Some Michael Jackson Writings

Dear professor,
These are some of the poems and reflections of MJ from his book, Dancing the Dream, and other sources, for your reference. I'm glad to have the chance to share them with you and hope you'll like it :)

Best regards,
Alice

How I Make Music

People ask me how I make music. I tell them I
just step into it.It's like stepping into a river and
joining the flow. Every moment in the river has
it's song. So I stay in the moment and listen.
What I hear is never the same. A walk
through the woods brings a light, crackling
song:Leaves rustle in the wind, birds chatter and
Squirrels scold, twigs crunch underfoot, and
the beat of my heart holds it all together. When
you join the flow, the music is inside and outside,
and both are the same. As long as I can listen to
the moment, I'll always have music.


Child Of Innocence

Child of innocence, I miss your sunny days
We joyously frolicked in extended plays
Ever since you've left the scene
The streets are lonely, dark and mean

Child of innocence, return to me now
With your simple smile show them how
This world once again can respond to your glance
And heartbeats flutter to the rhythm of your dance

Child of innocence, your elegance, your beauty
Beckons me now beyond the call of duty
Come fly with me far and above
Over the mountains in the land of love

Child of innocence, messenger of joy
You've touched my heart without a ploy
My soul is ablaze with a flagrant fire
To change the world is my deepest desire.


Magical Child


Once there was a child and he was free
Deep inside, he felt the laughter
The mirth and play of nature's glee
Beauty, love was all he'd see

He knew his power was the power of God
He was so sure, they considered him odd
This power of innocence, of compassion, of light
Threatened the priests and created a fight
In endless ways they sought to dismantle
This mysterious force which they could not handle

In endless ways they tried to destroy
His simple trust, his boundless joy
His invincible armor was a shield of bliss
Nothing could touch it, no venom, no hiss

The child remained in a state of grace
He wasn't confined in time or place
In Technicolor dreams, he frolicked and played
While acting his part, in Eternity he stayed

Soothsayers came and fortunes were told
Some were vehement, others were bold
In denouncing this child, this perplexing creature
With the rest of the world he shared no feature
IS he real?He is so strange
His unpredictable nature knows no range
He puzzles us so, is he straight?
What's his destiny?What's his fate?

And while they whispered and conspired
Through endless rumors to get him tired
To kill his wonder, trample him near
Burn his courage, fuel his fear
The child remained just simple, sincere

All he wanted was the mountain high
Color the clouds, paint the sky
Beyond these boundaries, he wanted to fly
In nature's scheme, never to die

Don't stop this child, he's the father of man
Don't cross his way, he's part of the plan
I am that child, but so are you
You've just forgotten, just lost the clue

Inside your heart sits a Seer
Between his thoughts, he can hear
A melody simple but wondrously clear
The music of life, so precious, so dear

If you could for one moment know
This spark of creation, this exquisite glow
You would come and dance with me
Kindle this fire so we could see
All the children of the Earth
Wave their magic and give new birth
To a world of freedom with no pain
A world of joy, much more sane

Deep inside, you know it's true
Just find that child, it's hiding in you.


Dancing The Dream


Consciousness expresses itself through creation. This world we live in is the dance of the creator. Dancers come and go in the twinkling of an eye but the dance lives on. On many an occasion when I'm dancing, I've felt touched by something sacred. In those moments, I've felt my spirit soar and become one with everything that exists. I become the stars and the moon. I become the lover and the beloved. I become the victor and the vanquished. I become the master and the slave. I become the singer and the song. I become the knower and the known.
I keep on dancing and then, it is the eternal dance of creation. The creator and creation merge into one wholeness of joy.
I keep on dancing and dancing .......and dancing, until there is only......the dance.



TWO BIRDS

It's hard to tell them what I feel for you.
They haven't ever met you, and no one has your picture.
So how can they ever understand your mystery?
Let's give them a clue:
Two birds sit in a tree.
One eats cherries, while the other looks on.
Two birds fly through the air.
One's song drops like crystal from the sky while the other keeps silent.
Two birds wheel in the sun.
One catches the light on its silver feathers, while the other spreads wings of invisibility.

It's easy to guess which bird I am, but they'll never find you. Unless...

Unless they already know a love that never interferes, that watches from beyond, that breathes free in the invisible air.
Sweet bird, my soul, your silence is so precious.
How long will it be before the world hears your song in mine?
Oh, that is a day I hunger for!



