Our children need the sense of specialness that comes from participating in a known and loved ritual. They need the mastery of self-discipline that comes from order. They need the self-awareness that comes from a knowledge of their past. They need Kwanzaa as a tool for building their future and our own.
quote by Jessica Harris
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Related quotes
Kwanzaa isn't a replacement for Christmas or even Hanukkah. Kwanzaa has nothing to do with religion and while some may twist it to be political, in its nature it is not. Kwanzaa is not the tool of its creator. Kwanzaa has a life of its own. Kwanzaa is about the spirit of people - all people regardless of color or race. Kwanzaa is a holiday of the human spirit - not the divine. The two were meant to co-exist peacefully.
Eyes Of The Children
Behold in the eyes of the children
Mysteries of the universe -
Pure and innocent
Untainted wisdom -
Knowledge of past, present, future
Of mankind;
Gatekeepers of the future -
Lightbringers of awareness,
Love and compassion,
A new generation -
Leaders of the next frontier
Of evolution -
Be open to their wisdom;
Behold in the eyes of the children
Answers that we search for,
Liquid flow of knowledge
Unbound by limitation,
Infinite possibility
Existing in the gap -
Portal to dimension
Of mind and immortality;
Behold in the eyes of the children
Vision unblinded.
Now is Forever
The past is all that’s gone,
the future is yet to come.
this moment is all our own.
We should live this way,
Just building up our day,
now and forever.
The past is all that’s gone,
the future is yet to come.
this moment is all our own.
We should live this way,
Just building up our day,
now and forever.
We should think about,
What we got right now,
cause the good things are made up of time.
Smile to your problems,
Leave the past behind.
never forget this.
find the truth in your soul,
keeping you alive.
going on from minute to minute.
don’t shade the future,
with all that’s behind.
live for today.
the past is all that’s gone,
the future is yet to come.
this moment is all our own.
we should live this way,
just building up our day,
now and forever.
the past is all that’s gone,
the future is yet to come.
this moment is all our own.
we should live this way,
just building up our day,
now and forever.
don’t shade your future,
with what you don’t have.
keep your mind on that’s here today.
now and forever,
build the future now.
keep this mind.
though you will take your time,
to get what you need,
but you’ll do it step after step.
yet to come is all that’s gone,
learn to lice this moment.
live for today.
poem by Rachell Dear
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Life is a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of a future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a touch of divinity to matter.
quote by Charles Lindbergh
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Awareness, Now!
awareness...
walking in awareness,
breathing in awareness,
giving in awareness,
touching in awareness,
listening in awareness,
doing in awareness,
speaking in awareness,
living in awareness....
awareness,
......now!
poem by Eric Cockrell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A Dark Past
My past is dark
It's full of pain and tears
My past is my story
My past made me stronger
People still don't know why my past is dark
But I will tell you
No more hiding for me
My past is red stained razors
I admit I did cut
But, I will no more
My closest friend was the only one that knew
Me and her alike in so many ways
We helped each other through thick and thin
My future is bright and happy
I am loved and always will be loved
In my future I will not shed a tear
For I will be surrounded by loved ones
My past is erased I have no regrets
My life is better oh..so much better
poem by Jasmine Kayleen
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The Hair
The ritual evanesced when we observed it,
The ritual completed when our lice grew.
The head was full of lice, I hear them and saw each of them,
Restraining the children with feet, the arms also.
Inexorable lice swayed in the hair of our heads
Until the ritual was entire.
What is this ritual?
The ritual is of the dressing of hair,
Or the cutting of hair by the hairdresser.
poem by Naveed Akram
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Modern Man is the victim of the very instruments he values most. Every gain in power, every mastery of natural forces, every scientific addition to knowledge, has proved potentially dangerous, because it has not been accompanied by equal gains in self-understanding and self-discipline.
quote by Lewis Mumford
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Weakened In Discipline
You must go inside now,
Children.
The hour of play has come to an end.
A fresh awareness of life begins.
And the children you are now...
You will never see again.
And that is our reality.
I know that for a fact!
That has happened to me.
You must go inside now,
Children.
No more play.
Your growing up,
Has just begun.
You've been 'done in'
And it's time for that to be 'undood'
With other surprises...
To treat those weakened in discipline!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Pukllay Inter-Community Awareness
Pukllay harmony stresses
it is important to ritual fight
to reinforce separate entities
purpose entire point
of ritual conflict
is to resolution meet
together afterward
to united celebrate
union as one people
to embody
the complementarity
of opposites
distinction between
two communities
is clearly defined
then brought
together to form
a single entity
sense inter-community
awareness respect
emerge in wisdom tolerant
the purpose to create
tinkuy a sense of unity
among the participants
in survival Andes
wise encounters
of differing energies
like ‘Yawar Mayu' rivers
of symbolic blood offerings
ensure tinku social harmonies
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Time My Past My Future! ! !
Time My Past My Future
The time is racing my past behind me
NO!
My past in front,
My future behind,
I wasn't thinking of my future,
I was back in my past.
But now this is my story! ! ! !
A mother who did not love me,
A sister a brother trying to comfort me,
I felt all alone
Now inhale
and
Exhale.
My future
A mother, A brother, once upon a time a father,
But no more
I stride for my future,
Not for my past
I tell you children
NEVER Look Back! ! !
But i do wondering......
I f my past was different would my future be better?
Would it?
