07 July 2009

I N V I N C I B L E
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© 2009 - Ben Heine
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for printing purposes, available HERE)

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We Had Him


By Maya Angelou (*)

Beloveds, now we know that we know nothing, now that our bright and shining star can slip away from our fingertips like a puff of summer wind.

Without notice, our dear love can escape our doting embrace. Sing our songs among the stars and walk our dances across the face of the moon.

In the instant that Michael is gone, we know nothing. No clocks can tell time. No oceans can rush our tides with the abrupt absence of our treasure.

Though we are many, each of us is achingly alone, piercingly alone.

Only when we confess our confusion can we remember that he was a gift to us and we did have him.

He came to us from the creator, trailing creativity in abundance.

Despite the anguish, his life was sheathed in mother love, family love, and survived and did more than that.

He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and style. We had him whether we know who he was or did not know, he was ours and we were his.

We had him, beautiful, delighting our eyes.

His hat, aslant over his brow, and took a pose on his toes for all of us.

And we laughed and stomped our feet for him.

We were enchanted with his passion because he held nothing. He gave us all he had been given.

Today in Tokyo, beneath the Eiffel Tower, in Ghana's Black Star Square.

In Johannesburg and Pittsburgh, in Birmingham, Alabama, and Birmingham, England

We are missing Michael.

But we do know we had him, and we are the world.


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(*) Dr. Maya Angelou is an American poet born in 1928. She is known as one of the great voices of contemporary literature. As a poet, educator, historian, best-selling author, actress, playwright, civil-rights activist, producer and director, she continues to travel the world, spreading her wisdom. Within the rhythm of her poetry and elegance of her prose lies Angelou's power to help readers of every orientation span the lines of race.

The above poem was written by Maya Angelou for Michael Jackson's public memorial at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. It was read by Queen Latifah, one of the many celebrities that paid tribute to the King of Pop. (Source)

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Details
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01 July 2009

- Michael Jackson -
Heal the world
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© 2009 - Ben Heine
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(High resolution version of this image,
for printing purposes, available HERE)
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Heal The World

By Michael Jackson

There's A Place In
Your Heart
And I Know That It Is Love
And This Place Could Be Much
Brighter Than Tomorrow
And If You Really Try
You'll Find There's No Need
To Cry
In This Place You'll Feel
That There's No Hurt Or Sorrow

There Are Ways
To Get There
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Little Space
Make A Better Place...

Heal The World
Make It A Better Place
For You And For Me
And The Entire Human Race
There Are People Dying
If You Care Enough
For The Living
Make A Better Place
For You And For Me
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Read the full lyrics
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Watch the clip on You Tube
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You Are Sunshine,
You Are Rain

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(High resolution version of this image,
for printing purposes, available HERE)
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All Her Days

By Peter S. Quinn

All her days are softly going by
With some dreams to be forgotten
Like clouds that are always in the sky
Only to drift away and be forgotten

Sunshine and rain
each day sunshine and rain

Life is sometimes a dream rising high
With every opportunity coming to be
Or some loneliness that cannot die
Only to become an inside part you and me

Sunshine and rain
each day sunshine and rain

There are dreams that cannot be hidden away
In the mirrors of glasses that make a day

Every love song
is rising in high
With the times
that come with new spring
And its hopes
with the dreams still lie
Bringing worth
to recollections of old gone thing

Sunshine and rain
each day sunshine and rain
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30 June 2009

Walk With the Light
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© 2009 - Ben Heine
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(High resolution version of this image,
for printing purposes, available HERE)
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Take Me
As I Am


By Peter S. Quinn

Take me as I am let me be a twist
A carefree word here to adhere
For knitting down the gist
Inside heart-roots gone austere

Like a love that begins from inside
And brings out a beautiful bright
Like a ray that in a shade might hide
Or a beam in an evening's flight

Give same love life’s giving about
Though sideways are with bare trees
And the morning is still in its doubt
For the coming of summer's breeze
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Blossom Tree
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© 2009 - Ben Heine
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(High resolution version of this image,
for printing purposes, available HERE)
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Moments
Will Come


