Poem: “The Clod and the Pebble,” by William Blake
‘Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.’ So sung a little Clod of Clay Trodden with the cattle’s feet, But a Pebble of the brook Warbled out these metres meet: ‘Love...
read more
Happy Birthday To . . . James & Clarence
April 18, 1813 James McCune Smith "Freedom and Liberty are not synonyms. Freedom is an essence; Liberty, an accident. Freedom is born with a man; Liberty may be conferred upon him… Freedom is the gift of God; Liberty, the creature of society. Liberty may be taken away...
read more
Poem: “Generous Listening,” by Marilyn Nelson
A conversation can be a contest, or a game of catch with invisible balloons. They bounce between us, growing and shrinking, sometimes floating like cloud medicine balls, and sometimes bowling at us like round anvils. You toss a phrase and understanding blooms like an...
read more
Happy Birthday To . . . Anatole & Madanjeet
April 16, 1844 Anatole France "The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread." April 16, 1924 Madanjeet Singh “Ideas have never succeeded in isolation unless they translated...
read more
Poem: “What Kind of Times Are These,” by Adrienne Rich
There's a place between two stands of trees where the grass grows uphill and the old revolutionary road breaks off into shadows near a meeting-house abandoned by the persecuted who disappeared into those shadows. I've walked there picking mushrooms at the edge of...
read more
Happy Birthday To . . . Philip & Tom
April 15, 1889 A. Philip Randolph "Justice is never given; it is exacted and the struggle must be continuous for freedom is never a final fact, but a continuing evolving process to higher and higher levels of human, social, economic, political and religious...
read more
Poem: “If I Could Tell You,” by WH Auden
Time will say nothing but I told you so Time only knows the price we have to pay; If I could tell you I would let you know. If we should weep when clowns put on their show, If we should stumble when musicians play, Time will say nothing but I told you so. There are no...
read more
Happy Birthday To . . . Dolores & Annie
April 10, 1930 Dolores Huerta "If you haven't forgiven yourself something, how can you forgive others?" April 10, 1954 Annie Lamott "The opposite of faith is not doubt: It is certainty. It is madness. You can tell you have created God in your own image when it turns...
read more
Poem: “Do Not Be Ashamed,” by Wendell Berry
You will be walking some night in the comfortable dark of your yard and suddenly a great light will shine round about you, and behind you will be a wall you never saw before. It will be clear to you suddenly that you were about to escape, and that you are guilty: you...
read more
Happy Birthday To . . . Buddha & Kofi
April 8, 563 Buddha "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned." April 8, 1938 Kofi Annan "To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for,...
read more
Poem: “Color, Cast, Denomination,” by Emily Dickinson
Color -- Caste -- Denomination -- These -- are Time's Affair -- Death's diviner Classifying Does not know they are -- As in sleep -- All Hue forgotten -- Tenets -- put behind -- Death's large -- Democratic fingers Rub away the Brand -- If Circassian -- He is careless...
read more
Poem: “The Mercy,” by Philip Levine
The ship that took my mother to Ellis Island Eighty-three years ago was named "The Mercy." She remembers trying to eat a banana without first peeling it and seeing her first orange in the hands of a young Scot, a seaman who gave her a bite and wiped her mouth for her...
read more
Prayer to Practice the Golden Rule
May I be no man’s enemy, and may I be the friend of that which is eternal and abides. May I never quarrel with those nearest me: and if I do, may I be reconciled quickly. May I love, seek, and attain only that which is good. May I wish for all men’s happiness and envy...
read more
Happy Birthday To . . . Maya & Booker
April 4, 1928 Maya Angelou "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." April 5, 1856 Booker T. Washington "There are two ways of exerting one's strength: one is pushing...
read more
Poem: “Autobiography in Five Chapters,” by Portia Nelson
Chapter 1 I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost… I am hopeless. It isn’t my fault. It takes forever to find a way out. Chapter 2 I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don’t see it. I...
read more
Happy Birthday To . . . Emile & Edward
April 2, 1840 Emile Zola "If you shut up truth, and bury it underground, it will but grow." April 3, 1822 Edward Everett Hale "I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can...
read more
Poem: “The Empty Tomb,” by Tania Runyan
That woman was the first word spoken must have taken even the angels by surprise, who were used to bringing their fiery glory down to the clanging swords of battlefields, to priests tugging at their beards in lamentation, to voices thundering in temples and muscles...
read more
Happy Birthday To . . . Milan & Wangari
April 1, 1929 Milan Kundera "The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history ... The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting." April 1, 1940 Wangari Muta Maathai "We owe it...
read more
Poem: “Passover,” by Primo Levi
Tell me: how is this night different From all other nights? How, tell me, is this Passover Different from other Passovers? Light the lamp, open the door wide So the pilgrim can come in, Gentile or Jew; Under the rags perhaps the prophet is concealed. Let him enter and...
read more
Poem: “Redemption,” by Mark Nazimova
The Israelites walked into the Reed Sea One foot at a time. (What were they thinking about as the water rose up their legs chilling their hearts advancing toward their open mouths?) We continue to walk here, now. One foot at a time. (On our better...
read more
Happy Birthday To . . . César & Leo
March 31, 1927 César Chávez "The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people." March 31, 1924 Leo Buscaglia "I have a very strong feeling that the opposite of love is not hate—it's apathy. It's not giving a...
read more
Poem: “This is what I have to say to you,” by Danna Faulds
This is what I have to say to you . . . Live as if the earth exhales blessings in your direction, As if trees speak their deepest secrets In your ear, As if bird songs can lift you outside your Ordinary state of mind and bring you into truth. Be the creative juice...
read more
Happy Birthday To . . . Pearl & Countee
March 29, 1918 Pearl Bailey "Hungry people cannot be good at learning or producing anything, except perhaps violence." March 30, 1903 Countee Cullen "For we must be one thing or the other, an asset or a liability, the sinew in your wing to help you soar, or the chain...
read more
Poem: “Global Warming,” by Jane Hirshfield
When his ship first came to Australia, Cook wrote, the natives continued fishing, without looking up. Unable, it seems, to fear what was too large to be comprehended.
read more