BEAUTY, IN ITS ORIGINAL FORM, IS LOVE.
You are splendid. You will never be unbeautiful.
Howard Attebery to Cynthia Riggs
Howard Attebery to Cynthia Riggs
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
- William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116
To make a final conquest of all me,
Love did compose so sweet an enemy,
In whom both beauties to my death agree,
Joining themselves in fatal harmony;
That while she with her eyes my heart does bind,
She with her voice might captivate my mind.
I could have fled from one but singly fair,
My disentangled soul itself might save,
Breaking the curled trammels of her hair.
But how should I avoid to be her slave,
Whose subtle art invisibly can wreath
My fetters of the very air I breathe?
It had been easy fighting in some plain,
Where victory might hang in equal choice,
But all resistance against her is vain,
Who has th’advantage both of eyes and voice,
And all my forces needs must be undone,
She having gained both the wind and sun.
- Andrew Marvell, The Fair Singer
Love did compose so sweet an enemy,
In whom both beauties to my death agree,
Joining themselves in fatal harmony;
That while she with her eyes my heart does bind,
She with her voice might captivate my mind.
I could have fled from one but singly fair,
My disentangled soul itself might save,
Breaking the curled trammels of her hair.
But how should I avoid to be her slave,
Whose subtle art invisibly can wreath
My fetters of the very air I breathe?
It had been easy fighting in some plain,
Where victory might hang in equal choice,
But all resistance against her is vain,
Who has th’advantage both of eyes and voice,
And all my forces needs must be undone,
She having gained both the wind and sun.
- Andrew Marvell, The Fair Singer
Mi muchacha salvaje, hemos tenido
que recobrar el tiempo
y marchar hacia atrás, en la distancia
de nuestras vidas, beso a beso,
recogiendo de un sitio lo que dimos
sin alegría, descubriendo en otro
el camino secreto
que iba acercando tus pies a los míos,
y así bajo mi boca
vuelves a ver la planta insatisfecha
de tu vida alargando sus raíces
hacia mi corazón que te esperaba.
- Pablo Neruda (excerpt, Ode and Burgeonings, III)
que recobrar el tiempo
y marchar hacia atrás, en la distancia
de nuestras vidas, beso a beso,
recogiendo de un sitio lo que dimos
sin alegría, descubriendo en otro
el camino secreto
que iba acercando tus pies a los míos,
y así bajo mi boca
vuelves a ver la planta insatisfecha
de tu vida alargando sus raíces
hacia mi corazón que te esperaba.
- Pablo Neruda (excerpt, Ode and Burgeonings, III)
the one who arrives after you
will remind me love is
supposed to be soft
he will taste
like the poetry
i wish I could write
- rupi kaur
will remind me love is
supposed to be soft
he will taste
like the poetry
i wish I could write
- rupi kaur
today is the day to unite
with your longing beloved
wait no more
for an unknown tomorrow
- Rumi
with your longing beloved
wait no more
for an unknown tomorrow
- Rumi
The Uses of Sorrow
(in my sleep I dreamed this poem)
Someone I loved once gave me
a boxful of darkness.
It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.
- Mary Oliver
(in my sleep I dreamed this poem)
Someone I loved once gave me
a boxful of darkness.
It took me years to understand
that this, too, was a gift.
- Mary Oliver
I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: I've loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.
- Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
- Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
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My longing for you -
Too strong to keep within bounds.
At least no one can blame me
When I go to you at night
Along the road of dreams.
- Ono No Komachi
Too strong to keep within bounds.
At least no one can blame me
When I go to you at night
Along the road of dreams.
- Ono No Komachi
To know for an hour you were mine completely-
Mine in body and soul, my own-
I would bear unending tortures sweetly,
With not a murmur and not a moan.
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Mine in body and soul, my own-
I would bear unending tortures sweetly,
With not a murmur and not a moan.
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.
- W. H. Auden
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.
