"Now come the whispersbearing bouquets of moonbeamsand sunlight tremblings."

"Whether we consider hip-hop as an evolved manifestation of the Harlem Renaissance or something completely new under the sun, it clearly has moved beyond the stage of just entertaining lives to that of informing and empowering lives."

"On either side of a potentially violent conflict, an opportunity exists to exercise compassion and diminish fear based on recognition of each other's humanity. Without such recognition, fear fueled by uninformed assumptions, cultural prejudice, desperation to meet basic human needs, or the panicked uncertainty of the moment explodes into violence."

"Even when muddy your wings sparkle bright wonders that heal broken worlds."

"The acknowledgement of a single possibility can change everything."

"The dancing vortex of a sacred metaphor clashes horns and halos to make wounded music set to the tempo of a new era in brilliant labor."

"The whole purpose of the construction of The Bridge of Silver Wings was to provide a path leading to The River of Winged Dreams, or to serve as a resting place until the river's deeper and truer nature revealed itself."

"Your pain is a school unto itself"" and your joy a lovely temple."

"Souls reconstructed with faith transform agony into peace."

"Shine your soul with the same egoless humility as the rainbow and no matter where you go in this world or the next, love will find you, attend you, and bless you."

"Beneath the armor of skin/and/bone/and/mindmost of our colors are amazingly the same."

"Rainer Maria Rilke greeted and wrestled with the angels of his Duino Elegies in the solitude of a castle surrounded by white cliffs tall trees and the sea. I greeted most of mine in the solitude of a house that still vibrated with the throbs of a singular life that had helped shape many lives and with the ache of attempts to render useful service to that life. The River of Winged Dreams was therefore constructed as a link between dimensions of past and future emotions and intellect and matter and spirit."

"Searching for a mind long lost I found it shaping colors and history near the cliffs of your heart."

"Hope drowned in shadowsemerges fiercely splendid""boldly angelic."

"Many Americans first fell in love with the poetry of the thirteenth century teacher and spiritual leader Jelalludin Rumi during the early 1990s when the unparalleled lyrical grace, philosophical brilliance, and spiritual daring of his work took modern Western readers completely by surprise. The impact of its soulful beauty and the depth of its profound humanity were so intense that they reportedly prompted numerous individuals to spontaneously compose poetry."

"Oh what a wonderful soul so bright inside you. Got power to heal the sun's broken heart, power to restore the moon's vision too."

"Each star is a mirror reflecting the truth inside you."

"Then came the healing time, hearts started to shine, soul felt so fine, oh what a freeing time it was."

"The Universe said, 'Let me show your soul something beautiful."

"Just above our terror, the stars painted this storyin perfect silver calligraphy. And our souls, too oftenabused by ignorance, covered our eyes with mercy."

"Stars ink your fingerswith a lexicon of flameblazing rare knowledge."

"Dare to love yourselfas if you were a rainbowwith gold at both ends."

"Quote words that affirmall men and women are yourbrothers and sisters."

"I called it a baptism in flaming ink that forced me to shed my shyness about recognizing myself as a poet and to accept the fact that life had never given me any choice in the matter. And then I had to discover exactly what that meant."

"Poetry empowers the simplest of lives to confront the most extreme sorrows with courage, and motivates the mightiest of offices to humbly heed lessons in compassion."

"Art gives its vision to beauty not always recognized. And it surrenders freely -- whatever power it possesses to every sincere soul that seeks it. But above all else--it presents us with the gift of ourselves."

"Simple shifts in points of view can open doors to expansions of consciousness as easily as rigid dispositions can close hearts and minds to such elevated awareness. It generally depends on whether you allow fear and violence to rule your actions or whether you give wisdom, courage, and compassion the authority to do so."

"Hearts rebuilt from hope resurrect dreams killed by hate."

"This fire that we call Loving is too strong for human minds. But just right for human souls."

"Know yourself fearlessly (even quietly) for all the things you are."

"We are living in an era in which billions of people are grappling to promote communication, tolerance, and understanding over the more destructive forces of war, terrorism, and political chaos that have characterized the beginning of the 21st Century."

"If the idea of loving those whom you have been taught to recognize as your enemies is too overwhelming, consider more deeply the observation that we are all much more alike than we are unalike."

"Where humanitysowed faith, hope, and unity, joy's garden blossomed."

"There is in Albert Camus' literary craftsmanship a seductive intelligence that could almost make a reader dismiss his philosophical intentions if he had not insisted on making them so clear."

"This is what our love is""a sacred pattern of unbroken unity sewn flawlessly invisible inside all other images, thoughts, smells, and sounds."

"Time (again, Time) like the soul, wears many faces, many bodies and climates and attitudes. The past is one face, the present a second and the future yet another."

"Dreams dress us carefully in the colors of power and faith."

"Our greatest power as nations and individuals is not the ability to employ assault weapons, suicide bombers, and drones to destroy each other. The greater more creative powers with which we may arm ourselves are grace and compassion sufficient enough to love and save each other."

"This world's anguish is no different from the love we insist on holding back."

"The gentle pulsing and flickering of stars and nebulae made a kind of music, a sweet easy mesh of whispered tones and sighing harmonies that held him in its force like the earth [holding] the moon."

"At the different stages of recognition, reflection, and redress, practicing compassion provides potentially world-saving opportunities which otherwise likely would not exist."

"Some have speculated that the way [Albert] Camus died made his theories on absurdity a self-fulfilling prophecy. Others would say it was the triumphant meaningful way he lived that allowed him to rise heroically above absurdity."

"Freedom rings bells to wake us from the comfort of beautiful dreams and empower the efforts that turn them into reality."

"In my head this cruel unspeakable truth: that we battled and we cursed and we spilled each other's blood, we relished our taste of hell and strangled heaven's love."

"Poetry, like jazz, is one of those dazzling diamonds of creative industry that help human beings make sense out of the comedies and tragedies that contextualize our lives."

"With my ninth mind I resurrect my firstand dance slow to the music of my soul made new."

"The issue, perhaps, boils down to one of how perceptions or misperceptions of racial difference impact various individuals', or groups of individuals', experience of freedom in America. Some would argue that it goes beyond hampering their 'pursuit of happiness' to outright obliterating it."

"The leaders and followers of the Harlem Renaissance were every bit as intent on using Black culture to help make the United States a more functional democracy as they were on employing Black culture to 'vindicate' Black people."

"Before the thunderous clamor of political debate or war set loose in the world, love insisted on its promise for the possibility of human unity: between men and women, between blacks and whites, northerners and southerners, haves and have-have-nots, self and self."

"The instinct to tell our children that they are better than someone else's children, based on nothing more than the color of their skin, is now a fossilized aberration that serves no useful purpose."