“Cooking is at once child’s play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love.” – Craig Claiborne
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Thought For the Day: Cooking Is At Once Child’s Play and Adult Joy. And Cooking Done With Care Is An Act of Love
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Act of Love, Adult Joy, Care, Child's Play, Cooking, Craig Claiborne, Thought For the Day
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In A World of Thoughts and Other Misgivings
In A World of Thoughts and Other Misgivings
by Michael Doyle
In a world of thoughts and other misgivings
There is a lot of hurt in need of forgiving
Not just for you or for me, but all it seems
There are just too many fragmented dreams
Too many people have been swept into disbelieving
With so much evidence that our eyes are deceiving
The conundrum is more than in the eye of the beholder
And yet less harsh than told by our media scolders
Like moths to the camera's flame, we cannot name
Yet seems far too predestined to burn in its flame
We're all on the verge until the very bitter end
When what we could use is at least one true friend
Quite a bit of the evil is in the complacency
Indifferent people who forget to act with decency
It's so easy to remain shadowed in a quiet majority
Fear of the barbarians brings us to our own barbarity
Some say it's often a desired narrative of equilibrium
That fears to speak up for fear of causing disruption
And humanity must speak up in recognition of the resolution
To spring to mind as the presupposed, needed solution
It's a matter of artistic and logical necessity
That when we see wrong, we must speak up, even if quietly
The swan-geese honks aloud to bring about the empathy
It fills the void to speak up against a sort of normality
That accepts less than we ever really could or even should
That is, you know, if we are to ever have what is good
It is these challenges that strengthen our sense of morality
To do less is to bring certain end to our declining humanity
(c) March 1, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Accept Less, Act, Artistic, Barbarians, Beholder, Bitter End, Burn, Camera, Certain End, Challenges, Complacency, Conundrum, Could, Deceiving, Decency, Declining Humanity, Disbelieving, Disruption, Do Less, Dreams, Empathy, Evidence, Eyes, Fear, Flame, Forgiving, Fragmented, Good, Harsh, Humanity, Hurt, Indifferent People, Logical, Majorrity, Matter, Media, Mind, Misgivings, Moth, Name, Narrative of Equilibrium, Necessity, Needed Solution, Normality, Poetry and Poems, Presupposed, Quietly, Recognition, Resolution, Scolder, Seems, Sense of Morality, Shadow, Should, Speak Up, Strengthen, Swan-Geese, Swept, Thoughts, True Friend, Verge, Void, World, Wrong
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First Principles: Our Constitution Was Made Only For A Moral and Religious People. It Is Wholly Inadequate To the Government of Any Other
“Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” – John Adams
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Any Other, Constitution, First Principles, Government, Inadequate, John Adams, Made Only, Moral, People, Religious
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Thought For the Day: For Evil To Take Place, the Acts of A Few People Are Not Sufficient; the Great Majority Also Has To Remain Indifferent
“For evil to take place, the acts of a few people are not sufficient; the great majority also has to remain indifferent. That is something of which we are all quite capable.” – Tzvetan Todorov
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Act, All, Capable, Evil, Few People, Great Majority, Indifferent, Place, Sufficient, Thought For the Day, Tzvetan Todorov
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Time Tumbles
Time Tumbles
by Michael Doyle
Time Tumbles in its own jagged way
This February is given a 29th day
Called out special as a leap year
For myself, it's a cause to cheer
Is it four years or passing as one
That my work life has been done
I purposefully retired on this day
So that I might recall it in this way
In 2020, I was among the walking sick
I made my decision, and I made it quick
That it might seem like a poetic line
But I would retire on February 29
It was to be my own special Valentine
That I would choose life on February 29
This was my celebration that would suffice
To focus on my life by this poetic device
For most of my life, days fell as they would
Some were bad, some okay, and others were good
But most of them were spent serving others
Trying to live up to loving one another
In the process, chemicals had burned through
Leaving a mind-numbing hole, as these often do
And I had been reminded hard of our numbered days
Having the chance, I decided to spend mine in other ways
Photography and poetry would become my line
This was, to me, a gift as a special Valentine
I would spend my remaining days bringing beauty
Instead of being a mindless minion doing my duty
Four years out, maybe it's a foolish dream
But it's one that holds me together at the seams
I raise a toast of flavored water at this year won
Four as it is that have become mine and done
One day at its precious time left to be lived
Gathered up in a force of one, in all I've left to give
I remain thankful for this year, or was it really four
This is what illusions like this are for...
