I Would've Asked you Everything

THIS IS ADVICE FOR SOMEONE ELSE
BY: CARLY TWO
I thought I could tell
by your laugh, but
maybe not.

Sorry about that.

I thought I could tell
by your clothes,
but that's shallow.

And you make me nervous.

I thought it was your taste in movies.
You mentioned one of my favorites.

Sorry I assumed you'd like me because we had all the same interests.

Then I thought
I should talk to you,
but you didn't seem like
the type of person
who was good at talking to strangers.
I'm not that type of person either.

But if I did, I would've asked you everything.

This girl is amazing. I strongly urge you to visit Carly's profile on hello poetry! Even if you are not a poetry person you will enjoy it.

Photo from Fanny Latour-Lambert

Meryl, The Goddess

Congratulations on a well deserved one, dear. She is truly a Lady, in every sense of the word.

Benjamin Franklin Quotes

I saw these quotes on a plaque about Benjamin Franklin in the National Archives in D.C. today. They really struck a chord with me. The photos are my own images.

Cold Desert

The story goes that Caleb only had one verse written for this song and the whole band was incredibly hungover. They decided to record anyway. You know lyrics are true when they're drunkenly honest and brilliantly improvised...

"Jesus don't love me. No one ever carried my load; I'm too young to feel this old."

Saddest lines in Rock & Roll

Image by Viktor Gardsater. Text added by Me

A Definition of Now

I didn't know what to tag this as, I guess it's a riddle?

This pretty sums up my generation, dontcha think? Only someone once said that if you're worried about this generation, they are just going to grow up and worry about the next generation. I've already found myself doing that. 90's kids are worried about the 2000's kids. Aren't we sweet.

I guess what I'm saying is that we're all alright. And we're all going to be alright.

Photo from here

My Favorite Quote About Love

In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I would share my favorite quote about love with you! There are many quotes about love that we often hear repeated in our culture and throughout our literature and all of them are lovely.

"The course of true love never did run smooth,"
"Love is a many splendid thing,"
"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and... well you know the rest.

But my absolute favorite is from Dante's The Divine Comedy

"Beatrice upward gazed, and I on her;
And in the time perhaps it takes an arrow
To strike the bull’s-eye, fly, and leave the bow,
I saw myself arrived at a thing of wonder
Which drew my sight to it, and therefore she
From whom my close concerns could not be hidden
Turned toward me, as glad as she was lovely,
And said, "Direct your mind with thanks to God
Who here has made us one with the first star."


I am still trying to work out why I love this quote so much. Perhaps because I think Dante's dedication to Beatrice and the beauty, art and purity she represents is epic, in every sense of the word. This man made her the great work of his lifetime. He literally gave her immortality through literature. He figuratively went to Hell and back for her. Swoon much? 

On a more spiritual note... If you continue reading the quote, I think you can gather from it and Dore's painting that Beatrice has led Dante to the gates of Paradise. She understands, as does Dante the author, that the truest, deepest union of two souls is Holy and cannot flourish without God. 

I am not a Dante expert, but I like to think that's what is going on here. A more eloquent way of saying that a woman's heart should be so lost in God, that he has to find Him before he can love her.

To my fellow lonely Beatrice's out there this Valentine's Day, keep gazing on God and it will all work out :)   

Excerpt from Tennyson's Ulysses

I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough
Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this grey spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought...

We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Today was for him. Thanks for everything you taught me Ed!

You need more love in your bones.

True Love
BY CARLY TWO
It’s all right, zombie husband.
I didn’t like the dog.
Or the twins.
Seriously, all they did was cry.
It’s like, “shut up, already”,
You know?


Your Call
BY CARLY TWO
You've got a beautiful soul, you know
but you need more love in your bones.
I can't help but notice, you're starved. 
Your mouth waters and your lips crack 
in fact, I feel your heart grumble like a stomach. 
And it's not my business, but listen, 
this kitchen is big enough for a dance.
And I'm not sayin' me, 
I'm just sayin'.

Non-pretentious poetry for my generation complete with Zombies. Yes. I can dig it.

To see more of Carly's wonderful poetry, visit her profile at hellopoetry.

Leonardo da Vinci Quotes

It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.

- Leonardo da Vinci

Image from Hanneli

As Dulcet as a Cello Played

"Go down Peachtree...", or The Unexpected Charm of a Georgia Accent

BY: JOHN MAHONEY

That sweet southern accent
     drops from those honeyed lips
          every word an invitation

charm and wit in timbral loveliness
     sweet messenger of delight
          manners amounting to flirtation

as dulcet as a cello played
     by hands most dexterous
         assured a sprightliness enriched

conversation metered as a life
     where passion boils so near the
         surface of certainty bewitched

Lovely poem. Maybe I'm just biased because I have a Georgia accent and live on Peachtree Court ;) I think this video fits well with the poem too. You can read more of John Mahoney' poems on Hello Poetry.

Gotta love the Kings