Poems Spring 2007                                             
 

Brecht’s honesty, tart though it tastes, is an affirmation: it says that whoever we are and however vile, we are worth singing about.

Kenneth Tynan, Theatre Writings

The rabbi put this question to his students:

‘How can we determine the hour of dawn, when night ends and the day begins? ………………When you look into the face of a human being and have enough light to recognise in him your brother. Up until then it is night, and darkness is still with us.’

Hasidic tale

Teaching ourselves to live more simply, more harmoniously, and a little more genuinely is a real step towards gross national happiness.

Thakur S. Powyel, Bhutanese Ministry of Education

I cannot understand how anyone can live without one small place of enchantment to turn to.

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

A thousand things advance;
Nine hundred and ninety retreat;
That is progress.

Henri F. Amiel

The question of bread for myself is a material question, but the question of bread for my neighbour is a spiritual question.

Nikolai Berdyaev

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do we children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. To keep our faces towards change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.

Helen Keller

Old Age is the most unexpected of all the things that can happen to a man.

Leon Trotsky

Our bodies are our gardens, to which our wills are our gardeners.

William Shakespeare