Poems that ask... Can we do Better?

By Don Morris

This anthology is the third in a series of three books by Don Morris. The first book is "Can We Do Better". The second is a "Companion Workbook" to Can We Do Better.

All Don's books are about hope for us humans to do better than a mishmash of historical and current issues and harms that arise from misguided, dysf

• Language: English
• Publisher: Don Morris
• Release date: Jun 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9780646883380

Book preview

Can We Do Better?

Why ask … Can we do better?

Because of the reality of … so much dishonesty, manipulation, coercion, exploitation, and harm … in so many domains … and in so many relationships and communities … then, now, here, there, and everywhere.

Because of the reality of … so much cruelty, abuse, and violence … among humans … and by humans toward our fellow species … then and now … here there, and everywhere.

Because of the reality of … so much suffering and pain … then and now … here, there, and everywhere.

Because of the reality of … so much damage to the earth, our home … our Mother, our creator … then, now, here, there, and everywhere.

Because these truths and realities are obvious, longstanding, compelling, ubiquitous, inarguable.

Because these truths and realities demand that we … one and all … do better … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

What can we do better?

Each and all of us … must do better at … presence, awareness, sensitivity, and mindfulness … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Each and all … must do better at … dignity and respect … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Each and all … must do better at … empathy, compassion, and kindness … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Each and all must do better at … decency, integrity, and accountability … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Each and all … must do better at … thinking critically and at acting intelligently, factually, rationally, relationally, communally, ecologically, strategically, and sustainably … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

These imperatives are clear, universal, compelling, and beyond resistance and denial.

They demand that we … one and all … do better … here, there, and everywhere.

Who needs to do better?

‘We’ … each and all of eight billion of ‘us’ earthly human citizens and custodians … must do better … here, there, and, everywhere … now and always.

Each and all of us … as persons, citizens, community members, stewards, and leaders … must do much better … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Each and all … political, religious, corporate, and industrial moguls … must do much better … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Each and all of us … who harm each other, our fellow species, and the earth … must do much better than harm … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Each and all of us who … tacitly, complicitly, and passive-aggressively … ignore, allow, endorse, facilitate, and enable … indignity, irrationality, dishonesty, and harm … must do much better … here, there, and, everywhere … now and always.

Each and all of us who … watch indignity, harm, and suffering … with silent, passive. and-or explicit endorsement, indifference, complaisance, cynicism, judgement, and callous disregard … must do much better … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Each and all who … are self-absorbed, self-leveraging, self-indulgent, self-aggrandising, self-defending, and self-justifying … must do much better … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

In particular … each and all of us men … must do much better … in all relational, communal, and ecological domains … unreservedly, explicitly, comprehensively … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

We … you and I … her and him … they and them … one and all … must do better.

These imperatives are … clear, universal, compelling, beyond denial, beyond abrogation.

How can we … each and all of us … do better?

We will do better when each and all of us…

Recognise the reality of the web of problems and harms … caused by self-serving, made-up, arbitrary, calculating … masculinised … cultural, religious, and political … presumptions, attitudes, and actions … then and now … here, there, and everywhere.

When we … value truth and reality … by calling-out and reducing man-contrived … arbitrary fantasy and confabulation.

When we … expose all forms of implicit and explicit man-contrived egoic ignorance … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

When we … embrace the reality of testable, verifiable facts.

When we … let go knowledge and information that is not tested, verifiable, factual, truthful, and real … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

When we … face reality through robust, penetrating self-reflection, self-critique, self-honesty … and mindful self-discipline … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

When we ask penetrating, incisive questions … of ourselves, our fellow citizens, our leaders, our institutions, our governments, states, and empires … here, there, and everywhere … now and unceasingly.

When we commit to fulsome, courageous, unreservedly honest … historical and contemporary truth-seeking and truth-telling … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

When we recognise, face, and expose self-serving egoic fantasies, deceptions, delusions, and ignorance … in ourselves, our fellow citizens, our leaders, our institutions, our governments … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

We will do better … when we … confirm that these imperatives are clear, compelling, ubiquitous … and call each and all of us … to sanity, dignity, respect, maturity, integrity, efficacy, and accountability … here, there and everywhere … now and always.

We can do better when each and all of us…

Challenge each other to speak and act from critical analysis … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Reset reality and normality … by enshrining love, decency, reverence, care, and justice … for people, our fellow species, Mother Earth … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Reset reality and normality … by prioritising decency, honour, and integrity … in how you and I, one and all … speak and act … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Enshrine relationship, community, ecology, and systems discipline … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Honour the feminine and reinstate primal, First People Yin wisdom … in humankind … in our relationship with Nature and Mother … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Integrate First People care, custodianship and systems knowledge in environmental research, analysis, discussions, decisions, policies, and actions … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Prioritise accountability … as citizens, custodians, leaders, corporations, industries, institutions, cultures, countries, and states … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Reverence and protect each other, our fellow species, and the earth … our living-breathing-Earth-Mother … and all her progeny … here, there, and everywhere … now and always.

Confirm these truths, realities, and imperatives … as clear, compelling, ubiquitous, non-negotiable, and beyond dilution … here, there, and everywhere … now … and in perpetuity.

We can do better by committing to do better in so many ways … no ifs, buts, or maybes.

What resonates for you?

What might you do … what actions might you take … to progress what resonates for you?

Who is Asking - Can we do better? Why is He Asking?

The person asking Can we do better? … is an ordinary man … an ‘Aussie bloke’.

He asks … can we do better … because he is greatly troubled by the reality of so much harmful stuff that his fellow men … have done and done and done … for millennia.

He asks … can we do better … because of the harmful stuff we men do and do and do … today … and likely, tomorrow.

