Black and White

Black and White (Under age 40? You won't understand.)

You could hardly see for all the snow....spread the rabbit ears as far as they could go.
Pull a chair up to the TV set, "Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet."
Depending on the channel you tuned, you got Rob and Laura - or Ward and June.

It felt so good. It felt so right. Life looked better in black and white.
I Love Lucy, The Real McCoys, Dennis the Menace, the Cleaver boys,
Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Superman, Jimmy and Lois Lane.
Father Knows Best, Patty Duke, Rin Tin Tin and Lassie too, Donna Reed on Thursday night! --Life looked better in black and white.

I wanna go back to black and white. Everything always turned out right.
Simple people, simple lives...Good guys always won the fights.
Now nothing is the way it seems....in living color on the TV screen.
Too many murders, too many fights, I wanna go back to black and white.

In God they trusted, alone they slept. A promise made was a promise kept.
They never cussed or broke their vows. They'd never make the network now.
But if I could, I'd rather be in a TV town in '53. It felt so good. It felt so right.
Life looked better in black and white.

I'd trade all the channels on the satellite if I could just turn back the clock tonight
To when everybody knew wrong from right. Life was better in black and white!
Pass this to someone (over age 40, of course), and brightentheir day by helping them to remember that life's most simple pleasures are very often the best!

The Road Less Traveled (A poem by Robert Frost)

Robert Frost (1874–1963)

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler,
long I stood And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I— I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

PHENOMENAL WOMAN (a poem by Maya Angelou)

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a model's fashion size
But when I start to tell them
They think I'm telling lies.
I say
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips
The stride of my steps
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please
And to a man
The fellows stand
or fall down on their knees
Then they swarm around me
A hive of honey bees.
I say
It's the fire in my eyes
And the flash of my teeth
The swing of my waist
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say
It's in the arch of my back
The sun of my smile
The ride of my breasts
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say it's in the click of my heels
The bend of my hair
The palm of my hand
The need for my care.
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally
Phenomenal woman
That's me.

Still I Rise (a poem by Maya Angelou)

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you so beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping into my living room

Just like moons and like suns
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard?
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise?
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs.

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm like a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling, I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind the nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise