SPIRITUAL: MY SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

We all want to become better to be happier, more productive people. We want to be better partners, parents and friends to those we love, better citizens to co-create a better, balanced planet. Many of us want to become enlightened. We want to be our own personal best. And when many of us find answers, we want to spread the word of the world as we see it. We want to teach others what we've learned..."the way."

We are always looking for the piece that will help us heal some wounding within ourselves:

"I want to heal the old relationship issues I have so that I don't bring those to my new relationship...I want to start healthy and whole."

"When I heal the piece about my parent not loving me, I will feel whole."

"If I could just find where in my life I got this procrastination/eating/poverty consciousness issue from, my life would magically be better."

"If I can just flow positive energy, then things will also flow outside me in ways that are more in line with my vision."

"If I am a vegetarian and meditate enough and do enough yoga, my body will then be pure so I can move the energy better, which will lead me to enlightenment much faster."

And on, and on, and on.

I used to be a Type A person (I really, really was....and no one who knows me now who didn't know me then, believes me but it's true). I was really Type A with my Spiritual Path
By the time I hit about 3os I could see that I had come far, but oh my...I still had wa-a-a-a-a-a-aay more to go. When I would finally feel like I had an issue healed, four more would pop up.

Oh.

My.

God....

...it will NEVER end.

I will ALWAYS be fucked up.

I froze.

I started to freak out.

Then I felt it.....

What a.....relief!!!!

I will always be fucked up....wow....cool....No matter what I do, I will always be wounded. No matter what I do I will always have issues to work on, to mend, to be aware of. It's a part of being human. I don't have to heal anything to find a perfect partner because five more things will show up behind it...plus...my partner will be wounded, too. And that's OK...this spice is what we came here to do and play in.

It's OK that I'm not enlightened...I don't ever HAVE to be enlightened. And I don't have to go anywhere to find enlightenment, I don't have to buy any more books, go to any more seminars, spend any more money doing any of this stuff unless it's to play and fine tune...I don't HAVE to be doing this any more.

And...get this...alex..even if I get it even half way together this life, I will die and just start this journey all over again. It's never ending.* Ha-ha-ho-ho-he-he-ha-ha.

What a relief to let go of the striving for perfection!!!

And another big revelation??? I thought I liked Me before, and that all this was coming from love and "good, right" intention. And it was. But now I see that I was giving myself subtle, and not so subtle, messages that there was something wro-o-o-o-ng with me. That I was flawed, not whole, not complete, separate. My Victim had tricks-i-ly convinced me that I had so much wrong with me that there was no way I could ever get out of it, or feel whole because of all the imagined stuff.


Maybe I'm just a very slow learner. Maybe it's because I'd done all that stuff that I got to this place. I really haven't a bloody clue and it doesn't matter. What matters to me is that I really like what it's done inside me.

There's a calmness that was never there before. I laugh at where i was in a a serious mission" before, now I am much more playful and fun. I made peace with Victim, told it it no longer had the strongest voice to keep me from feeling whole. My self talk is gentle, different, fun, compassionate. When I go through hard times, it's not beating myself up because I and/or life are somehow IMPERFECT. It's more about...hm....feeling this ripping apart...not fun...what to do? Get lost? Lose trust in my Voice? Stop trusting? I now remember my Spirit and balance returns much faster. Instead of "Oh my... gotta go to some breathwork to figure this all out, gotta do this, gotta find that something that was the cause of this to root it out and HEAL!!!" Now it's: ...here we are. Feel, feel, be, feel. Nowhere to go, nothing to do. You are OK, you are loved, all is well. If you're lost, you'll find yourself again. Breathe.


I am much more present, feel much more Life Force moving through me. Because I'm not so worried about "doing things right," I have lots more energy to really be with others. Since I let go of my inner struggle, I'm no longer inside myself and can be fully here with them. Because I laugh at myself, I laugh much more with others foibles, instead of judging. If I make a mistake, it's no big deal. If others make a mistake it's no big deal. I see many more "mistakes" and "miscommunications" where I used to be sure someone was intentionally doing something to me. I feel much more compassion for the world and all our little things that make us human. I feel others hearts even more. I don't have to look far to always find the positive in life and others now: positive is just there. Because I am coming more and more to terms with the dark places inside me, I can extend that out to others. Because I'm gentle with myself, I can be gentle with others when they need that gentleness the most. I realized that before, no matter how hard I was trying, I couldn't extend out that which I wasn't willing to give myself. It wasn't balanced.

Am I saying that the journey isn't needed? Not really. I don't know about anyone else, we all have our own journeys. It obviously was needed for me because that's what I did. Am I saying that there is nothing more to learn? No. Do I think I will never attend another workshop, read another book, listen to another Teacher? I haven't a clue what the future brings. I may want to, but that's a very different energy than thinking I need to do this to get better.

So now when people talk or write me about the confusion they feel, or if they are upset that they haven't moved further upon the Path, or are upset or questioning something in their lives about their lovability...I remind them:

You are doing just fine. In fact, look at how really well you are doing- look at this, look at that.Instead of looking at what is yet to be done, let's look at what you've accomplished, how far you've come. You are on their path...learning right now, doing fine, doing the right thing because whatever you do is the right thing...there are no mistakes in the long run because you can always change course and go another way. What you're doing now will serve you in ways you can't begin to imagine now. You're doing really really well. You are learning lots, learning about yourself. The learning may not be able to be assessed in multiple choice format, but you will begin to notice things have shifted in magical ways and you are a different person than you were before, reacting differently, seeing things differently. You will be stronger in yourself.

I invite them to imagine they are with their best friend who is in deep pain. Would you berate that friend who is in agony now? Coldly or angrily tell them to go fix themselves? No...you would hug that friend. You would be there with them. Sit with them, hold them, love them. Please....be with yourself in the same ways you would be with this friend or a child in pain. Give yourself that which you give others.
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I think that when we learn to love ourselves we shift in all sorts of ways. What we do on the outside may look the same, because much of the action is the same. But I think the outcome is much more positive when we approach our Living from a place of LovingOurselves Power. I also believe in the magic that when we are acting from a place of inner love and harmony, that our mere presence shows others that there is another way...the way of self love.

When people love themselves, they naturally extend that love outward toward the world. They don't have to be mean to others to protect "what's theirs." They trust. They don't judge others. They do no harm and live with a strong sense of internal ethics. Likewise, when they see action out of alignment with the good of The Whole, they act because they have to. When you love yourself, you can't not act. But the action comes from a very different place and intent. Aside from a short period of my life, I have always done service work of some sort.

I am, once again, slowly beginning to work more for the a larger audience of people and the planet. But this time it's from an entirely different energetic intent. It's softer. Before, my motivation came from being driven by my Victim Voice that I needed to fix the imperfect world I'm no longer on an angry

REVIEW: I AM....I WAS - AI THE MOVIE

"A.I. Artificial Intelligence" begins with a narrator telling us how in the distant future the polar ice caps have melted causing the coastal cities to be flooded. Many humans suffered and starved from this tragedy and machines were developed to aid in our survival. Prof. Hobby (William Hurt) the leader of a team of scientists at Cybertronics, a "Mecha" or robot designing company, proposes the development of a mecha child unlike anything the world has ever seen. A child who is almost human with the ability to give true love. When he states his proposal one of his colleagues poses the truthful question that if a machine can be created to love will it be loved in return?

The couple profiled and selected to test the prototype are Henry and Monica Swinton (Sam Robards and Frances O'Connor). They are coping with the fact that their birth child Martin (Jake Thomas) has had to be placed in suspended animation due to a life threatening illness. Henry is hopeful that a cure can be found for his son but he knows that time is running out and his wife is sinking deeper into despair. To help Monica cope Henry accepts the prototype of the mecha child David (Haley Joel Osment). Spielberg effectively presents David to us and Monica for the first time as a distant silhouette surrounded by blinding white light. He looks almost like the space travelers in "Close Encounters Of The Third Kind" and even though David is no extra-terrestrial he is alien. Monica immediately rejects the friendly David and the idea of a replacement for her son who is not even dead. She refuses to even look at him even though he appears real in her eyes or through abstraction. Through her rejection David treats Monica with a friendly attitude and eventually he begins to crack her tough exterior. She begins to place him in her son's bed, read stories to him at night and even present him with her son's super-toy Teddy. Teddy voiced by Jack Angel will probably be the most memorable character in "A.I" a true marvel of f/x wizardry and heart. He has the gruff voice of a chain smoker and the wisdom of experience, Teddy knows he is just a teddy bear robot and unlike David he knows his limitations.

As Monica grows increasingly close to David she decides to do something that will affect his life forever. David comes with instructions for a code that will permanently imprint his love for Monica. Once imprinted David cannot be altered and if Monica and Henry decide to send him back to Cybertronics he cannot be re-sold to another family and will have to be destroyed. Osment's subtle change in demeanor is a wonderous moment in the film as Monica reads the seven-word code activating his love. The slight turn of his head and shift of his eyes as he asks he "What were those words Mommy?" is an example of the talent of this gifted actor. He carries this entire film on his shoulders and does this difficult task with such grace for someone so young. I could not take my eyes off him for the entire film. The tone of the film begins to change as Martin returns home to find that he has a new brother that looks real but is different. I could feel myself becoming uncomfortable as I watched Martin turn green from envy as he begins to manipulate David. David just wants to fit in and be part of the family as he does what Martin tells him will make "Mommy love him more". As David's various attempts begin to backfire he becomes a threat to Martin and the family. Henry sees David as just a toy for his wife, a dangerous toy that could hurt them and he also poses an interesting question: "If he has developed the power to love then maybe he can also develop the power to hate." The threat of David increases as he accidentally causes harm to Martin at his pool party.

