tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77696000079752207442024-03-08T13:41:11.197-08:00Poems Most PersonalCollecting my favorite poems in one place.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-59184351070150669152016-05-24T19:21:00.000-07:002016-05-24T19:21:02.431-07:00FAMOUS<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">by Naomi Shihab Nye b. 1952</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The river is famous to the fish. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The loud voice is famous to silence, </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">which knew it would inherit the earth </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">before anybody said so. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The cat sleeping on the fence is famous to the birds </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">watching him from the birdhouse. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The idea you carry close to your bosom </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">is famous to your bosom. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The boot is famous to the earth, </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">more famous than the dress shoe, </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">which is famous only to floors. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">and not at all famous to the one who is pictured. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I want to be famous to shuffling men </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">who smile while crossing streets, </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">sticky children in grocery lines, </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">famous as the one who smiled back. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" /></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular, </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; text-indent: -1em; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-size: large;">but because it never forgot what it could do.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: x-small; line-height: 24px;">See also </span><span style="background-color: transparent; line-height: 24px;"><span style="color: #404040; font-family: Georgia, Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;">http://shenandoahliterary.org/blog/2014/10/famous-by-naomi-shihab-nye/</span></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-85947211464893127302016-05-20T12:59:00.002-07:002016-05-20T14:04:20.967-07:00THE WAY IT IS<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">by William Stafford</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There's a thread you follow. It goes among </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">things that change. But it doesn't change. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">People wonder about what you are pursuing. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">You have to explain about the thread. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But it is hard for others to see. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">While you hold it you can't get lost. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">T</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">ragedies happen; people get hurt or die; </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">and you suffer and get old. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Nothing you do can stop time's unfolding. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">You don't ever let go of the thread.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-7250745311356434022016-05-17T10:48:00.003-07:002016-05-17T10:48:51.382-07:00IT IS I WHO MUST BEGIN<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">by Vaclav Havel</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Once I begin, once I try</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">here and now,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">right where I am,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">not excusing myself</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">by saying that things</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">would be easier elsewhere,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">without grand speeches and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">ostentatious gestures,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">but all the more persistently</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">-to live in harmony</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">with the "voice of Beings"' as I</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">understand it within myself</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">-as soon as I begin that,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I suddenly discover,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">to my surprise, that</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am neither the only one,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">nor the first,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">nor the most important one</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">to have set out</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">upon that road. ...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Whether all is really lost</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">or not depends entirely on</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">whether or not I am lost. ...</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-20479601617463320272016-03-07T10:17:00.003-08:002016-03-07T10:17:44.855-08:00East Cokerby T. S. Eliot<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years--</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Twenty years largely wasted, the years of <i>l'entre deux guerres</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Trying to learn to use words, and every attempt</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Because one has only learnt to get the better of words</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>One is no longer disposed to say it, and so each venture</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>With shabby equipment always deteriorating</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>By strength and submission, has already been discovered</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>To emulate--but there is no competition--</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>There is only the fight to recover what has been lost</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.</b></span><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-48599900307335631262016-03-07T10:08:00.001-08:002016-03-07T10:08:43.485-08:00Three Short Selections<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Making Contact</u></span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">by Virginia Satir</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">I believe</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The greatest gift</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I can conceive of having</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">from anyone</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to be seen by them,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">heard by them,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to be understood </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and touched by them.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">The greatest gift</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I can give</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">is</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">to see, hear, understand</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">and to touch</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">another person.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">When this is done</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">I feel </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">contact has been made.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">From the book Teaching With Fire</span><br />
