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Today by Dane Allred

Today

by Dane Allred

I remember the yesterdays I spent without you in my life,

But even better,

I remember the yesterdays we have shared.

I don’t like thinking about those tomorrows I may spend without you by my side.

I want to enjoy this day I have with you;

Those tomorrows I will look back upon and cherish,

These todays we spend together.

I am so thankful for this present we call today.

This present day I unwrap to spend with you.

Welcome to the today we have together

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Yesterday by Dane Allred

Yesterday

by Dane Allred

Without a yesterday

There can be no today.

We are the sum of all the yesterdays.

All my yesterdays,

All your yesterdays,

All the last weeks, last months,

Last years and last centuries

That stretch back to the dawn of time itself.

When we wake to the world each day,

Those who went before creating the world

Give us our today.

Those future days depend on

What we do with our today.

What do we want to leave to those of us

Who will wake to another today?

This is the only day we have

Since we have spent our yesterdays

And can’t get to our tomorrows

Without going through today.

We have been given this gift called the present;

This day to wake, to work, to play.

This day to find our way to make a better today

For those of us here tomorrow.

We seek a way to make this world a better place

A place we want to awaken to tomorrow.

We want the best for ourselves and for others

Hoping for help along the hours

Looking for ways to help those seeking help.

What would we do this day?

Do as you would have done.

Do those things you would hope others would do

If given the same chance as you.

Brighten the day of someone else,

In the hope that someone will someday

Brighten your day.

Help those who need your help

In the hope that someone will someday

Give you the help you need.

Reach out to those who need comfort

In the hope to be comforted someday

When you are most in need of comfort.

Seek for that one looking for help.

Seek for those who can help you.

There really is no other journey

Than the one we make with each other.

Someone in a yesterday gave us this gift

We call the present.

This day we call today.

It is our day to do with what we will.

What will you do with today?

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SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS

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Swan Dive

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I was staying with my Dad one summer, helping him remodel a house. I was all right as a helper, but I really don't think I did much that made a difference, but it was nice to spend time with Dad. I was a scrawny twelve year old, looking for girls and hoping they were looking at me.

It was a fun summer and fairly safe, unless you count the incident at the local pool.

There was a girl there that day who I really wanted to impress, although what happened next completely wiped my memory of what she may have looked like. It doesn't matter that I can't remember; it's just that the traumatic events jarred them right out of my brain.

Just like every other stud at the pool, I did dives off the high dive, and not just the wimpy feet first dives. I could do a nice head first dive, and even managed sometimes to not slap my calves on the water so hard they would shine bright red. And make a stupid slapping sound.

I was watching closely to try to time my dives so we could meet innocently enough on the ladder of the high dive. I would have liked to have been behind her, so I could strike up the casual conversation, like "Hey, nice dive." But fate said it was not to be.

As I sauntered up to the ladder, she hesitated to speak to someone, and it would have looked stupid to wait for her to get on the ladder and then climb up after her. She probably would have thought I wanted to check her out as she was climbing the ladder, and she probably would have been right. So now that I had committed, I had to climb the ladder without hesitation or looking stupid.

As luck would have it, she climbed up right behind me. Maybe she was checking me out!

Then an inspiration struck me. Why not get to the top, and then let her go first like a true gentleman? Then I could chalk up some points for courtesy, and get to watch the heavenly dream walk past me on the board and dive in front of me. It seemed to be the perfect way to get a conversation started.

I got to the top. I stepped over to the side and told her she could go first. I was holding onto one of the silvery poles that flanked the board, to stop people from falling to the cement below before the dive. She was impressed and flashed me a smile that wiped all common sense out of my brain.

I was mesmerized by the glance, and it pulled me from my logical and sensible brain right onto the side that said "Follow". So I followed her. At least my feet followed her onto the board, while my two pathetic hands held onto the silver barrier.

As she dove, the board bounced down and she dropped into the water. My feet were still on the board as it traveled up boomerang-like from the sudden release of weight. My legs must have been locked because I immediately began an upward trajectory, with my feet passing my head before I knew what was happening. I was upside down on the rail, and the momentum carried me further. I was now swinging pendulum-like away from the board, on the other side of the rail. I had enough sense to hold on rather than plunge head first, but there was no way to keep my grip and simply hang from the rail.

With a slight twist of my wrists I was free from the rail, the board and any other solid object. I had dreamed of flying through space often by this time in my life, but there was nothing ethereal or pleasant about this flight. My body continued turning as I descended, and without further ado, I landed smartly on the cement - on my butt.

