The Space Captain's Notebook

The
Space Captain's
Notebook

A few notes about The Space Captain...

I first met The Space Captain back in 1985.
I was working a part time sales job at a local mall for Christmas, and
The Space Captain would have coffee at a small shop there. Somehow, we started talking.
At that point in my life, I needed a friend and some good advice.
The Space Captain provided both.
I think that these things happen for a reason.
The name is a private joke.
He doesn't answer to it much, and I think it kinds of annoys him at times.
All that is really unimportant.
What is important is that The Space Captain is a real person.
Although he calls anywhere on Planet Earth his home,
he receives his mail at his cabin on a hill near Portland, Oregon.
(He really doesn't like me to say anything much more than that.)

The Space Captain has been writing for most of his 70 plus years here.
Mostly, he records his impressions of the human condition with the detached
interest of someone who has seen a lot, but never grows tired of watching.

Here are a few pages from his notebook, which has become my hobby to
translate and perhaps someday find a publisher for.

Artwork

Artwork inspired by the poetry of The Space Captain

A Stream From Space

Swiftly flows
the chronological clock
while the universal one
seems still...

So often when I think
I've reached the top,
I find another hill.

So short this journey
on planet Earth,
So much there is to learn.

And just when you think
you know it all,
you'll find another turn.

Swiftly flows
this stream of consciousness
past our intellects door.
Careening by that place
where thoughts and dreams
we store.
Rushing to cover
the rocks and shoals
that a moment ago were bare.

So often when I think
there's someplace
I need to be,
I find I'm already there.

Look

When you change the way
you look at things
the things you look at
change.

Where Did Our Quiet Go ?

We have new dawns
and new days
seeping through an industrial haze,
a noisy world
seems to be the craze,

Where did our quiet go?

I heard it once
in a child's mind
where beauty flowed
and the universe rhymed
and all looked well
for the human kind.

That world reflected
boundless joys
till the elders said
there Must be more noise...

Where did my quiet go?

So my search went on
thru timeless space,
till frowns of ugly
on destiny's face
said "...not so well
for the human race,
you've lost yourself
and your quiet place ..."

Where did our quiet go?

As noise grows on
and quiet fades
we're left lost and churning
in this blaring haze,
Must we be totally engulfed
in this industrial show..?

Where did our quiet go..??

When it gets to be to much,
begins to destroy the feel
and the touch,
and you think
you need a place to hide,
don't look out here -
it's not around,
you'll need to look deep inside...

Then you'll know my friend
when you find that place
because
there's only your God there
to share your space...

Then you'll know
where your quiet went...

A Different Song

Just because
we don't think alike
my friend
don't to quickly
write me wrong..

I think myself ,
it would be a terribly
dead planet
if the whole world
knew only one song.

And it seems to me
we each approach our realities
from a little different place,
so you don't learn
what yourself needs to know
running only
someone else's race..

Its difficult sometimes
to walk the paths we choose
without blaming God,
brother man,
or the bottle of booze.
for all of our pains
or the things we loose.

It's easier of course
to walk someone else's road
so they can be blamed
for the weight
of your load..

But
who makes the choices
in the directions you take ?

Then how can you blame
someone else
for decisions that you make ?

And if you tune your mind
to only right and wrong,
and you're always right,
then where does your brother belong?

Should this
be your space my friend
you have my concern,
You've created your own hell,
and you'll
sit there and burn.

It's a quickly changing universe
we're living in now
and you don't get your own
planting done
pulling only someone else's plow.

So do your own cultivating
along your own row
and fertilize
with bits of wisdom
that your brethren may know.

Should you
gather for seed
just the best
you can sow
you may
in this lifetime
get to see
your own crops grow.

And if
you treat those crops
with kindness,
blending curiosity with care
you may
in this lifetime
get to see
those same crops bare,,

Now I try to work
my own fields first,
or be at least
where I feel at the time
I belong.

So
should you choose
to sing with me
my friend,
you should at least
be prepared
to hear a different song...

Directors

To allow the wisdom
to guide another soul
is indeed
a worthy goal,
But, does not to often
that that good intent
by application time
become too selfishly bent??
Then are we not
all directors
in each other's picture show??
All telling each other
what we should do,
and where we should go,
the words we should say
and the roles we should play...
All busily
writing our scripts
and directing the scenes,
no wonder were all
going off our beans...
But,
what would happen if
just for a day or so
we each directed
just our own picture show??
Told only our selves
what we should do
and where we should go,
the words we should say
and the roles we should play.
Do you think
most folks could survive that
for even a day??
Consider
how frightening it is
to pull your own strings,
to be solely responsible
for doing your own things.
One day of that
and most folks
would never be the same,
with no place to hide
and no one to blame...
Myself
I don't think most of us
are ready to shoulder the load,
I think it would drive us
to our knees
in the dust of our road
Leave us searching frantically
for some refuge
in all we can see,
but sayeth the wise Buddha,
One is ones own refuge
who else could be...?

The Brilliance Of man
and the real realty…

Today…

Sometimes in the dampness
of this spring of 2003 AD,
it seams
Our beautiful and nurturing garden
is nearing gone.
Sometimes it seems
this nearly brilliant organism
is barely hanging on.

