Poets (and stories) for Peace

How long are we willing to keep looking at the differences between each other for the sake of disagreement, power and being right, whether it is easy to admit that we are doing that or not? How long are we willing to pretend that things around us are not happening, when they are, because we don't want to admit our fears, vulnerability and recognize that we are not sure what to do about things, so that we can start to face what we need to face as a nation and in the world? How long are we willing to turn away from the interconnectedness between things? How long are we willing to fight the same battles over and over again from one place to the next, while the same money could feed the poor, educate the world and preserve the economy? How long are we willing to keep seeing the problem as something separate from us? How long are we willing to keep fighting battles that are centuries old? How is that we have our federal taxes go to war, the infrastructure, and all the other things that...

[Note: This list of Einstein quotes was being forwarded around the Internet in e-mail, so I decided to put it on my web page. I'm afraid I can't vouch for its authenticity, tell you where it came from, who compiled the list, who Kevin Harris is, or anything like that. Still, the quotes are interesting and enlightening.] Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein * "Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction." * "Imagination is more important than knowledge." * "Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love." * "I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details." * "The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax." * "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." * "The only real valuable thing is intuition." * ...

(click on title and go to link.....you may have seen this before, but it says a lot about the human mind)

Convicted forger A. Schiller was serving his time in Sing Sing prison in the late 1800s when guards found him dead in his cell. On his body they found seven regular straight pins whose heads measured the typical 47/1000ths of an inch or 1.17 millimeters in diameter. Under 500 magnification it was found that the tiny etchings seen on the heads of the pins were the words to The Lord's Prayer, which is 65 words and 254 letters long. Of the seven pins, six were silver and one was gold - the gold pin's prayer was flawless and a true masterpiece. Schiller had spent the last 25 years of his life creating the pins, using a tool too small to be seen by the naked eye. It is estimated that it took 1,863 sepatate carving strokes to make it. Schiller went blind because of his artwork. http://www.anomalies-unlimited.com/Odd_Pics.html

http://www.rtoddking.com/chinawin2003_hb_if.htm The yearly snow and ice festivals of Harbin, China are spectacular and this site has some of the best shots and also photos from around the world. This guy does a marvelous job and goes every year. People come from Canada to Thailand to create sculptures there that are massive and cut from huge blocks of ice. Looking at this project constructed by so many by people adapted to the cold and those not, brings more hope for peace to my heart than the Olympics, in truth. No mater what your view of Chinese's government, human rights issues or how much money we owe them this festival is something to behold. Were the ticket dumped in my lap, I would certainly go no matter the cold, so just in case you are complaining about the amount of snow and cold this winter, take a looksy at this and think again. http://www.rtoddking.com/chinawin2003_hb_if.htm

Do you remember the song the age of Aquarius.....and the prediction was about when the moon is in the 7th house and Jupiter aligns with Mars. Well folks, that was this Valentine's Day, and here is my poem. BTW the question I pose, as promised a few posts back is forthcoming. Jupiter Aligns With Mars by Roseroberta The moon was in the 7 th house— on Valentine’s Day no less— a time for truth, justice, peace and love. Prometheus the fire bearer sat on the subway steps waiting for the A train to come down the tunnel where several forgotten Gods hung out. He was just thinking how to best light their fire, when the A train came blaring by, with Miles at the helm— a ghost train loaded like Pandora’s box with dreams of King and a whole generation of Xs still lost in the ruble of blackness and tunnels railroaded and derailed, and Prometheus sat on the subway stairs. And as the train passe...

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. ~Aristotle Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils. ~Hector Berlioz An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field. ~Niels Bohr Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school. ~Albert Einstein What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child. ~George Bernard Shaw Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century. ~Perelman I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. ~Mark Twain Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune. ~Jim Rohn Education is that which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. ~Ambrose Bierce In large states public education will always be mediocre, for the same reason that in large kitchens the cooking is usually bad....

I wrote this letter to Obama in Sept of 2007. There are, looking back, some grammatical imperfections, but I have not touched a word of it. I do not have a Mensa IQ nor am I a prophetess, but looking back on it, I was stunned by, not the grammatical errors, but the significance and left with the impression that, if I realized that???? I am reposting this, because of what the letter represents looking back at the last 8 months of economic events. I am posting it again, while posing this questions. How much do we want to be lulled to sleep? How much do we want to turn honest requests for discourse into a realm of aggression by calling it confrontational? How much do we want to rewrite history, so that he word liberal is aligned with communist and not open to thought? How much do we want to be in denial about what we have created and what needs to take place inside us to have the phoenix rise from the ashes? I was sitting in a coffee shop the other day. I heard a conversation wher...

This is an organization that I support. The organization is based on principles of integrity that transcend religious denominations. Please check out there website. I also suggest that you download the Global Marshall Plan and read it. This plan could be what saves us all, if we are to be saved. http://www.spiritualprogressives.org/ The other organization that I came across recently is: http://www.thepeacealliance.org/ They are trying to create within government a Department of Peace. They also have some interesting perspectives that are worth investigating.

I found this small bit of writing that I had tossed aside and forgotten about. I read it in a writer's class to get feedback about what people saw me doing with it. People said to me (mostly poets) that they saw it as a poem. Personally, I see it as the beginning of a story, which I am continuing. Why I am placing it here though? People said to me that they felt it is something that can be felt by many people, so I wanted to share it. I would be interested to hear how others respond to it, and, if they see it as a poem or not: Looking At Normal I am looking at the face of anger. I am looking at the face of aggression, of rage, of wanting to destroy, of feeling no happiness staring back at me in the mirror of a face sagging with age alone and tired trying so hard, and it never feeling like enough. I want to find this small corner, to hide in, to curl up and not be seen like when I hid in the closet as a child, when I wanted to run away, and t...

When I was in Japan, I had helped a woman's son through teaching him English. We met two times a week, and had an amazing connection with each other. His mother was amazed, because his teachers taught that he was a problem and not very bright, which was not what I found. Through this experience, he became better at his normal schoolwork as well. His mother cried and cried when I left Japan. I had no idea of how much I had meant to her. The beginning of the year brought death to my doorstep, but in a positive way. Between moving to Japan and leaving a Buddhist practice that I had been in, I had lost touch with my first husband. We had both married on the rebound, after being friends for years. We only stayed married for 6 months. Just long enough to help him work through some things. Because of some previous events in my life and how I was at the time, I always felt a bit guilty about things that had transpired between us. For years, I had had the feeling to try and find ...