In his book, Taoism. The Road to Immortality, John Blofeld quoted the following selections from the Tao te' Ching on the subject of wisdom. He elaborates, following the quote: Because he has no high opinion of himself, [his] mind is luminous; not caring for status, he becomes illustrious; being without... » read this article

Nancy Morejon presents her poetry at the First International Festival of Resistance - first in Spanish, then in English.... » read this article

Many years ago there lived an Emperor who was so terribly fond of beautiful new clothes that he spent all his money on dressing elegantly.  He didn’t care about his soldiers, didn’t care about the theater or driving in the woods; all he cared about was showing off his new... » read this article

Editor’s Comment In “Marshland Elegy” a chapter in his famous book, A Sand County Almanac and sketches here and there, Aldo Leopold tells the story of the noble Crane and of how the crane marsh has been displaced by the short-sighted and wasteful ‘progress’ of human beings. The only beauty... » read this article

Explico Algunas Cosas (I'm Explaining a Few Things) by Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda. Neruda was... » read this article

هل تسمحون لي Would You Permit Me? في بلاد يغتال فيها المفكرون، ويكفر الكاتب وتحرق الكتب، في مجتمعات ترفض الآخر، وتفرض الصمت على الافواه والحجر على الافكار، وتكفر اي سؤال، كان لابد ان استأذنكم ان تسمحوا لي.. In a country where thinkers are assassinated, and writers are considered infidels and... » read this article

Say I Am You is a poem by Rumi. The musical score, "Eternity and a Day" is from the movie, Aggelopoulos. Rumi's poems elegantly and consistently touch our inner being and inspire us to go beyond our limitations towards the Divine. A note on the music: This entire video was constructed... » read this article

One of the wonderful short stories written by Hermann Hesse entitled, The Man of the Forests tells of a people who lived all their lives in darkness, under the canopy of the forest. "The forest was their homeland, refuge, cradle, nest and grave and life outside its boundries was unthinkable."... » read this article

Editor's Note: We revisit this poem by Frederick Douglass, first published on Axis of Logic on July 27, 2004. - LMB   UNTIL SHE SPOKE Until she spoke, no Christian nation had abolished Negro slavery. Until she spoke, no Christian nation had given to the world an organized effort to... » read this article

UNTIL SHE SPOKE Until she spoke, no Christian nation had abolished Negro slavery. Until she spoke, no Christian nation had given to the world an organized effort to abolish slavery. Until she spoke, the slave ship, followed by hungry sharks, greedy to devour the dead and dying slaves flung overboard... » read this article

(two videos) Editor's Note: In the early 1960s, when I was a young seminarian student in a fundamentalist christian university, curriculum requirements included courses in public speaking. In one of those courses, I was required to memorize and present in class, a piece of classical literature. I chose to present a poem, Robert Frost's, The Road Not Taken and I... » read this article

  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... » read this article

"One of the Butterflies" (from The Shadow of Sirius) The trouble with pleasure is the timing it can overtake me without warning and be gone before I know it is here it can stand facing me unrecognized while I am remembering somewhere else in another age or someone not seen... » read this article

"Although logos is common to all, most people live as if they had a wisdom of their own." Herakleitos (Heraclitus) 1. p.77. Fr.2   "Love is most nearly itself When here and now cease to matter. Old men ought to be explorers Here or there does not matter We must... » read this article

They that have power to hurt and will do none, That do not do the thing they most do show, Who, moving others, are themselves as stone, Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow, They rightly do inherit heaven's graces And husband nature's riches from expense; They are the lords and... » read this article

"We're cast into this human form, and it's such happiness. This human form knows change, but the ten thousand changes are utterly boundless. Who could calculate the joys they promise?   "And so the sage wanders where nothing is hidden and everything is preserved. The sage calls dying young a... » read this article

A reading of Rumi's 'What Was Said to the Rose' by Coleman Barks, accompanied by Eugene Friesen and Arto Tuncboyaciyan on cello and hand percussion.... » read this article

Say I am You I am dust particles in sunlight. I am the round sun. To the bits of dust I say, Stay. To the sun, Keep moving. I am morning mist, and the breathing of evening. I am wind in the top of a grove, and surf on the cliff.... » read this article

... » read this article

Ozymandias I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said - "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its... » read this article