It is hard to let old beliefs go. They are familiar. We are comfortable with them and have spent years building systems and developing habits that depend on them. Like a man who has worn eyeglasses so long that he forgets he has them on, we forget that the world looks to us the way it does because we have become used to seeing it that way through a particular set of lenses. Today, however, we need new lenses. And we need to throw the old ones away.
quote by Kenich Ohmae
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Hard contact lenses
With my feet lifted
I hang out of balance
while someone skilful observes my eyes
and a bright painful light
shines into the depths of my eyes
seeing where the focus of my own cornea disappears,
measuring the deflection in my eyes,
seeing why and where my sight languishes away
and it’s like a rainbow
that deeper into my eye,
only still deeper wants to notch and spy
with rays in a wide circled bow
and when his eye later peeps at me,
he says look there
and let me look at another place
where he now feeds letters to my eyes
and with hard contact lenses I see like a falcon
but those things scratch, itch and pierce like a beam
there are furrows betraying the age of his face
and his teeth look like white lime,
my own freckles jumps out
and I forthright say to him
how much the lenses are bothering me
that there and then I want to throw them away.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Lenses
Straining through spectacles, it’s usually difficult to see
Where subordinate clauses and dangling participles might be.
Armed with contact lenses: one distance, the other for reading
Overcomes a family tree’s seeming lack of visual breeding.
There’s the surgeon’s knife with its magical, momentary slice
That restores an optical world like those of sugar and spice.
Whether operation or not, the most precious lenses one finds
Are those that never suffer the distortions of tormented minds.
poem by Gregory Huyette
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Throw-Away Rhyme
You think that you know just who I am,
But how can that possibly be,
When all you can view from the outside
Is the part I allow you to see?
I'm hiding beneath the surface
Wearing a painted smile
Putting on the greatest show
You've seen in a long, long while.
I've spent my whole life acting like
I'm happy and content
While all the time, the tears inside
Are building up, unspent.
Alone with myself, the mask comes off,
The shield I wear disappears
And loneliness and self-loathing replace
The armour I've worn all these years.
It all started when I was very young,
A shy and awkward child
Sitting alone in the playground,
Relentlessly teased and reviled.
So I made myself as small as I could;
Was quieter than a mouse,
While I took it all out on my younger siblings
When my mum was out of the house.
In lessons I'd never raise my hand
Even though the answer I knew
My horror of being noticed at all
Made that the last thing I'd do.
And so, it went on throughout the school years
I became more of a recluse.
Outwardly getting on well with my life
But all the while that was a ruse.
The habits of a lifetime, it's true,
Are the hardest by far to break
In comparison, giving up smoking
Is childs play - a piece of cake!
But I'm working so hard to try to be
More open, then maybe some day,
I'll wonder why I wrote these lines;
Tear them up and throw them away.
poem by Dawn Ferrett
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God's drums - Ears
ears they are drums
god plays in this realm
eyes they are lenses
he places to magnify
his creations
tongue are channels
to his kingdom - adam
missed the right apple
and lost his right to an eternal home
my nerves are rivers
god fashions to help me
sail in his world to admire him
my mind, his inspiration as
to how extensive his creation is
you cannot reach its end nor beginning
my soul a repository for god to wine and dine
when his drums stop beating, lenses were covered
riverway closed and the mind waned in a mortal frame
poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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Old Habits Die Hard
(criston barker, david moyse)
Seems like yesterday my life had begun
As we went through life
Tryin to make it so much fun
And I know that Im still in love with you
Cause youre one bad habit that I cant refuse
Old habits die hard
Old habits die hard
Lifes been strange to me since youve been gone
And its so hard tryin; to say that I was wrong
Now I know that Im still in love with you
Cause youre the one bad habit that I cant refuse
Old habits die hard
Old habits die hard
Old habits die hard
Old habits die hard
You know and I know that you cant live on memories alone
Theres just one memory that Im thinking of
Just one habit that I cant shake off, its you
Old habits die hard
Old habits die hard
Old habits die hard
And theres just one memory Im thinking of
Just one habit that I cant shake off, its you
Old habits die hard
Old habits die hard
Old habits die hard
Old habits die hard
Old habits die hard
Old habits die hard
song performed by by Air Supply
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Prime Primitive Modernly
Distorted lenses post-
Through the time prime
‘tis hour memento mori bloom
Wedded in colours down the black earth
Black earth unearthed we cried
A glimpse we cried through a brothel hole
Taboo totem supposedly void of
Sort of free – still
In different chains idolatric
Distorted lenses we held
Against the time prime
Memento
poem by Miroslava Odalovic
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Talking perceptions, people. Do we really see each other for what we really are, or do we just see what we want to see, the image distorted by our own personal lenses I lost someone today and the funny thing is, I don't even know who she was.
quote by Jeff Melvoin
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Hey Ram!
