History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.
quote by E.L. Doctorow

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The very concept of history implies the scholar and the reader. Without a generation of civilized people to study history, to preserve its records, to absorb its lessons and relate them to its own problems, history, too, would lose its meaning.
quote by George Frost Kennan

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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History
Yesterday is History.
History brings us to this present moment
but it doesn't shape who we are at this present moment.
We can't let our History control us
and who we wish to be.
Our future is our choice,
Not History's.
poem by Tiana Webb

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The History Teacher
Woman!
Where exactly
Did you put me
In the women's history?
Am I History?
Or a part of it?
And for how long you are lacking me in;
Between
Your History,
Women's History, and
Your archives?
Does time make sense to you
As a History teacher or
As a History professor?
Cause', History, buying time, and rejuvenation
Are for emperors.
Are you making me
An emperor?
Or a Faeroe?
If so,
How precise your are?
And if you can't feel my present presence
how possibility could you feel me through your archives?
poem by Atef Ayadi

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Black History Month
In January...
There they are making history.
In February...
There they are making history.
In March...
There they are making history.
In April...
There they are making history.
In May...
There they are making history.
In June...
There they are making history.
In July...
There they are making history.
In August...
There they are making history.
In September...
There they are making history.
In October...
There they are making history.
In November...
There they are making history.
In December...
There they are making history.
But...
It's nice to know
The shortest month of the year
Was chosen to celebrate
The great deeds of African-Americans!
However...
It is those LEAP YEARS,
That really have the blacks jumping for joy!
Note: 'Black History Month' along with other
works of interest can be found in...
*'MindPrints from Untouched Places-VOL I'*
~Now available online at a PC near you~
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

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History why do we care
History
a famous person dies
History
a war rages
History
a new invention
History
a building opens
History
what happens if something happens to me
is that history?
no....
So why do we care.....
poem by Andrea Thepoet

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That Which Plagues the History Bandits
The History Bandits swinging...
Swinging in History roll.
Up comes one leader,
Ousted or assassinated by another.
The complaints of many
Feeding the avarice of one,
Makes the humdrum into history.
An idealist Wilson, a vengeful Clemenceau or
A prudent Lloyd George...who wishes to know?
The inspiring evil Hitler or politically capitalistic Americans
Or the fearless bloody Communists...
Mould the mounds of history.
A guilty country pleading innocence,
A Rasputinian government brought down by Rasputin
Or a prince who fashioned the legends of the creatures that
Plague the human existence.
What makes History?
Of what use is History?
The questions that plague the History Bandits.
Take up the sword of ink,
Oil the wheels that turn in your head,
And ponder anew on the questions that
Makes you wonder.
Go forth the History Bandits...
Go forth, and claim your rightful path.
poem by Cheryl Jacob

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You can learn as much about the history from reading about the present as you can vice versa, that is learning about the present through history, which is what I do for a living.
The History of Now
The recording of culture is history;
but our culture is more than that.
It's the world of human action,
and the myths we make of the fact.
The recording of history is culture,
but our history is more than that.
It informs a hidden agenda.
Unconscious of motive we act.
It's the history of now, the history of now.
It's only the present that exists as endowed.
It's the history of now. The moment - KAPOW!
That knocks you right over and muddies your brow.
Through the prism of language, we know what we know.
We carry our baggage and stories of woe.
Victor and vanquished pride cannot budge,
the dead weight of hatred and ancestral grudge.
We fight our good fights with our hand on our heart;
the music is swelling as loved ones depart.
As sheep to the slaughter, the script cannot chart,
a course more ignoble: the propagandist's art.
The recording of history is culture,
but our culture is more than that.
More than the great individuals,
the scholars so love in their tracts.
The recording of culture is history;
but our history is more than that.
Not simple dates or statistics,
the full horror and gore still attracts.
It's the history of now, the history of now.
A strange contradiction that makes sense somehow.
It's the history of now, a mystery and shroud.
The past and the future: best fiction allowed.
poem by David SmithWhite

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History is more or less bunk. It's tradition. We don't want tradition. We want to live in the present and the only history that is worth a tinker's damn is the history we made today.
quote by Henry Ford

