Contemplation on the Odu Iwori Ogunda ( Iwori Aweda ) inspired by Bibo Bo Aozora (Ryuichi

I stared at idols
hoping to see my soul
I wore shiny trinkets
hoping to be protected from the world
I spent my savings
hoping to attain knowledge
I listened to blind adoration
hoping to feel humility
I watched celebrations
hoping to find joy
I sang songs of praise
hoping to reach the heavens
I observed states of ecstasy
hoping to feel a spark
I prayed for enlightenment
in the midst of all this activity
and found myself alone
in a crowd of believers
only to realize
the futility of the search.
Enlightenment is simply
the peace we find
appreciating every moment

Contemplation on the Odu Odi Irete

disillusion can either
break your spirit
or set you free
whether person, religion or ideal
the crumbling tower upon which it was built
will either crush you under the weight of its broken promises
or if you can run fast enough to avoid the collapse
free your eyes to see the beautiful vistas
once hidden by the ideals built like stone temples
casting shadows over your eyes and shielding you from the light
Pick up your wings and fly
so that you might see beyond
and decide for yourself
which temple to worship at

Contemplation on the Odu Ogbe Otura

We are in an eternal battle to find balance
in a world where adding or subtracting
always results in odd numbers
Master sometimes rejects human nature
to abdicate the thrown
and submit to another
Slave sometimes gives in to human nature
and when given power
becomes the master previously reviled
our eternal struggle to find balance
belies our inability to actually find it
or
is balance not about equality at all
but the search for that point at which
the powerful are not so powerful that
the powerless slip off the scales
perhaps
balance is about not allowing the scales to tip wildy
making only small shifts this way and that
slowly creating a sustainable middle way

Contemplation on the Odu Osa Ogbe ( osa lofogbeyo )

Today's
lunatic
zealot
delusional charismatic leader
Is tomorrow's
ascetic
prophet
Divinely inspired child of God
Our collective unconscious creates religion where it didn't exist
History gives form to God where there was none
We give faith to impossible attempts to explain the unknowable
When power and knowledge is promised to us
What started with one person
flowered into an army
with a rank and file
all attempting to justify their existence
in the name of one
lunatic or ascetic
zealot or prophet
delusional or divine
faith is in the eye of the beholder
truth is unattainable
or is it?

-- Marcos Ifalola Sanchez --

Contemplation on the Odu Oturupon Ogunda (otrupon ogunda)

if I cradled your heart
and rocked it to sleep
with the song of my life
we'd have a revolution
if I reached into your mind
and pulled the tears out
one by one
we'd have a revolution
if I held your soul
and squeezed it gently
until it stopped shaking
we'd have a revolution
if I made you stop
and showed you how
the world is cruel
we'd have a revolution
so why have we not yet
begun the movement
that turned into a revolution
forever changing the world
into a place where
our children
and their children
will all live the life they should?
hearts
minds
souls
need to believe in each other
and realize we're all in this together
for better
or worse
in sickness
or in health
we are all married
in a place
where even death
can't divorce us
start a revolution of kindness

Contemplation on the Odu Osa Ika (osa ka)

A sweet embrace of words
wrap around my ears
winding their way down my spine
to my heart
from your lips spill
a flood of sounds
staining my skin with emotion
that can not be washed clean
only faded into the soft lived in feel
of my favorite jeans
whose stains and frayed edges tell a story
of places and people and moments
so close to my body
that at times, I forget they are on
recording the best and worst moments of my life
faded but not forgotten

-- Marcos Ifalola Sanchez --

Contemplation on the Odu Odi Ofun

Not everything is an apple... Sometimes to eat the fruit, you have to peel the skin off.