'Keep Fighting’  by Afiyah
^{(as featured on air, October 6th)}

A poem about fighting for things that matter even when its difficult.

Life feels like
a battleground
you keep pushing
through

Going against
the flow of current
resistance feels strong

The path of least
resistance
some say I should follow

But some things
are worth fighting for
I gotta get my armor up

To create
the change that I seek
I gotta get myself in the game

Fuel up
Stand up
Keep fighting the fight.

' I Met A Man Who Would Not Wear A Mask’  by Eric Ashford
^{(as featured on air, September 22nd)}

The love of money is a chain,

Everyone I know wears a mask,

but the face of this person

was not in hiding, if he wore one

it was transparent.

I could see he was not playing a part,

not following any script,

not reading other faces wondering how to react,

not courting smiles and nods in order to signal

agreement.

He was not in, nor out of a social circle.

I could tell at a glance

that he would not mimic

any borrowed characteristics

simply to curry favor or impress.

He was a man

that would not feign a tear, until

it fell naturally

nor signal a false camaraderie,

or join any masquerade

simply to be accepted.

He did not socialize to ingratiate,

or seek influence,

did not push himself forward

in order to gain attention.

When I met him

I knew I could not wear

my own mask and be real in his eyes.

I felt I had to take it off

to be shorn of pretense;

sadly my mask was stuck to my skull

as an obviously painted persona,

a false flag I had carefully cultivated

for far too long, 

now try as I might it would not come off.

That same day

I met many people with masks,

we gathered to meet each other.

Try as I might

I could see nothing unrehearsed,

spontaneous, or authentic in us all.

Truth be told, all our masks 

fitted far too perfectly.

' Golden Freedom’ by Amos Russel Wells
^{(as featured on air, August 18th)}

The love of money is a chain,

Binding souls to greedy pain.

The love of money is a jail,

Bare abode of Hunger pale.

The love of money is a czar,

Lord of slaves that wretches are.

The love of money is a wall,

Bleak and barren, strong and tall.

The love of money is a pit;

Foulest creatures live in it.

The love of money is a mine,

Where the sunbeams never shine.

Worst of all captivities,

That the love of money is.

Oh, be free, superbly free,

From its cramping misery!

' The Road Not Taken ' by Robert Frost
^{(as featured on air, June 23rd)}

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

'Look Well to This Day ' by Kalidasa
^{(as featured on air, June 23rd)}

Look well to this day,
For it and it alone is life.
In its brief course
Lie all the essence of your existence:
The Glory of Growth
The Satisfaction of Achievement
The Splendor of Beauty
For yesterday is but a dream,
And tomorrow is but a vision.
But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness,
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.

'Earth Your Dancing Place' by May Swenson 
^{(as featured on air, June 16th)}

Beneath heaven's vault
remember always walking
through halls of cloud
down aisles of sunlight
or through high hedges
of the green rain
walk in the world
high-heeled with swirl of cape
hand at the sword-hilt
of your pride
Keep a tall throat
Remain aghast at life

Enter each day
as upon a stage
lighted and waiting
for your step
Crave upward as flame
have keenness in the nostril
Give your eyes
to agony or rapture

Train your hands
as birds to be
brooding or nimble
Move your body
as the horses
sweeping on slender hooves
over crag and prairie
with fleeing manes
and aloofness of their limbs

Take earth for your own large room
and the floor of the earth
carpeted with sunlight
and hung round with silver wind
for your dancing place

'Sonnets to Orpheus, Part Two, XII' by Rainer Maria Rilke 
^{(as featured on air, June 16th)}

Want the change. Be inspired by the flame
where everything shines as it disappears.
The artist, when sketching, loves nothing so much
as the curve of the body as it turns away.

What locks itself in sameness has congealed.
Is it safer to be gray and numb?
What turns hard becomes rigid
and is easily shattered.

Pour yourself out like a fountain.
Flow into the knowledge that what you are seeking
finishes often at the start, and, with ending, begins.

Every happiness is the child of a separation
it did not think it could survive. And Daphne, becoming
a laurel, dares you to become the wind.

The Way it Is' by William Stafford
^{(as featured on air, June 16th)}

There's a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn't change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can't get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding.
You don't ever let go of the thread.

From 'The Lost Book' of Bokonon
^{(as featured on air, June 16th)}

life is a garden,
not a road

we enter and exit
through the same gate

wandering,
where we go matters less
than what we notice

The Voice by Shel Silverstein
^{(as featured on air, April 14th)}

^{There is a voice inside of you
That whispers all day long,
"I feel this is right for me,
I know that this is wrong."
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend
Or wise man can decide
What's right for you--just listen to
The voice that speaks inside.”}

Common Ground by Zoe Andres
^{(as featured on air, April 7th)}

'If I had a dinosaur I would name him Frederick
because I feel like it would suit him.
Nobody would ever believe me when I tell them
"he's my best friend" because You can't imagine
being friends with someone so different from Yourself
until you actually are & you realize how much common ground,
we all share. We breathe the air, need water to drink,
food, sleep and time to think.
So why do people keep looking at me strange
when there's nothing here that needs to change
except perhaps the way we view others.
In the end we're all the same: living things
with different names looking for a friend.
Maybe nobody ever thought it mattered
that Frederick might like ice cream
or that I might like ice cream too.'

On Fear by Jim Morrison
^{(as featured on air, March 31st)}

'Expose yourself to your deepest fear;
after that, fear has no power,
and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes.
You are free.'

'Our Deepest Fear' by Marianne Williamson
^{(as featured on air, March 31st)}

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are
powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be
brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do
We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us. it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically
liberates others.

 
A Poem by J.L. Wyman
^{(as featured on air, March 31st)}