Two Voices

Two Voices

Hateful words flying through the air

Like missiles and poisonous gas

They don't listen

Being so intent on trying to come up with

The next argument to prove how "woke" they are.

And let the people say.....I'm tired of this crap!!!

Anger's voice is too loud to talk over

We need a peacemaker like Ghandi, like Martin Luther King, like Jesus

The Bible says: Make no friendship with an angry man

Why?

Because an angry man is a walled city that can't be scaled

Bang your head on his wall, he won't hear you

He only hears the screams of his anger

Anger, non-righteous, is a demon that is only afraid of love

Righteous anger is good but even that must be laid aside

Before the sun goes down.

There comes a time

When weapons need to be laid down

And replaced by handshakes and hugs

And let the people say...I'm tired of war!

You can't rewrite history

You can only write the next chapter of the story

Let the poets and the lovers and the godly write that chapter

Take the thousand dollar pens out of the hands of the one per centers

It is they who wrote the previous chapters of hate and war

And made the innocent masses pay for their crimes.

And let the people say....Ain't that the truth!!!!

We know what's going on here,

We who have ears to hear

And eyes to see

We know who it is that loves war and hates peace

We know who it is that conquers by division

We know what drives men to madness 

And children to nightmares

We know.........................

And we know that the ancient law of "eye for an eye"

Only led to a world full of blind men

"Tooth for a tooth" led to teethless people made even more angry

By their inability to gnash their teeth

The only people who will attain peace in this world

Are those, like Chief Joseph, who say "I will fight no more again forever."

For fighting leads to fighting and killing of the body

Leads to killing of the soul.

And let the people say...... Somebody done growed a brain up in here!!!

All blood is red (unless you're a Martian)

And all men bleed the same color

Why?

Because we are of one race, one species, one family

Sly Stone said it well in "Family Affair" when he sang....

"One child grows up to be somebody that just loves to learn

And another child grows up to be somebody you'd just love to burn

Mom loves the both of them. You see it's in the blood.........

What am I saying?

 We are all one family, one blood

But depending on whose voice you listen to and follow.....

You will either be a good or evil member of that family

You will love your fellow man or burn in  the fire of your own anger

It's your choice to make

 Hate begets hate, love begets love

The Creator will still love you

 But He probably won't like you very much.

Why? 

Because you don't listen to the voice of Reason

But are swayed by the voice of Vengeance

There are only two voices in this world

One wants you to live in peace and love as you were made to love

And the other one knows...................

His time is short.

And let the people say.....Amen and Amen!

(now give me a High Five 

and a hug around the neck, Somebody!)

©by Voo Shining Stone

Sept 29, 2020

8:34 p.m.

Family Affair By The Family Stone

Small Lives

Small Lives

It is hard for people like me
Who have bigger hearts than most
To live such small lives.

It is hard for people like me
Who have such large dreams
Never see them come to pass.

It is hard for people like me
Who have such tirelessly thoughtful minds
To be disdained for the very thoughts we think.

It is hard for people like me
Who have more love in our little fingers
Than a thousand hearts who don't care that they don't care.

Why must it be so, this deadly truth?
This common fact,
This observation made on a daily basis
By those of us with all of the above and yet none of the above.

That is, the dreams that are fulfilled,
The grand thoughts brought to fruition,
The love we've given, returned
The hearts so filled with the yearning for life, given a chance to live?

Why must we live destitute
 In a world full of treasure chests spilling over with love?
Why must we dance in our dreams on feet floating on air
And wake holding nothing in our empty arms?

Why must we build the castles in our minds
Only to see them crumbled by reality's hands?
Why must our hearts wither and die, deprived of the thing
That keeps them alive more than blood?

Why must we live like this, helplessly watching
The big tidal waves sweep our dreams off the shore
Why must we live these small, small lives
When there could be so much, much more?

