Thanks be to John Lennon for the first two lines...

Birthday Poem:

So it is November the 30th, and what have I done?
Another year is over, and a new one just begun.
I have changed through experiences from near and from far,
I've given up meat, conventions, post-modernism, and cars.

Warner shaped my vision, and skewed the world to me,
I see now through anthro, psych and philosophy.
I desire narrative, your stories of life,
And communal living, let's stop all this strife.

Portland is home, for now and always,
But I want to go back to India, for inumerous days.
I've no clue what I'm doing, once I leave this great school,
But I know I'll be serving, as a social working fool.

Music is still big, and writing's become key,
Thinking as always, trying to share all of me.
I never thought I'd be reading this much,
Buechner and Taoism, Piaget and such.

But more than the dead ones, although they too I love,
It's my friends and family who are the ones I care of.
You've all seen me through to this day I now face,
With dignity, poise, confrontation and grace.

And so it's to you that I owe all this fun,
I truly never thought, I'd live to see twenty-one.
But you've gotten me through it, through thin and through thick,
And now that I'm old enough, I'm going to get lit.

All joking aside, my heart is in tears,
You've seen me grow, all through my troubled years.
And still though I'm a radical, you accept all my faults,
And love me for them, it's you I exhalt.

I love you all more than words could express,
May the Lord shine upon you, may it be you that He bless.
Thank you for making these years a possibility,
Without you I know it would not be reality.

Thank you all for all the influences you have been in forming and shaping me, and, more imporanlty, letting me realize who I am ontologically.

I live in SE Portland, Oregon. But Portland is in the NW of the country. Michael Leonard Cushing is an artist that moved from SE Alaska, to the SE of the NW of the country. But Alaska, too, is the NW of the country. From the SE of the NW to the SE of the NW.

I'm going to Alabama soon, which is THE SE. But I'm going to Birmingham, which is the NW of the SE. I'm going from the SE of the NW to the NW of the SE.

What if Michael Leonard Cushing came with me? From the SE of the NW to the SE of the NW to the NW of the SE.

And what if my friend Adam came back with us? The entire trip, Michael included, would be from the SE of the NW to the SE of the NW to the NW of the SE to the SE of the NW.

That's far too many dirrections.

O' God - Please hold my arms to this cross I bear;
Hold my arms to that which I have gotten myself into.
Press me to the grindstone and sharpen my wit,
My vision,
My ability to love.

O' Lord - Tear me apart;
To put me back together again.
Rip me to shreds -
To recreate me as you see fit.
Do not let me run from this that will not leave me unscathed.

Pull me from my own illusion to the transcendent realm of your power and might.

O' That I might taste your glory!
Pour upon my skin -
Burning and purging my essence from that which holds me back.

Lord Jesus - Rip apart my limbs of flesh -
- From the inside out.
Take and reform me:
RE-FORM me to the form you have for me to be.

Here I am: Your uncarved block.
Carve me and let it hurt.
For if it didn't;
Let me walk away from that which will not allow me to grow.

Pin me to this wood.
Pull me with your nails.
Bind me to this that will eventually do me in;
That which will resurect me:

Your Love