Solutions Sutra
for my son Shane
We need to get out of our heads
and down into our stomachs and feet.
We need to be Einstein
riding on a beam of light through the universe
laughing our big brainy heads off.
We need to look at our hands
and see the tools that carved David out of a rock.
We need to look through the eyes of the saints
and see the flowing fire of the world
in all its glory, ourselves alight in everything.
We need to look within, stop asking what did I do?
And start asking, what can I do? How can I do it?
Who can I do it with?
We need to listen as well as we speak.
We need to shut the fuck up, sit under a tree
like Buddha with a big stupid grin on our face,
cause it’s all a dream anyway.
We need the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury
to go swing together in a Turkish bath.
We need to stand out on the streets with thousands of others
and make enough noise to rattle the parliament walls.
We need to be Christ preaching peace in Crumlin,
Malcolm X seeing the angel of revolution in the Joy,
Nikola Tesla inventing free energy on Bolton Street,
or Whitman seeking love out on Sandymount strand.
We need to remember that survival depends on
mutuality, plurality, and solidarity.
We need to know that the morning is the same one it’s always been,
and the night’s no blacker than it’s ever been,
and the leaves of grass still sprouting,
and the golden seeds are still blowing,
and as long as we can cook together, we can eat together,
and as long as we can sing together, we can dance together,
and as long as we can stand together, we can build together,
and as long as we can love together, we can grow together,
and as long as we can be true neighbours, we can live together.
We know what the problems are.
What we need are solutions.
What's yours?