All that is required Is your presence.
You are more than your form. Like whispers.
Be still into the graces of your treacherous journey.
Your vast ever changing landscape.
We breathe together connected by a thread unwanted.
A path of hot coals and lessons.
We get to see life as if only through the pane of a rear view mirror and crooked.
With our view cloaked and our road long we rise again and again into the rising sun.
Our pipes are cashed, but all that is required is our presence.

Subtitles    

I don’t doubt now that i have something to say, i just don’t think anyone is listening

I also don’t doubt that you have something to say, and I’m waiting

yeah, im not a singer

never have been, never will be

i don’t know why God didn’t give me that gift

it seems like it would’ve set me free

Yet I am left, here, like you

to watch memories pile up like bodies in

a genocide trench

only able to look with disbelief at what has happened here

no way to make it right

occassionally I look into the trench but mostly i stand shackled to it’s edge

looking out at the horizon where the reality of now isn’t a picture in my head

I am haunted by the permanance that seems to cradle my hurt

and evade me when wrapped around joy

im pissed off at everyone and all their theories

at this point don’t talk to me unless your God!

Cause Ive had enough of your world with a side of opinion and hold the truth

Bring me more than my blue jean day

then your activist way

I know about the toxins, the bleach

the whales that beach and all the dioxins

what about the racism and facism

the impingement on our civil liberties
the gassed freedom fighters giving up on peace treaties

WE the people make history coming together in the hundreds of thousands

liquidating our choice

for a cause-causing nausea and no veil to drop

the media insuring the mystery to farmer Bob and his rural mob

But all this is besides the point ……I’ve heard it

I know it and Im done

I’m done with the next level of I’m angry as hell and im hitting the streets for peace

im done arguing my political point to the single cell ameoba in suit and tie

over stir fry

unless it’s art its just parrot squack regurgitation

sitting on his own pile of shit

cause his cage hasn’t been changed in weeks or years

and when you don’t change the shit just gets higher and higher

maybe ill rise up on my own pile of shit and be able to touch the truth

or at least some of it

I could form my own delusional empire or, I could just set myself on fire

Think for yourself

Seriously

when your world is small, you get tunnel vision and set yourself on a tiny little mission

through the grid, through the maze

thinking you’re customizing your days,

but your days are falling off the factory line

suckin up your time

And now, your’e suckin up mine

But hey, what do i know?

More importantly ,do I want to grow?

or stay frozen in time in my own sillouette

lookin at the future’s stampede of regret

listen, thats not gonna work out for me

so if we could just go ahead and open my heart that would be great

i ended this years ago poem with an angry rant that does not now suit me

i am much less angry and looking for God

between the gap of how you see me and who i really am

for whats important , if anything really is

for meaning outside of institutions and in between thoughts

where the synapse of silence carries all the answers and the absence of answers

where i feel most whole for mere moments at a time

where i try to return again and again and resist being carried away by normalcy or even brilliance

because even in the most fulfilled moment of my waking life i am not content

Yet more and more I am filled with flashes of gratitude so great that i weep

with love that even a foreign film could not capture

even though it has subtitles and is smart

If only we could have subtitles under our days

they would carry us away like night because cancled out and contradicted

our lives would take flight.

A Poem by Lisa Sikes

Born out of a universal love, a time will come when
the future is
bright
When relaxing is a virtue, health is a prevalent
given, and people will

laugh for a living
The Spirit will be honored above all else and your
neighbors will be
your friends
Holding someone will be joyful and pain will cease to
exist
This is my prayer for our world
Be hopeful young children, we who love you are here;
and people still
care
All is not lost in this world as a tree is being
planted every day, and

for each tree a gardner is born
These gardens will flower into a oneness of earth and
time, yet space
will be no more
All that is wanted for will be had and peace will
abound
This is my prayer for our world

A Poem by Lisa Sikes

it could be today
that the life you dreamed brings tinkling frenzies
and bare naked ladies and you become as strong as the
giant who climbed mt vesuvius
you sit in your splendor and encourage the wonder of
others to
explode and live long in a veggie cafe
where bean balls and soup shine with
healing, and the kind we don’t need anymore
but take just in case

I’ll call you from my villa on some tropical isle
with sheer white fabric dancing in the wind and
I can see the sea straight through my tiki treasure
where all of me lives and dreams come true
I invite you for tea with me and the dream keeper
we will sip cups of steamy mystical wonder
and figure out ways to keep dancing monkeys from
pooping on the white island furniture…that is our
greatest concern…ahhhh
breath deep at the thought of that.
free in all ways, enlightened and all. I pause and
wonder what travel agency can book me a flight.

