by IRENE FOWLER, Contributor
“When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.”
– Franklin D. Roosevelt“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen
or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.”
– Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller’s teacher“It’s always darkest before the dawn.”
– Thomas Fuller, theologian“I will not follow where the path may lead, but I will go where
there is no path, and I will leave a trail.”
– Muriel Strode, poet
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Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers
on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum,
so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in
your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.
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World Chocolate Day: July 7, 1550 is the ‘traditional’ date given for chocolate’s arrival in Europe from the “New World” – in the form of a bitter drink from Mexico – but there is evidence that cacao beans were brought back to Spain earlier than that. However, this date may be when the global craze for chocolate, which shows no signs of slowing down, really took hold.
Rita Dove (1952 – ) American poet and essayist; winner of the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for her book Thomas and Beulah; U.S. Poet Laureate (1993-1995), the first African-American (after the title change from ‘Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress’ to ‘Poet Laureate’), and at age 40, the youngest poet to be appointed Poet Laureate by the Librarian of Congress. Her poetry collections include The Yellow House on the Corner, Mother Love, On the Bus with Rosa Parks, and American Smooth.
To read Rita Dove’s poem “Chocolate” click:
Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998) Syrian poet, diplomat, and women’s rights activist, serving in Syrian missions in Beirut, Cairo, Istanbul, Madrid, and London, and as UAR Vice-Secretary at their Chinese embassy. His sister’s suicide under pressure when she refused to marry a man she did not love made a profound impression on Qabbani, who was 15 years old at the time. He began writing poetry the following year. “Love in the Arab world is like a prisoner, and I want to set [it] free … The relationships between men and women in our society are not healthy.” He has been both revered and reviled in the Middle East for his erotic romantic verse, and his biting political poems. His work, often banned by authoritarian regimes in Muslim countries, even gained some popularity in Israel, in spite of his anti-Israeli stance, because he also criticized Arab policies and military failures. And lovers from all over the world have found his romantic poetry moving and inspirational. He died at age 75 of a heart attack. Qabbani has often been called Syria’s National Poet.
To read Nizar Qabbani’s poem “Every Time I Kiss You” click: Continue reading
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Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers
on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum,
so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in
your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.
____________________________
“Adam and Eve were standing on the bank of a brook, and before them lay the corpse of Abel, who had been killed by Cain. As they sat there, not knowing what they should do with the corpse, suddenly a little bird fell from a nearby tree. The little bird was still very young and could not fly. The fall killed it. Adam and Eve looked at the dead bird and saw that it was a raven. Soon the old raven flew by, and when he saw that his young one was dead, he scratched a hole in the ground with his feet, and laid it inside. Then he scratched the hole full and flew away. Adam and Eve observed all this and followed the raven’s example. They made a hole in the earth, laid Abel’s corpse in it, and covered it with earth. This was the first human grave.”
– “Das erste Grab,” a folktale from Poland about the first grave of mankind, told by Otto Knoop, translated by D. L. Ashliman – folklorist and Professor Emeritus of German, University of Pittsburgh
To read Irene’s new poem “The Fraternal Order of Cain” click:
by Nona Blyth Cloud
Among the attacks on the Constitution this week by the six extremist Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, they decided that a football coach must have the right to pray on the 50 yard line of the football field at the public high school where he is employed – because “Religious Freedom.”
While some may think this is upholding Religous Freedom, or that it is no big deal, what this majority of Justices have done is nullify the other part of Religious Freedom – the right to freedom from Religion. That no one has the right in America to impose their religious beliefs on someone else – that the state cannot promote religion, nor can it favor any one religion over any other religions, and that citizens have the right not to hold any religious beliefs at all.
Do you think if Coach tells his players to join him in prayer that they will not feel pressured to do so? This employee of a public school is a “state actor,” that is, a representative of the government, and if he says “let us pray” then he is using his authority over the students on his team, to endorse, indeed to attempt to compel, prayer in public schools.
On January 15, 2018, I posted A Dangerous Silence in Public Schools – I am reposting it here because it covers why prayer in schools is a major Constitutional issue – click to read:
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Welcome to The Coffee Shop, just for you early risers
on Monday mornings. This is an Open Thread forum,
so if you have an off-topic opinion burning a hole in
your brainpan, feel free to add a comment.
____________________________
Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer stood up for women.
The other six justices voted to turn back women’s rights to the 1950s,
but they will not stop there.
The Witch Hunts of the 21st Century are just beginning.
“You may not always have a comfortable life and you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.”
– Michelle Obama
“Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.”
–Thich Nhat Hanh
“Hope is the companion of power, and mother of success; for who so hopes strongly has within him/her the gift of miracles.”
– Samuel Smiles
Nicole Plyler Fisk
Gene Howington
FFS Guest Blogger
Joy of Fishes
Chuck Stanley
shortfinals
Terry Welshans
ann li-summers
wordcloud9
Flowers For Socrates 