“In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened.” – George Washington (1796)
Flickr Photos
First Principles: In Proportion As the Structure of A Government Gives Force In Public Opinion, It Is Essential That Public Opinion Should Be Enlightened
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Enlightened, Essential, First Principles, Force, George Washington, Government, Proportion, Public Opinion, Structure
Leave a comment
A Cry for Uvalde
A Cry for Uvalde
by Michael Doyle
Somewhere beyond a world of feeling
Is the way of knowing healing
These are the times for being an example
The differences made will be ample
Fighting not with fists but with prayer
Peeling back the onion of life, layer by layer
Trust falling into the ways of faith
Walking from wicked ways, not knowing if we're safe
Fight the good fight through actions and belief
That transcends into peace beyond all grief
All of the best fights begin on the knees
Recognizing sin for what it is - a disease
Lifting our voices up in our humbled cry
Without the drive forward; yet we question why
This then we should have sense to do every day
So be it and so it will be done in our every way
They had dreams, favorite songs and lives ahead
Who knew that by going to school, they'd be dead
Before our nation, a community shakes and shatters
Who is to say the blame in these sorts of matters
Hundreds gather in vigils of mass candlelight
Holding hands in mourning, clasped in prayers at night
Twenty-one crosses were silently erected on Thursday
The sorrow that accompanies will be here every single day
For as long as there remains the wounds to be felt
By the hand of Lucifer this tragedy was cruelly dealt
This loss of beautiful souls who stood as a cornerstone
Only to be forced to leave loved ones behind and alone
Their faces and their traces will long be memories
That torture the love and survivor's guilt of families
How does anyone rebuild what was burnt to the ground in moments?
How does anyone survive these gut wrenching torments?
Acabo de enterarme de estat triste noticia
Te acompano en este momento de dolor
Lamento mucho la muerte de los ninos
En este momento tan dificil que estas viviendo,
Sabes que cuentas con mi apoyo
Of Salvador Ramos there were warnings for years
To be bullied and shamed cut up and down into tears
Yet no one lifted a hand to help or used their voice
The fault is his and yet it didn't have to be his choice
(c) May 28, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Actions, Alone, Ample, Beautiful Souls, Behind, Belief, Best Fights, Blame, Bullied, Burnt to the Ground, Candlelight, Community, Cornerstone, Cruelly Dealt, Cry, Cuentas, Dead, Differences Made, Dificil, Disease, Dreams, Every Day, Every Single Day, Example, Faces, Faith, Families, Fault Is His, Favorite Songs, Feeling, Felt, Fight the Good Fight, Fighting, Grief, Gut Wrenching Torments, Hand of Lucifer, Healing, Humbled Cry, Hundreds, It Didn't Have To Be His Choice, Knees, Know, La Muerte de Los Ninos, Layer, Lifted A Hand, Lifting Our Voices, Lives, Loss, Love, Loved Ones, Matters, Memories, Mi Apoyo, Momento, Moments, Morning, Mourning, Nation, Night, Not With Fists, Noticia, Onion of Life, Peace, Poetry and Poems, Prayer, Prayers, Question Why, Rebuild, Sabes, Safe, Salvador Ramos, School, Sense, Shakes and Shatters, Shamed, Silently Erected, Sin, So Be It, So It Will Be Done, Sorrow, Survive, Survivor's Guilt, Tears, Thursday, Times, Torture, Traces, Tragedy, Transcend, Trust Falling, Twenty-One Crosses, Used Their Voice, Uvalde, Vigils, Viviendo, Walk, Warnings, Wicked Ways, Wounds, Years
Leave a comment
First Principles: If We Move In Mass, Be It Ever So Circuitously, We Shall Attain Our Object
“If we move in mass, be it ever so circuitously, we shall attain our object; but if we break into squads, everyone pursuing the path he thinks most direct, we become an easy conquest to those who can now barely hold us in check.” – Thomas Jefferson (1811)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Check, Circuitously, Direct, Easy Conquest, First Principles, Mass, Move, Objective, Path, Squads, Thomas Jefferson
Leave a comment
Thought For the Day: And This Our Life, Exempt From Public Haunt, Finds Tongues In Trees, Books In the Running Brooks, Sermons In Stones, and Good In Everything
“And this our life, exempt from public haunt, / Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, / Sermons in stones, and good in everything.” -William Shakespeare, playwright and poet (1564-1616)
Looking For Words
Looking For Words
by Michael Doyle
I see you looking for words
But more than the words
You want to read the actions
That bleed like a rose with satisfaction
Making a difference, plain to see
To live, love, and dream is to be
One with this universal soul
Happily decided in this infinite role
Seeing, looking, carelessly sinking
Feeling so much more than thinking
Comfortable in the charm of dreams
That accommodates until bursting the seams
As long as life finds its years
There are angels enough to dry your tears
Friendship is a shared joy and treasure
With these quiet moments giving pleasure
There are no distances between true hearts
There in the spaces where the magic sparks
It is in the place of truest sincerity
Where the truth of the matter is seen in clarity
... In a place that two souls meet..
