13 1/2 – Another Star Falls

“Sunshine and the Solstice” – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – The first glimmer of sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day… Winter Solstice… It wont be long now before Spring awakens…

This has been sitting in my notebook for a few weeks now… I revisit it every few days… I considered not publishing it due to language concerns… But the more I read it… Well… The more I like it…

Another star falls…
Falls from the flag and crashes into the earth…
Missouri burning… Misery ends with a peaceful ideas birth…

Before we can think we take off and run…
Just us… The cops… God and a gun…
Under a blood-red sky we bolt to the east…
Anyone who runs is considered a beast…

We are all thought of as the general public…
One god… One judge… Twelve jurors… Fuck it…
We are all considered public enemy number one…
Freedom is relative… Freedoms price is a gun…

Another man falls…
Falls from the throne and crashes into the streets…
Missouri’s heart is beating… Misery ends in mental defeat…

Riot in the city against the military machine…
Soon a tax-funded rain will scrub the streets clean…
Riots or looting… It doesn’t matter what you call it…
The only thing that matters is if you vote with your wallet…

Keep your nose clean… Keep your mind wide open…
Keep away from those who never stop coping…
13 1/2… That’s one judge… Twelve members of the jury…
And the half percent chance of walking free without a worry…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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Contemplation

“Aster on Goldenrod” – Soergel Orchards – Wexford, PA

Everyday I contemplate suicide…

Genocide… Elimination of a people…
Elimination of those born under the church and steeple…
I was born a lamb… Meaning born under god…
Our entire culture is nothing more than a fraud…

Belief is a product of the depths of imagination…
Evolution is natures response to societal regeneration…
Population booms will guarantee catastrophic loss…
Nothing can save us… Not even the cross…

I have faith… My faith is rooted in nature…
The herbs will heal me… The trees are my savior…
Ashes become ashes… Dust becomes dust…
Nature is the only god I can openly trust…

Follow the moon to the earths distant edge…
Sail the rivers through the channels we dredge…
At the end of the sky sits a savior numbered one…
Sing praises to the stars and worship the sun…

Today is my 2 year anniversary of blogging on wordpress… I wanted to take a second to thank all of the readers that give me the inspiration to continue writing… So… Thank you… Just knowing that a few people enjoy my blog has been mind-blowing… Your comments regularly make me digitally blush… Even the occasional negative comment inspires me to keep on going… So as I celebrate 2 years… I thank you… You are the reason I am still here…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

“Butterfly on Aster” – Whitney Avenue – Wilkinsburg, PA

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Photographic Confessions – Observation and Spring

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plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

My God

“Grin” – Hamnett Place Park and Ride – Wilkinsburg, PA – This computer is on the fast track to taking a big ol’ shit in the bed… I’m working on the funds to replace and upgrade… Please bear with me as I whore myself out like a cheap prostitute to make this happen… Should only be a couple weeks…

 

Three abandoned houses lined up in a row…
Oh how the mighty have fallen…
Nothing we create is infinite…
Everything we destroy is wasted…
We are all wasted… We are all crops…
We grow in a field sprayed by Monsanto cops…
We are all GMO’s…

Government Modified People…

We work in labor camps for the better part of 60 years…

They tell us to have babies… Why?.. More money…
Tell us to work hard… Why?.. More money…
Tell you and I we need to serve our country… Why?.. We don’t…
We are all children of this earth…
We are born of it… And we will die back into it…
Jesus.. God… The Earth… Or just little old me?..
Is God even something we were meant to see?..

For me… I have had way too many of those… Moments…
Moments when I know I’m not alone…
Moments when I need to talk… But no ones on the phone…
Moments when I am ready to give up… Throw in the towel…
Step out of bounds instead of put up with the foul…

There has to be someone… Something divine…
Maybe its the sun through the cloudy spring shine…

Either way… I choose to believe… And I believe in my own thing…

My God is not necessarily a guy…
My God is not afraid to tell a lie…
My God would never turn his back…
My God would always have my back…
My God would kick the shit out of your God…
The Living shit I tell you…

I’m not sure how I can emphasize this any more

“MY GOD WOULD KICK THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF YOUR GOD!”

Why?.. Because there is room in this world for more than one God…
There is room on this planet for more than one opinion…

Any religion that claims to be the one… Is not the one for me…
Most religions won’t let you be what you want to be…
I am of the earth… And someday… I hope to return…
But not in a coffin… Not cased in cement…
To me… That is hell… That is not what was intended…
We were meant to return to the soil…
Ashes to ashes… Dust to dust…
We are all little pieces of planet Earths crust…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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Reflections of the Past – Money or Freedom

“The First Rays of Sunlight” – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – Cairn of stacked stones on Nine Mile Run… I like building these stacks because they require me to zone out… To me… This is meditation… I can’t wait for it to warm up enough for me to return… Maybe then my positive poetry will again outnumber the negative…

The following poem contains a bit of vulgar language… If there is even a slight chance that will offend you… Move along… This poem is not for you…

