Am I dead or alive?

A old poem found. Written 1987.

                             Am I dead or alive?

Describe emotion.
Describe love.
Describe pain.

For every beautiful moment.
Must there be pain also?

For every gift of tenderness and love.
Must we repay it by hate and abuse?

Today my life is even.
All things in balance.

I know the sun will shine again.
The stars will appear in the evening sky.

What is life?
Are we here for any purpose?

Each life does it have any meaning?
Are we just cattle waiting to be slaughtered?

I wonder if being kind, honest is it worthwhile?
Sometime I feel the world is for the strong.

I hope the men and woman of peace are still somewhere.
I rarely hear their voices talking of peace and great dreams.

Where are the storytellers? Where are the lovers of peace gone?
The great people who fight for the weak and the poor?

Anger and pain have overtook my life.
Better to be strong and heartless then kind and foolish.

Am I afraid of tomorrow?
Will I have the energy to walk and survive in this world?

Will I smile?
Will I become the great liar?
Will I show emotion or fake tears to hide the coldness?

Today I like loneliness.
I walk the line of no decision.
Will I join the game?
Become tunnel vision for power and wealth?

Tomorrow the cries of the sick and the hungry may come to my ears.
Will I listen?

Will I become another monster.
Become a leader of control.
Show little emotion and allow the weak to fall to the roadside.

One day you may see me.
Standing above the poor and foolish.
 You may think you see a tear.
No tears in this heartless body.

For even the dreamer can give up.
When the world become to scary to fight back.

Becomes a robot of death.

Please children don't walk with me.
I'm the killer.
The supporter of the rich man.
The supporter of war for profit.

When you see me.
Don't say anything.
Your disappointment give me strength and power.

When I raise my hand to fight.
Walk away and pray for me.
Pray in hell I will find my peace.

Let me soak in the fear of you.
Knowing you have happiness and great dreams.
There is love in your life.

But my heart and mind will block the desire of love and peace.
No profit in peace.

I will be alone in death.
But for the children.
I hope.

I hope we learn to teach the children to love.
Color of skin doesn't matter.
To cry out for the poor is not a weakness.
Love is the greatest high.
Pain is the test of be alive.

Violence and war is the way to create wealth and expand hate.

The funniest part of living is  how to control our emotion.
We love so few in a life.
We have the ability to love so many more.
We should love  the earth, the children and the people.

Pain is the emotion we feel most.

We need to be like children.
Eyes of no fear.
Only the desire to learn and friendship.

The children see the world.
They feel the hate, fear and violence.
How can we teach love?

Our children become us in the future.
We need to teach them well.

Teach them all men and woman are equal.
Teach them to be kind and love/forgive.

Show them the good road.

A fool's wait for answers.
Time for the dreamers and lovers of peace to fight also.


War is not peace.
 War is the killing of human kindness.
                     Thank you
                       Coyote
                  22 May 1987

Author's Note

I believe this old poem have not lost it meaning in 23 years. Any errors. Please advice. I would appreciate.

Reviews

[little lily Bride of Ch..]

i love this poem Amazing work, i will say i will never allow the Goverment nore the world to Mold or change me only God Molds me For he is my only Maker the World would trick me with so much with so many lies now i pray for the fallen ones the lost and broken sad depressed ones ones that struggle ones that have lost kindness in there hearts cause of how ones treated them and they was never that way there is 3 ones like that in my family my real dad my maw maw in law and my step Grandma i don't allow what they say to hurt me so many are blind and allow the world to change them cause they think they have to be like them for them to accept them only one that can truly judge us is God.


life is a Huge Journey and Adventure for me weather it is painful and Happy life is always a lession leaning and Exploring life learning new things meeting new people tasting new foods understand a new language i love life and i love God and even if it's pain and Hard times thrown at me i will not fall down in Give up life is too short for that we only get one chance at life Enjoy the things we have and tell the ones you love how you feel never know they could be gone tomorrow today we never know then if we don't we didn't get to tell them and they won't know how we felt.




theres a Beautiful Rainbow after the pain but we must heal to become strong and still have a loving heart never give up stand tall and strong, and at times we must protect our hearts cause we are the only ones that can do that but look at pain in a postive way and learning from it no matter how paindful it is we can pass that wisdom on to our children and their childrens children.


For every beautiful moment.
Must there be pain also?





this is some thing i teach my son respect love honor and treat others as he wants to be treated with respect and to walk away from the ones that show no respect specially if it wasn't his falt in the first place and that we are equal no matter our skin color.

I hope we learn to teach the children to love.
Color of skin doesn't matter.


this is my favorite line and to tell you the truth thats how i see with my heart the pureness of my heart.

We need to be like children.
Eyes of no fear.
Only the desire to learn and friendship.

[Coyote Poetry]

Thank you for reading and I agree. we must teach the children well. To love nature and to be kind.

[Stella Armour]

The dreamers do often give up John ... but not for long, most have gentle hearts that forgive the hurt and get up to try again.

sometimes we have to experience the bad to recognize the good , nothing should ever come easy... we must learn that life is a journey that we share with others and we have to help each other along sometimes , just we need help to carry on.

No-one is born bad ....

[Coyote Poetry]

I agree Stella and thank you for reading and the comment.

[Kathy Van Kurin]

'Am I dead or alive"
Coyote Poetry,
This piece of writing comes from the core, from your soul. Humanity needs to be like this..to question from an inner place in quietness and not hide. This world is where life happens and mistakes and awful things are done but to we must keep our heads up. looking up and out. Little ones don't miss a thing. Start where we are and move forward. I really believe that no one life is without merit.
Your writing is needed. Keep speaking and sharing.
Blessings,
Kathy

[Coyote Poetry]

Thank you Kathy. I appreciate your kind words. In a day of life. I never hear the word peace spoke. This is sad. Just walls, war and cold men talking. Every life had value.

[Kathy Van Kurin]

I think that we need to really watch our hearts and be aware that we may forget what peace even is. I agree to that walls are not a way to find a solution inter personally or on a local, or national or personal level. Transparency is a start but it needs to be done with tact. Thanks again.

[Ted Kniffen]

John, this is as relevant to-day as it would have been in the sixties. As young people we question ourselves and hope that we will become 'good' people. Most of the time we are, but there is always that one moment.
As our friend Edwin Starr said,' war, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. There are one or two things with punctuation and spelling, but it doesn't detract from a good poem. Good write.

[Coyote Poetry]

A old one. Need a edit and thank you Ted for reading and the comment. World had been struggling for a long time. I hope I know a time of peace before I go.

[Ted Kniffen]

There have been too few of those.

[Valentine]

No one has a life that is not filled with joy and also much sorrow. Valentine

[Coyote Poetry]

We shall know both. Thank you dear friend for reading and the comment. I do appreciate.

[Dana Kathryn]

I feel all of what you have written very deeply.. i am very passionate about this write.. we can only hope and pray for the best..i long to feel and see as a child again..i WILL and am teaching my Beautiful daughter all i can..Love is what saves us..

[AK]

Wow! It's beautifully thought provoking. So philosophical, so true, it got me thinking of what I should have thought about, of what I'd really been doing even though thirteen years of my life had past. Really really nice, Mr. Coyote!

[Irfan Bashir Shah]

wOw! mesmerizing it was....

[A Soap Mess Stories]

Beautiful...

[Maggie]

This goes in my library. It's beautiful.