Community Outreach -The Public is the Number One Enemy

“Beauty and the Beast” – Wilkinsburg, PA

The following poem was written about one year ago… It was written during an event that occurred on my street in Wilkinsburg… This event was the ultimate reason my wife and I decided to move out of Wilkinsburg… CBS WTAE – The following poem is dedicated to the memory of Bruce Kelly Jr. – I do not believe he deserved to die… I think it is sad that 24 highly trained police officers could not subdue a drunk man with a knife…

I am scared… Scared of the community I live in…

Not for the crime… The thugs drugs or gangs…
Not for the fact that a black bandana hangs…
Off the face of a young man… Inner city common unity…
The colors of my neighborhood… A forgotten community…

I dream of death and destruction… I dream of violent scenes…
Gun shots and crack rocks are the subject of ghetto dreams…
Abandoned homes like leaning gravestones… Waiting to be sold…
Outnumbering the homeless who are sleeping in the cold…

I am scared of a thin blue line… Thugs with authority…
Thugs that hate the general public and are willing to kill a minority…
Urban blight is a product of officially shunning gumption……
The goal is to board up enough to dilute the real corruption…

We are all enemies of the state… We are on the wrong side of the line…
We all share in the fact that our lives are worth less than a k9…
The first amendment is a joke… We only have rights in silence…
To open your mouth is nothing more than an invite to violence…

Police station threshold is where the daily war begins…
Inside the temple the soldiers discuss their win… The war against us…
The war against the general public… Public enemy number one…
Your money paid for the bullet that killed you… It even paid for the gun…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

 

“Green Fields” – The Barn at Soergel Hollow – Evans City, PA – This photograph was taken the week my wife and I were watching our friends farm… It was also the week we decided to get married… Also the place where we got married…

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Into The Morning Blue

“Morning Blue” – © chriscondello 2013 – Jeanette Street – Wilkinsburg, PA

Morning clouds white like cotton…
Clematis smells of sweet autumn…
Signs of summers impending end…
Fall is right around the bend…

Goldenrod compliments blue aster…
Evenings are coming even faster…
Soon the leaves will feed the earth…
Storing life for springs rebirth…

Sapphire blue is the morning sky…
Rain drops and the mourning doves cry…
Today I will work… Love and pray…
Thanking God for another day…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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The Black Sheep

“Black Shroom” – © chriscondello 2013 – Keystone State Park, PA – I know… It’s not a black sheep… But it is a black mushroom… Guarding its pasture of moss… Waiting…

Green thumbed vagabond… I am the black sheep…
Writing this poem while the rest of the world sleeps…
No clue where I’m going… Only goals and dreams…
At one time my thoughts were nothing more than schemes…
I opened my mind… Opened my broken soul…
Told the gate keeper to go fuck his toll…
I’m completely prepared to storm the walls…
I’ll only stop when the empire falls…

Peace will one day be the law of the land…
Nature will be on the same level as man…
We will no longer harvest her organs and blood…
Stop trying to control the necessary floods…
When we talk about peace… We forget about the earth…
We are essentially at war with the place of our birth…
Actions on one land… Can affect the next…
A fact that leaves people completely perplexed…

I am a black sheep… I lay out my sin…
I have yet to find a place I feel I fit in…
Not smart enough for the non-profits… Prophets a joke…
If I had the authority… Their balls I’d revoke…
I don’t have a resume… That’s why I write this blog…
Hoping one day it will get me through the fog…
And give me a reason to live… Ground to stand…
Hold my head up high… Because I did something grand…

Maybe sell a few photos… Make a living from this work…
Finally see something that could be considered a perk…
I know that this black sheep is on the right grass…
Perfectly acceptant of my place in the lower class…
But not afraid of the call if it comes… They’ll find…
Upper middle class dreams in a poor mans mind…
But what this poor boy lacks in the girth of his fold…
I make up in spirit… Worth my weight in gold…

plant black petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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I have photographic prints available to purchase online… You can find them here – www.society6.com/chriscondello –  It is by no means a requirement… But it helps… If you have a few minutes to check them out… Please do…

