In Sixth Grade, I discovered infinity, not the finite, was reality.

I took my ruler and placed it on the top of my desk. On a sheet of paper and with a pencil, I began dividing 12 by 2 and got 6. Then I divided 6 by 2 and got 3. Then I divided 3 by 2 and got 1 1/2, then 1 1/2 by 2 and got 3/4, then 3/4 by 2 and got 3/8, then 3/8 by 2 and got 3/16 by 2 and got 3/32, and so on. Then I realized I could go on forever.

Thus, infinity.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Love is the sky and the ocean,
smiles and laughter from all places,
revealing hope, diminishing despair,
children brown and black and yellow
and white playing with all others,
making friends, falling in love,
babies beloved, helping those who
need kindness, sharing with those
who do not have enough, extending
arms that become hugs, creating lives
of becoming real selves, no bullets or
bombs, no fighting but delighting in
both differences and same searches
always for peace and well-being,
Seeing and realizing we are one.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

I write when the river's down,
when the ground's as hard as
a banker's disposition and as
cracked as an old woman's face.
I write when the air is still
and the tired leaves of the
dying elm tree are a mosaic
against the bird-blue sky.
I write when the old bird dog,
Sam, is too tired to chase
rabbits, which is his habit
on temperate days. I write
when horses lie on burnt grass,
when the sun is always
high noon, when hope melts like
yellow butter near the kitchen
window. I write when there
are no cherry pies in the
oven, when heartache comes
like a dust storm in early
morning. I write when the
river's down, and sadness
grows like cockle burs in
my heart.

Tod Howard Hawks

Forget laws.
They are but social expedients.
Take, for example,
PLESSY v. FERGUSON,
the 1896 landmark decision
of the Supreme Court
that made "separate but equal"
the law of land and ushered
in the patently ugly and unjust
JIM CROW laws in the Deep South.
It took until 1954--58 years--to right
this egregious ruling with the unanimous
decision of BROWN v. BOARD OF EDUCATION.

Forget laws.
Always go to your heart
to find the moral--the correct--decision
of all disputed matters. Laws can be flagitious,
but in your heart, you will always find truth.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Let the mountain lion eat me.
Let it tear me limb from limb.
It does not wish me malice;
It just doesn't want to die.

Let buzzards hover over me.
Let them salvage what is left.
They mean me no ill will.
They're just trying to survive.

But my fellow man who shoots me,
who doesn't know my name,
and waves his flag of freedom,
but kills those of different-colored skin.

Patriots of different lands
and speak in different tongues
know not that they are brothers,
but think of them as others.

Mankind is a misnomer.
There is no kindness here.
How blind they are as
they drop another bomb.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Death, no dearth of hubris,
you took my love away. Now
I lie until I cry and miss your kiss
death took away, your hugs that
kept me warm. Death, I tell you
now you better seek night's
darkness never to be seen, for
if I ever spy your shadow against
rough, brown bark of sycamores,
I'll come toward you with axe in
hand and leave you hacked in
piles of chips under which I'll
slip a match and watch 'til morn
your flames fly so high only
blackbirds can smell your acrid
fumes while I hum tunes of your
black good-byes.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

Wars have no warranties.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS