“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel.” -Patrick Henry (1788)
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First Principles: Guard With Jealous Attention the Public Liberty. Suspect Every One Who Approaches That Jewel
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Attention, Every One, First Principles, Guard, Jealous, Jewel, Patrick Henry, Public Liberty, Suspect
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Thought For the Day: I Do Not Think There Is Any Thrill That Can Go Through the Human Heart Like That Felt By The Inventor As He Sees Some Creation of the Brain Unfolding To Success
“I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success… Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.” – Nikola Tesla, electrical engineer and inventor (10 Jul 1856-1943)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Brain, Creation, Emotion, Forget, Human Heart, Inventor, Nikola Tesla, Success, Think, Thought For the Day, Thrill
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A Reach and Twitch
A Reach and Twitch
by Michael Doyle
A hand reaches out and twitches
Held out toward the unseen switches
As a life comes and then is gone
As easy as a light turned off and on
We come into this life crying
Screaming out for more and trying
Hoping for the attention we needed
And crying a little louder if not heeded
Do you hear me holler (holler)
Just trying to earn a dollar (dollar)
Looking for some scratch to call my own
When you die on the street you're on your own
Down on the Lower East End
it's hard to tell a soldier from a friend
We scramble to make it feel reverent
Because the truth is we don't know different
A dollar is a dollar, no matter how earned
Life doesn't get better than crash and burned
Crawling out from the wreckage is your fantasy
There will be no good coming from the likes of me
Do you hear me holler (holler)
Just trying to earn a dollar (dollar)
Looking for some scratch to call my own
When you die on the street you're on your own
I've heard that some come to earnestly worship
Me and my kind, we're just looking for relationship
Trying our best to make some kind of name
While our pointed fingers hold ourselves to blame
I see your gun as you point it at me
I accept the outcome fatalistically
What is, simply is, as it's meant to be
I die for myself, no gang is dying for me
Do you hear me holler (holler)
Just trying to earn a dollar (dollar)
Looking for some scratch to call my own
When you die on the street you're on your own
The corner boys shuffle for the pennies down
While those with balloons wear death's jester crowns
No one ever gets out of this alive or whole
The struggle lives as it leaves a mark on our souls
I spent my life with my world burning on fire
There is no escape from this dark-winged desire
Death comes like that phantasm that we fear
Embraced in the arms of the God others revere
Do you hear me holler (holler)
Just trying to earn a dollar (dollar)
Looking for some scratch to call my own
When you die on the street you're on your own
With a swish, snitch, out goes my light
Shots fired brings my end of night
There's no one left to tell my tale
The worth of life has grown permanently stale
Will anybody cry for my lost soul?
With my last prayer, the Devil's taken control
In the end, all of us sinners hear his call
Isn't this temptation how Eden began its fall?
Do you hear me holler (holler)
Just trying to earn a dollar (dollar)
Looking for some scratch to call my own
When you die on the street you're on you're own
(c) July 9, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Alive, Arms of God, Attention, Balloon, Blame, Call, Control, Corner Boys, Crash and Burned, Crawl, Crying, Death, Desire, Die, Different, Dollar, End of Night, Escape, Fall, Fantasy, Fatalstically, Fear, Fire, Friend, Gang, Gone, Gun, Hand, Heed, Holler, Jester Crown, Last Prayer, Life, Light, Lost Soul, Loud, Lower East End, Mark, Name, Need, Off and On, On Your Own, Phantasm, Poetry and Poems, Point, Pointed Fingers, Reach, Relationship, Revere, Reverent, Scratch, Scream, Shots Fired, Shuffle, Sinners, Snitch, Soldier, Soul, Stale, Street, Struggle, Switch, Tale, Temptation, The Devil, Truth, Twitch, Whole, World, Worship, Worth of Life, Wreckage
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First Principles: The Essence of Government Is Power; and Power, Lodged As It Must Be In Human Hands, Will Ever Be Liable To Abuse
“The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.” – James Madison (1829)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Abuse, Essence, First Principles, Government, Human Hands, James Madison, Liable, Lodged, Power
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Thought For the Day: Be Advised That All Flatterers Live At the Expense of Those Who Listen To Them
“Be advised that all flatterers live at the expense of those who listen to them.” -Jean de la Fontaine, poet and fabulist (8 Jul 1621-1695)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Advised, Expense, Flatterers, Jean de la Fontaine, Listen, Live, Thought Fore the Day
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Second Chance Poker
Second Chance Poker
by Michael Doyle
You don't truly know
What it's like to live hollow
Having nowhere to go
Living in a jail cell's shadow
Clinging to who you used to be
Silently hoping for your dignity
Feeling like your honor is gone
Is this life worth going on?
One man's living grief
One man living in sorrow
There is no sense of relief
Where there's no tomorrow
Steps to a man's imagination
A good man begins disintegration
Subjected to every indignation
The fire in his eyes is the only indication
That anything of the man goes on
So much of his soul is used up and gone
There can be no disguise
What's left of the man is in his eyes
One man's living grief
One man living in sorrow
There is no sense of relief
When there's no tomorrow
Though chasing the bad
It is in his blood
The pending outcome is said
His name is dragged through the mud
There's a killer on the loose
But the wrong man wears the noose
It's a tragic loss of innocence
Rolling up on the ways of violence
One man's living grief
One man living in sorrow
There is no sense of relief
When there's no tomorrow
Time is up with a shift in gears
There'll be a slow parade of tears
Living isn't easy with a heart full of tragedy
This is the crush of life's unfunny comedy
Drop by drop is the blood by which we die
Are there no more tears left to cry?