*****************************************************<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u>From Teaching a Stone to Talk </u></span> by Annie Dillard<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">In the deeps are the violence and terror of which psychology has warned us. But if you ride these monsters deeper down, if you drop with them farther over the world's rim, you find what our sciences cannot locate or name, the substrate, the ocean or matrix or ether which buoys the rest, which gives goodness its power for good, and evil its power for evil, the unified field: our complex and inexplicable caring for each other, and for our life together here. This is given. It is not learned.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">******************************************</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">And one for John:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><u>Make Music With Your Life</u></span> by Bob O'Meally<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Make music with your life</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">a</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> jagged</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">silver tune</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">cuts every deepday madness</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Into jewels that you wear</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">Carry 16 bars of old blues</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">wit/you</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">everywhere you go</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">walk thru azure sadness</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">howlin</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Like a guitar player</span><br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-55845908731314349772016-02-02T14:00:00.001-08:002016-02-02T14:05:02.820-08:00Go to the Limits of your Longing<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>by Rainer Maria Rilke</i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">God speaks to each of us as he makes us,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />then walks with us silently out of the night.</span></em></div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">These are the words we dimly hear:</span></em></div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">You, sent out beyond your recall,<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />go to the limits of your longing.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Embody me.</span></em></div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">Flare up like a flame<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />and make big shadows I can move in.</span></em></div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Just keep going. No feeling is final.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />Don't let yourself lose me.</span></em></div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">Nearby is the country they call life.<br style="box-sizing: border-box;" />You will know it by its seriousness.</span></em></div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">Give me your hand.</span></em><br />
<em style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></em></div>
<div style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; font-family: 'Chronicle Text', Georgia, serif; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.28; margin-bottom: 0.875em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Book of Hours, I 59</span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-38705590743281970472016-01-25T09:27:00.005-08:002016-01-25T09:27:57.042-08:00The Bare Tree<span style="font-size: x-small;">by Samuel Menashe American, b. 1925</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;"> My mother once said to me, "When one sees</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">the tree in leaf one thinks the beauty of the tree</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;">is in its leaves, and then one sees the bare tree."</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #20124d; font-size: xx-small;">Dedicated to my family of trees. M.E.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-42199752493604381862016-01-25T09:03:00.000-08:002016-01-25T09:49:13.380-08:00Lost<span style="font-size: x-small;">by David Wagoner, American, b. 1926</span><br />
<span style="color: #783f04; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="color: #783f04; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> beside you</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Must ask permission to know it and be known.</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have made this place around you.</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you leave it, you may come back again, saying</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Here.</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">No two trees are the same to Raven.</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">No two branches are the same to Wren.</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Where you are. You must let it find you. </span><br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-6493676988427459102016-01-24T21:07:00.001-08:002016-01-24T21:07:24.119-08:00The Peace of Wild Things<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">by Wendell Berry, born 1934-</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When despair for the world grows in me</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">and I wake in the night at the least sound</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">in fear of what my life and my children's lives</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> may be,</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I go and lie down where the wood drake</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">rests in his beauty on the water, and the great</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> heron feeds.</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I come into the peace of wild things</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">who do not tax their lives with forethought</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">of grief. I come into the presence of still water.</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And I feel above me the day-blind stars</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">waiting with their light. For a time</span><br />
<span style="color: #20124d; font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-84171122150062649202016-01-24T20:58:00.000-08:002016-01-24T21:08:24.885-08:00When He Heard the Owls at Midnight<h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">From <u>The Song of Hiawatha</u>, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</span></h3>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> When he heard the owls at midnight</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hooting, laughing in the forest,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"What is that?" he said, "Nokomis?"</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And the good Nokomis answered:</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">That is but the owl and owlet,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Talking in their native language,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Talking, scolding at each other." </span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Then the little Hiawatha</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Learned of every bird its language,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Learned their names and all their secrets,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">How they built their nests in Summer,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Where they hid themselves in Winter,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Talked with them whene'er he met them,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Call them "Hiawatha's Chickens."</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Of all beasts he learned the language,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Learned their names and all their secrets,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">How the beavers built their lodges,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Where the squirrels hid their acorns,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">How the reindeer ran so swiftly,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Why the rabbit was so timid,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Talked with them whene'er he met them,</span><br />
<span style="color: #274e13; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Called them "Hiawatha's Brothers."</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-45308441382457514542014-05-28T19:34:00.000-07:002014-05-28T19:34:44.600-07:00First Place in the Poetry SlamToday's poem is very special and personal. It was written by a 7th grader at Ecker Hill Middle School on the spur of the moment to enter the school poetry slam.<br />
He won first place and the approval of his English teacher, as well as the admiration of his grandmother....me.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is the time,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The time where the future generation moves on.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Out of the nest,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Learning to fly,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Joining the whole as a true citizen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Responsibilities will come up</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And slap you in the face,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But you just have to get up</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And keep moving.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Because life is a test,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A test of character,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A test of responsibility,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A test of who you are.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And that is all life will ever be.</span><br />
<br />
by Will Watkins<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-91014796937518746072014-04-29T13:34:00.003-07:002014-04-29T13:35:48.692-07:00My Thanks Come Easily--At Times <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My thanks come easily</span><br />
