"On Children
And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, 'Speak to us of Children.'
And he said:
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable. "

"A gathering of angels appeared above my head
They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said
They said come sail away, come sail away"

I'll be damned, here comes your ghost again
but that's not unusual
it's just that the moon is full
and you decided to come
And here I sit, hand on the telephone
hearing the voice I'd known
a couple of light years ago
headed straight for a fall
But we both know what memories can bring
they bring Diamonds and Rust
yes we both know what memories can bring
they bring Diamonds and Rust
Now I see you standing with brown leaves all around and snow in your hair
Now we're smiling out the window of the crummy hotel over washington square
and then comes that white clouds, mingles and hangs in the air
Speaking strictly for me
we both could've died then and there
Now you're telling me you're not nostalgic
then give me another word for it
you were so good with words
and at keeping things paid
cause I need some of that vagueness now, it's all come back too clearly
yes, I love you dearly
and if you're offering me diamonds and rust
I've already paid
But we both know what memories can bring
they bring Diamonds and Rust
yes we both know what memories can bring
they bring Diamonds and Rust

Herman Goering: "'Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.'
-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials "

"Song
By Frank Bidart

You know that it is there, lair
where the bear ceases
for a time even to exist.
Crawl in. You have at last killed
enough and eaten enough to be fat
enough to cease for a time to exist.
Crawl in. It takes talent to live at night, and scorning
others you had that talent, but now you sniff
the season when you must cease to exist.
Crawl in. Whatever for good or ill
grows within you needs
you for a time to cease to exist.
It is not raining inside
tonight. You know that it is there. Crawl in."

Gratias tibi ago, domine.
haec credam a deo pio, a deo justo, a deo scito?
cruciatus in crucem
tuus in terra servus, nuntius fui; officium perfeci.
cruciatus in crucem eas in crucem "

"It was an act of cosmic mayhem known as a stellar tidal disruption. It removed any lingering doubt, astronomers said, that the reputation of black holes as star-destroyers is fully deserved."

And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts,
And I looked and behold: a pale horse.
And his name, that sat on him, was Death.
And Hell follwed with him.

"Waken we must, or else life is half-lived in a numbness, and its beauty is shrouded in fog. With effort and resolve, we shall live awake and aware, unwilling to lie down and have our lives stolen from us. Our children will be safely off to meadows and streams of good health and creative joy. Our elders will be cared for and loved. Our workers will enjoy the fruits and securities of their labors in the world we are building one vote at a time."

"no sleeping in the house, the bedroom closed,
the kids' rooms too, you only go
to the couch and listen to television voices
calling as if to a lifeboat they don't
know anything about"

Random Name Generator: "The random name generator uses data from the US Census to randomly generate male and female names. Use it for screenplays, fake id's, car rentals, pick-up lines, books, prank calls, movies.
Give a random name to that special someone you meet at the bar.
Yours Truly,
Modesto Leppink"

Book of the Dead
By Garrett Doherty

If you die
look at your clone happy to appear,
always liking vague immortal things.
After you die he talks and talks about you
those who loved you don't talk.
After, the rose of Onlooking will ask more of you,
the constellations shift, transduce a couple hearts.
As soon as you go
a cousin inherits the red-checked mother-of-pearl shirt,
cracks your viola on the way down the stairs,
a little spit to cover it up.
After the christening your relatives are trying
to give away your rocking chairs, cans of pimento, the Knox gelatin
the same ones who sing to your body
Wind blows over what you saw.
In the sage plant a spider blinks for you;
a few paws twitch in the pet psychic's dream.
In the end your mother's hand
slips your umbrella under the wet leaves.
Sarah Strong, once your worst love,
remembers where her hair brush is
now that you're gone.
We'd all love like her if we could
the way she thinks of you once in a while
when she's hungry, in front of the refrigerator,
cool air falling onto her feet.

Elsewhere, experts around the world confirmed that moments after Ms. Jackson's right boob fell out of its housing, Western civilization fell as well.

Dr. Milton Campeaux of the University of Minnesota said that experts were surprised that Ms. Jackson caused Western civilization's long-awaited collapse.

'We all expected a Jackson to do it, but not Janet,' he said.

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it...
Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate....
Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Dr. Martin Luther King

Quotes from Dogs of War: "If she dies, his approval ratings will go through the roof."

THe Bear:

The Bear
By Dan Chiasson

In quiet, in the exquisite privacy of a cave, a bear
is giving birth. Outside the cave a steady rain falls
but here there are no echoes, only the sound
of her convulsing body and her babies' cries.
Her cubs are white, screaming lumps, eyeless until
she licks their eyes into place, bald until
she paints fur up and down them with her tongue.
It is a litter of five at least; it is hard to see
how many have burrowed under her soft belly.
Also, this is ancient Rome; it is hard to see through
so much time. It makes you wonder how many
other beautiful sights are hidden away in time,
a cavelike element famous for its dimness. Now she
and her cubs are emerging from the cave, leaving
one weakling behind. He is lame, and will not survive
this rainy night two thousand years ago. By now
he is vanishing into the floor of the dark cave,
even his newly painted fur, even his fresh eyes.
By now he's gone entirely from view.
All the caves on this hill are identical again."

Dean, Lobotomized - He shouldn't take that abuse from Diane Sawyer. By Timothy�Noah: "Seeing Dean beg for mercy over what was merely an untelegenic display of enthusiasm called to mind the last scene in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, when Chief Bromden finds McMurphy, and he's been lobotomized, all rebellion and mischief sucked out of him, and you don't know whether to rage or weep. If only Dean had taken a swing at Nurse Ratched before they wheeled him into the operating room."

The Earth Turned to Bring Us Closer by Eugenio Montejo:

The Earth turned to bring us closer,
it spun on itself and within us,
and finally joined us together in this dream
as written in the Symposium.
Nights passed by, snowfalls and solstices;
time passed in minutes and millennia.
An ox cart that was on its way to Nineveh
arrived in Nebraska.

A rooster was singing some distance from the world,
in one of the thousand pre-lives of our fathers.
The Earth was spinning with its music
carrying us on board;
it didn't stop turning a single moment
as if so much love, so much that's miraculous
was only an adagio written long ago
in the Symposium's score."

knot.magazine: "Cancer or not, we're all fucking around on the edge of a bottomless, black chasm talking about shit like what we're going to have for dinner.
We have the hot breath of a blood-thirsty beast on the back of our necks, and we do crossword puzzles and take scenic drives.
And I don't know whether all of that is a sign of idiocy or genius."

This Modern World: "Okay, let me get this straight...
George Bush wants to cut taxes while financing his various wars and nation-building efforts...
...and go back to the moon?
Every credit card in the national wallet is maxed out, and Dad suddenly has a midlife crisis and decides he wants to buy a friggin' moon rocket.
It's no wonder the neighbors think we're crazy."