I You We
"I said you had to do it. You said you didn't want to. We talked about it, and we agreed that maybe I could help.
I said you were wrong. You insisted you were right. We held each other's hand, and right and wrong disappeared.
I began crying. You began crying, too. We embraced, and between us grew a flower of peace.
How I love this mystery called We! Where does it come from, out of thin air? I thought about this mystery, and I realized something: We must be love's favorite child, because until I reach out for you, We is not even there. It arrives on the wings of tenderness: it speaks through our silent understanding. When I laugh at myself, it smiles. When I forgive you, it dances in jubilation.

So We is not a choice anymore, not if you and I want to grow with one another. We unites us, increases our strength; it picks up our burden when you and I are ready to let it fall.

The truth is that you and I would have given up long ago, but We won't let us. It is too wise. "Look into your hearts," it says. "What do you see? Not you and I, but only We."



TRUST
As I was feeding squirrels in the park, I noticed a small one that didn’t seem to trust me.
While the others came close enough to eat out of my hand, he kept his distance.
I threw a peanut his way.
He edged up, grabbed it nervously, and ran off.
Next time he must have felt less afraid, because he came a little closer.
The safer he felt, the more he trusted me.
Finally he sat right at my feet, as bold as any squirrel clamoring for the next peanut.
Trust is like that - it always seems to come down to trusting in yourself.
Others can’t overcome fear for you; you have to do it on your own.
It’s hard, because fear and doubt hold on tight.
We are afraid of being rejected, of being hurt once more.
So we keep a safe distance.
We think separating ourselves from others will protect us, but that doesn’t work, either.
It leaves us feeling alone and unloved.
Trusting yourself begins by recognizing that it’s okay to be afraid.
Having fear is not the problem, because everyone feels anxious and insecure sometimes.
The problem is not being honest enough to admit your fear.
Whenever I accept my own doubt and insecurity, I’m more open to other people.
The deeper I go into myself, the stronger I become, because I realize that my real self is much bigger than any fear.
In accepting yourself completely, trust becomes complete.
There is no longer any separation between people, because there is no longer any separation inside.
In the space where fear used to live, love is allowed to grow



COURAGE

It’s curious what takes courage and what doesn’t.
When I step out on stage in front of thousands of people, I don’t feel that I’m being brave.
It takes much more courage to express true feelings to one person.
When I think of courage, I think of the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz.
He was always running away from danger.
He often cried and shook with fear.
But he was also sharing his real feelings with those he loved, even though he didn’t always like those feelings.


That takes real courage, the courage to be intimate.
Expressing your feelings is not the same as falling apart in front of someone else,
it’s being accepting and true to your own heart, whatever it may say.
When you have the courage to be intimate, you know who you are, and you’re willing to let others see that.
It’s scary, because you feel so vulnerable, so open to rejection.
But without self-acceptance, the other kind of courage, the kind heroes show in movies, seems hollow.
In spite of the risks, the courage to be honest and intimate opens the way to self discovery.
It offers what we all want, the promise of love.



mother

Eons of time I've been gestating 

To take a form been hesitating

From the unmanifest this cosmic conception

On this earth a fantastic reception 
And then one fateful August morn

From your being I was born 

With tender love you nurtured a seed

To your own distress you paid no heed 

Unmindful of any risk and danger 

You decided upon this lonely stranger
Rainbows, clouds, the deep blue sky 

Glittering birds that fly on high

Out of fragments you've made my whole 

>From the elements you fashioned my soul

Mother dear, you gave me life 

Because of you, no struggle or strife 

You gave me joy and position 

Cared for me without condition 

And if I ever change this world

It's from the emotions you've unfurled

Your compassion is so sweet and dear

Your finest feelings I can hear 

I can sense your faintest notion 

The wondrous magic of your love potion
And now that I have come so far 

Met with every king and czar 

Encountered every color and creed

Of every passion, every greed

I go back to that starry night 

With not a fear for muscle or might

You taught me how to stand and fight

For every single wrong and right 

Every day without a hold 

I will treasure what you've mold

 I will remember every kiss

Your sweet words I'll never miss 

No matter where I go from here 

You're in my heart, my mother dear


Planet Earth

Planet Earth, my home, my place
A capricious anomaly in the sea of space
Planet Earth are you just
Floating by, a cloud of dust
A minor globe, about to bust
A piece of metal bound to rust
A speck of matter in a mindless void
A lonely spaceship, a large asteroid

Cold as a rock without a hue
Held together with a bit of glue
Something tells me this isn't true
You are my sweet heart soft and blue
Do you care, have you a part
In the deepest emotions of my own heart
Tender with breezes caressing and whole
Alive with music, haunting my soul.