By Peter S. Quinn

The nights are young and days still
Promises of worship life shall fulfill
As rain comes to earth and forest
A flower shall give its beautiful crest

And a heart will come and be within
Take day by day its twilight’s spin
What into the heart grows to learn
Forest of man and street shall earn

Come give your truth to the dreams
Which like a flower from beauty streams
And wishful thinking will come again
And join these powers that now reign

Grow your green on the high hill
Take what is yours and from earth will
All is not there what you now see
Look at the leaves look at the tree

Hold your own with reading of sign
And draw your doubt from its horizon line
Powers within are everywhere about
Giving you spirit and showing you doubt

The question lies there which has power
Street with their names or dawn’s own hour
Rise to each name shine with its beams
Moments will come and have their deems
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Roman Pietrzak,
Polish Sculptor

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© 2009 - Ben Heine
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(High resolution version of this image,
for printing purposes,
available HERE)
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I met Roman Pietrzak some time ago
in his studio near Warsaw, Poland.

This photo shows him next to one
of his most recent self portraits.
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28 June 2009

Michael Jackson
Text Portrait
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© 2009 - Ben Heine
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(High resolution version of this image,
5000x6667pix, 300dpi
available HERE)
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Troubled Musical Genius

By BBC News

Michael Jackson's unique blend of soul, funk and rock made him the biggest pop act in the world.

Beyond this, his business acumen and intuitive understanding of the music market allowed him to showcase his remarkable talents.

Michael Jackson sold records by the million - and broke records too.

With the soulful vocal presence of Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder and the dance moves of James Brown, Jackson's appeal crossed both national and racial boundaries.

His first break came in 1968, when the Jackson Five signed to the Motown label, and he was just 11 when the group released its first single.

Hits like I Want You Back, ABC, The Love You Save, and I'll Be There, which all went to number one in the United States in 1970, made the Jackson Five the first group in pop history to have their first four singles top the charts.

Before long, the youngest member of the Jackson Five was beginning to outstrip his brothers.

A series of solo hits, including Got To Be There, Rockin' Robin and Ben - the maudlin, yet chart-topping, paean to a rat - had shown that the promise of early years had come to fruition.

By the mid-1970s, both Michael's, and his brothers', careers were beginning to stall. Motown has ended its interest in the group, which had re-signed - as the Jacksons - to the Epic label.

But it was while Michael was working on the film musical The Wiz, an all-black retelling of the Wizard of Oz - in which he played the Scarecrow to Diana Ross's Dorothy - that he met the man who would turn him into a superstar and transform the world of popular music.

Music producer, composer and arranger, Quincy Jones, who could already boast a formidable track record, having created hits for artists like Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin and George Benson, took Jackson's raw talent and moulded it into an awesome new sound.

>>> Read the full article
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Michael Jackson, Text Portrait, detail
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23 June 2009

Mute
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© 2009 - Ben Heine
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(High resolution version of this image, IN COLOUR
and for
printing purposes, available HERE)
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Silences, Alone

By Peter S. Quinn

A silence comes within us all,
When we with darkness again fall;
A shadow creeping softly stays,
And show its vision many ways.
Everything my brain still knows,
Step by step into silences goes;
Dreams and feelings down it break’s,
Away my visions all it takes.

When I am alone and streets I walk,
Silences to me softly talk;
About the heart that was here before,
But is now gone for ever more.

