The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.


Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

- Langston Hughes

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

emily dickinson

Beauty in the Decay

Rot if there is rot, or shall it be said,
If the roots are rotting.
For it seems the tree is dying.
A crippling plague bound for imprisonment.
But alas, my father always taught me,
To tear the whole thing from the ground
and rebuild.
But I have found beauty in the decay,
Solace in its soul,
Color in its fragments
And this. . .
This is a sea of corrosion.
Now with reason it's been said,
Build this from the bowels of infamy,
And in it you will find hope.

Joshua James.