Time - Book of Elsa

Now is the time to believe in magic 

Now is the time to believe in people

Their goodness, openess and ability for kindness

Now is the time to put trust in our neighbours 

Believing that they mean us no harm.

They want the same things we all do.  

When our world is shutting down, everywhere we look nothing but bad news. Fake news.

There's time to spread something else too. 

If not you then who? not now?! I hear you... 

But when and whom?

They say change is slow.

I disagree. Change is people.

It is you and it's me

Now is the time to be the change you wish to see. 

Start small: have a conversation...

How about right now?

Book of Elsa

We Are Family | Michael J Burt

we are family, 

although we do not resemble

although I am black and you are white

although you are rich and I am poor

we are family, 

even though I am democrat, and you are republican

even though your ancestors are from Iraq, and mine are from Africa

even though you teach the class I'm enrolled in

we are family, 

although I'm a poet and you are a singer

although you are old and I am young

although I'm a gentleman and you a lady

we are family, 

even though you praise Allah and I praise Jesus Christ

even though I love football and you play soccer

even though you are a Sagittarius and I'm a Cancer

we are family, 

although I prefer rhythm and blues and you love blue grass

even though you have a car and I have a bus…to ride

although I have love and you are alone

even though you dress one way, and I dress the other

although my family loves me and yours does not know of you

we are family, 

you and I are family, 

me and you are family, 

no matter what the difference is

family we are, forever

because we are here, and here is earth

and earth is our home

so here, we will live, 

we are family. 

We Are Family

Michael J. Burt

Crave | Book of Elsa

Crave

I crave a love so deep the ocean would be jealous

I crave to miss his touch during our embrace 

My heart longs to feel every little thing books narrate about

I crave a love so far reaching that it scares me 

All consuming like a blazing fire in the pit of my belly 

Not enough to stop

His eyes hungry for my lips and all else I possess

My body aches for love like I've never known 

Book of Elsa

The Mourning Bride - Zara

The Mourning Bride (excerpt) by William Congreve

by russellboyle.com

Zara from Act iii Scene viii

Ha!
Who waits there?
As you’ll answer it, take heed
This Slave commit no Violence upon
Himself. I’ve been deceiv’d. The Publick Safety
Requires he should be more confin’d; and none,
No not the Princes self, permitted to
Confer with him. I’ll quit you to the King.
Vile and ingrate! too late thou shalt repent
The base Injustice thou hast done my Love:
Yes, thou shalt know, spite of thy past Distress,
And all those Ills which thou so long hast mourn’d;
Heav’n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn’d,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn’d.

William Congreve
1670-1729

Love Scares Most Of All - Book Of Elsa

Love scares most of all

Thoughts of losing members of my family bring me out in hives and breathlessness

Thoughts of adding to my loves terrifies me

Exposing pockets of my soul to the world than is safe 

More to hurt, more to bleed, love cuts way too deep

But then, what would be the point in existing? 

If we had no one to share it with

There are billions of us in this world.

Maybe, just maybe the point of it all is to have witnesses of our existence

People to not only say she was here. 

She was loved and she lived.

Someone to acknowledge all that was done and did by the departed.

So in a way love scares most of all because in the end, it is all we have left.

It's our legacy.

BOE

Kindness - Book of Elsa

Kindness is cheap

It's free

Clear and supposedly easy 

Why then aren't we kinder to each other?

This author isn't putting herself on a pedestal.

I am guilty as charged

Greed, mood and anger have been said to stop us being kind not only to our kin but strangers too

Although arguably it IS easier to be kind to people you don't know 

They, after all haven't had a chance to hurt you

I ask then, if kindness cost us nothing. 

Why are we so shy about giving it?

Book of Elsa

My Black Is Beautiful - ZINHLE MLOTSHWA

My Black Is Beautiful - ZINHLE MLOTSHWA 

Yes, I'm black, darker than most, 

But in my blackness I boast.

Boasting of my own? No! 

But boasting of the quality

Which He: my God gave me! 

From the curvature of my hips

To the thickness of my thighs, 

Yes; even down to my big brown eyes? 

He made my black beautiful! 

And for the first time in a long

Time, I'm loving me and mine.

Come to the truth, should have

Known it from my youth, 

But now that I know my

Black is beautiful, 

You cannot use me, mistreat

Or abuse me.

It is no longer a allusion but

I have come to the conclusion

Even if it means me loving

Me, cause you see

I have the power to love

Myself hour after hour.

I am God's creation. Yes, 

A master plan even the

Absence of a man.

I still stand tall yell, 

Refusing to fall, screaming

Loud and very proud, 

MY BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL! 

It is more worth than gold, 

Cause my black runs deep

Into my only soul.

Not just for external for

Staring and glaring, 

But it is the inner me

That God would have you see.

And it causes me to

Shout beyond the shadow

Of a doubt, MY BLACK

IS BEAUTIFUL! So if

You are a woman

And you are real and you

Feel what I feel.

Do not be ashamed to

Proclaim what he said

And what you read.

Fearfully and wonderfully

Made god very good

With what I wish you

Would tell somebody, 

Anybody, your body, 

MY BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL! 

To The Moon - Boof Of Elsa

Like I love you to the moon

Like there's a lifetime guarantee

No exchange or warranty 

The tide came in during the storm 

I was lost forever screaming and crying inside 

I looked upon your tiny face and it smiled 

Sometimes love doesn't hurt

I hear it's actually quite common

Like I love you to the moon 

We'll play dinosaurs and draw until the end

You saved my miserable human life 

Made it magic with moon like

I love you to the moon and quite possibly 

Beyond the stars  

Book Of Elsa

Half Caste - John Agard

Half Caste - John Agard

Excuse mestanding on one leg I’m half-caste.

Explain yuselfwha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when Picasso
mix red an green
is a half-caste canvas?

explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean when light an shadow
mix in de sky
is a half-caste weather?
well in dat case
england weather
nearly always half-caste
in fact some o dem cloud
half-caste till dem overcast
so spiteful dem don’t want de sun pass
ah rass?

explain yuself
wha yu mean
when yu say half-caste
yu mean tchaikovsky
sit down at dah piano
an mix a black key
wid a white key
is a half-caste symphony?

Explain yuself
wha yu mean
Ah listening to yu wid de keen
half of mih ear
Ah looking at yu wid de keen
half of mih eye
an when I’m introduced to yu
I’m sure you’ll understand
why I offer yu half-a-hand
an when I sleep at night
I close half-a-eye
consequently when I dream
I dream half-a-dream
an when moon begin to glow
I half-caste human being
cast half-a-shadow
but yu must come back tomorrow
wid de whole of yu eye
an de whole of yu ear
an de whole of yu mind.

an I will tell yu
de other halfof my story.

Is Love Ever Enough - Book of Elsa

Is Love Ever Enough

As humans we have been spoilt: with food, with shelter, with ease. That has made us entitled to want everything else. AAAAND WHY NOT???

The world owes us right? We need to have our lives perfected an art of Kung Fu. Our men need to love us to death and respect us and be macho manly but secure in their own skin too. Ah. 

They need to be everything all the time otherwise what's the point? We can have it all! Wrong.

Relationships do not work that way, I've come to realise... It's all a game of give and take. Pass the parcel with hearts, minds and feelings; everyone is a player. Like it or not we all have skin in the game. And it's never enough. We keep chasing THE NEXT BEST shoes, house, boyfriend and for what?!

Book of Elsa 

My Love Is Like To Ice, And I To Fire - Edmund Spenser

My love is like to ice, and I to fire:

How comes it then that this her cold so great

Is not dissolved through my so hot desire, 

But harder grows the more I her entreat?

Or how comes it that my exceeding heat

Is not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,

But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,

And feel my flames augmented manifold?

