Monday, March 29, 2010

Less

Weakness

Where I need strength

Exhaustion

Slipped into every crack I needed it to miss

Buckling

Where I needed something to hold me up

Have to push, have to try, have to rest

Have to be

Left with quiet, quiet tears

The angry all melted away with exhaustion's deep gray sunrise

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Nothing makes more sense than an off-side ponytail on a little girl.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Lie Down

If I go to bed

and am still

The Day will catch up with me.

Perhaps that is why it is called lying

when you stop walking faster than the whispers following you.

The lies I showed others, the lies they showed me; mostly the lies I told myself

Surround me when I am still.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Funny Thing

Funny thing that I'm the only one left to deal with this, the aftermath.

Funny that you who remind me to pray don't feel the terror.

Call him today and ask him how his Monday is

His Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday

How are his weekends?

How are yours?

Funny that I am alone again

You call me bitter, and I don't flinch anymore

You who have gotten over it, you who have moved past

The event. To you it happened, to me it is happening.

I am not bitter, I am alive. And today I am alone.

So go on about your day, please don't pretend to understand now, now when I can't begin to understand you.

Funny thing.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

When Death Comes



When Death Comes

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps his purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox;

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering;
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth
tending as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

~ Mary Oliver ~


(New and Selected Poems, Volume I)

copied from http://www.panhala.net/Archive/When_Death_Comes.html

That is what I want my tombstone to say!

"When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms."

Friday, March 12, 2010

Girl in green goggles

Red umbrella

Pink boots

Puts back the color which grayly bled away





Thursday, March 11, 2010

Hard Stuff

All the truly important things in life are worth doing 'the hard way'. Sometimes shortcuts aren't truly easier; they skip, in fear of the pain, far too much of the joy.

Monday, March 8, 2010

Thaw

In the heavy, heavy fog not a single farm animal greets the morning. Deep cloud meets deep snow, the only snow still standing. This is not spring, not yet. But we all wait together.

Hush. Wait. Wait . . .

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Sunday Writes

of wine and steamships. Of gears and clocks and skeleton keys. Vegetables singing, appointments to be made which beg to be avoided. Girl in wild, wild curls. Words on walls. Dreams and cluttered realities that make up life. Time on Wings. Time flys on Sunday nights.


Saturday, March 6, 2010

Anyway

People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.

Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

(Alleged version on Mother Theresa's wall)


The Paradoxical Commandments

by Dr. Kent M. Keith

  1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
    Love them anyway.
  2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
    Do good anyway.
  3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
    Succeed anyway.
  4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
    Do good anyway.
  5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
    Be honest and frank anyway.
  6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
    Think big anyway.
  7. People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
    Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
  8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
    Build anyway.
  9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
    Help people anyway.
  10. Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
    Give the world the best you have anyway.
- Kent M. Keith

Friday, March 5, 2010

Break Time

6 March 2010


Life according to . . .

Sesame Street moral of the day: sometimes the Princess has to figure out how to rescue herself. Especially true, it seems, if your princess friend is a penguin and your handsome prince says "Woa" a lot.

The word "exquisite" really is just that. I must find opportunities to use that word more.

Day three of learning to cook yummy eggs consisted of peanut butter sandwiches.

Wheel on the Bus

4 March 2010

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Oh! The Places You'll Go - Dr. Seuss

Congratulations!

Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.
You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.

You’ll look up and down streets. Look’em over with care. About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.” With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you’re too smart to go down a not-so-good street.

And you may not find any you’ll want to go down. In that case, of course, you’ll head straight out of town. It’s opener there in the wide open air.

Out there things can happen and frequently do to people as brainy and footsy as you.

And when things start to happen, don’t worry. Don’t stew. Just go right along. You’ll start happening too.

Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And if you go in, should you turn left or right…or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite? Or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow. Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.

No! That’s not for you!
Somehow you’ll escape all that waiting and staying. You’ll find the bright places where Boom Bands are playing. With banner flip-flapping, once more you’ll ride high! Ready for anything under the sky. Ready because you’re that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you’ll go! There is fun to be done! There are points to be scored. There are games to be won. And the magical things you can do with that ball will make you the winning-est winner of all. Fame! You’ll be famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.

Except when they don’t. Because, sometimes, they won’t.

I’m afraid that some times you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl. Onward up many a frightening creek, though your arms may get sore and your sneakers may leak. On and on you will hike. And I know you’ll hike far and face up to your problems whatever they are.

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know. You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go. So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
So…be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray or Mordecai Ale Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.
So…get on your way!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Dreaming

Some of us don't get to live our dream lives. Instead we get to live dream moments scattered throughout our quite liveable lives.

Perhaps we just dreamed the bigger dreams.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

"And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once. And we should call every truth false which was not accompanied by at least one laugh". Friedrich Nietzsche