The Simple Voice

A sense of excitement
runs through my veins

It is “Home”
that I return

For the last time
once more

Happy St. Valentine’s Day World!!!

Or Single Awareness Day or Corporate Holiday or all of the above depending on where you fall in the spectrum relating to February 14th, 2009.

In my opinion, love people all the time, celebrate your love with your Signif. always. But if you do have a special someone or plural(eh, I don’t know, some people got mad love to give, who am I to judge), I hope you’re out there having an extra sense of celebratory joy going on today.  I’ll leave it short and sweet at that though as a poet…

“I must say that love a love ever so sweet, one that is purest in the moment, a moment, which if I could prolong, I would, for even though life is but one long day, the passing moments since the moment our eyes last danced seems to me an eternity…”

If only you could go Pro at being a poet.  I always wanted to go Pro but that’s a different story and sport…

Here’s some random facts of February 14th, that you may or may not know:

~It’s in February.  Since the adoption of this calendar cycle, February, and all other months have incorporated a 14th day into the equation.  Who would’ve figured?

~Named after two martyred dudes(Saints) named Valentine.

~Valentine’s were originally hand-written notes expressing love between two(or more, we don’t know how they did back in the day) lovers.

~The day became associated with romantic love the time of Chaucer, when courtly love began to flourish.  I can hear all the guy’s right now, “Chaucer, dat buggah…”

~The U.S. Greeting Card Association reports that St. V’s Day is second in greeting card holidays behind none other than Christmas.  I bet Cupid is shaking his fist as his arrow seemed to miss on that one.

~The U.S. Greeting Card Association also reports that men spend twice as much on Valentine’s Day then women.  Hmm….

Again, spread the Aloha today.  Have fun, and if you can’t do it 24/7 then, well, you got probs in my opinion,nah, nah, it’s hard, but gotta keep striving.

But, in closing, with my Joe Moore moment:

Finally, did you know, in the UK, they celebrate St. Dwynwen’s Day on January 25th.  That’s right, now you can celebrate your love in January and February and in Brazil, they have Dia dos Namorados, Day of the Enamored, in June, and in Finland, and in Korea…

Ho, I see a pattern, special love days around the world, maybe, just maybe, it really is possible to celebrate a day of love each and every day.  And if it’s not, it’s only a matter of time before you see cards for St. Dwynwen’s at Hallmark.

Shoots.

what’s your story
morning glory?
that never quite made sense
cause I never knew my story
as I’d not known any stories
but stories abound
in every culture
all around the world
this culture that is ‘mine’
not so sure but
that far-off land
with the tale of the rising sun
and the dragons
oh all the ones about
the sun and the moon
and let’s not forget the earth
that makes sense
or since I’m Jason
there’s that Jason who went
after the fleece made of gold
same as the boy Santiago and his treasure
in my favorite story ever told
from another Writer
based on his journey to Santiago, Chile
my my
how the myths
have passed us by
but no more
because i’m now listening…

the sweat drips from my brow
my hand reaching up to catch
that drop
too slow
(plop)
as it hits the mat
soon i follow
on my back
a sprawl too late
eyes closed
feeling, what comes next
is that right
i don’t know
but i remember this is a bad place
shrimp to my side
get away from being flattened out.
breathe in
breath out
slowly rolling
rolling slow
slow my roll

 As I sit and ponder what a wild ride 2008 was, I find myself with a silly grin(actually because I am listening to R&B on Pandora.com and it’s the Usher song where Ludacris calls Usher, “Ursher”, and as I’ve mentioned in the past, I find that hilarious).

Sayings that stand out to me from 08:
“You don’t know shit, J.”
~Back in the day, rewind like ten years, I was always playing with words and would say: “I know that I know not, therefore I know nothing, and in the process, I know everything.”  Well, since then, I’ve learned so much more compared to then, so really I didn’t know shit and to a great extent, what do I know now?  I am continually amazed at how much there is to learn in life and livingis truly a blessed, beautiful, bodacious, boombastic, bootylicious, bizarre, and the best teacher out there.

“Slow your roll…”
~We used to say this to dog on the b-boy wannabes cause let’s face it, hip-hop culture in Hawaii is small kine lacking, but eh, it is what it is.  This is such a great saying

Movie(s) of the year:
Tie: The Dark Knight and Seven Pounds
The Dark Knight was such a great illustration of Jungian psychology(In my opinion): the Batman and his shadow, the Joker, while the Batman was a shadow himself.  It explored so many different recesses of the mind.  Couple it with Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker, a character who was so pure and satisfied with who he was, accepted who he was, was simply amazing as it was scary.

Seven Pounds is here because it is about love.  Life is about love.  While we may not see it, and it takes us through a crazy ride in the process, doing things and living out of love is the greatest thing we can ever do because doing so can improve the well-being of the world and in this case, maybe even give/save life.

Book(s) of the year:
So I do this thing where I read parts of books at a time and so on and blah blah but there were a handful I read in their entirety and my (drum roll, opens award envelope) pick for book of the year is Blink by Marcus Gladwell, which is all about our intuition and exploring psychological aspects of it in order to understand, train ourselves to work better with it.  Pretty gnarly stuff

Song of the year:
“Just Dance”- Lady Gaga ft. Akon
~This is like if Nike’s “Just Do It” attitude and that “I Hope You Dance” song got together and had a baby.  It’s got the whole get out there and live like you’re dancing and life’s a party but instead of hoping you’re out there going for it.  Go for it in ‘09 people whatever it is, was, and forever will be.