What more miraculous thing may be told, 

That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice,

And ice, which is congeal's with senseless cold,

Should kindle fire by wonderful device?

Such is the power of love in gentle mind,

That it can alter all the course of kind.

Prayer - Book Of Elsa

Felling a fraction of the lost 148 souls departed too soon;

I sat crying as pictures came on the screen of shot up and exploded class rooms. 

Men with automatic weapons went into a school, same as the one I attended (and I suspect you attended) and opened fire.

The pain in parents eyes as they now get to bury their children touches close to my own heart. 

I pray that no one need ever feel such loss again, 

I pray The Lord to invite into Heaven 148 souls tonight; because that is all that I can do for them now. 

Please, Please let us be kinder with each other for enough blood has been spilled.

Book Of Elsa 

Insomnia - Maya Angelou

Insomnia

There are some nights when

sleep plays coy,

aloof and disdainful.

And all the wiles

that I employ to win

its service to my side

are useless as wounded pride,

and much more painful.

Untitled - Book Of Elsa

Untitled

I am not finished... an incomplete poster child.

Untitled work of art or is it work of war?

Drew a line in the sand, the monster followed my soul 

Ran and ran woke up screaming the monster by my bed

All my twisted thoughts and cannot bring myself to say it

I love this monster, really I do. He's mine.

I've grown with him so go get your own

I try to battle, but fight is futile he's won. Always and Forever.

One of us must die; I fear it'll be him.

Then he'll know peace and I'll be all alone

So here I am on this early morn trying to decide

Am I an act of war or a work of art?

Book of Elsa

Change - Book Of Elsa

CHANGE

Change is a cruel mistress
I yearned for her to take me
Mould into me
Sandblasted into acute definition she
Chiselled at me until I wasn't me
New and different and complicated I became
Better? no.
No man is an island. They say.
A genius alone may as well be an idiot. They say
I wanted to change and I did.
Am I a better person for it, I hear you ask
I have hope but
I'll let you know when I'm done. 

BOOK OF ELSA

The Rose That Grew From Concrete - Tupac Shakur

The Rose That Grew From Concrete 

Did you hear about the rose that grew

from a crack in the concrete? 

Proving nature's law is wrong it 

learned to walk with out having feet. 

Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams, 

it learned to breathe fresh air. 

Long live the rose that grew from concrete

when no one else ever cared.

Tupac Shakur

Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep - Mary Elizabeth Frye 1905-2004

       Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep 

Do not stand at my grave and weep I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow.
I am the diamond glints on snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry;
I am not there. I did not die.

 Mary Elizabeth Frye 

Beach - Book of Elsa

Beach.

Warm sand under sore feet

Wind blowing the cobwebs off a tired face

Waves crash landing on a welcoming shore

All consuming so vast and deep

My ocean is scary; my ocean is beautiful

Floating and at peace water on the mind and in 

The bones

Being dragged back to shore, kicking and screaming

Book of Elsa

Art - Book of Elsa

I hate my art; it owns me.

It's more than what I do... It has become who I am.

Writing is my curse, I love it with all I have

It's in my soul, it's my lover, my friend. 

Words are the best I have, the best 

in me. My art brings me more joy than man...

Feelings are confusing they mingle in ones' heart 

stewing and brewing. Making  nonsense.

Words are clear. perfect. Direct. 

They say what they mean and mean what they say.

They can swaddle in eternal warmth and cut deep. Deep in truth.

I hate my art; It owns me.

It is ALL (say it!) that I am.

Book of Elsa. 

WRITER. 

Ship - Carol Ann Duffy

SHIP 

In the end,

it was nothing more

than the toy boat of a boy

on the local park’s lake,

where I walked with you.

But I knelt down

to watch it arrive,

its white sail shy

with amber light,

the late sun

bronzing the wave

that lifted it up,

my ship coming in

with its cargo of joy.

Carol Ann Duffy