Group 3

On a windy, cloudy day, walking on the beach I was the privileged observer of a natural commotion: Though the waves came towards the shore The winds sprayed water back to the ocean, One was moving forward, forging ahead The other contradicting in a backward motion. How could this be? Is this paradox? To have coexisting contradictory notion?

Two black birds on a park bench Amidst beauty, away from stench Side by side, one large one small One sitting still, one standing tall. In a moment, mother pecked her child Groomed her baby, gentle and mild Mother scratched her baby's back Motherly love, the lice attack. Sometime later mother found food Instinctively child understood Went to mother, cawing wild Mother silently fed her child. It's not only the swan or dove, Even black birds tenderly love. We, humankind, with arrogance Judge everything's appearance; We are unkind, everyone knows We call murder, a flock of crows.

It is not our loveless ways For which our soul dearly pays, But how lovelessness we praise. If only our hearts upraise We'll get through the loveless maze, In loving pastures lovingly graze. Loving hearts shine loving rays Our souls get through the misty haze, Ourselves and the world amaze.

My friend says judge ye not Is this his judgment, to what? I say we judge night and day This is our natural way Or is it better to say Nature's way we will sway. Mountain lion silently lay Judging which beast to prey And the eagle flying high On the games of earth and sky Surveying, keeping an eye Judging which must first die. My friend says others' way I don't understand and pray I judge not but then say I differ, what they may. I say this form, a subtle Judgment, I can tell Stems from a lofty hell Piously ringing a bell. For to be non-judgmental One should not judge at all My way or his way No matter what others say. Compassion and empathy Understand, feel, see Why they reach the point That they us disappoint And why in my mind To them I am unkind. And if I can expand And in their sphere land And see things from their eye I judge not, gently cry And with my best I try Guide them fly so high And if I really see I just let them be.

When most people think of God, I don't know why Are fearful, timid, bashful and shy We have perpetuated this big lie That when we think of God, we must cry. In the Garden of Eden, if we try We'll see angels laughing, smiling nigh, And even God almighty, most high Would let a joke or two slip by. In Eden God asked that trickster clown To tempt us unaware, and bring us down, It was all one big cosmic joke That the Serpent to Eve thus spoke, Then Eve convinced Adam with one stroke And both from paradisic dream awoke; And I bet the Almighty had a good laugh To see how seriously we take all this fluff And at the end we all go back in a puff And eventually see the joke in this stuff. Is it not better to laugh here and now With our divine essence connect somehow? I admire the wisdom of Bozo the Clown Who smiles even through his frown.