Sunday, March 3, 2024

One new perception,
one fresh thought,
one act of surrender,
one change of heart,
one leap of faith,
can change your life forever.
 
- Robert Holden

Sunday, January 14, 2024

The Revision By Aaron Bulman (excerpt)

I still liked anyothertime,anyotherplace. 
which means most
of my life, but it was now,
here, so I felt my life becoming sad.
and I was thinking this
too shall pass into later.
somewherelse. but I was getting sadder.
so I saw a new now and a new here, later.
and this now and this here
would be excluded from anyothertime
anyotherplace. later.

Thursday, January 11, 2024

The Fourth Sign of the Zodiac (3) By Mary Oliver

I know, you never intended to be in this world.
But you’re in it all the same.

so why not get started immediately.

I mean, belonging to it.
There is so much to admire, to weep over.

And to write music or poems about.

Bless the feet that take you to and fro.
Bless the eyes and the listening ears.
Bless the tongue, the marvel of taste.
Bless touching.

You could live a hundred years, it’s happened.
Or not.
I am speaking from the fortunate platform
of many years,
none of which, I think, I ever wasted.
Do you need a prod?
Do you need a little darkness to get you going?
Let me be urgent as a knife, then,
and remind you of Keats*,
so single of purpose and thinking, for a while,
he had a lifetime.

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

The Frog

BY HILAIRE BELLOC

Be kind and tender to the Frog,
   And do not call him names,
As ‘Slimy skin,’ or ‘Polly-wog,’
   Or likewise ‘Ugly James,’
Or ‘Gape-a-grin,’ or ‘Toad-gone-wrong,’   
   Or ‘Billy Bandy-knees’:
The Frog is justly sensitive
   To epithets like these.
No animal will more repay
   A treatment kind and fair;
At least so lonely people say
Who keep a frog (and, by the way,   
They are extremely rare).

The Yak

BY HILAIRE BELLOC

As a friend to the children commend me the Yak.   
   You will find it exactly the thing:
It will carry and fetch, you can ride on its back,   
   Or lead it about with a string.

The Tartar who dwells on the plains of Thibet   
   (A desolate region of snow)
Has for centuries made it a nursery pet,   
   And surely the Tartar should know!

Then tell your papa where the Yak can be got,   
   And if he is awfully rich
He will buy you the creature—or else he will not.
   (I cannot be positive which.)

Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Some See Red Over The Color Red


By Charles Osgood
The custom has been for schoolteachers to correct student papers in red, to point out mistakes with red pencil or red ink. But In many schools now, we're told teachers are being told not to mark papers with red ink because red upsets the children. Red is too stressful too "in your face." Joseph Foriska, the principal of Thaddeus Stevens Elementary School in Pittsburgh, for example has instructed his teachers to grade with colors featuring more ''pleasant feeling tones." so that their instructional messages do not come across and derogatory or demeaning.
In many schools today it's said
teachers should not grade in red.
Red is too negative they say.
In the context of today
with too much student stress resulting
to them red seems downright insulting.
And we don't want their feelings hurt
with red as in a "red alert"
"High risk of terrorist attack."
The kids might be taken aback.
What color then should teachers use?
Purple is now what many choose
or blue. Some educators think
Turquoise, Fuchsia, sky blue, pink.
Almost anything instead
of that old nasty color red.
Red ink now means losing money,
a prospect no one thinks is funny.
They say it has nothing to do
with politics, red states or blue.
But some, I'm sure, will now suspect
that what's politically correct
has some political content,
though they deny that's what is meant.
But simply to remove the dread.
They say some people have of red.
Do you recall when it was said
in the cold war “Better dead than red?
Roses are red, violets are blue
I don't fear roses though, do you?”

Monday, October 30, 2023

The Summer Day


By Mary Oliver


Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean--
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down --
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?