Now it is ‘use and throw’ culture
And there is huge difference from the days of our Grandfather
Who owned wire-rimmed glasses and pen
Which could be proudly preserved till generations.
Things made today in our land
Doesn’t last even for a lifetime
Glasses meaning thin, fashionable contact lenses
Which could be used only till passing of that academic exams.
Gandhi said “means are more important then ends”
And through non-violence from British freedom for our country lent
But we now by making –“end is more important than means”,
Undoing the hard earned freedom’s good deeds!
poem by Venkatesh M. R.
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We Have No Similar Interests
You have spent your time attacking my beliefs.
But it is your beliefs that now attack you.
Not once did I ever say,
You should do things my way.
However...
Your way,
Done...
Lead to your undoing.
You have spent your time attacking my beliefs.
But it is your beliefs that now attack you.
You had fast backing from a society.
Many professed as normal.
The one that sets standards...
With values to achieve.
You also had 'close' friends,
You spent time with.
I lived in my own 'world'.
And your laughter persisted.
Until it recently has drifted,
Away.
You have spent your time attacking my beliefs.
But it is your beliefs that attack now you.
Not once did I ever say,
You should do things my way.
However...
Your way,
Done...
Lead to your undoing.
Why am I now,
Getting your unanswered calls?
We have no similar interests.
None that bestows a wish,
To speak to you.
And all that I have gone through...
I just let my telephone ring.
Often to go unnoticed.
Any hellos I wish to here...
Are personal and exchanged,
When I am near...
From ear to ear.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Management and Disaster
Have you not got it and had it,
In the way is a man who has got it.
For what is my stay on the world,
If politician celebrates the festival
And economist puts off the occasion
Only today I say.
This is an expensive issue and habits are long,
And habits are everlasting to the immortal action.
Long ago you described this expense,
And the wand is used again. Just for now.
poem by Naveed Akram
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July 1 2009***Giving His Boots a Rest
He is resting
In a comfortable Library chair
With his boots and jacket on
His backpack is nearby
He's reading today's paper
And has three plastic covered
Magazines stacked on the floor
To read next
He's in from the cold and rain
He's in where it's warm and dry
He's been to the men's room to
Wash himself and his socks and shorts
Wrapped in a plastic bag
He'll dry them later
Now he's trying to get his boots to dry
They're damp and well worn
They are not worn out
Just like him
They are well worn
They've covered many miles
He's worked in them
He's slept in them
To keep warm and to see
That they are not stolen
Where do you put your shoes at night?
Under you bed? In your closet?
It's been a long time
Since he's had either
How do you
Keep your feet from freezing
In the long hard-frost winter nights?
How do you keep warm?
If you'd never had to worry
You wouldn't appreciate
The warm dry Library chair
That gives his boots a rest
poem by Tom J. Mariani
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Usually you talk about directors in terms of the way they choose camera lenses or a kind of light to create a certain effect. But to me the most valuable commodity for a movie to create is a feeling of life, and that's what A Hard Day's Night has in spades.
quote by Michael Patrick Jann
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Beliefs
I watch you gather round and pray
Its something I can feel
I hear you chant every other day
I think its not quite real
Covered up so close
So as not to see
Are you happy are you happy this way
Stop and look around the world
So many different ways to see ourselves
Is it right or wrong
To put your beliefs on me
To put your beliefs on me
I dont want to live that way
A distance that is more than miles
Such a long long way
Its fine for men to be westernised
Will a woman ever see that day
Maybe maybe its not for me to understand
Do you think do you think
Do you think its better that way
To put your beliefs on me
To put your beliefs on me
I dont want to live that way
To put your beliefs on me
To put your beliefs on me
I dont want to live that way
Stop and look around the world
So many different ways to see ourselves
Is it right or wrong
To put your beliefs on me
To put your beliefs on me
I dont want to live that way
To put your beliefs on me
To put your beliefs on me
I dont want to live that way
song performed by by Texas
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Beliefs
I watch you gather round and pray
Its something I can feel
I hear you chant every other day
I think its not quite real
Covered up so close
So as not to see
Are you happy are you happy this way
Stop and look around the world
So many different ways to see ourselves
Is it right or wrong
To put your beliefs on me
To put your beliefs on me
I dont want to live that way
A distance that is more than miles
Such a long long way
Its fine for men to be westernised
Will a woman ever see that day
Maybe maybe its not for me to understand
Do you think do you think
Do you think its better that way
To put your beliefs on me
To put your beliefs on me
I dont want to live that way
To put your beliefs on me
To put your beliefs on me
I dont want to live that way
Stop and look around the world
So many different ways to see ourselves
Is it right or wrong
To put your beliefs on me
To put your beliefs on me
I dont want to live that way
To put your beliefs on me
To put your beliefs on me
I dont want to live that way
song performed by by Texas
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Lenses' Shifts
lenses
original concepts
shifts
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Celebrating Philip Larkin
He looks out at you from the photograph
or rather, doesn’t: eyes wide but blank,
thick lenses would place your image
in a plane you don’t inhabit;
like a fish that in an aquarium
suddenly swims direct toward you
stopping at the glass to stare a moment:
was there a meeting? What
are you to the fish?
