Legal tender
A pound of flesh
Selling bodies
Reaping souls
Money’s counterfeit

Buying into the game
Gambling your name
Looking out
Looking in
Who made that window pane?

Given freedom to choose
With the sky as the limit
You hesitate and look back
Needing someone to give it

It was already yours
But you did not believe it
So you hired a master
Gave him power to lease it

Shylock
Loan shark
Bank’s got the lease
Life costs too much
Too little
No peace

Stick up
Shake down
Lean on garnish or tax
Filling pockets too fat
Believe in fear
Not the facts

It’s slavery
Grave robbery
Darwin’s legacy
Even dying ain’t free

Ad – dict - ed to
A perversion of life
In a barrel or box
Going over the falls
Only safe behind locks
Where’s your telephone call
There’ll be no recess today
That is all
That is all

Feet are chained, fall in line
Labor long, labor hard
Keeping busy and dizzy
Took your eyes off of God

Something for nothing ain’t
Worth as much as it seems
You are not getting over
You’re getting in deep

You’ll come up short
Weighed down in the red
It won’t kill you straight out
But you’ll wish you were dead

Hindsight from hell
With no one to warn
Because we’ve all heard the truth
All had lessons to learn

Some fight the good fight
To be sure, they are few
The rest are stuffed in a handbag
Like bruised spoiled fruit

For those who can see
For those who can hear
Pay attention
Understand
The reason you’re here

There are signs all around
The awakened mind
Let the world fall away
And be quiet sometimes

Remember, reflect
Meditate on the Truth
You are your own Bible
The message is you

If you need some assistance getting back to the Word
Just read your Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth

© 2007 Eric Nunnally

It is quite understandable that people are drawn to the flower
Not so quickly discovering its roots
Let alone examining the seed from whence it sprang

Likewise they tackle personal issues
Oftentimes dissuaded from the chore of turning over the soil of their discontent
By the untidy prospect of getting their hands dirty

In the event that one should inherit a garden of woes
Waking from a sleepwalking state during which they neglected themselves
Only semi-conscious of their identity, purpose or context of their being
The work before them often proves too daunting to undertake
And they bitter easily
Upset by any reminder of what needs to be done

When help offers itself, it is often scorned
An indicator of an impotence the challenged reject and accept at the same time
In such cases help must come prepared to fight and lose
For only in this self sacrifice will the lost find themselves
Thus do flowers bloom more gloriously
By the quality of their fertilizer

Should the overwhelmed humble themselves
And ask for help
Help will be hard to find in the mind that does not willingly offer it
The suffering will irritate their misidentified source of salvation
The impatience they receive will only nurture a false hope
Laying a blanket of prolonged dormancy
Further retarding Spring

Let the humble and the willing meet
Yet not just the willing but the inspired
And what once resembled a wasteland
Will be transformed into a garden of abundance

God’s glory shall be wonderful to behold
Love and truth united
In an exquisite blossom of life

Copyright © 2006 Eric Nunnally

We forget ourselves, wanting
Shocking, dangerous colors
Angry with what we
Don’t understand

Daring God with broken laughter
Eyes bleeding, begging
Desperately asking
Without words

Destructively calling art that violence
That soul weeping music
That precious blood
We spare so freely

Holding our breath to be
Invisible, ashamed of our impotence
Whining and shouting and cussing
Loudly
Like we can’t help ourselves

Beating ourselves up so bad
Hard headed
Unable to forgive
Ourselves

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we’re liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Something so sweet lives in me - has been in me
And now as I live to live to give life light
It oozes out of me
Like water from rivers unseen
From banks of mighty waters
Where life’s lines ripple above, over and against its motion
I stand and I kneel somewhere amidst stately carved mountains
Purposefully uneven in its carvings
and hollowed in the meaning of each frigid ridge are tender mercies of spring water . . .
Springing from a spring unseen
Yet its springing tells the story of its origin
-And the waters spring out
-And the waters spring out
-And the waters spring out

“Jesus, sweet Jesus!”
I stand
I kneel
I kneel
I kneel
And Kneel again
And the waters come oozing from My Mountain Spring
And I am drenched.

Copyright © 2006 Melanie Nunnally
Photograph can be found at the site of Erik Stensland

The distance of my life
can barely be measured in years
but now, in these final inches
a camera steals me away
even now
even in these final moments
to prostitute me in the afterlife

Copyright © 2006 Eric Nunnally

Kevin Carter was a South African photojournalist. The picture of the vulture stalking a starving girl is real and was taken in Sudan in 1993. He was awarded Pulitzer prize in May of 1994 for the picture. He received a lot of criticism for not doing anything to help the girl. No one knows what happened to her. Two months later he connected a hose to the exhaust pipe of his pickup truck and committed suicide.