Some Kind of Wonder-full…

A Pledge of Allegiance

November 15, 2008 at 11:02 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments
Tags: Poems

Recently, whilst wandering around London, I came across the Poetry Cafe with my friend.  We descended down the stairs into a lovely cosy room, filled with sofa’s and poetry publications.  Whilst looking at these, we came across a poem by Ron Whitehead, ‘I Will Not Bow Down, America.’  So inspired by this work were we, that we wrote it down there and then.  We wondered to ourselves what we would refuse to bow down to, and what we would pledge allegiance to: in other words, what we are for and against.  Personally, I want to be ‘for’ things, not ‘against’ things: the world is not a perfect place, but, when we look carefully, I think the delicate joy is more resilient than the pain.  So this is my Pledge of Allegiance:

I pledge allegiance to Love

                        and to Something More . . .

            To goodness

                        which is itself so pure

            To innocence and to play

                        and to childlike exuberance

                        Every single day

            To Our Lady of Perpetual Astonishment₁:

                        an unholy disorder

            To magic moments and to synergy

            To walking hand in hand

                        with the man I adore

            To giving all I am

                        and not grabbing for more.

 

I pledge allegiance to my family         

                        and to children everywhere

            To generosity of spirit

                        and to wandering without care

            To dancing in the rain     

                        and making love in poppy fields

            To the moon and to the sea

                        and all the Beauty Nature yields

            To Slowness₂ and to savouring

                        and to cosy cups of tea

            To snuggling by the fireside

                        and getting drunk on whisky

            To music and to melody

                        and all you cannot see

            To singing round the piano

                        and being completely free.

 

I pledge allegiance to Shalom₃ and to Dharma₄:        

                        the Kingdom of God₅

            To mystery and to Silence₆

                        and the Journey₇ through the fog

            To the Inner Light₈, the Holy Spirit:

                        flowing river of Life₉

            To gentleness₁₀ and to courage₁₁

                        and to alleviating strife

            To humanity itself – each of us limitless₁₂

            To dinner with friends

                        to cooking, to baking

            To philosophical conversations

                        and to celebrating.

 

I pledge allegiance to the flowers that creep

                        through the cracks in the pavement

            To joy and to laughter

                        and to happily ever after

            To gentle affection₁₃

                        and love without words

            To tickling and belly buttons

                        and soaring like birds₁₄

            To sharing and fair exchanges:

                        the Economy of Favours

            To gradualism and tradition

                        to progressive and to Vision

            To my Body and my Intellect

                        walking free and owning no superior₁₅

            To my Soul, to thine own self be true₁₆

                        and all that Is₁₇ interior.

 

I pledge allegiance to You:

           

My spiritual ancestors

            And to my descendents

                        Procreated too.

 

 

Notes

 

1.         “I don’t know about you, but I practice a disorganized religion. I belong to an unholy disorder. We call ourselves “Our Lady of Perpetual Astonishment.”

From Kurt Vonnegut’s, ‘A Man Without A Country’

 

2.         ‘In Praise of Slow’, Carl Honore

 

3.         Jon Dorsett (Peace School), Noel Moules (Workshop)

 

4.         ‘We are grateful that we are endowed with our souls from Dharma…’

 

            Shorinji Kempo Dokun

           

5.         ‘The Kingdom of God is within [or among] you’

 

            Luke 17:21

 

6.         John Main – The World Community for Christian Meditation

            St Mark’s, Myddelton Square, London

 

7.         ‘The Alchemist’, Paulo Coelho

 

8.         ‘that of God in everyone’

 

            George Fox, Co-founder of the Society of Friends (Quakers)

 

9.            ‘Siddhartha’, Hermann Hesse

 

10.       ‘The way of gentleness will overcome’

 

            Tao Te Ching 78

 

11.       ‘Love without courage & wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member.
Courage without love & wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier.
Wisdom without love & courage is cowardice as with the ordinary intellectual.
But, the one who has love, courage & wisdom moves the world.’

 

            Ammon Hennacy

 

12.       ‘I say the whole earth n the stars in the sky are for religions sake,

each of us inevitable, each of us limitless –

each of us with his or her right upon the earth.

What do you suppose will satisfy the soul except to walk free and own no superior. I announce the great individual,

fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate, fully armed;

I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold.

And I announce an end that shall lightly and joyfully meet its translation.’

 

Walt Whitman

 

13.       ‘I Will Not Bow Down America’, Ron Whitehead

 

14.       ‘Those who wait on the Lord will soar on wings, as eagles’

            Isaiah 40:31

 

15.       See note 12

 

16.       ‘And this above all, unto thine own self be true’

 

            William Shakespeare

 

17.       ‘Let the battle cry ring forth

            We truly are forever going to be’

 

            ‘Beyond the Rainbow’, Christine Marion Fraser

 

 

 What about you?  What would you refuse to bow down to?  What would you pledge allegiance to?