Meet Jack

Jack W. Fee

Born on January 18th, 1947.

Capricorn Sun, Leo Rising, Sagittarius Moon

 

Father: Arthur W. Fee

Born in Punnichy, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Last Occupation: Minister

 

Mother: Ruth Janette Campbell

Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada

Last Occupation: 4th Grade School Teacher

 

   

 I was born in Altadena CA near Pasadena.  At the time my father was going to college to become a Nazareth Minister.  At age 2 we moved back to Penticton, B.C. Canada, then to Livingston, MT, then Lander, WY, then finally to Ridgefield, WA.

     My father died shortly after retirement.  My mother however, lived another 20 years.  She was more prepared for retirement as she had her friends, her garden, and her hobbies.  I chose to emulate her life opposed to my fathers.  It just seemed to make sense in the long run!

     When I was 10 years old I wrote a short book titled "The Balance of Nature".  I was laughed at then and it seems like an impossibility now - to put all our roads and cities underground and encourage the Earth to grow wild once again.  I had visions of massive salmon runs and herds of buffalo returning to the West.

     I learned to work with wood in high school wood shop and apprenticed as a carpenter in the pole building trade.  I learned remodeling and auto mechanics within the necessity of fixing up old houses and cars.

     Money making schemes have not been my forte. I have had some lucky real estate deals but paid jobs have been my main source of income.  Learning how to live a champagne lifestyle on a beer budget has been my Modus Operandi. 


My Philosophy

Are there many paths that lead to the center, the higher self? If we can get a grasp of what is Quality in our lives and try to balance the Heart, the Mind and the Stomach, then maybe we might be able to find more balance in our life?

I do not find this easy myself because I follow my passions - using them for my fuel.

On my long hikes, that I love, I notice a definite reciprocity from Nature when I maintain a humble thankfulness for every blessing, every barbed wire fence crossed safely, every resting place found and for not leaving behind an essential tool such as a knife or field glasses. And in the evening I am met by the best campsite spot I've seen on that day's march. Strange sounds out of nowhere getting me to stop and notice biscuit roots popping out of the ground at my feet, from the frost heave! Spilling boiling hot water on my bare foot only to have a cold wind hit it instantly, cooling it with no injury. And many other miracles!

To me these events come from myself being in a state of mind where I consciously maintain a humble thankfulness for every blessing and with a kind of Youthful Reverence of the Unknown -

YRU! Maybe this is where my philosophy begins: with these acronyms. Y R U. Why Are You? WAY. What is the WAY?

When I am not immersed in Nature it is harder to maintain a humble thankfulness for every blessing and everything seems to get blurred and buried under my material and social culture. I look at this as an anachronistic life style yet I know it still underlines everything everywhere!!!

I was raised by protestant ministers of the Church of the Nazarene and I could not help notice a lot of hypocrisy around me, so I distanced myself from the church as soon as I could. I did observe the advantages of a strong faith in certain people and have tried not to "throw the baby out with the bath water" so to speak.  I have read the Bible and enjoyed its many stories yet, as far as I can tell, overall the text has caused as much harm as it has caused good. I personally think the best approach for any human being is to question all of the Root Documents of our culture and as we race headlong toward our own self caused extinction, I think we should question everything we have been taught!

I believe that the environmental degradation of the planet and homelessness are the direct byproducts of the Capitalistic precept that: Profit is the Bottomline. I think this behavior is a direct result of the culture we have learned!

Poetry

Only

 

            The only beauty

 I have left

                 Is in my music

                     And my dance

 

               Watching Man

                   Trying to out smart

                        Nature

 

                                  Makes me weep

                                        Inside:

 

                                                   An unmet grief.

Green  Sea

 

           Everything is waiting for someone to die

             The Trees the Hawk in the sky

                Just think, You may be next and 

                   what would be your 

                       contribution to the ground?

 

                          Will the roots of a seed bearer

                              delve into that place

                                 where you kidneys

                                   once held your adrenaline?

 

                                     And who will benefit

                                       from the Akashic Record

                                         of your every thought,

                                           the Whales in the 

                                              Deep Green Sea?

 

The very bottom that

is covered with

all the elements 

 

of Life?

Enchantment

 

It will take me forever to walk to Alpha Centauri and 

the Universe has more stars than my Brain has Synapses and

My Mind can perceive many opposing Forces.

Yet what if I could not discern the difference 

between Light and Darkness or

between near and very far away or

between large and very small or 

between hot and cold or

between Male and Female or

between Good and Evil. 

Would I then be God?

 

Life I think is beauty and 

so kind, and so cruel and 

so tenacious and so frail and

so pervasive.

 

Will the beauty I see as you ever fade or 

die on contact?

I think you know you are beautiful and careful

who you share your time with and

I am humbled and 

satisfied to notice!

 

How often does a man 

kneel before a Goddess and

fit her into a suit of wings

for a dance

Then watch her fly away 

with no fare well?

 

To imagine seeing so far and

flying so high

knowing the human heart, 

its powerful lifts 

its passions, its joys and

graceful descents ,

Its fears and its sorrows 

its hopes and dreams,

turns and dives.

 

Only another Artist on the Road?

My memory of you a bookmark

fading from my page. 

Friends like ghosts and

clouds that dissipate.

The way you held your wings

the strength I felt beneath your clothes,

a deep well of universal tribe.

Waking from my dream

all fingers tapping

on all the drums

I open the basement windows 

hoping it was you.

Forget the Fences

 

I am still a wounded man

                   Walking in someone else's shoes

                    And I do not have enough grief

               To set you free to return

                          As a helpful Nature Spirit.

Loving my Rooster’s adrenalin

     With your red boots on or off

    And I still respect you 

             Marrying in a red shirt

                   Adjusting to the load

                            Transferring discomfort

                                         Watching the fungus growing

                           On dead wood.

      She is so strong

       And limber

                         So easy to break

                              Yet hard to split

                                           And you come down

                                                   With a vengeance.

I free myself

                         My wants got in the way

                 Of your needs.

         I apologize to all

                       My ungrieved lovers.

When my needs, become your wants

        A reflection of the divine shines in you

                     And in my eyes.

                                   Defending territory, drawing lines

                   Forget the fences

                             And the cold nights

                                    In the birch forest.

           Coyote moss

              And tamarack needles

                 Drawing patterns on the ice

                     So intense in tents

                        A frozen moose head 

                           Kept me company

                              Locked in the deep freeze

                                  Where fat rules the land

             Birch my friend

                Where the Rooster’s crow 

                   Is frozen

                 And the ax and knife 

                    Rule the roost

                 And the straight grain Spruce

                     Is a saving’s grace.

                 Fire on a cold Mountain stream

                    I bathed with 

                       The Goddess

                           Wrapped in wool

                               Where the wants of others

                                   Don’t match my needs

                                      Sleeping on the Earth

                                         Strengthening my Soul

        The pervasive and penetrating

             Wind moaning through

                   The night

                 On fresh summer sheets

               And clean pillow cases

             One head on my side

           And your’s is other 

         Than here

       Troubled by red boots

     And his attack Rooster

   And a horse’s hard hooves

          Uneasy in the wind

                             Who cast that brass

                                         Bell

                                     With a pure tone

                                  Like an upright Grand

                                Played by a connoisseur 

                                        Of Ivory-less keys

                                           On God’s Piano?