Ron Whitehead - USA

Prayer

Deliver me from fear
Remind me constantly
that fear is forever overcome
by love

Deliver me from power
for power without love and wisdom
inevitably destroys anyone and everyone
in its path including the one
who has power but lacks love and wisdom

Deliver me from the disdain of
arrogance elitism privilege
and the illusion of superiority
for no one no one is in any way
better than anyone else

Deliver me from the violence of greed
Grant me the desire to live simply
and to share earth's bounty with others

Deliver me from the silence
that enables any and all manifestations of
abuse war and evil

Grant me the necessary balance of
love power and wisdom
enabling me to be a non-violent warrior for peace

Grant me the ability to
act responsibly in all areas of my own life
to be a good neighbor
and to dwell in harmony with nature

Thank you for the bounty of life
for the beauty of nature
and for the love of family and friends

Amen

Ron Whitehead

Copyright (c) 2018 Ron Whitehead

"I hereby heartily recommend Ron Whitehead as the next Poet Laureate of Kentucky."
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, First Poet Laureate of San Francisco 

Photo by Jinn Bug

Poet, writer, editor, publisher, scholar, professor, activist Ron Whitehead grew up on a farm in Kentucky. He attended The University of Louisville and Oxford University. As poet and writer he is the recipient of numerous state, national, and international awards and prizes including The All Kentucky Poetry Prize, Ariel/Triton College Poetry Prize (Judge, Lisel Mueller), The Yeats Club of Oxford’s Prize for Poetry, and many others. In 2006 Dr. John Rocco (NYC) nominated Ron for The Nobel Prize in Literature. He was inducted into his high school’s (Ohio County High) Hall of Fame, representing his 1968 graduating class.

Ron has edited and published the works of such luminaries as His Holiness The Dalai Lama, President Jimmy Carter, Hunter S. Thompson, Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, John Updike, Wendell Berry, Andy Warhol, Yoko Ono, BONO, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Rita Dove, Douglas Brinkley, Robert Hunter, Amiri Baraka, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and hundreds more.

Ron has produced over 2,000 Arts Events, Happenings, and Festivals throughout Europe and the USA. He has performed thousands of shows around the world with some of the best musicians and bands on the planet. He recently returned from a Scandinavia Tour with French rock band Blaak Heat and from New York City trips where his new books "blistered asphalt on dixie highway: Kentucky Basketball is Poetry in Motion" was released by Finishing Line Press at the historic Poets House, and “DISOBEY” (with Jinn Bug) was released by Underground Books at The New York City Poetry Festival. Underground Books/UB/NYC also recently released two more new volumes by Ron Whitehead. 

Ron's work has been translated into nearly 20 languages. He is the author of 30 books and 40 albums. His newest books include MAMA: a poet's heart in a kentucky girl (Transmission Press/Indiana), blistered asphalt on dixie highway: Kentucky Basketball is Poetry in Motion (Finishing Line Press/Kentucky), Quest for Self in the Ocean of Consciousness: Ibsen, Hamsun, Munch, Joyce: The Origins of Modernism and Expressionism (Cook Creative/Kentucky), DISOBEY (Underground Books/NYC), "I'd Never Shoot a Man While He's Washing Dishes: Arcturian Love Songs (Long Steel Rail Press/Kentucky), A TAOIST NUN TEACHES ME IN 14 DREAMS (Underground Books/NYC). His three newest albums (all three with sonaBLAST Records/Kentucky) are PRAYER, with Harry PIckens on piano and Aaron West on violin, THE STORM GENERATION MANIFESTO & Other Rock n Roll Poems, and DRAGONS, both with The Storm Generation Band. His next books, KENTUCKY BOUND: poems, stories, and songs (TranceMission Press) and “Death Threats, Hunter S. Thompson and The Dalai Lama” (Underground Books/NYC), along with his next album, Songs and Poems from The KENTUCKY BOUND Concert (sonaBLAST! Records), companion to Ron’s new KENTUCKY BOUND: poems, stories, and songs book were released November 17th. 

To book Ron Whitehead for performances, reading, speaking engagements contact: 

Ron Whitehead 

919 Cherokee Road 

Louisville, Kentucky 40204 

ronwhiteheadpoet@gmail.com 

502 396 5141 

Ron Whitehead's official website is www.tappingmyownphone.com