On Those Rare Occasions, …

I’ve done the research, and I hate to tell you, but everybody dies—lovers, joggers, vegetarians and nonsmokers. I’m telling you this so that some of you who jog at 5 A.M. and eat vegetables will occasionally sleep late and have an ice-cream cone.

:: Bernie S. Siegel, M.D

The Path

When days of Beauty deck the earth
Or stormy nights descend
How well my spirit knows the path
On which it ought to wend

It seeks the consecrated spot
Beloved in childhood’s years
The space between is all forgot
Its suffering and its tears.

Emily Bronte

You Who

I’m Nobody! Who are you?
Are you – Nobody – Too?
Then there’s a pair of us?
Don’t tell! they’d advertise – you know!

How dreary – to be – Somebody!
How public – like a Frog –
To tell one’s name – the livelong June –
To an admiring Bog!

Tao Te Ching

tao

When all the world recognizes beauty as beauty, this in itself is ugliness.

When all the world recognizes good as good, this in itself is evil.

Indeed, the hidden and the manifest give birth to each other.

Difficult and easy complement each other.

Long and short exhibit each other.

High and low set measure to each other.

Voice and sound harmonize each other.

Back and front follow each other.

Therefore, the Sage manages his affairs without ado,

And spreads his teaching without talking.

He denies nothing to the teeming things.

He rears them, but lays no claim to them.

He does his work, but sets no store by it.

He accomplishes his task, but does not dwell upon it.

And yet it is just because he does not dwell on it

That nobody can ever take it away from him.

:: Lao Tzu

Alone in my Room

Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands,
or your own genuine solitude?
Freedom, or power over an entire nation?
A little while alone in your room
will prove more valuable than anything else
that could ever be given you.
Rumi

Help, I’m Alive

I tremble
They’re gonna eat me alive
If I stumble
They’re gonna eat me alive
Can you hear my heart
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer

Help I’m alive
My heart keeps beating like a hammer
Hard to be soft
Tough to be tender
Come take my pulse the pace is on a runaway train
Help I’m alive
My heart keeps beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer
If we’re still alive
My regrets are few

If my life is mine
What shouldn’t I do?
I get wherever I’m going
I get whatever I need
While my blood’s still flowing
And my heart’s still
Beating like a hammer
Beating like a hammer

:: Metric