Obstickles

(credit here)

Poem huddled

between two strings of html.

I used to be a typesetter

in the days before there was

desktop publishing.

I was apprenticed

to printers who had worked

hot type but I ended up

working for a company

using the new fangled

cold type

Still, if you wanted

to see something in actual

fonts, you couldn’t just

do that at home, well

you could use stencils

or practice calligraphy,

but it’s not the same.

* * *

When I read printed type

informing me of crimes

against the planet,

hatred arises!

There is nothing at all

wrong with that.

Images also arise

of mean faces and

arrogant gestures,

of giant granite towers

blocking the way

Fear arises,

and great apprehension,

looming as it

arises.

Well you get the picture.

What appear to be negative

phenomena, they arise.

And I believe in love!

And compassion!

Oy vey!

I do not wish

to make light of this,

of course.

Everything in the mind

arises from the mind.

The obstacles as well.

There is nothing

wrong with that.

We create these obstacles

in order to strongly avoid

becoming that which

causes hatred and pain

to arise

in the mind.