[CENTER][B]Flights of Fantasy[/B]

How the flights of fantasy
can bewilder some.
How it can capture loneliness
make it flee and run,
And turn the tables
inside out,
The cry into a shout,
Can make the unexpected fun,
The expected cease to come.

Yes! strange that path of fantasy
makes happier the mind,
Makes brighter, lighter, the joy within
which rings and sings and climbs.

Flights can come and flights can go
And flights can come between
And you'll find that I'll be riding there
Where the forest meets the green.

Yes, I'll ride the wings of fantasy,
of wonder, love and light,
And I'll ride them here,
and I'll ride them there,
through the winding paths of night.

And I'll sing to you of that rainbow high
Of its lovely, lofty light,
Of those wonderful, enchanted Isles
Yes, my fantasies of Flight!

By Linda A.[/CENTER]

[B][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]Once In A Lifetime

[/COLOR][/SIZE][/B] [SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]Once in a lifetime,[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]you find someone special,[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]your lives intermingle,[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]and somehow you know . . .[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]This is the beginning[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]of all you have longed for,[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]a love you can build on,[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]a love that will grow . . .[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]Once in a lifetime,[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]to those who are lucky,[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]a miracle happens[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]and dreams all come true--[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]I know it can happen,[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]it happened to me, for I've found [/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]my "once in a lifetime" [/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black]with you.[/COLOR][/SIZE]
[B][SIZE=2][COLOR=Black][I]Author Unknown[/I][/COLOR][/SIZE][/B]

[CENTER][B] Inaugural Poem[/B]


A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Marked the mastodon. The dinosaur, who left dry tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.
But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
Back and face your distant destiny,
But seek no haven in my shadow.
I will give you no more hiding place down here.
You, created only a little lower than
The angels, have crouched too long in
The bruising darkness,
Have lain too long
Face down in ignorance.
Your mouths spilling words
Armed for slaughter.
The Rock cries out today, you may stand on me,
But do not hide your face.
Across the wall of the world,
A River sings a beautiful song,
Come rest here by my side.
Each of you a bordered country,
Delicate and strangely made proud,
Yet thrusting perpetually under siege.
Your armed struggles for profit
Have left collars of waste upon
My shore, currents of debris upon my breast.
Yet, today I call you to my riverside,
If you will study war no more. Come,
Clad in peace and I will sing the songs
The Creator gave to me when I and the
Tree and the stone were one.
Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your
Brow and when you yet knew you still
Knew nothing.
The River sings and sings on.
There is a true yearning to respond to
The singing River and the wise Rock.
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew
The African and Native American, the Sioux,
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh,
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,
The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher.
They hear. They all hear
The speaking of the Tree.
Today, the first and last of every Tree
Speaks to humankind. Come to me, here beside the River.
Plant yourself beside me, here beside the River.
Each of you, descendant of some passed
On traveller, has been paid for.
You, who gave me my first name, you
Pawnee, Apache and Seneca, you
Cherokee Nation, who rested with me, then
Forced on bloody feet, left me to the employment of
Other seekers--desperate for gain,
Starving for gold.
You, the Turk, the Swede, the German, the Scot ...
You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought
Sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare
Praying for a dream.
Here, root yourselves beside me.
I am the Tree planted by the River,
Which will not be moved.
I, the Rock, I the River, I the Tree
I am yours--your Passages have been paid.
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, and if faced
With courage, need not be lived again.
Lift up your eyes upon
The day breaking for you.
Give birth again
To the dream.
Women, children, men,
Take it into the palms of your hands.
Mold it into the shape of your most
Private need. Sculpt it into
The image of your most public self.
Lift up your hearts
Each new hour holds new chances
For new beginnings.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out upon me, the
Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.
No less to Midas than the mendicant.
No less to you now than the mastodon then.
Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister's eyes, into
Your brother's face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.





