Helen Keller

Credit: Helen Keller Foundation

She,

In the dark,

Found light

Brighter than many ever see.

She,

Within herself,

Found loveliness,

Through the soul’s own mastery.

And now the world receives

From her dower:

The message of the strength

Of inner power.

~ Langston Hughes

Quote on willpower

Helen Keller from Wikimedia

If the mind's not strong, the body acts weak, even if it's not. If the mind says it's too cold or too rainy or too windy to run, the body will be more than happy to agree. If the mind says it would be better to rest or recover or cut practice, the body will be glad to oblige.

~ Wendelin Van Draanen

Quote on willpower

Helen Keller from Wikimedia

If the mind's not strong, the body acts weak, even if it's not. If the mind says it's too cold or too rainy or too windy to run, the body will be more than happy to agree. If the mind says it would be better to rest or recover or cut practice, the body will be glad to oblige.

~ Wendelin Van Draanen

A Blind Woman

Photo credit: Mary Witter

She had turned her face up into

a rain of light, and came on smiling.

The light trickled down her forehead

and into her eyes. It ran down

into the neck of her sweatshirt

and wet the white tops of her breasts.

Her brown shoes splashed on

into the light. The moment was like

a circus wagon rolling before her

through puddles of light, a cage on wheels,

and she walked fast behind it,

exuberant, curious, pushing her cane

through the bars, poking and prodding,

while the world cowered back in a corner.

~ Ted Kooser

___________________________________________

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. 

~ Helen Keller

A Blind Woman

Photo credit: Mary Witter

She had turned her face up into

a rain of light, and came on smiling.

The light trickled down her forehead

and into her eyes. It ran down

into the neck of her sweatshirt

and wet the white tops of her breasts.

Her brown shoes splashed on

into the light. The moment was like

a circus wagon rolling before her

through puddles of light, a cage on wheels,

and she walked fast behind it,

exuberant, curious, pushing her cane

through the bars, poking and prodding,

while the world cowered back in a corner.

~ Ted Kooser

___________________________________________

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. 

~ Helen Keller

Voices from the Corners of the Sky

Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com

Some of us are leaving now. 

Some of us have done our time.

Some of us were taller candles and had more burning to do.

"Poof," you said, and it was true, "Poof."

Maybe we loved you, but not always.

Maybe you loved us and it will never be done.

We're finished now with lost keys, the dust

of teeth grindings milled mostly at night.

The shimmering is falling off your names and the names

of things, the pots, the colors, the books that fed us.

Whatever language we take with us—the murmur

of flowers fallen face down in the mud, the drink's ice

chinking to seal the sunset, the exhalations at the end

of circling a place to lie down a dog makes, lying down—

think of it as one day coming back to you

in the rain's slow trickle down panes of glass.

Now, please. Let us go

like a meadow of balloons let loose to the sky.

~ Barbara Ras

__________________________________________________

It's wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.

~ Helen Keller

Voices from the Corners of the Sky

Photo credit: earl53 from morguefile.com

Some of us are leaving now. 

Some of us have done our time.

Some of us were taller candles and had more burning to do.

"Poof," you said, and it was true, "Poof."

Maybe we loved you, but not always.

Maybe you loved us and it will never be done.

We're finished now with lost keys, the dust

of teeth grindings milled mostly at night.

The shimmering is falling off your names and the names

of things, the pots, the colors, the books that fed us.

Whatever language we take with us—the murmur

of flowers fallen face down in the mud, the drink's ice

chinking to seal the sunset, the exhalations at the end

of circling a place to lie down a dog makes, lying down—

think of it as one day coming back to you

in the rain's slow trickle down panes of glass.

Now, please. Let us go

like a meadow of balloons let loose to the sky.

~ Barbara Ras

__________________________________________________

It's wonderful to climb the liquid mountains of the sky. Behind me and before me is God and I have no fears.

~ Helen Keller

HELEN KELLER

Pic courtesy: http://artfiles.art.com/5/p/LRG/8/807/FBTI000Z/helen-keller.jpg

Mute, sightless visitant,

From what uncharted world

Hast voyaged into Life's rude sea,

With guidance scant;

As if some bark mysteriously

Should hither glide, with spars aslant

And sails all furled!

In what perpetual dawn,

Child of the spotless brow,

Hast kept thy spirit far withdrawn--

Thy birthright undefiled?

What views to thy sealed eyes appear!

What voices mayst thou hear

Speak as we know not how!

Of grief and sin hast thou,

O radiant child,

Even thou, a share? Can mortal taint

Have power on thee unfearing

The woes our sight, our hearing,

Learn from Earth's crime and plaint?

Not as we see

Earth, sky, insensate forms, ourselves,

Thou seest,--but vision-free

Thy fancy soars and delves,

Albeit no sounds to us relate

The wondrous things

Thy brave imaginings

Within their starry night create.

Pity thy unconfined

Clear spirit, whose enfranchised eyes

Use not their grosser sense?

Ah, no! thy bright intelligence

Hath its own Paradise,

A realm wherein to hear and see

Things hidden from our kind.

Not thou, not thou--'t is we

Are deaf, are dumb, are blind!

~ Edmund Clarence Stedman

HELEN KELLER

Pic courtesy: http://artfiles.art.com/5/p/LRG/8/807/FBTI000Z/helen-keller.jpg

Mute, sightless visitant,

From what uncharted world

Hast voyaged into Life's rude sea,

With guidance scant;

As if some bark mysteriously

Should hither glide, with spars aslant

And sails all furled!

In what perpetual dawn,

Child of the spotless brow,

Hast kept thy spirit far withdrawn--

Thy birthright undefiled?

What views to thy sealed eyes appear!

What voices mayst thou hear

Speak as we know not how!

Of grief and sin hast thou,

O radiant child,

Even thou, a share? Can mortal taint

Have power on thee unfearing

The woes our sight, our hearing,

Learn from Earth's crime and plaint?

Not as we see

Earth, sky, insensate forms, ourselves,

Thou seest,--but vision-free

Thy fancy soars and delves,

Albeit no sounds to us relate

The wondrous things

Thy brave imaginings

Within their starry night create.

Pity thy unconfined

Clear spirit, whose enfranchised eyes

Use not their grosser sense?

Ah, no! thy bright intelligence

Hath its own Paradise,

A realm wherein to hear and see

Things hidden from our kind.

Not thou, not thou--'t is we

Are deaf, are dumb, are blind!

~ Edmund Clarence Stedman

My Utopia

Source: Favim

Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness. 

~ Helen Keller

My Utopia

Source: Favim

Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchised. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from the sweet, gracious discourses of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness. 

~ Helen Keller

Life

Source: Favim

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. 

~ Helen Keller

Life

Source: Favim

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold. 

~ Helen Keller

Overcoming

Source: Favim 

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. 

~ Helen Keller

Overcoming

Source: Favim 

Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. 

~ Helen Keller