“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” – Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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First Principles: The Two Most Powerful Warriors Are Patience and Time
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Leo Tolstoy, Patience, Power, Thought For the Day, Time, Two, War and Peace, Warriors
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First Principles: Justice Is the End of Government and Civil Society
“Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It ever has been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.” – James Madison, in The Federalist Papers, No. 51
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Tagged Civil Society, End, Federalist Papers, First Principles, Government, James Madison, Justice, Liberty, Lost, Obtain, Pursue, Pursuit
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Disinfected Press Briefing
The 27th day of NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo 2020, has the optional prompt of writing a poetic review of something not often reviewed.
Disinfected Press Briefing by Michael Doyle Even though there by sincere invitation Very few of them had whatsoever any inclination To be fair or anything close to objective As though reporting made than an elective Playing word twist with every word said Playing dice with then numbers of the dead Each of these wanting to play a game of catch Knowing the price gotcha can sometimes fetch Played with a president who digs his holes While the press corps pops up like moles Knowing that he'll just keep on swinging At the mischaracterizations they're bringing With the economy and confidence on ventilation The President carries on before the nation Trying to instill the will for people to survive Knowing the risks of an economy that must revive President Trump has become COVID-19's tragic face When he should have left this for experts to embrace Trying his best to let the people know he's trying But the press knows they're better off with lying And the president, he fails to see or recognize That despite the truth of intention in his eyes That the hours long conferences are being dissected For any misspeaking or error to be falsely connected While firms are exploring the option of ultraviolet Injections for this fight, the press is petulant Insisting that the president means to ingest Lysol So that they have these bones on which gnaw President Trump does himself and the nation disservice By insisting it was sarcasm and making people nervous When any disinterested listening can hear what was said And what he meant came out differently in his head As it turns out, Aytu has been doing this experiment And that is most likely, precisely what the president meant Injecting ultraviolet disinfection through intubation And while mocking can be fun, we're out to save this nation (c) April 27, 2020 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged 2020, Aytu, Best, Bone, Bring, Catch, Conference, Confidence, Connect, COVID-19, Dead, Dice, Disinfect, Disinterested, Dissected, Disservice, Economy, Elective, Embrace, Error, Experiment, Expert, Eyes, Face, Fail, Fair, False, Fetch, Fight, Game, Gnaw, Gotcha, Hole, Hours, Inclination, Injection, Instill, Intention, Intubation, Invitation, Lie, Listen, Lysol, Meant, Mischaracterization, Misspeak, Mock, Moles, NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo, Nation, Nervous, Number, Objective, Option, Petulant, Photograph, Play, Poem, Poetry, President, President Trump, Press, Press Briefing, Press Corps, Recognize, Report, Revive, Risk, Sarcasm, Save, Survive, Swing, The People, Truth, Try, Twist, Ultraviolet, Ventilation, Will, Word
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Thought For the Day: We Have To Move Forward and Get People Back To Some Sense of Normalcy
“We don’t have a choice. We have to move forward and get people back to some sense of normalcy.” – Dan Crenshaw
To live in fear, boxed in without hope, without pursuing our dreams and loves and all the goodness of life is not living. It is mere survival. The vast majority will develop immunity. Some of us won’t make it. Life goes on and we will have passed through our darkest night to find we, as a people, are resilient. Let’s do this. Let’s get on with the business of going back to thriving and making a better world for all of our children. We can do this thing!
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Tagged Choice, Dan Crenshaw, Move Forward, Normalcy, People, Sense, Thought For the Day, We
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First Principles: When Planning For Posterity, Remember That Virtue Is Not Hereditary
“When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.” – Thomas Paine (1776)
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Tagged First Principles, Hereditary, Plan, Posterity, Remember, Thomas Paine, Virtue, We
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Green Tea Haiku
From the prompt tea at the Fantasy Faire in Second Life:
I love to visit
Drinking my morning’s green tea
Quiet morning’s blossoms fall
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Blossom, Drink, Fall, Green Tea, Haiku, Love, Morning, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Quiet, Tea, Visit
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A Life In Size
The saga of Dracula continues:
