150TH BIRTHDAY LIMERICK
The Event
In October 2007 a number of Voice Dialogue teachers and friends gathered in Boulder to celebrate Hal’s 80th birthday and Sidra’s 70th birthday. I was honoured to be asked to write a theme poem, then Larry said, “But not a Limerick”.
The Limerick
There were two therapists from Thera
Who were so wise they would scare a ya
The were so darned smart
They could take you apart
And you couldn’t hide hide nor hair a ya
GRANDFATHER’S MOUSTACHE
The moustaches
of my grandfather and Carl Jung
(Twins separated at birth)
have lives of their own
Jung’s stays in Switzerland
combing the unconscious
My grandfather’s travels to Brazil and Canada
gathers rainforest moisture, dirty thirties dirt
and remnants of strong cheese and pipe smoke
(Carl’s certainly contains some of that too)
When grandfather sneezes, I get to share it all
CHAGALL
Chagall could fly in his paintings
but could not breathe in his house
If they’d had a good therapist
the world might be a poorer place
PSYCHOTHERAPY or A SIX YEAR OLD LEARNS ABOUT CLOCKS
The difficulty
in taking things apart to see why they tick
can often be
in putting them back together again
NEW TRIBES
From the old tribe of Isaac
and the old tribe of Ishmael
Israeli and Palestinian
couples and their children
come together by the sea and share
We are teaching the skills of listening
the skills of sharing and skills of hearing
The rules are simple
tell your truth as your truth only
Assume as you listen
that the person makes sense
If they do not seem to make sense
assume you need more information,
By the end of the weekend
the eight year olds are sleeping over
teenagers walk on the beach till dawn
A new tribe being formed
SACRED DANCE
The Bushmen of the Kalahari
dance all night in a circle
dance a calf-deep trench in the sand
In a circle around the circle
sit those in need of a healing
And because it is a sacred dance
any dancer at any time may step
out of the dance and do the healing
and then return to the dance again
Knowing without knowing
that everyone is a healer sometimes
everyone needs a healing sometimes
You just keep dancing
THE INNER CRITIC
Poor little Keystone Cop
(although often not so funny)
Leaping from shoulder to shoulder
trying so hard to keep us safe
yelling or whispering in each ear
the old rules based on fear
Telling us what we should have done
and what we should never do
Enforcing rules learned long ago
that may no longer be true
The voice of your mother, still
nags when your room’s not neat
The voice of your father
still wants you up at dawn
Your teacher and your coach
Your country and your culture
Your parents and your younger selves
with messages to keep you safe
The cop only knows what he used to know
and still does what he was told to do
You don’t have to destroy him
or shove him out the door
Just put your arm around him
and tell him you’re no longer four
MRE
(with Poe apology)
Quoth the Evangelist
mount up and ride
to hell with those
not on our side
Quoth the Relater
who are we with, who’s with us
we can’t leave anyone off the bus
Quoth the Maven
I need info, tell me more
Quoth the Evangelist
we can’t wait for you to stew
there are worlds to sae
and things to do
Quoth the Relater
alright, alright, I’ll go with you
but only if we save the people too
Quoth the Maven, mind the store
Quoth the Maven, mind the store
Based on three core types in
“The Human Fabric” by Bijoy Goswami
IQ
The front of your brain may have an IQ
of two hundred and twenty two
And you wonder why it isn’t there
whenever there’s a scare
But just try to remember
as soon as you get past the fear and pain
as soon as you can remember again
The IQ of the back of your brain
is one, and the survival
of the one
SHRINKING GOD
I am of course a little shy
to recommend that God
spend more quality time
on that big couch in the sky
But it appears he is showing of late
a tendency towards co-dependency
Telling everyone what they want to hear
and trying to keep every fanatic as a fan
as long as he can
Saying one thing one day to George
and the opposite the next to Saddam
disfunctionates the best of families
and has the world in a terrible jam
I’m not sure where he should go for advice
talking to yourself is not usually good
but sometimes the kids can help
So, if young Jung is around he might
do some work on those troubling dreams
or Siggy might be able to help with the
complexes and the coping schemes
So all I really want to say to the big guy
is there’s no shame in asking for help
and we’re all behind you, so please try