[B][I][U][SIZE=2]By Maya Angelou[/SIZE][/U][/I][/B]


[/CENTER]

[B][COLOR=#444444][FONT='Times New Roman']Pst![/FONT][/COLOR][/B]
[B][COLOR=#444444][FONT='Times New Roman'][/FONT][/COLOR][/B][B][COLOR=#444444][FONT=Verdana][/FONT][/COLOR][/B]
[SIZE=3][B][COLOR=#444444][FONT='Times New Roman']Es gibt ja leider Sachen und Geschichten,
Die reizend und pikant,
Nur werden sie von Tanten und von Nichten
Niemals genannt.

Verehrter Freund, so sei denn nicht vermessen,
Sei zart und schweig auch du.
Bedenk: Man liebt den Käse wohl, indessen
Man deckt ihn zu. [/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][B][COLOR=#444444][FONT='Times New Roman'][SIZE=2][/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][B][COLOR=#444444][FONT='Times New Roman'][/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][B][COLOR=#444444][FONT='Times New Roman'][SIZE=2](Wilhelm Busch)[/SIZE][/FONT][/COLOR][/B][/SIZE]

[B][SIZE=2]Gabriela Mistral[/SIZE][/B]

[SIZE=2][/SIZE][B][SIZE=2]Adiós[/SIZE][/B]



En costa lejana
y en mar de Pasión,
dijimos adioses
sin decir adiós.
Y no fue verdad
la alucinación.
Ni tú la creíste
ni la creo yo,
«y es cierto y no es cierto»
como en la canción.
Que yendo hacia el Sur
diciendo iba yo:
«Vamos hacia el mar
que devora al Sol».
Y yendo hacia el Norte
decía tu voz:
«Vamos a ver juntos
donde se hace el Sol».
Ni por juego digas
o exageración
que nos separaron
tierra y mar, que son
ella, sueño y el
alucinación.
No te digas solo
ni pida tu voz
albergue para uno
al albergador.
Echarás la sombra
que siempre se echó,
morderás la duna
con paso de dos...
Para que ninguno,
ni hombre ni dios,
nos llame partidos
como luna y sol;
para que ni roca
ni viento errador,
ni río con vado
ni árbol sombreador,
aprendan y digan
mentira o error
del Sur y del Norte,
del uno y del dos!
//

[B]A spirit passed before me [/B]

From Job

A spirit passed before me: I beheld
The face of immortality unveiled -
Deep sleep came down on every eye save mine -
And there it stood, -all formless -but divine:
Along my bones the creeping flesh did quake;
And as my damp hair stiffened, thus it spake:

"Is man more just than God? Is man more pure
Than He who deems even Seraphs insecure?
Creatures of clay -vain dwellers in the dust!
The moth survives you, and are ye more just?
Things of a day! you wither ere the night,
Heedless and blind to Wisdom's wasted light!"

[I][B]Lord Byron[/B][/I]

[CENTER] [B][FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica][SIZE=3] Darkness [/SIZE][/FONT][/B]
[/CENTER]
[I] by [SIZE=2]George Gordon, Lord Byron[/SIZE][/I]


