Stand Up and Be Strong

Lift your head, never let it hang low. Sit up straight never huntching. Walk always amongst the light, leaving the shadows to dance their evil dance always at your feet. Be firm in your belief and devout in your faith. Hearken not to the mobs but be slow to hear the poor and lowly. Seek not the riches of the world but rather the treasures of the heart. Put little stalk into Man, but give freely and openly to the Lord. Do not sit and be idled waiting for the next command, instead stand up and seek out all good work. Be quick to hear and slow to speak. Dont judge the wicked for you may quickly find yourself counted among them, look to your fellow man with love and respect showing that same love and mercy you would show yourself. Look not at the bad of a situation no matter how grave, Instead seek out the good in all things, even if it be the smallest of fractions. Bridle your passions and desires no matter how noble, take all things in moderation starving the natural man and feeding ones true self with wisdom, knowledge and pure light. Be patient in the hardest of times, even if all around you seem to bicker and complain... let no unclean thing leave your heart, for each action there must needs be a thought. Know the power of your mind, if well kept and maintained, it can house within it the knowledge of God and the voice of Angels. Open your eyes and be not blind, give your soul the sight that it so longs to obtain. Sit no more but stand up and be strong!  

Brett Smith (1/18/10)

-Inspired by Rudyard Kipling's "If"

copyright 2010

Change (Aug 2009)

Whenever we encounter... it always seems a big loss,

Whenever we meet... its never just a small toss.

More like a skip jump and a throw that takes my world for a spin,

A meeting that requires such an effort to grin.

Replacing all laughter happiness and glee,

with feelings of sadness and loss or melancholy.

Why must you always visit, when life begins to feel grand,

taking away, changing, like tides do to the sand. 

Never ready or prepared for that unpronounced time

When you enter my life for no reason or rhyme

Inevitable as it is, the adjustment always seems slow,

I cant remember a time where my emotions don't show.

Just apart of this life, one moment in time,

still I long for the past and those warm feelings sublime.

Onward and upward is the path I must climb,

for now it is impossible to turn back the time.

Change may rob me of the present here and now,

She can flip my life over until I cant see the ground.

Or throw me to the unknown  where I dont know where to start,

Throw me right through obstacles and rip me clean apart.

But my memories are mine each one deep warm and profound. 

Yes they are mine, all mine, tucked deep safe and sound.

-Brett Smith '09

copyright 2009