Today…

Trees fall down
in the echo of the saw,
and the slopes
are left barren and brown,
patiently waiting to wash away
when the heavy rains come down.

Wash Away
To corrupt the stream,
to squeeze the fish,
to drastically alter
mother Nature’s wish.
Perhaps to be dredged
from a river somewhere
much farther along,
then piled again
into a slope
somewhere it doesn’t belong.

Mother Nature
can provide us with all we need,
all we do is help.

Today…
Seventy two thousand tons
of fertile soil
will be washed or blow away.
Over a million tons
of carbon dioxide will fall
to wet things down.
The groceries we grow
are tainted,
the air we breath unfit,
and the water we drink
is no longer pure,
and it’s the mind of man
that’s doing it.

Each moment
we’ve poisoned ourselves a little more
than we were the moment before.

Mother Nature
will provide us
with all we need,
but mother Nature
can no longer sustain
our ignorance
and growing greed.

Today…
Twelve million refugees
roam our home,
for want of a sustainable place to stay.
Most of the cause
a result of the gun,
so much a victim
to even
the bullet designed for one.

Thirty thousand acres
of productive dry land
will be new desert tomorrow.
Thirty thousand miles
of mono filament net
will assure us slaughter in our seas.

Twenty five thousand
loved ones will parish
for want of clean water to drink.
And sadly,
if it doesn’t all happen
in ones backyard,
it scarcely causes
a serious thought to think.

Mother Nature
will provide us
with all we need.
But Mother Nature
can no longer sustain
our ignorance
and growing greed.

Simply put,
it may be time
some concluding were due,
Perhaps we’ll find
Mother Nature is simply smarter
than me
and you.

But Alas!
Here we are yet trapped
in this remaining curse:
A single track mind
trying to manipulate
an infinitely many tracked universe.

We need to change the way we think.

Swollen Head Syndrome

Planet Earth
is a noisy place
because man
is a noisy beast.

A myriad of things
will swell the head
but
it’s usually the very least.

As a head swells up
and gets higher in the cloud
the noise level goes quickly
from midrange to loud
and soon
we have another swollen head
in the crowd.

Now
if it were wisdom up there
just under the hair
causing the head to swell
the swollen head
wouldn’t have to yell.

The whole scene
reminds me somewhat
of bread and yeast
what seems to swell the head
the most
is usually the very least.

A thought...

A while ago
I had a thought
perhaps
it’s workable
Perhaps
it’s not.
But
consider for a moment
with an open mind,
perhaps
there’s something there
to find.

Man As A Species
A brief reflection.

We are indeed a contradiction

We are of nature
we certainly
are not with nature

we combat nature
we rape nature
we pillage nature
we waste nature
we attempt to conquer nature
we indiscriminately kill nature
we plunder nature
we pollute nature
we abuse nature
we are irreverent of nature

Yet, we are nature
It might be said then, that we are a natural disaster.

Wake Up

Wake up
Wake up
Wake up out there
all you sleeping souls
it's later than you think.

Planet earth
could go belly up
quicker than the universal eye
can blink.

Then what
indeed
are we going to do
without Kindergarten Earth?

Where will we find a place
to put us through
whatever it is
we each need to do
on the way
to discovering our worth?

Wake up
Wake up
Wake up out there
all you merry folks.
it’s time to heal
our planets wounds
and learn to work
with the Mother.

It doesn’t make sense
to destroy one’s home
when one
does not yet have another.

Box

When one becomes totally
agendized
creativity becomes imaginatively
Paralyzed
with Imagination given over
to only support as the
agenda
That creativity becomes hopelessly Standardized

You are in your box.

Some Random Thoughts...

Seldom spend time
pondering the dogma
of the flint's geology.
It is the sparks
that keep us warm.
Not theology.

Mother Nature can provide us
with all we need,
but Mother Nature can no longer sustain
our ignorance and growing greed.

Maybe we should kill her…

I am amazed at the
breadth and depths of
the administrations
thinking.
It would seem to me
a stream so shallow
would more quickly evaporate.

Mother Nature
by her nature,
is never one to preach.
Teaching is her way.

We have the knowledge, the tech,
the tools, to bring our knowledges
together to solve our crisis.
We need to Allow the wisdom
to remove our heads from the
bowels of our collective agendas.

Common Sense
is badly named.
It is not common,
(that’s for sure)
as the common politician
has none.
How can it be
sense at all?

If we continue to pour
CO2 into our atmosphere,
and should planet Earth
heat considerably,
Will that heat burn the bush?

Now Available!

Where Did Our Quiet Go?
A Few Pages From "The Space Captain's Notebook"

Do you have any thoughts or suggestions?
E-Mail the Space Captain Here!

Back To RedRaccoon1 Here!

Over ten million animals are abused, neglected or abandoned yearly.
Over 27,000 defenseless animals are being harmed or dying every day!
Visit The Animal Rescue Site every day to give a bowl of food
-- at no cost to you -- and participate in the fight to
save animals in need.

Thank you for visiting
The Space Captain's Notebook.
We update a lot, so check back often!

Empty Space.