©By Voo
April 2020

Special People

Special People



The world is full of special people
Living all apart
Afraid to meet one another's eyes
Or let them in their hearts.
Special people walking past
Other special people daily
Living life somber and sad
When they could be living gaily.
Eating dinner all alone
Lonely breakfast, lonely lunch
Letting love just pass them by
Without a single hunch.
Dreaming dreams day after day
And lonely hours of night
Never dreaming that they could come true
Or that things could come out right.
Special people with special gifts
To share but afraid to share
Praying to God to send them love
But never seeing it there.
For we all have our ideals of love
And we can't compromise
To accept a different kind of love
Or bless it with our eyes.
So lonely people live and die
Alone with bitter pride
While love is knocking at our doors
Begging to come inside.


©by Voo
December 26, 2004
 10:46 p.m.

The Green Hills...... in Memory of my brother

   going to the farm.....

The Green Hills

The green, green hills of Tennessee

Were tall and full of glory

As they always were and ever will be

To a barefoot child who ran there.

The skies were bright blue,

Filled with clouds of white cotton

Floating along lazily in the azure expanse,

In the wrath of a gold, blazing sun.

It was an involuntary journey,

Going back into the past

That had molded and made me

Who I was, who I am.

I didn’t want to be there, like that

A stranger, a visitor coming home from the world

One that had run from those wild, wandering hills

As fast as my young legs could take me.

I didn’t know what to do, where to look

I didn’t know how to feel, how to act

It was as if I walked in a long dreamless dream

Where everything was familiar but foreign.

There was family there

Some that I barely knew,

People who wanted to know and love me

But really, had no idea how.

It was strange

And beyond strange

In that pastoral setting

Such a postcard of a place that never quite was.

It was where I learned about life

And how not to live it

Where I learned how to die

And how to avoid it.

My hometown,

A scene that seems never to change,

Those hills rising high in the mists of the morning

Like castles in a little girl’s mind.

It was there I created a world

That would never be mine

Lying in meadows, fishing in creeks,

Praying into blue skies with my eyes full of tears.

Looking for answers

To a heart full of questions

Wondering how, why and when that the answers would come

Listening for whispers that I’d never hear.

That beautiful place

Was my prison, my dungeon

Jailed in that Eden by the need to control,

The need to suppress and the need to possess.

I was my father’s daughter

But he was hardly "my Daddy"

Just the despot of paradise

And a cloud blocking the sun.

Now,

He still lives where the hills make a hollow

Crippled and bitter, with a heart slowly dying,

Failing from disuse, still congested with scorn.

We buried my brother beneath that green earth,

Buried someone so gentle

And someone who was good

In the place of a man who could never show love.

There was a peace there

In the arms of the forests

It crept in with the terror

And the fear of the unknown.

It tried to comfort me, tried to hold me

But I couldn’t see it through my tears

Now, maybe I can feel it’s touch

Now that I’m far away.

I laid my brother’s funeral rose

Against my mother’s tombstone

Her sisters sang, (the two that’s left)

Old hymns from yesterday.

It was surreal, like life and death

And sadly bittersweet

Like a photograph you have to take

But you never want to see.

What is it about going home

That makes you feel so old?

Makes you remember your every thought

And relive your every dream?

There were some mysteries solved

But I left with different questions

So many scars were opened up

That I thought had long been healed.

How can ugliness live in a place of such beauty?

Innocence die, in the face of disdain?

I do not understand, Lord, I do not understand!

Shouldn’t there be answers now, shouldn’t there be love?

I feel like such a child again

A new-born child sent back in time

To the place that formed this wounded woman,

Birthed poems of joy and dark despair.

I don’t know how to write of this

Mere words somehow cannot convey

The pictures painted on my mind,

The flood that’s raging through my soul.

Those green, green hills of Tennessee

My hell, my heaven, my childhood home

Faded now with sunset in the rear view mirror

And I’ve never felt so all alone.