As my soul takes over I start to cry
everything is so deep and all of the time
I invite eleven wise men to the house of advice
Let go and know the magic
they speak to me in a crimson loud voice they want me
to hear
they rewind my life right in front of me and show me
all the times
they sprinkled me with giggles and soulful
serendipities
It moves me and I must know what I am here for
Please tell me, reveal the secret, open the sacred
gate
let me know

It became quiet and the Ivy grew
I awake floating on a lake with a blanket of fog
and my pillow of squirrels scurry away
thanking the nature I walk on water up to the shore
all of my cells talk to me and I know
A little magical curly haired girl runs up to me
with the moment in her hands and wants to tell me a
secret
she whispers to me my deepest desires
and dissapears into the forevermore with no promise of
tomorrow or returns
I sit with myself knowing more than before

You’ve been talking with the dream keeper for hours at
this point
as I return
you look wiser and are filled with joy
We all sit with the warm and fuzzys and speak with our
eyes
Its been a journey through the dryest of deserts where
the sand
burns our feet and the dust aims for our eyes
rescued by the rabbit hole that falls through the sky
we ended up here
you with your suitcase of support and encouraging
words
and me under an umbrella of promise and new things

A Poem by Lisa Sikes

What I Learned From My Social Work Degree

I learned how to play well with others, even, well especially, with the most difficult kids in the sand box

I’ve learned that there are a lot of people who want to make this world a better place; they just have different ways of doing it

I’ve learned that listening is usually a bigger gift than talking and that hearing someone is even better

I’ve learned that we all have a story to tell, and that sometimes being heard is all it takes to heal

I’ve learned that our own empowerment and personal growth is the soil in which the sweet fruits of helping others’ will flourish

I’ve learned that creating boundaries with doors that you can open and close are better than walls

And that sometimes the word “no” can be a complete sentence

I’ve learned that I’m not always right and that being right isn’t even that important!

I’ve learned there are more than six colors in the rainbow and they all just want to be loved

I’ve learned that diversity is what all human beings have in common

I’ve learned that Spirit led me into the best profession on earth, one whose “soul” purpose is service to others

I’ve learned that a t-shirt that says “been there, done that” will always outweigh a diploma

And that a life deeply touched is more powerful than an “A”

I’ve learned to suspend judgment, and to fill in the gap with compassion

I have learned that it is better to work toward social justice than to fight for it; because fighting is usually part of the problem

With that being said, I know there will always be times when standing up for justice will call the courageous to look fear and opposition directly in the eyes, and for those times social workers should remember to keep always our ringers on!

A Poem by Lisa Sikes

This poem is dedicated to the UNLV BSW class of 2009, to all of our professors, and to the clients we serve.

The flight of the message

Just in the delirium of a citrus night I naturally wonder about space and time

My creative heart throbs with chocolate wine

It cries out to the blind night of the world and loves open ears

I hone in astral creations that beg for expression and listen to the art of the ants

What could I possibly add to the complexity of your highest wishes

I am drunk and dancing in the music of my mind that sings out to similar souls

With the fears of my diminishing senses I deeply begin experience that matters

I hope for the souls I know and wish them a life that is worth it

I say things that can only come from the inhibition of headphones and heart

Blessings that are so salient breathe in front of faces that wish they had more

I link together my endings and beginnings and run through the revolving doors

Of predictable experiences

I haven’t been surprised in a while and that doesn’t surprise me

But your story has a twist I don’t yet know of and haven’t yet imagined

Today I became a magician that ruled the table of Bethlehem and prayed in a mosque

The upside down tomato trees hung from the heart of the deep-eyed woman who no one sees

She makes lovely a place of rest where the grapes glow with light and expectations are abandoned

The migration of the ravens painted the sky with an I told you so from the universe

And a point in the right direction

Their upward location aligned my spine with the sky

Clasped in their claws was a message in a bottle and the burden of their wings was like nothing ive seen

A stringless diorama with a message for the world I knew their wings would flap until it was ready to be heard

