いろ

46+96=mice

Cowards

“The coward dies a thousand deaths, the brave but one?'
'Of course. Who said it?'
'I don't know.'
'He was probably a coward,' she said. "He knew a great deal about cowards but nothing about the brave. The brave dies perhaps two thousand deaths if he's intelligent. He simply doesn't mention them.”
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms―

 “When you don't fight your adversary, you become the coward in the sight of animalistic breeds, but they forget that your real strength stays in the whisper of your voice.”
―Michael Bassey Johnson

“If you follow the prescribed way of how people want you to be, then it will be of great relieve if you commit suicide than to be dragged along like a donkey.”
-Michael Bassey Johnson

 “Fear breeds cowardice, and cowardice compels bravery.”
-Ogwo David Emenike

What If

Safetysuit- What If

Airports

Airports

We shuffle round Departures
past Security but even less sure
of ourselves, patting pockets,
feeling bags for tickets, passports,
bored, checking the electronic board
for gate numbers, 'Boarding';
the names of places gleam:
the familiar, the wild unknown.
Planes glide in, touch down,
while others roar off into clouds,
but here is another plane of mere
existence, the empty stares
of people who'd rather be elsewhere
and stores without poems, or poets.

-Paul Archer
http://www.paularcher.net/index.html

Loose-Lace Shoes

Loose-Lace Shoes

Here's what happened on my way home
Not half an hour ago: the laces came undone
On one of my shoes - the right one -
I could hear them ticking, their ends
Flicking on the pavement,
I saw them arcing with each step,
Bobbing, cartwheeling, somersaulting.
I should've stopped to pull them tight
And thread a bow and maybe fasten
The bow upon itself to make sure -
But out of laziness, or not wanting to
Break my flow or make an obstacle
In the path of others, or for whatever reason,
I kept on walking and added an extra
Unaccustomed dimension to a familiar walk.
For my right foot felt freer and freer,
As if it was easing itself into another life,
As if it was a bare foot sinking into sand,
Or an Indian tracker's on a wild trail -
Though, as it was only the right foot,
I was only halfway there - but still.

I paused at a crossing's light, a lady
Nodded her head down: "Your shoelace..."
"Oh," feigning astonishment as if one
Mortified by going into the street half-shod,
I bent to the lace, tied it up. Now
I felt the shoe pinching me tight, not only that,
But I'd taken on the character of that shoe,
All strait-laced, sensible, dusty and dull.
Just like anyone-else on the street that day,
Or rather, now, not like Someone.
So when your shoelace next springs loose
Let it stay that way for a while.
Be the only shoelace-loose stranger
On the street, or the whole town, and if anyone
Dares to point out your shoe's undone,
Don't bend down, look them straight
With your head up high and say:
"You know what, I like it that way." 

-Paul Archer

http://www.paularcher.net/index.html 

Ame ni mo Makezu

ame ni mo makezu
kaze ni mo makezu
yuki ni mo natsu no atsusa ni mo makenu
jōbu na karada wo mochi
yoku wa naku
kesshite ikarazu
itsu mo shizuka ni waratte iru
ichi nichi ni genmai yon gō to
miso to sukoshi no yasai wo tabe
arayuru koto wo
jibun wo kanjō ni irezu ni
yoku mikiki shi wakari
soshite wasurezu
nohara no matsu no hayashi no kage no
chiisa na kayabuki no koya ni ite
higashi ni byōki no kodomo areba
itte kanbyō shite yari
nishi ni tsukareta haha areba
itte sono ine no taba wo oi
minami ni shinisō na hito areba
itte kowagaranakute mo ii to ii
kita ni kenka ya soshō ga areba
tsumaranai kara yamero to ii
hideri no toki wa namida wo nagashi
samusa no natsu wa oro-oro aruki
minna ni deku-no-bō to yobare
homerare mo sezu
ku ni mo sarezu
sō iu mono ni
watashi wa naritai

translation from Wikipedia :

not losing to the rain
not losing to the wind
not losing to the snow nor to summer's heat
with a strong body
unfettered by desire
never losing temper
always quietly smiling
every day four bowls of brown rice
miso and some vegetables to eat
in everything
count yourself last and put others before you
watching and listening, and understanding
and never forgetting
in the shade of the woods of the pines of the fields
being in a little thatched hut
if there is a sick child to the east
going and nursing over them
if there is a tired mother to the west
going and shouldering her sheaf of rice
if there is someone near death to the south
going and saying there's no need to be afraid
if there is a quarrel or a lawsuit to the north
telling them to leave off with such waste
when there's drought, shedding tears of sympathy
when the summer's cold, wandering upset
called a nobody by everyone
without being praised
without being blamed
such a person
I want to become

~Kenji Miyazawa