©By Voo Shining Stone

August 28, 2011

the occasion of my

brother Mike's death

The Wrong Road To The Right Place

The Wrong Road To The Right Place

Whistlin' in the dark

As I traverse this here dark road

This road that ain't found on no road map

Nor on no piece of paper

Nor drawn on a napkin by a "greasy spoon" waitress.

No, this road don't rightly take you no wheres

Didn't start no wheres and who but God 

                      Knows where it ends..................

I don't. Or I didn't.

I just closed my eyes as I stood there

At the fork in the road and threw a stolen rose

Over my left shoulder

                 And it fell to the right............

And that is how I ended up

        On this here dusty road tryin' to get to Heaven......

Honk HONK!!!! Get out  of the road, you OLD fool!!!!

(Some kid feeling his oats in his daddy's car, I reckon)

NO.....some wanna-be gangster boy from up North

wantin' to mess with somebody out here on these back roads.....

What am I lookin' for?

    You tell me........boy!

You're the Son of A Gun askin' the questions!

I didn't ask you nothin'

And I reckon that's what I 'll get.....

Story of my life.....Always nothin'!.

The Bible says: You have NOT

  'Cause you ASK not............

But I don't know what to ask fer

(I don't want to get...smited) (SMOTED?) Kilt...

Lord, I don't know....God always uses such BIG words...

My brain can't hardly ascertain the little ones

Like thee and Thou and How Now Brown Cow....

Oh, wait! That ain't scripture, is it? Or is it?

Shoot! I don't know nothin. I'm half heathen, I guess

But I AIM to make HEAVEN my HOME!

WHERE AM I GOING?

   you just full of questions, ain't ye???

Dang fool Yankee!!! (sotto voce)

You don't hear me goin' off half cocked

Askin' you jack! 

                  Mostly, 'cause I don't care

And secondly, 'Cause I don't CARE!

I got enough problems fer the both of us 

                     Plus everbody in WhyNot, Mississippi  

Damn! I sure could use me a good ole cold drink!

You got a RC cola on ye? Or an Orange Crush?

Pepsi???! Damn, son, we don't drink no Pepsi down here!

Might as well drank swamp water......Pepsi!!!!!  Goll durn...

Hey!! HEY!!!  No use gittin' all riled up about it!!!

What you doin', boy???? CALM THE HELL BACK DOWN!!!

What a little feller like you doin' with a BIG ole GUN like that???

Naw, I ain't gonna be quiet! Naw, hell naw! Didn't yore Pa told ye

Not to point no PISTOL at nobody lest you aim to....to.....

No..............I can't help ye with no gas money....

I ain't got no Money, son! If I did, you thank I'd be out here

 hitching in this here hot sun tryin' to find my way to Heaven? 

                                    Nooo...not that HEAVEN.......!!!

Heaven, Alabama. Where the purtiest girl in the Whole WORLD live!

You got a girl, son? Anybody on Earth love your sorry ass?

No..no..I didn't mean nothin.....Just talkin'. 

No need to get all bent outta shape.........

I done tole you I ain't got no Money! I can't give you Nothin'  but ADVICE!

C'mon, man......Don't do me that a way...I ain't lying'. I try not to lie......much...

I wants to go to HEAVEN one day. (I just don't Want to go right NOW....

you know what I'm sayin?)                Quit that now! That hurts!!!

No need to kick a man when he down!!! Lord, have Mercy!!!  Here...Here..

 I got a five dollar bill here in my shoe...You can have THAT. Just don't hurt me. 

No...I ain't got no MORE...

I ain't got nothin' but some Juicy Fruit gum I'm saving fer supper.

What??? 

You gonna take that too? Well, if that ain't a damn cryin' shame...! 

 I bet yore Mama sure would be proud of you 'bout right now, wouldn't she????

No, no, not trying to talk about yore Mama! Not meaning no 

Dis Respect to nobody.... let me go now, boy..I gots to git on down this here road

fore it gits too DARK to see...LET ME GO NOW!!!! Dadblame yore hide!!!

