Charity: Anonymous

For when the one great score comes,
to write against your name,
he writes not that you won or lost,
but how you played the game.

Think big. Talk small.
Love much. Laugh easily.
Work happily. Play fair.
Pay cash and be kind.

After a While : Victoria Shofstall

After a while,
you learn the subtle difference between,
holding a hand and charming a soul,
and you learn that love doesn't mean learning,
and company doesn't always mean security.

And you begin to learn,
that kisses aren't contracts,
and presents aren't promises,
and you begin to accept your defeats,
with your head up and your eyes ahead,
with the grace of a woman,
not the grief of a child

And you learn,
to build all roads on today,
because tomorrow's ground is,
too uncertain for plans,
and futures have a way,
of falling down to mid flight.

And while you learn,
that even sunshine burns if you get too much,
so you plant your own garden,
and decorate your own soul,
instead of waiting,
for someone to bring you flowers.

And you learn,
that you really can endure,
that you are really strong,
and you really do have worth,
and you learn and you learn,
with every good bye you learn.

Old and New: Anonmyous

She went up the mountain to pluck wild herbs;
She came down the mountain and met her former husband.
She knelt down and asked her former husband,
"What do you find your new wife like?"
"My new wife, although her talk is clever,
cannot charm me as my old wife could.
In beauty of face there is not much to choose,
But in usefulness they are not alike.
My new wife comes in from the road to meet me;
My old wife came down from her  tower.
My new wife is clever at embroidering silk;
My old wife is good at plain sewing.
Of old silk embroidery, one can do an inch a day;
Of plain sewing, more than five feet.
Putting her silks by the side of your sewing,
I see that the new will not compare with the old".

Reaching For The Infinite Heart: Bonnie Tyler

I know that somewhere there's a moment you and I will touch
We reach across the empty space that you and I can cross
When the love of a woman finds the love of a man,

The circle can not be broken,

The door is open for the time when your heart returns
In the silence of a kiss we will burn our heart
When the heat in a woman finds the heat in a man,

The flame burns forever,

There'll come a time, my love when the searching has to end
I'm on the wrong-way street I need more than just a friend
And I’m standing here, just trying to touch the stars
Nothing else to lose when you're reaching for the infinite heart,

There’s a story which is waiting for the heart to write
I’m going crazy here, just wanting you to close up the night
When the love in a woman finds the love in a man,

There’s nothing too precious to hold it,

The door is open for the time when your heart returns
In the silence of a kiss we will burn our heart
When the heat in a woman finds the heat in a man,

The flame burns forever,

There’ll come a time, my love when the searching has to end
I’m on the wrong-way street I need more than just a friend
And I’m standing here, just trying to touch the stars
Nothing else to lose when you’re reaching for the infinite heart,

We reach across the empty space.
Space that you and I can cross
When the love of a woman
Finds the love of a man,

There’ll come a time, my love when the searching has to end
I’m on the wrong-way street I need more than just a friend
And I’m standing here, just trying to touch the stars
Nothing else to lose when you’re reaching for the infinite heart.

So You Want To Be A Writer: Charles Bukowski

If it doesn't 't come bursting out of you
in spite of everything ,
don't do it .
Unless it comes unasked out of your
heart and your mind and your mouth
and your gut ,
don't do it .
If you have to sit for hours staring at your computer screen or hunched over your
typewriter searching for words ,
don't do it .
If you 're doing it for money or fame ,
don't do it .
If you 're doing it because you want women in your bed ,
don't do it .
If you have to sit there and rewrite it again and again,
don't do it .
If it 's hard work just thinking about doing it ,
don't do it .
If you 're trying to write like somebody
else,
forget about it .
If you have to wait for it to roar out of
you ,
then wait patiently .
If it never does roar out of you ,
do something else.

If you first have to read it to your wife
or your girlfriend or your boyfriend
or your parents or to anybody at all ,
you 're not ready.

Don't be like so many writers ,
don't be like so many thousands of people who call themselves writers ,
don't be dull and boring and pretentious , don't be consumed with self  love .
the libraries of the world have yawned themselves to sleep over your kind .
Don't add to that.
Don't do it .
Unless it comes out of
your soul like a rocket ,
unless being still would drive you to madness or suicide or murder ,
don't do it .
Unless the sun inside you is burning your gut ,
don't do it .

When it is truly time ,
and if you have been chosen,
it will do it by itself and it will keep on doing it,
until you die or it dies in you .

there is no other way.

and there never was.

If... : Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or , being lied about , don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good , nor talk too wise;

If you can dream and not make dreams your master;
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you 've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to , broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn - out tools ;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch- and- toss,
And lose , and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: " Hold on !"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue ,
Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you ,
If all men count with you , but none too much :
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run ,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it ,
And which is more : you 'll be a Man , my son !

To be in love : Gwendolyn Brooks

To be in love
Is to touch with a lighter hand.
In yourself you stretch, you are well.

You look at things
Through his eyes.
A cardinal is red.
A sky is blue.
Suddenly you know he knows too.

He is not there but
You know you are tasting together
The winter, or a light spring weather.
His hand to take your hand is overmuch.
Too much too bear.

You cannot look in his eyes
Because you repulse must not say
What must not be said.
When he, Shuts a door-
Is not there.

Your arms are water.
And you are free
With a ghastly freedom.

You are the beautiful half
Of a golden hurt.

You remember and covet his mouth
To touch, to whisper on.

Oh when to declare
Is certain Death!
Oh when to apprise
Is to mesmerize,

To see fall down, the Column of Gold,
Into the commonest ash.