Never mind that,
The time is racing to my future
I live for today and NOT tomarrow.
So I Never Look Back.
poem by Chauntae Ridley
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We have religious holidays and we have secular holidays. I see Kwanzaa as an opportunity for African-Americans to reaffirm ourselves if we choose to, a chance to rebuild and renew our focus. I see Kwanzaa as a holiday of the spirit.
quote by Jessica Harris
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The seven principles of Kwanzaa - unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith - teach us that when we come together to strengthen our families and communities and honor the lesson of the past, we can face the future with joy and optimism.
quote by Bill Clinton
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Unwise Wise
Proudly, fiercely, they guarded wisdom;
wisdom that had outlasted fashion,
the cults, the sects, the mass conversions,
the messaiahs, and the promises;
They had gathered this knowledge
in the days of garnered wisdom
250 years before that guy from Galilee;
and then around twice his lifetime upon earth
as numbers dwindled, they stored this knowledge
in a cave not so far from Jericho,
near the sea that died into a lake.
Discipline, ritual, held them together;
and cleanliness; the communal latrine
was 1,000 cubits or a little more, say half a mile,
from the city where they lived; I guess
some walked, some ran
there from Qumran
– except on Saturdays, when
they were not allowed to leave the town
and therefore did not defecate that day..
then on return from the latrine, their faeces neatly buried,
a ritual, totally immersed bathing was required.
Alas, if these wise men had asked the Arab Bedouins
they would have known that, had they left their faeces
uncovered in the sun, it would have killed
the roundworms, tapeworms, whipworms, pinworms,
which, walked back on their feet and thriving in the ritual bath, slowly
killed this community of wise men from inside,
so that only 6 percent lived beyond forty years;
eventually depositing their wisdom on scrolls
(how few men left to place them there, that solemn day?)
to be uncovered after nearly two millennia
darkly in a cave.
That is the story of Qumran. I guess it's one
for those who say, what you live by, that, you die by;
in this case, ritual.
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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One of our problems is our sense of discipline - dancers have an extraordinary sense of self-discipline.
quote by Siobhan Davies
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Anthony and Cleopatra
If Anthony had loved Cleopatra
With a second less than he did,
Maybe he would have survived
And he would have won
The war with himself,
But he had loved her more than ever
Exactly in the second of his awareness,
And therefore, he died.
And Cleopatra should not even die
In the next second,
She would have to live,
In order to understand from her suffering
What means real love,
Because her love was insufficient
To fight against the destiny of history.
poem by Marieta Maglas
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It Isn't Everyday One Makes An Order, And Throws Out The Past
It isn’t everyday one makes an order, throws out the past
Goes through the piles of old papers
And sees here a missed opportunity there another time of life
Which one has long forgotten
Throwing most of the business papers away
And holding on to most personal things
One finds letters one did not answer
And dreams one did not begin to realize
Pictures are most painful
People no longer here
Loved ones in youth
Oneself as one was and will never be again
A life in these things
And almost gone
Cancelled bank books
Money one had once and no longer has
Love and people who were once one’s whole life
And are now strangers
The children
In so many different ages and times
The children no longer children
The past too too much past
Weighing me down with grief and despair
Asking myself how I can go on and for how much longer
Before someone else has to deal with the mess
poem by Shalom Freedman
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Where Do I Come From?
Where do I come from? I do not know,
For it was taken away before I could see. What
is my name? I do not know, because it was taken
away from me before I was born. Who am I? I will never know, for the
culture of who I am and would have been, was
stripped away from lack of understanding. What is my past?
The knowledge to know that people, doing the hating
and despising are the very same people that share
my family roots. Who am I? This I do know a person that
will never have knowledge, of what it would be
like to have a culture and a country, a past with
a positive history! Where do I go? I do not know, for there
is far more prejudice than ever against a people,
with no country and no culture, stuck in the middle
of a melting pot society. What do I do? All I can do is hope,
hope that one day, it won't matter what color
you are, and it won't matter where you come from.
It doesn't matter what you look like, that people
wake up and accept a person by how one is treated. What is my future?
To pass this knowledge to my children, for it
is the only thing left, that was not taken from me.
And it is the only thing of value in this life
I can give, this gift to my child.
poem by Be' Ver Lee Houston
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For Mel (villanelle)
The one who should have lived has gone so fast.
The old ones, in their dotage, linger on –
they, with no future, live only in the past.
And we who can but sit, dumb and aghast,
scarcely believe that while the sun still shone
the one who should have lived has gone so fast.
Six decades older, surviving to their last
few days or years, together but alone,
they, with no future, live only in the past.
At least she kept on living to the last,
but should have had a future. She has none.
The one who should have lived has gone so fast,
and they, for whom so many years have passed,
are unaware that one they loved is gone.
They, with no future, live only in the past,
mark time until the final trumpet blast,
and never know the respite they have won.
The one who should have lived has gone so fast.
They, with no future, live only in the past.
poem by Paul Hansford
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Breath by Breath
Our moments are precious and
Our time is now.
Use it wisely and use it well!
There is no connecting the past
And future. The presence is the
in-between and only lasts but
Less than a breath.
The presence is so fast,
a blink of an eye and it is the past!
Then are we really living our future with
each inhale and our past goes out
with each exhale?
Are is it really just a pretence of presence?
Future - Past,
Future - Past,
Future - Past!
poem by JDarrell Kirkley
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