Writings

Dear Reader,

            So here we are on planet Earth. Together, we are drifting aimlessly in a cyclical orbit towards nothingness. Throughout the journey of human existence, our ancestors have lived lives, similar to ours, and have long since consciously departed; imminently, one day, we ourselves will go forward from this world and join them in the journey of the unknown. This idea may seem morbid and post-apocalyptic at first, but with further introspective deliberation on this conscious reality, you may come to the same realization that I have: Every waking breath of life is precious.

            Life can only be created and sustained through cooperation. The persistence of mankind depends partly on our ability to socially adapt, collaborate, and find others who want the same things we do (including, and most essentially, mates). Though social interaction and the establishment of relationships may offer you a partial glimpse into how humanity has sustained thus far, the magnanimity of the story can never be expressed in full. Because of the limitations of language, we have failed, as a race, to develop a communication and acknowledgement of the essential values incommunicables; more specifically, the evolution of emotion.

            We respond to the physical world based on the sensations that our bodies encounter. Say for instance, you are recalling a bright summer day of your youth; the human mind is equipped not only to remember the aesthetics of that beautiful day  but also the feel of the warm summer sun resting on your youthful bones. This allows the memories of the human mind to become just as vivid in reminiscences as they are in present reality.  Ultimately, this is an evolutionary celebration of sensation.

            These essential sensations have not only been present throughout the history of mankind but through the entire existence of life. Do elephants that linger around and mourn their relatives’ bones not feel sorrow? Do predators and prey not feel worrisome or fearful?

We have inherited those same sensitive reactions toward an ever-changing world that have kept life thriving for years. We have learned these through observation and trial and error, both from ancestral man and ancient beast. The natural world not only provides us with the essential elements that we need, biologically, to survive, but it also serves up an incessant barrage of survival ingenuity and ecological resourcefulness. Examples to live by.

            In closing, I must ask, if life and nature are so precious and temporary, and if cooperation is such an essential element to life, then why do people waste their beloved moments of consciousness investing themselves in counter-productive divisions such as racism, sexism, ecological neglect, and self-destruction?

Only individual minds can answer such a question.

 Living life limitlessly,

 Chuck.

P.S. Music is art and art is poetry,

Feel free to sing along, this book was made for thee.

In this world filled with death,

With reverie and sorrow,

All we can hope for

Is a better tomorrow.

 Singularity

My name is Chuck Clenney

And I am like no other

And I ask you please

Don’t judge this book by its cover.

The woes of pain have leveled me

I was temporarily withdrawn

But now I’m back, and stronger, and better,

And up here, there’s a whole lot of shit going on.

Contemplating the world around us,

Thoreau called it a “meteorological journey of the mind.”

With myself, I began to discuss,

And then rejoice at what I find.

The trees root deep.

Foreign labor works for cheap.

Technology takes a leap

While you and I are asleep

And myself, hatred emancipated,

Only love can remain.

I do not mind smiling at a stranger

Or labeling myself mundane.

I am made of the same elements

As celestial bodies in space.

Consumed plants, fruits and vegetables

Regenerate the cells of my face.

So much life exists below my feet,

That at times, it’s overwhelming.

The necessities and intricacies

Of every living thing.

I see the billions of years it took

For that beauty to evolve.

I would hate to

see that dissolve.

Within this world in rotation,

There is pain and devastation.

But if you handle the situation

Not with stimulation,

but education,

You may find the creation

Of a nation

Where no one but you

Listens to your telephone conversation.

So stop watching so much television

And listen to you teacher,

Because one day you might become

Just another forgotten creature.

Remember, aesthetics fade

Generation after generation,

But the beauty of this world

Lies in our co-habitation.

Matter Just Like Me

The animals and myself lie down on the Earth,

Our blankets; warmth pulled on by Earth’s gravitational impulse.

Snug upon my body.

All around me brush and earth.

Matter just like me.

The world consists of atoms clashing with other atoms.

Molecules with molecules.

Animals with animals.

Humans with humans.

Neighbors with neighbors.

Oh, this dire struggle!

This need to do what it takes to be the alpha,

I tell you

IT IS WHAT DRIVES MAN.

   If You Touch the Tips

If you touch the tips of this planet’s poles,

You’ll see a gradual change in the color of souls.

Skin color has evolved based on distance from the equator,

Why has this become our greatest degrader?

Is discrimination based on skin color

Not as silly as basing it on feet size?

Do not listen solely to others,

Look within yourself and realize.

That destruction of bias begins with communication.

Individual growth and self-revelation.

John Lennon once said

“You don’t need a sword to cut through flowers”

So let your love run free

And watch as hatred cowers.

My Experience

I

Am a pyramid

With a soul inside.

With chambers and places

My demons can hide. Experience

By experience, brick by brick, everyday

I grow a little more tall and thick. You try to

Find out who I am, and how I came to be, yet you

Laid the bricks yourself and altered the masonry.

Infinitely Accumulating.

Conscientiously duplicating.

These philosophies and ideologies,

Those qualities and follies.