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A New Age
Beyond this present strand,
Herald the dawn of a new age,
With another incomplete generation,
And we leave the past to go on pilgrimage.
People reaching out for a new start,
Fleeing the present awful destiny,
With the shame and guilt of our past,
Crossing the rippling tides of history.
To explore a beautiful concept,
Leaving the dark dusty spirit,
Of this fading world dying debt,
With guilty pleasures we must neglect.
There is doubt in every candidates vote,
Stumbling on with promise accountability,
History rewritten on a new bank note,
And each decision causes more anxiety.
The new age owes no maintenance,
Over the darkness of this generation,
But offers hope and a life more intense,
Than the existence of present cohesion.
I will watch as new horizon turn the page,
Bands play music for the decade to dance,
We wait patiently at the crossing of a new age,
The decision of faith spun by chance.
New age may bring hope and credibility
But only where things exist of simplest nature,
To brighten the future with our destiny,
In pursuit of many more hopeful desire.
poem by Gerry Legister

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The New Age
Beyond this present strand,
Herald the dawn of a new age,
With another incomplete generation,
And we leave the past to go on pilgrimage.
People reaching out for a new start,
Fleeing the present awful destiny,
With the shame and guilt of our past,
Crossing the rippling tides of history.
new heritage to explore a beautiful concept,
Leaving the dark dusty spirit,
Of this fading world dying debt,
With guilty pleasures we must neglect.
There is doubt in every candidates vote,
Stumbling on with promise accountability,
History rewritten on a new bank note,
And each decision causes more anxiety.
The new age owes no maintenance,
Over the darkness of this generation,
But offers hope and a life more intense,
Than the existence of present cohesion.
I will watch as new horizon turn the page,
Bands play music for the decade to dance,
We wait patiently at the crossing of a new age,
The decision of faith spun by chance.
New age may bring hope and credibility
But only where things exist of simplest nature,
To brighten the future with our destiny,
In pursuit of many more hopeful desire.
poem by Gerry Legister

Submitted by Poetry Lover
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History is a living horse laughing at a wooden horse. History is a wind blowing where it listeth. History is no sure thing to bet on. History is a box of tricks with a lost key. History is a labyrinth of doors with sliding panels, a book of ciphers with the code in a cave of the Saragossa sea. History says, if it pleases, Excuse me, I beg your pardon, it will never happen again if I can help it.
quote by Carl Sandburg

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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When you read history it is quite astonishing to discover that there never was a day when men thought times were really good. Every generation in history has been haunted by the feeling of crisis.
quote by Harold Walker

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Each age tries to form its own conception of the past. Each age writes the history of the past anew with reference to the conditions uppermost in its own time.
quote by Frederick Jackson Turner

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Few will have the greatness to bend history itself; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total; of all those acts will be written the history of this generation.
quote by Robert Kennedy

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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What is in a language?
Language carries in it the history of a people
The history that begins way before
The conception of that particular language
Every myth, idiom, or story told carries
In it the memories of an ancient infancy
Of a development that comes in stages
As that of a child crawling, walking
Developing a thought, a philosophy
Creating poetry and song
What is in a language is not just relevant
To the people that use it, but it is also relevant
To the entire community of languages
Like the fragments of a great puzzle
Every language has in it the bits and pieces
Lessons to be learned; things significant
To the history of mankind, things significant
To the growth and development of all
poem by LLM Mbatha

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Poetry From The Past
Poetry is fascination
throughout every generation
poetry is education.
Meaningful literature
of fable and myth
written by poets from history.
Such a pleasing gift in the
eighteenth Century with
romantic music and mystery.
And oh what magic the words
now impart ~ to a pretty
young maid, tender of heart.
Poetry is fascination
throughout every generation
poetry is education.
poem by Joyce Hemsley

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We can learn from IBM's successful history that you don't have to have the best product to become number one. You don't even have to have a good product.
quote by Adam Osborne

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The history of the past interests us only in so far as it illuminates the history of the present.
quote by Ernest Dimnet

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Three Kinds of People
The books of my history
Begins with comedy
And end with tragedy
“Son”, do you know this
Spontaneous?
If you don’t know
Don’t mind
Your father will tell you.
There are three kinds of people
But the history knows only two
The first are foxy foxes
Who do right things and
Great good deeds
They stand at the top of history
The second are mad dogs
Who do wrong things and
Great evil deeds
They stand at the bottom of history
The third are piggy hyenas
Who are neither wise nor foolish?
Who cannot do right or wrong?
The history doesn’t know them
They have no chapter in history book
Can you choose among them for
Your inspiration and if you
Can heed my advice
The foxes are the best stars
To stick to.
poem by David Aoloch Bion

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