BEATING HEART

BEATING HEART
"Many a beating heart is silenced by the tyranny of indifference." ~Michael Faudet

THE PUREST PLACE

THE PUREST PLACE
"Retrace your steps and go back to the purest place in your heart… where your hope lives. You’ll find your way again.” ~Everwood (Trust Your Journey)

The Bible says

"a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things which he possesseth."

30 May 2014

STILL I'LL RISE

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

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Maya Angelou
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RIP: 28 May 2014

24 May 2014

WHERE WE BELONG

we'll find a place
to call our own
it won't be long now
we're almost home

reflections of another time
reflections of another place

the light above
rained down its grace

it's here and now
this time is ours
this journey now
this road we're on
is where we belong

remember us
remember when
so long ago
when it was cold
deep in the woods
the autumn chill
hung in the air
we didn't care

this is our time
this is our place

it's not a dream
this love is real
i can feel it in
my heart can feel
it in my soul

this is where
we both belong.

~Michael Traveler
Postcards from the Past

✧~✧~✧~✧~✧~✧~✧~✧~✧~✧~✧~✧

21 May 2014

TIME PASSED

There was a time in my life that I fell in a hole.
I’m not proud about it.
I saw it coming and I still fell in.
It hurt I cried... I cried a lot.
The hole was dark.
I was terrified I might never find my way out.
Time passed.

I planted bitter seeds in the bare earth.
My eyes adjusted to the darkness.
I was still in a hole, but it was MY hole.
It wasn’t so bad.
Time passed.

I began to decorate the walls.
I lined the shelves with books.
I stocked the larder.
It felt comfortable in the hole now.
It wasn’t so bad.
Time passed.

The wall paper began to sag and tear away from the walls. My eyes could see the bare earth beneath.
I saw the roots of the bitter seeds I had planted.
I blessed their gnarled form.
I touched their withered blooms.
I whispered sweet soulful words of hope.
I still cried.... but now I prayed.
Time passed.

I began to read books.
My mind grew curious.
My eyes grew wise.
My heart grew bold.
My body grew restless.
I startled the darkness with a giggle.
It felt wonderful.
I read more, asked more, wanted more.
I grew bold
There was a time when I climbed out of a hole.

©Kristin Louise Granger
23/8/13

Source: FB via Butterflies and Pebbles

PROMISE YOURSELF

Promise Yourself
To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them
To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.
To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.
To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.

✿*•..¸✿ Christian D. Larson ✿*•..¸✿

Source: Journey to Peace

2 May 2014

"POPPIES ON LUDLOW CASTLE"

by Willa Cather (1873-1947)

"THROUGH halls of vanished pleasure,
And hold of vanished power,
And crypt of faith forgotten,
A came to Ludlow tower.

A-top of arch and stairway,
Of crypt and donjan cell,
Of council hall, and chamber,
Of wall, and ditch, and well,

High over grated turrets
Where clinging ivies run,
A thousand scarlet poppies
Enticed the rising sun,

Upon the topmost turret,
With death and damp below,--
Three hundred years of spoilage,--
The crimson poppies grow.

This hall it was that bred him,
These hills that knew him brave,
The gentlest English singer
That fills an English grave.

How have they heart to blossom
So cruel and gay and red,
When beauty so hath perished
And valour so hath sped?

When knights so fair are rotten,
And captains true asleep,
And singing lips are dust-stopped
Six English earth-feet deep?

When ages old remind me
How much hath gone for naught,
What wretched ghost remaineth
Of all that flesh hath wrought;

Of love and song and warring,
Of adventure and play,
Of art and comely building,
Of faith and form and fray--

I'll mind the flowers of pleasure,
Of short-lived youth and sleep,
That drunk the sunny weather
A-top of Ludlow keep."


Before Willa Cather went on to write the novels that would make her famous, she was known as a poet, the most popular of her poems reprinted many times in national magazines and anthologies. Her first book of poetry, April Twilights, was published in 1903, but Cather significantly revised and expanded it in a 1923 edition entitled April Twilights and Other Poems. This Everyman’s Library edition reproduces for the first time all the poems from both versions of April Twilights, along with a number of uncollected and previously unpublished poems by Cather, as well as an illuminating selection of her newly released letters. In such lyrical poems as “The Hawthorn Tree,” “Winter at Delphi,” “Prairie Spring,” “Poor Marty,” and “Going Home,” Cather exhibits both a finely tuned sensitivity to the beauties of the physical world and a richly symbolic use of the landscapes of myth. The themes that were to animate her later masterpieces found their first expression in these haunting, elegiac ballads and sonnets.

Source: Everyman's Library

YOU'VE GOT TO

I know just how it feels
to climb a mountain
only to fall back down;
there’s no will to try again
once you’ve hit the ground

But you’ve got to
You’ve got to move,
And I’ll be there
Be right there to help you

I know just how it feels
to spread your wings
only to never fly;
there’s no desire
to give it another try

But you’ve got to
You’ve got to fly,
And I’ll be there
Be right there to fly with you

I know just how it feels
to put one foot in front of the other
only to stumble before you fall;
there’s no strength left
to give it your all

But you’ve got to
You’ve got to walk,
And I’ll be there
Be right there to break your fall

I know just how it feels
to face the world alone
only to realize you were wrong;
there’s a friend there
to help you along

I’ll always be there to help you along

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Ups, Downs & Roundabouts
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