I had a dream, which was not all a dream.
The bright sun was extinguish'd, and the stars
Did wander darkling in the eternal space,
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth
Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;
Morn came and went--and came, and brought no day,
And men forgot their passions in the dread
Of this their desolation; and all hearts
Were chill'd into a selfish prayer for light:
And they did live by watchfires--and the thrones,
The palaces of crowned kings--the huts,
The habitations of all things which dwell,
Were burnt for beacons; cities were consum'd,
And men were gather'd round their blazing homes
To look once more into each other's face;
Happy were those who dwelt within the eye
Of the volcanos, and their mountain-torch:
A fearful hope was all the world contain'd;
Forests were set on fire--but hour by hour
They fell and faded--and the crackling trunks
Extinguish'd with a crash--and all was black.
The brows of men by the despairing light
Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits
The flashes fell upon them; some lay down
And hid their eyes and wept; and some did rest
Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smil'd;
And others hurried to and fro, and fed
Their funeral piles with fuel, and look'd up
With mad disquietude on the dull sky,
The pall of a past world; and then again
With curses cast them down upon the dust,
And gnash'd their teeth and howl'd: the wild birds shriek'd
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground,
And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes
Came tame and tremulous; and vipers crawl'd
And twin'd themselves among the multitude,
Hissing, but stingless--they were slain for food.
And War, which for a moment was no more,
Did glut himself again: a meal was bought
With blood, and each sate sullenly apart
Gorging himself in gloom: no love was left;
All earth was but one thought--and that was death
Immediate and inglorious; and the pang
Of famine fed upon all entrails--men
Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh;
The meagre by the meagre were devour'd,
Even dogs assail'd their masters, all save one,
And he was faithful to a corse, and kept
The birds and beasts and famish'd men at bay,
Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead
Lur'd their lank jaws; himself sought out no food,
But with a piteous and perpetual moan,
And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand
Which answer'd not with a caress--he died.
The crowd was famish'd by degrees; but two
Of an enormous city did survive,
And they were enemies: they met beside
The dying embers of an altar-place
Where had been heap'd a mass of holy things
For an unholy usage; they rak'd up,
And shivering scrap'd with their cold skeleton hands
The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath
Blew for a little life, and made a flame
Which was a mockery; then they lifted up
Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld
Each other's aspects--saw, and shriek'd, and died--
Even of their mutual hideousness they died,
Unknowing who he was upon whose brow
Famine had written Fiend. The world was void,
The populous and the powerful was a lump,
Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless--
A lump of death--a chaos of hard clay.
The rivers, lakes and ocean all stood still,
And nothing stirr'd within their silent depths;
Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea,
And their masts fell down piecemeal: as they dropp'd
They slept on the abyss without a surge--
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon, their mistress, had expir'd before;
The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air,
And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need
Of aid from them--She was the Universe.

poesie angel
 

[FONT=Verdana][SIZE=2]Ho nella mente un'idea di libertà...
ho nella mia vita una libertà in gabbia...
scavo nei miei sogni e trovo
idee infinite
fuggenti attimi
sussurri lievi
...di libertà.

Penso,
mi fermo,
rincorro,
ascolto...
e scopro in me
la libertà.

La libertà è in noi,
dobbiamo solo trovare il coraggio di liberarla

------------------------------------------------------------

[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana][SIZE=2] Anche le gocce d'acqua
possono gelare
prima di unirsi all'oceano
il freddo clima dell'umanita'
puo' lasciar galleggiare
i pezzi di ghiaccio
finche'
un raggio di sole
penetrera' la lastra gelata
e l'oceano accogliera'
nel suo seno le piccole gocce.
Spero di poter un giorno
essere un raggio di sole...
(dal diario di Kuma)
---------------------------------------------------------------

[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana][SIZE=2] Strano essere qui
A macchiare di cuore
un foglio bianco
A intingere la penna
nel profondo dell'anima
Sapendo che forse nessuno capirà
Nessuno che non sia stanco
Nessuno che non esamini
Con un brivido la fragilità
Di questo spirito
in agonia.
-------------------------------------------------------------

[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana][SIZE=2] Sola
In mezzo alla folla
Volti cari eppur ignoti
Amici in dissolvenza
Ostilità come polvere.[/SIZE][/FONT]

[B]Du und ich[/B]

Du und ich!
Wunschlose Seligkeit
Strömt deine Nähe über mich.
Der Alltag wird zur Sonntagszeit,
Unsterblich schlingt das Leben sich
Um uns. Und Menschengöttlichkeit
Fühl' ich bei dir durch dich.
Was einst gewesen, weiß ich kaum.
Die enge Welt wird weiter Raum.
Und Holz wird Eisen, Eisen Holz
Und Stolz wird Demut, Demut Stolz.
Gar wunderbare Weisen
Singt dann bei seinen Kreisen
Mein Blut im Paradies für mich.
Es haben alle Wünsche Ruh', -
Ich weiß nicht mehr, wer bist dann du.
Ich weiß nicht mehr, wer bin dann ich.

