“That form of government which is best contrived to secure an impartial and exact execution of the law, is the best of republics.” – John Adams (1776)
Flickr Photos
First Principles: That Form of Government Which Is Best Contrived To Secure An Impartial and Exact Execution of the Law, Is the Best of Republics
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Contrived, Exact Execution, First Principles, Form, Government, Impartial, John Adams, Republics, Secure, The Law
Leave a comment
Thought For the Day: The Well Taught Philosophic Mind To All Compassion Gives; Casts Round the World An Equal Eye, and Feels For All That Lives
“The well taught philosophic mind / To all compassion gives; / Casts round the world an equal eye, / And feels for all that lives.” – Anna Laetitia Barbauld, poet, essayist, and editor (20 Jun 1743-1825)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged All That Lives, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Compaasion, Compassion, Equal Eye, Feel, Mind, Philosophic, Thought For the Day, Well Taught, World
Leave a comment
Watercolor Still Life
Watercolor Still Life
by Michael Doyle
When you ask me about the Harlem Renaissance
I have to ponder and work out my best response
Art Deco found its African American affirmation
Delivered as a watercolor still life in confirmation
That things are never quite as concise as seen
That is especially true when dealing with human beings
It's often there we need to deal with what's in our minds
Wondering at the extent of what it is that we find
The creative ego of an artist is usually mostly vanity
At least for those who do not push the edges of sanity
Modern art stopped reflecting the best of simple stories
Its hope was that it might find the greater glories
Tattered pictures from real life hang crooked on the wall
It is those sorts of memories that help us best to recall
Crushing grief and voiceless faith controls the competition
Pages of truth are painted without a moment's repetition
Things of absolute beauty are often far more complicated
Then they first appear and it is certain in moments faded
As time marches along the hands of ancient, broken clocks
Still, truth is told at least twice a day; or so goes the talk
The creative ego of an artist is usually mostly vanity
At least for those who do not push the edges of sanity
Modern art stopped reflecting the best of simple stories
Its hope was that it might find the greater glories
..but it never did.
(c) June 19, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Affirmation, Art Deco, Artst, Competition, Concise, Confirmation, Creative Ego, Crooked, Edges, Faith, Find, Greater Glories, Grief, Harlem Renaissance, Human Beings, Memories, Minds, Modern Art, Painted, Poetry and Poems, Ponder, Real Life, Recall, Response, Sanity, Simple Stories, Still Life, Tattered Pictures, Truth, Vanity, Wall, Watlercolor, Wonder
Leave a comment
First Principles: Ambition Must Be Made To Counteract Ambition. There Interest of the Man Must Be Connected With the Constitutional Rights of the Place
“Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?” – James Madison (1788)
Thought For the Day: Dogs Remember Every Favor You Ever Do Them And Store Those Events In A Memory Bank Titled “Why My Human Is A God”
“Dogs remember every favor you ever do for them and store those events in a memory bank titled Why My Human Is A God.” – Roger Ebert
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Dogs, Events, Favor, Memory Bank, Remember, Roger Ebert, Store, Thought For the Day, Why My Human Is A God
Leave a comment
About Trees
About Trees
by Michael Doyle
Driving through the forest
It can be a bit like a test
To know that they please
As you examine all the trees
From saplings up to the heights
A million reasons offer delight
Some live through the centuries
All offer their sweet legacies
Branched out in living memory
The woodlands offer life to me
Lived out in timeless regeneration
Defined as these are by generations
Places like Indiana and Kentucky
Call us out if we are that lucky
Their living spaces breathe in our hearts
As old growth patches find their start
Mankind finds its restorative ecology
More a matter of spirituality than biology
Root systems create an illusion of infinity
As numberless as the stars finding divinity
Travelers like me realign our relationship
Finding in God's creations a form of worship
All of life has it's own niche and space
Filled with grace for us to love and embrace
(c) June 18, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged About Trees, All of Life, Biology, Branched Out, Breath, Call Us Out, Centuries, Define, Delight, Drive, Dvinity, Ecology, Embrace, Examine, Forest, Generations, God's Creations, Grace, Hearts, Heights, Illusion, Indiana, Infinity, Kentucky, Legacies, Life, Live, Living Memory, Living Spaces, Love, Lucky, Mankind, Million Reasons, Niche, Numberless, Offer, Old Growth Patches, Please, Poetry and Poems, Realign, Relationship, Restorative, Root Systems, Saplings, Space, Spirituality, Stars, Start, Test, Timeless Regeneration, Travelers, Trees, Woodlands, Worship
Leave a comment
First Principles: Nature Intended Me For the Tranquil Pursuits of Science, By Rendering Them My Supreme Delight
“Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them my supreme delight.” – Thomas Jefferson, in his Letter to DuPont de Nemours as cited in Benson, 1971)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged First Principles, Intend, Nature, Pursuitss, Science, Supreme Delight, Thomas Jefferson, Tranquil
Leave a comment
Thought For the Day: Man Must Evolve For All Human Conflict A Method Which Rejects Revenge, Aggression, and Retaliation. The Foundation of Such A Method Is Love
“Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.” – Martin Luther King Jr.
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Aggression, Evolve, Foundation, Human Conflict, Love, Man, Martin Luther King Jr., Method, Reject, Retaliation, Revenge, Thought For the Day
Leave a comment
An Appetite With Explanation
An Appetite With Explanation
by Michael Doyle
In all the new world that I'm constantly meeting
I have an appetite for all I see as if eating
A plate of works that bring me inspiration
With a flick of the internet, I find aspirations
That may be are not so discernible at the beginning
But a chase down the rabbit holes starts winning
The crumbs of my attention beyond my best retention
And I find what I wouldn't with my vapid abstention
After a few thousand songs, music begins lacking a self
Like a book of endless words from a timeless shelf
Until it becomes necessary to find what will constrain
A person to seek defining limits to avoid the strain
Of learning too much and seeing too much in what can be
Discipline secretly finds its ways to finally set me free
Too much of plenty finds a way of my living in empty misery
My best hope is to be inclined toward boxing in the category
It's a moon spell lost within an ineffable shadow gallery
Too much of anything proves itself a monochromatic lullaby
Lost inside with too much echoing in my hollow little mind
Too much knowledge and experience leaves us all a bit blind
Life outside in the fresh air will return real life's pulse
Too many hours caged in screens has started to deeply repulse
All the best that cannot be thought on but must be felt deeply
This is what it will take to sincerely free the best of me
(c) June 17, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Abstention, Appetite, Aspirations, Attention, Beggin, Constrain, Crumbs, Defining Limits, Discernible, Eat, Endless Words, Explanation, Flick, Inspiration, Internet, Meeting, New World, Poetry and Poems, Rabbit Holes, Retention, See, Shelf, Strain, Timeless, Works
Leave a comment
First Principles: The Right of the Citizens To Keep and Bear Arms Has Justly Been Considered As the Palladium of the Liberties of A Republic
“The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic.” – Joseph Story
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Arms, Citizens, Considered, First Principles, Joseph Story, Just, Keep and Bear, Liberites, Palladium, Republic, Right
Leave a comment
