Desiderata

This basically sums up my whole life. This is everything I believe in, and everything that I strive to be. It's the model by which I live. It's simple and perfect.

Desiderata is Latin for "desired things".

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Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be critical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy.

-Max Ehrmann

Change (poem)

I took a walk today, and I met someone along the way.

She was wearing a long white dress, no shoes, with a bright yellow flower in her hair.
We walked awhile, wending our way leisurely down the path as the wind blew warm laughter through the leaves and the light danced with shadow, waltzing in circles around our feet.

We spoke no words.
Everything we needed to say passed between us in heartbeats and the crunch of pebbles beneath our feet.

As we walked along, the trees began to change. The sunlight grew thin and the leaves began their dying dance toward the expectant earth.

I looked over at her, but she had changed too. She was now striking in a black dress, with lips painted deep crimson and a black hat that dipped down and covered her eyes.

The path became uneasy now. The air grew colder, the surroundings increasingly barren until all I could see were tree skeletons and the unspoken words my breath left like crystals on the frigid air.

I looked back again, but she was gone.
Nothing left but her name, the word, left like a faint whisper of gold dust in the air.
Change...



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Fireworks (poem)

The canvas of my mind is dark like the night sky.
There are stars and planets that faintly dot the darkness with points of light
Occasionally, the moon comes up, in a variance of one of its cycles, and casts a soft glow over everything.

But that's not what I want.

What I want are fireworks.
I want explosions of color to paint my sky, different and unique bursts of light and shapes cascading and spiraling and painting vibrant pictures that tell stories.

I don't want my life to be another night panged with anticipation. Another bland night where I watch the sky, just hoping for something to happen.

No. I'm ready to take action. And if I have to strike the match and light the fuse myself, I will.




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Poem

I don't know why i wrote this poem.
Languishing in what's wrong, Outside of myself, lingering there.
Vacant in my own skin, Every thought painted in red, gold and black
You probably don't know why i wrote this either. Obvious, is how i feel, obtuse, sometimes.
but i'm often wrong. Unless you can't hear the loud thoughts coming from my brain,
this is for you.


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Twinkling (poem)

Eyes glazed, teeth frosted
Frozen cold articulates form crystals on the tongue
Do I dare?
Whispers and thoughts spin in shapes around my head
Divisions, revisions, decisions
Do I dare?
Left, right, up, down, side to side
My thoughts are in a flurry as each grain of my sand slips through Time's hourglass
Do I dare?
My silhouette is the only shape visible against the horizon
As the sky leans down and whispers,
"Do you dare?"

I do.

I'm taken gently upward, and my thoughts are calmed
Time has shelved my golden hourglass,
And I am changed.

Further upward now, stretched north and south, then east and west.
And in a twinkling, I'm twinkling.


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Invisible Numbers (poem)

Can you count the wind?
I can.
I can count each separate breeze as it brushes through the leaves and trees.
I can also count each ray of sun, the beams igniting one by one.
A mote of dust, a grain of sand
Each separate bit my eyes can land,
and count.

But you.

I can't count you.

The hair you toss over your shoulder,
The calculative stares from eyes that smolder
The smiles that play around your lips,
Your vocal cords that issue quips

It's all the things that i can't count
The things that make you paramount
in my eyes.

My eyes.
My eyes that see, full of stars,
my eyes, that see exactly what you are.

And yet I still can't count you.



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Butterflies (poem)

Butterflies?

More like killer bees.

My stomach feels the buzz of their wings when I'm with you, but once you're gone, the sting sets in.

You're like a drug, I see the world through different eyes, feel different things, but once the high has worn off, I want more, and I regret it.

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