Let not the warriors gather
along the battlefields of your mind,
for the moment they appear,
retreat.
Ask not why they have come
for in the “why”
a thousand battles will be waged
and never will be won.
Mind Warriors
Migrant Worker
Listen as a baby dies
you cannot abort the final cries
the last whimper belongs to mother
holding her child
sisters, brothers, frightened and confused
know not why
their father does not cry
for he died so long ago
America’s ghost
drifting along the highway
listen to his plea
about those who steal his dignity
lazy, incompetent the myth goes
how uninformed we be
about things we do not see.
The Man Who Howled At The Moon
There was a man who howled at the moon
the moon looked down and asked
what do you want
the man said
rid me of my madness
and the moon replied
your madness is a myth.
Mexico City
Sitting in a street in Mexico City
half-hidden in the darkness
an old woman cradles an infant to her breast.
Her gnarled hand rests in the folds of her dress.
A man stops.
Her arm rises.
He drops a few coins into her hand.
Only a shadow of recognition is returned.
The man walks on.
Over and over
the image of the old woman returns
and he asks why
but his intellect fails
for he never realizes
that for a brief moment
he was one
with the woman
sitting in the street.
Loneliness
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When you fill your loneliness with people
and you feel empty,
perhaps it is your destiny
to be alone
so that you may be filled with God.
Logic
We fashion frameworks in our mind
barriers do we build
empirically bound
limiting the limitless
logic draws a continuous line
from the known
while the unknown flees from us in space and time.
Love
To define love is to limit it
to limit love is to control it
to control love is to abuse it
to abuse love is to lose it.
Martin Luther King Jr.
I have lingered in your words
and felt your presence.
How strange that in your
spiritual journey
your enlightenment
became my light
and what truths you carried back
from the mountain top
stand by themselves
words of the spirit
that speak for all mankind
born in the center of the universe
where you touched the divine.
Aphorisms by Howard Salzman no 35
It is difficult to determine
The motive of one who speaks ill of another,
Perhaps the inner pain
Produces a poison that is unleashed without discretion.
We are subject to the sound bites of vulgarity
And no matter how much we try to elude it,
The media wins and we lose a part of us
That delights in elegance.
Aphorisms by Howard Salzman No. 34
When you consider yourself wise
You can be sure in a short time
You will realize that you are a fool.
The distinction between a fool and an intellectual snob
A fool has some notion of his foolishness
But the intellectual snob is blinded by his own pride.
Wisdom and vanity cannot co-exist.
There are losses that are never lost
But linger in your mind for a lifetime;
Love has the longest lifespan.