Rock Climb in Hijab

I have decided to take on the arduous task of Creating SOMETHING
Every single weekday of this year. I've decided to post here since I'll
Be posting very often and this is a lot less intrusive that a facebook note.
I'll be posting Poems/Essays/Paintings/articles/ any medium of art. I am
An amatuer in many things so we shall all see how all develops.
This is my very first installment.
Poem: Rock Climb in Hijab.


Stooped down and presented
Palms up
Drank water from her cup
The cup was her hand
I'm not her man
But I drank

She's fresh like the rain
Her reign will be fresh
Queen of my heart
Covering her majesty
She rock climbs in hijab
Runs miles in the rain

Outlined with eyeliner black
Closer to Isis
Like Osirus
I want her to all see
Odd rocks in our path
Places we can CROSS water
Both drank from the CRESCENT of your hand
Squeeze light from the Crescent of my eyes

We blink then open and see
We eclipse again
My reflection blocks your pupils
Back to me
Its your shadow in the center of my eye

Deep space and orbit
Breadcrumbs
Bits and pieces
Dark Matter Distance
God in every other sentence
And in silence by the inch

Sweet scent
I caught you
My tulip in a dry river bed
Puma by the waterfall
Wet where the ice melt
New Balance Princess
Rock climb in hijab

Double Negative

I searched for your heart
like W.M.D.s in Iraq. I mean
I had to give
those who supported me
reason to be there.

I listened to the allies I had
forged in my own head. They
convinced me of the fact. There
was something in you?
Worth fighting for.
Packed on a precipice.

Perhaps I listened to the crowd
too much; Reality, there was no crowd.
The allies always say what I imagine
projected on the screen I call eyes
The Weapon of Mass Destruction
is synonymous with the love
that I so desperately wanted to find
in the echoes of you.
To give my members
my limbs...a reason
to be outstretched
like they are.

A rally...a search for ghosts.
But I am no Ghost buster
at the end of the day. There
was no Indian in the Cupboard. Just
a cowboy and a manifest destiny
for self destruction or maybe
Just destruction.

I looked in you for something
You told me upfront you didn't have.
I wore out my welcome after
banishing your demon.
Hung your dictator.
Ripped a new one in you. Manipulated
when you wouldn't love; my gloves
are bloody black. My intentions
are blurred. Remove my coverings
I'll blame it on intelligence
I received falsely.

Maybe I should have carried the "one"
or dotted that lone "i"
or crossed my "t"
I've been crossing you too long.
For so long I've desired
the gold beneath your desert.
Created my own mirage and called it
by your name.
I didn't plan correctly. Your sands
jammed my machinery.

I came.

gave myself no timetable
to get out if I couldn't subdue
Your resistance too numerous or perhaps
didn't commit as much as I told
My members...my limbs, outstretched
for too long the danger of being
an emotional amputee grows
with each battle

I mean
I ought not be here.
Came to you with visions; now
my dreams are bloody black. I imagine
Coming home and finally
laying into a hug from my mother
with no way to hold her back.
My arms, my limbs; I mean, my members
were lost next to the mirage
in the moments of the ambush
at the beginning of the day

You told me you couldn't commit to me.
Over zealous as I often am. I compensated
Over committing to you.

I will make you love me
or at least write it like I believe it.
Rehearse my words until I can
convince others when I say it.

Tainted love. I am
prostrate. Facing East
Lapping up spilled oil
from the depths of the gulf of me

Cause here
Remorse tastes like I knew better.
You knew better. We all knew better.
We always seem to know better.
We never seem to do better.

We promise to do better
with our first love, second wife
But forget when our Smart bombs fail
And the strife replays
In Afghanistan.

Who are the Son of God?

WARNING: If your faith is not your own
do NOT read this blog.

If we are all Sons/Children of God then what should
"Father, Son, Holy Spirit" really mean to us?

Allow me to bypass the Sunday School lesson and assume that we all at least have heard that Jesus/Yeshua who is called the Christ, is the Son of God. But what does this mean?

