Choices In Season

Choices In Season
by Michael Doyle

The broken wickedness of humanity
Somehow becomes highlighted in our history.
Like the blessings and curses of Isaac's birth,
Beginning with his declaration on this earth.

We serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's legacy,
And find our way in serving this living history.
While finding that our time is not infinite,
While choices such as wives are often definitive.

Operating in alignment with our radical obedience,
Abraham sought Isaac's wife as a matter of providence.
He asked for God's blessing in finding such a bride
But still allowed Rebekah her right to decide.

However divinely sanctioned, every marriage has mistakes.
The best of these are filled with grace for the heartaches.
Being mindful allows for a life of gratification,
And conversely prevents negativity's magnification.

Initial spiritual wins provide a path to virtue.
It was the same then as it is now for me and you.
Isaac and Rebekah were meant to walk at God's speed,
Not according to their own, but to God's needs.

God's purposes are always served for His goodwill,
We are but to listen to what will keep things real.
It's not our timing that matters, but by God's trace,
Obedience to God will keep us in God's good grace.

All of this leads to the moments of our reconciliation,
Bringing us into right relation and out of alienation.
God focuses on our right takes as what we have done,
And our missteps are covered by the sacrifice of the Son.

Compromise is taking a wrong step due to hesitation.
Trust in God, and you just might build a nation.
Life is often a matter of trust and choosing simplicity.
It makes life easier than working against complexity.

We find ourselves living in bouts of acceleration,
And at other times caught, lost up in our hesitation.
In life's paradox, good things can lead to bad results,
In avoiding confrontation, we run headlong into assaults.

We are to love by the ways of God's wisdom,
Fear and faith often walk together within God's kingdom.
We must be mindful of the things that we give power.
This, through God, is how we live our finest hour.

Faith in the future allows our grace for the present.
We need to let go and give God's counsel our consent.
What we live isn't just a life but a process of giving.
It is filled with blessings, but also our forgiving.

For every living concern, there is its given season.
It's always dependent on our God's good reasons.
Our life's fulfilling process allows God to plant His seeds.
These are the blessings that fulfill our truest needs.

(c) February 15, 2026 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thought For the Day: We’re Also Remembering the Guiding Light of Our Judeo-Christian Tradition. All of Us Here Today Are Descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Sons and Daughters of the Same God

“And we’re also remembering the guiding light of our Judeo-Christian tradition. All of us here today are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, sons and daughters of the same God. I believe we are bound by faith in our God, by our love for family and neighborhood, by our deep desire for a more peaceful world, and by our commitment to protect the freedom which is our legacy as Americans. These values have given a renewed sense of worth to our lives. They are infusing America with confidence and optimism that many thought we had lost.” – Ronald Reagan

Posted in Thought For the Day | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

First Principles: By Faith Abraham, When God Tested Him, Offered Isaac As A Sacrifice. He Who Had Embraced the Promises Was About To Sacrifice His One and Only Son

“By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,” – Hebrews 11:17

Posted in First Principles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Best That I Can


The Best That I Can
by Michael Doyle

Even for a poet doing the best I can,
I wish I were, in some ways, a better man.
Sometimes, I can't write another line,
Though I wish I were her Valentine.

Hearts impede and sometimes implode,
Like a well-played violin that is over being bowed.
There's not a lot that I feel I have left to say.
It's just a bit of loneliness on Valentine's Day.

It's not like I'm looking for any sympathy,
But I feel like everyone has forgotten empathy.
I do what I do, always doing the best that I can
Who'd have thought a poet would be a lonely man?

I take another deep breath, feeling on a roll.
There's an emptiness that I feel down to my soul.
Watching other lovers express their true bliss,
I wonder to myself, looking around for my happiness.

The day was good and led to this moon-lit night,
I was thinking to myself about the last time I felt right.
It came just before you told me about the other men,
And now I feel certain I can do without you again.

It's not like I'm looking for any sympathy,
But I feel like everyone has forgotten empathy.
I do what I do, always doing the best that I can
Who'd have thought a poet would be a lonely man?

Playing my guitar, pretending to write a song.
But I've nothing to say that feels very strong.
All these words that used to fall into a rhyme,
I still wish I were somebody's loving Valentine.

There was a time you were on me like a shadow,
Now I find that you find it hard to say hello.
And at risk, I feel, I may be sounding shallow.
I'm always guessing at mysteries I'll never know.

It's not like I'm looking for any sympathy,
But I feel like everyone has forgotten empathy.
I do what I do, always doing the best that I can
Who'd have thought a poet would be a lonely man?

(c) February 14, 2026 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thought For the Day: In Your Light I Learn How To Love. In Your Beauty, How To Make Poems. You Dance Inside My Chest Where No-One Sees You, But Sometimes I Do, and That Sight Becomes This Art

“In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.” – Rumi

Posted in Thought For the Day | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

First Principles: Since Love Grows Within You, So Beauty Grows. For Love Is the Beauty of the Soul

“Since love grows within you, so beauty grows. For love is the beauty of the soul.” – Saint Augustine

Posted in First Principles | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Holding Onto the Truth

Holding Onto the Truth
by Michael Doyle

Too much has been made of modern complexity,
While forgetting that truth rests on simplicity.
In this modern age, we circle the drain
As we swear, the easiest answers are in vain.