Frances O'Connor is the emotional backbone of this entire first segment of the film. As Monica she knows that David is just a machine but doesn't have the courage to love or defend him. She is beside herself with grief when she decides to take the naive David back to Cybertronics because she knows the situations that have developed are the faults of her and not David. She knows he will love her until the end of his existence but doesn't know how she can love a machine no matter how real he seems. Monica is even too much of a coward to take David back to Cybertronics and end his misery so she leaves him in the woods nearby. The moment when David realizes she is abandoning he and Teddy is the most disturbing in the film. This is why I don't recomend young parents taking their children to see "A.I” They may not understand Monica's actions and will only see David as Haley Joel Osment and not a robot being left behind. "I'll love you better,” he screams as she throws him off of her and races away to her car. Seeing David reflected in the car's rearview mirror and getting increasingly smaller left me with the sense of abandonment I feared in my childhood.

The first act of "A.I" is unlike anything Spielberg has done before. The opening of the film and the introduction of David seem very happy with that "Spielbergian" view that we are accustomed to, but when Martin returns home and begins his manipulation, the tone gets darker and darker. The film starts to take us in to those subjects which Kubrick himself loved to explore, the faults of humans and cynicism. The sense of dread becomes even more obvious as David sits on the floor at the other side of Martin's room as Monica read "Pinocchio" to Martin. The idea of Monica reading the story was Martin's because he wanted to mock David. He hoped that David would see the similarities between himself and Pinocchio and feel uncomfortable. What he didn't realize is that the story would inspire David in his quest to become a real boy and introduce him to the "Blue Fairy".

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about the world", Monica says to David when she abandons him. What David will soon discover is how sick and twisted that real world is. By opening the next segment with the introduction of "Gigolo Joe" (Jude Law) the film goes on a slight tangent but also shows us that world that Monica was speaking of. Law's single-minded performance is brilliant as a mecha who acts within the limits of his programming and even though he feels no emotion he "enjoys" his job. The small plot of Joe being framed for murder is a little ridiculous and it would have been better if it was used as a back-story instead of being quickly presented to us. When Joe journeys to the woods outside Cybertronics he discovers David and many old and damaged mechas shifting through the used parts that the company dumps in piles. These woods reminded me of the dark and spooky forests we read about in fairytales. They are interrupted by Lord Johnson-Johnson (Brendan Gleason) and his dirigible shaped as the moon. The "hounds" or bikers dressed like extras from "Starlight Express" that Johnson uses to round up the mechas are not impressive at all. Some have called this the worst action sequence that Spielberg has directed but it's not an action sequence. It isn't intended to be exciting but disturbing and a tool to get us to the next setting: the Flesh Fair.

The Flesh Fair is like a carnival/monster truck rally full of rock bands, neon lights and hundred of "orgas" (humans) screaming for the entertaining destruction of mechas. This is unlike anything Spielberg has shot before and a smile came across my face because he surprised me. The appearance of the rock band "The Ministry" was a welcome surprise as well. Seeing the robots tortured and destroyed reminded me of "BattleBots" on television. Mechas have acid poured on them, are shot out of cannons into spinning propeller blades and are cut down by chainsaw wielding motorcycle riders. This is the futuristic version of "American Gladiators". Behind it all the mechas held in the cage with the frightened David wait for their destruction. A robot cook, janitor, nanny and many others have outlived their usefulness and are fated to be destroyed for our amusement. They have all acted within the limits of their programming including the nanny who asks David if he needs someone to care for him and gives him a smile as acid is poured over her head. It's disturbing to see machines, even thought they are emotionless, pleading for their lives. They were designed by us, served us faithfully and here we are destroying them with glee. This isn't Spielberg territory anymore. This is pure Kubrick. The people come to see mechas destroyed because it is in their nature. Humans love destruction and seeing a machine destroyed is equally gratifying. To them these are just machines who don't feel anything, but when David cries out for help with the emotion of a real boy the audience refuses to accept he is not real and begin to riot against the owner. It is never said why Lord Johnson-Johnson hates machines and it doesn't need to be. David lives in a world where most humans abuse the machines so everything does not need to be spelled out for us. This film is about David not Lord Johnson-Johnson.



When David escapes the Flesh Fair he discovers that he and Teddy have a new companion: Gigolo Joe. Joe seems to be fascinated with David's quest to find the Blue Fairy and become a real boy and agrees to help (and maybe meet a few customers along the way.) According to Joe the one who can answer David's question is Dr. Know and he is in Rouge City. The freeways leading to Rouge City tower over the coast and stretch a long way like the seven-mile bridge in the Florida Keys. The opening of the tunnel at the end of the freeway is in the form of an abstract human head and mouth literally taking David into the belly of the beast. The city itself is like the Devil's amusement park full of sex parlors gambling and plenty of sin. The visual effects in this area of the film are stunning yet the could have been better. It seems like every film after 1982 that has a dark futuristic city will be endlessly compared to "Blade Runner" and that isn't fair. I had that feeling that I was seeing the actors on soundstages with blue screen, which probably isn't far from the truth. I just couldn't fully believe that they were actually in this setting, but maybe that was intended because Rouge City seems to have a dreamy yet nightmarish quality. The purple neon everywhere made me think of Emerald City gone corrupt and commercialized. This setting could have been spun off into a separate film. I would've loved to see how Kubrick could have taken us into the shadows and dark corners of this town, deep into the filth and debauchery that could only be spawned by humans.

The character of the fortuneteller Dr. Know is not one I was comfortable with. He looked like a buffoon version of Albert Einstein with the voice of Robin Williams. I felt like Spielberg was giving me the short film about Dinosaur DNA that he used in "Jurassic Park". He is only a device to advance the plot and I am glad that his appearance was short. The information he provides David will take him to the end of the world. "No mecha has ever returned from there," Joe tells David. "It even has a name, Manhattan." Joe hopes that this quest will give David the solace that he can never have in his own life. He knows the limitations of his programming and accepts his role in life. "They hate us you know, the humans," he says to David. "They made us too smart, too quick and too many." "We are suffering for the mistakes they made because when the end comes all that will be left is us." David refuses to give up his dream and proceeds to take Joe and Teddy to the flooded city of Manhattan to find Prof. Hobby and become real. The design of this location is impressive but I wondered why would Hobby and his team of scientists reside in a city that is flooded over fifty stories high? Was the real estate that cheap or did they want some sort of seclusion? The city itself has no life and appears abandoned.



Just as Henry predicted, David develops the feeling of hate as he smashes the head off the duplicate of himself that he finds. He wants to be unique and fears that his mommy may love this duplicate as well. It's confusing when Hobby tells David that they have been monitoring his journey and tells him he is a real boy. He also disappears from the film entirely when he goes to get David's "other mothers and fathers". David is based on Hobby's late son but is he devoted to David and his individuality or does he have a hidden agenda. It all becomes clear to David when he finds the many lifeless duplicates of himself in the doctor's lab. An eerie feeling washed over me as I saw David peering through the eye sockets of his double and walking amongst the labeled boxes the mecha children would be packaged in. "At last-a love of your own," the boxes read with the outlines of a male or female: David is just a new toy, another product of Cybertronics and nothing more. This is enough for him to dive off the building and into the ocean.

When David and Joe part company I thought that Joe's exit was a little silly. We don't know what will happen to him as he is captured by the mecha retrieval squad but have an idea that Joe's number is up and termination is next for him. His exit is abrupt and unsatisfying but it also takes us to David and Teddy's journey to a statue of the Blue Fairy at a Coney Island amusement ride. David and Teddy become trapped under the Ferris Wheel inside the amphibicopter for 2000 years. It's unfortunate that many audiences find this situation implausible and unsatisfactory. This is sort of the fairytale ending I thought the film was going to give us and I would have been satisfied. But, 2000 years later David and Teddy are discovered by the latest inhabitants of the planet. Many may confuse these beings to be extra-terrestrials but according to Brian Aldiss's original stories and treatments developed by Kubrick they are in fact a race of machines who have taken over the planet. I saw this as Spielberg's biggest mistake with the film because the audience is confused and the visual f/x are poor. The machines look like a cheap rip-off of the "Close Encounter" and "Mission To Mars" aliens but just as Gigolo Joe predicted the human race perished during an ice age and machines survived to dominate the planet. The history of the human race has been lost and these beings hope to learn more by studying David's mind and giving him the happiness he seeks. "A.I." once again flows into Spielberg territory as David meets a simulation of the Blue Fairy created by the machines with the voice of Meryl Streep. The film's ending is bittersweet as David is temporarily united with a recreation of his mother, but he gets the happiness and love he has always wanted allowing him to sleep and have real dreams.



"Artificial Intelligence" is not Steven Spielberg's attempt to copy Stanley Kubrick, but an interpretation of his style. Spielberg began his work from the numerous storyboards and rough treatments that Kubrick assembled. Spielberg has utilized many of Kubrick's techniques without betraying his own style. What we get is a hybrid of these two masters. I don't think anything like this has ever been attempted before and if it has it wasn't done so successfully. This film begins with the familiar Spielberg tone but it seemed a little bit off. Something was different, not normal and that's a good thing. I could see things were headed in a different direction. I didn't know where this direction was going but my brain woke up and my interest increased. Ideas were often the stars of Kubrick's films. They also followed the same theme of the human condition and our faults. What "A.I." is ultimately about is how selfish and imperfect we are as human beings. The character of David is meant to suffer to show us the cruelty and hideous nature we all have beneath our skin.

Everything from Janusz Kaminski's photography to John Williams's score worked for me. Williams has created one of his best scores in a long time, one that is subdued and effective. I was pleased that the score was effectively placed in the background and did not overwhelm the story. The film wasn't filled with wall-to-wall orchestral music and hearing Williams try new ideas such as electronic instruments was a joy. I don't think he's been so unconventional with his scores since he wrote a small jazz piece for "Hook" and that didn't work too well. The advertising of "A.I." recalls "E.T." but this aint no "E.T." People see the name Steven Spielberg with the PG-13 rating and automatically think it's a children's film. I predict that this film will have a big box office opening and then unfortunately attendance will die down after a few weeks. Audiences today are looking for the next mindless entertainment and most will probably reject this film. Negative word of mouth is a death sentence to films and I'm sure this on will generate a lot. On the other hand it could increase interest in the film...hopefully. Why can't audiences try to sit through something a little unconventional today? The intention of this film is to make you think. You can't have everything spelled out for you. Too many movies today are being dumbed down. At the premiere of this film Spielberg said he just wanted to convey Kubrick's vision as best he could. "Just sit back and have an experience.” he said and that's just what he's given us. Spielberg and Kubrick have given me an experience that will stay with me for some time to come. Thanks guys


�Cirrus, Socrates, Particle, Decibel, Hurricane, Dolphin, Tulip, Monica, David, Monica.� These are the words that imprint David�s unconditional love onto his adaptive organic mother in Steven Spielberg�s �A.I. Artificial Intelligence.� The question of what defines a human being or a sentient being is one of the most often debated subjects in science fiction and sci-fi. Whether it is the desire of a robot to be more human as is the case in Christopher Columbus� big screen adaptation of Science Fiction Grand Master Isaac Asimov�s �The Positronic Man,� which was released theatrically as �Bicentennial Man� or character of �Data� in �Star Trek: The Next Generation� and the feature film�s quest to be more human, a character who Gene Roddenberry invented as a nod to Asimov who served as a consultant on �Star Trek: The Motion Picture,� we have seen robots go through great lengths in literature, films, and television programs to reach the nearly impossible goal of transcending their mechanical nature to that of a more biological human nature. Sometimes the robots are defined by their memories, as is the case when Harrison Ford�s character of �Rick Deckard� discovers that the fugitive replicants carry family photographs in an effort to be more human and later discovers that manufactured memories is what Tyrell discovered made a replicant easier to control as is the case with the character of Rachel (Sean Young) in Ridley Scott�s classic �Blade Runner,� which was inspired by the work of Philip K. Dick. In fact if one reads or sees the dramatizations that have been developed from Philip K. Dick stories, they will notice the same question being asked over and over again in various ways. �Am I human?� �What defines being human?� Just watch �Total Recall� and the short-lived prequel television series �Total Recall 2070� and also check out �Screamers� as well as �Imposter� and the undeniable subtext is clear in all of these films. Perhaps it was this question that prompted Mr. Spielberg�s interest enough to direct a feature film adaptation of �Minority Report,� which like the other films I have mentioned above are all based in part on stories written by Philip K. Dick.

Another interesting example of artificial intelligence exists within the �Star Wars Saga,� where droids are treated more or less as second class citizens yet the characters of �R2D2� and �C3PO� are at times more human in their expression of feelings than the human characters in the story. With the exception of �Monica� in �A.I. Artificial Intelligence� most of the other human characters that walk in and out of David�s odyssey to become a �real boy� are emotional types from the jealous biological son of Monica �Martin� and her increasingly cold hearted husband, who was the one who should have been held responsible for returning David to Cybertronics since he bought David home to begin with without consulting his wife, the human characters range from the resentful to the regretful, but we are never allowed to bond as viewers to any human character in the story. This is a story of robots and robots are the ones who inherit the earth by the end of this fable as the next step in biological and mechanical evolution.

This realization is set up and consistently reinforced throughout the film from the very beginning after we hear the voice over that in a few sentences tells the viewer what kind of world we are about to enter, we see the statue silhouetted behind the window that is the logo for Cybertronics, the company that develops the prototype David robot. Then when we first see David enter the Swinton home the lighting around him makes him look like one of the future A.I. beings that we see in the film�s epilogue. David�s earliest memory is the very logo of Cybertronics, which Martin mistakes as a peacock after at his request, David draws him a picture of his earliest memory. Later when David reaches Dr. Hobby at the Cybertronics� headquarters in the now flooded city of Manhattan, he enters a room filled with a virtual assembly line of David robots in various stages of completion. The shot where David looks out through the eyeholes of the faceplate of a David model robot is followed by the matching point of view shot is the �Cybertronics� statue just as we saw in the film�s prologue. Therefore by the time David encounters the A.I. beings at the New York City excavation site two thousand years later, it is reasonable to assume that the look of these translucent biomechanical beings is not unlike the Cybertronics logo statue. Since the image was in David�s mind before he even knew exactly what it was, it is also reasonable to assume that the robots of the future also have a mechanical collective unconscious, which in turn would prompt robots making robots in their own image to use that anthropomorphic template as the basis for their evolution long after humans are extinct. That is why David is so important to them. He functioned when humans still inhabited the earth and as a result he is their bridge to understanding humanity better as well as the missing link between biological organisms and artificial organisms.

Another important element in the film is the use of circles in many of the key visual compositions. Whenever David is in a frame surrounded by organic beings, he is always separated by some sort of circular barrier in the composition of the camera frame. When David sits at the dinner table with the Swintons we see an overhead three-shot that clearly has David separated by the circular light fixture overhead. The Swintons are outside the circle while David is always at the center and cut off from them. Another example is a comparison of two different shots. There is a scene when David is being tucked into bed by Monica where we can clearly see within the circles that makeup the interior of the bed chamber David is at the center while Monica is reaching over to tuck him in, but her body language is stiff as if she is still uncomfortable with their newly adapted mechanical son. Besides reaching in to tuck David under the covers, Monica never shares the inner circle where David resides. However when she is reading the conclusion of �Pinocchio� to her biological son Martin, they both share the center circle, while David is completely cut off and is at the side of the room, not even within range the of the outer circles that serve as the backlight to Martin�s sleeping camber like bed.

The moon on the rise represents danger so whenever a robot character is backlit by moonlight, such as Gigolo Joe when we first see the artificial moon balloon rise, he is alone and does not even share a frame with one of his own kind because in this instance even the artificial moon balloon Lord Johnson-Johnson uses to trap rogue robots for the flesh fair is a mechanical device being used against other mechanical devices. The outfits worn by the �hounds� that ride after the robots make the humans riding the futuristic motorbikes look more mechanical than their prey. One robot refers to the sadistic cruelty performed upon the robots by their organic counterparts as �The right of blood and flesh� while the humans called it �A celebration of life.� If life exists upon the consumption of lives then the reason why robots were created goes beyond the obvious labor needs one would expect. It is exactly as Gigolo Joe explains it to David after they have seen Dr. Know in Rogue City. �They hate us you know. The humans. They�ll stop at nothing.� He then adds �They made us too smart, too quick, too many so we suffer for their mistakes because when the end comes all that will be left is us.� Robots are the scapegoat for the failures of humans to adapt to their changing environment.

The only shot where David actually shares any intimate tactile contact with another being in a circular composition is not with any human character in the film, not even Monica. The shot is when in the far future the �Specialist,� as he is referred to in the screenplay and who has served as the narrator of this film, takes David by the hand and together they sit before a circular window while the Specialist explains to David what he and his fellow robots had discovered about human beings from cloning and reanimating them.

There is no way that David can ever physically transcend his mechanical body and so it is stylistically appropriately that he never shares a circle with a biological human being. What David does and what the robots throughout the film display in various forms is the capacity to leap beyond the simple reactionary response of their basic programming. Robots may not plea for their lives, but they certainly will do as much as they can to keep from being demolished at a flesh fair. On the DVD Steven Spielberg mentions the amazing leap forward Gigolo Joe makes in assisting David on his quest not because Rouge City is where he could pick up business and not because David offers him a chance to escape the police when they come to arrest him for the murder of one of his clients, which he did not commit. Everyone who encounters David in the story recognizes him as being unique. They may not like him, but they never deny that he is something different from anything they have encountered before. Joe�s assistance to David is the clearest example of a robot taking the initiative to move beyond his programming. His last words �I am. I was� are two of the most powerful character defining pieces of dialogue because it shows that even without the advanced programming within David, robots are becoming sentient beings on their own. Another example is when the Specialist mentions to David how he envied the human spirit. Envy is an emotional response, which ultimately shows that in two thousand years of mechanical evolution, robots may have become more like humans in spirit then we will ever know.

Interesting to note that the robots never question the ethics of reanimating humans and it is obvious that only through trial and error are they able to warn David not to let Monica know where she is and how she came to be because it will make her afraid and ruin everything. This bookend is the counterpart to the ethical question raised to William Hurt�s �Dr. Hobby� regarding the creation of a mechanical child capable of love. I often think that it would be ironic if the first reanimated human the future A.I. encountered were �Dr. Hobby.�

Watch the DVD for yourself and see what I mean. The circular patterns are frequently used as a motif on nearly all of the interactive menus and there are other examples I left out like the circular reflection of the open mouth that separates David from the others in the car visually when they enter Rouge City or the fact that David is being studied from a circular observation deck by the future �A.I.� The film is so layered that whether or not it is chance, purposeful, or intuition, �A.I. Artificial Intelligence� is film that demands repeated viewings and I�m sure yields plenty of surprises I have not mentioned here nor have I yet to discover.

