A tour of my brain

Welcome, welcome, welcome to my head.

Just leave your things here

Including your phone. They will be safe.

The tour will last about 30 minutes.

Everybody please stay together.

Heads up. There will be places where it will be easy to get distracted.

If you lose the group, rest assured I will find you

But it could take a while.

In the event that you get lost, just sit where you are.

Dont move.

As you pass through the first gate,

A hound will sniff you.

He is our failsafe. For us humans

The brain is an ever-expanding labyrinth.

Now lets get started, follow me.

In this first chamber of my brain

There is an endless video of the leveling of Gaza.

There are only 4 viewing seats, so lets move on.

Next a waterfall. Isnt it amazing? Quite inspiring.

You can feel the cold spray on your face. Thunderous.

Lets keep moving.

Here you see a city with homeless people

Begging for handouts and slumped in doorways.

Keep moving, stay together.

Now we are witnessing the end of the world by nuclear holocaust.

Numbing, right? Sorry I didnt warn you to plug your ears.

In the next chamber, exquisitely beautiful women dancing

In sheer dresses. Their movements redefine sensuality, no?

Pressing on.

In this chamber you see all my favorite poets:

There is Eliot, Levertov, Rilke, Rumi, Levine, Ignatow, Milosz,

All reading their work. What a cacophony! I owe them all big!

Next chamber, a stormy sea, with a crude raft

Being tossed like a milkweed pod

From wave to mountainous wave.

In the raft, in a fetal position, is me.

Next: Oh, thats a hurting landscape with a chemical plant on the horizon.

Smell it? PU. Kind of makes you feel like puking right?

Now we are stepping into an ancient stone circle.

The stones were planted by people we know nothing about,

About 8000 years ago.

Stay together.

Now we are in a theater with a seat for everyone.

As our eyes grow accustomed to the dark, we see a stage and a curtain.

The curtain opens, and a man in a beret is standing mid-stage.

He begins by introducing himself as a poet.

If we had time we would follow his lead

Into a dramatic enactment of a story about two brothers

Who are farmers. A musical, a love story.

(Please sir, no smoking. This is my brain.)

Watch your step. Now we are entering the rainforest in Peru.

In this chamber we are in a maloka, witnessing a ceremony

Where 30 people are participating in

A ritual ayahuasca healing..

The shaman knows we are here. This feels a little awkward.

OK, so this last chamber is a field of goldenrods.

It is late fall and the flowers have all gone to seed.

As you can see, the sunset is pink and gorgeous. Lets take this in, in silence

Before we exit my brain.

As we exit my brain, you will find yourself back where we started.

Please do not leave anything behind.

Whatever you leave will be considered trash and discarded.

Thanks for your interest in my brain.

...........................
(Article changed on Oct 28, 2025 at 7:46 PM EDT)