You are like me.

You are a slave to build your own.

But with the help of those you experience it with,

Build while you still have breath in your lungs

And get all the help you can.

 The Sunrays

Do you ever really find yourself?

 I like to think of myself as a ball of clay.

 This fleshy, milky concoction,

Being molded by this ever-changing Earth.

Those living creatures living within

That living creature.

Constantly moving to keep itself alive.

Breathing.

Sighing when the sun sets

And breathing in

When that familiar warmth hits it.

But let’s get back to the question at hand:

If new cells are constantly being made and

You are continually being influenced by the bombardment of life and

With each new word I say, a new idea comes to mind.

A new picture?

A sensation…

Maybe a bit of your callous emotion?

Take my words for what they are:

Words.

Letters and sounds, conveying ideas to you

About who I am

When I don’t even really know.

When you bask in the glory of the sun the next time,

Think about how you are sharing that same sun

With the rocks on Mars,

The volcanoes of Jupiter,

The rings of Saturn,

The myriad of cellular diversity within this galaxy

Or, at least, within the length of the sun’s beautiful rays.

That factory of life.

Are the wombs of the worlds inside the sun?

Maybe if we look, we’ll find ourselves.

Tomorrow is a New Day

I look at your faces,

All sorts of races,

Comfortable in your places,

Full of hidden disgraces.

I speak now in America,

Self-proclaimed land of the free.

Where the statue of liberty welcomes you

To a land of opportunity.

But this little old dream

Is not all it’s cracked up to be.

In this land of milk and honey,

The only thing that matters is money.

With very little sense of community,

There is no unity.

When I see racism today,

It’s nothing new to me.

Blacks and whites,

Still tearing each other apart.

Do they not realize

That we’re from the same start?

Before you let your irate hate

Manifest to physical,

Know that it begins and ends

With the individual.

As you all leave this room

And go back and lay your head

Won’t you think about your ancestors

Who bled and lay dead

For this animosity

From which there is so much hypocrisy.

Within this democracy,

We should not accept mediocrity!

To quote Public Enemy:

“All I got is genes and chromosomes,

Consider me black to the bone.

All I want is peace and love on this planet,

Ain’t that how God planned it?”

Chuck C and Chuck D

We both understand it.

We both do not live in

Fear of a black planet.

We can make progress

Not by killing the Panthers or the Klan.

It’s as simple as saying

“Hey, what’s up man?”

Untrunked

This planet is moving.

Spinning and grooving.

Penetrating space,

With a blue and green face.

Making life possible.

Making death possible.

This cycle tends to repeat

Initiating life’s greatest feat.

Think small.

Real small.

And one day you will see.

That all we are is neutrons,

Electrons and protons.

All the same inside – You and me.

Our differences are physical,

Cultural and historical.

Though we are united by this chemistry.

The homeless, the disenfranchised,

And strangers among men,

Have the same human heritage,

Evolved to Homo sapiens.

At one time, we all looked the same

Then became more complex.

You share the same genetic code

With a dissimilar race and/or sex.

If you are a generator

Of hatred and bigotry:

Just remember that you

Are condemning your ancestry!

 The ABCs of Persistence

An alarm alerts awareness

By beautifully boasting

Caution! Corruption! Cheating!

Devious destruction does not deter doomsday devices.

Economies enslave ethical environmental evolution.

Fuck the future for freedom fleeting?

Greedy giants gobble global goods and

Have haphazard hospitality for humanity.

Imprudent ignorance is what interrupts intelligent individuals.

Judiciary justice is jostled.

Knowledge is kidnapped.

Love for living is luxuriously leveled.

Mother, maker of maleficent men,

Needs no more neglect. Now let’s

Ostracize ourselves from outlandish organizations and

Punish preachers praying for punches. We must

Quickly question

Rudimentary representatives reporting reality and

Start sending supplies to stop Sub-Saharan starvation.

Take time today to talk to trees.

Understand unnecessary universes.

Venture through various velocities and

Wonder why we wonder, if

Xenophobic

Yore is yonder? When you

Zip and zoom through Zeus’ Zenith,

                                                                                          I hope you hear his thunder.

 The Stranger

I don’t know who you are.

Where you’ve been.

What you’ve done.

But you look bored with life!

A collection of dulled stimuli.

I want to inquire about you.

Where you’ve been.

What you’ve done.

Because I’m just not bored with life,

It’s too unpredictable.

As you leave,

You notice my presence.

I can’t help but wonder

If you are thinking the same thing,

As you leave my life forever.

I guess you’re just another stranger.

 

 Is This Not A Bizarre Time To Live?

Anywhere on this planet,

In this age of technological advancement

And empirical enchantment.

The car replaces the horse,

Yet there is more hay than gasoline.

Consumption of the material thing

Has become the American dream.

Thinking By a Clean Stream

Sustainability is inevitability.

We must anticipate our human fragility.

Man is nature, nature is not man.

When you hold the Earth in your hand,

You’ll begin to understand.

Will the animation of our dreams

Cease

With the contamination of our streams?

