Alicia

"But then they danced down the streets, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!' " ~ JACK KEROUAC "Once when you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return." ~ LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452 - 1519) Wilbur burst into tears. "I dont want to die," he moaned. "I want to stay alive, right here in my comfortable manure pile with all my friends. I want to breathe the beautiful air and lie in the beautiful sun." --E.B White-BEAUTY:Conceive me as a dream of stone: my breast, where mortals come to grief, is made to prompt all poets' love, mute and noble as matter itself.With snow for flesh, with ice for heart, I sit on high, an unguessed sphinx begrudging acts that alter forms; I never laugh, I never weep.In studious awe the poets brood before my monumental pose aped from the proudest pedestal, and to bind these docile lovers fast I freeze the world in a perfect mirror:The timeless light of my wide eyes. ~ CHARLES BAUDELAIRE (1821 - 1867) "QUESTION and ANSWER" he sat naked and drunk in a room of summer night, running the blade of the knife under his fingernails, smiling, thinking of all the letters he had received telling him that the way he lived and wrote about that-- it had kept them going when all seemed truly hopeless.putting the blade on the table, he flicked it with a finger and it whirled in a flashing circle under the light.who the hell is going to save me? he thought.as the knife stopped spinning the answer came: you're going to have to save yourself.still smiling, a: he lit a cigarette b: he poured another drink c: gave the blade another spin. From The Last Night of the Earth Poems ~ CHARLES BUKOWSKI (1920-1994) --"There will come a day when such men as myself will view the slaughter of innocent creatures as horrible a crime as the murder of his fellow man - Our task must to be free ourselves - by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty." ~ ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879-1955)"If [man] is not to stifle human feelings, he must practice kindness toward animals, for he who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can judge the heart of man by his treatment of animals." ~ IMMANUEL KANT"Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character; and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man." ~ ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER (philosopher)