Reality Show of the Year:
~Tila’s Shot at Love came to an end… twice.  New York went to Hollywood and Flav got married to a woman not on the show and sadly the Hogan’s got divorced, went to jail and/or moved(not in that order or all of them).  What is the world coming to without Tila, New York, ya boy, Flava Flav or Hulk Hogan knowing best?  Didn’t change much as there’s a dozen new ones to whet the palette.  That being said: I gotta go with Real Chance of Love.  Gotta.  How can you not laugh at the reality show, that is the spin-off, of a spin-off, of a spin-off, of a spin-off?  What is the world coming too or been at?

Food and Beverage Category:
Whole Foods, Water, and Tea.  All winners in this blog.

Coolest thing I did:
Spend three weeks in Hilo(longest in awhile), start training Jiu-Jitsu, realize I can draw, fasting, changing lifestyle, oh yeah, that’s all because I was unemployed.  It was really hard to be unemployed(shut your inner douches “yeah right” for one sec).  It was hard in that I had to really get out of my ego.  I had to trust that this was something that would put me into a better place.

In my life, I’ve been in positions where I made money, where I had “responsibilities”, where I contributed to society.  I’ve worked full-time and have a part-time job on the side or basically full-time and a full-time student while going to school for the past ten years, all because I thought I had too, thought that was right.  I did all of that and well, found life to be largely unappealing at many points because I hadn’t taken the time to get into myself, really know me, be okay being with me, and all that stuff that comes with solitude.  Bottom line I didn’t enjoy the moment, my life, or even knew what it took for any of that.

Unemployment allowed me that, for that, sacrificing my ego, dealing with the dirty or immediate judgmental looks of people, comments and then more looks from friends and family, was small compared to what I’m taking away because I threw out what I thought I was supposed to do and went inside.  So as much as there’s a part of me that is like ‘F-U pricks who want to guide my life” there’s a much larger part that can accept that feeling and allow the joy that comes with living to brighten those shadows.

Closing 08:
I’m in a place that’s pretty interesting.  I go back to the Legislature on Monday for my third session.  A year ago, I thought I’d only be back if I ran for office cause quite frankly, I didn’t want to go back.  Glad I didn’t run even though fate would have given me a unique chance at winning.  Glad I realized that there is more for me to learn in order to be better, so I can give more to my life, to the world.  Glad, I’m going back.

This is the third year I’ll be there and the last two years, when I was about to start, I remember thinking, wow, life is pretty fricking good, and last session was better than the first and each year of my life has been getting better too.  That being said, year three, third times the charm.  Whatever comes in ‘09 is going to be pretty spectactular as while this year symbolically I’m starting in the same situation, THE FEELING AND THE MOMENT THAT I OPEN MY EYES FOR THE FIRST TIME UPON WAKING IS THE SAME ONE EACH AND EVERY DAY.  And who knows what that day will hold.

Peace, roots, rock, reggae, one love, most of all: Aloha and Mahalo.  You all rock.  Stay classy and to ‘09, may it be “Hecka Slammin” for all of you.

I started drawing in recent months.
Amazing how a simple sketch can reveal
Something hidden deep within
A talent, a passion, an appreciation
It is as though everywhere I look
The artistry of the Universe is at play:
Wispy clouds, a loose sketch freeing the hand
Light glistening along the water, different shading techiques
The yellow, the blue that makes green, well, um green
And it all began with a love of t-shirt and tattoo artwork
Ed Hardy Trucker Hat: $61.00
Hart and Huntington Tattoo: $350.00
Drawing upon a sheet of paper so that we can know
The true beauty of the world: Priceless

I’d forgotten how your being seems to radiate with a frantic exhiliration.  Your smile, the same smile, the smile that lit me up though I might not have always shown it.  Your overall energy, so much like mine in that ideas and passion and places to go, yet I failed to acknowledge it during our time.  Perhaps you were my anima.  Perhaps not.  Grateful am I for our time and more so for getting to see you one more time.  Perhaps our paths will cross again.  Perhaps not.  Either way, I’ll never forget your frantic exhiliration fo/for being ever.  Mahalo to and nothing but Love to TBN.

Decelerate to a creep, a crawl
In this busy life.
Tip toe, tip toe.
Look once more as does a child
Sit with Wisdom as does one with many years
Slow down my friend, slow down

I fear writing poetry at times
For my English and Grammar
Have been taught by life
And it’s just as easy, sometimes,
Much more preferable
To write ‘this’ lidat
Yet when I sit
Pen in hand
Or keys kissing fingertips
I am able to flow as I unfold
And detach from my conscious
Know-it-all and
The fear at times
Of writing poetry, and living life,
Just flies away

This coffee cup, it’s… it’s empty.
Shall I rush to fill it up?
Or have I had enough of this cup?
Perhaps it is time for tea
For don’t you see
Sometimes a change is