after…

Photos taken from devastated Haiti 6  days later excerpts from Boston the Big Picture

Chen grangou pa kouche ~ Haitian proverb.

A starving dog does not lie down.

Haiti – Every drop counts

Haiti: Poem by Carvens Lissaint / Shot by Steven Duarte

“Haiti” was written by  a year ago. His mother Carvens’ mother who was in Haiti at the time of the Earthquake is safe & back at home in the US.

Every Drop Counts is a grassroots organization assembled in response to the earthquake in Haiti. They are working to bring clean drinking and bathing water to Haitians working with the World Water Relief. Please support their efforts and follow on twitter: @everydropchi

Ἡ ζωή τόλμη·  τὸ γὰρ τολμᾶν δρᾶν ἐστιν.

~ To live is to dare & to dare is to do

I Cry

Sometimes when I’m alone
I Cry,
Cause I am on my own.
The tears I cry are bitter and warm.
They flow with life but take no form
I Cry because my heart is torn.
I find it difficult to carry on.

If I had an ear to confiding,
I would cry among my treasured friend,
but who do you know that stops that long,
to help another carry on.

The world moves fast and it would rather pass by.
Then to stop and see what makes one cry,
so painful and sad.
And sometimes…
I Cry

And no one knows why…..

Tupac Shakur 1971-1996

Still The Sirens ~ Dennis Brutus

Still the sirens

stitch the night air with terror—

pierce hearing’s membranes

with shrieks of pain and fear:

still they weave the mesh

that traps the heart in anguish,

flash bright bars of power

that cage memory in mourning and loss.

Still sirens haunt the night air.

Someday there will be peace

someday the sirens will be still

someday we will be free.

Dennis Brutus 1924 -2009

“The Sirens of oppression I referred to in my first collection
(1963) were still present in South Africa in 1989, as they seem to be as
well in Gaza in 2009 thanks to Israel’s bombing spree.”

Dennis Brutus, Durban 1/1/09

I am because we are

This link, to Madonna’s Documentary page was sent to me independently by two people today, almost simultaneously!

Firstly  Tendai Joe from  Pretoria, South Africa.  Tendai  has such a wonderful lifestory himself ~ do please take time to read! You will be inspired! He is currently planning a Trail of Hope documenting a  motorbike journey across 16 African countries with a goal of bringing awareness to the plight of young children across the continent.

And secondly from Sweden, a friend, Vahid Cullsberg, who takes the most wonderful pictures and inspires me with his poetry. .. at the break of every morn

I felt this was a rather unique  coincidence !

I am because we are =  Ubuntu

also the web url for Madonna’ s documentary about the AIDS Crisis in Malawi

Birthday Gifts to Treasure

Many thanks to my dear friend Mita for this beautiful sketch ” Love Undone”  ~ sent for my birthday.

This has been the year of letting go for both of us.

“What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind.”

William Wordsworth

And to Ali, a kind stranger, who has sent me Belovy by Viktor Kosakovsky ~ something that is very touching & dear to me. I hope the start of a unique story …

Maybe we all belong to Elvis

Invictus

The movie Invictus (Latin for Unconquered) gets its name from the following poem by William Ernest Henley, which Nelson Mandela had written on a piece of scrap paper during his imprisonment.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

- William Earnest Henley

Thankyou to @Geekrebel for reminding me

“ I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul! “

Mita

Today I’m reading my friend Mita’s beautiful poetry blog ~ I have known Mita for several years now. We share a love of Irish folk lore, illustration, the actress Audrey Hepburn as well as the novel “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett. I think we met once in a magical  place called “Tir Nan Og” and somehow that made all the difference …

I am so proud of her new project as an illustrator and just found out this week she will illustrate “The Wind in the Willows” for a popular Indonesian publisher. She has a wonderful talent. But be careful for she is either a nymph or a witch ~ I am not sure which!

Find Mita at Illustration Poetry

“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” ~ Audrey Hepburn

“The one thing that artists must possess above all other qualities is immense courage”

~ filmmaker and anthropologist Jean Rouch