Third Eye Open
Poem of the Week
Good morning and happy Sunday. I hope your day is slow and easy. I hope there’s good music, laughter, joy and a little poetry. Here, let me help with that last part.
Third Eye Open
he gave them eyes to see
but you can't make them look-
they hide behind their eyelids
trusting their baptism
to shield them
maybe it's the world
that's full of darkness
and the only light
you can find anymore
is manufactured light
and that light isn't bright enough
to see what really is
maybe the truth
is a hard pill to swallow
but they’ll never know
when you can't get it
past their lips
you can lead a horse to the stream
but what use does a horse
have for philosophy?
iron sharpens iron
but cutting through the fluff
will dull you
when your flame flickers
shield it from the wind of ignorance -
force your third eye open
and look straight into the now
©Dan Denton 2016I forget about this poem sometimes, but I found it again this past week, and now I’m sharing it with you. I hope you dig it.
Instead of a sunset photo, here is a photo I took of the full moon this past week. I do try to watch every sunset that I can, but I also go outside every night and spend a little time looking up at the stars, enjoying the sky and talking with the moon.
You might not be aware of this, but we are in one of the most holy and sacred times of the year for me, and for many, many other Deadheads. It’s the Days Between, or Jerry Days. Jerry Garcia was born on August 1st and he passed away on August 9th, and since then, Deadheads have been filling those “Days Between” with reflection, celebration, live music or listening parties, and by telling stories of shows and Shakedown Streets. It is a time for dancing, and for spreading love and kindness, like Jerry did. I love this mugshot photo from when he was “busted on Bourbon Street,” down in New Orleans.
You can now pre-order my new novel that is coming this November from Roadside Press. I think it’s a pretty good book, and I’m confident that you have never read another quite like it.
Check out the details and put your order in here.
It’s August, and half the year is gone. Scratch that. It’s August, and there is still a half a year to look forward to. The conditions of this world are a gauntlet of rage and sadness, but I can’t help feeling grateful that I’m still here, and that I woke up today to experience it. Look for the beauty. It’s there. I promise.
Let’s not forget to drink our water and take our meds. I’m on another one day streak of taking mine. I forgot to take my nighttime meds on Friday, and I’m so happy that I have learned to not get mad at myself for that. I am doing the best I can today, and I know that you are to. Let’s get through it together. I’m so glad you’re here.
Love,
Dan
I was with a woman who was close to the family, she had been with Annabelle at the treatment facility a couple days before to see him & wish him a happy birthday, we were in my flat at the corner of Hayes & Divisadero in SF, then I got the call, she was devastated, saying things like ‘I had just seen him’, I was already stoned & I figured it was probably best to get more stoned, so I rolled one & said, let’s go for a walk & get some ice cream’ so we walked up to the Haight, I was just not thinking clearly, obviously, but it was just a 5 block walk thru the panhandle, I thought it would help, she was sobbing & I lit the blunt & we passed it back & forth, by the time we got to the ‘Ben & Jerry’s’ at Haight & Ashbury it began to dawn on me what a bad idea this was, people were gathering & they recognized her, I tried to get her in & out of the ice cream shop quickly, but by the time we came out there was a large crowd & the whisper campaign had identified she was there & we came out to all these crying people wanting to hug her, it was all I could do to quickly be a barrier & tell people ‘we have to get to the clinic’ which was 2 doors down on ashbury, I knew some staff there & they knew my companion as her family had been donating funding to the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic for decades, they let us out a back door that went down some stairs, we walked back thru the park & she said she wanted to go to Marin, which I knew meant to the Garcia house over the Golden Gate Bridge, so I said ‘no problem’ as I had been to the house many times, but before we could get to my car I noticed that most of the ‘bus folks’ who lived along the panhandle were converging on the statue at the edge of the park, across the street from the DMV, where my car was parked (I tipped the security detail in sacks of weed every month to park my 3 vehicles there) I put my arm over her shoulder & drew her close, so she did not get recognized as easily as she had up on Haight St, people were wailing & crying, the news was spreading, I got her to my cars & put her in the passenger seat of my lifted 69 jimmy high sierra that had 2 surfboards on the roll bars above us, perfect camo for slipping in & out of Marin county…I looked under the drivers visor & found a huge hash joint that I was pretty sure I had left there & was pleased to have that confirmed…I pulled down Masonic & made a left on Hayes to go thru the presidio in order to get to the bridge, I figured she would benefit from a more scenic route, my cell phone was blowing up, so I turned it off…in the middle of the downhill on the presidio she turned to me & asked ‘do you have any owsley?’ & I pointed toward the glove compartment & said ‘in the band aid tin’ & she pulled off a strip of 6 from a half sheet or so that was in there…she split it & we put the 3 each of the Mandelbrot blotter print tabs in our mouths, I could feel the electric metallic spit fill my mouth by the time I approached the bridge on-ramp, I looked out at Marin on the other side & knew this was gonna be a trip, but Jerry was well ahead of us… August 9, 1995
What stayed with me is the distinction between having eyes and choosing to look. The poem does not present truth as hidden, but as something we often refuse because seeing it would ask something of us.
I especially liked the final turn toward the present: protecting the flame from ignorance and looking straight into the now. There is both urgency and courage in that image.