Pride is not a wise counselor. People who believe themselves to be the incarnation of good have a distorted view of the world. The absence of any obstacle to the deployment of strength is dangerous for the strong themselves: passion takes precedence over reason. "No power without limit can be legitimate," as Montesquieu wrote long ago. Political wisdom does not consist in seeking only immediate victory, nor does it require systematic preference of "us" over "them."
quote by Tzvetan Todorov
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Freedom (1960's)
To stand forth in strength;
The strength of wisdom,
The strength of knowledge,
The strength of power,
The strength to stand tall,
The strength to say nay,
The strength to be proud,
To be strong, able and wise,
Down this road true freedom lies...
poem by Karl Stuart Kline
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Power
Sometimes a smile can deceive the one who has made you promise
Suddenly you can't believe, the truth only leaves you cold
Sometimes the answers you fear are there on the face in the mirror
Something the world needs to hear but no one is even listening
Power It takes Power Power It takes Power
To back up the things you say
Power It takes Power Power It takes Power
To cut through the chains Breakaway
Fortune can wear a disguise Pride is a grand illusion
And when it's your name up in lights fate proves this one conclusion
Sometimes the answers you fear are there on the face in the mirror
Something the world needs to hear the truth only leaves you cold
Power It takes Power Power It takes Power
To back up the things you say
Power It takes Power Power It takes Power
To cut through the chains Breakaway
Power It takes Power Power It takes Power
To fight back and not be afraid
Power It takes Power Power It takes Power
To cut through the chains Breakaway
All that you see someday will be
Lost in the shadows of time
Mountains must fall someday this all
Will be darkness where light used to shine
song performed by by Kansas
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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On Auto Systematic
On auto systematic.
Delighted I am,
To have a light that shines.
I had been one quite static...
And fanatic in lacking to feed,
My own needs.
I'm on auto systematic.
And programmed to have all by bolts,
Committed to a tight snug fit.
Sidetracked no longer my knack...
Or quick am I to trip.
I'm on auto systematic.
Sidetracked no longer my knack.
Auto systematic.
With a preference I keep in tact.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Smart Power
The word and rod are both a part
of power, soft but also hard,
together they are very smart,
each one the other’s guard.
Without the word you can’t inspire
confidence and mutual trust,
but rod must be its pacifier,
or word will quickly gather dust.
Be smart and let them both combine,
the smartness of the word and rod,
and cautious people won’t consign
the combination to their God.
Joseph S. Nye, the Harvard University, political scientist wrote in Foreign Affairs on July 1,2007:
The willingness of other countries to cooperate in dealing with transnational issues such as terrorism depends in part on their own self-interest, but also on the attractiveness of American positions. Soft power lies in the ability to attract and persuade rather than coerce. It means that others want what the United States wants, and there is less need to use carrots and sticks. Hard power, the ability to coerce, grows out of a country's military and economic might. Soft power arises from the attractiveness of a country's culture, political ideals, and policies. When U.S. policies appear legitimate in the eyes of others, American soft power is enhanced. Hard power will always remain crucial in a world of nation-states guarding their independence, but soft power will become increasingly important in dealing with the transnational issues that require multilateral cooperation for their solution.
One of Rumsfeld's 'rules' is that 'weakness is provocative.' In this, he is correct. As Osama bin Laden observed, it is best to bet on the strong horse. The effective demonstration of military power in the second Gulf War, as in the first, might have a deterrent as well as a transformative effect in the Middle East. But the first Gulf War, which led to the Oslo peace process, was widely regarded as legitimate, whereas the legitimacy of the more recent war was contested. Unable to balance American military power, France, Germany, Russia, and China created a coalition to balance American soft power by depriving the United States of the legitimacy that might have been bestowed by a second UN resolution. Although such balancing did not avert the war in Iraq, it did significantly raise its price. When Turkish parliamentarians regarded U.S. policy as illegitimate, they refused Pentagon requests to allow the Fourth Infantry Division to enter Iraq from the north. Inadequate attention to soft power was detrimental to the hard power the United States could bring to bear in the early days of the war. Hard and soft power may sometimes conflict, but they can also reinforce each other. And when the Jacksonians mistake soft power for weakness, they do so at their own risk.
11/7/07
poem by Gershon Hepner
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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There Is Nothing Wrong With Power
'Tis sad to think that many with power abuse it those with power who abuse it weak not strong
There is nothing wrong with having power in the first place it is the abuse of it that is all wrong
For the abuse of power leads to serious crimes against the powerless though power in good hands it is quite okay
And good people with power never do abuse it they use it in the most constructive way
Some people with power are quite benign people and philanthropic one of them can say
But those who abuse their power to the law may never answer though to karma there's a price they have to pay
The abuse of power leads to dictatorial regimes that leads to serious crimes against humanity
In the despicable crimes against women and children the wrongs of power gone wrong for all to see
The people who abuse their power should never have it though to their power they desperately do cling
Power in the right hands an adavantage to others and power in the wrong hands is a dangerous thing
There is nothing wrong with power from once 'tis used well but some with power they do abuse their rule
And some with power they can become quite nasty and derive pleasure out of being cruel
But power in the right hands can be a blessing and kind people with power their praise we ought sing
Since they have the gift of empathy within them and happiness to others they do bring.
poem by Francis Duggan
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It takes a stronger Man
It takes a stronger man
To value a woman’s strength
To encourage her strength
Not to be threatened by it
But see it as a sign of his own strength
In a world where some men need weak women to feel strong
Where some men get validation from physical dominance
Where dependent, submissive and needy women are celebrated
A Media that commercialised self-disrespecting and confused girls
Yes, I stand my ground!
