"In our tenure on this planet we've accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage - propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders, all of which puts our survival in some doubt. But we've also acquired compassion for others, love for our children and desire to learn from history and experience, and a great soaring passionate intelligence - the clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity.

Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain, particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one small part of the small planet Earth. But up there in the immensity of the Cosmos, an inescapable perspective awaits us."

~Carl Sagan

“We are living in a time obsessed with actuality. People like immediacy, haste and actuality and poetry is, I repeat, timeless. This means that it doesn’t correspond to what’s happening. It is out-of-the-moment.”

–Jean Cocteau

Photo by Irving Penn

"Tell all the truth but tell it slant"

-Emily Dickinson

The aim of the dreamer, after all, is merely to go on dreaming and not to be molested by the world. His dreams are his protection against the world. But the aims of life are antithetical to those of the dreamer, and the teeth of the world are sharp.

— James Baldwin, Another Country

Door andeshi bhi kitni tang nazar hoti hai,

Aghast hote hi anjaam ka darr lagta hai

कभी रुक गए कभी चल दिए

कभी चलते चलते भटक गए

यूँ ही उम्र सारी गुज़र गई

यूँ ही ज़िन्दगी के सितम सहे

कभी नींद में कभी होश में

तू जहाँ मिला तुझे देख कर

न नज़र मिली न ज़ुबां हिली

यूँ ही सर झुका के गुज़र गए

कभी ज़ुल्फ़ पर कभी चश्म पर

कभी तेरे हसीं वजूद पर

जो पसंद थे मेरी किताब में

वो शेर सारे बिखर गए

मुझे याद है कभी एक थे

मगर आज हम हैं जुदा जुदा

वो जुदा हुए तो संवर गए

हम जुदा हुए तो बिखर गए

कभी अर्श पर कभी फ़र्श पर

कभी उन के दर कभी दर -बदर

ग़म -ए -आशिक़ी तेरा शुक्रिया

हम कहाँ कहाँ से गुज़र गए

परवीन शाकिर

nobody can save you but

yourself.

you will be put again and again

into nearly impossible

situations.

they will attempt again and again

through subterfuge, guise and

force

to make you submit, quit and /or die quietly

inside.

nobody can save you but

yourself

and it will be easy enough to fail

so very easily

but don’t, don’t, don’t.

just watch them.

listen to them.

do you want to be like that?

a faceless, mindless, heartless

being?

do you want to experience

death before death?

nobody can save you but

yourself

and you’re worth saving.

it’s a war not easily won

but if anything is worth winning then

this is it.

think about it.

think about saving your self.

your spiritual self.

your gut self.

your singing magical self and

your beautiful self.

save it.

don’t join the dead-in-spirit.

maintain your self

with humor and grace

and finally

if necessary

wager your self as you struggle,

damn the odds, damn

the price.

only you can save your

self.

do it! do it!

then you’ll know exactly what

I am talking about.

~Charles Bukowski

Ab jis taraf se chahe guzar jaaye kaarwaN veeraniyaN to sab mire dil mein utar gayiN -Kaifi Azmi

Reminding me of this beautiful poem I read last night.

Sadness came to tea last night

as she’s often done before

but I didn’t let her in this time

I stopped her at the door

“I’m off to meet with friends”, I said

“your timing isn’t right

I can’t allow your atmosphere

it’s not the place tonight”

but sadness wouldn’t take the hint

her manners lack finesse

her pace was slow and heavy

yet she kept up nonetheless

and even when I took my place

amongst my laughing friends

she squeezed herself right in-between

her boldness never ends

and I was sure my friends would see

this spectre at the feast

and somehow think me lesser

for inviting such a beast

but no, their warmth was undeterred

as if nothing was new

I think perhaps they know by now

I sometimes come as two

and even sadness seemed to glow

a lighter shade of grey

to know that she’s accepted

seemed to lighten up her day

so let your sad accompany you

don’t think her hard to bear

no need to face her all alone

just pull an extra chair.

Donna Ashworth

‘Sadness comes’

From - Growing Brave

“No permanence is ours; we are a wave

That flows to fit whatever form it finds:

Through night or day, cathedral or the cave

We pass forever, craving form that binds.”

–Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game (1943)

Photo by Martin Hesse

“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”

–Oscar Wilde