https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/MedicineFlower8032/Songs: Not Just Survival is a Poetry cycle written by Edward C. Patterson, dedicated to the Men and Women of GALA, the Gay and Lesbian Association of Choruses. These lyrical pieces lift high the pledge to both music and Gay Pride. Edward C. Patterson is the author of several Novels and Novellas, now available at www.dancaster.com/jotrans.htm. Songs: Not Just Survival, has been a web favorite on the site since 1997, having first been published in 1998 at vagranthollow, in the Best Part of Me Collection. This is the first time it is being made available in the blogs. hourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/MedicineFlower8032/229527I am my own personal hero And none other - For the models are not molded And the map was never started - So, to the thrill of my inner joy I annoint my head with my heart And know no other like myself in total. I am my own best actor Hestitating for nothing but the lurers Who match and sharp my...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/MedicineFlower8032/223137We are culture's warriors Raising our voices through the land - Teaching with our measures And our hearts tied to our songs - Hymns which wrap the people With heaven's coverlet. We are the beacons for the century, To the youth and fiery angels Leading our pavilions Into the world's pavilions. We...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/MedicineFlower8032/221415In the eye of the species, I am equal, Of great stature As all my fellow beasts can tell As we hail from the fount gangetic. And the rain comes to all, Black and gold Pink and blue, And lavendar souls hug their mates Sheltered by the high vault of heaven And in the those eyes we are one Sprung...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/MedicineFlower8032/217018Wisdom is the compromise between old age and youth - Folly and care - Wearing five layer’s in the cold of night Or just your underwear. And I must now choose or find the median, Wear purple at the alter Or plain pin-stripe at the ball. Such are choices ill devised Set out like traps to...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/MedicineFlower8032/215193The plan of the day is mine, And mine alone - And although like rose-petals Or acacia leaves We might branch together - There is no plan to do so. Best this way. Orchestrating happiness is best left to dead composers, Who touch score, Mere ink, and even then Not happy ‘til the team plays And...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/MedicineFlower8032/214558Where has your hate brought you? Look around Take note! It’s Sarajevo - It’s Colorado and Oregon - It’s San Diego Burning bushes sacred to the straight and narrow Defiles in lost canyons, Where the sun never shines but to burn - In fire the world turns. Where has your hate brought you? To my door...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/MedicineFlower8032/212375Just living - living Just! Let me live like you - Under this experiment Regardless of my hue. Let it be - be it Let! Just as mine as your's is Just. And I like sweet geranium Seek solid ground to bloom my say - So give me my right soil - My just deserves - And I will take it to it's proper...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/MedicineFlower8032/211174When the half of us is gone In the morning's filtered light The love wake of his heart Keeps me fast this day. And I have no illusions As he has no illusions of my weakness - Of my power Of my book and my bouquet. I long in those dim hours To be whole again as we had begun, To be solid and not...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/MedicineFlower8032/210030When the gays all sing in North Carolina They sing on the capitol lawn. They knock at the doors of their monarch repressive And sweep the hearth clean of bad law. Then the gays sing in old Colorado, They ring to the Rockies that freedom is there. They rain love and justice on intolerance With...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/MedicineFlower8032/208873When the voices come to me at evening, When I least expect, they say - "We are all still with you - Come away, oh come away." They steal my mind to faces - Smiles of angels in the dusk Angels to protect me As I lulled them off to sleep, Saying to them, "go before me Clear the way, oh clear the...