[CENTER][B][SIZE="3"]For You My Love[/SIZE][/B]
by Sonji Rush

If I came to your doorstep
would you welcome me in
or would you turn me away
in shame?
Would you take me to your
family in pride of knowing me?
Or say you have never
heard my name?

Would you caress me when we met
with open arms or
would you hide me away in fear
of unknown harms?

If I beckoned for your love
would you open your heart?
If I asked for your tenderness
would you kiss my tears away?
If I came to you willingly
would you give me your love?
If I whispered I love you,
what would you say?

I give my love freely,
for it is mine to give.
My love has no possessor.
My life is mine to live.[/CENTER]

[B][FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif]Was es ist[/FONT][/B]

[FONT=Times New Roman, Times, serif][SIZE=3][B]Es ist Unsinn
sagt die Vernunft
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe

Es ist Unglück
sagt die Berechnung
Es ist nichts als Schmerz
sagt die Angst
Es ist aussichtslos
sagt die Einsicht
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe

Es ist lächerlich
sagt der Stolz
Es ist leichtsinnig
sagt die Vorsicht
Es ist unmöglich
sagt die Erfahrung
Es ist was es ist
sagt die Liebe

[/B][I]Erich Fried[/I][/SIZE][/FONT]

[CENTER][SIZE="3"][B]Phenomenal Woman [/B][/SIZE]
[U]by Maya Angelou[/U]


Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman

Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.[/CENTER]

[CENTER][B][FONT=Arial][SIZE=4][COLOR=darkorchid]FLEUR DE PAIX[/COLOR][SIZE=2][COLOR=darkorchid]
[/COLOR][/SIZE][/SIZE][/FONT][/B]
[B][FONT=Arial][SIZE=4][SIZE=2]
[IMG]http://www.adomonde.qc.ca/images3/fleurpaix.jpg[/IMG]
[/SIZE][SIZE=+1]Q[/SIZE][COLOR=darkorchid][SIZE=2]uelque part a grandi une fleur
Cette fleur contient un pouvoir
Celui de faire cesser les pleurs
Qui tombent quand c'est le soir noir.

Pourtant pour que celle-ci s'ouvre
Il faudrait que tout le monde
Veulent que cette fleur on trouve
Veulent la paix dans notre monde.

Cette fleur elle n'est qu'un bourgeon
Cette fleur elle n'est qu'illusion
Ce cri de fureur qu'on entend
C'est la guerre qu'ici s'étend.

Cette fleur elle est comme dieu
C'est une image comme on veut
Ces choses auxquelles dur on croit
Mais que jamais personne ne voit.

Cette fleur elle est dans ma tête
Cette fleur elle est dans mon coeur
Dans mon corps où je fais la fête
Dans mes yeux d'où tombent ces pleurs. [/SIZE]
[/COLOR][/CENTER]
[/SIZE][/FONT][/B]

[SIZE="3"][B]Where the Sidewalk Ends[/B][/SIZE]
[U]by Shel Silverstein[/U]


There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

A WORK OF ARTIFICE
Marge Piercy

The bonsai tree
in the attractive pot
could have grown eighty feet tall
on the side of a mountain
till split by lightning.
But a gardener
carefully pruned it.
It is nine inches high.
Every day as he
whittles back the branches
the gardener croons,
It is your nature
to be small and cozy,
domestic and weak;
how lucky, little tree,
to have a pot to grow in.
With living creatures
one must begin very early
to dwarf their growth:
the bound feet,
the crippled brain,
the hair in curlers,
the hands you
love to touch.