Aberjhani Quotes & Sayings

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

As painful as life can be at times for people all over the world there is some component of existence, or nonexistence perhaps, operating to implement a balance and give us an opportunity to turn the horrors we've forced upon each other into something more conducive to sustaining at least minimal degrees of sanity and love. — Aberjhani

Someone had to embrace positive beginnings before anyone could celebrate successful conclusions or continuations. — Aberjhani

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. — Aberjhani

When a reader enters the pages of a book of poetry, he or she enters a world where dreams transform the past into knowledge made applicable to the present, and where visions shape the present into extraordinary possibilities for the future — Aberjhani

While it is unlikely that poetry or art shall eliminate the reality of war in the twenty-first century, it is thrilling to know there remain individuals, and even entire communities, still willing to invest in art and poetry's own uniquely explosive contributions to the great, and small, dramas of human history. — Aberjhani

Got just enough room to be a friend of yours. Oh I hope you got room to be a friend of mine. — Aberjhani

Un-winged and naked, sorrow surrenders its crown to a throne called grace. — Aberjhani

All the world loves a ghost. The evidence of that simple statement can be found by looking in nearly every direction. — Aberjhani

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

Life possesses an amazing array of profoundly sad faces. — Aberjhani

Unless you are here: this garden refuses to exist.
Pink dragonflies fall from the air
and become scorpions scratching blood out of rocks.
The rainbows that dangle upon this mist: shatter.
Like the smile of a child separated
from his mother's milk for the very first time.
from poem Blood and Blossoms — Aberjhani

Whereas the insufficiency of a love neither sustained nor supreme cannot be ignored, the same should not be taken as cause to avoid one's total spiritual contractual engagement to this world. — Aberjhani

Upon the lips of babes asleep I saw light embracing light and so allowed my syllables to rest there as a prayer they might sing in their dreams ... — Aberjhani

What hell condemned, let heaven now heal. — Aberjhani

Learning to cultivate an awareness of the known and unknown within one's being often leads to a healthier and more realistic sense of self. — Aberjhani

Passion presented with a greater challenge achieves a greater goal.
from The Sexual Side of Spirituality — Aberjhani

What a lover's heart knows let no man's brain dispute. — Aberjhani

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream was a manifestation of hope that humanity might one day get out of its own way by finding the courage to realize that love and nonviolence are not indicators of weakness but gifts of significant strength. — Aberjhani

'Mixtape' is a very appropriate word to include in the title of Goran Hugo Olsson's film because it includes a rich mixture of cultural voices. They speak across different dividing lines such as those of haves and have-nots, youth and maturity, black and white, national and global, and the past and the present. — Aberjhani

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

The image titled "The Homeless, Psalm 85:10," featured on the cover of ELEMENTAL, can evoke multiple levels of response. They may include the spiritual in the form of a studied meditation upon the multidimensional qualities of the painting itself; or an extended contemplation of the scripture in the title, which in the King James Bible reads as follows: "Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other." The painting can also inspire a physical response in the form of tears as it calls to mind its more earth-bound aspects; namely, the very serious plight of those who truly are homeless in this world, whether born into such a condition, or forced into it by poverty or war. — Aberjhani

Love is our most unifying and empowering common spiritual denominator. The more we ignore its potential to bring greater balance and deeper meaning to human existence, the more likely we are to continue to define history as one long inglorious record of man's inhumanity to man. — Aberjhani

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. — Aberjhani

By consciously meditating upon spiritual truths and cultivating personal integrity, one need never fear negative circumstances. — Aberjhani

A man sitting monkey-like on the rooftop of his brain is due the applause such feats earn him. — Aberjhani

When we vote we participate in the construction of a context ... — Aberjhani

Beneath the armor of skin/and/bone/and/mind most of our colors are amazingly the same. — Aberjhani

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. — Aberjhani

The reality of a serious writer is a reality of many voices, some of them belonging to the writer, some of them belonging to the world of readers at large. — Aberjhani

The words 'I Love You' kill, and resurrect millions, in less than a second. — Aberjhani

The word 'survivor' carries a weight of remembrance that has broken the minds and bodies of more than a few men and women. It also contains a humbling light of recognition that compels many to do whatever they can to help reinforce the efforts of those who might be 'at risk' of not just giving up on their dreams, but of giving up on their continued existence. — Aberjhani

Human beings, in a sense, may be thought of as multidimensional creatures composed of such poetic considerations as the individual need for self-realization, subdued passions for overwhelming beauty, and a hunger for meaning beyond the flavors that enter and exit the physical body. A person might even be described as a self-contained multiverse. — Aberjhani

The fact that an African American sits in the White House at the helm of government in the United States of America on this 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation represents both phenomenal political symbolism and a victory of faith in democracy that should not be lost on any American. — Aberjhani