So, nothing. Then next day,
he’s propping his bike against the wall,
bending down to take off his cycle clips;
caught so close, you exchange
English noises: the weather,
a joke or was it, delivered deadpan:
but the sound of him stays with you:
melancholy and yet celebrating
the confidence in being ordinary.
Then next day, the poetry:
starts matter-of-fact, regretful,
doesn’t miss a thing around him,
sharp eyes hiding behind pebble lenses: then,
dives with us into the sea of greatness:
calls us, reels us in, enslaves the heart
with voice that speaks beyond all melancholy;
haunted by the completeness of eternity.
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Competence, like truth, beauty and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.
quote by Laurence J. Peter
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Competence, like truth, beauty, and contact lenses, is in the eye of the beholder.
quote by Laurence J. Peter
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Who Now Shall Be My Friend?
Once again slow brewing
Inside my stomach aching,
A bright new world is making
New lenses for my eyes.
Filters matt all life aroused,
Here and now my fingers poised,
Ready for your words,
Great goddess, Great Muse,
Come be wise amuse me.
Sing me your song from behind the curtain of the world,
Into the nightmare, all creatures now befriending.
Dance the dance divine,
Keep your beat and beat your time,
Or else lose into their world,
All memory of what you were,
All memory of who you are,
All memory of why.
Too long it has been since I laid myself before you,
Too long indeed old friend,
When now shall be the end?
When now is now the past?
Who now shall be my friend?
poem by David Lacey
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Eternity Means Forever
Have I been living too long in this world I was born into or
Am I struggling to come to terms with my life in a fabricated world, as I hear
Voices of many I have never heard before interrupted by
The reproaching voices of my mother and of my father?
Voices so angry and replete with disapproval
Overpower the music of
Angels that are singing love songs and hymns of praise only to me?
I see the world through clouded lenses and
When the rain falls, it obliterates what I do not care to see- although
When I close my eyes and look through imaginary lenses-
I see pink clouds, purple mountains and a rainbow-
I perceive the sun dancing to a delightful minuet on the horizon-
I feel a gentle breeze breaking the oppressive heat of the summer
That inundates that world I do not care to live in?
My mind is spinning about in a vicious spiral-
I cannot distinguish reality from the world into which I am trying to escape?
My mother and my father had always looked through blinders
Unable to see or to accept the person I truly am and
As far back as I remember I heard only words of disapproval
As I never lived up to their idealistic expectations?
In all suddenness I have come to realize that
Their bodies and their souls have disappeared from this vicinity
Although I am still trying to discern veracity?
I hear the rustling of leaves on the trees that surround me and now, as
I tell myself that pink clouds and purple mountains do not exist in reality-
But in my reality, they do exist, so I mount my phantasmal unicorn and ride into the place
Where that rainbow awaits me as I sing hymns with the angels
To the tune of that minuet played by a chorus of nightingales-
I know now what is real is that I have abandoned the reality
I had once seen through clouded lenses
Now comprehending that my mother and father are alive only
In some other far away place in time-while
I have been reborn into a world of my dreams from which
I never care to awaken- angry disapproving voices shall never overpower my thoughts
Because I have chained the door to their existence-
I shall proudly keep riding that unicorn and
Continue singing in chorus with the angels and nightingales,
Until eternity casts its magical shadow upon my horizon, but everyone knows that
Eternity means forever-
poem by Claudia Krizay
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