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When my fortunes rise</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And my will is King</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And all the world seems my estate.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My thanks come easily such times.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But wait...</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today, let me reflect</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Upon those thanks I owe</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But which I find</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Express themselves less fluently.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Today, let me remember to give thanks,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Not only for the sunlight,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But for those darker hours</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That teach Fortitude.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let me profess, today, a grateful heart,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Not merely for successes I may know,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But as truly for those failures</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That teach Humility.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let me express my gratitude</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For all those petty, inner conflicts</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Which, once resolved, breed new Serenity,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And for those small, distressing fears</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That have their ways of building Hope.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let me breathe appreciation</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">For all those poignant slights</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That teach me Thoughtfulness,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And for each violated trust</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That leaves Loyalty as its lesson.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And let me not forget, today</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">To whisper thanks for these:</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The contempt that teaches Pity,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The tear that teaches Joy,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The pain that teaches Mercy,</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And the loneliness that teaches Love.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, now...</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Let me reflect upon these thanks I owe...</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And let my thanks come easily today.</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">--Bernard J. Patrick</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-30218316269844077222014-02-21T15:18:00.000-08:002014-02-21T15:18:06.763-08:00Clothesline by Marilyn Maciel<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">i</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">you</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">us</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">them</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">those people</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">wouldn't it be lovely</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">if one could</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">live</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">in a constant state</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">of we ?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">some of the most</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">commonplace</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">words</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">can be some of the biggest</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">dividers</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">they</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">what if there was </span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">no they ?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">what if there was only</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">us?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">if words could be seen</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">as they float out</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">of our mouths</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">would we feel no</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">shame</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">as they passed beyond</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">our lips ?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">if we were to string</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">our words</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">on a communal clothesline</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">would we feel proud</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">as our thoughts</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">flapped in the</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">breeze ?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I found this delightful poem in a book by Patti Digh titled</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Life is a Verb. It is very thought-provoking, yes?</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-63485244560841913672014-02-10T08:30:00.002-08:002014-02-10T08:30:48.645-08:00A Tribute to Mothers <u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Woman with the Wild-Grown Hair </span></u><br />
<u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Relaxes after Another Long Day</span></u><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">by Nita Penfold</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">After she drives her younger daughter to school, struggling</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">to get the wheelchair out without running over her foot and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">the car stalls for the fifth time as she leaves because of</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">the cracked distributor cap;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">after she meets the new cashier's stare over her food stamps</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">at the Star Market going to buy soda crackers and soup and</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">gingerale for another daughter who is home sick after</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">throwing up her entire dinner in the middle of the night;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">after she exchanges babysitting for their rent in the main house</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">downstairs with the sweet fat/baby and blonde sister who owns</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">nine Little Ponies in the pink castle and a Pig-Faced Doll</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">with its very own brass bed;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">after she lugs out the deep steel pot to catch the rain dripping</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">from the skylight and kills the horde of fungus/gnats in the</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">bathroom with their thin wings splayed against the white walls</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">like Christmas miniatures of squashed angels;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">after she spends an hour with the child psychologist explaining</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">why she thinks her marriage failed and how it has affected</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">the children's lives and she wonders aloud if she can take</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">much more of this and still be able to write poems;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">after the dishes, the laundry, the second daughter's throwing-up,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">after trying to scrub the permanent ring out of the clawfoot tub </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">and fixing the cabinet door so it won't scrape the wall when </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">it opens;</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">after all of this, she soaks in bubbled bathwater and thinks of</span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Job's unnamed wife, caught between a righteous husband and his</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">war between God and Satan--how that woman must have tried to</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">smother the heavenly fire with her mantle as it destroyed their </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">sheep and servants, and--fiercely--dug at the stones that killed</span></i><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>her ten children when the great </i><i>wind breathed from the wilderness</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>to topple their home, how she t</i><i>ended Job's sores, washing him</i></span><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">gently with cool water, soothing the flame of Satan's tongue,</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">comforting him, and how she stood alone while he debated his</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">faith with God, proved himself again worthy to give this wife </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">another ten children to raise.</span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">As she rubs her tight thighs with a worn washcloth, she thinks</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">about the faith of women creating foundations out of their flesh,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">becoming the anonymous survivors of daily battles,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">that never seem to win the war.<i> </i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-14230626092468674272014-02-08T18:43:00.000-08:002014-02-08T18:43:11.618-08:00A Billy Collins Favorite<br />
