life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the month “May, 2015”

days of grace and kindness 

You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.  – Jane Goodall

 

Not merely because Henry James said

there were but four rules of life—
be kind be kind be kind be kind—but
because it’s good for the soul, and,
what’s more, for others; it may be
that kindness is our best audition
for a worthier world, and, despite
the vagueness and uncertainty of
its recompense, a bird may yet wander
into a bush before our very houses,
gratitude may not manifest itself in deeds
entirely equal to our own, still there’s
weather arriving from every direction,
the feasts of famine and feasts of plenty
may yet prove to be one, so why not
allow the little sacrificial squinches and
squiggles to prevail? Why not inundate
the particular world with minute particulars?
Dust’s certainly all our fate, so why not
make it the happiest possible dust,
a detritus of blessedness? Surely
the hedgehog, furling and unfurling
into its spiked little ball, knows something
that, with gentle touch and unthreatening
tone, can inure to our benefit, surely the wicked
witches of our childhood have died and,
from where they are buried, a great kindness
has eclipsed their misdeeds. Yes, of course,
in the end so much comes down to privilege
and its various penumbras, but too much
of our unruly animus has already been
wasted on reprisals, too much of the
unblessed air is filled with smoke from
undignified fires. Oh friends, take
whatever kindness you can find
and be profligate in its expenditure:
It will not drain your limited resources,
I assure you, it will not leave you vulnerable
and unfurled, with only your sweet little claws
to defend yourselves, and your wet little noses,
and your eyes to the ground, and your little feet.

💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩
Be Kind by Michael Blumenthal
   

 

Listen to Faith Hill sing Wish for You http://youtu.be/hp4OKgYHX4k

😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍

photo sources at www.pinterest.com/al513

There comes a time in your life when you walk away from all the drama and the people who create it. You surround yourself with people who make you laugh. Learn from the bad and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right and pray for the ones who don’t. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is part of life. Getting back up is living. — Jose N. Harris

Caesium standard 

 caesium standard or caesium atomic clock is a primary frequency standard in which electronic transitionsbetween the two hyperfine ground states of caesium-133 atoms are used to control the output frequency. The first caesium clock was built by Louis Essenin 1955 at the National Physical Laboratory in the UK.[1]
Caesium clocks are the most accurate commercially produced time and frequency standards, and serve as the primary standard for the definition of the second in SI (the metric system). By definition, radiation produced by the transition between the two hyperfine ground states of caesium (in the absence of external influences such as the Earth’s magnetic field) has a frequency of exactly 9,192,631,770 Hz. That value was chosen so that the caesium second equalled, to the limit of human measuring ability in 1960 when it was adopted, the existing standard ephemeris second based on the Earth‘s orbit around the Sun.[2] Because no other measurement involving time had been as precise, the effect of the change was less than the experimental uncertainty of all existing measurements. 

🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘 05.01.15

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesium_standard
 
Listen to Aime by Pure Prairie League http://youtu.be/V4mCiYQeU_s
🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘🕘

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

declaration  

 
THIS IS ENOUGH! 

Listen to John Legend sing All of Me http://youtu.be/Mk7-GRWq7wA 

photo source at www.pinterest.com/al513

  

menu today 

  
 I have said these things to you 
         so that my joy may be in you, 
         and that your joy may be complete. 

                  — John 15.11

Oh, please.
Be done with your sober commandments,
fleeing from the wrath to come.

This is a gift, not an obligation.
If eternal life weren’t fun who could endure?
We are the joy in our grandmother’s arms.

See, God dancing in the aisles,
looping over the grassy hill,
rolling down sideways in the grass,

calling to you:
Shuck that solemn suit,
leave the dutiful wheelbarrow behind.

Don’t try so hard to be so seriously loving.
Let it explode.  
Let joy come to you like a fart.

Let my little boats of joy
sail through your heart.
Be a kite on my wind.

All I want is complete joy, spilling over you
like an uncontrollable laugh,
filling you like I made you for. 