As much as it is a story about �the right of blood and electricity� it is also a story of the spirit that in the end unites the �A.I.� as much as it unites humanity for better or for worse.

THOUGHTS: ART CAN INSPIRE ME

I was driving around a few days ago, when I had a bit of a revelation... The sun was out, the sky was blue, it was cool- not too hot, not too cold... the music was perfect for the moment, and I was just driving around, taking in the scenery, enjoying the moment...

When it hit me... It doesnt seem to be people that I fal in love with. Its moments... its scenery... its audio and visual input... or for lack of better words- ART...

When I need to feel a certain way, I break out an album, a movie, maybe pick up a book and flip through the pages... Art fills me, it completes me (in a way)... it does the same thing that the average person would do for me- it inspires me, helps me think of ideas, concepts, etc... Perhaps these ideas and concepts can be thought of as my, our children, products of the union between me and audio/visual stimuli...

I never have arguements with art... I never have to explain myself to art.... its always there when I need it, and it doesnt get upset when I do not pay it enough attention... definitly benefits over relationships with human beings...

But then again, I also started thinking- it would be nice to have a person to share such things with... be able to find a person that finds art as inspiring as I do... to be able to share the experience with, to be able to grow old and reflect on such things, to be able to have conversations such as "remember that one time...", etc...

Art can inspire me, that much is obvious... but, it would be nice to be able to inspire someone myself... and unfortunaly, art cannot be inspiried... art just.... IS. it can be dissected, analyzed, enjoyed, copyed, shared, and maybe even objectified- but cannot be responsive in any real way.... all in all, art can inspire me, but I cannot inspire art...to me the great piece of art is the female form

somehow, it all seemed to make more sense in my head than it does in print, but I felt like I should write SOMETHING at least, so I can get it out and thing about it in a less abstract way....

There we go- art is abstract, and people are concrete- While there is nothing wrong with falling in love with abstracts, it would be nice to be loved by something concrete- I suppose that is what Im trying to say...

THOUGHTS: IN THE PROCESS OF LIVING, I GOT LOST

In the process of living out the years of our lives, there comes a time when we realize that, somehow, we've gotten lost along the way. We've lost our own sense of purpose and direction. No matter how hard we search for the source of discomfort, we can find nothing wrong. We are chasing a ghost who will not reveal itself. I try to do more, go to new places, buy something different, and perhaps for a while I feel better, but that shadow of discontent returns, stronger than ever and I begin to wonder if something is seriously wrong with me. I have decided to take a new direction and leave everything that has not served me well anymore. I want love. Love has a the power I think to take you on a journey from separation to Oneness. I realize that intimate relationships are opportunity to grow. It forces you to open where you were closed, to feel where you were numb, to reach out where you would retreat. It force you to come face-to-face with every emotional limitation you possess. Relationship make you look at yourself, they reveal all the part of you that are not loving. I am not afraid of that, infact I encourage this changlles. Have you ever sat with someone you loved late at night, sharing your thoughts, you hopes and your secret feeling? I used to do that everytime I made love with my ex. At first you're just talking, but at some point, enough doors have opened, enough connection has been made, and something greater happens in the space that occupy me and my love. There is a connectedness as strong as anything you're ever felt is. The boundaries have melted, and the usual protection you have are dissolving, leaving you uncomfortable in your vulnerability. You are being seen without your masks, your innermost emotions are being witnessed by someone else. I miss that...I miss that connection. I start looking for that and I found that most people might say the want a relationship.but they are not emotionally ready and I am not talking about Maria...here..just people in general. I had this connection with Maria

THOUGHT: A QUESTION FROM A FAN: "ISN'T IT BETTER TO BE ALONE THAN TO BE WITH A GUY WHO'S NOT RIGHT FOR YOU? "

When one class of people get more "choices" than another, usually it is because another class had choices taken away from them. The implementation of feminism is a train wreck, marginalising almost everyone apart from "women who want careers and to remain single". It has also placed women in direct competition with people they are supposed to cooperate with. In case you didn't realise competition and cooperation are mutually exclusive. That is why we don't celebrate it.

The fact is, in this supposed age of equality a woman has, inordinately supported by society by things like 60% enrolement rates in universities for women, made herself the equal of most potential suitors out there, but still clings to the idea that she is to be swept off her feet. How about SHE tries sweeping THEM off THEIR feet? Oh wait, that would really be equal so we can't have that..

Fact is, these hypocritical "strong" women, which really only means "has stronger demands" are no prize catch. The reason she is focused on being swept off her feet is due to her inability and unwillingness to do it for someone else. Fine, they don't make good marriage material and so will be justly avoided.

If you are in a marriage and have the same attitude that these single women display, that men have to bend over backwards for them, and that their claims of being "strong" can only be justified in a competitive context, then your marriage will be unhappy. We have a 60% divorce rate people and declining marriage rate. Care to guess why?


The problem starts when women assume all men are jerks, because they were crapped on by 2 or 3 guys that really WERE jerks. Then, they refuse to date, Not because they are happier that way, but because they are afraid to take a risk. Funny thing though -- a woman has a lot of control over how jerk-ey a guy is to her!! I mean, if you let someone walk all over you, they will!!

It is much better to be with someone who is generally happy. I'm not talking about a woman who is giddy about everything all the time when common sense doesn't support it. I'm talking about a generally happy woman that I don't have to worry about dragging me down every day with negativity.

"Women may have few incentives to get married nowadays too- they can make own money, buy their own houses, raise their children, and whatever the hell else they want. Who needs a man- we can get sex at any corner pub- just like a man. At the end of the day what we have is a woman, so much in love with herself that she cannot love someone else, has just realised she will never get married as a result and is now trying to go all sour grapes by encouraging other women to do the same.

Feminism's lone universal tenet is that women are equal to men, and should be treated as such. That's equal to, not "the same as." In fact, much of the time, feminism has focused on trying to elevate those experiences that are necessarily unique to women (e.g. childbirth, motherhood, etc.) in the public mind. It does not call for us all to grow penises and behave as men do.

Beyond that one central idea of equality, feminism has as many faces as there are women. If you believe women should be allowed to be educated, to hold jobs they love if they choose to, to stay home and raise their children if they want, to vote, to serve in the military, to inherit property, to marry for love, to divorce men who beat them...then you are a feminist!

I think the modern man marries the modern woman because he loves her and wants to have a smart, capable partner to travel through life with. What you describe, semper fi, is a mere housekeeper/prostitute. Why on earth would any intelligent man settle for that when he could have one of us? We're fabulous!

We place a lot more emphasis on marrying for love's sake - whether or not this is actually the best way to marry is questionable, judging the modern divorce statistics. Of course, if you've been in love, the idea of marrying for anything other than love seems unbearable. I agree. But love is so volatile - it's unbelievably, breathtakingly wonderful when you're in it, and when you fight or it's fading it can be devastating. I guess the reason that marriages based on qualities other than love last because you learn to work around that and you develop a comfortable kind of love, that is much more stable and promotes longevity in a relationship.

With feminism, it assumes that because men and women were not the same, women were somehow given the short end of the stick and denied freedoms. well, then why not accept that when it comes to mental or emotional matter woman are not the same either?

Women may not want this old model of marriage, but they ought to know that many men do not want this new model of marriage, especially with the divorce/child custody laws being what they are. There has to be something in it for the men with less risks than current marriage. If a woman wants any marriage(granted a few women don't - most do), she needs to open her eyes and look at the culture around her and figure out why men are less likely to get married.

Women ration sex men ration comittment. If a man wants sex he has to appeal to a woman in that way, if a woman wants marriage she has to offer him something that he can't get outside of marriage. You can't really make a man want a new model of marriage. He is allowed to want what he wants. The marriage rate is only going to decline.

Feminism was created to make the world more equal for women, in effect- to level the playing field. Here is where it gets touchy. Who knows why women are underrepresented in the blue collar fields? I could guess lack of physical strength as a possiblity. Or maybe since more women graduate college than men they are getting the white collar jobs and the men get the blue collar jobs. Or that the women working the blue collar jobs haven't found their voice as easily as those who occupy white collar jobs (due to education and $). WHo knows?

Men give up random sex for marriage. In return women should give up- all hopes dreams and ambitions that lay outside the clean, warm, apple pie smelling home? I am not saying women don't desire marriage. women have never in history married in order to get sex. they have married for secruity, stability and to fulfill their desire to love and nuture one man for the long term.

True men have a biological urge to spread their seed. But when marriage offers them something they can't get elsewhere: a stable warm, clean happy home that they can raise children in, then they see it as in their best interest and as in the best interest of their children. in order for them to give up the freedom to sleep with as many women as possible their has to be a tradeoff. the long history of marriage shows that historically men were willing to do that. Now the marriage rate has fallen when they can get sex easily and their are less women willing to accept a complimentary (but not competing) role in the family.

A great article for young women who are starting to realize that feminism sold them an empty bag of goods is "the absurdity of feminism" by Jacob van Flossen.

The fact is women have a biological urge to love and care for a man and his children for the long term. When they fight against that natural urge we become miserable. Too many choices lead to misery and confusion not satisfaction. Short term flings and singlehood aren;t going to bring women happiness.

