Memorial Day Tribute to TSgt Clyde B. Alloway

A Memorial Tribute to Technical Sgt. Clyde B. Alloway, a long-ago friend, fellow aircrew member and comrade in arms, who didn't make it back from Vietnam:

After almost 43 years, my general recollection of Vietnam is 3 months of "learning the job," 6 months of "cowboys and Indians," and 3 months of a “guy could get killed doing this." What I do remember quite vividly, however, is the night of June 6th, 1970; the night we lost TSgt Clyde B. Alloway during an AC-119K Gunship emergency bailout after takeoff from DaNang Air Base.

The following poem was written as a tribute to Clyde in 1982 for a 4th of July POW/MIA speech [which can pretty much be summed up: "There are no good wars, only good men!" (a line mentioned during the talk a reporter asked to use)] I was honored make:

To One Left Behind

To one left Behind,
Who lives on in my mind;
To one I left there,
Beyond worry and care;
Who lives on in my heart,
And from whom I can’t part.
Though not with me here,
He has nothing to fear,
His duty is done,
And mine only begun;
For though gone from my sight,
I’ll still carry his light;
Nor forget what he’s done,
As a true, faithful son.

1982 Rich Hay

[Rich Note: Have to admit feeling a lot like the aged Private Ryan did at the end of "Saving Private Ryan," at least with regard to the 40 plus years of life I have been blessed to live since that “long ago night when our plane and crew went down and one of us didn’t make it home."]

Hay-Ku if the Day ("Judge No Man After the Flesh")

The divisive way
Relative self-thought functions
Spawns duality.

The partial report
Of relative sense makes me
Think I'm separate.

The appearance of
Twoness in my world happens
Within my own mind.

[Rich Note: Related introduction to Chapter 5, "Of Twain One New Man," of "Out of My Mind and Back to My Senses" (OOMM):

"What’s going on within the geographic confines of your skull, behind your eyes, right now? Is it not everything you see before your eyes, and is this not actually composed of patterns of mental energy arising within your own head? Is it not also true that the patterns which you presently identify as yourself are composed of the exact same mental material you identify as other? This being true, how is it possible to be so intimately identified with one portion of your awareness, and so self-alienated from the other? Perhaps because the preponderance of your attention is habitually focused on the former, while you are proportional less sensitive and aware of the latter."]

Hay-Ku of the Day (Perfect Knowledge)

Knowing by Virtue
Of Being That which One Knows
Is Perfect Knowledge.

[Rich Note: With respect to any "Enlightenment or Illumination Here,"
I've been looking for someone to put this into words for 35 years:

"One should never accept anything until he can prove it out for himself.  There are two ways of proving things, externally and internally.  Externally is proving it in the world by doing it.  Internally is by seeing it intuitively through the omniscient part of oneself."

(Lester Levenson in "The Ultimate Truth About Love and Happiness")

[Rich Note: The Human Way is Seeing and Knowing Self-Reflectively with (or in)  the Head; the Divine Way is Seeing and Knowing Directly with (or in) the Heart.]

Haiku of the Day (Absolute Love)

God is Absolute
Love of Being Consciously
Present and Aware.

God's the Absolute
Love of Being Consciously
Present as I Am.

 [Rich Note: Or, in more Scriptural Language:

 "One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." Ephesians 4:6-7 (KJV)

 "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing." Zephaniah 3:17-18 (KJV)

 "And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Romans 5:5-6 (KJV)

 "But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him." 1 John 2:5-6 (KJV)

 "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." 1 John 4:7-8 (KJV).]

Blogger "Hay-Ku of the Day" Redux

Rich Note: For some reason I stopped posting here in April of 2011, two years ago, and pretty much posted exclusively on Gather (rfhay333.gather.com), except for sending automatic links to Facebook and Twitter. Something I would have likely continue to do, if Gather hadn't gone in the tank two weeks ago. So, until that gets resolved one way or another, I will resume posting "The Hay-Ku of the Day" here; starting with the new "Absolute Love" Hay-Ku posted several days ago.  Even if Gather does survive, however, it is my present intent to continue posting here as a back-up/echo of what is posted there. I'll also provide notification here if Gather does resurrect, as there will continue to be more than 600 posts on Gather missing here. Gather Link: ]