We are reflections of those we have met in the past…
We are nothing more than mirrors…
We are love… We are hate…
We get classified based on our mental state…
Classification is the mark of the beast…
Governments say comply while they fucking feast…
Non-profits say give while they get retreats…
Take massive pay checks while volunteers clean the streets…
There has to be a better way than this…
Drug abuse is rampant the streets are filled with whores…
Bad people rule the world while the good people are poor…
People stand in line with signs fighting over church and state…
Border walls answer the call for someone to segregate…
Why do we let others choose our fate… Why do I…
Why can I not let my baggage go…
Why do I not feel worthy…
Why do I feel my past classifies me as worthless…
Because it does…
So fuck your classification system…
Fuck your records and your tools…
My life goal is to make the doubters look like complete and total fools…
I will make you tools because I have no other option…
History so bad the background check cautions…
So I’ll have to make my own way…
A green thumbed vagabond… You have no idea…
Look up fucked up that’s me in the encyclopedia…
Thank god for art… Thank god for poetry…
Thank god for the possibility of a god…
Thank god that we can be…
Anything we want to be…
As long as we pay taxes on our property…
Not to mention a flawless history…
The secret to anonymity is now but a mystery…
We are all marked… We stand in line…
Comply unconditionally or pay the fine…
Monetary loss or loss of freedom…
Then add-on charges if we try to impede them…
We are nothing more than products on the grocery store shelf…
We are products trained to work…
We work hard so more hard work is expected…
And then we work some more…
We work to afford these modern conveniences…
We have replaced life with labor…
Experience with degrees…
Reality with… Whatever you call this…
This joke we think is normal…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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Ashes to Ashes – In God I Trust

“Ashes to Ashes” – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA – Summer 2013

Set out across the winter landscape…
Among the skeletons of sleeping trees…
Gracefully striding in leaps and bounds…
Silent night among the sleepy sounds…

Steady mind for the journey ahead…
Better things to do than lay in bed…
The evening shadows creep and crawl…
Occasional bursts of white snowfall…

Grace the path to promised lands…
Take a breath and raise your hands…
Heaven is the land in front of our eyes…
Expect the unexpected occasional surprise…

To creep on up when you think your down…
Raindrop flood and we eventually drown…
These same drops make my garden grow…
Combine with sun to get a full rainbow…

“Dust to Dust” – Tennis Way – Wilkinsburg, PA – Fall 2013

Another week back to the steady grind…
Take a day off and see what you find…
Works not meant to consume our life…
Shouldn’t be the object of constant strife…

The days get shorter than the night is long…
A lack of birds means a lack of song…
Too many clothes to feel the cold air…
Not enough sunlight to really even care…

Waiting for spring so my gardens grow…
Flowers bloom and sunshine flows…
With our hands we draw and render…
Garden dreams and paradise splendor…

Heaven is a garden on physical land…
Sown in our minds but created by hand…
Ashes to ashes and dust to dust…
God and nature are the only things I trust…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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5 AM and All is Well…

“5 AM” – © chriscondello 2013 – Keystone State Park, PA

Awake before the mourning doves…
It’s 5 AM and all is well…
No one else but you and I…
It’s 5 AM and all is well…

Sitting quietly… Blue Heron Flying…
Fish are biting… Ducks are crying…
Nothing in the world like comfortable silence…
We quietly pray to nature for guidance…

Red sun rising over a mountain facade…
A scene reminiscent of a painting by God…
This morning we pray to the heavenly sky…
To our surprise we saw Gods reply…

No one else but you and I…
It’s 5 AM and all is well…
Awake before the mourning doves…
It’s 5 AM and all is well…

“All is Well” – © chriscondello 2013 – Keystone State Park, PA
I have prints available to purchase here – http://www.society6.com/chriscondello – Or you can contact me directly at c.condello@hotmail.com for commissions or locally/personally produced prints…

plant petunias and question everything – chriscondello

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Garden Prayer #2

“Dutchman’s Breeches” – Dicentra cucullaria – Frick Park – Pittsburgh, PA

God bless the earth we walk on…
Bless the plants and the trees…
Take care of our flowers…
That attract the bees…

Put a shovel in the soil…
And our hands in the ground…
While we listen to the birds…
Sing magnificent sounds…

The air around us is fresh…
And the breeze is warm…
A sure sign of spring…
When honeybees swarm…

They visit your flowers…
Then they’ll come to mine…
Reminding us that…
Everything will be just fine…

peace – chriscondello

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An Evolution Manifesto

So man made bullets… Then who put your name on it?.. God?.. Buddha?.. Natural selection?.. And if something like life can be so great… Why is it so short?.. I find solace in nature… No being controls my life… No one thing… Just me… Fighting natural selection… Fighting your God… Fighting your Buddha… Fighting with me…

Who chooses who lives and dies?.. God?.. Man?.. Nature?.. All of the above?.. Or are they all just easier to relate when we attribute them to a higher power?..  I often wonder if religion is just an ages old method of making people be good… If you are good you will go to heaven… If you are bad you will get poked by red guys with pitchforks… While you burn in a pit of sulfur… Genius…

I would rather believe nature chooses… Natural selection… Only the strong survive… I find it logical… And I find it reasonable… But they are both only theories… Evolution… Creation… Neither has been proven… The big bang and creation seem similar to me… Who cares… Means nothing to me… Right here… Right now… What I immediately see…

People are hungry… People are cold… People are desperately breaking the mold… Small people do great things… Put them together nature sings… Sings a song for you and me… Sings a song from land and sea…

Life is so short… But can be so profound… Change one… Change a million… Makes no difference… Just make a difference…

making a difference in one persons life is saving the world – chriscondello

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