<div style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
<u>Forgetfulness</u></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>The name of the author is the first to go<br />followed obediently by the title, the plot,<br />the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel<br />which suddenly becomes one you have never read,<br />never even heard of,<br /><br />as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor<br />decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,<br />to a little fishing village where there are no phones.<br /><br />Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye<br />and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,<br />and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,<br /><br />something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,<br />the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.<br /><br />Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,<br />it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,<br />not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.<br /><br />It has floated away down a dark mythological river<br />whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,<br />well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those<br />who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.<br /><br />No wonder you rise in the middle of the night<br />to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.<br />No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted<br />out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.</b></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-87780881406566747172014-01-14T09:41:00.002-08:002014-01-14T11:34:21.842-08:00What is your definition of Kindness?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 20.66666603088379px;">This poem by Naomi Shihab Nye, is one of my all-time favorites which I like to revisit frequently. It should be memorized and recited often, IMHO. I have also been pondering what kindness means to me. I want to add that kindness is often the little things, like acknowledging emails and texts with small signs, like a happy face, things that let people know you see them, or you hear them, and they matter in your life. Even a "Like" on a Facebook page, or a simple smile at a stranger can be a moment of kindness. "Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things." (Robert Brault) More and more, as I age, kindness seems like the "little things". This poem also has a generous amount of compassion, which comes through age and experience. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<strong><span style="background-color: #f7f7f4; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></strong></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<strong><span style="background-color: #f7f7f4; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Kindness</span></strong><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 13.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
</span><span style="background-color: #f7f7f4; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Before you know
what kindness really is</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">you must lose
things,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">feel the future dissolve
in a moment</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">like salt in a
weakened broth.</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">What you held in
your hand,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">what you counted
and carefully saved,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">all this must go so
you know</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">how desolate the
landscape can be</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">between the regions
of kindness.</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">How you ride and
ride</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">thinking the bus
will never stop,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">the passengers
eating maize and chicken</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">will stare out the
window forever.</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">Before you learn
the tender gravity of kindness,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">you must travel
where the Indian in a white poncho</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">lies dead by the
side of the road.</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">You must see how
this could be you,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">how he too was
someone</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">who journeyed
through the night with plans</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">and the simple
breath that kept him alive.</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">Before you know
kindness as the deepest thing inside,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">you must know
sorrow as the other deepest thing.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">You must wake up
with sorrow.</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">You must speak to
it till your voice</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">catches the thread
of all sorrows</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">and you see the
size of the cloth.</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">Then it is only
kindness that makes sense anymore,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">only kindness that
ties your shoes</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">and sends you out
into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">only kindness that
raises its head</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">from the crowd of
the world to say</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">it is I you have
been looking for,</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">and then goes with
you everywhere</span><br />
<span style="background: #F7F7F4;">like a shadow or a
friend.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #f7f7f4; font-family: 'Arial Narrow', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #f7f7f4; font-family: 'Arial Narrow', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: #f7f7f4; font-family: 'Arial Narrow', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">"Kindness"
by Naomi Shihab Nye</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">,</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-color: #f7f7f4; font-family: 'Arial Narrow', sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> from</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-style: inherit;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "Arial Narrow","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; padding: 0in;">The
Words Under the Words: Selected Poems</span></span>.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"> ©
Eighth Mountain Press, 1995. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-66675609510061687252014-01-01T08:12:00.003-08:002014-01-01T08:12:53.425-08:00HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014<i><span style="font-size: large;">A new year is always a chance to "Do Over". We are standing on a threshold of hope. We don't get that opportunity very often. We have to be responsible for what we have created based on our choices, and sometimes it's not very pretty. </span></i><br />
<i><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></i>
<i><span style="font-size: large;">Every January 1st we get to review, release and recreate aspects of our selves on our journey of discovery and awakening. In the musical, Scrooge, there is a song that sums up this determination to be a more intentional human than we have been in the past. While it is probably not the best poetry, it's meaning is focused and pertinent. Enjoy your journey of creating the best self you desire as you begin again with renewed hope.</span></i><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> <u>I'll Begin Again</u></span><br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; font-size: x-small; text-align: -webkit-center;">Scrooge: </span><br />