Truth tellers don't need to hide from society.
The truth doesn't depend on secularist popularity.
It depends on finding the answers that work well,
Even where we don't know every single detail.

There's a doomsday in the progressive orthodoxy.
It's the simple truth spoken without controversy.
The illiberal path is always covered in gloom.
There's a better path that doesn't lead to doom.

We must raise our children to believe the beautiful,
That life can be lived for the good and wonderful.
Though popular culture might think it's far too late,
Great things come to those who have chosen to wait.

Shrill ideology is a half-truth hidden in a masquerade,
When the full truth is often there waiting in the shade.
We wonder why the full picture is hardly seen,
But comes down to the willfulness of being human beings.

We don't need the cultural despair of a coming tyranny.
What we need is the love of freedom and hopeful liberty.
There are only so many answers in scientific materialism.
It is as much a spiritual world meant to embrace optimism.

There's a doomsday in the progressive orthodoxy.
It's the simple truth spoken without controversy.
The illiberal path is always covered in gloom.
There's a better path that doesn't lead to doom.

We must raise our children to believe the beautiful,
That life can be lived for the good and wonderful.
Though popular culture might think it's far too late,
Great things come to those who have chosen to wait.

The progressives naysay the demonic shreds of reality,
While speaking of artificial constructs of surreality.
They stand in the denial that mankind has a choice,
And instead believe that only the 'self' has a voice.

Be it transgenderism or other stabs at man's frailty,
We live in an age of the graceless state of humanity.
Whatever is accepted becomes the truth of which we're able
To shape and mold into the perversely acceptable.

There's a doomsday in the progressive orthodoxy.
It's the simple truth spoken without controversy.
The illiberal path is always covered in gloom.
There's a better path that doesn't lead to doom.

We must raise our children to believe the beautiful,
That life can be lived for the good and wonderful.
Though popular culture might think it's far too late,
Great things come to those who have chosen to wait.

But there are those of us who stand by God's word.
We are the believers in the truth as it has occurred.
We will not relinquish the keys to our Father's kingdom,
For we have seen and known it for its power and wisdom.

False gods of the internet cannot destroy the inspiration,
That holds the power behind the founding of our nation.
A thousand sparks of meaningful light guide along the way
While rejuvenated in joyful waiting for the coming days.

We must raise our children to believe the beautiful,
That life can be lived for the good and wonderful.
Though popular culture might think it's far too late,
Great things come to those who have chosen to wait.

But there are those of us who stand by God's word.
We are the believers in the truth as it has occurred.
We will not relinquish the keys to our Father's kingdom,
For we have seen and known it for its power and wisdom.

(c) February 13, 2026 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

First Principles: If A Republican Government Fails To Secure Public Prosperity and Happiness, It Must Be Because the Citizens Neglect the Divine Commands, and Elect Bad Men To Make and Administer the Laws

“If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted . . . . If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.” – Noah Webster

Posted in First Principles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thought For the Day: The Vibrations On the Air Are the Breath of God Speaking To Man’s Soul. Music Is the Language of God. We Musicians Are As Close To God As Man Can Be.

“The vibrations on the air are the breath of God speaking to man’s soul. Music is the language of God. We musicians are as close to God as man can be. We hear his voice, we read his lips, we give birth to the children of God, who sing his praise. That’s what musicians are.” – Ludwig von Beethoven

Posted in Thought For the Day | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It’s Only A Memory

It's Only A Memory
by Michael Doyle

Cracked pictures from another time,
And now somehow it feels more than sublime.
Once we walked under the moon, hand in hand.
Where that went is hard to understand.

Is it funny how love fell into a crack?
And now we'd give anything to have it back.
Crazy words that cannot be unsaid,
It's hard to get past feelings that are dead.

Funny how it's lost in a memory,
How would you give up our love and family?
Ten years from the time called now,
Will I be able to be happy again somehow?

Heartbreak to heartache, it hurts to learn
How dying embers continue to burn.
It's funny, isn't it? This stupid thing called love?
What was it that we were thinking of?

That's not a tear rolling down my face.
It's just a raindrop fallen out of place.
Please don't turn and look at me,
Some things are meant to only be a memory.

How is t possible that we've given up our dream?
Is there life after we find that it has turned obscene?
It turns out there are things that I've never seen,
And that there is, indeed, love after pristine.

Two strangers sit at dinner talking,
Both of them have considered walking,
Instead, both throw each other rescue lines.
All it seems for the sake of Valentine's.

Do you get more credit if you cry?
I wonder how it is we don't know why.
Maybe it's time that the truth be told.
It is something that can't be undersold.

Into the night, we keep talking.
Both of us are unable to find legs for walking.
Emotional pain needs thrown lifelines
To get us through this day, we call Valentine's.

(c) February 12, 2026 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved

Posted in Poetry and Poems | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment