“But you have to give your whole life to a cello. When I realized that, I went back to the guitar and just turned the volume up a bit louder.” – Ritchie Blackmore
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Thought For the Day: But You Have To Give Your Whole Life To A Cello. When I Realized That, I Went Back To the Guitar and Just Turned the Volume Up A Bit Louder
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Cello, Guitar, Louder, Realize, Ritchie Blackmore, Thought For the Day, Volume, Whole LIfe
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Dress Rehearsal
Dress Rehearsal
by Michael Doyle
It seems like life knows its resistance,
And all we have is our persistence.
We're dedicated to getting our message through.
Sometimes it feels like it's all we can do.
Sparks from the stage blaze a mystic fire.
Night after night, we are filled with desire.
The girl over there with the golden voice,
She knows we really have no choice.
The set list creates the story
Of our lives in our full glory.
Note after note, we live and play.
We keep our dreams on display.
We somehow want our narrative
To speak for itself in the declarative -
Who we are and who we will be.
It's an open letter without any mystery.
No one has a heart of stone,
And our chorus isn't sung alone.
The tempo has its own way
To be the song we're meant to play.
The set list creates the story
Of our lives in our full glory.
Note after note, we live and play.
We keep our dreams on display.
These songs can only be played one way.
I heard it from the singer as he'd say
We have to play it like a heartbeat,
Like we have coming up from the streets.
Life is a dress rehearsal, gone by like a blur
Of dreams we chased after as they occurred.
Retentive of every note played as it should,
We still hold these dreams -and they feel good.
The set list creates the story
Of our lives in our full glory.
Note after note, we live and play.
We keep our dreams on display.
(c) August 27, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Choice, Chorus, Declarative, Desire, Dreams, Dress Rehearsal, Feel, Fire, Full Glory, Golden Voice, Heart of Stone, Lives, Message, Mystery, Narrrative, Open Letter, Persistence, Poetry and Poems, Resistance, Set List, Song, Sparks, Stage, Story, Tempo
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First Principles: We Cannot Learn From One Another Until We Stop Shouting At One Another, Until We Speak Quietly Enough So That Our Words Can Be Heard
“In these difficult years, America has suffered from a fever of words; from inflated rhetoric that promises more than it can deliver; from angry rhetoric that fans discontents into hatreds; from bombastic rhetoric that postures instead of persuading. We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another, until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.” – Richard M. Nixon
Posted in First Principles
Tagged America, Deliver, Difficult Years, Discontent, Fever, First Priinciples, Hatred, Heard, Lean, One Another, Posture, Promise, Rhetoric, Richard M. Nixon, Shout, Speak Quietly, Voice, Words
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Thought For the Day: The Universe Is A Symphony of Vibrating Strings…We Are Nothing But Melodies. We Are Nothing But Cosmic Music Played Out On Vibrating Strings and Membranes
“What is the universe? The universe is a symphony of vibrating strings…we are nothing but melodies. We are nothing but cosmic music played out on vibrating strings and membranes.” – Michio Kaku
I’m not sure I believe Kaku. But I do think it is interesting that we are back to talking about the music of the spheres…
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Cosmic Music, Melody, Membranes, Michio Kaku, Symphony, Thought For the Day, Universe, Vibrating Strings
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Hula Memories
Hula Memories
by Michael Doyle
The modern age has its share of complexity.
But not enough to warrant Hawaiian anxiety.
The sacred duty held with great veneration,
Is the sacred duty felt by each generation.
Hula is the language of the Hawaiian heart.
It has remained so since the very start.
Each move is symbolic of a tale to be told.
With each move, the Polynesian story unfolds.
Hula expresses all that we see and feel,
In this way, this dance is what keeps us real.
It is the joy and sorrow of every perceived fear.
It is the courage that is always there.
The heiau stands guard over the native graves,
But it is Hulu that reminds us of what it saves.
Though life pushes out in a million directions,
We cannot help but feel the deeply rooted connections.
The connections that make us want to return home,
There is something intangible yet hard as temple stone.
It is and was not just a dance but a way of life.
It brought us to a sense of peace and away from strife.
A pig roasts beneath fronds baked within Hawaiian ground,
And this too is a part of where our hearts are found.
Heritage calling to our hearts with every bit of love,
On the islands beneath a million stars floating above.
Like the ancestors did, we step left to step right
As slack key guitars and ukuleles play into the night.
There is and was something magical in the harmony.
What sounded right was to melodically loosen the key.