<span style="color: #990000; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;"> </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I'll begin again </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I will build my life </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I will live to know </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I fulfilled my life </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I'll begin today </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">Throw away the past </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">And the future I build </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">Will be something that will last </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I will take the time </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">That I have left to live </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">And I'll give it all </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">That I have left to give </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I will live my days </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">For my fellow men </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">And I'll live in praise </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">Of that moment when </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I was able to begin again </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I'll begin again </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I will change my fate </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I will show the world </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">That it is not too late </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I will never stop </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">While I still have time </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">'Till I stand at the top </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">Of the mountain I must climb </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I will start anew </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I will make amends </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">And I will make quite certain </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">That the story ends </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">On a note of hope </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">On a strong amen </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">And I'll thank the world </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">And remember when </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I was able to begin again </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana; text-align: -webkit-center;">I'll begin again! </span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-91818939847902035832013-11-21T08:22:00.000-08:002013-11-21T08:22:41.659-08:00SELF-PORTRAIT<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Many people have heard Oriah Mountain Dreamer's more famous version of this, called The Invitation, which begins, "It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know..."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">She does attribute her poem to David Whyte's original as her seed thought. Here is his poem.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Self-Portrait</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">by David Whyte</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">It doesn't interest me if there is one God </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">or many gods.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I want to know if you belong or feel </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">abandoned,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">if you can know despair or see it in others.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I want to know</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">if you are prepared to live in the world</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">with its harsh need</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">to change you. If you can look back</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">with firm eyes, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">saying this is where I stand. I want to know</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">if you know</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">how to melt into that fierce heat of living,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">falling toward</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">the center of your longing. I want to know</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">if you are willing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">to live, day by day, with the consequence of love</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">and the bitter</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">unwanted passion of your sure defeat.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I have heard, in that fierce embrace, even</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">the gods speak of God.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-68555828982826288122013-10-22T19:32:00.001-07:002013-10-22T19:32:43.997-07:00I Am Too Alone <h1 style="font-size: 18px; margin: 2px 0px 20px; text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;">by Rainer Maria Rilke</span></h1>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am too alone in the world, and not alone
enough <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to make every minute holy.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I am too tiny in this world, and not tiny
enough <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">just to lie before you like a thing,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">shrewd and secretive.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I want my own will, and I want simply to be
with my will, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">as it goes toward action, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and in the silent, sometimes hardly moving
times <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">when something is coming near,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I want to be with those who know secret things <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">or else alone.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I want to be a mirror for your whole body,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">and I never want to be blind, or to be too old<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">to hold up your old and swaying picture.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I want to unfold.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I don't want to stay folded anywhere, <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">because where I am folded, there I am a lie.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And I want my grasp of things <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">true before you. I want to describe myself <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">like a painting that I looked at<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">closely for a long time,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">like a saying that I finally understood,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">like the pitcher I use every day, like the face
of my mother,<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">like a ship that took me safely<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<i><span style="background: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Microsoft Tai Le","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">through the wildest storm of all.</span></i><i><span style="font-family: 'Microsoft Tai Le', sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
</div>
<div class="poembody" style="margin: 0px;">
<pre><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">from </span></span></span></pre>
<pre><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000;">Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, </span></span></pre>
<pre><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">translated by Robert Bly (Harper & Row, </span></span></pre>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-33466467783901058762013-10-08T10:18:00.000-07:002013-10-22T19:33:28.562-07:00Edna St. Vincent Millay This is the final stanza in the long poem <i style="text-decoration: underline;">Renascence</i>, which is a beautiful piece of writing. <br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #000020;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The world stands out
on either side<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #000020;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No wider than the
heart is wide;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #000020;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Above the world is
stretched the sky,—<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #000020;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">No higher than the
soul is high.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #000020;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The heart can push
the sea and land<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #000020;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Farther away on
