Youth, Beauty, Positivity

 

“When you’re a child you just assume that people are rewarded for their talents; that those who contribute beautiful, poignant things to the world are valued in such a way that allows them to, say, get their teeth fixed. But man, if the ruthlessness of becoming an adult doesn’t knock that naivete straight out of you.”   ~Libby Copeland

Driven Too Late

I wonder how many get their act together, only to find they have done so too languidly. They have lost weight they needlessly carried; they’ve learned information they could have demanded prior; they have knuckled down where before they were slack. All of this, only to discover they were driven too late…

This is what you shall do

“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”

– Walt Whitman from the preface of Leaves of Grass

The places…you know…

Along the roads,
through the town,
we’ve been down thrice
and always found,

A certain place
not distinct,
so known to us
lest we e’r think

Businesses live
run the race,
they too end swiftly
its sunny place,

Miss them we will,
no more go,
hold fond mem’ries
places you know.

Be Not So Fearful

“Be not so nervous, be not so frail
Someone watches you, you will not fail
Be not so nervous, be not so frail
Be not so nervous, be not so frail

Be not so sorry for what you’ve done
You must forget them now, it’s done
And when you wake up you will find you can run
Be not so sorry for what you’ve done

Be not so fearful, be not so pale
Someone watches you, you will not leave the rails
Be not so fearful, be not so pale
Be not so fearful, be not so pale

Be not so sorry for what you’ve done
You must forget them now, it’s done
And when you wake up you will find you can run
Be not so sorry for what you’ve done “

-Bill Fay

Forethought

Attainable goals
require a plan of attack
…lost, if not for thought.

Homegrown Businesses

We all need to spend a little more effort to support our local and homegrown businesses. Even businesses that are not in our backyard but have sprung forth in the next state or across the country need our dollar-backing if they are to continue being the backbone of the American dream. What small business can you patronize today?

Haunting Haiku

At what point’s the past
left to an unhappy death
not haunting the now?

Thinking of the Maritimes…

Hey Sweet Annie
Don’t take it so bad
You know the summer’s coming soon
Though the interstate is choking under salt and dirty sand
And it seems the sun is hiding from the moon

Your daddy told you
When you were a girl
The kind of things that come to those who wait
So give it a rest girl
Take a deep breath girl
And meet me at the Bay State tonight

And the snow is coming down
On our New England town
And it’s been falling all day long
What else is new
What could I do
I wrote a valley winter song
To play for you

And late December
Can drag a man down
You feel it deep in your gut
Short days and afternoons spent pottering around
In a dark house with the windows painted shut

Remember New York
Staring outside
As reckless winter made its way
From State Island to the Upper West Side
Whiting out our streets along the way

And the snow is coming down
On our New England town
And it’s been falling all day long
What else is new
What can I do
But sing this valley winter song
I wrote for you

An Excerpt from Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope

“When from the censer clouds of fragrance roll,
And swelling organs lift the rising soul,
One thought of thee puts all the pomp to flight,
Priests, tapers, temples, swim before my sight:
In seas of flame my plunging soul is drown’d,
While altars blaze, and angels tremble round.”