Scriptures
At times I forget and I don't see you
I love your words and I know they're true
As the days go by, I put you by the side
I said I'd read you today but I lied
The weeks pass and I want to read you
Yet when I look, you're a stranger to view
I stare with longing but I'm filled with fear
My hands are too big and I feel a tear
How I long to just read and to touch
I miss what I know I love so much
But a voice whispers it can't be the same
It whispers that things will feel dull and lame
It feels like we're old friends years separated
I can't be sure whether I'm loved or hated
The memories of the past are stronger
I find I can not resist any longer
My swollen hands pick you up carefully
My hands shake and tremble fearfully
Clumsily I ruffle through your pages
Once again I travel through the ages
My hands find a strength I thought I lost
My fears melt away like morning frost
Inside I find a hunger to read more
How could I ever think this was a chore?
How good it feels to be with my friend
I wish our time together would't end
As I read aloud I realize with a start
My friend and I must never really part
The more I read
The more I'm me
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Its only words
We talk all the time
We walk to the rhyme
Yet in the end nothing is said
So in the end we go to bed
After all its only words
With nothing changed and nothing made
Our hopes are high and our fears fade
We talk of what was and is to be
With only talk we can remain free
After all its only words
We don't feel bound
Our reasoning is sound
But something changes in the air
We find that we start to care
Is it only words?
The promises we made we wish to keep
The time we spend is so very sweet
Your opinion has become so very dear
It's only when we're apart we begin to fear
Is it only words?
The time comes and goes
Life is and trouble blows
We forgot what once we had
All that is left is so very sad
Its only words
Words can change the earth
Bring sadness or bring mirth
They can bring love and life
They can bring trouble and strife
Its never only words.
We walk to the rhyme
Yet in the end nothing is said
So in the end we go to bed
After all its only words
With nothing changed and nothing made
Our hopes are high and our fears fade
We talk of what was and is to be
With only talk we can remain free
After all its only words
We don't feel bound
Our reasoning is sound
But something changes in the air
We find that we start to care
Is it only words?
The promises we made we wish to keep
The time we spend is so very sweet
Your opinion has become so very dear
It's only when we're apart we begin to fear
Is it only words?
The time comes and goes
Life is and trouble blows
We forgot what once we had
All that is left is so very sad
Its only words
Words can change the earth
Bring sadness or bring mirth
They can bring love and life
They can bring trouble and strife
Its never only words.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Dreams
Dreams to dream. In the dark of the night. When the world goes wrong, I can still make it right.
-Dreams to Dream, An American Tale: Fievel goes West
Dreams to Change
In the morning light the world is clear as day
A mass of problems that need to go away
The stress of life is never ending
The solutions are ever pending
When everything starts to spin out of control
The time has come for a little stroll
To dream of times without trouble
A world fragile like a bubble
At first it is weak, no more than a hope
As we strive it becomes a saving rope
With it we hold our heads high
With it we reach for the sky
What we created in a world of dreams
Has created a reality that beams
Not a world that is full of strife
But a world that is full of life
The truth at first was no more than a thought
Yet it was for this dream that we had fought
A person noble in the least
Who has slain his mighty beast
It started no more than a dream to be dreamed
A hope so weak and impossible, or so it seemed
But through a bitter fight
It can still be made right
-Dreams to Dream, An American Tale: Fievel goes West
Dreams to Change
In the morning light the world is clear as day
A mass of problems that need to go away
The stress of life is never ending
The solutions are ever pending
When everything starts to spin out of control
The time has come for a little stroll
To dream of times without trouble
A world fragile like a bubble
At first it is weak, no more than a hope
As we strive it becomes a saving rope
With it we hold our heads high
With it we reach for the sky
What we created in a world of dreams
Has created a reality that beams
Not a world that is full of strife
But a world that is full of life
The truth at first was no more than a thought
Yet it was for this dream that we had fought
A person noble in the least
Who has slain his mighty beast
It started no more than a dream to be dreamed
A hope so weak and impossible, or so it seemed
But through a bitter fight
It can still be made right
Thursday, March 3, 2011
To be an American
Ok. Since that last post I have been haunted by that question. What does it mean to be an American? Why am I proud to be an American? Its nothing so simple as "I'm free" or people are equal. Same is true with lots of countries. After a long thought I have decided. To be an American means I trust and help others, including strangers. It means that I can take the higher road and know you will not take advantage of me and maybe even support me. Thats what it means to be American. I feel though that we as a country have lost our identity. People fear each other and are becoming increasingly introverted. In political and economic classes the discussion is on how to withdraw from the world since we can't continue taking care of everyone. Its on how to stop spending abroad on aid and to start concentrating on helping ourselves first.