It was a solid landing. A good jolt to the spine, and if I remember, I landed on my right cheek. From 10 feet up, I had plopped onto solid cement, stopped only by the skimpy flesh of my rear. It really hurt, but again, miraculously, I was not seriously injured. People started to gather around to see if there were broken bones, or better yet, broken bones that were sticking out through my skin.

I didn't give them the satisfaction of helping me up. To add injury to injury, I slowly and painfully rose to my feet and noticed a gash across my arm.

I limped to the dressing room and went home.

I hope she was worth it. I can’t remember what she looked like. After all, I landed on my brain.

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Abundance Walls Oct 15

This is the complete episode of Abundance called Walls from October 15th.

LITERATURE OUT LOUD -- see and hear great literature Audio narrations with synchronized visual text

The Complete Collection of

SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS

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Sonnet Fifty by William Shakespeare

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Sonnet L

by William Shakespeare

How heavy do I journey on the way,

When what I seek, my weary travel's end,

Doth teach that ease and that repose to say

'Thus far the miles are measured from thy friend!'

The beast that bears me, tired with my woe,

Plods dully on, to bear that weight in me,

As if by some instinct the wretch did know

His rider loved not speed, being made from thee:

The bloody spur cannot provoke him on

That sometimes anger thrusts into his hide;

Which heavily he answers with a groan,

More sharp to me than spurring to his side;

For that same groan doth put this in my mind;

My grief lies onward and my joy behind.

 

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Sonnet 50

Sonnet Forty-nine by William Shakespeare

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Sonnet XLIX

by William Shakespeare

Against that time, if ever that time come,

When I shall see thee frown on my defects,

When as thy love hath cast his utmost sum,

Call'd to that audit by advised respects;

Against that time when thou shalt strangely pass

And scarcely greet me with that sun thine eye,

When love, converted from the thing it was,

Shall reasons find of settled gravity,--

Against that time do I ensconce me here

Within the knowledge of mine own desert,

And this my hand against myself uprear,

To guard the lawful reasons on thy part:

To leave poor me thou hast the strength of laws,

Since why to love I can allege no cause.

 

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Sonnet 49

Sonnet Forty-eight by William Shakespeare

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Sonnet XLVIII

by William Shakespaeare

How careful was I, when I took my way,

Each trifle under truest bars to thrust,

That to my use it might unused stay

From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust!

But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are,

Most worthy of comfort, now my greatest grief,

Thou, best of dearest and mine only care,

Art left the prey of every vulgar thief.

Thee have I not lock'd up in any chest,

Save where thou art not, though I feel thou art,

Within the gentle closure of my breast,

From whence at pleasure thou mayst come and part;

And even thence thou wilt be stol'n, I fear,

For truth proves thievish for a prize so dear.

 

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Sonnet 48

Sonnet Forty-seven by William Shakespeare

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Sonnet XLVII

by William Shakespeare

Betwixt mine eye and heart a league is took,

And each doth good turns now unto the other:

When that mine eye is famish'd for a look,

Or heart in love with sighs himself doth smother,

With my love's picture then my eye doth feast

And to the painted banquet bids my heart;

Another time mine eye is my heart's guest

And in his thoughts of love doth share a part:

So, either by thy picture or my love,

Thyself away art resent still with me;

For thou not farther than my thoughts canst move,

And I am still with them and they with thee;

Or, if they sleep, thy picture in my sight

Awakes my heart to heart's and eye's delight.

 

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Sonnet 47

Sonnet Forty-six by William Shakespeare

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Sonnet XLVI

by William Shakespeare

Mine eye and heart are at a mortal war

How to divide the conquest of thy sight;

Mine eye my heart thy picture's sight would bar,

My heart mine eye the freedom of that right.

My heart doth plead that thou in him dost lie--

A closet never pierced with crystal eyes--

But the defendant doth that plea deny

And says in him thy fair appearance lies.

To 'cide this title is impanneled

A quest of thoughts, all tenants to the heart,

And by their verdict is determined

The clear eye's moiety and the dear heart's part

As thus; mine eye's due is thy outward part,

And my heart's right thy inward love of heart.

 

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Sonnet 46

I Love Therefore I Am

I Think Therefore I Am

by Dane Allred

Descartes once said,

“Cogito ergo sum”.

I think therefore I am.

But I may only think I am thinking

When I repeat the empty phrases

I have been taught.

I know I am alive,

That I survive

And swim in the maelstrom of this world.

But I am most defined by love.

Those people, things and ideas I love.

Without the connection from you to me

Without the love we share,

There is no existence,

Only survival.

My new motto is

“Amor ergo sum”;

I love therefore I am.

LITERATURE OUT LOUD -- see and hear great literature Audio narrations with synchronized visual text

The Complete Collection of

SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS

all 154 poems $3.99 DVD with FREE shipping

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