Jesus said, 
I am the light of the world.
So lighten up.

__________________  
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

 On this day of your life I believe God wants you to know…  

…that every day–nay, every moment–

you will have a chance to be Right or 

to be Love.

Your choice will define who you are.
 
You will not have to think but a second to know
exactly why you received this message today.
   – Neale Donald Walsh
  

 

 

  

 
Listen to Coldplay sing Yellow http://youtu.be/i-n75KVcGsw 
💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋💋
photo sources at www.pinterest.com/al513

I am a poet

  It has taken a while to embrace the poet.

The desire having been born much later in life,
to write poetry,
to bring to life, with words,
what I see, feel, moments of sanguinity.

I have never doubted the words I have written
because they were written in truth, my truth.
But I did doubt the title.
Poet.
What? These lines? Poetry?

There was too much significance behind the title.
A poet.
Wordsworth, Shelley, Dickinson, Frost, Walt Whitman…
Oh my. The idea left me breathless.
What was I playing at?

But then, the answer was blindingly simple.
Take away the significance.

Aren’t poems moments of grace, of revelation?

Humming to a birdsong,
delighting at the sight of valleys and mountains,
closing our eyes in ecstasy at the sweetness of a fruit
or the texture of bark under our fingertips…
Aren’t these the poetic murmurings of one’s heart?

While some of us choose to put it all on paper,
others choose to carry it all within their hearts.
Well then, underneath the cloak of conventionality,
aren’t we all poetic?
Aren’t we all poets?

👤👤👤👤👤👤👤👤

I am a poet by Rama Desai

https://ramaink.wordpress.com/author/ramaink/
👤👤👤👤👤👤👤👤

 

   

  Listen to Lake Street Dive sing We Love All the Same Songs http://youtu.be/9sNbyjfgccc
photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/513

sprung    

   
 


 Grass grows in the night

and early the mockingbirds begin
their fleet courtships over puddles,
upon wires, in the new green
of the Spanish limes.

Their white-striped wings flash
as they flirt and dive.
Wind in the chimes pulls music
from the air, the sky’s cleared
of its vast complications.

In the pause before summer,
the wild sprouting of absolutely
everything: hair, nails, the mango’s
pale rose pennants, tongues of birds
singing daylong.

Words, even, and sudden embraces,
surprising dreams and things I’d never
imagined, in all these years of living,
one more astonished awakening.

🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱
Morning in May by Rosalind Brackenbury
 
This is my commandment, 
         that you love one another as I have loved you.
                  —John 15.12

that is, 
with tender attention
and stout resilience,
that is,
despite your blame and fear,
your betrayal yet to come,
your lack of repentance,

as I have loved you
when you were determined 
not to deserve it,

that you love as I have,
withholding nothing,
excusing no one,

that you pour yourself out
for the unworthy,

as I have 
pour yourself out
of your life
into eternal love
and as I have
rise
new, 
perfected
in love.

__________________  
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

 
 

who’s your closer baby?

 

 Though we know

                          everything is bounded
by time,
              there is, after all,
                                         baseball,
in which time has its function,
                                                       but does not rule.
I remember one game, years ago,
                                           in the ninth inning,
the home team, down seven runs, scored eight,
and after two were out.
                                            So it’s possible, even though
we think we know,
                                            that we do not know,
and Bonds will hit the game winning, three-run jack,
and the fans,
                           the local ones anyway,
                                                                     will go home satisfied.
The limits are vague, or undefined, or possibly misunderstood.
Which is not to say
                                            there are secret ways out
or exceptions to the body’s slow decline.
                                                                    Still,
it gives you a place to doubt from,
                                                       a perspective that,
like the curve, will move in, or out, or not,
                                                                    but works,
regardless.

⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️

National Pastime by Bill Mayer

 ⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️⚾️

Listen to Dan Frishberg sing Van Lingle Mungo http://youtu.be/nKzobTlF8fM

 

the answer to how is love

 Everything is made of God.         Love lies waiting in it.

Every darkest mystery
         hides grace.

The most desperate act
         is born of hopeful longing:
though the hope has been withheld
         the longing still burns.

Even the greatest tragedy
         is made of blessed pieces
and drips with the light 
         of grace it has passed through.

In even the most evil despot
         a heart beats and breath is given.

The graver the injustice
         the deeper the listening needed;
the more foul the evil
         the more love is required.

Grieve your sorrows without pretense.
         Protest oppression with courage.
Above all: don’t lose trust in the grace
         already infolded in the knot.
__________________  
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

   

Listen to Gungor sing Beautiful Things http://youtu.be/1spkhp41ig4

photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513 

 

draw me in…light me up

  CHARISMATIC PRESENCE

You really become aware of the force and light of human presence when you are in the company of a charismatic person. In theology, “charisma” means “divinely conferred favour.” A charismatic presence is one that inspires people. It has a natural balance between the personality and the vision that the person represents. In some way, the luminosity in the person is an aura that tangibly reaches out and affects others. In German one speaks of “eine grosse Ausstrahlung,” i.e., a great streaming forth of radiance. The charismatic person does have a radiance that stirs us. It is given to some people to be carriers of huge spirit. This is not something they have sought out or earned. It is not something that they have worked up in themselves. It seems to belong deeply in their nature. I remember once speaking to a friend about a family we both knew who had such spirit and he said, “If you put one of them in a house on her own, you would fill it.” Charisma reminds us that there is no system or frame large enough to hold the secret immensity that is in each person. — John O’Donohue, “Eternal Echoes”

  

   

   

listen to Neil Diamond sing Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show http://youtu.be/U5va1iaLj2M

😻😻😻😻😻😻😻

Photo sources found at www.pinterest.com/al513

Derby Day

  On a pleasant May day perfect for the racing events 

The Churchill downs of Kentucky proudly presents 
The finest champion thoroughbreds of all time 
With forthcoming foals of champion bloodline 
Attention please, the speaker was saying “We have an honored guest” 
A lone horse with “Jerry Bailey” in the saddle by request 
Yes, we have your favorite star 
The famous champion “cigar” 
The crowd became estatic, cheering as the judges gave an award 
A bronze replica of the wonder horse with gold letters “cigar” 
By this time the music began to play, all stood still to hear 
My old Kentucky home they love to so dear 
The jockeys suits of outstanding vivid colors as they rode 
Their mounts to the post 
Matched the bright ensembles of the enthusiastic hosts 
Oh! There is number eight, he does not want to cooperate 
Number nine like most is in his prime 
Ok now they are all in line 
Their off oh no, cigar want to go 
He doesn’t know he was only there for show 
Number eight that was slow to go to the gate 
He is now by the side rail 
Only two horses does he trail 
He is coming down the stretch fast 
Yes one of the horses he did pass 
The crowd is on their feet he won fair and square 
A little elderly man with a hearing aid said “Who was he that rode into victory?” 
Sir, it was pulpit that won the race 
And Captain Budgit came in second place 
And Concerto was in third today 
When I awake I hope it’s true 
About the Kentucky Derby as I told to you. 
Now that the race has been run 
There was laughter, chatting and fun 
And the celebrating has just begun 
The horse owners, jockeys, trainers and their families 
All met in the diner, ordering drinks to their families 
The happy people were dancing to rock, pop and who knows what 
And when they settled down they talked about racing a lot 
Questions and suggestions, like- Was Pulpit really that hot? 
Will Cigar run again or was he just for show? 
We will ask Allen Paulson- He knows 
What about Thesaurus- he won four races on turf- Wow! 
He is ready for big time and he is ready now 
My goodness, what time can it be? 
I slept too long 
I enjoyed every minute of my dream, is that so wrong?

🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎🐎

Dreaming of the Kentucky Derby by Jeannette V. Steiner

    

Listen to Dan Folgelberg sing Run For the Roses http://youtu.be/61cceAXnC6w

🐴🐴🐴🐴🐴🐎🐴

http://www.kentuckyderby.com

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