In my veins I've felt the mystery
Of corridors of time, books of history
Life songs of ages throbbing in my blood
Have danced the rhythm of the tide and flood
Your misty clouds, your electric storm
Were turbulent tempests in my own form
I've licked the salt, the bitter, the sweet
Of every encounter, of passion, of heat
Your riotous color, your fragrance, your taste
Have thrilled my senses beyond all haste
In your beauty, I've known the how
Of timeless bliss, this moment of now

Planet Earth are you just
Floating by, a cloud of dust
A minor globe, about to bust
A piece of metal bound to rust
A speck of matter in a mindless void
A lonely spaceship, a large asteroid
Cold as a rock without a hue
Held together with a bit of glue
Something tells me this isn't true
You are my sweet heart gentle and blue
Do you care, have you a part
In the deepest emotions of my own heart
Tender with breezes caressing and whole
Alive with music, haunting my soul.
Planet Earth, gentle and blue
With all my heart, I love you



That One In the Mirror (written by Michael Jackson)

I wanted to change the world, so I got up one morning and looked in the mirror. That one looking back said, There is not much time left. The earth is wracked with pain. Children are starving. Nations remain divided by mistrust and hatred. Everywhere the air and water have been fouled almost beyond help. Do something!
That one in the mirror felt very angry and desperate. Everything looked like a mess, a tragedy, a disaster. I decided he must be right. Didn't I feel terrible about these things, too, just like him? The planet was being used up and thrown away. Imagining earthly life just one generation from now made me feel panicky.

It was not hard to find the good people who wanted to solve the earths problems. As I listened to their solutions, I thought, There is so much good will here, so much concern. At night before going to bed, that one in the mirror looked back at me seriously, Now well get somewhere, he declared. If everybody does their part.

But everybody didn't do their part. Some did, but were they stopping the tide? Were pain, starvation, hatred, and pollution about to be solved? Wishing wouldn't make it so — I knew that. When I woke up the next morning, that one in the mirror looked confused. Maybe its hopeless, he whispered. Then a sly look came into his eyes, and he shrugged. But you and I will survive. At least we are doing all right.

I felt strange when he said that. There was something very wrong here. A faint suspicion came to me, one that had never dawned so clearly before. What if that one in the mirror isn't me? He feels separate. He sees problems out there to be solved. Maybe they will be, maybe they wont. Hell get along. But I don't feel that way — those problems aren't out there, not really. I feel them inside me. A child crying in Ethiopia, a sea gull struggling pathetically in an oil spill, a mountain gorilla being mercilessly hunted, a teenage soldier trembling with terror when he hears the planes fly over: Aren't these happening in me when I see and hear about them?

The next time I looked in the mirror, that one looking back had started to fade. It was only an image after all. It showed me a solitary person enclosed in a neat package of skin and bones. Did I once think you were me? I began to wonder. I am not so separate and afraid. The pain of life touches me, but the joy of life is so much stronger. And it alone will heal. Life is the healer of life, and the most I can do for the earth is to be its loving child.

That one in the mirror winced and squirmed. He hadn't thought so much about love. Seeing problems was much easier, because love means complete self-honesty. Ouch!

Oh, friend, I whispered to him, do you think anything can solve problems without love? That one in the mirror wasn't sure. Being alone for so long, not trusting others and being trusted by others, it tended to detach itself from the reality of life. Is love more real than pain? he asked.

I cant promise that it is. But it might be. Lets discover, I said. I touched the mirror with a grin. Lets not be alone again. Will you be my partner? I hear a dance starting up. Come. That one in the mirror smiled shyly. He was realizing we could be best friends. We could be more peaceful, more loving, more honest with each other every day.

Would that change the world? I think it will, because Mother Earth wants us to be happy and to love her as we tend her needs. She needs fearless people on her side, whose courage comes from being part of her, like a baby who is brave enough to walk because Mother is holding out her arms to catch him. When that one in the mirror is full of love for me and for him, there is no room for fear. When we were afraid and panicky, we stopped loving this life of ours and this earth. We disconnected. Yet how can anybody rush to help the earth if they feel disconnected? Perhaps the earth is telling us what she wants, and by not listening, we fall back on our own fear and panic.
One thing I know: I never feel alone when I am earths child. I do not have to cling to my personal survival as long as I realize, day by day, that all of life is in me. The children and their pain; the children and their joy. The ocean swelling under the sun; the ocean weeping with black oil. The animals hunted in fear; the animals bursting with the sheer joy of being alive.

This sense of the world in me is how I always want to feel. That one in the mirror has his doubts sometimes. So I am tender with him. Every morning I touch the mirror and whisper, Oh, friend, I hear a dance. Will you be my partner? Come.