National Anthem~~

We must open our hearts further and wider than we ever have. We must work as a team and raise our level of expectation to win as a team and carry those around us who need help so that some day they can carry other's who need it. We must inspire ourselves to rise higher than we would otherwise~~and as an inspired team succeed.

This is the spirit of Nelson Mandela

These quick timed poems written off the first line from a known poet

I want to say your name
wasn't it there in centuries of stone?
Who names names forever known
Our forefather's told us thru symbols of old
Who thought to ever try another way?
In the future this song remains the same.

The currents of people part in the rain
dancing to liquid tunes we duck and cover
Why not take off our clothes together
and make magic of this weather ritual
not divided, but with one another.

There is a moment in each day that satan cannot find
glimpsing sacred we whisper
a Torah or a Talmud of special wine
blissful smiles the other's may endure
or be drawn to imitate a blessing.

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard...
alight our senses with wind and fire
centuries of musical spheres aspired
A dance of the bravest as we let down our guard forever retired.
Breathing to the beat of flowing wonder.

American sentences, a haiku-like 17 syllable creation by Allan Ginsberg

Hands burn as I scrape old bubble gum off assigned tables, blue collar yoga

Pink stripes frame faded blue as I wonder if snow will add color too?

Tossing donuts to street beats brings warm orange anticipation

Reflection from an indie movie~~

"God doesn't hate us... Because if he did he would not have made our hearts so bright."

I believe that protecting today's children--tomorrow's Mandelas and Mother Theresas and Aung San Suu Kyis--is the moral and common sense litmus test of our humanity in a world where millions of children's lives are ravaged by the wars, neglect, abuse, and racial, ehtnic, religious, and class divisions of adults.

--Marian Wright Edelman

I believe this includes adults who were once children too. Having lived such nightmares well into adulthood, we also count as well.

A quote by Benjamin Mays

"The tragedy of life doesn't lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn't a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim, is a sin."

It's time to do whatever it takes to make our nation treat our children right and to live up to its promise of fair opportunity. And we have the responsibility to ensure all children what we now provide for some children.

The chain of influence...

What experiences shape (our) outlook, forge (our) convictions? The links in any chain of influence are too numerous, too complex to trace. But being aware that such chains exist, that we can choose to join them, and that lasting change doesn't occur in their absence, is one of the primary ways to sustain hope, especially when our actions seem too insignificant to amount to anything.

--Paul Rogat Loeb