Religious Freedom

There was at one time

freedom to believe

before one perspective

was written down

Once things are written

you don't stand a chance

when some intense believer

will force your mind

Greetings from your god

come from your neighbor

who kills your new-mown grass

he holds quote signs

Better to lie down now

than fight your hard path

to the stake's barbecue

try a quick piss

Barry G. Wick

Shelf Life

These words have a shelf life

though they may never sit

on a shelf

Who knows what will happen

to the typeface of the language

in 500 years

If you can read this

then things are still okay

but there are changes today

The words may not mean

what they mean now

The environment may change

Chemicals in future brains

may see different colors

or no color at all

Poisons polluting the world

may get worse

and people will not be the same

These words may disappear

because they weren't saved

on acid free paper or liquid memories

Certainly these words will disappear

because they were saved

as quaint ones and zeros

The passion it took to create

this combination of words

will not be recreated in new people

Impermanence is the bane

of all writers and won't change

unless there may be no readers

Perhaps you are reading

every other word printed

on some new screen or direct input

There are more words here

than the ones you now read

because music was playing

In one thousand years

we may not have fingers

that once used pens and keyboards

Scoff if you will

the most important book

one day won't be a book

Everything will change

a hundred times over

and this may be the future's bible

Unlikely possibilities teach

impossibility to those

the future will think impure

That's enough for today

Don't look over your shoulder

Some things refuse to tap it

Barry G. Wick

Some Lessons

We have no choice

but to learn to be human

from other humans

If you've helped create children

let them be human

support their choices

and their discoveries

Dogs know how to love

unconditionally

Learn love from dogs

Cats understand independence

Learn independence from cats

Fish live much better

in clean water

Keep water clean for humans

and fish

Fish aren't happy in tanks

Don't make tanks for humans

or fish

any kind of tanks

Birds that soar

see the world from different heights

Climb mountains

Get high enough to see your world

It is hard to see birds in dirty air

Be sure to keep air clean for yourself

and birds

Waste little

Ever know a bird or a fish

to have piles of garbage

where no humans would live

no

Raccoons are picky eaters

There are few very fat raccoons

Let animals live where they belong

close zoos and places where animals

don't belong caged

The sun warms the earth

The wind moves large amounts of air

Water flows downhill

This is the energy to use for humanity

Plants and grass belong on roofs

Live underground under the grass

to save energy

live there first then be dead there

Healthy belief enriches and accepts life

Unhealthy belief causes wars and kills life

Gossip is a rope

that runs to

then ties up people

Cut the rope

Elect leaders not stallers

Allow criminals to be punished

not tortured

Treat them with kindness

while they are away from others

with whom they cannot play

Please and thank you

are magic words

keep them up your sleeve

to always appear

when in front of your audience

Everyone can make music

tap your feet loudly

whack a pot with a spoon

though quietly appreciate others

as they make their music

then cheer ecstatically

when they've finished

We can't live forever

that's why forever

can live with us now

Anything can be art

You won't like all art

You can thrill to some

Your prayer belongs

between you

and the intended deity

no matter how deaf it seems

Keep it to yourself

If you make a mistake

its your most valuable possession

because it will teach you

to never do it again

Let others judge you

They can sometimes be right

but keep your judgments of others

to yourself

Look often at stars

you will see your next life

and your children's children

somewhere above you

Barry G. Wick

An Old Story

My Aunt used to tell me

stories I had told her

about where I was

before I was born

The older I get the more

I seem to know that place

exists beyond time and space

a separate place for all

There we cross the bridges

we could not cross

in the life just finished

looking towards the life ahead

In all its glory perhaps

just a simple room

with someone to talk

about the mistakes we've made

It all seems a dream

pictures flash across the brain

of what it was like

and what it will be again

The next won't be different

because the soul sees

through the haze of dream

to learn the higher phase

Oh great universe let me step

beyond this pain to the new

through the silver door

that reflects where I am

Barry G. Wick

The Bright Star

Whichever star is closest to you

whether a foot or a lightyear

becomes the brightest star

so it must be with people

if this be the case

then no person will go without

children will have enough food

the elderly will live in comfort

the word fear will be banished

no one will be without love

for at any given moment

we are close to someone

if it be an inch or a thousand miles

in this land is music

where people dance the day

flowers will never be cut

rain will last just long enough

clouds will cool the dirt

where no rock has ever been

to cut a foot or break the plow

Barry G. Wick

For My Seasons

The earth suspended in space

tilted as it is

creates the variations

in parts of the year seasons

People create their own

progressive visions

often more than four

