The Artful Conflict

Moruya Island Jungle Camp - Silent Spring Falls At Wit's End
The Artful Conflict
by Michael Doyle

Humanity is invariably drawn to the good fight
And it is unorthodox when it is brought to light
That a southpaw stance taken can bring true value
To all of us sinners, even me and you

Blessed are the peacemakers who live and follow
In the loving ways followed from God's shadow
Among humanity's breakers, fakers, and makers
Each of these are this world's movers and shakers

The last of these carry our relationships through
Striving hard in the concepts and actions we do
Loving our neighbors as ourselves in humility
We are after all, part of God's one family

Biting and breaking are harsh elements that destroy
All that is meant in building up and learning to enjoy
We followers are to gain and use peaceful skills, yet,
It's necessary for us all to grow the necessary skill set

Conflict comes all too naturally with relationship
Learning to deal with it well is part of rightful worship
The value had in people is worth peaceful resolution
And not cutting off others and their valuable contributions

The best time to win any fight is before it starts
We must learn to fix the right attitudes in our hearts
To begin with, what causes all these quarrels and fights?
It's the same thing that causes are sleepless nights

Most fights come from the pressures of desires within
We must do the hard work to avoid our complicating sin
The wars around us too often come from our wars within
It is never redundant to think on this and then again

We too often go sideways in our tendencies that show
And we must watch these to keep our best, even flow
This is the path from conflicts if we are to grow
To know anyone else, we must ourselves learn to know

Asking our forgiveness for our soul's contributions
Often takes the impact out of life's retributions
In all of our conflicts, when all is said and done,
We must realize this if we are to best follow the Son

(c) October 22, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
The Forgotten - Daylight Fades

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First Principles: Blessed Are the Peacemakers, For They Will Be Called the Children of God

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” – (Matthew 5:9)

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Thought For the Day: What’s Terrible Is To Pretend that Second-Rate Is First Rate

“What’s terrible is to pretend that second-rate is first-rate. To pretend that you don’t need love when you do; or you like your work when you know quite well you’re capable of better.” – Doris Lessing

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A Mother’s Wrath (A Ghost Story)

Hauntings- Time For Ghost Stories
A Mother's Wrath (A Ghost Story)
by Michael Doyle

For her, forever started in 1673
With what once was a happy family
A child was left alone wandering
With love disturbed and ,wondering

For three hundred years
Lost inside a veil of tears
There is no safety in numbers
That can shield us in our slumbers

Sorrow becomes anger that cannot end
These are the cries that the dead send
Candlelight is the third eye's passageway
The children will know no safety today

She reaches out, ending all harm to the child
Whose innocence has been cruelly defiled
The evil eye knows and sees it all
And this ghost from yesterday will come to call

Yesterday, a father violently died
His widow was left behind and cried
Wishing she could hold onto yesterday
Bittersweet with nightmares that won't go away

From the mirror, a ghost appears and is seen
Silently shrieking, forming a scream from her inner being
As a child's life is destroyed and torn apart
There is no safety for those holding a drowned heart

A mom is heard through her enraged weeping
In the centuries, kept without really keeping
Veiled death has destroyed all sense of trust
By a chilling ghost who could not turn into dust

No vapid reasons can bring her again to care
Not in the mystery-shrouded from the family's care
What remains is the evil of a woman scorned
This is a tale of old, repeated, and cast forward

A girl is lured to the edge of an uncovered pool
As if she didn't learn the respected rules
That the crying woman will bring certain death
From her guilt and rage that take one's breath

It seems that angry people have a need to talk
That is more pervasive than their hungry walk
Curdled in drying blood and ghastly photographs
These and she tell the tale of death as Satan laughs

Upward evil creeps until it is knocking on the attic door
While outside is thunder as the rain pours and pours
Old houses whisper history as they know their creaks
While the voice of evil grins as it speaks

It's hard to imagine how a mother truly feels
And how the sting of the ghost's tears reveal
The truth of the pain that runs far too deep
This is seen when the spirit of the crying woman weeps

Crying won't help you and crying won't do you no good
This is the creep of certain death as it is understood
Knock, knock on the next victim's unopened door
And every mother still alive, quietly implores

Asking that the ghost of the crying woman not to kill
Through her love of drowning innocence unconcealed
Suddenly again, the struggle ensues; mother against mother
And only one will win; love or anger; one or the other

This is not to be spoken with a sense of grave pessimism
The answer comes to rest in a shaman's passage of exorcism
To see what evil does is to stare straight into evil's face
And must be fought against, hoping to keep within God's embrace

In ancient ritual, eggs are broken to gain evil's confession
The greater the blood inside, the greater will be the concession
That evil has seeped into this living, loving home
And must fought against together with God's grace, never alone

When evil comes out of the shadows to openly conspire
The best tools to fight with are those of spiritual fire
The shaman joins with the family to fight this good fight
Who knows whose victory will come on this cursed night?