No, I won't tell noBody...I promise.  I won't report you to no POLICE... I won't TELL,

I swear to GOD....let me go NOW.....I won't.......

                                                      BANG!!!!

LORD GOD, son!!! You didn't have to do THAT!!! Why You want to KILL some old

NOBoDY like me???? I didn't mean you no harm....here, take this JUICY FRUIT.

Take it! You wanted it a minute ago! Here, boy.......

A little blood won't hurt ye.... I don't need no gum where I'm goin'...

                                           Where am I Going?????              

WHY.....Heaven, Alabama, OF COURSE!!!! Where my girl at....She waitin' on me down there.

She been WAITIN' a long TIME.  She love me, she says last time I seen her. 

I love her too, I shorely do!  Hot damn! She gonna be happy to see my ole raggedy butt!!!  Hee Hee

LORD..it shore is Bright out heres. I can't hardly SEE, it so BRIGHT. 

What's goin' on here? I feel like I'm fadin'.....jest fadin' away....

         right here in this dirt with the Sun in my eyes.......

Where you goin', BOY???? Come back here!!!! Why you runnin???? 

THEM ain't nothin' but angels.....

 Them ain't nothin' but.......................ANGELS....????!!!!!   Lord God....

Come to thank about it...I thank that ole rose fell to the LEFT! 

I should a done took that OTHER ROAD.................................

         I don't thank this 'un is goin' to Alabama..........

                                                      no, sir....not to no Alabama.........

                                     Not to no Heaven...........Alabama.....
                             Not to no...........................................................no

©By Voo Shining Stone

August  16, 2019

4:22 a.m.

copyrighted

Sudden Kindness

Sudden Kindness

You spilled the milk! she sharply said

And I, clumsy little bit of a girl that I am

Hung my head and nodded in guilty silence

And that's all there is! she rebuked me further.

Nodding again, I felt a big tear form in my eye

Slide down my face and fall into the small white puddle

I could never do anything right no matter how hard I tried

That much had been established.

Feeling her anger, I sought to run but could not move

My bare feet were frozen to the spot

My tears, falling like rain now and blurring my vision

I did not see her moving towards me.

There, there, she said in a soothing tone

As she took me into her arms and smoothed back my hair

It's alright, it's only milk, it's not gold. We'll go buy more

And I was so surprised by her sudden kindness that I began to weep.

©by voo

July 16, 07

NEVER

NEVER



I NEVER UNDERSTOOD HUMANS
I NEVER COMPREHENDED  THE BREED
I NEVER KNEW ONE TO BE SELFLESS
BUT SELFISH BECAUSE OF THEIR GREED.

I NEVER WAS TENDERLY TOUCHED
I NEVER CHERISHED, FELT
I NEVER KNEW THE TASTE OF LOVE
OR HOW IT LOOKED OR SMELT.

I NEVER HAD A HAND TO HOLD
OR SAW A HEART FELT SMILE
I NEVER KNEW WHAT IT WAS TO FEEL SAFE
OR PASSED A SECURE AND SURE WHILE.

I NEVER FIT IN WITH ANY GROUP
BUT HUNG AT THE OUTSKIRTS OF FEAR
THEIR DAGGERED EYES WOULD PIERCE MY HEART
AND SAY "YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE."

I NEVER GOT TO LET DOWN MY GUARD
I NEVER GOT TO BE
THE PERSON THAT I AM DEEP INSIDE
THE PERSON THAT IS ME.

MY PARENTS MADE ME RUN AWAY
THEY DROVE ME FROM MY HOME
THEY TOLD MY FAMILY THAT I WAS DEAD
AND SO I'VE ALWAYS BEEN ALONE.

SO LIFE HAS BEEN A LONELY WALK
AND SMILES, THEY HAVE BEEN FEW
BUT CAME THE DAY YOU LOOKED MY WAY
AND I FOUND A FRIEND IN YOU.

