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