Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Today's Words of Wisdom - September 30, 2015

Today is the birthday of the following people:



Rumi (1207 -1273):
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

and
“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.”




Truman Capote (1924 - 1984):
“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”

and
“He loved her, he loved her, and until he'd loved her she had never minded being alone....”

and
“You can’t give your heart to a wild thing.”

and
“I don't care what anybody says about me as long as it isn't true.”

and
“You can't blame a writer for what the characters say.”

and
“Life is a moderately good play with a badly written third act.”

and
To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the music the words make.”




Elie Wiesel (1928 - ):
“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.”

and
“Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.”

and
“There is divine beauty in learning... To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps. The books I have read were composed by generations of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, teachers and disciples. I am the sum total of their experiences, their quests. And so are you.”




W.S. Merwin (1927 - ):
“On the last day of the world
I would want to plant a tree”

and
“Poetry is like making a joke. If you get one word wrong at the end of a joke, you've lost the whole thing.”


A BIRTHDAY
by W.S. Merwin

Something continues and I don't know what to call it
though the language is full of suggestions
in the way of language
but they are all anonymous
and it's almost your birthday music next to my bones

these nights we hear the horses running in the rain
it stops and the moon comes out and we are still here
the leaks in the roof go on dripping after the rain has passed
smell of ginger flowers slips through the dark house
down near the sea the slow heart of the beacon flashes

the long way to you is still tied to me but it brought me to you
I keep wanting to give you what is already yours
it is the morning of the mornings together
breath of summer oh my found one
the sleep in the same current and each waking to you 
when I open my eyes you are what I wanted to see.



Untitled Poem 
by W.S. Merwin

“Inside this pencil
crouch words that have never been written
never been spoken
never been taught

they’re hiding

they’re awake in there
dark in the dark
hearing us
but they won’t come out
not for love not for time not for fire

even when the dark has worn away
they’ll still be there
hiding in the air
multitudes in days to come may walk through them
breathe them
be none the wiser

what script can it be
that they won’t unroll
in what language
would I recognize it
would I be able to follow it
to make out the real names
of everything

maybe there aren’t
many
it could be that there’s only one word
and it’s all we need
it’s here in this pencil
every pencil in the world
is like this”




Terrance Terich (1971 - ):
“For most people, their favorite part of the day is when work is over, when they put on their sweatpants or pajamas and relax. That is not MY favorite part of the day. I have five favorite parts of the day, at the beginning of every period, when I see each student’s face as he or she walks in through the door. THOSE MOMENTS are MY favorite parts of the day.”

and
“Provide the world with something that it is severely lacking. The world has enough people staring at screens. The world has enough people using those screens to snipe at each other.The world has enough friendships falling apart. What this world lacks more than anything is empathy, the ability to understand how other people are feeling, not just yourself,so I hope you can add some of that empathy to the world.When you can see another person's point of view, you can begin to understand, well, everything.”

and
“Many times, I've thought that other people were becoming obstacles in my path to a good life. But, life doesn't have a right path. There is no such thing as a good life. There is only life. There is only your path, and your path has many possible branches, and there are detours, and side streets, and u-turns. ”

and

“As you go forward in your lives, all of you on different paths, there is no better advice I can give you than to realize that you are surrounded by people. People who have your back. People who are strangers, but may soon turn out to be friends. People who need help. People who could benefit from your wisdom, or even just your attention. People who are alone, or lonely, or afraid. People just like you. People who need a kind word, a smile, a hand on the shoulder, a wink, a nod, a fist bump, a hug. The knowledge that they are distinct. You can make the difference in someone’s life. You've already made the difference in mine. Continue to be the difference. Be distinct.”





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