It takes a stronger man to love a strong woman
Not to be wavered by societies misrepresentation of masculinity
Not to conform to the patterns of this world
To understand and recognise that in a woman’s strength lies hidden vulnerability
To know that it takes a strong woman to show vulnerability
poem by Wanelisa Albert
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Skies The Limit
Written by christine mcvie
If Ive been acting just a little strange
And you have noticed it too
Its cos my life has been rearranged
With the presence of you
The sky is the limit now
We can hit it on the nail
And when we do
Ill think about you
How can we fail
Can you give me one reason why
Youd ever let me down
I wont believe it baby, but Ill try
The truths goin to come around
The sky is the limit now
We can hit it on the nail
And when we do
Ill think about you
How can we fail
The sky is the limit
Oh the sky is the limit
How can we fail
Sooner or later
Ill keep the promise
I made to you
Sooner or later
It will be greater
Then we ever knew
The sky is the limit now
We can hit it on the nail
And when we do
Ill think about you
The sky is the limit now
We can hit it on the nail
And when we do
Ill think about you
How can we fail
The sky is the limit
Oh the sky is the limit
How can we fail
Oh the sky is the limit
How can we fail
The sky is the limit
Oh the sky is the limit
How can we fail
The sky is the limit
Oh the sky is the limit
How can we fail
The sky is the limit
Oh the sky is the limit
How can we fail
The sky is the limit
song performed by by Fleetwood Mac
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Metaphorical meaning
Thinking that good and bad
Is so relative
While being incapable to keep
The moral utterances
The elliptical utterances
For the corresponding relational
Statements
The cognitive statements
Or holding that moral judgments
Not for expressing beliefs
Accepting that our deep truths
Are universal
Or accepting everything
And denying the power of reason
Or seeking the good by using
Our power of reason,
Using our unfolding wisdom
And insightful enchantment
Or living in life
As both joy and despair
Being in metaphorical meaning
Apart from ego and absolutes
poem by Marieta Maglas
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Seeking The Wise
The world keeps on turning
And youre locked up in it 4x
Before I was lost, but now I am found 4x
Seeking the wise 4x
Im in like that and Im right on time
Im looking for the king and will find the way
The truth and the one that gives life payable on death
And were seeking the wise, no where to run looking for the son
No where to run
2x
You are, you are the one
4x
Im breathing dust of conspiracies, iniquities
Infiltrate the wisdom, but we bounce back and burn like the sun
Im needing help like welfare recipients
While false prophets keep writing fake manuscripts
Brought down like fugitives, saints on the warpath
Watch how you live, oh god, please make me capable,
Cause all human wisdom is fallible
song performed by by P.O.D.
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Could Be A Poem?
This poem could be
The greatest thing you've ever heard
Like a verbal bird
Free to fly around the confines of your mind
Or maybe like a kite, flying freely caressed by the wind
There for you to repeat it again and again
This poem could be manipulated, congratulated, or disintegrated
It could even get frustrated if you fail to catch it's meaning
Demeaning one of the reasons it was written
To be heard, not deferred, or unnerved
It was made to inspire
Requiring the constant retire
That is your head
This poem could be life or death
The poem could convince you to put yourself
At risk to knowledge or to bullets
There is no chaos; There is harmony
There is no emotion; there is peace
OR
Through passion, I gain strength
Through strength, I gain power
Through power, I gain Victory...
Victory...
Victory...
This poem could be
This poem could be like victory
Great for the moment
Then lost in time
Lost in echoes
Lost in rhyme
Lost in justice
Lost in crime
Just lost
Then found!
Bound to the world by the person who hears it
This poem could be
Garbage
If you can't see the moral at the end of the story
No worries though
'Cause no deposit, no return
This poem could be
Over
But it's not
It lives for as long as you choose to
Hear it, Take it, Live it
This poem could be...
This poem could be..
My lord, WHAT this poem could be!
This poem could start a revolution, but it could end one too
This poem can and will make things happen
Bound and Determined
Or maybe
This poem could be
Just a poem?
poem by Dre' Porcher
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Judge Me
People judge me for my boricua skin
Over looking the beauty with in.
Oh, it may hurt, it surely can
But the sky is the limit, That I understand.
A female Latina that’s what they see
Failure and disaster thy hope I be
Little do they know, the determination in me
It will mold me, until I succeed.
Does my finesse bother you?
Do my dreams interfere with what you do?
To each it’s own, is what I say defend you?
The sky’s the limit that’s what I say.
Boricua pride is my thrive
You can see it in my beautiful brown eyes.
I know I can and you should too
The limit for me and you.