(c) October 21, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
FORGOTTEN GHOSTS by Nara Marcus

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Thought For the Day: Art Is A Man’s Nature; Nature Is God’s Art

“Art is a man’s nature; nature is God’s art.” – Philip James Bailey

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First Principles: The Bosom of America Is Open To Receive Not Only the Opulent and Respectable Stranger, but the Oppressed and Persecuted

“The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted … if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.” —George Washington (1783)

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Waking To the Smell of Coffee

Vibes Gallery -Coffee Drop In
Waking To the Smell of Coffee
by Michael Doyle

What if life could be seen
By every single human being
Put out as if a streaming movie?
Would we still want to be you and me?

Or is this an awful possibility
And we'd want to buy up every movie
Before the truth of who we are
Was revealed through the roles in which we star?

Would we be proud of our integrity?
Or would we hate what we're forced to see?
Though we'd be seen as we really, truly are
Would we want to be that sort of a star?

Or would there be scenes we'd like to change?
Parts and portions we'd want to rearrange?
When we think about these thoughts,
Have we been the persons that we ought?

Would the terms and conditions take our name
Though we wished for someone else to blame?
What do we sign onto in our life's contract?
Do we really have anyone else to blame for how we act?

Victims of our own devices
That capture us in all our vices
Portraying us exactly as we are
Though worsened to make us all stars

If the world could see every ding and slight,
Would we find the need to set things right?
And tell me, please, what does it take to do so
When a life has gone full flow?

Who might then choose to do the worse
Through every line lived, chapter and verse?
In a litigious world, we must carefully choose
What we are and do, or we cannot refuse

To allow our images to be used and seen
In our every act as errant human beings
Losing our rights to all shreds of dignity
This then will be our legacy

The other choice is to do better in how we act
This truth is just a natural fact
It all comes down to our final deal
We must confront those defining what is real

If we could take the entire system down
And have another chance at the victor's crown
It would be a front-door attack of legitimacy
That when well-lived would build our new legacy

No more compromise with mesmerized engagement
Let's instead, show a far more selective engagement
Tearing down the generated monster of the modern age
Ridding the world of AI, in favor of self-written pages

Defining for ourselves, who it that we exactly are
As we categorically state, we're not willing to be their stars
To suffer on behalf of buffoons who seek to simply laugh
At our defined parameters because we are no longer daft

You must see, it doesn't matter what fictive level we are on
This place has become a madhouse that needs to be gone
Done away with at our hands and minds as our lives are reclaimed
As something to be lived in full and not allowed to be gamed

When we axe the computers and phones, we take our lives back
Actually aware of who we are, and what it is that we lack
It will feel good and we will be more than just a little okay
When we reclaim our lives back in every single way

(c) October 20, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
SL16B Captivate - Catznip Viewer - The Inner Workings of the Comfortably Numb

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First Principles: One of the Most Essential Branches of English Liberty Is the Freedom of One’s House. A Man’s House Is His Castle

“One of the most essential branches of English liberty is the freedom of one’s house. A man’s house is his castle.” – James Otis, on the Writs of Assistance, 1761

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Thought For the Day: Every Great Advance In Science Has Issued From A New Audacity of Imagination

“Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination.” – John Dewey, philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer (20 Oct 1859-1952)

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Pain Enters the Building

Tralala's Diner -Wrong Side Of Mystery
Pain Enters the Building
by Michael Doyle

Pain enters the building
It comes with the never-yielding
But instead, putting your all into the game
Whether you lose or gain 15 minutes of fame

Sometimes conflict comes with pain
Sometimes you ride the rails, barely sane
You give your all in contribution
Hoping your perspective will bring resolution

To do away with any sense of mystery
I am, of course, talking about NFL history
Right around each corner comes a new fight
Underneath all the million-dollar bright lights

But it's the intense pain that feeds us well
In this gridiron game of nerves and steel
Pushing hard for the success we deserve
Even when it takes us down to our last nerve

Waiting forever for the last quarter smile
Snapped from within that last driven mile
In the end, it comes down to home and family
And in the end, that's all that means anything to me

(c) October 19, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Downtown Indianapolis -  Long View Toward the Stadium

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