...and connect
(c) May 27, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Accommodate, Actions, Angels, Bleed, Charm, Clarity, Comfortable, Connect, Difference, Distances, Dream, Dreams, Feeling, Friendship, Infinite Role, Life, Live, Looking, Looking For Words, Love, Magic, More Than, Place, Plain To See, Pleasure, Poetry and Poems, Quiet Moments, Read, Rose, Satisfaction, Seams, Seeing, Shared Joy, Sincereity, Sinking, Souls, Spaces, Sparks, Tears, Thinking, Treasure, True Hearts, Truth of the Matter, Universal Soul, Years
Leave a comment
Thought For the Day: Use Your Voice For Kindness, Your Ears For Compassion, Your Hands For Charity, Your Mind For Truth, and Your Heart For Love
“Use your voice for kindness, your ears for compassion, your hands for charity, your mind for truth, and your heart for love.” – William John Bennett
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Charity, Compassion, Ears, Hands, Heart, Kindness, Love, Mind, Thought For the Day, Truth, Voice, William John Bennett
Leave a comment
First Principles: Honor, Justice, and Humanity, Forbid Us Tamely To Surrender That Freedom Which We Received From Our Gallant Ancestors
“Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage on them.” – Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking up Arms, 1775
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Awaits, Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms, First Principles, Forbid, Freedom, Gallant Ancestors, Generations, Hereditary Bondage, Honor, Humanity, Infamy and Guilt, Justice, Posterity, Surrender, Thomas Jefferson, Wretchedness
Leave a comment
For Sierra At Age Thirteen
For Sierra At Age Thirteen
by Michael Doyle
It seems only yesterday
That you were a tween
And now my youngest princess
Is aged perfectly to thirteen
There's not a single day
That I will ever forget
The moments that have passed
Nor will I ever in any way regret
The day that I woke up
From an afternoon's nap
And you climbed up
Onto the top of your daddy's lap
Recounting the sameness of us
Part by part, one by one
A lifetime for you; a blink for me
God knows what he's doing and has done
The simple words written in the card
Could not begin to ever express
But I would not ever want you
To feel you had to ever guess
What a blessing that you've been
And what a daughter you truly are
What a laugh, every now and then
In this life, you'll go really far
But never so very far away
That you'll never stray from my heart
That's where you've always been
Since birth and will never depart
I stood there watching
As you blew the candles out
Singing you your birthday song
With only a single doubt
What has happened as the days rush by
And now in front of me, an amazing young lady
But can someone tell me please
What exactly happened to my darling baby?
A voice whispers hushed so softly
She has quickly and ably grown up
I smile with the hope to live to watch
Her drink from life's victory cup
(...to watch you sipping again and again
from your victory cup...)
(c) May 26, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Afternoon's Nap, Amazing Young Lady, Been, Birth, Birthday Song, Blessing, Blink, Candles, Card, Climbed Up, Darling Baby, Daughter, Days, Depart, Drink, Express, Far Away, Feel, Forget, God Knows, Grown Up, Guess, Happen, Hope, Laugh, Life, Lifetime, Live To Watch, Moments, My Heart, Never Stray, Now and Then, Only A Single Doubt, Part By Part, Passed, Perfectly, Poetry and Poems, Quickly, Regret, Sameness of Us, Sierra, Simple Words, Single Day, Smile, Softly, Tell Me Please, Thirteen, Tween, Victory Cup, Voice, Watching, Whisper, Woke Up, Yesterday, You'll Go Really Far, Youngest Princess
Leave a comment
A Lament for Michael the Archangel
A Lament of Michael,the Archangel
by Michael Doyle
The day after celebrating the birth of a daughter
I return again to the celebration of the Father
Revisiting instruction in the ways of the kingdom
And a memory of the better man that I’ve become
Listening to the reminder of the lessons Jesus taught
When the time had come for truth to be said as sought
When the kingdom on earth would be given authority
Is not for us to know , yet we know, it comes ultimately
Until then we walk as witnesses to the ends of the earth
Taking in the wisdom with compassion and sweet mirth
All of these things told us until Jesus was taken from sight
Raised into the clouds before the witnesses’ sight into the light
God has given each of us the spirit of wisdom and perception
To see beyond this wicked world and its cruel deceptions
There is a strength in the works of Jesus to give us power
If we listen taking heed, we will be seated in that blessed hour
As the head of the church, we are all under the Father’s feet
So that none of us fall to the serpent and taste our defeat
In knowing this we again become peace and joy’s instrument
Played well in our parts, simply as it is by our God meant
Michael the Archangel is the defender to each of us and all
As protector against wickedness as we rightfully recall
By the power of God, Satan and his minions were thrust into Hell
By the power of God, each of us has Jesus to indwell
(c) May 26, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Archangel, Authority, Become, Better Man, Birth, Blessed Hour, Celebration, Compassion, Daughter, Deception, Defeat, Defender, Ends of the Earth, Father, Father's Feet, Head of the Church, Hell, Indwell, Instruction, Instrument, Jesus, Joy, Lament, Lessons, Memory, Michael, Michael the Archangel, Mirth, Peace, Perception, Poetry and Poems, Power, Power of God, Protector, Recall, Reminder, Satan and His Minions, Serpent, Sight, Sought, Strength, Taught, Time, Ultimately, Walk, Ways of the Kingdom, Wicked World, Wisdom, Witnesses
Leave a comment
A Rispetto of Loneliness
Featured again is a poem form obtained from the weekly Short Form Poetry Workshop on Linden Lab’s virtual platform known as Second Life. This week the form was the rispetto.
What then is a rispetto? It is a Tuscan folk verse form of strambotto. It reached its pinnacle between the 14th and 15th centuries, especially in the work of the poet, Politian, who wrote approximately 200 rispetti. Interestingly, Lorenzo de Medici also favored this form.
More specifically, it is an 8-line form holding two rhyme quatrains (two four-line stanzas).
Models of how it is written include:
Rhyme scheme ababccdd or abababcc or abab cddc
o a
o b
o a
o b
o c
o c
o d
o d
or
• a
• b
• a
• b
• a
• b
• c
• c
or
• a
• b
• a
• b
• c
• d
• d
• c
Mine from that work shop is:
A Rispetto of Loneliness
by Michael Doyle
Time into time there is loneliness to face
As we walk through moments we don’t quite understand
It seems sometimes treasonous that we embrace
Thoughts and conceptions as if these are commands
We color ourselves within these these straight lines
Even when our hearts are curved and often showing
Sometimes tripping over imaginary land mines
It’s hard to feel blind thinking we are knowing
(c), May 24, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Blind, Color, Commands, Conceptions, Curved, Embrace, Face, Feel, Folk Verse, Hard, Hearts, Imaginary, Knowing, LandMines, Loneliness, Moments, Poetry and Poems, Politian, Rhyme Scheme, Rispetto, Short Form Poetry Workshop, Showing, Straight Lines, Strambotto, Thinking, Thoughts, Time, Treasonous, Tripping, Tuscan, Understand, Walk
Leave a comment
