Love, Honor, Inspire

Extravagant Spirits
BY MAYA ANGELOU

Without their fierce devotion
We are fragile and forlorn,
Stumbling briefly, among the stars.

We and our futures belong to them
Exquisitely, our beliefs and our
Breaths are made tangible in their love.

By their extravagant spirits, they draw us
From the safe bordersAnd into the center of the center ring
There they urge dance upon ourLeaden feetAnd to our sullen hearts,
Bright laughter.

Not the crowd’s roar nor the gasped
Breath of the timorous can stay their mission.
There is no moderation in their nature.
They spit upon their fingersTo test the wind of history,
They slip into our bonds and steal usAway from the slavery of cowardice.

They skin back their thin lips over fanged teeth and
Rocks in hand, in our presenceFace down our Goliath.

These mothers, fathers, pastors and priests,
These Rabbis, Imams and gurus,
Teach us by their valor and mold us with their courage.

Without their fierce devotion
We are only forlorn and only fragile
Stumbling briefly, among the stars.

i carry your heart with me
ee cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)