Matthew Dowd

In my morning coffee post today I talked about cup half full & possibility. Here is one example of that - a poem that has been paraphrased by Matthew Dowd - someone who inspires me every day to be more.
If you aren't following @matthewjdowd.bsky.social
You are missing out on more than you know.

Well done. Thank you @matthewjdowd.bsky.social

...Then they came for the veterans' nurse
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a veterans' nurse

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

to paraphrase Martin Niemöller:

1st they came for the immigrants
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a immigrant

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the queer mom
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a queer mom...

Trained in France at the Caudron flight school in Le Crotoy. 🇫🇷🇺🇸Here's her license, issued in 1921.

...Salt is the desert where there once was sea.
Water and land
reconciled,
matter of no one.

It’s why the world tastes of what it is to be alive."

...dissolving in some unthinkable black hole.

Salt surfaces from the sea. It’s petrified
foam.
It’s sea baked by the sun.

And so finally worn-out,
deprived of its great water force,
it dies on the beach to become stone in the sand...

RIP Mexican poet José Emilio Pacheco, died today 2014

"If you want to study its essence, its purpose,
its usefulness in the world,
you’ve got to see it as a whole. Salt
isn’t the individuals who make it up
but the solidary tribe. Without it
each particle would be like a fragment of nothingness,...

happy bday aviator Bessie Coleman, b.1892, Atlanta, TX, "the first African-American woman and first Native American to hold a pilot license."

"I refused to take no for an answer."
"The air is the only place free from prejudices."

There are approximately 3 million undocumented persons in Texas and Florida, and there are about 100,000 in Minnesota. Ask yourself why ICE has been deployed to MN, but not even close to the same way in FL and TX. This isn't about immigration, it is all about politics and retribution.

here is a safe assumption to make: since Trump has been shown to lie more than any President in history, and his administration lies consistently as well, assume they are lying about any ICE shootings until proven otherwise. Believe just about anyone else before you believe this administration.

Hi, everyone! It’s so nice to see old friends here & I look forward to making new ones, too. I love posting about literary & historic worlds, as well as positive & whimsical things that bring solace to some in a weary world. Thank you for stopping by & for being patient as I begin this account 🥰♥️📚

my pleasure.

Thank you for sharing Matthew. I’ve been introduced to so many wonderful people because of your posts.

happy bday Japanese poet Hakushū Kitahara, b.1885.

"Come now
together let us
blow the horn my friends
awaken and come to the fields
to sing a warm song.
let us blow our
water buffalo horns."

happy bday teacher/abolitionist/feminist Anna Gardner, b.1816, Nantucket.

“Black Annie, as she came to be known later in life on Nantucket, devoted her life to the freeing of the slaves, the education of blacks, and the promotion of women’s rights. Her life was about seeking equality for others."

happy bday Scottish writer Robert Burns, b.1759.

"Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn!".

There is no such uncertainty as a sure thing.”

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”

brava to you Mina. brava.

A nurse. A researcher. A helper.

thank you. onward.

Saturday morning wisdom 👇🏼

Matthew finds the best quotes that meet the moment.
Like these ones.

happy bday Ukrainian artist Konstantin Bogaevsky, b.1872.

The artist's wife wrote: “He loved astronomy, knew the starry sky as 'his own land'".

happy bday Austrian-born writer Vicki Baum, b.1888.

"Courage comes and goes. Hold on for the next supply."

"There is a need for heroism in American life today."

This is one of the most beautiful poems - a love letter to the self - that I have ever read. Thank you for sharing this one Matthew. I think the world could do with a great deal of self love in these times. Would go a long way.

...Sit. Feast on your life.”

...Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror....

happy bday one of my favs West Indian poet Derek Walcott, b.1930.

"The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self...

"If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself. If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation."

Lao Tzu

Happy birthday Francis Bacon.
Seems fitting for these days...