping Celtic drums and
Scottish pipes as Master Bruce
Points to graves unattended.

Love is a warm place Londoners
Must go, the calm in winds between rains
Calming as the Thames claps at history.
We left the graves of our father
To war in foreign lands, supposing a bible
Could stand for truth.  Earth unloved
As the druids scattered, and with them the land,
Now divided in his and hers, the towel racks
And showers grand, suits of fine finish
Revolving into Parliament as John the Poor begs.

Life is litter now, waiting for caring clean-up,

The homeless may apply!

I’ll attend to my father’s grave all my life, Wales too.
Scotland was a king to serve when the earth was enough,

Is it for you?

Truth

23 Sunday Jun 2019

Posted by Bill Watkins in Poem, Poems, Poesia, Poetic Blog, Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Love, Poetry, Truth

Einstein

Fictions the moment we write,
words changing what is at least
a little.

Occasionally we come close to
the mark, a smile catching us off
guard, songs…

We say an unexpected thing, and
someone laughs, call out evil,
violence—

Devil!  I see you, get thee behind.
Police guns, lives on the run, clichés
doing, doing

Over and over again the tempted
tempt placing tents on walkways,
calling it

all “Homeless,” so off we go in our
suits and SUV’s writing checks,
building…

Hah!  Try to get a camper camping
for free under stars to go into your
Section 8,

Isn’t it great, God relieve us of the
bondage of self, ignorance never bliss
unless—

God grant our words Truth, grant our
minds hope, give this song value,
moving pieces,

Games of Chess.

E=mc2 because Einstein was blessed,
we crack a theory, return to earth,
get undressed.  Finish… Eternal
never calls out “Next!!!!!”

We place the cards where boys and
girls can follow then rest

Flying Away from Truth

15 Wednesday May 2019

Posted by Bill Watkins in Poem, Poems, Poesia, Poetic Blog, Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Love, Peace, Poems, Poetry, Truth

Helicopter2

We came up somewhere;
our cells, our “blood” from rivers,
mountains and streams…

We move here, we move there;
our ancestors thought it wise,
or forced out by war,

Picked up our things, set sail,
replanted across a sea in new land,
Don’t be shy!!!

Then we or someone else…
hatched a very big lie.
We were “white,” therefore better.

“We were white, therefore
deserved slaves…”  Add to that
“We were Christian,”

Believed what the Bible said.
Anyone not white or Christian
were to us better off dead.

We kept up the colony, laying
waste to the indigenous dream;
nature to be soiled and used

Not loved and thanked, we went
from flower to flower, killing power,
left our mark in the sand.

We planted Europe’s flag down,
adopted laws we mocked there.
Ethnocentric all from fear…

Gun powder from alchemy
to bombs to guns to “win”
un-winnable wars.

Peace selected by few, scoffed
at by the masses in a peer-like
pressure of exploding gas!

Don’t just trudge up the road,
look back occasionally, take
in the past!!

There we might find a clue
to bettering our current step.
Have we paused enough?

Are we wise to stop more, pray
or think real deep on next
steps like cars, flying machines

loud dreams with lots of
bells and whistles that sell
themselves but

can make the birds, coyote
and deer scream?  The merry-
go-round is still denial,

un-checked the officer will leave
the ground today, make war
on folks determined “bad.”

Judge not lest ye be judged
was spoken well and true.
Ye without sin, go ahead

Fly away from truth.

Emoji Kiss

24 Sunday Feb 2019

Posted by Bill Watkins in Forgiveness, Love, Poem, Poems, Poesia, Poetic Blog, Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

CIA, God, Joy, Love, Native, Peace, Poem, Poetry, Politics

Emoji Kiss

We are forgiven the moment
we ask for it;

but we cannot be relieved of
burden, until

we admit the problem.

We stole land in the fifteenth,
sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries because our weapons
were harder and bigger,

because we had a book we loved
and could justify stealing gold
and land with the idea that
bringing brown, naked, natural
people our book would surely
save their lives.

Hell is what you make of it,
heaven, too!

Sometimes there’s nothing left
to do in life on stolen land but
to do!

Kiss your enemy, invite them back
to the table.

Ask forgiveness, admit our faults
today!

Kiss your wife or friend when
the two of you have a bad day.

“Change your stars,” like William
did in that weird, anachronistic
movie with knights and Queen
music!

Slap the CIA an emoji kiss,
and forgive mass murder and lies;

no one I know tries to do wrong;
they at least try to find the right
book to their crimes justify.

The Horrible Sound of Helicopters

22 Friday Feb 2019

Posted by Bill Watkins in Poem, Poems, Poesia, Poetic Blog, Poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Corruption, Joy, Love, Native, Native American, Peace, Poetry

Vikings1

War is what the British waged,
came here for…

The Spanish from below and around
“west,” thumping bibles

and native skulls.

“Forgive them, Father; they know
not what they do” was written
in the book we thumped, as we
thumped the land’s caretakers.

No harm intended, harm done,
we rise and fall today not unlike
the stars and light, a dance of day
before we stretch into night.

I love the hope that is in a post-rain ‘bow;
the dream of age dies in sagging
parts not up for the challenge
of defeating God, faith and prayer.

Where is the truth?

In a bible?  A book?  A waterfall?
A stream?  A coat, given to me by
native tribes, so I would not starve
and die.

The first winter after our 1607
arrival, honoring the king and
the devil himself by ignoring the
pulse, love, soul and culture of
a vibrant, talented, loving, breathing
native people.

They were brown, naked and natural,
and in our books we wrote them down.

“The king will have us tame them;
and when we do, the riches below
their feet will be ours.”

“What of the Treaties?  The Peace?”

All is fair in love and war, and
we who usurp are just cursed, nothing
more;

just as the Jews who asked Samuel
for a king;

we are cursed like a Viking thing.

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