Little by little, we learn to live the lie
This hour of need doesn't even know why
One man's living grief
One man living in sorrow
There is no sense of relief
When there's no tomorrow
This city belongs to all its children - rich and poor
It's a natural fact that no one can ignore
In a slow knife of the cruelest fate
The answers are outside the prison's gate
This twisted tale of jaded circumstance
Ends on probability and not on sheer chance
Broken hearts still know the romance
And believers still hold the card of second chance
One man's living grief
One man living in sorrow
There is no sense of relief
When there's no tomorrow
(c) July 8, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Blood, Chase, Cling, Comedy, Dignity, Disguise, Disintegration, Eyes, Fire, Grief, Hollow, Imagination, Indignation, Innocence, Jail, Killer, Life, Mud, Noose, Poetry and Poems, Poker, Relief, Rolling Up, Second Chance, Sorrow, Soul, Tears, Time, Tomorrow, Tragedy, Violence
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First Principles: Freedom Is Never More Than One Generation Away From Extinction
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” – Ronald Reagan
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Bloodstream, Children, Extinction, First Principles, Fought For, Free, Freedom, Handed On, Men, One Generation, Protected, Ronald Reagan, Sunset Years, United States
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Thought For the Day: People’s Souls Are Like Gardens. You Can’t Turn Your Back On Someone Because His Garden’s Full of Weeds. You Have to Give Him Water and Lots of Sunshine
“People’s souls are like gardens. You can’t turn your back on someone because his garden’s full of weeds. You have to give him water and lots of sunshine.” – Nancy Farmer, author (b. 7 Jul 1941)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Back, Gardens, Nancy Farmer, People, Someone, Souls, Sunshine, Thought For the Day, Water, Weeds
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Tithemi
Tithemi
by Michael Doyle
As citizens of the kingdom and our nation
We live with tension and fascination
Walking tall in our community
We live the love of God's good family
By doing this, we take our Christian cue
As we study and find God's good clues
Starting in our mirrors to align
Ourselves as we live with the divine
We face this patiently and unafraid
Adhering to the plans that God has made
Mirrored to the meaning of God's words said
Keeping these in our hearts and heads
As Christ's ambassadors, we wear His seal
Through the shining light of His appeal
Giving good to all around in our community
We walk this Earth as God's holy family
We do this as we face a rebellion of humanity
Hostile to faith and caught up in immorality
We walk our faith to bring our Father's good
As we serve to make God's ways plainly understood
We find this world filled with levels of toxicity
And full of its worst adverse complexity
We must find our way toward God's healing grace
Living anchored through the gospel's embrace
Bitterness is but one of the Devil's schemes
To live in the steps of forgiveness is our dream
As we cancel the debts plainly in good conscience
Praying God's love be made felt by our presence
God's love compels us to live our days in love
As He limits our options for the good from above
His Son died for all that we might restore
The brokenness by what choose to live for
Individualism and American ways alter Christianity
Therefore, we must be careful of isolation's vanity
As part of our good faith, we live for our community
This being the new creation reconciled as God's family
There are sins enough to count, but should we?
The message of the Bible is to bridge this travesty
Reconciled to all on this Earth within God's love
We are committed to this reconciliation by Heave above
The ministry of reconciliation is under God's control
Placed there by Christ for the good of our souls
We Christians are to live for what it is He died for
There is nothing less wanted, nor anything more
This is what it is that God says is needed
Not the casted stone, but forgiveness heeded
Humanity is filled with imperfections to heal
Life is hard and we should live by grace in our tale
Let's put no stumbling blocks into anyone's way
With wide open hearts, we must live in God's ways
We are to walk in peace endeavoring to be humble
Allowing God's grace to prevent us from the crumble
The crumble that comes from broken relationship
This is the truest way to walk our worship
Let's add value to our godly sense of community
As we are after all together in God's family
(c) July 7, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Adhere, Align, Anchored, Appeal, Bible, Christ's Ambassaodrs, Christian Cue, Christianity, Citzens, Community, Complexity, Debt, Devil's Schemes, Divine, Earth, Faith, Family, Fascination, Forgiveness, God, Good Conscience, Healing Grace, Hearts and Heads, Humanity, Immorality, Jesus, Kingdom, Love, Meaning, Mirror, Nation, Patient, Plan, Poetry and Poems, Presence, Rebellion, Seal, Shining Light, Study, Tension, Tithemi, Toxciity, Unafraid, Understood, Walking Tall
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Thought For the Day: We Are Not To Reflect On the Wickedness of Men But To Look To the Image of God In Them
“We are not to reflect on the wickedness of men but to look to the image of God in them, an image which, covering and obliterating their faults, an image which, by its beauty and dignity, should allure us to love and embrace them.” – John Calvin, in Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 Volumes
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Allure, Beauty, Cover, Dignity, Embrace, Fault, Image of God, Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin, Love, Men, Obliterate, Reflect, Thought For the Day, Wickedness
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