When the truth is we can still help others abroad and we shouldn't concentrate on fixing ourselves. Japan tried this, we tried this before, and Europe is now. It doesn't work. We need to as a people rediscover who we are and help each other. If we did than there would never have been need to discuss a healthcare bill. If we did than brilliant people would want to be part of us and would stimulate our economy. Maybe even foreign countries return the favors we have given them so that we can pursue our efforts to help others. What does it mean to be American? It means we sacrifice so someone else can be better. If we lose this we lose ourselves. "Give us your sick and weary" was the principle we were built on. Perhaps we can't take them in anymore but we can still help them.
If only there was a way to get this idea out and help restore our identity to everyone.
When the truth is we can still help others abroad and we shouldn't concentrate on fixing ourselves. Japan tried this, we tried this before, and Europe is now. It doesn't work. We need to as a people rediscover who we are and help each other. If we did than there would never have been need to discuss a healthcare bill. If we did than brilliant people would want to be part of us and would stimulate our economy. Maybe even foreign countries return the favors we have given them so that we can pursue our efforts to help others. What does it mean to be American? It means we sacrifice so someone else can be better. If we lose this we lose ourselves. "Give us your sick and weary" was the principle we were built on. Perhaps we can't take them in anymore but we can still help them.
If only there was a way to get this idea out and help restore our identity to everyone.
The Rise and Fall of Empires
So I'm going to break from my poetry to talk about something important to me. Politics. I'm reading a book about hyper powers and what helped them successfully rule so much land and to dominate the world of their time. Currently just finished with Persia and Rome. The book spends alot on how tolerance to other nation's ways of life was key but that not what caught my attention. What caught my attention was the "glue" as the author puts it. What made them powerful and hold together was bringing in fresh minds and abilities from other cultures but what made Rome last longer still than Persia was that those fresh minds came willingly to Rome, wanting to be Roman. I'm really not explaining that well but maybe the idea will become clearer.
This sticks with me because today the United States is reaching a point where it is feeling stretched and other nations are rising to compete with it. The simple reason is because the geniuses of those lands are staying there or coming here and then leaving. Even normal people jump the border and take advantage of the culture without identifying with it. Without seeing reason to want to identify with it or want to be American. With this being the case, we are stagnating. So I must ask the question. What can we do to encourage people to want to be American, not just live here but be a part of a greater identity? The Romans gave special privileges for gaining citizenship. What can we offer? I think until we can create a new attraction and glue to the idea of America that brings people to us, we will continue to stagnate. Excluding people (like immigrants) is a problem but so is letting others take without contributing (like illegal immigrants).
Going off of that I think its been a along time since people have really understood what the idea of America is. It used to be "bring us your sick and weary" and then "anyone can rise from below". Neither of those really apply anymore. Some people try to associated being American with the culture we have established, the middle class, the spending, and the history. If this is the case then we have little hope of others wanting to join is. What does it mean for something to be American or un-American? Perhaps its time we all sat back and tried to find out.
This sticks with me because today the United States is reaching a point where it is feeling stretched and other nations are rising to compete with it. The simple reason is because the geniuses of those lands are staying there or coming here and then leaving. Even normal people jump the border and take advantage of the culture without identifying with it. Without seeing reason to want to identify with it or want to be American. With this being the case, we are stagnating. So I must ask the question. What can we do to encourage people to want to be American, not just live here but be a part of a greater identity? The Romans gave special privileges for gaining citizenship. What can we offer? I think until we can create a new attraction and glue to the idea of America that brings people to us, we will continue to stagnate. Excluding people (like immigrants) is a problem but so is letting others take without contributing (like illegal immigrants).
Going off of that I think its been a along time since people have really understood what the idea of America is. It used to be "bring us your sick and weary" and then "anyone can rise from below". Neither of those really apply anymore. Some people try to associated being American with the culture we have established, the middle class, the spending, and the history. If this is the case then we have little hope of others wanting to join is. What does it mean for something to be American or un-American? Perhaps its time we all sat back and tried to find out.
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