First Bukowski Poem

I ran across my first Charles Bukowski poem in "Born to Run" yesterday. I first heard of him in a New Dimensions interview with Coleman Barks, the poet and translator that brought us Rumi. I will definitely be looking into Bukowski.

If you're going to try, go all the way
There is no other feeling like that
you will be alone with the gods
and the nights will flame with fire....
you will ride life straight to
perfect laughter, it's
the only good fight there is.- Charles Bukowski

Responsibility To The World

I downloaded and listened to this interview on the mail route yesterday. JCP said something that really resonated with me: "We're not responsible for the world but to the world."

In my experience keeping this attitude has been easier said than done.

A Demonic Child Killer in our Culture

The last 15 minutes of this interview with Michael Ventura and James Hillman gives us insight as to why children and adults are shooting up schools. From interview:

Michael Ventura: "Freddie Krueger is a contemporary myth of a demon that many, many, many children are feeling."

James Hillman: "So we are back at the beginning of what we're talking about. There is a demonic child abuser, a child killer, in our culture killing children."

1992 Interview with James Hillman and Micheal Ventura

This interview was done a few weeks before I graduated from high school back in 1992. If I remember right grunge music was really taking off right about that time. A few years after Kurt Cobain killed himself.

"Many teenagers are living in a community of horror. And living in a community of highly destructive alien forces that they don't know much about. And to put all of those into their own fantasy is not the answer, these are communal figures, they're like ancestoral voices. If they were on another island in another time, in another tribe, in another society they would be regarded as demonic inhabitants of the village."--James Hillman from the interview

Older Men's Responsibilities

Copied this down from an interview that Robert Bly did on New Dimensions radio back in the mid-eighties.

"Most of the [older] males in our culture are not leading spiritual lives, they're making money or doing something else. And that means they have nothing to nourish the young males with. And then oftentimes the young males are forced to lead the spiritual life the older males didn't."--Robert Bly

Been Busy

The past week has been full of postal work, family responsibilities, and listening to old radio stories on New Dimensions radio. The stories I've listened to were with Robert Bly, Coleman Barks, James Hillman, Thomas Moore, and Charles Tart. There is so much good stuff there. If you're interested in conversations on philosophy, spirit, soul,and creativity I recommend checking it out.

This morning I was poking around over at The Un-Game website and found this quote by leadership guru Tom Peters:

"Any closely held value, no matter how well concealed, even from yourself, inevitably prompts action that's consistent with it."--Tom Peters

I'm sure I've written this down somewhere else, but there is a level of truth in it where I think it needs to see the light of day again.