either hand;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #000020;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The soul can split
the sky in two,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #000020;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And let the face of
God shine through.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #000020;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">But East and West will
pinch the heart<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #000020;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That can not keep
them pushed apart;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #000020;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And he whose soul is
flat—the sky<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 0in 0in 0in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #000020;"><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Will cave in on him
by and by.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-61803196532999398772013-08-24T12:34:00.001-07:002013-08-24T12:34:56.943-07:00Rabindranath Tagore<h2 class="title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #f88000; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.583em; margin: 42px 0px 12px;">
Where The Mind Is Without Fear</h2>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 18px; margin-top: 20px; min-height: 570px;">
<div class="KonaBody">
<div style="font-size: 1.167em; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 21px; margin-top: 12px;">
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high<br />Where knowledge is free<br />Where the world has not been broken up into fragments<br />By narrow domestic walls<br />Where words come out from the depth of truth<br />Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection<br />Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way<br />Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit<br />Where the mind is led forward by thee<br />Into ever-widening thought and action<br />Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake </div>
</div>
<div class="poet" itemprop="author" style="color: black; font-size: 1.417em; margin: 22px 0px 25px;">
Rabindranath Tagore</div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-64416182629823163932013-08-21T19:36:00.001-07:002013-08-21T19:36:26.440-07:00WEATHERINGby Fleur Adcock<br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: grey; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Literally thin-skinned, I suppose, my face<br />catches the wind off the snow-line and flushes<br />with a flush that will never wholly settle. Well:<br />that was a metropolitan vanity,<br />wanting to look young for ever, to pass.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: grey; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was never a pre-Raphaelite beauty<br />nor anything but pretty enough to satisfy<br />men who need to be seen with passable women.<br />But now that I am in love with a place<br />which doesn’t care how I look, or if I’m happy,</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: grey; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">happy is how I look, and that’s all.<br />My hair will grow grey in any case,<br />my nails chip and flake, my waist thicken,<br />and the years work all their usual changes.<br />If my face is to be weather-beaten as well</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: grey; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">that’s little enough lost, a fair bargain<br />for a year among the lakes and fells, when simply<br />to look out of my window at the high pass<br />makes me indifferent to mirrors and to what<br />my soul may wear over its new complexion.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: grey; line-height: 1.4; margin-bottom: 1em;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-66368437425690146342013-08-20T17:38:00.002-07:002013-08-20T17:40:02.419-07:00SEE PARIS FIRST by M. Truman Cooper <div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Suppose that what you fear<br />could be trapped,<br />and held in Paris.<br />Then you would have<br />the courage to go<br />everywhere in the world.<br />All the directions of the compass<br />open to you,<br />except the degrees east or west<br />of true north<br />that lead to Paris.<br />Still, you wouldn’t dare<br />put your toes<br />smack dab on the city limit line.<br />You’re not really willing<br />to stand on a mountainside<br />miles away<br />and watch the Paris lights<br />come up at night.<br />Just to be on the safe side<br />you decide to stay completely<br />out of France.<br />But then danger<br />seems too close<br />even to those boundaries,<br />and you feel<br />the timid part of you<br />covering the whole globe again.<br />You need the kind of friend<br />who learns your secret and says,<br />"See Paris first."</span></b></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-50630211105097180562013-08-20T17:28:00.001-07:002013-08-20T17:28:06.712-07:00CLEARING by Martha Postlewaite<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Do not try to save the whole world</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">or do anything grandiose.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Instead, create</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">a clearing</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">in the dense forest</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">of your life</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">and wait there patiently</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">until the song</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">that is your life</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">falls into your own cupped hands</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">and you recognize and greet it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Only then will you know</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">how to give yourself</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">to this world</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: large;">so worthy of rescue.</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7769600007975220744.post-85718746471546445672013-07-13T11:26:00.002-07:002013-07-13T11:26:44.757-07:00A Walk by Rainier Maria Rilke<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #17365d; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB', sans-serif; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">A Walk<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #17365d; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB', sans-serif; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">My eyes already touch the sunny
hill,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #17365d; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB', sans-serif; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">going far ahead of the road I
have begun.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #17365d; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB', sans-serif; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">So we are grasped by what we
cannot grasp;<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #17365d; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB', sans-serif; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">it has inner light, even from a distance-<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #17365d; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB', sans-serif; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">and charges us, even if we do
not reach it, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #17365d; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB', sans-serif; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">into something else, which, hardly
sensing it, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #17365d; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB', sans-serif; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">we already are; a gesture waves
us on<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #17365d; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB', sans-serif; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">answering our own wave...<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #17365d; font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB', sans-serif; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">but what we feel is the wind
in our faces.</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #17365d; font-family: "Berlin Sans FB","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">R.M. Rilke<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #17365d; font-family: "Berlin Sans FB","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Translated by Robert Bly</span><span style="font-family: 'Berlin Sans FB', sans-serif; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #17365d; font-family: "Berlin Sans FB","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #17365d; font-family: "Berlin Sans FB","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">(My note: Although I believe the translation and printing to be accurate,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #17365d; font-family: "Berlin Sans FB","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;"> the word "charges" seems to want to be "changes". Can't confirm either way.)</span></div>
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