He asks … because of the harmful stuff we men presume, assert, defend, and justify … as normal and acceptable … then and now … here, there, and everywhere.

Not all men … or even most men assert, defend, and do harmful stuff … but too many men … in so many realms … over so long a time … then and now … here, there, and everywhere.

He asks one and all … can we do better than the harms of too many men … then and now, and emerging … here, there, and everywhere?

The person asking these questions … is greatly concerned by the reality of too many disturbing man-made, masculinised horrors … including… the realities of …

Past and present wars … genocides … religious and political terrorism … and other macho machinations that inflict horrific violence.

Historical and current colonial decimation and brutalisation of First Peoples and Peoples of Colour … and continuing gross indignities … across the globe … today.

Past and present abuse and repression of women and children.

Environmental destruction … then and now.

Politicised and fundamentalised local and global issues.

Never-ending and far-reaching conspiracy madness.

Never-ending anachronistic cultural, religious, political, and conspiracy fundamentalisms, conservatisms, and extremisms.

Centuries of cultural, religious, state, political, and corporate criminality and corruption.

The big lies of populist, extremist, tyrannical politics and politicians, cults and cultists.

Vast and endless man-contrived narcissistic and sociopathic cultural, religious, political, and corporate power ploys and harms.

Then and now … so many gross abuses of power that massively erodes decency, integrity, efficacy, and accountability … in relationship, citizenship, custodianship, service, leadership, and governance.

Then and now … here, there, and everywhere … endless, unconscionable, contrived, spurious … defences, rationalisations, and justifications … for so much masculine toxicity and malignance.

This questioning-man is greatly disconcerted by the reality of this conglomeration of terrible historical and present … man-made … sadomasochistic stuff … here, there, and everywhere.

Not by all men … not even by most men … but by too many egoic men … in so many realms … over so long a time … here, there, and everywhere.

This questioning-man … observes the disturbing reality, normality and tacit, unquestioning acceptability of the masculine ego … in and through and by…

Unaccountable, self-serving, greedy … wanting and accumulating … more and more materiality and wealth.

Insatiable and far-reaching consumption … things, superficialities, and vanities … that deplete and pollute the Earth.

Unashamed … self-protection, self-indulgence, self-leveraging, self-aggrandisement.

Amassing and flagrantly misusing wealth and power for an entitled, elitist, privileged few … at the expense of the vast majority … and at the expense of Nature and the Earth.

Too-frequent absence of dignifying values and critical thinking … by citizens and leaders.

Arbitrary concoction of cultural, religious, and political ignorance … as false and misleading, man-contrived … normative … myths, narratives, propaganda, spin, and lies.

Gaslighting … by spurious, deceitful, dishonest projections and justifications … of so much cultural, religious, and political connivance, coercion, and violence.

Proliferating the ignorance of arbitrary, contrived new-age and social media memes … so many mindless fantasies, wishful whims, and baseless superstitions.

Proliferating endless, wanton conspiracy deception, mindless misinformation, and deliberate populist and cultist disinformation.

The masculine ego’s … cultural and religious mind-control … through myths and dogmas … inculcating a morass of … normative falsehoods, fear, doubt, guilt, and shame.

This questioning-man observes this mishmash of … past and present … egoic, man-contrived, man-made issues and harms … here, there, and everywhere.

Not by all men … not even by most men … but by too many men … in too many realms … over too long a time … then and now and into the future … here, there, and everywhere.

This questioning-man is disturbed by … tacitly approved, unquestioned, normative … patriarchal, chauvinistic, paternalistic, misogynous norms … in so many empires, kingdoms, states, governments, cultures, religions, and institutions … then and now … here, there, and everywhere.

He is troubled by tacit, normative, unquestioned situation of past and present man-made injustices, cruelties and abominations … through cultural, religious, state, and political tyranny, criminality, and exploitation … here, there, and everywhere.

This man has supported brave but traumatised victims of masculine abuse … in relationships, families, and workplaces.

He has seen first-hand the reality of past and present suffering … inflicted by … insightless, pitiless, unapologetic, recalcitrant, egoic, coercive, abusive, violent men.

Not all men … not even most men … but committed, normalised and tacitly, unquestioningly accepted by too many men … in so many realms … in so many homes … over such a long, long time.

This questioning-man sees the cumulative - compounding disabling inter-millennial reality and impact … century upon century by century of multi-generational trauma.

He sees impacts on … First Peoples, Peoples of Colour, powerless cultures, disparaged communities, women, and children … here, there, and everywhere.

He witnesses the realities of man-made ecological devastations.

He observes so much mismanagement … of so many issues … driven by politicised masculine culture, religion, industry, agriculture, materialism, consumerism, and technology … then and now … here, there, and everywhere.

This conglomeration of harms … not driven by all men … not even by most men … but enabled … consciously, directly, tacitly, passively, unconsciously … by too many egoic men … in too many realms … over too long a time … then and now … here, there, and everywhere.

This questioning-man hopes for … revelation, revolution, and evolution … of new and empowering realities … guided by new and dignifying, values, priorities, and principles … here, there, and everywhere … now and into the future.

He hopes that … we humans can and will do far better … than our ancient, old, recent, and new … man-contrived, man-made missteps, misadventures, mis-judgements, mistakes, and harms … here, there, and everywhere … now and into the future.

He hopes that … we will heal the wounds of so many enmeshed harms and traumas … here, there, and everywhere … now and into the future.

He hopes that … we men can and will … care, listen, hear, evolve, normalise, and exemplify … dignifying values, voices, and actions.

He hopes that more and more men can and will … support and lead actions of decency, compassion, integrity, facts, and critical thinking … here, there, and