A Life In Size by Michael Doyle In the dark castle hangs her face A painting of the sunlight he once embraced Hidden within were passages of a maze Guarded from the sun that continues to blaze In his quest to find safety where there is none All the hidden secrets that come undone He finds where all the languages taste the same The infernal hunger is to blame Faith is touching but will not save Reads the cryptic writings in the cave A loveless marriage keeps roof overhead For some to whom love and belief are dead The gift of blood becomes gift of sight It's all the same to creatures of the night To see how these work, things are broken The imperfect devil speaks in words unspoken Death comes as a shock to mortality Those who live as they won't meet fatality The monsters inside take away everything That hope and belief attempt to bring The vampire professes to all he meets That we are after all what we eat Seeking the one thing that he'll never know The warmth and sight of the sun's glow Artists and poets have sung of her Hanging in the sky, elusive for those calling Lucifer Who takes on himself darkness forsaking light All for the sake of immortality's sight An ending is actually has its hidden blessing The kind of a thing that won't leave you guessing Death provides life's fit for all its size Though this truth is best seen through immortal eyes When evil at last is seen as the good Perhaps it becomes time to be best understood That despite the horrid pain or however gory There comes a time to end even the best story (c) April 26, 2020 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Artist, Belief, Blame, Blaze, Blessing, Blood, Broken, Castle, Cave, Creatures of the Night, Cryptic, Darkness, Dead, Death, Devil, Dracula, Eat, End, Ending, Evil, Eyes, Face, Faith, Glow, Good, Gory, Guard, Guess, Hang, Hope, Hunger, Immortal, Immortality, Know, Language, Life, Light, Love, Loveless Marriage, Lucifer, Maze, Monster, Mortal, Pain, Painting, Passage, Photograph, Poem, Poet, Poetry, Quest, Roof, Safety, Saga, Save, Secret, Shock, Sight, Size, Sky, Story, Sun, Sung, Sunlight, Taste, Time, Touch, Truth, Understood, Undone, Unspoken, Vampire, Warmth
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Sunshine On A Rainy Day
Day 26th of NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo and the optional prompt is to write an almanac poem using:
Almanac Questionnaire
Weather: Rainy Day
Flora: Marsh Roses
Architecture: Limestone
Customs: Pork Tenderloin
Mammals/reptiles/fish: Sandhill Cranes
Childhood dream: Becoming the president
Found on the Street: Streetlights
Export: Space Exploration
Graffiti: Art Museum
Lover: Desiree
Conspiracy: Eating bats caused the pandemic
Dress: Amish
Hometown memory: Traveling always but Hawaii and California are my homes
Notable person: Albert Einstein
Outside your window, you find: A rain soaked yard
Today’s news headline: North Korean dictator might be dead
Scrap from a letter: Love Letter
Animal from a myth: Winnie the Pooh
Story read to children at night: To the Moon and Back
You walk three minutes down an alley and you find: My SUV to leave this behind
You walk to the border and hear: The way back to sunshine
What you fear: Not much
Picture on your city’s postcard: Crossroads of America
Sunshine On A Rainy Day
by Michael Doyle
Sunday morning, on April 26
I'm looking to get my fix
Of the 24 hour news cycle
Before getting on my bicycle
Though speculation goes on and on
Rumor has it that Kim Jong Un
Has passed and it's another rainy day
As I think on thoughts that went their way
Like wanting to become the president
Wondering how that dream came and went
And in any event, sitting at the Crossroads
I think I'd rather eat poisoned toads
Out under the electric street lights
On the limestone streets of Indiana nights
Dreaming of spaces for our urgent exploring
Handing you a marsh rose promise and imploring
Thinking that Winnie the Pooh was right
You don't spell love you feel it as it alights
But I do love you to the moon and back
And sunshine is something that I'll never lack
As long as I have the sweet love of my Desiree
And memories of my hometown and maybe our family
Looking out the window at the rain soaked yard
Escaping in our SUV really won't be that hard
Sharing the pickles from my pork tenderloin lunch
It goes without saying that I have a hunch
You keep reading my love letters to your heart
The ones that I keep writing as I have from the start
You're three thousand miles away from me
And while writing on the wall is just graffiti
Seen at the art museum is what I'm thinking of
The traces that I feel deep of your sweet love
Other than eating bats, there's not much I fear
But I know that I need to find my way out of here
Leaving the sandhill cranes to make you mine
I'm no Einstein but I see that you're my sunshine
There's nothing Amish about the way that you dress
And I know enough to know you are my address
Where my heart belongs and I'm just enough clever
To know and feel that you are my forever
(c) April 26, 2020 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged 24 Hour News Cycle, Address, Amish, Art Museum, Bats, Belong, Bicycle, Clever, Crossroads, Desiree, Dream, Dress, Einstein, Escape, Fear, Feel, Forever, Graffiti, Heart, Here, Hometown, Hunch, Indiana, Kim Jong Un, Know, Lack, Limestone, Look, Love, Love Letters, Marsh Rose, Mine, Moon and Back, NaPoWriMo/GloPoWriMo, Pass, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Poisoned Toads, Pork Tenderloin, President, Promise, Rain, Rainy Day, Sandhill Cranes, Space, Speculation, Street Lights, Sunday, Sunshine, SUV, Sweet Love, Thoughts, Three Thousand Miless, Window, Winnie the Pooh, Write
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First Principles: We Have No Government With Power Capable of Contending With Human Passions Unbridled By Morality and Religion
“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. “ – John Adams, in Address to the Military (October 11, 1798)
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Tagged Address to the Military, Contend, First Principles, Government, Human Passions, John Adams, Morality, Power, Religion, Unbridled
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Thought For the Day: Everyday Language Is A Part of the Human Organism and Is No Less Complicated Than It
“Everyday language is a part of the human organism and is no less complicated than it.” – Ludwig Wittgensteinn, philosopher (26 Apr 1889-1951)