You may hate me,
But the sky’s the limit
You may judge me,
But the sky’s the limit
You will always have discrimination,
But the sky is MY limit.
poem by Alexsandra Quinones
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A Wise One We Need
In a World where many see human life as cheap
The mothers of the war dead for their dead offsprings weep
Car and suicide bombers and bombs dropped from the sky
The victims of war by the hour multiply.
Though wars of the past with sadness we may recall
From the lessons of war we've not learned at all
We still give power to those who see war as okay
Who sends the troops to battle in Lands far away.
The latest declared war was based on a lie
How many more people in war zones must die?
The price of every war victory and war memorial parade
In human blood and loss of human life paid.
Due to Religion and Culture and National Pride
In terrorism and war far too many have died
We give power to idiots a wise one we need
A wise one to war us never would lead.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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There is no nation so powerful, as the one that obeys its laws not from principals of fear or reason, but from passion.
quote by Charles de Montesquieu
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The human soul has need of consented obedience and of liberty. Consented obedience is what one concedes to an authority because one judges it to be legitimate. It is not possible in relation to a political power established by conquest or coup d'etat nor to an economic power based upon money. Liberty is the power of choice within the latitude left between the direct constraint of natural forces and the authority accepted as legitimate. The latitude should be sufficiently wide for liberty to be more than a fiction, but it should include only what is innocent and should never be wide enough to permit certain kinds of crime.
quote by Simone Weil
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Honour The Good Living
Honour the good living and respect the dead
And learn from the past as a wise one once said
Though many leaders never learn from history
Wise people do not become political leaders it does seem to me,
The war supposed to end all wars was fought decades ago
and still the numbers of the war dead does grow
The war like leaders war before peace do choose
But of war it is said that even winners do lose
Of love of their Country some are known to brag
Though such people carry their pride in a flag
Patriotic fervour the path to war lead
And less of Nationalism in the World we do need
We should learn from the past and then look ahead
And honour the good living and respect the dead.
poem by Francis Duggan
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Power To The People
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Say you want a revolution
We better get on right away
Well you get on your feet
And out on the street
Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
A million workers working for nothing
You better give em what they really own
We got to put you down
When we come into town
Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
I gotta ask you comrades and brothers
How do you treat you own woman back home
She got to be herself
So she can free herself
Singing power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Now, now, now, now
Oh well, power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Yeah, power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people
Power to the people, right on
song performed by by Lennon John
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Passion Of Life
To achieve something great in the world you need Passion
To fulfill vision, a great leader’s courage comes from Passion
Whatever it may be, you must find your Passion
If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins
Follow your passion and success will follow you!
Never underestimate the power of passion
Without passion religion is spiritless
Without Passion history is meaningless
Without Passion art is useless
Follow your passion and success will follow you!
When you take up a mission with passion
There are no dreams too large
No innovation unimaginable
No frontiers beyond reach
Follow your passion and success will follow you!
Our passions are the winds that propel our vessel
Our reason is the pilot that steers her
Without winds the vessel would not move
Without a pilot she would be lost
Follow your passion and success will follow you!
There is no end and there is no beginning
There is only the passion of life
Passion is universal humanity
Passion is the genesis of genius
Follow your passion and success will follow you!
********************************************* ************************************
poem by Pooja Natarajan
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Beginning of destruction
pride it’s all your fault
Pride it’s all your fault we in this mess
Pride it’s all your fault we are suffering
Pride it’s all your fault people are shedding blood
Pride it’s all your fault families are destroyed
Pride it’s all your fault people are so greedy and selfish
Pride it’s all your fault people have no love
Pride it’s all your fault are so jealous of each other
Pride it’s all your fault people are so lost
Pride it’s all your fault dying from this horrible diseases
Pride it’s all your fault we have so many orphans
Pride it’s all your fault people are betraying each other
Pride it’s all your fault are dying of hunger
Pride it’s all your fault fathers are sleeping with their children
Pride it’s all your fault people are so heartless
Pride it’s all your fault there is no peace, unity and harmony in this world
Pride it’s all your fault we have all this sorrow
Pride it’s all your fault God has rejected us
Pride it’s all your fault people are so evil
And they have decided to be in love with evil rather than good
You have ruined this world
You are to blame for all this misery
If lucifer did not have pride in his heart we wouldn’t be in this mess
Pride it all your fault! ! !
Vangile Mtyali
poem by Vangile Mtyali
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Gypsy Of A Language
Professored Language
Distorted into passion
Deeper than politics of language
Jumping realities adsorbed with physical environment
We are thrown into the systematic fall of life
sucks! Man! Reality sucks! Man!
2 Prince, Another One I Wrote
Murder is losing its mind, I am losing my patience
Chris Hani was murdered on 10 April
Political reasons are speculations
Speculation is a political reason
An African political prince
Was butched motive is mysterious
The brutal murder is a fatal error
This world is unjust
The land I see was sad
And the soil I walk in felt the pain
Lucky Dube was murdered on 19 October
An African prince of reggae was assassinated
Political reasons are speculations
Speculation is a political reason
Still the cause murder is baffling
Butchered for the love of the nation
And passion for country men
poem by Jacques Sprenkie Mateya
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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