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SHE
She surely should have known better. Selling sea shells by the sea shore is a short sighted career path. Anyone can pick up the shells on the seashore, selling shells is simply silly, and she should see that. But each day she sets up her stand, sets out the shells, and sits waiting to see…
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TAKING
You can take my sight,but my mind will still see what it must,and my fingers will become eyes.You can take my hearing,I will imagine what I must,and my eyes will become ears.You can take my tongue,but my body will shout what I must,and my hands will speak volumes.The only thing you cannot takeis my words,…
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A LESSON TO TEACH
This is what I would tell my sons:“You came from an ancient people,a heritage of poetsand tailors, or thievesand blasphemers,of callous menand slaughtered children.I would give you these books,written by God, some have said,although I am doubtfulbut driven by Erato, without doubt.” This is what I would tell my sons:“I didn’t go to war —there were so many…
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ENSO
In the interstitial momentbetween birth and deatha universe comes into existence,something that never before existedand existed always, newand well-known, unseenand visible for eternity. Measure it wellfor it is incapable of measurement,and ends without warningand precisely on schedule.In the momentary breaththat marks the transit,we proceed nowhereand cannot return to where we began. Reprised from March 27,…
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THE TALK
She sat us down this morning for a heart to heart conversation. We had mentioned the neighbors’ new dog, their second, this one little smaller than a pony. She smiled at us, but we could tell it was a false smile, something was hiding about to be set free. “That is the problem with dogs,”…
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AFTER ALL
After all that has happened,after all of the changestumbling one upon another,after breathing again new air,after ceding fear to hopewhen I sit down to write itall I have at the endis a small glass of snowin the middle of July.
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GICHU PREACHES 鐵笛倒吹 語十
If called before the Masterwill you walk from east to westto the Master’s Smile, or west to east, to a sudden frown.Will you approach the Masterbowing with words of gratitudeonly to receive a blow of the stickor seeking instruction in your failureto an equal blow of the stick. Ponder this carefully:what is the answer?I leave you…
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WITH A TWIST
First, Peter Piper could not have picked a peck of pickled peppers. You don’t pick pickled peppers, you purchase them. And if he meant he picked a peck of peppers to pickle, then he should have said so. And he should have specified what sort of peppers he picked to pickle. Anaheim would be good,…
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A HAUNTING
He said he would ghost mebut I know you don’t tell someoneand in any event, even thoughI do not very much like himI do not wish him dead,and he wouldn’t makea very good ghost anyway,since he barges and not sneaks. He said he would unfriend me,but since we were never friendsto begin with, how can…
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AT ONE
You need not apologize, for wedo not expect it, and wouldnot accept it as freely given. It is not that you have notdone so much it warrants,for that list is long and repletewith all manner of sins. It is simply that we are notin a mood to accept an apology,denied so long, for hollow wordshave…
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an old writer and his words 