Day and night, the chorus of music fills the heavens,

And a mighty sound breaks forth in song.

There the Unstruck Music sounds of itself,

And the streams of Light flow in all directions.

What a wonderful lotus it is,

That blooms at the heart of

The spinning wheel of the universe!

Music is all around it,

And all space is radiant with Light.

There the whole sky is filled with sound,

And there that music is made without fingers

And without…

The stricken sky is blessed

with the promise of dark clouds.

Bees swarm across withered grass

like prospectors chasing rumors of gold.

Blackberry bushes, thin ribs showing,

search the heavens with shriveled black eyes.

Yet even now, the sun,

friend transformed to enemy,

brushes aside false prophets

and through empty sky

presses down burning hands.

The earth’s furrowed face

moans through cracked lips,…

If my color was anything like my sounds

I don't think I would had come out

birth wit guitar stuck in my thigh

deep southern gospel hues plastered in my mind...

complicated frost of March in Michigan 71 city gurl

the ghetto

black bottom

called it all paradise valley

blues had his hand so far up my skirt fo i had hair

jazz played in my ear lickin sweet tongue to drum

got my taste of em

"gon na , ain't nuthin here to…

Hello Fellow Members of Creative Thinkers International—

The CTI admin team would like to take this time to thank you for joining our site and to discuss some issues related to it.…

When I start a new canvas/artwork, I find that I am always apprehensive and shy away. I will only start a painting when I am at a certain space in my mind, my psyche. Then I can give my full attention to the process. If I find that I have too many outside commitments, I back off.…

“Take any step toward our destiny through creative action (it may be as simple as lifting a pen over a blank sheet of paper), and we know intuitively that we are giving up whatever cover we had. Tiptoeing like the unwitting souls of classical myth who blundered into Pan on the mountainside, we have ventured into the sacred temenos of our own desiring and startled a god. The universe turns toward us, realizing we…

I need a sign to let me know you're here

All of these lines are being crossed over the atmosphere

I need to know that things are gonna look up

'Cause I feel us drowning in a sea spilled from a cup



When there is no place safe and no safe place to put my head

When you feel the world shake from the words that are said



[Chorus:]

And I'm calling all angels

I'm calling all you angels



I won't give up if you dont give up [Reapeat…

Walking along streets that collapse from crumbling sewers

Past buildings you jump to avoid… in case they fall on you

Past grim faces that size you up and sentence you

Past closed shops, cinemas, closed parks, closed cafes,

Some of them…

“Vann is a poet who uses painted images as his language.”

--Connect Savannah Entertainment News Weekly

“Luther’s paintings give…

"Waste no more time talking about great souls and how they should be. Become one yourself!"

--Marcus Aurelius, philosopher (121AD-180AD)

The brilliant writer and editor Zinta Aistars shares the following in the newly-published Fall 2007 issue of the SMOKING POET: "Life is growth. To stop growing is to stop living. The same principle applies to a literary ezine. It, too, is a living being, breathing new life with each and every submission that is chosen to appear in these pages. And surely this issue – our fourth – is breathing deeply! The voices here are many and diverse. Each one has given a breath of…

"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude."
--author and human achievement coach Denis Waitley.

"I also read comic books and was thrilled by Superman, but my main heroes were Saints."
--American actor Robert Vaughn on what inspired him while growing up.

( from "Visions of a Skylark Dressed in Black")

The years whistle best

in their own unruly meter.

Like flawlessly planned

intentions

not all of their lines

have agreed to rhyme.

Once, inside a net

crusted over with indigo pearls

I caught a thousand crystal echoes…