I am an artist. Practicing Interior Architecture Designing. And on a small scale - furniture designing, though I would love to go bigger.  I used to write a lot back then. But with work and all, my time became tight. I went on a holiday in April 2004 and took with me a few books by Maya Angelou and Iyanla Vanzant. I then started some soul searching which got me into writing - poems - I haven't looked back since then. Click on the POETRY link on the left for poems and SHORT STORIES link also on the left for short stories TRACK AUTHOR FOR UPDATES   Writing soothes and relaxes me.  ;) The humorous naughty writes - that's me; fun loving, likes exploring and defying, takes life lightly and hardly ever serious. |-) The serious writes - those are the questions I ask myself. The answers I get give me peace. I would say I got my knack for writing from my artistic background. But I will let you be the judge of that. I used to paint a lot too. I am now trying to find time to embrace again all my God-given talents.  I would like one day to have a little restaurant-cum-lounge, where I will have friends read their poems while sipping some Southern Comfort on the rock ... lol ... and have my painting hanging on the walls. And of course serve them my exotic dishes while listening to some Jill Scott, Goapele, Heather Headley and India Arie. At the end of the evening, I would like those friends to walk out with a bigger smile and a load less off their shoulders. --------------------------------------- It takes more than diamonds to woo me. It takes more that money to groove me. It takes more than cars to move me. It takes more than material things. ---------------------------------------- "Love the earth and sun and animals. Despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks. Stand up for the stupid and crazy. Devote your income and labour to others... And your very flesh shall be a great poem." Walt Whitman American Poet * * *  "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."Mahatma GandhiIndian Political and Spiritual Leader "Be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and to work and to play and to look up at the stars." Henry Van Dyke American Educator * * * "If you cannot be a poet, be the poem." David Carradine Actor, Director * * * "Life is an opportunity, benefit from it. Life is beauty, admire it.Life is bliss, taste it. Life is a dream, realize it. Life is a challenge, meet it.Life is a duty, complete it. Life is a game, play it. Life is a promise, fulfill it. Life is sorrow, overcome it.Life is a song, sing it. Life is a struggle, accept it. Life is a tragedy, confront it. Life is an adventure, dare it. Life is luck, make it. Life is too precious, do not destroy it. Life is life, fight for it." Mother Teresa Catholic Nun, Missionary and Nobel Peace Prize Recipient * * * "To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is doing its best night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting." E. E. Cummings American Poet  * * * "Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumoured by many.  Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it." Buddha The "Enlightened One" * * * "The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, not to worry about the future, or not to anticipate troubles, but to live in the present moment wisely and earnestly." Buddha The "Enlightened One"

Smiling ... living life - to the fullest and owning it!