Sharon Gannon

The Silence of Us All

There are 6.5 billion human being on the planet they say
Each one going about their business of the day…..
While 130 million animals are put to death die every day
Five million dead every hour
100,000 die in a minute
27 Billion slaughtered each year in our land of the Free
Home of the Brave
As we go about the important business of the day

Why should we bother?
Animals are animals you might say
They eat each other every day

No Way!……
Wait…
The animals who we eat the cows, goats, sheep,
Are vegetarians who do not eat meat
Unless it is forced down their throats
Which is quite an easy feat
These creatures are docile by nature
But we human beings
Trying our best to make a buck
We don’t even give a flying _____
After all it is only some poor slob
Chained in a stall who cannot speak after all

Besides isn’t that what God put them here for?

If we want to reduce the fear in our own lives
In our country, city, town, neighborhood, home
In our nervous system, then why not start with something
Near by, close to home
Most of us interact with animals three times a day
When we sit down to eat them
Couldn’t we try to improve this relationship?
Instead of exploiting all the mothers
Who give milk, eggs and birth to babies
Only to live lives of morning.

Babies taken from their mothers
Mother dripping tears and milk
While we capitalize on their loss
And harvest the white liquid from the nipple
As we dripple and talk ‘Conversation’
Meeting in restaurants and cafes
When are we going to be kind
How many rhymes will it take
To cause us to pause before we order that
Burger and Shake?

Speak out.
What better way?
If you won’t speak,
What are you busy saying?
What ever else you had to say,
It's not worth that much today


Time Poem

They were walking down by all those trees
That used to grow there along there along time ago
But neither one of them remembered the trees
That had grown there along there along time ago
Someone had told them one time, before they left the house
Someone had called out to them
“Remember those trees that used to grow there along time ago”
One of them didn’t hear the one calling out to them
Telling them something about trees
Down there were they were going to be walking
But neither one of them knew why they had been called
To remember about the trees
And it takes so much time
And there’s so much time that it takes
And it takes so much time
That time always takes
But no one ever blames time for the taking
You always think that it is someone else that took
And not time that took
But then you always say
It takes so much time
So that would mean that someone else
Took and not time that took
You always say it takes so much time
So that would mean that someone
Took the time away
But where is this time to be taken?
And where does it go
And where would it be placed?
I never did see where the time was hiding
Is it hiding or is it just imprisoned somewhere
And if we knew the right pattern we could find it
And if we knew the right formula
We could make our own
We could make our own time!
I mean its this thing about time
I mean take it take it like it was a thing
Its this thing about time you know
Take it take like it was a thing
Like it was a thing you could take it
I keep coming back to this
Its about time
You can take it like it was a thing
And I have a lot of time
I have a whole lot of time
As far as I can see
Everyone else has the same amount as I do
So everyone has a lot of time
We all have a lot, a lot of it
A lot, like a sectioned off area---a place
That time was a space
That would mean that time was an area
A place that time was a space
So time is space!
So we all have a lot of time and we all have a lot of space
We have a lot of space and we have a lot of time
Now I want to keep coming back to this thing—space
I mean I keep coming to time, time is crucial
I mean I keep coming back to it
But this thing about space
I don’t have to keep coming back to it
I am is always in the space.


We see the everlastingness in everything that's passing

We see the everlastingness in everything that’s passing
We become that everlastingness through everything that’s passing

Where does the truth Lie
The truth lies in all things
All things lie apart from the truth
All things lie apart of the truth

There are atoms of air in your lungs
Which were once in the lungs of everyone
Who has ever lived and is living now
We are breathing each other

Have you seen the apples swim
Inside the shoes with everything

They were there like a couple of chairs
In the hallway


About the Author

Sharon Gannon, 1951, is the co-founder along with David Life of the Jivamukti Yoga Method. She lives in Woodstock, NY. Her poetry and political/mystical essays have appeared in numerous publications including, Semiotexte, Sci Fi and Semiotexte USA Anthology. Printed Publications include: Freedom is a Pycho-Kinetic Skill, 1979- Patio Table Press, Seattle, WA; Cats and Dogs are People Too!, 1999-Jivamukti Press, NYC. Jivamukti Yoga, practices for liberating body and soul, 2002 Ballantine Books, The Art Of Yoga, 2002 Stewart Tabori & Chang, NYC. She writes a monthly essay called the Focus of the month which can be read on the Jivamukti Yoga School web site: www.jivamuktiyoga.com.

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