certainly more than ten

the direct shine of babies

unashamed of its breath

as the teachers will claim

that sin is in the first

a first look at another person

to know their difference

from fingers to feet

with taught skin or wrinkled

a knowledge of love

the depth of its pain and pleasure

as wide as a night sky

or as a rock freshly cracked

the inside and the outside of space

what is mine and yours

as if it somehow didn't belong

to the whole of burning leaves

the hair in a comb

some of them with color

a first day betrothed

or gray as skin in final stillness

these are offered as some

of a trip around the sun

measured and never the same

as leaves turn to earth

So many to glory in

as music winds it way

up the spine through skin

scintillating in a bold breeze

Barry G. Wick

The Appointment

I have made an appointment

to talk with myself

at a palace full of mirrors

The secretary ushers me in

to sit in the chair

where Buddha sat on the floor

The mirrors are ahead of me

but to the far left

are windows looking out

I am given the instructions

that I will be late

to this meeting for which I hoped

When I finally arrive

I have been thinking

about everything in my life

I tell myself that I must believe

in strange musical notes

that keep playing behind me

I lay flowers at my feet

that suddenly walk

in a circle around me

Under other circumstances

I would walking out

because the interview exhausts me

Over my left shoulder the windows

open by themselves

when the flowers tickle my toes

My feet begin to move me

into the morning light

where the music is loudest

Hold me close I demand

as the garden beckons

in a concerto of perfumes

A bell rings loudly three times

when Buddha breaks the chair

to the horror of the secretary

I float near the open window

expecting nothing less

the meeting ends abruptly

The floor meets my singing feet

when the answer flows

that I am not hired for this position

The interview did not go well

as I walk through music

grabbing notes to lessen my fall

Barry G. Wick

The Laughing Floor

You live on earth

in your comfort zone

because on earth

there is earth, air, fire and water

in one form or another

and every time you build

a floor

it laughs beneath you

eroded charcoal

in your drained lungs

irreplaceable

Your tongue turns

into a hardened lingam stone

upon which some may pour milk

you can not swallow

Appreciate the time

when you no longer exist

It was yesterday

It is tomorrow

Now is the time to laugh

at how you build a floor

everyday

always in the hope

of its lasting

when it is already gone

at the first nail

of the joke it tells

Barry G. Wick 2015

Inner Beauty

Page after page

of what photographers

believe is beauty

today's fearful face

is the tin can that waits

for the gun to go off

some epicanthic fold

a dimple on the chine

will attract the meat seekers

who will surround the subject

for a short twinkling

then off to another lad or lady

left-behinds

slide down the greased poll

of fame and beauty

as the symmetry begins

its inevitable sag

former beauty becomes

a beggar in the street

their eyebrows run away

clutching a nasal hand

that falls away

as next year's bullet

tears away the perfect abdomen

Narcissus clouds his mirror

with no face

Barry G. Wick

A PDF document on Dropbox...to a scanned poetry chapbook from 1973 by Barry G. Wick (writing as B. W. Soutar) and Don Stayner

Andy Warhol Advises ISIS

Oh, you're doing it all wrong

you only need one beheading

you take the picture

and repeat it over and over

Take the neck wound

use it to print

by dipping it in different colored paints

then onto the canvas

One canvas will be pastels

another canvas rainbow colors

another black and white

photograph the apostate

only once

his accepting face

his grimacing face

his dead face

his dripping wounds

his headless body

repeat these images over and over

By killing so many

you remove potential buyers

of this art from the market

and upset potential supporters

they will be grateful

so grateful they'll buy

the images you have to sell

you'll make lots of money

enough to buy

tanks and planes

so you can march into Rome

and plant your flag on the obelisk

in Vatican Square

on the Washington Monument

and the White House

Art galleries

will see you have talent

it may take a few years

just look what I did

with 32 soup cans

just one victim is necessary

to make millions for your caliphate

That's another idea

just take the word caliphate

and repeat it over and over and over

on a canvas

before you print that word

paint a color in the space

of that word then print

the word

print the word

using different colors

for each letter

It'll catch on

It'll be art

Instead of killing

cartoonists who make fun

of Mohamed

Use art to make fun of cartoonists

Show them having sex

with sheep and donkeys

Say, that would make a great

black and white movie

I have lots of friends

who will help you make

this film

We'll show it in Central Park

People will pay admission

on Pay-per-view

across the world

You can make cartoons of singing and dancing

lifeless heads

You'll make so much money

that you can build a mosque of gold

as the central image

of Caliphateland

Kiddies will ride little rolling carts

made to look like pigs

with the heads of bad world leaders

who are your enemies

Get someone to write

It's a Muslim World after all

the song will be infectious

repeat it over and over and over

and over and over and over

After dusk, jets will drop fireworks

above the crowds eating chickpea hotdogs

The children lick candy suckers

in the shape of the lifeless heads

Barry G. Wick