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.

[Tapsi]

an undeniable and an invincible truth you portray there....extemely good, like always :)

[Zeitgeist Manifesto]

Your words are profound.

This work is a scream of sobriety in a world of insanity.
100(+1)

[River Wilson]

Wow you really took me on a mind journey there.
There is nothing to say about this but, this should be published.
You are a philosopher my friend, a deep thinking...we should all be able to think like this.

[Bud]

The beginning lines of this poem seem to be the foundation of the whole. And an unwanted answer to your question " For every beautiful moment.
Must there be pain also? " is simply, yes. Would we ever appreciate love without any pains? To me it seems that is what is meant to be. For I have yet to see a moment that pain didn't accompany the loving moment. I suppose that maybe how the old saying, " All good things must come to an end. " was birthed? All we can do is continue to hope, and continue to search for that moment with no pains...
As always, your work is Excellent and Outstanding. Always to leave one with many thoughts to ponder. A mark of a great writer... Thank you for sharing.

[thatbryngirl]

Amazing write here... it's so true.. I really liked the line
"Pain is the emotion we feel most" for some reason. It just struck me about how true that is i guess...

[Que]

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

All of your words were amazing, but I found that those two verses hit me the most.
You speak true words, and the world would be such a better place if only they could read this poem and go by it.
Wonderful job, this poem is fantastic.

[Ru Banerjee]

I loved the concept of embracing universal love and the unblemished feeling of fraternity that has been greatly emphasized as the central theme of the poem. The presentation or execution of the theme is thoroughly moving and powerful because it embodies the quintessential human voice that craves for and also appeals to the peace, serenity and tenderness of the human heart. There is the despicable vulnerability of the fallen souls, the lost, the broken, the sad and depressed, with the shrill shriek of violence in the backdrop of your verse which is very universal in its overall appeal.

[FlawedByDesign]

The poem is definitely filled with emotion and a good look at the world that may have existed in 1987, but that world has not changed much. The core values of which you speak are universal and hold true today.

You asked for advice, but I don't see that anyone has given any, so here I go.
The title does not relate to the story being told. The poem is a collection of things you see around you and the lessons you are trying to convey to the reader, so I really dont see how "Am I dead or alive" fits into the picture.

There are 5-6 grammatical errors, but I will only point out one.
"For every gift of tenderness and love.
Must we repay it by hate and abuse?" - this does not sound like normal speech; something like,
"Must we repay every gift of tenderness and love
with hate and abuse?" - sounds better in my opinion.

If there is one thing I take away from this, it's the following line,
"We love so few in a life.
We have the ability to love so many more" - I must say that it is a great line

[G. Marie"floating on an..]

Omg i genuinly love this poem coyote"love is the greatest high, pain is the test to be alive" love that line and it is sooo true you know!!!!

[De'Andre]

WOW! This poem is amazing and so true. Alot of things that go on in this world shape us, but only if we let it. I felt like this for a couple of years but then it hit me: why let the world and all of its inhabitant shape me and change me. I find this poem to be really inspiring and i think that alot of people that connect or relate to this poem would agree with me when i say that this is spot on. Great job man.