Residual Energy – Abandoned Hopes

Bright orange full moon… Summer evening… Month of June… Dreaming… Silently still cool air… Compliments the concrete… Beneath my bare feet… Warmth… Radiating energy… Memories… Whispers of the sunlight… Memories of the day… Residual heat in a thermal display… The air tonight is incredibly fresh… Gravel footsteps… Barking dogs… And the laughing of crazy ladies… The cry of the upstairs baby…

Sleep eludes me… Watching the moon… Watching the scavenging momma raccoon… Babies number three… Eight beady eyes… Digging for a garbage can surprise… This evening is too perfect to rest… Abandoned houses… Quiet… Secure… Make great neighbors… Quiet… For sure… Silence is relative… Beauty is what you see… Art is whatever the fuck the artist says it is… Expression of ones surroundings is paramount… Regardless of where you may be…

I see photographs from world travelers… Places I’ll never be… Sights I’ll never see… At least I’ll see it through your eyes… But for now I’ll stick to the ghetto sunrise… I’m happy here… I find inspiration here… I write this poem from the energy that was… It surrounds me… Abandoned homes… Abandoned dreams… The energy surrounding me practically screams… Heroin numbed me… But now I’m free… Awake to the energy… Constantly…

Cold grass contrasts the warm cement… Floating across a sea of green… Surrounded by cement… A constant feature… Impervious to rain… Feels no pain… But tonight it’s bleeding warmth… Energy from a beautiful day… A day we were both alive… Midnight… Cool air… Sounds of air conditioners… Sirens Blare… Beautiful silence… Police cars window light… Blinding in the night… Watching me in my pajamas… If only he knew… I was sharing this with you… Maybe he would just move on…

…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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There Is No Scale For Beauty

“Stuck in the Middle with Blue” – © chriscondello 2013 – Wilkinsburg, PA – There is no scale for beauty… If you took a Van Gogh painting and asked a group of school kids to recreate it using the exact same materials… Although you and I would recognize a difference… A scientist would say that they are exactly the same…

I once was in a meeting with 30 of my peers… Mostly good people with good intentions… They were openly picking my brain to see what makes me tick… Why I was a gardener?.. Why I live in Wilkinsburg?.. As far as I could tell… They just wanted to know why I was sitting at their table…

At some point in my introduction, my blog was brought up. I have to admit that I am not very confident in my writing, my hesitation to openly talk about it was immediately obvious to the other people at the table…

So once again I had to answer the question why… Why was I hesitant to divulge the web address to my blog. I can think of a million reasons, but the answer I gave was rather simple. I explained that I had only begun to write 2 years ago, and that I had only really started learning how to spell properly within the past year… Not to mention not having any knowledge of grammar… Or a relative grasp on the English language…

So… The room erupted in laughter… They almost couldn’t contain themselves… They had absolutely no clue that I was dead serious… I have to admit… This was a painful and embarrassing moment… I am often reminded how different I am… But laughter doesn’t typically accompany the reminder… I’m not sure how they would have reacted if they knew how I felt in that moment… It’s making my stomach hurt just thinking about it…

Now I obviously knew that only two or three people at the table had any clue about my past… And given the type of meeting it was… Well… I probably had no business sitting at that table anyways… I guess that’s what makes this journey fun for me… Yeah… They hurt my feelings… And their toilet paper probably costs more money than I will ever see in my entire life…  But we do have one thing in common… Something that I’m actually pretty good at too… Gardening… Gardening always ends up being my equalizer… On some level… Everyone is interested in gardening…

I spent a third of my life trying to kill myself by euphoria… I came close… But I was ultimately unsuccessful… I’m convinced it had to be for a reason… And for that reason alone… I garden…

Gardening brought beauty into my ugly life… I write about it to help you bring beauty into yours… It may just save your life someday…

The only garden yield that matters to me anymore is peace… Peace for the earth… Peace for the animals… Peace for you… And ultimately… Peace for me… That my friends… Is beauty…

peace – chriscondello

This was originally intended to be a Practical Permaculture article… That didn’t go so well… So you got this… I hope you enjoyed my little sidetrack…

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