Within the universe of the extraordinary, those qualities we designate to human concepts of gender are often shared, exchanged, or even completely obliterated. Because of this mixture of traits, these twins called Genius and Madness often appear to be the same thing. They both have a tendency to blur the lines of what we call norms, or established reality. They both, when we study that grand tapestry known as history and modern-day society, tend to stand out in much bolder relief than other figures.
from Dancing with Madness, Dancing with Genius — Aberjhani

As goes love so goes life. — Aberjhani

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. — Aberjhani

Now come the whispers bearing bouquets of moonbeams and sunlight tremblings. — Aberjhani

While many people like the idea of exercising unconditional love, most eventually find it too draining and impossible to sustain, often because the attempt to practice it is misunderstood, discouraged, brought under attack, or made a target of willful abuse. As sad as it may be to admit, in our modern world people are far more accustomed to hearing news of war, genocide, murder, disasters, famine, and disease than they are to hearing anything about acts of love or grace. — Aberjhani

Journey through the Power of the Rainbow represents a condensed compendium of literary efforts from a life dedicated to transforming the themes of injustice, grief, and despair that we all encounter during some unavoidable point of our existence into a sustainable life-affirming poetics of passionate creativity, empowered spiritual vision, and inspired commitment. — Aberjhani

From her gospel-singing mother Cissy Houston, her legendary pop-diva cousin Dionne Warwick, and her Queen of Soul godmother Aretha Franklin, she [Whitney Houston] inherited gifts for skillfully interpreting lyrics and endowing them with new depth and jeweled nuance. — Aberjhani

In your hands winter ... — Aberjhani

You were born a child of light's wonderful secret - you return to the beauty you have always been. — Aberjhani

Where humanity sowed faith, hope, and unity, joy's garden blossomed. — Aberjhani

Each star is a mirror reflecting the truth inside you. — Aberjhani

History dressed up in the glow of love's kiss turned grief into beauty. — Aberjhani

If life is a birthday cake let my face be smeared with its icing of cognac and kindness. — Aberjhani

That good gardener, who wept thorns plowing his fields - harvests grace with joy. — Aberjhani

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 laid the foundation for the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but it also addressed nearly every other aspect of daily life in a would-be free democratic society. — Aberjhani

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. — Aberjhani

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

Here are lips of flame eager to be extinguished by love's liquid sigh. — Aberjhani

Creative visualization may be described as an extended meditation session that reaches beyond passive contemplation and achieves transformative action. The uses to which it may be applied are limited only by an individual's imagination. — Aberjhani

Love taught me to die with dignity that I might come forth anew in splendor. Born once of flesh, then again of fire, I was reborn a third time to the sound of my name humming haikus in heaven's mouth. — Aberjhani

A bridge of silver wings stretches from the dead ashes of an unforgiving nightmare to the jeweled vision of a life started anew. — Aberjhani

Literary genres and techniques tend to take form in one's mind somewhat the way computer templates provide form for different computer tasks. — Aberjhani

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. — Aberjhani

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

Trayvon Martin, at the most, seems only to have been guilty of being himself. — Aberjhani

An author accepting language's invitation to dance steps onto the floor of his her sensibility-charged consciousness and begins to move instinctively
even if with much dread
in ways that synchronize images, ideas, emotions, sounds, smells, ignorance, and knowledge. — Aberjhani

The fate that condemns or saves one sooner or later often condemns or saves another. — Aberjhani

The Emancipation Proclamation ... can remind us in 2013 of all the mistakes we never want to commit again but it can also motivate us to fulfill to an ever greater degree the definitive freedom-sustaining and life-enhancing principles of democracy in living action. — Aberjhani

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. — Aberjhani

By striving so mightily to accomplish specific goals on behalf of one segment of humanity, she [Toni Morrison] went beyond them to create literary wonders capable of enriching the lives of not just her own people, but of all people. — Aberjhani

And now we step to the rhythm of miracles.
from The Light, That Never Dies — Aberjhani

The music of revelation announces itself to the reader in somber brooding tones or in melodies light as air and one is invited to dance with the most captivating of partners: poetry. — Aberjhani

True lovers earn their genius in schools of blood, prophecy and dust. — Aberjhani

Most of the more celebrated names among African-American authors, poets, and artists are known to the world because of their association with specific cultural arts movements. — Aberjhani

At the edge of madness you howl diamonds and pearls. — Aberjhani

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. — Aberjhani

Authentic inspiration endows individuals with mental or spiritual energy which they are then able to transform into positive action. It can make all the difference between a man, woman, or child allowing despair to permanently paralyze any dreams they may have for their lives, or, exercising sufficient strength of will to make those dreams a reality. — Aberjhani

