On Candor

"Honesty without humility is often cruelty."

- Source Unknown

Ring-a 'dem Bells

"Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything,
That's how the light gets in."

- Select lyrics (ala Ronnie) taken from "Anthem" by Leonard Cohen

On World AIDS Day 2008

“It only happens to them,” I said.
“There’s nothing for me to worry about.
Before it ever gets too bad,
I’m sure they’re gonna figure it out.”

It’s a family of man we’ve got on this planet.
There isn’t one life we can take for granted.
Everybody has a mark to leave; a difference to make.
Our backs may be against the wall,
But our spirits will not break.

Is it someone you know or only a stranger?
If we stop to ask then we’re all in danger.
It takes guts to rise each morning
And look this thing right in the eye
The solution starts with love
And a dream that will not die.

We’re all in this together,
There isn’t any doubt.
We’re all in this together,
There’s no one we can do without.
And we’ll never give in,
Til we knock this thing out.
Every star will shine forever.
We’re all in this together.

Don’t you ever lose hope
That’s worth all the reminding
As long as we don’t forget
we can reach the horizon

Here’s to everyone who’s brave enough
to keep fight for their lives.
Here’s to everyone that’s working hard
To shed a little light.

We’re all in this together,
There isn’t any doubt.
We’re all in this together,
There’s no one we can do without.

And we’ll never give in
Til we knock this thing out.
Every star will shine forever.
We’re all in this together.

- "We're All in This Together" as performed by Patti Austin
on Patti Austin Live (1992)

Art and Serenity

i

Make a place to sit down.
Sit down. Be quiet.
You must depend upon
affection, reading, knowledge,
skill—more of each
than you have—inspiration,
work, growing older, patience,
for patience joins time
to eternity. Any readers
who like your poems,
doubt their judgment.

ii

Breathe with unconditional breath
the unconditioned air.
Shun electric wire.
Communicate slowly. Live
a three-dimensioned life;
stay away from screens.
Stay away from anything
that obscures the place it is in.
There are no unsacred places;
there are only sacred places
and desecrated places.

iii

Accept what comes from silence.
Make the best you can of it.
Of the little words that come
out of the silence, like prayers
prayed back to the one who prays,
make a poem that does not disturb
the silence from which it came.

- How To Be a Poet (to remind myself)
By Wendell Berry

All That I Am

“I hold a beast, an angel and a madman in me, and my enquiry is as to their working, and my problem is their subjugation and victory, downthrow and upheaval, and my effort is their self-expression.”

- Dylan Thomas

Living With

History, despite it's wrenching pain, cannot be un-lived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.

-Maya Angelou (American Poet, b.1928)

What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life

What are you doing the rest of your life?
North and south and east and west of your life
I have only one request of your life
That you spend it all with me

All the seasons and the times of your days
All the nickels and the dimes of your days
Let the reasons and rhymes of your days
All begin and end with me

I want to see your face
In every kind of light
In fields of dawn
And forests of the night
And when you stand before the candles on a cake
Oh, let me be the one to hear the silent wish you make

Those tomorrow’s waiting deep in your eyes
And the world of love you keep in your eyes
I’ll awaken what’s asleep in your eyes
It may take a kiss or two

Through all of my life
Summer, winter, spring and fall of my life
All I ever will recall of my life
Is all of my life with you

-Music and lyrics by Alan Bergman / Marilyn Bergman / Michel Legrand

To Give, Eternal

“While you have a thing it can be taken from you... 
but when you give it, you have given it.
No robber can take it from you.  
It is yours then for ever when you have given it.
It will be yours, always.
That is to give.”

- James Joyce

On Literary Etiquette

"I was brought up in the great tradition of the late 19th century or early part of this century that a writer never complains, never explains and never disdains.''

-James Michener, winner of the Pulitzer Prize four decades ago for ''Tales of the South Pacific'' 

The Influences We Heed

"Halfway to work and Merriman already has told me
What he thinks about the balanced budget, the Mets'
Lack of starting pitching, the dangers of displaced
Soviet nuclear engineers, soy products, and diesel cars.

I look out the window and hope I'll see a swan.
I hear they're bad-tempered but I love their necks
And how they glide along so sovereignly.
I never take the time to drive to a pond

And spend an hour watching swans. What
Would happen if I heeded the admonitions of beauty?
When I look over at Merriman, he's telling Driscoll
That the President doesn't know what he's doing
With China. "China," I say out loud but softly.
I go back to the window. It's started snowing."

- "Opinion" by Baron Wormser

from Subject Matter: Poems

Decision '08

"Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children."

- Kahlil Gibran

Ah Yout'

I’ve had a little bit too much
All of the people start to rush by
How does he twist the dance?
Can’t find my drink, oh man
Where are my keys?
I lost my phone

What’s going on on the floor?
I love this record, baby
But I can’t see straight anymore
Keep it cool
What’s the name of this club?
I can’t remember
But it’s alright

Just dance
Gonna be okay
Da-da-doo-doo
Just dance
Spin that record babe
Da-da-doo-doo
Just dance

- Select lyrics from Just Dance (2008)

Lyrics by Colby O'Donis

Performed by Lady GaGa

Losing Love

Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard
Some do it with a bitter look
Some with a flattering word
The coward does it with a kiss
The brave man with a sword!

