Acquainted with the Night
by Robert Frost

I have been one acquainted with the night.
I have walked out in rain -- and back in rain.
I have outwalked the farthest city light.

I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,

But not to call me back or say good-by;
And further still at an unearthly height
One luminary clock against the sky

Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night.

Your Bright Baby Blues
by Jackson Browne

Well, I'm sitting down by the highway
Down by that highway side
Everybody's going somewhere
Riding just as fast as they can ride

Well, I guess they got a lot to do
Before they can rest assured their lives are justified
Pray to God for me, babe
He can let me slide

Well, I've been up and down this highway
Far as my eyes can see
No matter how fast I run
I can never seem to get away from me

No matter where I am
I can't help thinking I'm just a day away
From where I want to be

And I'm running home babe
Like a river to the sea

Baby, if you can see me
Out across this wilderness
There's just one thing
I was hoping you might guess
Maybe you can free me
All on the power of your sweet tenderness
Yeah

Well, I can see it in your eyes
You've got those bright baby blues
You don't see what you've got to gain
But you don't like to lose

You watch yourself from the sidelines
Like your life was a game
You don't mind playing to keep yourself amused

I don't mean to be cruel, babe
But you're looking confused

Baby, if you can hear me
Turn down your radio
There's just one thing
I want you to know
When you've been near me
I've felt a love
Stirring in my soul
Yeah
Yes, I have

Well, it's so hard to come by
That feeling of peace
This friend of mine said
"Close your eyes, and try a few of these."
I thought I was flying like a bird
So far above my sorrow
But when I looked down
I was standing on my knees

Now I need someone to help me
Someone to help me, please

Baby, if you need me
Like I know I need you
There's just one thing
I'll ask you to do
Take my hand and lead me
Through the hole in your garden wall
And pull me through
Pull me through

"No, no, I don't care how we killed them. It's the buggers themselves. I don't know anything about them, and yet someday I'm supposed to fight them. I've been through a lot of fights in my life, sometimes games, sometimes -- not games. Every time, I've won because I could understand the way my enemy thought. From what they did. I could tell what they thought I was doing, how they wanted the battle to take shape. And I played off of that. I'm very good at that. Understanding how other people think."

"The curse of the Wiggin children." She joked, but it frightened her, that Ender might understand her as completely as he did his enemies. Peter always understood her, or at least he thought he did, but he was such a moral sinkhole that she never had to feel embarrassed when he guessed even her worst thoughts. But Ender -- she did not want him to understand her. It would make her naked before him. She would be ashamed. "You don't think you can beat the buggers unless you know them."

"It goes deeper than that. Being here alone with nothing to do, I've been thinking about myself, too. Trying to understand why I hate myself so badly."

"No, Ender."

"Don't tell me 'No, Ender.' It' took me a long time to realize that I did, but believe me, I did. Do. And it came down to this: In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it's impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves. And then, in that very moment when I love them --"

"You beat them." For a moment she was not afraid of his understanding.

"No, you don't understand. I destroy them. I make it impossible for them to ever hurt me again. I grind them and grind them until they don't exist."

"Of course you don't." And now the fear came again, worse than before. Peter has mellowed, but you, they've made you into a killer. Two sides of the same coin, but which side is which?

--Orson Scott Card, Ender's Game

"One more anal-probing, gyro-pyro-levitating, eco-plasm alien anti-matter story and I'm going to take out my gun and shoot somebody."

--Fox Mulder, The X-Files

"Sickness and healing are in every heart;
Death and deliverance are in every hand."

--Speaker for the Dead, The Hegemon

"Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody."

--Mark Twain

Wanting Memories
by Sweet Honey in the Rock

I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
To see the beauty in the world through my own eyes

You used to rock me in the cradle of your arms
You said you'd hold me 'til the pains of life were gone
You said you'd comfort me in times like these
And now I need you
Now I need you, and you are gone

Since you've gone and left me
There's been so little beauty
But I know I saw it clearly through your eyes

Now the world outside is such a cold and bitter place
Here inside I have few things that will console
And when I try to hear your voice above the storms of life
Then I remember all the things that I was told

I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
To see the beauty in the world through my own eyes

I think on the things that made me feel
So wonderful when I was young
I think on the things that made me laugh
Made me dance, made me sing
I think on the things that made me
Grow into a being full of pride
I think on these things
For they are truth

I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
To see the beauty in the world through my own eyes

I thought that you were gone
But now I know you're with me
You are the voice that whispers all I need to hear

I know a please, a thank you, and a smile will take me far
I know that I am you and you are me and we are one
I know that who I am is numbered in each grain of sand
I know that I've been blessed again and over again

I am sitting here wanting memories to teach me
To see the beauty in the world through my own eyes

"The conspiracy is not to hide the existance of extraterrestrials, it's to make people believe in it so completely that they question nothing."

--Fox Mulder, The X-Files

A Native American Prayer

O' Great Spirit,
Whose voice I hear in the winds,
And whose breath gives life to all the world, hear me!
I am small and weak, I need your strength and wisdom.

Let me walk in beauty, and make my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunset.

Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice.

Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people.

Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.

I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy -- myself.

Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes.

So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.

Alive in the World
by Jackson Browne

I want to live in the world
Not inside my head
I want to live in the world
I want to stand and be counted
With the hopeful and the willing
With the open and the strong
With the voices in the darkness
Fashioning daylight out of song
And the millions of lovers
Alive in the world

I want to live in the world
Not behind some wall
I want to live in the world
Where I will hear if another voice should call
To the prisoner inside me
To the captive of my doubt
Who among his fantasies harbors the dream of breaking out
And taking his chances
Alive in the world

To open my eyes and wake up alive in the world
To open my eyes and finally arrive in the world

With its beauty and its cruelty
With its heartbreak and its joy
With it constantly giving birth to life
And to forces that destroy
And the infinite power of change
Alive in the world

To open my eyes and wake up alive in the world
To open my eyes and finally arrive in the world
To open my eyes and wake up alive in the world
To open my eyes and finally arrive in the world