Fact is men have few incentives to marry when sex is easy to come by and women refuse to fulfill traditional roles that made a wife valuable. I do think a lot of women are too picky. I once tried to set someone up with a nice guy, good sense of humor, good job, etc. She wouldn't go because she said he had bad teeth. First off, they weren't that bad, since I'd seen him often and had never once thought of him as having bad teeth. Second, even if he had bad teeth, so what? First, he wasn't a horse! If he were the man of her dreams with bad teeth, she could just gently suggest he get them fixed, couldn't she? But she'd have none of it. Second, it was ONE date, not a lifetime commitment. But she wouldn't even consider him. Why not give a decent guy a chance at least?Another woman I know won't date any men in her dad's profession because she thinks it would be creepy to "date her dad" ala Freud...

Anyway, both of them are now in their late 30s and still single, and they're not happy about it.

Selectivity about the things that truly matter is very important. Does he respect you? Does he make you feel good about yourself? Do you get excited about being with him? Do you laugh together? Do you share the same long-term goals? Does he seem like the kind of person you'd be friends with? Can you see yourself staying with him when you're 70?

But if you rule out perfectly good men for dumb, superficial reasons, or rule out "all men who...", then you might want to rethink your strategy. Sometimes your assumptions about "all men who..." are wrong. Sometimes what you think is right for you is wrong. Sometimes a guy's teeth aren't the most important thing.

I know it's a cliche, but it's true: you can't really love someone else until you love yourself. There was a time in my life when I went from bad relationship to bad relationship because I was afraid to be alone. Staying home (even on a weeknight) was agonizing. I couldn't stand my own company. But eventually I decided that I needed to stand on my own two feet. Okay, more like I got dumped and was heartbroken and was forced to stand on my own two feet.

THOUGHTS: WHAT I WISH I KNEW

Most people learn over time, but often learning comes too late to be fully useful. There are certainly many things that I know now that would have been extremely useful to me earlier in my life; things that could have saved me from many of the mistakes and hurts I suffered over the years—and most of those that I inflicted on others too.

I don’t buy the romantic notion that my life has been somehow richer or more interesting because of all the times I screwed up; nor that the mistakes were “put” there to help me learn. I made them myself—through ignorance, fear, and a dumb wish to have everyone like me—and life and work would have been less stressful and more enjoyable (and certainly more successful) without them. So here are some of the things I wish I had learned long ago. I hope they may help a few of you avoid the mistakes that I made back then.

• Most of it doesn’t matter. So much of what I got excited about, anxious about, or wasted my time and energy on, turned out not to matter. There are only a few things that truly count for a happy life. I wish I had known to concentrate on those and ignore the rest.
• The greatest source of misery and hatred in this world is clinging to past hurts. Look at all the terrorists and militant groups that hark back to some event long gone, or base their justification for killing on claims of some supposed historical right to a bit of land, or redress for a wrong done hundreds of years ago.
• Waiting to do something until you can be sure of doing it exactly right means waiting for ever. One of the greatest advantages anyone can have is the willingness to make a fool of themselves publicly and often. There’s no better way to learn and develop. Heck, it’s fun too.
• Following the latest fashion, in work or in life, is spiritual and intellectual suicide. You can be a cheap imitation of the ideal of the moment; or you can be a unique individual. The choice is yours. Religion isn’t the opiate of the masses, fashion is.
• If people complain that you’re too fond of going your own way and aren’t fitting in, you must be on the right track. Who wants to live life as a herd animal? The guys in power don’t want you to fit in for your own sake; they want you to stop causing them problems and follow their orders. You can’t have the freedom to be yourself and meekly fit in at the same time.
• If you make your work your life, you’re making your life into hard work. Like most people, I confused myself by looking at people like artists and musicians whose life’s “work” fills their time. That isn’t work. It’s who they are. Unless you have some overwhelming passion that also happens to allow you to earn a living doing it, always remember that work should be a means to an end: living an enjoyable life. Spend as little time on the means as possible consistent with achieving the end. Only idiots live to work.
• The quickest and simplest way to wreck any relationship is to listen to gossip. The worst way to spend your time is spreading more. People who spread gossip are the plague-carriers of our day. Cockroaches are clean, kindly creatures in comparison.
• Trying to please other people is largely a futile activity. Everyone will be mad at you sometime. Most of the people you deal with will dislike, disparage, belittle, or ignore what you say or do most of the time. Besides, you can never really know what others do want, so a good deal of whatever you do in that regard will go to waste. Be comforted. Those who love you will probably love you regardless, and they are the ones whose opinions are worth caring about. The rest aren’t worth five minutes of thought between them.
• Every winner is destined to be a loser in due course. It’s great to be up on the winner’s podium. Just don’t imagine you can stay there for ever. Worst of all is being determined to do so, by any means available.
• You can rarely, if ever, please, placate, change, or mollify an asshole. The best thing you can do is stay away from every one you encounter. Being an asshole is a contagious disease. The more time you spend around one, the more likely you are to catch it and become one too.
• Everything takes twice as long as you plan for and produces results about half as good as you hoped.There’s no reason to be downhearted about this. Just allow for it and move on.
• People are oddly consistent. Liars usually tell lies. Cheaters cheat whenever it suits them. A person who confides in you has usually confided in several others first—but not got the response they wanted. A loyal friend will stay loyal under enormous amounts of thoughtless abuse.
• However hard you try, you can’t avoid being yourself. Who else could you be? You can act and pretend, but the person acting and pretending is still you. And if you won’t accept yourself—and do the best you can with what you have—who then has any obligation to accept you?
• When it comes to blatant lies, there are none more egregious than budget figures. Time spent agonizing over them is time wasted. Even if (miracle of miracles!) yours are honest and accurate, no one else will have been so foolish.
• The loudest noise in the world is the sound of people whining. Don’t add to it.

"When the only tool you own is a hammer,
every problem begins to resemble a nail."

Abraham Maslow

THOUGHT: WHAT IF I WON ALOT OF MONEY AND DIDN'T HAVE TO WORK

What would you do if you had a billion dollars?

Take some time and think about it. Not the initial surge of spending, but afterwards - after the houses, cars, and parties, what would you do?

Perhaps a better question is: If you had no responsibility and all the time in the world, what would you do with the rest of your life?

What is your answer? If you have a passion; a life’s work that pushes you towards excellence, one that you would do freely for the simple love of it, congratulations. But if you couldn’t think of anything concrete, or you wanted to just bum around and drink margaritas, please read on to find out what you are missing.

The life of luxury, or is it sloth?

Do you think a life of laziness and sloth is happiness? Most people would say yes - until they have lived it.

I have been there before – after I went through depression, there was a long period of unemployment where I lived off my parents. They are fairly well off, and so they generously cared for me during my time of need. As a result, I purposely stayed an emotional and financial cripple a bit longer, even after I recovered.

They let me live the easy life – I could do almost anything I wanted, fully funded. I went out drinking five nights a week; I slept, played games and watched TV all day. This was the life I would be living if I were a millionaire; the only difference was that my surroundings, while luxurious, were not as glamorous.

“Sounds excellent to me!” I hear you say. Yes, it was great for the first year, but then I started having some strange feelings.

Why was the happiness disappearing? Why was there a nagging thought that something is missing? And why were these thoughts growing stronger everyday? Why did I feel like I was wasting away instead of living?
Statement Two - Excellence and virtues

Can you guess? Aristotle was exactly right. Happiness comes not from pleasure alone, but from living a successful life. Success lies in fulfilling functions you love – functions that make full use of your virtues and develops them along the way.

There was no true excellence in my life at that point, comfortable though it was. The only thing I was excellent at was getting drunk and playing games on my Xbox (a video game console for those of you who don’t know). While it fulfils the first condition of happiness – loving what I do - I was not using or developing any of my virtues by lying around in my underwear and tapping away at the controller.
Ethical Virtues

So: What are virtues? Aristotle splits them into two types; the ethical and the intellectual.

Ethical virtues are easy to define; they are the virtues of your character. These, according to Aristotle, are not innate. They are more like habits. You become truthful by acting truthfully. You become unselfish by acting unselfishly.

Like any habit or skill – you can’t switch from a selfish man to a selfless man overnight. You have to exercise the selfless “muscle” until it becomes second nature. On the other hand, if you act selfishly, your selfish muscle grows stronger and you have to work that much harder to become selfless.

I remember my teenage years, when I was exaggerating everything I did to look “cool” in front of my friends. It started out with small lies, and then soon developed into near compulsive lying. It took me a year of conscious work to become truthful again.

Without going into a discussion on ethics, here is a list of traits Aristotle has defined as moral:

- Courage
- Temperance
- Self-Discipline
- Moderation
- Modesty
- Humility
- Generosity
- Friendliness
- Truthfulness
- Honesty
- Justice

I wasn’t sure initially why truthfulness and honesty were separate entries. On research, I found out that honesty encompasses both actions and words. If you were given too much change, for example, returning to the shop and making good on it would be an example of honesty. Truthfulness refers only to the words that you speak.

A list of vices would include:
- Cowardice
- Self-Indulgence
- Recklessness
- Wastefulness
- Greed
- Vanity
- Untruthfulness
- Injustice.

Do you notice anything about these lists? Yes, they are exact opposites of one another.

Aristotle speaks of the value of temperance, or the “doctrine of the mean”. In fact, temperance is the basis of ethical virtue. It refers to knowing how much of a particular emotion or trait to display.

If someone tries to insult you, for example, it would wrong to display too much anger (by smashing his head in with a club). On the other hand, it would also be wrong to not stand up for yourself at all, letting yourself be pushed around and walked over like a doormat.

