In A Far-Off And Careful Land

 In a careful land, each eldest son breathes in his father's dying breath

and the generations form a flowing river

When the leaders do not embrace the Tao

the people have no links to their past

Not aware of the great wheel's turning,

They cannot provide for those that follow

In a quiet land, there is music to be heard in the sound of raindrops falling

and even people's clothing reflects the deeper patterns all around

In a rowdy land there is no time for turning inward

And though people’s lives remain empty they are filled with constant noise

Rushing ever forward, mindless, until, in the end -

They plummet like frightened cattle off unseen cliffs into a black abyss

In a land that knows its past, the future must remain consistent

and there is an unspoken consensus going forward

In a land ignoring history, greed makes up the rules as befits its daily needs

and then these are packaged into ideology to be sold as moral virtues

Freed from the yoke of history, without any tribe, safe from tradition

Nothing must be sacred, all may be bought, sold and subverted

In a carefully tended land, people know the farmers and what is in the fields

they are grateful for the rain and rejoice upon the autumn harvest

In a land of manufactured, pre-cooked and shrink-wrapped foods

the sun must always shine and dirt is to be studiously avoided

water logically appears and wastes go down the drain or vanish out the door

Thus, living without wonder and dying without grace

In a land that plague and war have devastated, where fire and famine ruled

perhaps their tragic echoes may lend a steadying hand

In a land of milk and honey fantasies, where the miserable are outcasts

media delusion bonds the mindless sheep into propaganda-herded flocks

Safe from the burden of collective introspection

Freed by a proud ignorance to satisfy only their induced consumer needs

In a land where revered ancestors lived, the people take on responsibilities

Change requires consideration because things have been built to last

In a land of form instead of substance, people spend more than they earn

And such as mere teachers are viewed with just a bit of scornful pity

purchases increase an empty arrogance and define shallow personalities

and the people maintain a very vengeful pride in their angry ignorance