An example of my internal dialogues

Said Mrs. A to Mrs. B, “I wish but to live naturally.”

Said Mrs. B to Mrs. A, “Yet is there any other way?
As seasons come and seasons go, mankind’s condition morphs, you know.
But since it changes by our hand, it must be natural to withstand.”

Said Mrs. A to Mrs. B, “I see what you mean, obviously,
And acumen of human mind does give me leisure with my time.
But let me know if you agree: Invention breeds necessity.”

Said Mrs. B to Mrs. A, “I shall not throw my car away.”

“Neither would I,” said Mrs. A, “And this is what concerns me,
Fraying values, over-bloated needs, that scrape away propensity
To see interconnectedness, and give the greedy heart some rest.”

Said Mrs. B to Mrs. A, “A personal issue I’d say.
It’s just as natural to want rest as to want King Midas’s chest,
And if invention that incites, I join with Smith in my delight.”

Said Mrs. A to Mrs. B, “You don’t feel systematic need
To produce, publish endlessly? To make your Jack a Master She
And in so doing to neglect the simple things Forefathers bled
To secure for posterity—Redwoods, gulf streams for you and me?”

Said Mrs. B to Mrs. A, “Do you want cars or skies today?
In verity, you have your pick—contribute or rest as you wish.
Do keep in mind there’s no free lunch and hope your wants subside by much.”

Said Mrs. A to Mrs. B, “Maybe I don’t mean naturally.
In verity, I wish there were more balance in the universe
My afternoons spent catching fish, playing critic o’er evening’s dish,
But giving to society, developing holistically.”

Said one pragmatic Mrs. B. “Remember late 1980s?”
“It was a lovely fantasy, but didn’t work realistically,”

Said Mrs. A to Mrs. B, “But surely, that was too extreme.
Yet even if I had the chance, to leave behind dreams of success
For a life of simplicity, I don’t know if I could, Ms. B.
My brain’s has oxymorons packed—Driven eudaimonmaniac.”

Said Mrs. B to Mrs. A, “Please take that lesson home today,
This worrying will turn you gray, and at the end of it you’ll say
No matter how much time I thought, there was no proverb to be bought—
Unless you want to be a monk, there are no goddamn answers, punk.”

Okay, so maybe the last line doesn't quite fit the poem in style...

If God Spoke to Me

Prophets and preachers, attuned to the sounds of heaven, translate the voice of God to their flocks below.

But if God spoke to me, what would it say? In silence, I hear this:

“I am the Father of Abraham, the Mother of Isaac, and the earth that envelopes them all. I am the immutable laws of the universe and the chemicals bouncing in your brain. Those who invoke me and those who deny me all share in my being, for being is my nature.

People feel me in connections. Feel my energy in the pews of a church, listening to a sermon on the values of traditional marriage. Feel me in a Civil Rights rally, marching for the freedom to unify with the ones you love. Feel me in the mountains of Afghanistan, in the spirit of the warriors under Osama Bin Laden, fighting for a lifestyle, fighting for a life. Feel me in the sorrow of New York City on September 11, 2001. Feel me in the cry for assistance to Haiti, and in the energy of those who heed the call. I am. I am existence. I am the united. And my power grows with the numbers who join, joining me.

Fight me against me! You have, and you will continue to do so. And I will bolster your Churches, and I will fuel your Taliban, and I will inspire all who help those stricken by natural disaster, for unity does not exist without me. The more you unify, the more you know of me. Your laws, your rules, when used to separate, to segregate, to describe and prescribe a life, will each have a piece of me in their spheres of unity.

But take these segregationist rules away, find common ground, and two previously separate unities merge into one, and there I am in more fullness. You will feel me ever stronger, and you will look back and say, "This is a truer God, for it is a more complete God."

He who is without blame cast the first stone. He who is with blame, reach out and unify, and find me there.”

This is what God said to me.

What does your God say to you?

***DISCLAIMER***
I am afraid that this piece will anger many, many people, and maybe rightfully so, for I didn't clearly make known my views about God.
I should say that I don't believe in God, especially not a conscious God, but I FIRMLY believe in the religious experience. I let go of my idea of God when I was 15 years old, after I watched a video of thousands of people worshiping at the Ka'bah. I wondered to myself, if entire nations believe in their God as strongly as I believe in mine, how can I know which one is correct? The mere "feeling" of God doesn't do me any good as a measure.
And yet, I had felt it, so I empathize with the "Knowledge of God" that comes through gut, raw inuition.
So let's say that groups of people unify under similar experiences of God--or similar experiences of values, or similar experiences of conviction in the 'right' way of living. How can we measure which system of feeling is better than the next?
In my view, the systems that allow for the most freedom, the most love, the most acceptance and unity, are categorically better than those that prohibit freedom and acceptance. Why? Because when we look at what each religion or movement has in common, it is a sense of unity, of something greater than ourselves in which we play a part. And if that something can be made categorically larger by including more people, more walks of life, and still finding the unity within, that is a more comprehensive, greater unity than the one that preceeded it.
So No, I do not support the Taliban. I think their system is closed, critical and wrong. And No, I do not support churches that would deny people to marry the ones they love. But, I DO believe that people who participate in those systems feel God through a sense of unity In those systems. And I do believe that opening your system to more walks of life provides a greater sense of unity, and thus ultimately, a greater Feeling of God, whatever that may mean for the individual.