Then we would watch as the dancers moved into position,
Proud as we quietly were to be the performing musicians.
The dancers would dance, beating the gourds, chanting in voice,
And as we moved in unison, it was as if we had no choice.
In call and response, the dancers danced in sacred duty.
Every step taken had its natural sense of rarefied beauty.
Though life is filled with hard work and endless miles,
The Hula is the dance of dances, bringing endless smiles.
(c) August 26, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Ancestors, Art, Beauty, Call and Response, Chant, Choice, Complexity, Connection, Courage, Dance, Dancers, Direction, Express, Fear, Feel, Found, Generation, Gourd, Grave, Ground, Guard, Harmony, Hawaiian Anxiety, Heart, Heiau, Heritage, Hula, Language, Loosen the Key, Love, Memory, Million Stars, Modern Age, Move, Musician, Night, Peace, Pig Roast, Poetry and Poems, Polynesian, Postion, Real, Return Home, Sacred Duty, Save, Slack Key Guitar, Spirituality, Step, Strife, Symbolic, Tale, Temple Stone, The Islands, Travel, Ukuleles, Unison, Way of Life, Writing
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First Principles: Yesterday Is Not Ours To Recover, But Tomorrow Is Ours To Win Or Lose
“Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.” – Lyndon Baines Johnson
Posted in First Principles
Tagged First Principles, Lose, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Ours, Recover, Tomorrow, Win, Yesterday
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Thought For the Day: All That Happens To Us, Including Our Humiliations, Our Misfortunes, Our Embarrassments, All Is Given To Us As Raw Material, As Clay, So That We May Shape Our Art
“All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.” – Jorge Luis Borges
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Art, Clay, Embarrassment, Happen, Humiliation, Jorge Luis Borges, Misfortune, Raw Material, Shape, Thought For the Day, Us
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The World Changes (Waiting On You)
The World Changes (Waiting On You)
by Michael Doyle
There's no doubt about it,
Whether we whisper or shout it.
It's always so good to be home,
Even when we're there alone.
You share your love among fans and friends,
Quietly or loudly until the music ends.
You wonder if they'll still love you tomorrow,
Will it be warm and tender love, or sorrow?
On the road, we were searching for that feeling,
The one that kept our hearts and heads reeling.
But it is always good to be home,
Even when we are there alone.
We let it go, we set the music free,
Knowing that, at worst, we just came to disagree.
We looked in every direction,
Looking for anyone left standing to show us affection.
It's like we never left, then it's alright,
As we play hearts of darkness in the spotlight.
Paralyzed with the growing change of seasons,
Life and music have their love and reasons.
On the road, we were searching for that feeling,
The one that kept our hearts and heads reeling.
But it is always good to be home,
Even when we are there alone.
Doesn't it make you wonder with warm desire,
About the crazy ways, we set the world on fire?
Only you know, I suppose, that I could never know,
We still have a lot of broken love to show.
We sometimes took more than we gave,
Dancing proudly on music's sweet grave.
Sad and deep as you are, it's just another song.
The truth is, maybe we played it for far too long.
On the road, we were searching for that feeling,
The one that kept our hearts and heads reeling.
But it is always good to be home,
Even when we are there alone.
(c) August 25, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Affection, Alone, Broken Love, Change, Crazy Ways, Desire, Direction, Dissagree, Doubt, End, Faith, Fans and Friends, Feeling, Fire, Free, Good, Grave, Heats of Darkness, Home, Know, Left Standing, Life, Loud, Love, Music, On the Road, Poetry and Poems, Quiet, Reel, Rreason, Sad and Deep, Seasons, Share, Shout, Show, Song, Sorrow, Spotlight, Tomorrow, Too Long, Truth, Wait, Whisper, Wonder, World, Writing
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First Principles: Let Us Not Seek the Republican Answer Or the Democratic Answer, But the Right Answer. Let Us Not Seek To Fix the Blame For the Past. Let Us Accept Our Own Responsibility For the Future
“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” – John F. Kennedy
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Answer, Blame, Democratic, First Principles, Fix, Future, John F. Kennedy, Past, Repoulican, Responsibility, Seek
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Thought For the Day: People Are Always Talking On Their Phones, Or Looking At Their Phones, Because They Don’t Want To Be Alone With Their Thoughts
“People are always talking on their phones, or looking at their phones, because they don’t want to be alone with their thoughts.” – Martin Amis
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Alone, Look, Martin Amis, People, Phones, Talk, Thought, Thought For the Day
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ALOHA PROMISES FOREVER 