Hold your venomDo you recognise the instinctin me, fellow scorpion?

We wrote our names in the sandYou crossed mine out: I can't getback to the way I was.

If onlyyou could have witnessed howmuch I have changed: sit alonein a disused theatre and feel whatI have felt, see how the world hastransformed me, like the metamorphosisof a caterpillar.

Where is my oasis? Too far fromhere for me to crawl with thesedead legs, refusing to co-operateHands and fingers clawing uselesslythrough the grains of sand...

I fix the cramped, lined pageswith my curious stare. How do youcome to exist?

It is just my imagination that flies, While she is wrapped up in her bedsheetslike a nest.

I want to towel off, leave my heart on this beach and walk the sand into a lake of stars, while never looking back.

I just work hard and do things as they come along. But it has been a challenge to learn that I have to say 'no' to things and to know how and what to prioritize.

Everything important I learned, I learned as a dishwasher.

Close your eyes and you will see.

Yet while on my trip to the Middle East, the London bombings occurred. This was yet another stark reminder that if we don't fight terrorists abroad, they just get closer to our home.

And the vision that I had when I decided to come here is all coming true. Through adversity, through everything we've been through, we've been able to persevere ... It's an unbelievable feeling.

Humans aren't as good as we should be in our capacity to empathize with feelings and thoughts of others, be they humans or other animals on Earth.

I’m frequently asked why I don’t write my memoirs. I think I have.

I write because I need to share my thoughts with the audience.

Let nothing disturb you, / Nothing dismay you; / All things are passing: / God never changes.