Growing up in church I've heard and read many ways to explain the concept called, "The Trinity". The best I've read came from C.S. Lewis in "Mere Christianity" and the explaination I've personally used most is Water. Water frozen is Solid, that same Water is fluid and again, that same Water can be vapor. All at once and seperately. Father, Son, Holy Spirit; Easy! But not so easy and not so fast.

When I read the Bible I come across a few tough spots for this concept. The Shema: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One." (Deut. 6:4-5) And Jesus, Himself never claim ownership of the Kingdom of God. He always said, "My Father's kingdom" and "the kingdom of God is like..."

So then, what could "Son of God" mean?
It seems to me more as a title of honor and a figure of speech. (I recall seeing Saadam Hussein of televison during the first Gulf War, declaring it was going to be "The Mother of All Wars")
Did this mean that All War would be birthed from this fight? Absolutely not! It hints at it being the "Essence of" war/conflict and it being unlike any before and grand in scale.
Jesus had two disciples, James and John, whom He called, "Sons of Thunder", does this mean that "Thunder" was thier Father? Absolutely not! It meant, like Thunder, they were loud and you knew when they were around. They were like the "Essence of" Thunder. If you understand this, then you should also know and understand that when Jesus is called, the "Son of God" that it means He is one like God. One in the essence of Peace, a will for Justice and in Power of miracles.

**Just as if you called someone, "Son of a Bitch", are you really calling his mother a "Bitch"? (Technically, yes) but mostly not. You're saying that the person is so much of a Bitch that they must have it in their blood.
*****I apologize for using the profane to support the profound but if your mind is more inclined to the former, that was for you.

In my understanding, Jesus wanted us to "follow Him". To become like Him, to learn from Him, to be Peace, seek Justice, and Love like Him...to be Sons of God.
"But love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be Sons of the Highest. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." (Luke 6:35-36)
As Jesus (knowing He would soon be crucified) was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, He says, (concerning those that follow and will follow Him) "...that they may be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I in You; that they also may be in US, that the world may believe you sent Me."

There is a key point in this sentence that is telling of our role and Jesus' role and I abelieve if you are boid of tradition you should already see it. For us that have had tradition and doctrine instilled in us, allow me to step outside of that and just focus on what Jesus said.

He requests that we be ONE as He and God are One.
How can you and I be one? We can't.
Unless we are one in purpose, towards a goal, in spirit and in mind, we cannot be one. We can be one in essence. This is telling about what Jesus thought of us and His relationship with the Father. He is one with God but not God Himself.
"The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs- heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ..." (Romans 8:10-17)

In the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament, Jesus is called the "firstborn of creation." Meaning He isn't (talking about the spirit, not the man) Self-Sufficient or Self-Created but is a creation of God the Father/Creator.Also in the Book of Hebrews we find this, "For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying 'I will declare Your name to my brethren..'"
Brethren (defined)
1. fellow members
2.Brother

Jesus Christ.
One with the Father but not the Father.
My Brother and my Lord.
and We are
THE SON OF GOD

#Alchemy101: The Power is in Translation

Judah 1 at Santiago H.S. March, 2010 from David Oliver on Vimeo.

Santiago High School in Corona, Ca.
I had a hoot.
A Whole Heap o fun

Either Ether -Sestina

We were as base metals seeking gold.
Our forge was fueled with oxygen.
Our minds filled with Ether.
The Light left our life through the Black-hole;
who knew what would be left was all flesh, no soul?
We set out to learn Alchemy.

Changed our religion to Alchemy
and traveled unbeaten paths til' we stumbled on gold.
Reached into the abyss and recaptured our soul
then the inhale played chess with exhale via oxygen.
There was a White-Dwarf inverted in the Black-hole
they both were balanced on the Ether.

All Elements relied on the one named, Ether.
They worked together seeking oneness and Alchemy.
The Unknown, Unseen gave them to black-hole.
Unbeknownst to them, on the other side gold.
Stripped of their oxygen
decomposed composer, flesh left, now soul.

