"Awakening"

by:Scot A. Westlake (Black Horse) 12/15/96

No one warned me that if I turned the tap,

that it might in my fingers snap.

No way once on, to be turned off,

or just how much this flood might cost.

And what I found was never lost.

Just buried deep within.

It's strange the way some words ring true,

the brain forgets what the heart always knew.

Neither words, nor paint, can describe true revalation,

Yet it's in each breath and exalation.

It twinkles just beyond our reach,

it can't be taught, or bought, or even preached.

It sings to each soul a different song,

and when it's heard it's never wrong.

And now for me broken tap in hand,

This flood I'm drowning to understand.

Caught in it's marvelous undertoe,

I will float to where I am to go.

Great Spirit add to this flood your thunderous rain,

and quicken my corse to what lies downstream.

"Progress Is Man's Degress"

by Scot A. Westlake 4/15/92

A tremendous fueror is this worlds hum,

yet it's from simpler things we come.

The smoke and ash produced by greed,

all in pursuit of our "civilized" need.

We look to the future to hold us fast,

while we dump our garbage and cover our past.

We are what we've been for thousands of years,

yet I still hear in my soul a distant drum.

The very heartbeat of man in praize to the sun.

The giver of of life, we the children of earth,

have raped and scared her for finanial worth.

The indifferent heel of our modern new age,

crushes the truth from the past, and ignores the sage.

If all that is now came to crumble and fall,

leaving no trace not one standing wall,

then the earth would take over and cover mans tracks,

and leave only nature to show the way back.

Then once again the drum beats would sound,

and man would sing praizes to earths sacred ground.

And to every child the truth would be told,

that what cannot be owned can never be sold.

From nature itself would come mans final test,

to take what is needed, and with love leave the rest.

For mans only needs are enough rice in a bowl,

and enough wisdom, love, and truth to nurish his soul.

"Or So I've Been Told"

(So It Must Be So)

by Scot A. Westlake 6/30/90

I have no pride; or so I've been told

as I have asked for money for my family.

I have no faith;.....

for I have doubted.

I possess no strength;.....

as I have had weaknesses.

My heart does not feel or know love;.....

For I have at times been selfish.

I have no potential;.....

as I have not yet achieved it.

I have no hope;.....

for I have had failure.

I have no goals;.....

because I have not attained them.

I have no dreams;.....

as I have not expressed them.

I have no honesty;.....

for I have hidden the truth before.

So many arrows have flown

from these mouths of detractors.

And how merry they have been

to set them flying.

To see them hit their mark

and wound me.

For they dare not wound themselves.

But I have no virgin skin.

No place upon my body

has not felt these arrows sting.

My flesh is canvess for the art of scars,

but has been filled long ago.

And the scars are strong and burled,

arrows can no longer penetrate.

And I have only thanks for this lifelong assault.

For they have made me stronger.

So I can say,

Send your arrows to fall at my feet.

Some darkened winter night I may need them.

I have not the heart to kill a tree,

and may have need for firewood.