why we write

"You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what's burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke."

- Arthur Plotnik, editor and author (b. 1937)

"bring back your wisdom to trade, bring back the words you've saved and teach me, so that i may teach on."

fight songs

". . . only music may span that space between the finite and the infinite . . . music may be the means of arousing and awakening the best of hope, the best of desire, the best in the heart and soul of those who will and do listen. Is not music the universal language, both for those who would give praise and those who are sorry in their hearts and souls? Is it not a means, a manner of universal expression! Thus may the greater hope come."

Edgar Cayce Reading 2156-1

do you remember what the music meant?

i've had this dream before, i know just how it ends

ampere, "wormwood, radiation"

i've had this dream before, i know just how it ends. our eyes will fill with flame. our hearts will swell & explode. woodlawn is a place of abandoned hopes & dreams, of always wilting flowers & letters never read. but there is life here. you can hear it in the soil. you can see it in the shadows, etched in stone: "there is life here." so we're three years removed, and the earth around us has set. though the gears have stopped turning, the engine still hums. rewind, repeat, i see you there. you're alive on every page of every book. i hear your voice in echoes, in every line. this doesn't get any easier. this is a wound that time can't heal. it leaves a scar.

you cannot sway what's on the inside

edgar cayce reading 815-2: "First know in self in what thou hast believed, and then set that as the ideal . . . And when the darker days come, and when the shadows come that would make thee afraid, turn within and have a good time at scaring the bogies away from those that would fear, that would doubt."

Through troubled times, news of hatred, death and war,

Find signs of an end, but it may just seem to be okay,

And I'm not alone, when I say I feel enough to think,

I know there's dark in all things so I find the light and struggle on

Lead me with a grip so tight, I'll move ahead, I'll break the path,

I'll cross the line, and still reach out,

Wash my mind or stab my back but spirit stays my friend,

You can not sway what's on the inside

Messin' around, but if it feels like serious, I fall to the ground,

And I pick myself up, so I can face th days,

Learn on my own but I get so much from things I see these days,

Vivid, so clear, I can't see why it's hard to understand

countdown to christmas morning

madeleine, "christmas morning," from the "there is a light" comp.