Elements sought bodies to control; feared being lost soul.
It remained unknown the best ways to trust the Ether.
They sought sufficiency in oxygen, again.
Conclusion, "Process too difficult, this 'Alchemy'.
We will wait the eons for our gold."
The Unknown knew their wisdom remained black-hole.

The Unseen gathered the un-saw and filled black-hole.
A big bang resulted and shook all soul.
What we call energy used to be gold.
Burned back much ether,
Unseen saw need for a better Alchemy.
Sent seeds of Light to the realm of the Oxygen.

The seeds grew into Prophets in Oxygen;
their Poet twins proceeded directly from Black-hole.
They were both sent to protect and teach Alchemy
to assist in the perfection of soul
to usher us into Ether,
then all will be Gold.

We sought Alchemy before we ever had oxygen
and were drawn to Gold but feared the black-hole.
One day we will know our soul is also the Ether.

Religion: The Art of Sampling, Remixing and Remastering

If I know something is a remix or a sample doesn't make it less valid, less pertinent to my experience in my contemporary time. Nor does it make the original less valid. I may just appreciate all that was added to the remix. Like improving upon family recipe.

If you were to ask a Rabbi where the stories of the Hebrew Bible came from they may tell you that the Teachers of old took the best stories and they changed the names and some details. (Greek mythology copied Egyptian mythology. Just changed the names and details.) And some of the stories which are distinctly Hebrew are exaggerated accounts of what really occurred. To support that sentence, chew on this: a lot of the Hebrew Bible is a military history and the Hebrews did like most people do. When they won a battle or a war they attributed the victory to the Will of God. This may be true but dangerous as people tend to think and Pastors tend to Preach that God always leads us to victory and never to a crushing defeat.

Most of the Hebrew Bible wasn't written and compiled until about 1000 B.C. meaning there was at least 1500 years of oral tradition. As we know a story can change slightly or dramatically with each story teller. In the end it is the story or allegory or poem that teaches and leads us to righteous, which is another word for Justice.

The Hebrews were in Egypt 430 years, and they were in Babylon and Persia for a couple generations. If you believe they were the same people coming out as they went in...then I have a diamond mine in my sock drawer that I wanna see you. But you got to buy it first.

The concept of the Satan as we know him doesn't exist in the Hebrew Bible. In the Hebrew Bible he is more like a District Attorney appointed by God for us. An Angel who has to ask God's permission (get a warrant) before any action is taken against us. It was not until the Hebrews encountered Zoroastrianism and Ahura Mazda and Ahriman when the Satan became the embodiment of evil. Before that evil was the result of our internal action and not an external being. Evil is the result of man and the D.A. highlighted our actions before the Judge. You only need to read the description of Angels and Heavenly beings and see the statues Gods and Heavenly beings of Babylon and Persia to connect the dots.

Now I warn people to be cautious to what they label "of unbelievers" or "pagan" or "heathen" because of what we know of God from the Hebrews. The Hebrews went in every region that was more advanced than them and they learned (sent into exile and captivity by the design of God) they evolved because of the people that they were with.

They took the stories and collected them all together and gave us a more clear view (not perfect view) of who God is. GOD (the Light) comes to us through a sort of prism. Different people see the same light at a different frequency. The Hebrews, over time focused the Light on our side of the prism. They took the spiritually Obtuse and Acute angles, mingled them and gave us a Right Angle.
(If you study religion,like I do, WITHOUT A BIAS, you will see the same stories/Allusions/Allegory hinting at the common source with variation. Some stories are wild/outlandish and so are some things in the Bible. But faith is exercised. Some people believe literally, while others simply say its figurative, appreciate the lesson and keep it pushing.)

To put it short and simply:
My Grandfather may have seen Ford's first Model-T but he has never seen a Mercedes S-500.

-Now in writing this some are definitely gonna question my personal Christianity and faith. That's okay-

When in doubt, this is how I pray:
"Lord, I believe. Forgive my unbelief."

Forgive my silence

Forgive my silence but I am working on something that is proving to take some time and courage to write. But it will challenge the paradigm of many or confirm your own inner-most thoughts on the subject.
Until then...I'll leave you with this one thought.

Forgiveness is the sweetest Taboo.