AND NOW I SEE THAT I WAS WRONG
MISTAKEN WAS MY HEART
JUST WHEN I'D BROKEN DOWN MY WALLS
YOU TORE MY SOUL APART.

BUT THAT'S OKAY, I'VE HURT BEFORE
I KNOW THAT PAIN SO WELL
MISFIT AM I, BANNED FROM THE SKY
AND BARRED FROM THE GATES OF HELL.

A LONELY WANDERER, NEVER HOME
WITH NOTHING TO DO BUT CRY
A PART BUT NOT REALLY, OF THE HUMAN RACE
AND NEVER KNOWING WHY.



©by Voo
when I was a teenager

Somewhere In Forever

 Somewhere In Forever


Somewhere in forever
Beyond my reach and realm
There is a dream I cannot see
Because my eyes are dim.

Somewhere in forever
Beyond my listening ear
There is a symphony playing for me
That my deafness cannot hear.

Somewhere in forever
Where love tastes good and sweet
There is a feast prepared for me
That I may one day eat.

Somewhere in forever
So soft unto the touch
There is a blanket spread for me
With the warmth I need so much.

Somewhere in forever
With a fragrance rare and pure
A balm falls from a flower that soon
Will all my weakness cure.

Somewhere in forever
My hopeful heart may know
That all the things I haven't seen
Yet, will their faces show.

Somewhere in forever
If forever starts today
I'll walk into a brand new world
And throw this one away.


©by Voo
Aug 19, 07

Insurmountable Odds

Insurmountable Odds

Against insurmountable odds he stands
A survivor in the wars of life
Expecting never to be whole again
Though he has crumbled in the stress and strife.

But in the fighting with and the fighting against
The giving up and the giving in
It's made him stronger, wiser and sweeter
And a better man than he might have been.

Losing sometimes gives you gains
Like gaining sometimes makes you lose
The things that mean the most to you
And often forces you to choose.

No one chooses to suffer loss
For eyes can't see the greater good
That often comes in the midst of hell
And makes us do that thing we should.

For wisdom comes with experience
And experience with pain
And heartache comes from reaching out
And love with reaching out again.

So the man stands there with smiling face
Wondering why he has not died
He doesn't see the strength I see
Living joyfully inside.

From life to death and back again
The journey inches onward
The trail gets cold, gets lost, grows old
But one day will point him homeward.

And all will be laid out to see
The Whys, the Whos, the Wheres
The insurmountable odds and the roads that were trod
And the treasures that wait for him there.

©by Voo

Jan 31, 2005

written in a dream last night,

typed out at 11:30 a.m.

Cancer

Cancer


There's a thousand kinds of cancer
A thousand kinds of death
A thousand ways to make us pay
For ever drawing breath.

I've seen it in every walk of life
I've seen it in my own
I've seen it my friends and family
I've seen it in my home.

Cancer eats and cancer knaws
And cancer lives to kill
Cancer takes our joy away
With a deadly perverse thrill.

Cancer thrives on things we love
It grows on what is bad
It takes the sunshine from our days
And replaces it with sad.

I've never known a human being
That's escaped that deadly touch
No one's immune from that hellish tune
That dirge I hate so much.

From hell it came to bring us pain
And steal our joy in life
To eat away both night and day
With it's hopeless heartless strife.

If cancer had one name alone
It's as it's always been
The worst from hell has come to dwell
That one name would be Sin.

Eating at God's Paradise
Eating at our tables
Eating at our very souls
We continue and enable.

So many kinds of cancer
So many kinds of ill
So many ways to shut out life
So many ways to kill.

The physical, the spiritual
The emotional, the soul
It has a way of grinding up
The things we see as gold.

And if there's a remedy for this
This cancer I speak of
To stop the spread before we're all dead
That remedy is Love.



©by Voo
December 9, 2004
 1 a.m.