Temperance equals moral virtue in emotions and character traits that are not included in the lists. Let’s take lust as an example. Too much can drive a person crazy. Too little lust, and we won’t have any kids, and the human race will die out. Virtue in this case means knowing the mean - the happy medium between too much and too little.
Intellectual virtues

What about intellectual virtues? Going too deeply into these is not necessary for our purposes; we are focused on the practical aspects of his philosophy. So here’s the list, with explanations that should be enough to allow you to apply them to your own life.

- Sophia – Philosophical wisdom. Knowing of the eternal and unchangeable. In the modern day, I would give knowledge of the law of karma as an example. You possess wisdom if you know that what you do will always come back to you.
- Episteme – Scientific and empirical knowledge. In the modern day, physics, chemistry, psychology, and so on. For example, this is the knowledge that friction causes heat and enough heat on the right material makes fire.
- Phronesis – Practical wisdom. How and why we should act to change things. This means applying the two virtues above. Knowing the law of karma, one might act on it by giving money to charity. Knowing about friction, one might apply it to make a fire if stranded on an island.
- Nous – Intuitive reason, or your intellect. This is what separates us from the animals – intelligence, knowing what to do, having choices, rather than simply reacting to our emotions and needs.
- Techne – Craft and Artistic knowledge. How to make things, or develop a craft. This can be handiwork skills that we use in our practical lives, such as fixing a computer or building a bookshelf. Developing a craft will mean making it into a area of expertise; enough to make a professional living out of it at least. This means moving out of a computer hobbyist into a professional IT person, for example.
Integrating the second statement into your happiness

To recap what we have discussed so far: Happiness does not come from a mere pleasure or contentment. It comes from living a life of success, a life of fulfilment. Human beings are the happiest when they are performing functions to the best of their ability, which involves using their virtues. By developing temperance, character, morals, skills and knowledge, we are leading a life of success and happiness. Looks like Aristotle was a personal development fan as well!

What about my life now? Do I wish I had time to kick back and play a few games? Sure I do. I often feel like shooting some zombie ass or slicing up some rebel ninja, like any red blooded male. But I have so much going on – boxing, my business, this blog, my pursuit of a psychology degree, that I haven’t touched my Xbox in a year, and I’m still having the time of my life.
Ding Ding! End of Round 2

Sounds like I’m agreeing with Aristotle all the way, don’t it? Well not exactly. I have a slightly different definition of happiness, although his makes perfect sense. Maybe we can all get along. Maybe we can’t. What do I mean? Stay tuned for Round 3, where I finally get to disagree with him.

THOUGHTS: HOW TO DEAL WITH REJECTION...

Rejection is part of a writer’s life. Anyone who wants to make it as a writer needs to learn to face rejection bravely, gracefully, and frequently.


Three tips for coping with rejection:

Laugh at your rejections.
Learn from your rejections.
Always have a new project underway, something that will give you hope no matter how many rejections come your way for the previous project.
You may take some consolation in knowing the rejection history of these writers and works:

Dune by Frank Herbert – 13 rejections

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone – 14 rejections

Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis – 17 rejections

Jonathan Livingston Seagull – 18 rejections

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle – 29 rejections

Carrie by Stephen King – over 30 rejections

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell – 38 rejections

A Time to Kill by John Grisham – 45 rejections

Louis L’Amour, author of over 100 western novels – over 300 rejections before publishing his first book

John Creasy, author of 564 mystery novels – 743 rejections before publishing his first book

Ray Bradbury, author of over 100 science fiction novels and stories – around 800 rejections before selling his first story

The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter – rejected so universally the author decided to self-publish the book

From rejection slip for George Orwell's Animal Farm:

“It is impossible to sell animal stories in the U.S.A.”

From rejection slip for Norman MacLean’s A River Runs Through It:

“These stories have trees in them.”

From rejection slip for article sent to the San Francisco Examiner to Rudyard Kipling:

“I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language."

From rejection slip for The Diary of Anne Frank:

“The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the curiosity level.”

Rejection slip for Dr. Seuss’s And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street:

“Too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling.”

Rejection from a Chinese economic journal:

“We have read your manuscript with boundless delight. If we were to publish your paper, it would be impossible for us to publish any work of lower standard. And as it is unthinkable that in the next thousand years we shall see its equal, we are, to our regret, compelled to return your divine composition, and to beg you a thousand times to overlook our short sight and timidity.”

THOUGHTS/LOVE: AH...THOSE MEMORIES OF THE PAST..

There is dignity in not giving up on someone you truly love. But there is more dignity in letting them go so they can experience better love. That shows your true love because you then become unselfish And through putting others first, unconditional love grows.

There is respect in fighting gallantly to win someone's heart another time But an even greater respect comes from fighting hard and knowing when to stop. Even though you would give anything to have the past back, That person has touched your life in a way That will make your future so much brighter.

Accept that, and hold your head high Knowing you have captured their heart as well.

There is courage in allowing your heart to hurt and grieve But there is greater courage in knowing it will be scarred But stronger as time goes on. For whoever caused those scars has made your life better in some way And it will make you a better person when you marry Because of what the scars taught you.

Losing the person who meant the most in your life is a humbling experience, Yet it is even more humbling if you allow it to run your life And forsake all you have been blessed with When you feel like you have lost your world.

Remember how many people depend on you and who you are the world to. There is fortitude in holding on for another chance Although an even greater fortitude comes from extending your hand And heart in friendship, realising you will still share things with that person No one else ever will.

You will always have the looks and jokes and memories. Don't ever discount how special those things are in your heart and theirs. True love hurts when it is lost But an even greater love grows inside you through realisation That something better is in the world for both of you.

And that there are still things to share with that person, Even though some feelings may have changed. Take their hand and help them achieve their hopes and dreams Because in that there is dignity, respect, courage, humility, fortitude, And the unconditional love that will continue to grow in both of your hearts.

POETRY: THE NEED TO FEEL HER TOUCH ON MY SKIN

As time goes on I realize,
just what you mean to me,
and now that you're near,
promise your love that I've been waiting to share.

And dreams of our moments together,
colour my world with hopes of loving you




2


When I lie down at night, you're my cover
And the moon waits behind your embrace
As I try to get lost in your shadow

You ask me the same leading question.
Your essence envelops my brain.
And I'm lost in the breath of your sigh
As you love me again and again.

When I lie down at night, you're my cover
And the moon weeps because I can't see.
As I reach for the sky through your softness,
The moon knows I need to be free.

My limbs tangle round your warm body.
The moon knows to wait for a while.
I try to see over your shoulder
As I slide off the edge of your smile.

At daybreak I slip out from under
And leave like a thief on the run.
I race to the hilltop to see it,
The moon giving way to the sun.


3


Everytime I see her, my mind wanders
I go to a place I never go without her presence
I feel the world in my soul
The passion that beats in my heart
And the need to feel her touch on my skin

When she smiles she lights the room
Like the stars at night light the Heavens above
When she speaks her words flow through my mind
Like the calm breeze flows through the trees

When she looks at me she heats the passion in my soul
Like the sun heats the day

...Everytime I see her




4


With every touch-
we make love.
whether it be-
our hands-
our bodies-
our lips.
Together-
we fit so perfectly.
Physically
and emotionally.
every moment
every breath
every heartbeat
is for you.
you're my other half-
as I am yours.
miraculously-
stepping on a path of broken glass
finally-
finding you in a bed of roses.
My heart skips a beat-
as my eyes take you in.
your mysteriousness
your love
runs all through me.
every vein
every nerve
becomes sharpened
I take you in
with a single breath
holding in 'til
you've reached my heart.
the door is open-
you wander inside.
unaware of where you are
and what an impact you've made.
you decide to stay.
you find it intriquing
and why wouldn't you
in a world of security
in a world of trust
in a world of love
alone at night
i would dream of this world
on that one star that stood out
thinking it was alone.
so i'd somehow feel comfort
but it wasn't alone
nor was it a star.
it was you
i awaited your arrival with open arms.



5
Throughout my entire life,
I've been blessed to have whatever I want.
But not until I met you, I truly know what I want.
Without the doubt, you are the one I've been dreaming for,
yet, it's so close, but so far away...
In this calm and lonely night,
I know something is missing inside of me.
Watching every couple hold hands with such a passion,
I know I can have it, yet I can't have it with me all the time.
It's hard to admmit that you are my most genuine puzzle,
and yes, I want you to know how special you are to me.
I can live with all these endless lonely nights,
but I don't know how long I can hold it.
I'm so empty without you.
Nothing can interest me like the way you do,
And hopefully one day, you can really be my final piece.



6

I started to mold a sculpture,
A work of art you could say.
I didn't know quite what it was.
I said, "I will know someday."
I gave it a whole lot of care...
Also, a heart as big as mine.
I gave it kindness and love
And made it with looks so fine.
I gave it loving words to say
And tender lips for kisses.
I gave it a goofy, silly way,
Also ears so he could listen.
I also gave it my heart.
I made it love me, too.
I finally figured out what I created.
What I created was you.


7

Hair as soft as the harvest wheat...
brush it from your cheek.

Eyes that sparkle like the dew
on the clover's leaf.

Lips like the berry: full, red and sweet...
longing for love's first taste.

Skin smooth as the peach blossom-
needing sun's warmth.

Voice makes the song birds turn in shame,
words- music to my ears.

Touched by love's gentle good grace,
I shudder, at my fortune's fate.




8

Your lips,
as soothing as velvet,
asphyxiate my senses,
torture me as they leave my lips,
and when they touch me again,
you bring the heavens down to me.