One bird stopped to sqwak and told me the truth

She said she was tired of her endless flight that started before stars

She knew she wasn’t supposed to and she looked around to see who was watching

After she told me I said I already knew

That I live on the razors edge and know that we came here to be who we already are

That in the spiritual eye lies a gateway in the shape of a star and that we are almost ready

She pressed her beak to my lips and my silence became our song

We shared in each other and felt the beginning of time run through our veins

We were both very tired and took comfort in our commiserated quarantine

As our time together came to an end she placed her weathered wing inside my hand

Looking in my eyes she unloaded her endlessness into my expansion and rejoined her flock

With a zest of newness under her wings she forged to the front of her flying friends

She had a message to deliver

When they asked her how she knew, she said, “a little person told me”

A Poem by Lisa Sikes

I live life in phases,

I like fresh starts

when i hold out my hand to the flapping mouth made circles out of

zimbabwe lampshades

and hold hand me downs on their land and their bodies

things get for a moment worse

god damn go away noise, and leave me in the shade

The masters came to tell me im awake, and i have to mop the floor

and that i also have to go to school on monday

Text books closed and sold back

the pen in my hand does all the talking

would whats inside of me be enough to forever fill my future with experience

could whats already in here churn out different events

forever

one after the other

other after the one

I want more choices

not one or the other, all or none

or even some

but a choice I have not yet understood and cannot now comprehend

that would twist my mind like roots of the general sherman tree

like the spiral shaped bacteria that has been killing me

it would send me south and keep me searching

but the answers would be in reach

and it wouldn’t be 2+2 or 3+1

which both equal 4, but you already knew that, it’s a common earthly fact

which is why it would not be in my new collection of choices

a toychest of mind treasures made deep by the sunken sea

our minds would make friends with the rest of ourselves and start sailing

we would leave gilligans isle, we would triumph over the others

we would not have a commune but a community

people would not have lives but would live lives

and america would not be free the whole world would be

so speak out your humble truth, but be ware it has side effects

law of unintended consequenses and 1st ammendment fences

I cannot say something that you don’t already know

because the law of limitless has passed its time in your soul

I should eat more fruit and swallow the pits

run down the halls of fame and recognize myself

when my chance to run wild was woven, when my glass was more than half full

when i smiled because i died and understood deeply that my rebirth was ahead of me

clear

and not like a class room hour

not like the lights that have nothing to do with the Sun

Or the buildings that hold us like cages

But more like when you hear the faithful tears and sweat that a poet has chosen

that bring you into a moment where they meet you in their voice

I want to be where doves fly

I want to know where they go between here and where they land

with white hearts they use their feathers to speak

I want to be the air that touches them

I want green leaves to grow on me and pull their pigment into my soul

I want to eat from the sun and leave the vegetables alone

when i counted down my top twenty songs I made a list that took back

everything

that wiped my slate clean and i became a mirror

when i stood in front of you you understood yourself

you saw your decline, and then i saw mine

you sunk like a soldier

you cried like you lost a child

you lost your body in the wind and smiled like vapor

You decided to let yourself go

but you didn’t gain weight

You grabbed your package of choices and opened them one by one

when you saw that your purpose was to know yourself

you knew for certain that love was on your side

when it hit you like fingers hitting the keys of an out of tune piano

you knew you were out of tune, you knew you had room to grow

with all of this you still had bills to pay, a child to feed, a job to hate, a car to wash, a tv program, dishes to do, people to hate, anxieties to have, doctors to see, opinions to uphold, and wars to wage

most of all you knew you still had the duty of growing old

just then you threw yourself onto an open flame and wallpapered the inside of your soul with posters from your teenage years to remind yourself that

you are this and you are that

That all the things you ever dreamed of doing when you were a child, you’ve already done

that happiness is temporary

that chocolate is good, and advertisement was the invention of evil

when all this became too heavy you set in on the golden arches of letting go

and no one said to you

deal or no deal,

your fired,

thats hot,

or final answer?

No one said pick it back up put in on your shoulders

it left you it was gone, and you were lighter

you held it like a weight lifter, you ran like a champ

you jumped like a child on the bed

you sang like a sparrow in an unpolluted world

and a second chance was what you now knew

you looked around at the empty emptiness and rolled around in space

you took your time

you had a nap

you laughed alot, and danced til it hurt

and you forgot i was watching

A Poem by Lisa Sikes