Nothing is as it seems.

Nothing is as it seems.
Every picture is just a picture.
Every facade has a tiny crack, through which if you peer through,
You get a glimpse of what is true
And repulsively ugly.
But I will stand my ground,
Embrace my naivety with arms tight
Tell myself over and over again
That I am not here to fight.

I believe in Beauty
Purity
Light
Transparency
Respect
Clarity
Honesty
Peace
Love.

I believe in Beauty... and will stand my ground, even if I were all alone in an already lost war.

These Days, by Nico.

I've been out walking
I don't do too much talking
These days, these days.
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do
And all the times I had the chance to.

The Lie

"Tell wit how much it wrangles
In fickle points of niceness;
Tell wisdom she entangles
Herself in overwiseness:
And when they do reply,
Straight give them both the lie."

- Sir Walter Raleigh, The Lie (excerpt)

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 barren field
Frozen with snow.

Dreams, by Langston Hughes.

This is one of my favorite poems; it's like my mantra. Whenever I start to doubt my goals, my aim in life, my beliefs, my dreams, I quickly recite this in my head and it puts things back in perspective. Short and simple, and so true.

Just remember, a human being with no dreams is a mere vessel taking up space on this planet.

The Man Who Was Thursday (A Nightmare), G. K. Chesterton.

I finished this book a few days back. I had started reading it in 2004 and was already halfway through, when I came upon what I thought was a flaw in the plot (the part where Syme challenges the Marquis to a duel). So I threw it down and never finished it.

Before I picked this one up again, I was (and still am) halfway through this book, "Everyone Worth Knowing". Before that, I read "Shopaholic and Sister", which was all light-hearted, entertaining and funny. And before that it was "HP and the Deathly Hallows", which I realized I had totally outgrown but had to read just so I could say, "I read 'em all!"

So, basically, I overdosed on the commercial books a little and felt I needed some real quality.

Some rich language.

Some pomp (as in "pompous") and haughtiness (as in "haughty").

This time around, the storyline just ran and ran, and I had to keep up. I was quite amused at the part where I'd thought the story was flawed and realized it was all my lack of patience back then.

It has been a most engaging, entertaining, suspenseful, funny, delightful visual and psychological journey, this book.

To Edmund Clerihew Bentley:

A cloud was on the mind of men
And wailing went the weather,
Yea, a sick cloud upon the soul
When we were boys together.
Science announced nonentity
And art admired decay;
The world was old and ended:
But you and I were gay;
Round us in antic order
Crippled vices came-
Lust that had lost its laughter,
Fear that had lost its shame.
Like the white lock of Whistler,
That lit our aimless gloom,
Men showed their own white feather
As proudly as a plume.
Life was a fly that faded,
And death a drone that stung;
The world was very old indeed
When you and I were young.
(excerpt)

G. K. C.

I don't really
have much of a life physically;
I live in thought.
I live a thousand lives
and as many dreams,
I am a thousand lives
and the Great Supreme.
In thought, I disect,
dismember,
analyze,
reassemble,
try to remember,
then realize
Decades have passed
and I am still a blank canvas.