Poems, Prose, Photos & the Art of Being Human
poetry, writing, novel, yoga, restorative yoga, improv, near death, asthma, hope, social imbalance
The dragon lives in the sky, ocean,
marshes, and mountains; and the
mountains are also its cranium.
It's voice thunders and jingles like
copper pans. It breathes fire and
water; and sometimes the dragon
is one, sometimes many.
Maxine Hong Kingston
LIVING ON THE STREETS I never chose to be here Amid concrete and cheap booze— I’d sooner die but bodies carry on for years. I hear the wailing ricochet of children Held within this hell of rolling veins. No, they never, never chose to be here. Limbs stiffened from cold sidewalks trap me As pustules grow and lice feed on my skin— I’d sooner die but bodies carry on for years. Violence is not televised on streets; instead, it jeers at battered Skulls and broken bones—we’re easy prey for kids. No, I never chose to be here. Whiskey holds back cold and memories that leer of oboe played Amidst the smoke, thighs wrapping mine through dawn. Now, I’d sooner die but bodies carry on for years. With deafened ears and eyes averted, you comment on My stench as you dart into the restaurant; I never chose to be here— I’d sooner die but bodies carry on for years.
Thank you to the editors of Mediphors: A Literary Journal of the Health Professions for first publishing this poem.
IF NOT FOR SILENCE
In their mad Sufi dance words whirl off tongues
loose as hot snakes as we struggle to speak with rudiments—
mostly we quarrel, walk away, but sometimes manage
to weave them like a lovers’ embrace beneath that open-voweled moon,
which vacillates between the startled suck of air through pursed lips
and a night so long that, shy, she slips beyond the sun’s unerring watch.
Words electrify nerves till air feels like a panther lapping our luminous skin,
but it is silence that exposes our fiery hearts to serpentine tongues,
silence that would strip our marrow if not for the pulsing muteness
of flesh kneading flesh, of snakes and stars and moon-shackled seas.
Thank you to the editors of HOT FLASHES 2 for first publishing this poem.
A horse is poetry in motion.
Arabian proverb
Anyone who doesn't know
what soap tastes like
never washed a dog.
Franklin P. Jones
A person doesn't need to go to college to learn facts.
He can get them from books.
The value of a liberal arts college education is that
it trains the mind to think. That's something you
can't learn from textbooks.
If a person (has the) ability,
a college education helps develop it.
Albert Einstein
(from "Einstein: His Life and Times" by Philipp Frank)
Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap
but by the seeds that you plant.
Robert Lewis Stevenson
Oxfam‘s January 14, 2024 report, Inequality Inc., explores the disparity between the uber-wealthy and the rest of society.
Since 2020, five billion people have become poorer, while the world’s five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes—at a rate of $14 million per hour.
This election is not about Harris, Trump or an individual issue. It’s about what the United States of America represents, for us and the world; how it provides for its citizens and the environment; how we care not only for the living and those who have sacrificed for this country, but also for those who will follow, which one could interpret in line with the Native American-Iroquois law: “In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.”
This election is not about the next four years or a party; but instead, whether we choose that “all…are created equal…with certain unalienable rights…life, liberty and… happiness,” not merely as pursuit, but experienced (as described in this Emory U. article), or if we want something different for our nation.
Each vote matters, which is why so many have literally sacrificed or died to protect this right for every eligible citizen.
Elizabeth Oakley Weaver 