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Tiny cars only, please.

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Small sign of kindness: dog bowl left by drinking fountain in Campo S. Margherita

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Young footballers in Piazza della Minerva, using the base of Bernini's elephant as a backstop for the goal. As you do.

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Piazza San Callisto, Trastevere. Resetting sampietrini.

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Official Program for the March on Washington. 8/28/1963

Series: Subject Files, 1964 - 2011 Collection: Post-Administration Records Collection, 1964 - 2011

55 years ago on August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 demonstrators descended upon the nation’s capital to participate in the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” Not only was it the largest demonstration for human rights in United States history, but it also occasioned a rare display of unity among the various civil rights organizations. The event began with a rally at the Washington Monument featuring several celebrities and musicians. Participants then marched the mile-long National Mall to the Memorial. The three-hour long program at the Lincoln Memorial included speeches from prominent civil rights and religious leaders. The day ended with a meeting between the march leaders and President John F. Kennedy at the White House.

via Our Documents - Official Program for the March on Washington (1963)

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134|365: United - Naomi Shihab Nye

When sleepless, it’s helpful to meditate on mottoes of the states. South Carolina, “While I breathe I hope.” Perhaps this could be the new flag on the empty flagpole. Or “I Direct” from Maine—why? Because Maine gets the first sunrise? How bossy, Maine! Kansas, “To the Stars through Difficulties”— clackety wagon wheels, long, long land and the droning press of heat—cool stars, relief. In Arkansas, “The People Rule”—lucky you. Idaho, “Let It Be Perpetual”—now this is strange. Idaho, what is your “it”? Who chose these lines? How many contenders? What would my motto be tonight, in tangled sheets? Texas—“Friendship”—now boasts the Open Carry law. Wisconsin, where my mother’s parents are buried, chose “Forward.” New Mexico, “It Grows As It Goes”—now this is scary. Two dangling its. This does not represent that glorious place. West Virginia, “Mountaineers Are Always Free”—really? Washington, you’re wise. What could be better than “By and By”? Oklahoma must be tired—“Labor Conquers all Things.” Oklahoma, get together with Nevada, who chose only “Industry” as motto. I think of Nevada as a playground or mostly empty. How wrong we are about one another. For Alaska to pick “North to the Future” seems odd. Where else are they going?

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133|365: You are perfect for me - Rebecca Wolff

because you’re psychic no one else could understand me the way you do and I say Drink Me I say it to you silently but it calls forth in me the water for you the water you asked for

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132|365: When You Are Old - W. B. Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face; And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

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131|365: Love Comes - Quietly Robert Creeley

Love comes quietly, finally, drops about me, on me, in the old ways. What did I know thinking myself able to go alone all the way.

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130|365: Marriage Morning - Lord Alfred Tennyson

Light, so low upon earth, You send a flash to the sun. Here is the golden close of love, All my wooing is done. O all the woods and the meadows, Woods where we hid from the wet, Stiles where we stay’d to be kind, Meadows in which we met! Light, so low in the vale You flash and lighten afar: For this is the golden morning of love, And you are his morning star. Flash, I am coming, I come, By meadow and stile and wood: Oh, lighten into my eyes and my heart, Into my heart and my blood! Heart, are you great enough For a love that never tires? O heart, are you great enough for love? I have heard of thorns and briers. Over the thorns and briers, Over the meadows and stiles, Over the world to the end of it Flash of a million miles.

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130|365: So Much Happiness - Naomi Shihab Nye

It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness. With sadness there is something to rub against, a wound to tend with lotion and cloth. When the world falls in around you, you have pieces to pick up, something to hold in your hands, like ticket stubs or change. But happiness floats. It doesn’t need you to hold it down. It doesn’t need anything. Happiness lands on the roof of the next house, singing, and disappears when it wants to. You are happy either way. Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house and now live over a quarry of noise and dust cannot make you unhappy. Everything has a life of its own, it too could wake up filled with possibilities of coffee cake and ripe peaches, and love even the floor which needs to be swept, the soiled linens and scratched records . . . Since there is no place large enough to contain so much happiness, you shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you into everything you touch. You are not responsible. You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit for the moon, but continues to hold it, and share it, and in that way, be known.

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129|365: For N & K - Gina Myers

Otis on vinyl carries from the barn. Blessed is this day. The camera captures us youthful & triumphant. Blessed be this day, a celebration of friends coming together. Last night, surrounded by those I love, I had wanted to read Berrigan’s “Words For Love," but I didn’t want to say the heart breaks, even though I know it’s true & the breaking can be a good thing sometimes, like the way my heart shatters a little each time I think of my friends & how lucky in life I’ve been to get to know them, to have had the time to laugh & drink & dance & to argue & feel hurt too. How can one possibly say everything that should be said? These feelings just feelings, not defined by words. To be overwhelmed, caught in a whirlwind & up to one’s ankles in the creek as lightning bugs polka-dot the sky & Otis, again Otis, always Otis in my memory, provides the soundtrack. Not every day can be a good day but this is one of them, one of the best days.

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128|365: A Blessing for Wedding - Jane Hirshfield

Today when persimmons ripen Today when fox-kits come out of their den into snow Today when the spotted egg releases its wren song Today when the maple sets down its red leaves Today when windows keep their promise to open Today when fire keeps its promise to warm Today when someone you love has died or someone you never met has died Today when someone you love has been born or someone you will not meet has been born Today when rain leaps to the waiting of roots in their dryness Today when starlight bends to the roofs of the hungry and tired Today when someone sits long inside his last sorrow Today when someone steps into the heat of her first embrace Today, let this light bless you With these friends let it bless you With snow-scent and lavender bless you Let the vow of this day keep itself wildly and wholly Spoken and silent, surprise you inside your ears Sleeping and waking, unfold itself inside your eyes Let its fierceness and tenderness hold you Let its vastness be undisguised in all your days

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127|365: This Union - Hafez

This Union you want With the earth and sky, This union we all need with love, A golden wing from God’s heart just Touched the ground, Now Step upon it With your brave sun-vows And help our eyes To Dance!

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126|365: Scaffolding - Seamus Heaney

Masons, when they start upon a building, Are careful to test out the scaffolding; Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points, Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints. And yet all this comes down when the job’s done Showing off walls of sure and solid stone. So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be Old bridges breaking between you and me Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall Confident that we have built our wall.

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[125|365: [Do you still remember: falling stars] Rainer Maria Rilke

Do you still remember: falling stars, how they leapt slantwise through the sky like horses over suddenly held-out hurdles of our wishes—did we have so many?— for stars, innumerable, leapt everywhere; almost every gaze upward became wedded to the swift hazard of their play, and our heart felt like a single thing beneath that vast disintegration of their brilliance— and was whole, as if it would survive them!