“I think all art comes out of conflict. When I write I am always looking for the dramatic kernel of an event, the junctures of people’s lives when they go in one direction, not another.” – Joyce Carol Oates
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Thought For the Day: All Art Comes Out of Conflict
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Tagged Art, Conflict, Drama, Event, Joyce Carol Oates, Juncture, Kernel, Not Another, One Direction, People's Lives, Think, Thought For the Day, Write
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First Principles: The Harder the Conflict, the More Glorious the Triumph
“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.” – Thomas Paine
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Conflict, First Principles, Glorious, Harder, Thomas Paine, Triumph
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Parenting As We Go
Parenting As We Go
by Michael Doyle
Holding on so tight
As life brings dark and light
Parenting the children trusted to us
And doing our best just because
God loves us and we should love one another
As we are either serving as father or mother
It's not just another homily
To acknowledge that we are all family
God provides us with His freedom
Though the commandments of the kingdom
While teaching us how to live free
Doing right by our community
Impress God's lines on your heart
Bound, never to allow to then depart
This is as we have aspired
To live each moment God-inspired
Each parent thinks on how they're raised
Doing their best to bring about a child praised
Hopefully shining as a beacon of light
And to live a life that walks upright
Parenting as we go
Encouraging our children to grow
Words matter and can bring harm
Better to adjust in goodness and charm
To bring God's goodness into life
Approaching this with faith and ripe
For the harvest of love and truth
Keeping God's path illuminated from youth
In a world filled with too many pretenses
We each need our fences
It is not something that keeps us bound
Even blue skies need the ground
These are the blessings we need to live
Expressed in the symbols that we give
Tattooed false colors profess what we don't believe
We should choose instead those things that do not deceive
(c) April 24, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Acknowldge, Adjust, Allow, Approach, As We Go, Aspired, Beacon of Light, Because, Believe, Best, Bound, Bring Harm, Charm, Children, Choose, Commandments, Community, Dark and Light, Deceive, Depart, Doing Right, Encouraging, Express, Faith, False Colors, Family, Father or Mother, Freedom, God, God Loves Us, God's Goodness, God's Path, God-Inspired, Goodness, Grow, Harvest, Heart, Holding On, Homily, Illuminated, Impress, Kingdom, Life, Lines, Live Each Moment, Live Free, Love and Truth, Love One Another, Parent, Parenting, Parenting As We Go, Poetry and Poems, Praised, Pretenses, Profess, Raised, Shining, Symbols, Teaching, Tight, Trusted, Upright, Us, Words Matter, World, Youth
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First Principles: The Principles That Wil Govern Me In the High Duty To Which My Country Calls Me Is A Strict Adherence To the Letter and Spirit of the Constitution
“For myself, therefore, I desire to declare that the principle that will govern me in the high duty to which my country calls me is a strict adherence to the letter and spirit of the Constitution as it was designed by those who framed it.” – Martin Van Buren, Inaugural Address March 4, 1837
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Constitution, Country, Design, First Principles, Frame, Govern, High Duty, Letter and Spirit, Martin Van Buren, Principles, Strict Adherence
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Thought For the Day: Pluralism Is the Adhesive That Holds Together the Great American Mosaic. It Is the Idea That We Can Actually Be United By Our Differences, Not In Spite of Them
“Pluralism is the adhesive that holds together the great American mosaic. It is the idea that we can actually be united by our differences, not in spite of them.” – Orrin Hatch (March 22, 1934 – April 23, 2022)
May he rest in peace.
Until the Sky Cracks
Until the Sky Cracks
by Michael Doyle
I get the fact
That it's not an act
While the sun still glows
Your pessimism grows
Until the sky cracks
Along the back tracks
That play like yesterday
And its charades along the way
It sounds like something
We had decided was nothing
Brought up again as fear
Of what we'd find there
And you can't let it go
Knowing as you think you know
Passive aggressively holding on
Like melancholy played until gone
And you won't let it go
Clinging like a dog to its bone
Pretending to know what you can't know
It would be better if you left it alone
(c) April 23, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Act, Back Track, Better, Bone, Can't Know, Charades, Cling, Cracks, Dog, Fact, Fear, Glows, Gone, Grows, Know, Left It Alone, Let It Go, Melancholy, Nothing, Passive Aggressive, Pessimism, Play, Poetry and Poems, Pretend, Sky, Something, Sun, There, Think, Yesterday
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Thought For the Day: It Is Important To View Knowledge As A Sort of A Semantic Tree – Make Sure You Understand the Fundamental Principles…Before You Get Into the Leaves/Details
“It is important to view knowledge as sort of a semantic tree — make sure you understand the fundamental principles, ie the trunk and big branches, before you get into the leaves/details or there is nothing for them to hang on to.” – Elon Musk
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Big Branches, Details, Elon Musk, Fundamental Principles, Hang On To, Important, Knowledge, Leaves, Nothing, Semantic Tree, Thought For the Day, Trunk, Understand, View
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First Principles: Every Good Citizen Makes His Country’s Honor His Own, and Cherishes It Not Only As Precious But As Sacred
“Every good citizen makes his country’s honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.” – Andrew Jackson
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Andrew Jackson, Cherish, Conscious, Country, Defense, Every, First Principles, Good Citizen, Honor, Life, Own, Precious, Protection, Risk, Sacred, Willing
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Slightly Out of Tune
Softly Out of Tune
by Michael Doyle
The piano plays slightly out of tune
The preacher is drunk, crazy as a loon
A voice whispers hello old friend
The bemused look hints at the end
Life is one continuing negotiation
It seems a program of collaboration
It is a game of prospective skill sets
And decisions made absent regrets
If you're brave enough to kick down the door
You just might find a little more
Skeletons in closets end the masquerade
While the dealer folds his cards neatly played
There's an irony to the illusions of free will
When after all there is so little to conceal
Shared visions of dreams we've hid
Tells the secrets of the things we did
Scorched earth was never a victory
As it burns to the ground in heresy
All the life that truly matters
Beyond the ashes wrapped in tatters
(c) April 22, 2022 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Ashes, Bemused, Brave Enough, Cards, Collaboration, Conceal, Dealer, Decisions, Door, Drunk, End, Free Will, Heresy, Illusions, Irony, Life, Loon, Masquerade, Matters, More, Negotiation, Old Friend, Played, Poetry and Poems, Preacher, Regrets, Scorched Earth, Secrets, Skeletons In Closets, Skill Sets, Slight, Tatters, Tune, Victory, Visions of Dreams, Whisper
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First Principles: Hide Not Your Talents, They For Use Were Made, What’s A Sundial In the Shade
“Hide not your talents, they for use were made,
What’s a sundial in the shade?”
– Benjamin Franklin
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Benjamin Franklin, First Principles, Hide, Made, Shade, Sundial, Talents, Use
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