Having Fun isn't hard when you've got a library card

The library

Filled with heavy mouth breathing due to the passed around cold

Sometimes laughter and often sighs of frustration at the pile of homework that grows more quickly than it can be conquered.

A place of victory and defeat

The crossing of paths between procrastination and productivity

The working hard and hardly working all meet in the carpeted building full of aged books, silent stations, and printers running never to be caught

Filled with more knowledge than one mind could hold

Ordered by dewey who we don’t know, do we?

Barcodes and books

Publish dates and being asked on a date

Coffee without gumption and gumption without talent

The meeting of the minds in the building with the spines

The typing of keys, the scribbling of notes, the copying of papers someone else wrote

Glamour is hard to come by but clamor is not

The house of whispering comes to life at night

With stories not of old, but of that days flight

She said this and he said that, oh and look we captured the campus cat

. . .  Its hiding in our dorm room so that no one will find it

a place to  mingle and mix and be, a piazza

do I smell pizza?

Deadlines are quickly whooshing past

And assignments are dying fast

Questions being answering but many more being asked

What no one understands, how time goes by so fast

The table covered with technology and paper

An apple might refer to a laptop or a snack for later

A place where lots of life happens

And where lots of studying doesn’t

But at least you came to the library

That’s gotta count for something

. . . right?

Love is patient, Love is kind

As a community the world enjoys speaking beautifully about love

But when our favorite song or RomCom is over where is the love we speak so fondly of?

Cause we hide it pretty well from what I can see

Just scrolling through Facebook shows people hate spewing

I’m on this side and you’re on that one

We get to have a fight but nobody won

“Your heart is so filthy for believing that side”

We shout in each other’s faces, while swelling with pride

This is life things don’t make sense.

But we look at others as if through a fence

We only see slits of who they really are

Maybe their religion, sexual orientation, or position on war

But don’t be fooled we like being hidden

If we weren’t we’d actually face what our words do

The consequences of our actions,

And the wounds our words inflict

If technology has done anything it’s connected us all

But only to the façade we slip through the holes in our wall

Keystrokes on a board, typing right away

Our identity has never been so shallow, or our fronts fake

What happened to being human, we used to share commonalities

Now all we do is fight

We say “you’ve got it all wrong, and I’ve got it all right”

Take a stand! Speak your mind! Be confident in who you are!

But be careful these ideas set you up with your humanity to ignore

Stop! Slow down. Take a seat for a second

Why are we so watered down that we only value who wins an argument?

The person on the other side is important too

They may disagree or even sit in a pew

But they matter; they have thoughts ideas and emotion

People to protect, tales of tragedy, and blood in their veins flowing

If you let it fear will convince you

 That strength, hate and force are the only way to protect you

 It is a great lie and serves a purpose

It lets ideas and thoughts deeply separate us

But still you project it, yell it at the top of your lungs

 Maybe even gather followers to praise you with their tongues

But are those people even thinking for themselves?

 Or are they just following what you say and the “values” on your shelf

Can you not recognize

That spewing hate on any person alive

Automatically makes you desensitize

To the cause you were fighting for on your rise?

This generation isn’t stupid; we know what we’re looking at

 We see the politics and manipulation in this big scary trap

But I say stop! Throw down your arms

Whether they’re fists, guns, words, or bombs

Throw them down and just take a minute to see

To see the deep similarity between you and me

We like to demonize humans and make them monsters in our minds

Then pretty soon instead of fighting the enemy, we’re fighting all of mankind

Fighting our humanity and wounding it straight to the core

 Its been going on so long we don’t know who we are anymore

And before you point fingers and say, “yeah you’re guilty of this”

Better look at yourself and think of what you missed

Think before you speak, listen before you act

Imagine the human your touch can impact

Everyone has caused harm all have made mistakes

How many does it take?

How many does it take to stop hate?

You’re a human and I’m a human too

Both just doing the best that we can do.

We’ve been given this life let’s not waste it fighting each other

Lets make a world we’re proud to let our children discover

What would a world like that even look like?

If we took our offense at others and cast it aside?
Can everyone love everyone all of the time?

Probably not

But recognizing our unity can give us the perspective to stop

Stop hiding and hurting

And start loving and caring

That’s what will change our world

And make it something to cherish and hold

The only hold up is that we must give up ourselves

To help someone else

You must leave your pride at the door

Are you willing to make that sacrifice to receive more?

Not more money and not more fame

More friendship, brotherhood, and ability to change

It’s a simple idea but the cost is great

Examine if you’re ready and lets change our fate

Less hate, less pointing fingers, less arguments

More compassion, more vulnerability, more lovingness

True unrelenting love across humanity

Now that’s something to sing about in a moment of clarity

“… the greatest of these is love.”

Love is patient, Love is kind

Oh God, my God how majestic is your name in all the Earth
The heavens declare the glory of your name
the moon and stars declare your light,
your delight,
your shining glory

The mountains show your strength,
your might,
your size,
The tremblings of the Earth grow strangely dim in the light of your glory and grace
a thought could never capture your beauty,
a jar could never hold how you beckon awe
a picture could never completely contain all of your entrancing sights

grasslands, mountains, valleys, desserts,
winters, summers, flowers, blizzards,
heights, depths, canyons, expanses,
Creatures, calendars, clearings, and time
all different but intertwined
in the web of your everlasting heart

you capture, you free, you blind, you give sight
you show, you close, you open, you discover
you are a mighty mystery buried in a sea of chaos and despair
you are grounded, you are strength, you are solid
moving mountains and sinking seas
you shake, you stabilize, you scatter fear, you gather peace
you rise above, you place yourself beneath

you are in all parts of life
mountains, valleys, desserts, and pleasant places
you know it all, you've been in it all
and you never turn your back

the almighty brought low
the gift of ultimate grace
irreplaceable, completely redeemable, lifted high,
ETERNAL

I love trees and the smell of a fall day.

The look of a mountain against the rainy grey.

the shock of lighting against a cloud

the clap of thunder menacingly loud

the green of a pool reflecting the fresh trees

the rustling of leaves moving in a breeze

a river rushes past carrying life all around

racing and acting as the heartbeat for the ground

it changes, it shifts, ebbing and flowing with its path

moving things along the way shifting rocks and growing grass

is it not like life? changing with every step.

reflecting whats around yet impacting what is left

an ever-changing course not knowing where it will end

progressing through decisions, with our futures to bend

thats why nature is so special, it reflects the nature of our lives

it expresses what we so often conceal inside 

4 seasons, and all different types of terrain

showing us in the physical what occurs in our brains

its no riddle or even a puzzle with many pieces

its just life, flowing, swimming, rolling, and breathing

breathing with the wind, sighing with the sea, 

climbing with the mountains, flying with the breeze

I love trees and the smell of a fall day 

the lovely picture of life that it continually paints.