Your look,
like a mysterious enigma,
won't allow me to escape,
nor allow me to look outside your beauty,
and when you are with me,
you bring the heavens down to me.

Your existance,
as cruel as a raging fire,
as grim and barbarous as an isolated cold night,
yet...
the only reason for my existance.

Your love,
may touch my heart,
and leave me without life,
as you bring the heavens down to me.




9

I met you in a dream one night,
I knew you were really here,
Somewhere in this gigantic world,
but feeling very near.
In my dream, I knew who you were,
but awoke to wonder, "Who?"
I knew we'd met somewhere before,
I have a connection to you.
As the moon appeared, I prepared for bed,
anxious to fall asleep.
I closed my eyes, waiting for you,
my unconscious was yours to keep.
I saw you waving, as you appeared closer,
as you reached for my hand.
I had no clue what was going on,
but somehow, I could understand.
We'd been there before, I just couldn't remember
that place of You and I,
But "deja vu" took control,
not knowing how or why.
"Another Lifetime. The time has come
for us to meet again.
Our Souls connected, the Journey begins,
I can't tell you where or when.
Our Physical Bodies will meet as strangers,
but when we meet... we'll know,
The Unconscious mind will wake us up,
as our Souls continue to grow."
Our Souls unite, once again
in our lives, today,
Planned ahead, for the right time
to lead ourselves the Way.
In your arms, I lay with Peace,
thanking God for this Great Plan,
Two Souls in love, to share together
another Earth Lifespan.


10

I sat this morning and watched a pair of white doves being set free,
I watched them fly against the greyness of the sky,
one of the most beautiful sights I have seen.
I sat this morning and watched a couple walk hand in hand,
their love so intense,
one of the most beautiful sights I have seen.
I sat this morning and watched the sun rise,
saw a new day exploding into colour,
one of the most beautiful sights I have seen.
I sat this morning and watched the tide come in,
saw the waves rise and fall,
one of the most beautiful sights I have seen.
I sat this evening and watched the day slowly fall,
saw the sun going to rest behind the horizon,
one of the most beautiful sights I have seen.
I sat this evening and watched the moon rise,
I saw the stars shine their first light,
one of the most beautiful sights I have seen.
I looked up this evening,
I saw your face, your beautiful brown eyes, your perfect smile
I saw you,
The most beautiful sight I have seen today.



11

Love can only be shared
By the ones
Who open their eyes to it
You have opened my eyes to it
Now I share that love with you
Thank you...



12

Thoughts occur constantly when it comes to issues of the heart
Sweet flowing, rapidly- the emotions start to spark
I try to put it into words, the pains of each day
The burning of my soul that slowly eats me away

Memmories approaching, taking the good with the bad
Wondering about past decisions, chances, changes- what could have been had
Images of you repeatedly appear before my face,
your sweet goodness is haunting me everyplace.

Through the darkness and the heaviest of emotional storms,
Your grace, charm and beauty are there to keep me warm.
You captivate me with your class and style,
My love is true, I have no denials.

Times have been rough, with all the arguments and questions.
Through all these trying times I have learned many lessons.
About love and understanding- all the good you do,
My heart is warmer because of you.

So, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and all that I hold dear,
That what we have I will always hold near.
I am in love with you and all you stand for.
I can't ask for more,

You're all that I desire,
I can go lower but I can't get any higher.
We have both made some mistakes, I know I have done wrong.
But if you give me a chance my heart will sing this song.

A song that preaches of honesty and integrity,
The goodness of love and all that its meant to be.
Patients I will develop so we can be stronger,
Fighting and bickering will be no longer.

I will do whatever,
So we can be together,
As long as you still love me
And say it's forever.




13

Every moment you are away from me,

every time that you leave,

my heart follows you

and lonely my life grieves.

Every hard word you threw at me

cut my flesh and burned;

yet did my soul flee from yours,

did it not yet yearn?

I have followed you in the darkness

I have loved you in the light;

you have always been with me,

never far from my sight.

So find me, bring me

home again to you;

show me how to love

and tell me you will

always be to me, true.




14

Two eyes... two ears... one nose
what more is there?
A smile... a laughter... the rising sun -
is that it? Everything.

An image - an impression that
defies comprehension...
I look upon thee and
the gate to eternity opens -
the gate to everything...

Oh, what could I compare thee to,
however unjustfully...
Poems... paintings -
sunsets or heaven itself.

On the shores they stand,
glimmering with light.
Whilst thou, my lovely,
fades away into the horizon.

As a stone compares
to the fairest of diamonds
So do they all compare
to thee.. the fairest of women.

Everything thou are,
without thee
nothing there would be

POETRY: WITHOUT YOU, MY SOUL WOULD DIE

As I lie in bed,
The bed of my death,
I'll look through my things,
And one thing shall take my breath.

It won't be the degrees,
Or the diplomas I've earned,
It won't be my records,
Or a new thing I've learned.

It will be a picture
That doesn't say a thousand words.
"I love you, beautiful!"
Will be the only thing heard.

I'll see that beautiful smile,
Those deep beautiful eyes,
And that beautiful hair,
And know your equal, within heaven she lies.

A picture of you,
Could be the last thing I see,
Because every time I see you,
My heart beats faster within me.



2


y love is a fire that burns bright for a while
and then, as an ember, grows cold.
The countless mem'ries, alone, are unchanged,
as with strident passion, rove bold.

As lovers are gifted, my gifts are full nil.
I wander a wearisome journey.
I hunt and I search, that my cup overfill -
that I may joust, yet, one other tourney.

Oh prithee fair damsel, abide yet a while!
My old list of mem'ries doth wane.
I bid thee to kindle the flame in bold style,
else my mem'ry be, once more, my bane



3


Without you, where would I be?
Who could I run to when the world
is mad at me?
Without you, I would be lost.
My dreams and hopes of life with you
would drift away.
Without you, I wonder
how my life would be.
More than likely I would move on,
like before I ever met Thee.
Without you, I feel hopeless,
my life would fall apart.
My every dream would crumble,
due to a broken heart.
Without you in my life,
I cannot feel your touch;
the smile of yours, it warms me;
your eyes, they cared so much.
Without you, my soul would die,
you'd take the life you gave me inside.
Do not take your love from me,
because without you,
there'd be no me.



4

Why am I not afraid of your perfection?
I did not seek for it,
it landed before me in a beautiful shape,
and that is you.

You destroy the doorway
when you enter the room,
I close it behind you quickly.

Everyday you melt my insides,
like burning a burning candle,
dreaming hot, purple passion
from the flowers in my name.

Eyes .....
The way the swirling greens lock into me,
wide, wanting,
soft dizzy warmth.

Your lips I steal,
kisses folding together,
sharpening the pace,
as the infinite flicks through us.

We cannot be closer together,
unless burning wax folds our bodies.

... Please bring this liquid state,
dropped from a candle in the darkness.
...dropped from a candle in the darkness.


5

I take the wings of the morning,
this is my rest forever, here will I dwell.

If the darkness shall cover me
then the night will be my light.

How precious are thy thoughts,
as I awake they are still with me.

I will speak of thy honor and love.


6

Your eyes are enough
to drive a man crazy.
Your hair is enough
to drive a man insane.
Your body is a goddess's:
fine and fair.

Some say I am crazy,
some say I am obsessed.
I say they're right:
I'm obsessed with your beauty, my goddess,
and crazy with the love.




7

Three roses for you, my love, today
Pink perfection in a long stemmed creation
Fragrant, like a thousand perfumes
Everlasting, eternally blessed
A gift of passion, Trinity
In our love... three elements, given
Faith, Hope and Love
Three precious gifts of light
Our love, undeniable, yet challenged
A world of conflict and separation
Attempting togetherness
Driven by wild attraction, determination
Faith in the possibility, happiness
Living in partnership, sharing
Hope in the future together, fulfilling
Loving, unconditionally, provocatively
Two lives in evolution, sharing
Living in harmony in adversity
Faith, Hope and Love
Three perfect roses for my love



8



Like a petal is to a flower,
a wing is to a bird,
a pen is to a writer,
or a letter is to a word,

I complete you, as you complete me,
as funny as it may sound,
fate brought us together,
a rope so tightly wound.

My hand in yours,
together, forever we'll be,
sharing our lives with great content,
in timeless reverie.



9

Come my soul!
release yourself of the prison of the body
and fly with me for the roads
unpublished and secret of my dreams.
Tell me my soul!
why you want to be tied
to a body that grows in age?
Come my soul!
Let us fly into the infinite
and while we arrive there
we go, making reality
each one of the dreams
Come my soul!
it is time of flying
it is time to transcend
it is time to abandon the flesh
and to reach the stars that wait for us
there in the infinite
Come soul!
Let us go to fly.

You will go back to me
because I am the meaning of your life!
You will return with stooping head
and the look lost in the memories;
you will return with your soul
loaded with new experiences
and sweet and sour livings
they were not able to erase,
the moments lived together with me.
You will return tired of traveling without direction
for unknown roads.
You will return with a smile
that wants to be cheerful
but it is the same sadness
leaving your mouth.
You will return again!
and I will be waiting for you
with open arms,
because to live without you is to live without living.
it is to die slowly in the nostalgia.
Yes, I don't deny it!
I will be waiting for you
because my life without you
doesn't make sense

I will be waiting for you
because you are the meaning of my life, too!!


10

If this is love
then I worship it
Because in this
match is heaven
found
In loving, dreaming
and caressing
our thoughts
In creative passion,
passivity
And a new awakening
If this is love
then I am in
a perpetual dream
And will never leave
If this is love . . .




