“It is not what we do that matters, but what a sovereign God chooses to do through us. God doesn’t want our success; He wants us. He doesn’t demand our achievements; He demands our obedience. The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of paradox, where through the ugly defeat of a cross, a holy God is utterly glorified. Victory comes through defeat; healing through brokenness; finding self through losing self.” – Charles Colson
“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
I Live My Life In Praise
by Michael Doyle
I feel God in every season,
Living on faith and reason.
Present in all of my days,
I live my life in praise.
With thanks and gratitude
I keep Jesus in my attitude.
The Lord walks in my every stride,
And in my secrets that I can confide
Of all the Lord's beauty and majesty,
You fill my heart with its dignity.
Meeting the Lord has taken my blame.
Because of Him, I no longer walk in shame.
There's no greater love than giving His life,
So that I know God's love in the world's strife.
In my soul, among the things that I know,
Is that that Christ's love always shows.
Living my life, comporting within this frame,
I live my life to honor Jesus's sweet name.
His love is my life's true cornerstone.
In His presence, I am never alone.
(c) October 15, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
“Sometimes people don’t want to hear the truth because they don’t want their illusions destroyed.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
“States, like individuals, who observe their engagements, are respected and trusted: while the reverse is the fate of those who pursue an opposite conduct.” – Alexander Hamilton (1790)
The Pleasures of the Kill
by Michael Doyle
To be a vampire is to live a very long time.
You can spend this time in venal pleasure or sublime.
But either way, it is a counting of thousands of days,
And this time is best spent in as many ways.
Jealousy will not do anyone any gain or bring good.
Of this much a love-torn vampire holds understood.
Still, there in the early days of hunting a kill,
There is hope that eternal life brings more than a thrill.
To speak the word that brings about one's death,
To fill it to the fullest and take one's breath.
There is nothing better than to spill blood afresh,
Pleasures of the kill compare to pleasures of the flesh.
In the end, what is any sin but the same as all sin,
The Devil thinks he holds the better hand and will win.
But when the end does come, will he believe it then?
It's a hand of cards only the wicked can win.
Crickets and katydids speak softly to the soul,
When the mud of the bayou squishes under the sole.
If only the vampire wishes his thoughts aloud,
To become human again would do him proud.
A little bit of bloodlust under the moonlight,
Makes a deviled man hungry to take another bite.
The soulless one walks without a sense of direction,
Knowing only what he feels with strong recollection.
Anger and danger are known in their savage traces.
It can be felt like power in low-born places.
But once the devil has known his full embrace,
There will be no more talk of things like grace.
(c) October 14, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
“It is in the interest of tyrants to reduce the people to ignorance and vice. For they cannot live in any country where virtue and knowledge prevail.” – Samuel Adams
“One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest.” – Maya Angelou
As the Devil's Own
by Michael Doyle
One man views evil with a quiet bemusement.
Another sees it as a form of amusement.
Neither looks beyond pleasure for purpose.
It is not for them to want to be of service.
Vampires feed to live and not become extinct.
Hunting is a matter of exercising pure instinct.
Regardless of the turn of every season,
It is bloodlust that is sought and not reason.
It is as if I am the Devil's own,
And with you as my echo, I'm never alone.
There is within me an overpowering beast
That, when unleashed, will surely feast.
Taken in sum and under even loose observation,
Mankind's depravity is pushed by raw ambition.
It is almost unimaginable, the amount of depravity
That man manifests with the greatest capacity.
All it takes to hang within this morbid noose,
Is the whisper that God isn't watching and we are loose.
Looking to feed only the unworthy, diabolical criminal
Makes risking starvation almost too elemental.
It is as if I am the Devil's own,
And with you as my echo, I'm never alone.
There is within me an overpowering beast
That, when unleashed, will surely feast.
The year was a blur when Jelly Roll wrote the blues,
While the New Orleans vampires heard it all its hues.
This was the way that it was and had always been
When vampires taunted their favorite human beings.
Time passes, changing memories like a gothic romance
Reversed courses feel well-rehearsed, like a second chance
That has been ghosted until the truth once concealed
Becomes the substance laid bare when it is again revealed.
It is as if I am the Devil's own,
And with you as my echo, I'm never alone.
There is within me an overpowering beast
That, when unleashed, will surely feast.
A vampire's humanity is the last bridge for him to burn.
Memories are the odyssey of a journey from which we learn.
The worst manners come from a hunger that is rarefied
And the self-made arguments that are seldom satisfied.
It is up to each of us to set our defining line.
As I look at you with a lust to finally make you mine.
We play at life as if overhanging a Damoclean sword
Tell me when you have heard the measure of our secret chord.
It is as if I am the Devil's own,
And with you as my echo, I'm never alone.
There is within me an overpowering beast
That, when unleashed, will surely feast.
(c) October 13, 2025 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
“I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.” – William Penn
Văn Học Ngoại Biên — Literature Beyond
-Reviews, Advice & News For All Things Tech and Gadget Related-
Traveling Fashion Designers 🌼
A daily dose of God’s touch in a minute...
Heading out of Australia to escape this Aussie winter. First stop Japan, then UK/Ireland and if work doesn't call me back, onto Chicago. I will make it up as I go along
Looking ahead, without looking back (too often)
"What a strange bundle of consistent inconsistencies we all are." Mary Ronan
Spiritual Hope . Joyful Faith . Trust in God
My Mormon Transgender Second Life
Al cielo.. e niente di meno!🌈
Book Reviewer and Blogger
Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of her life, every quality of her mind, is written large in her works.
Grow. Glow. Inspire!
time management coaching
Sacred Indicators of Body, Heart and Soul.
A peek into Megha's mind
ALOHA PROMISES FOREVER 