A horn of plenty spills from your hands into the starved lives of millions. — Aberjhani

History is a hermaphrodite with many distinguished lovers. We are neither mysteries nor strangers but the living breath of revelation made flesh by the unrestrained desires of a free and universal love. Universal me. Universal you.
from Past Present and Future are One — Aberjhani

To create art with all the passion in one's soul is to live art with all the beauty in one's heart. — Aberjhani

Love, Mercy, and Grace, sisters all, attend your wounds of silence and hope. — Aberjhani

The study of history empowers nations and individuals with an ability to avoid errors of the past and lay foundations for victories in the future. — Aberjhani

Nation-building is never a 'done deal' confined to history already established. — Aberjhani

In a rich moonlit garden, flowers open beneath the eyes of entire nations terrified to acknowledge the simplicity of the beauty of peace. — Aberjhani

Stars wishing upon the potential of humans shine faithfully on. — Aberjhani

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

If I say your voice is an amber waterfall in which I yearn to burn each day, if you eat my mouth like a mystical rose with powers of healing and damnation, If I confess that your body is the only civilization I long to experience ... would it mean that we are close to knowing something about love? — Aberjhani

Such are these places where lovers of bliss behold the angel of peace — Aberjhani

With intent to neither idolize nor demonize the man [Barack Obama], it seems fair and evident enough to say that the current president of America is not a leader whose way is that of violent public outbursts. It appears to be more that of a warrior-philosopher who practices the art of political persuasion by authoring acclaimed books, delivering well-crafted speeches, assembling unified coalitions, passing historic legislation, signing well-aimed executive orders, and cultivating a poised but accessible demeanor. — Aberjhani

With its leaves so rich and heavy with elation and its crimson face made brighter with visions of divinity the shadow of a certain rose looks just like an angel eating light. — Aberjhani

At some point, a flash of sustained clarity reveals the difference between what someone would have you believe is true, and what you know from the depths of your own heart to the peaks of your soul to be true. What happens after that is up to you. — Aberjhani

Stars ink your fingers
with a lexicon of flame
blazing rare knowledge. — Aberjhani

As life in general constituted much pain in the form of struggles against poverty, disease, ignorance, and emotional anguish, what more civilized way for people to alleviate the same than by giving themselves to one another as brothers and sisters in deed as well as in word? A society of people hoping to become politically superior needed first to become spiritually valid. — Aberjhani

Humanity is not without answers or solutions regarding how to liberate itself from scenarios that invariably end with mass exterminations. Tools such as compassion, trust, empathy, love, and ethical discernment are already in our possession. The next sensible step would be to use them. — Aberjhani

In a world gushing blood day and night, you never stop mopping up pain. — Aberjhani

At one end of the continuum known as history are first-time events that have generated notable measures of public recognition due to either a positive or negative impact ... — Aberjhani

As history has demonstrated many times over, change may arrive slowly or quickly but it is the one constant, in one form or another, on which we can all count. — Aberjhani

His [Ben Okri's] work poses very serious questions for the twenty-first century. Among them: To what extent will we allow the indefinable dynamics of something called "destiny" to maintain grief and horror in the world? How hard are human beings willing to fight to achieve and sustain justice, equanimity, or joy? And should progress be called such when it devours what is best within the human spirit? — Aberjhani

Dare to love yourself — Aberjhani

Peace is not so much a political mandate as it is a shared state of consciousness that remains elevated and intact only to the degree that those who value it volunteer their existence as living examples of the same ... Peace ends with the unraveling of individual hope and the emergence of the will to worship violence as a healer of private and social dis-ease. — Aberjhani

War poisons the land Like diseased minds downloaded/ into bowls of tears. — Aberjhani

Overall, my books represent a kind of shared communion and meditation with my fellow human beings ... The books are also a part of what I call the great continuum of spiritual literary dialogue that I feel has been in progress since human beings first gave in to the urge to pray to their sense of something greater than themselves and interpreted certain signs or events or silences as responses to those prayers. — Aberjhani

Happy World Poetry Day: 'The American identity has never been a singular one and the voices of poets invariably sing, in addition to their own, the voices of those around them. — Aberjhani

Millions of tears have fallen for black sons, brothers, lovers, and friends whose assailants took or maimed their lives and then simply went on their way. — Aberjhani

The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 represented precisely such a hope - that America had learned from its past and acted to secure a better tomorrow. — Aberjhani

The job facing American voters ... in the days and years to come is to determine which hearts, minds and souls command those qualities best suited to unify a country rather than further divide it, to heal the wounds of a nation as opposed to aggravate its injuries, and to secure for the next generation a legacy of choices based on informed awareness rather than one of reactions based on unknowing fear. — Aberjhani