You, as man, cannot own all of this

Because a submissive world cannot persist.

Take what you need, but leave some for tomorrow,

Know that the love that you show,

Is all you’ll ever owe.

 Starfire Lake

You raped this land

And failed to understand

That when you’re done with your plan,

You’ve left nothing for man.

The deafening of ears,

The shifting of eyes,

Consumption without compensation

Will accelerate our demise.

Your children shall inherit

Rock piles and filthy air.

Non-native creatures and

Forests left bare.

The problem is that you just don’t care

To look at what’s there.

All you care about is being a pompous millionaire.

The destruction of these mountains,

Dictated by the “elite”. I tell you,

These Kentucky coal fields

Would make Dante weep.

 A Plea

From all that I’ve seen,

And all that I know,

When there is no wild,

Where will wildlife go?

Man, please slow down.

You’re moving at a careless pace.

Exploitation of the elements

Will leave nothing of this place.

You’ve destroyed god

And you’ve spit in his face.

The story of our human race

Does not have to end in disgrace.

 Atop A Ridge

An ant on a fungus,

Coral fungus near a rock.

If we plague our forests and streams,

Populations will drop.

A wildflower needs

Somewhere wild to flower.

So small, so many,

So vast, so plenty,

Inhabiting this space

With a centuries-old face.

Everything slowly moves, even

This planet’s pulse and pace.

Flint Hill Cemetery

No graveyard for the mountains,

Only rubble of what was once.

Valid, living evidence

Of the insatiability of human wants.

Throw remorse out the window,

And forget about regret.

This is the murder of a mountain

For a big, fat check.

Flint Hill cemetery, Purgatory

For the living and the dead.

On one side, hills, rich with life.

On the other, consumption fed.

Politics and business,

Rich with lies and manipulations,

But indebted to the world you’ve left

For future generations.

 Wednesday Night Kentucky Rain

The rain pummels dry land.

Somewhere, and old man sings a song on his porch,

Wishing yesterdays were today.

Somewhere, melancholy in infectious.

Somewhere, birds are trying to find shelter,

                                      And getting wet.

Somewhere, someone is cold and hungry.

Somewhere, someone is destroying our world.

Somewhere, someone just doesn’t care anymore.

Everyone is somewhere, sometime or another.

 It’s What’s for Dinner

The consciousness of this life is

Ephemeral and temporary,

But resting on this planet,

My bones will, forever be.

My flesh,

Decaying to food,

Dinner for scavengers,

“It’s gruesome” some might say.

But it’s a cycle that’s essential,

Vital and instrumental,

And that very food will be

You and I someday.

 Earth: Vagina, Bearer of Life

Words cannot contain,

The magnitude of life.

Including Man’s triumphant matrimony with

Mother Earth, his wife.

His parents, the trees,

Provide most of his needs.

His grandparent, The Sun,

Takes heed to feed everyone.

His children, he has many,

They are wild, vast, and plenty,

But the arrogance they contain,

Will bring the fall of man, like rain.

No city, no clothes,

No culture, the wind blows.

No skin, no breath,

No bones, what’s left?

Just a naked, fat soul,

Living until tomorrows cease.

 The American Frankenstein

America, you gave birth to a madman,

Nepotism at it’s worst.

The son of a miserable ex-president,

Despotism’s rebirth.

George W. Bush,

With the good ol’ boys of greed,

Have sent men to their death

For a profit, without heed.

These egotistical, hypocritical,

Fictional criminals

Armed with scripts and shifty eyes

For every vice, a new disguise.

The condemnation and exploitation of a nation

Is called imperialism.

Turning this democracy into an aristocracy

And torturing men in foreign prisons.

With your henchmen,

You violated The Geneva Convention.

You ignored hurricane victims and desperate situations,

While simultaneous spitting in the face of the United Nations.

The poor are getting more poor,

While we spend millions each month, to finance a war.

This quixotic quarrel,

To quench a quack’s quaffing,

Is manipulating our beliefs

And poisoning our offspring.

You care less about those who struggle,

All you care about is yourself.

Please, President Bush,

Hand over The White House to someone else.

 An Incoming Storm

If you watch trees sway

In the whistling winds,

Swatting at flies,

Those unwanted friends.

But it’s their world too.

They’ve gotta do what they do.

Because a fly needs to eat

And something eats a fly.

An elaborate system

Of staying alive.

We depend on each other

To be the food of another.

If we-E-liminate

Pieces of the puzzle

By over-burning the oil

And, at the gas tank, we guzzle.

Don’t be lazy, friend, please, ride your bike.

Turn off your TV and take a hike.

Re-associate yourself

With the roots from which you grew.

Watch the storm crawl in

As the sky changes hue: dark blue.

A-Pitter, A-patter, the rain falls fierce,

A tasty treat for thirsty trees, so soothing, you’ll sleep for years!

Puddles form where they can

And ripples overlap.

As the lightning cracks the sky in half

And thunder moves to clap.

The dry earth is wet and replenished,

Then the cycle begins again, as soon as it’s finished.