Some kill their love when they are young
And some when they are old
Some strangle with the hands of Lust
Some with the hands of Gold
The kindest use a knife
Because
 the dead so soon grow cold

Some love too little, some too long
Some sell, and others buy
Some do the deed with many tears
And some without a sigh
For each man kills the thing he loves
Yet each man does not die.

- An Except from The Ballad Of Reading Gaol (Part I)

by Oscar Wilde 
(1854-1900)

Of Wanting

What we want
is never simple.
We move among the things
we thought we wanted:
a face, a room, an open book
and these things bear our names--
now they want us.
But what we want appears
in dreams, wearing disguises.
We fall past,
holding out our arms
and in the morning
our arms ache.
We don't remember the dream,
but the dream remembers us.
It is there all day
as an animal is there
under the table,
as the stars are there
even in full sun.

- "What We Want" by Linda Pastan

from Carnival Evening

No Country for Old Men

That is no country for old men. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

- Sailing to Byzantium

by William Butler Yeats (1928)

On Old Cape Cod

If you're fond of sand dunes and salty air
Quaint little villages here and there
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod

If you like the taste of a lobster stew
Served by a window with an ocean view
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod

Winding roads that seem to beckon you
Miles of green beneath a sky of blue
Church bells chimin' on a Sunday morn
Remind you of the town where you were born

If you spend an evening you'll want to stay
Watching the moonlight on Cape Cod Bay
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod

If you spend an evening you'll want to stay
Watching the moonlight on Cape Cod Bay
You're sure to fall in love
With old Cape Cod

- "Old Cape Cod", written by Claire Rothrock, Milt Yakus

and Allan Jeffrey and released in 1957;

Here Today Gone Tomorrow

Harry got up
Dressed all in black
Went down to the station
And he never came back
They found his clothing
Scattered somewhere down the track
And he won't be down on Wall Street
in the morning

He had a home
The love of a girl
But men get lost sometimes
As years unfurl
One day he crossed some line
And he was too much in this world
But I guess it doesn't matter anymore

In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute
Things can get pretty strange
In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute

Lying here in the darkness
I hear the sirens wail
Somebody going to emergency
Somebody's going to jail
If you find somebody to love in this world
You better hand on tooth and nail
The wolf is always at the door

In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute
Things can get a little strange
In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute

And in these days
When darkness falls early
And people rush home
To the ones they love
You better take a fool's advice
And take care of your own
One day they're here;
Next day they're gone

I pulled my coat around my shoulders
And took a walk down through the park
The leaves were falling around me
The groaning city in the gathering dark
On some solitary rock
A desperate lover left his mark,
"Baby, I've changed. Please come back."

What the head makes cloudy
The heart makes very clear
The days were so much brighter
In the time when she was here
But I know there's somebody somewhere
Make these dark clouds disappear
Until that day, I have to believe
I believe, I believe

In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute
You can get out of the rain
In a New York Minute
Everything can change
In a New York Minute

- From "New York Minute" performed by Don Henley

The Farmer Hogget and Camille Saint-Saen

If I had words to make a day for you,
I'd sing you a morning golden & true
I would make this day last for all time
then fill the night deep with moonshine.

- The "Farmer Hogget" Song from the movie Babe (1995)
Sung to Saint-Saens'  Symphony No.3 in C Minor, Op. 78

(the Organ Symphony)

O Day Full Of Grace

O day full of grace, which we behold,
To us from the sea ascending;
You over the earth your reign unfold,
Good cheer to all mortals lending,
That children of light in every clime
May prove that the night is ending!

How blest was that gracious midnight hour,
When Christ in the flesh was given;
Then flushed from the east the dawn with pow’r,

That spread o’er the darkened heaven;
Then rose o’er the world that sun divine
Which gloom from our hearts has driven.

Were all of the trees endowed with speech,
Were all of the leaflets singing,
They never with praise His worth could reach,
Though earth with their praise were ringing.
Who fully could praise the Light of Life,
Who light to our souls is bringing?

As birds in the morning sing God’s praise,
His fatherly love we cherish,
For giving to us this day of grace,
For life that shall never perish.
His Church He has kept these thousand years,
And hungering souls did nourish.

With joy we approach our Father’s land,
Where day is forever dwelling,
Where ready for us His mansions stand,
Where heaven with praise is swelling;
And there we shall walk in endless light,
With blest ones His praise forth telling.

- N.F.S. Grundtvig, 1826

Oh What a World

Men reading fashion magazines
Oh what a world
It seems we live in
Straight men...
Oh what a world
We live in

Why am I always on a plane or a fast train
Oh what a world my parents gave me
Always travelin'
but not in love

Still I think I'm doin' fine
Wouldn't it be a lovely headline
“Life is Beautiful”
On a New York Times

- From the song entitled
Oh What a World (“Want One”, 2003)
by Rufus Wainwright

We Need Change

When you're feeling down and out
Wondering what this world's about
I know a place that has the answer.