A lonesome soul just only knows,
The restless silence that never goes;
Sharp and shining like a razor blade,
A forgotten love song now too late.
That echoed once from heart to heart,
With promises to never depart;
But now lies resting on its own,
Like silences that are still alone.
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22 June 2009

Thoughts Captivity
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© 2009 - Ben Heine
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(High resolution version of this image,
for printing purposes, available HERE)
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There Are
Obsessions


By Peter S. Quinn

There are obsessions for every ride
Loneliness out there to stay
Shadows of night they sometimes hide
Into the morning and the day
Feelings of sickness everywhere go
Letting you down from the start
Something that only you know
Breaking and piercing your heart

Blossoms of cold in each fight
Nothing will give there any dream
Only the dark in the hour’s fright
With each their uncertainty beam
Oceans and waves that everything lacks
Believing nothing from its cast
Huge spaces of emptiness and blacks
All with their time to low and adjust

We are there standing in our wishing
Anywhere going for even some more
Part of us knowing some dreams missing
Nobody is forever of anything sure
Adapting footsteps through the streets
Of nobody's ways in a cruel world
Each of our emotion opposition meets
Scattering thoughts - dreams unfurled
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Tell Him
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© 2009 - Ben Heine
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(High resolution version of this image,
for printing purposes, available HERE)
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Will You Ever Sing

By Peter S. Quinn

Will you ever sing
Like the bird in a tree,
That the sunshine can bring
Inside to me -;
All is pleasurable now
With much wondering ways,
We will manage somehow
To get it through these days.

There is winter outside
Often it is much fun,
When the sully moods hide
And the shadows are on run;
Bring though again spring
For I feel more pleasure,
Happiness is an inside feeling
Perhaps the truest treasure.

Will I ever have more
Then I have with this all,
I should have said thereinbefore
Less is less and that is small;
Let there be sunshine
Before this day is gone,
It would be according to a line
I recently have done.
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Darling
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(High resolution version of this image,
for printing purposes, available HERE)
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Each Life is
Like a Flower


By Peter S. Quinn

Each life is like a flower
With leaves of green and yellow
And in the rain shower
They become quite mellow
Like dreams that are going by
Or flickering flames by night
The open reddish evening sky
That falls away its light

When love is in our heart
There is so much there going
From the beginning it'll start
To give of its tender flowing
You become with flames about
And feelings that inside glow
For all the fire will be out
Like streams of a river to grow

When all is done you feel inventive
Like grass that sways in wind
And to the world assentive
So tender out sided skinned
With closeness to a life you are
And deliberated with roses
Each night you drift alone with a star
As love again to you apposes
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The Path to Knowledge
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© 2009 - Ben Heine
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(High resolution version of this image,
for printing purposes, available HERE)
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There Are Times

By Peter S. Quinn

There are times,
There are ways,
There are wonders,
And I can't be certain
Of everything;
Though I speak,
Though I hear,
Though I see,
My knowledge shall never
Be complete.

There are waves on
The ocean,
There is distance
Across the sea,
There are mountains
To be climbed,
There are people to
Be free;
But one thing is certain,
Freedom lies inside of me.

There are times,
There are ways,
There are wonders,
There is good and hope
In everything;
There are people,
There are moonlights,
There are days,
And in the eyes
Of my loved one
Of love I can read.

There are green colors
Of grass,
There are flowers
In the soil,
There are clouds
Across the sky,
There are hopes
For everyone;
But one thing is certain,
We must become strong.

There are times,
There are ways,
There are wonders,
And life goes on
Like before;
There are stairways,
There are distances,
There are ceilings,
But they won’t keep us apart
For knowing ones heart.
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18 June 2009

Listen to Wisdom
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© 2009 - Ben Heine
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(High resolution version of this image,
for printing purposes, available HERE)
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Freedom Is To
You Calling


By Peter S. Quinn

Freedom is to you calling,
Give life a heart so brave;
Each night hours are falling,
Into a dim hollow grave.
Hatred can be bottomless,
If you'll allow it to be;
But life is so fresh,
If it becomes all free.

Days by days will end,
But love can never so do;
Only down it will bend,
If it's not completely true.
Evening becomes a night,
Gathering shadows around;
Hold your feelings all right,
Lost can again be found.

Freedom is truth wearing,
Never a lie there inside;
Everyone else bearing,
Not from ourselves there hide.
You can grow out wisdom,
If the right seeds are sown;
For the conditions are calm,
If you acknowledge and atone.
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