11


The kayak slips into the fog
I think of the day ahead
and the calm of the morning
stirs within me... Thoughts

Thoughts of you
and the quiet smile
that beacons me both onward
and into the dream
That has taken years to realize

Your smile
warms my soul
Your eyes
delight my spirit

yet here in this solo boat
I am not alone
for you are with me
and in my heart


Knowing that within me
the fire of your embrace warms me
against the winds,
over the water and over time, that seems endless,
that we are apart

and yet, the pastels of the morning sunrise
pale to the colours my heart and spirit feel
when thoughts turn to you
and the times ahead and yesterday
times of hope of promise

and of Love... ours.




12

Remember the night,
the moment shared.
Remember the light
and how we cared.

Remember the moon
and how it shown.
Not a moment too soon.
Oh, how close we had grown.

Remember the sound,
nothing in sight.
Nothing around,
only the light.

Remember the air
we breathed in deep.
We had not a care,
nor a reason to weep.

Remember the moment shared.
Remember the light.
Remember how we cared.
Remember the night.






13

" I am here", she whispers into air that vibrates,
and the scope and colour of the spaces change.
The pounding reaches from within his chest to without-
reaching for the warmth and peace held at her breast.
Sharing the life blood and a chance for more,
she holds out a steady hand and touches his soul-
stilling the lonliness and filling the wound,
so that he rests easy, knowing it ever more shall be.



14

You are the water I drink...
I see you in everything...
You are the air I breathe...
We will forever be...

I love you, whole body and soul...
I am cast in your spell, ever to hold...
You make my heart ever free...
My one true love you will be...

With your hand in mine is my life...
Together we'll make it through life's strife...
You are my love, my soul mate, dear...
I'll love you forever, have no fear....

POETRY: REVISHING BEAUTY BEYOND MY THOUGHTS

My heart beats...
sending shock waves of love throughout my fragile body...
pulsating...
leaving me motionless...
I yearn for you...
I gasp for a breath...
wanting every bit of you to fufill me...
needing you now...
you are my Passion.


2


Exquisite beauty before me now
Hallowed be thy name
Before the rising dawn

The heavenly allure of your scent
Intoxicating, Subtle and yet inviting
Like wild roses that come to bloom amongst
The wild flowers in the springtime

Cloud the warmth of loves burning embers
Ever compare to you my sweet
Ravishing beauty beyond my thoughts
There is only you, my love, my heart, my soul

Beneath the heavens you glisten, before the evening star
Heavenly creature who walks with earthly feet
Be unto all my love, be life, be love, be free

Beside the candle that's burns
Silently within the still of night
Hallowed be thy name my love
Before the light of the naked flame


3

Heavenly creature that moves
Among us
With earthly feet!

Hallowed be thy name
My Love...

To hold you in my arms
For just one moment
& breathe your essence!

Rapture my darling
Beyond my thoughts
There is only you...




4

Am I a part of your world
In which you exist?
Do I make you feel like a desire
You can't resist?
Is this love we share,
Or a lust that could never compare?
Can you allow me to cherish you,
Do you dare?
These questions haunt me
In the midst of darkened nights,
Till I awaken to
The dawn's new light.
When I think of you, I sit and grin
knowing my heart's beats
strong within.
So, answer me please
These thoughts I hold and release
From that which binds my soul.
These questions are not of doubt,
By any means
But feelings of desperation
In my broken dreams.
True love happens once in a life time
Most wish for,
But often never find.
I'll wait painlessly
for you to answer my plea
And hope you will find,
The love you feel is for me . . .


5
As I look into your eyes, I see me looking back at you
wondering if your thinking the same thoughts as me.
And I wonder if your heart loves me as much as mine loves you,
and I wonder if one touch from me makes you feel half as great as yours do.

As I gaze into your eyes, into the center of your soul,
I see you looking back at me with confusion... so it's told.
And I wonder what exactly are you confused about in your mind,
and I wonder if your confusion will be dealt with within time.

I wonder about all the possibilities the world has in store from me,
and I wonder if one possibility is you.
And I wonder if you and I were never meant to be,
what were we destined to meet for?

And I wonder if your thinking of me at this moment,
just as I'm thinking of you.
And I wonder if you miss me as much as I miss you.
And I wonder if you dream about me half as much as I dream about you.

So it's said, "A dream is wish your heart makes" and it's true,
there's nothing more that I wish for in this world than to be with you.
And I wonder if deep in your heart you feel the same way,
and I wonder if my feelings for you will ever fade away.

And I wonder how life will be like once your gone.
Will you forget about me as my memories go on?
I know in my heart letting go is for the best,
it's just a matter of time before I can put it to rest.




6

Not before I meet
you in person . . .
Not before I meet
you for real . . .

I could never
show you how much,
how very much,
I really feel
for you.

Not before
our first kiss or sunrise . . .

You haven't opened
your eyes for me.

7

Love can take over your heart
It can take over your mind
It can change your appearance
It can make you go blind
When love does this to you
There can be no escape
You will just focus on the one you love
As if there is no word called "hate"
Love is sometimes described as a blessing
And some people believe it doesn't exist
But there is one true fact about love
It is, you can seal it with a kiss
I believe that somewhere down the road there is a split
And when you get there you have to choose which one to take
One road will give you a long life of love
The other, a world full of hate
It is believed you can't steer off the road you chose
But, I have proven this wrong
I chose the road to hate
But decided it was way too long
So, I decided to cut across to the road of love
And found it to be full of treasures
It made me find the love of my life
And now I live in pleasure
She took over my heart
She possessed my mind
She changed my appearance
She made me go blind

8

The light swiftly chased
the darkness away,
and the cranny became illuminated.
The hidden passion
was suddenly revealed
from the streams of truncated glory.

Through the scent sprayed air
your presence was felt
as you gently stepped into the room.
Desire rose amidst the aura,
and my thoughts were twisted
with every second of the hour.

Looking through your eyes
I saw reflections
of past wayward thoughts,
And my once ripped memories
suddenly returned to the scene.
Fearing the moments would prematurely die
I gripped you tight
while imagery of you
browsed through my mind.

Then I sat on your lap
as you fed me with love,
all the sweet-nothing sank
deep in my brain.
The passion never died
as the night rolled by,
but your magical words
chased my mundane thoughts away.



9

Love is a word that seems
to be used without thought.
Some people try to buy it,
and never realize it can't be bought.

I prefer to show my love
through my actions rather than my words.
Real love means telling the truth,
even if it hurts.

When you look at someone
and they make your heart stop,
you know that overwhelming emotion called love,
that's what you got.

To spend the rest of your life
with someone you truly love,
seems like a heaven-sent blessing
from the loving god up above.

When you find that special one you love,
you'll know,
cause the love you have for them
will just continue to grow.

For me, I've found that one
for whom my love is really true.
I wrote this little poem
to let you know it's you!


10

Look deep into my eyes,
And know that I'm for real,
Look closely and see my intentions,
Your heart I want to steal.

Put your heart in the palm of my hand,
Let me show you how much I care,
Allow me to prove that my love is true,
I promise I'll always be there.

May I run my fingers through your hair,
May I feel the softness of your cheek,
May I enter your mind and soul,
May I render you defenseless and weak?

I can love you the way you want,
Trust me with all your heart,
Believe me when I tell you,
My heart aches when we're apart.

Can you feel the power of my simple words,
Reaching out to fulfill your desires,
Can you feel the warmth and passion inside,
As your heart sets afire?

The skipping of your heart beat,
The tingle in your spine,
Examples of feelings I want you to feel,
And I promise you, if you're mine.

This is just a vision of love,
So much still left unseen,
All I ask is one opportunity,
Let me show you what I mean.

Let me feel your body close to me,
Let me hold you in my arms,
Feel my gentle touch of security,
Let me keep you safe from harm.

May I whisper to you softly,
May I say what's on my mind,
May I take this moment to convince you,
That my love will grow with time?

Your smile takes my breath away,
You're worth more than silver and gold,
Your hands are so smooth and precious,
Too perfect to kiss and hold.

Your eyes are warm and inviting,
A future seen with just one glance,
We can experience happiness for eternity,
If we only take the chance.




11

Express to me what you want, and see if I can understand,
For you want to be fulfilled, and this I also demand.
Hope is only held suspended by one single strand,
For the love that I possess in my heart never can be known as bland.

Open up your heart to me, so that I may prove to you my devotions.
Allow me to convey true beliefs, and tender emotions.
Let us ponder fantasies so explicit, exploring, capturing passions,
Intensifying feelings so deep, yearning for shivering reactions.

Express to me what you want, and see if I can understand,
For you want to be fulfilled, and this I also demand.
Hope is only held suspended by one single strand,
For the love that I possess in my heart never can be known as bland.

Sprinkle me with your caring heart and this will not be in vain,
Gratifying the void of your soul with my tongue,
the truth you will gain.
The undesirable spirit of vanity in this situation will be slain,
And the attempt for capitalism on your emotions I will not obtain.

Express to me what you want, and see if I can understand,
For you want to be fulfilled, and this I also demand.
Hope is only held suspended by one single strand.
For the love that I possess in my heart never can be known as bland.




12

A sweet gift
Down from above does drift.
Gracefully dancing on the tip of my finger,
And there for a time it does linger
Soft, gentle, and free.
But is it really meant to be?

Melted by the touch of my lips
A droplet trickles down to the depths of my soul;
Completing me, making me whole,
Encompassing my mind.
My heart and soul you bind
With your love so pure;
As white snow in winter.