(c) February 29, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged 2020, 29, Bringing Beauty, Burn, Celebration, Chance, Cheer, Chemicals, Choose Life, Days, Decision, Doing My Duty, Done, February, Flavored Water, Focus, Foolish Dream, Four Years, Four Years Out, Gift, Good, Hole, Jagged Way, Leap Year, Loving One Another, Mind-Numbing, Mindless Minion, Most of My Life, Numbered Days, One, Other Ways, Photography, Poetic Device, Poetic Line, Poetry, Poetry and Poems, Process, Quick, Recall, Remind, Retire, Seams, Serving Others, Special, Suffice, Time Tumbles, Toast, Together, Valentine, Walking Sick, Won, Work Life, Would
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First Principles: Measures Which Serve To Abridge the Free Competition of Foreign Articles, Have A Tendency To Occasion An Enhancement of Prices
“Measures which serve to abridge the free competition of foreign articles, have a tendency to occasion an enhancement of prices.” – Alexander Hamilton (1791)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Abridge, Alexander Hamilton, Enhancement, First Principles, Foreign Articles, Free Competition, Measures, Occasion, Price, Serve, Tendency
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Thought For the Day: Success Depends In A Very Large Measure Upon Individual Initiative and Exertion, and Cannot Be Achieved Except By A Dint of Hard Work
“Success depends in a very large measure upon individual initiative and exertion, and cannot be achieved except by a dint of hard work.” – Anna Pavlova
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Tagged Achieve, Anna Pavolva, Depend, Dint, Except, Exertion, Hard Work, Individual Iniative, Large Measure, Success, Thought For the Day
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Mountain of Consequence
Mountain of Consequence
by Michael Doyle
There are legends of lost treasure
That goes deep and beyond known measure
The locks that must be broken
As the stories are told, quietly spoken
Mankind's greed leads to death
An old man mumbles under breath
While the bringer of life begins to bleed
One more breath is all he needs
Under the pines, in a valley of sorrow
Life ends so fragile, with no tomorrow
We might wish to force new strength
In the end, a day only has so much length
Everything and everyone that we meet
Whether in a castle or out on the streets
It seems everything and everyone dies
All that is left is the wounded soul that cries
For all life's horrors, this is the end
There are no more fairytales or pretend
Sometimes the only answer is the harshness
That leaves tortured souls in perpetual darkness
Left in the call to reach and touch fate
Only death and misery know that date
And a promise that those who survive must forgive
This is the true secret of how to live
No tears can return a fractured soul
There is so much of life that is out of our control
All that we have is to love those we know
And the secrets we've buried under the snow
Heartbreak is so hard to earnestly embrace
These are the sorrows that burn their trace
Our search for answers leads to arrogance
And the cold calculated science of intolerance
The mountain of consequences brings us to see
All that will be paid to set mankind free
Free to face with death, in awe of the universe
As the poet writes, maybe, his last disenchanted verse
A frozen prayer begs out to all for a little mercy
To an unknown god and with a heart full of heresy
Is this then all that comes in seeking glory
It seems so in echo of mankind's age old story
(c) February 28, 2024 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Age Old Story, Ansswer, Arrogance, Awe, Beg, Beyond, Bleed, Breath, Bringer of Lifee, Broken, Bury, Calculated Science, Call, Castle, Consequence, Control, Cres, Darkness, Date, Day, Death, Death and Misery, Deep, Dies, Disenchanted, Echo, Embrace, Everything and Everyone, Face to Face, Fairytales, Fate, Forgive, Fractured Soul, Fragile, Free, Frozen Prayer, Greed, Harshness, Heart, Heartbreak, Heresy, Horror, Intolerance, Know, Left, Legends, Length, Live, Lock, Lost Treasure, Love, Mankind, Measure, Meet, Mercy, Mountain, Mumble, Need, New Strength, Old man, Pines, Poet, Poetry and Poems, Pretend, Promise, Search, See, Seeking Glory, Snow, Sorrows, Spoken, Street, Survive, Tears, The End, Tomorrow, Tortured Souls, Trace, True Secret, Universe, Unknown God, Valley of Sorrow, Verse, Wish
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First Principles: It Is Better To Offer No Excuse Than A Bad One
“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.” – George Washington to his orphaned charge, Harriot (or Harriet Washington) Sunday, October 30, 1791
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Tagged Bad, Better, Excuse, First Principles, George Washington, Offer
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Thought For the Day: If There Is Such A Thing As A Good Marriage, It Is Because It Resembles Friendship Rather Than Love
“If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.”-Michel de Montaigne
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Friendship, Good Marriage, Love, Michel de Montaigne, Resemble, Such A Thing, Thought For the Day
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