It's a place where no one dies.
It's a land where no one cries.
And good vibrations always
Greet you.

How I love when my thoughts run
To the land of make believe.
Where everything is fun
Forever.

Children always gather around
Mother Goose and all her rhyme
They fill the air with sounds
Of laughter.

People dancing
Their hearts are filled
With all the reasons why.
You and I should learn the way
Of the land of make believe
And make this world of ours
Much brighter.

I once asked the Wizard of Oz
For the secret of his land
He said, "Just take a look around here."
Seven dwarves and Little Boy Blue, 
Uncle Remus and Snow White, too.
(Now, just between us, 
That's what's known as integration.)

Jack and Jill are hard at work
Helping children dream awhile, 
And Snoopy's making smiles
For grown-ups.

All the elves are making toys
They are rich with all the joys
Of seeing happy kids
At Christmas.

We are waiting
To help you find
The dream made just for you.

In a few words let's just say
That in answer to your quiz
"Imagination is
The secret."

Hear the music of the band
It was written in our land
For what's a song but someone's
Dream? 

In your world there was a King
He once said, "I have a dream,"
Now there's a man who new
The secret.

Dreams are really
The thoughts that you
Have hidden in your heart.

When you start a brand new day
Let your heart show you the way
And make a dream or two
Come true.

How I love when my thoughts run
To the land of make believe
Where everything is fun

Forever.

-  From the 1973 Live Album, Land of Make Believe,

Chuck Mangione Quartet 

with the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra 

& Esther Satterfield, vocalist

"More Tears Are Shed Over Answered Prayers Than Unanswered Ones"

- The epigraph to Truman Capote's last (unfinished and untitled) work

Sweet Dreams

"We are such stuff, as dreams are made of,
And our little life is rounded,
With a sleep."

-From William Shakespeare’s The Tempest

Pretty is What Changes

"Changing
It keeps changing
I see towers where there were trees.
Going, all the stillness,
the solitude, Georgie!
Sundays disappearing, all the time,
when things were beautiful.

All things are beautiful, Mother.
All trees, all towers, beautiful.
That tower beautiful, Mother.
See? A perfect tree.
Pretty isn't beautiful, Mother.
Pretty is what changes.
What the eye arranges
is what is beautiful!"

- Lyrics from Sunday in the Park with George

by Stephen Sondheim, 1984

The Red Cross

-Digital Composition by Randal E. Culbreth, 2008

More at http://gallery.mac.com/jkmcguirk#100024&view=carouseljs&sel=0

On Over Achievement

"They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm."

-Dorothy Parker, 'Fair Weather,' Sunset Gun, 1928

Get Real

"Daylight falls and I'm lost in the big parade.
Hold my hand, darling, I'm afraid of the daylight.
Shade is dark.
Cool and languid for life or love.
Safe in shadows; never stark as the daylight.

When I was just knee high,
My Momma told me, never try,
To be someone that I am not.
Yet over time I had forgot,
The wandering child, so lost at play:
He's found himself but he can't find his way,
In the daylight.

Life is short, and there's no turning back the time.
Fragrant meadows and rocks to climb in the daylight.
In my mind, there's a corner I need to turn.
Lessons lived is a lesson learned in the daylight.

I miss the forest shade,
You took me there, the promise I made,
To never leave the dark so deep.
Safe and soothing, yet I fear,
As I recall and now reflect,
I see it's safer to connect,
To the daylight."

Lyrics from Daylight by Alison Krauss & Union Station

from the album Home on the Highways

In How We Speak

"Brave men tell the truth, 
A wise man's tools are analogies and puzzles,
A woman holds her tongue,
Knowing silence will speak for her."

From "Remind Me" by Royksopp (2007)

Live to Love

"There was a boy
A very strange enchanted boy
They say he wandered very far, very far
Over land and sea
A little shy and sad of eye
But very wise was he

And then one day
A magic day he passed my way
And while we spoke of many things
Fools and kings
This he said to me
'The greatest thing you'll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return'"

-Nature Boy by Nat King Cole (Greatest Hits, 1948)

Heart Beats

"And if I need rhythm, it'll be to my heart I listen."

- Roison Murphy in "Ramalama"

Affirmation

To grow old is to lose everything.
Aging, everybody knows it.
Even when we are young,
we glimpse it sometimes, and nod our heads
when a grandfather dies.
Then we row for years on the midsummer
pond, ignorant and content. But a marriage,
that began without harm, scatters
into debris on the shore,
and a friend from school drops
cold on a rocky strand.
If a new love caries us
past middle age, our wife will die
at her strongest and most beautiful.
New women come and go. All go.
The pretty lover who announces
that she is temporary
is temporary. The bold woman,
middle-aged against our old age,
sinks under an anxiety she cannot withstand.
Another friend of decades estranges himself
in words that pollute thirty years.
Let us stifle under mud at the pond's edge
and affirm that it is fitting
and delicious to lose everything.

-Donald Hall from The Painted Bed (Houghton Mifflin Company)

A Life Full

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

-Theodore Roosevelt (April 23, 1910)