- W. H. Auden
No te toque la noche ni el aire ni la aurora,
sólo la tierra, la virtud de los racimos,
las manzanas que crecen oyendo el agua pura,
el barro y las resinas de tu país fragante.
Desde Quinchamalí donde hicieron tus ojos
hasta tus pies creados para mí en la Frontera
eres la greda oscura que conozco:
en tus caderas toco de nuevo todo el trigo.
Tal vez tú no sabías, araucana,
que cuando antes de amarte me olvidé de tus besos
mi corazón quedó recordando tu boca,
y fui como un herido por las calles
hasta que comprendí que había encontrado,
amor, mi territorio de besos y volcanes.
- Pablo Neruda
sólo la tierra, la virtud de los racimos,
las manzanas que crecen oyendo el agua pura,
el barro y las resinas de tu país fragante.
Desde Quinchamalí donde hicieron tus ojos
hasta tus pies creados para mí en la Frontera
eres la greda oscura que conozco:
en tus caderas toco de nuevo todo el trigo.
Tal vez tú no sabías, araucana,
que cuando antes de amarte me olvidé de tus besos
mi corazón quedó recordando tu boca,
y fui como un herido por las calles
hasta que comprendí que había encontrado,
amor, mi territorio de besos y volcanes.
- Pablo Neruda
I love this moving form this universe
this body of the body
In her heart red sanctuary intensity never ceases
the infinite burns with a white flame
Love closes her eyes and the stars are lit
like deer that know the direction of the wind
I love this corporeality
this opening to a thousand suns and shadows
In her hands her trees her back
I feel the light trembling on my shoulders
- Pablo Neruda (translation)
this body of the body
In her heart red sanctuary intensity never ceases
the infinite burns with a white flame
Love closes her eyes and the stars are lit
like deer that know the direction of the wind
I love this corporeality
this opening to a thousand suns and shadows
In her hands her trees her back
I feel the light trembling on my shoulders
- Pablo Neruda (translation)
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You may not be touched by night, breeze or dawn glow;
but only by the earth, the virtue of the flowers,
the apples that grow hearing the pure water,
the soil and resins of your fragrant land.
From Quinchamalí where they created your eyes
to La Frontera where they made your feet for me,
you are the dark clay that I know well:
touching your hips I touch all the wheat again.
Perhaps you did not know, Arauca girl,
that when I forgot your kisses before I loved you
my heart still remembered your mouth,
and I staggered through the streets as though wounded
until I comprehended that I had found,
darling, my territory of kisses and volcanoes.
- Pablo Neruda
but only by the earth, the virtue of the flowers,
the apples that grow hearing the pure water,
the soil and resins of your fragrant land.
From Quinchamalí where they created your eyes
to La Frontera where they made your feet for me,
you are the dark clay that I know well:
touching your hips I touch all the wheat again.
Perhaps you did not know, Arauca girl,
that when I forgot your kisses before I loved you
my heart still remembered your mouth,
and I staggered through the streets as though wounded
until I comprehended that I had found,
darling, my territory of kisses and volcanoes.
- Pablo Neruda
One day I wrote her name upon the strand,
But came the waves and washéd it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
"Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalize;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise."
"Not so," (quod I) "let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name:
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.
- Edmund Spenser
But came the waves and washéd it away:
Again I wrote it with a second hand,
But came the tide, and made my pains his prey.
"Vain man," said she, "that dost in vain assay,
A mortal thing so to immortalize;
For I myself shall like to this decay,
And eke my name be wiped out likewise."
"Not so," (quod I) "let baser things devise
To die in dust, but you shall live by fame:
My verse your vertues rare shall eternize,
And in the heavens write your glorious name:
Where whenas death shall all the world subdue,
Our love shall live, and later life renew.
- Edmund Spenser
I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright
I arise from dreams of thee,
And a spirit in my feet
Has led me -- who knows how? --
To thy chamber-window, sweet!
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
In the first sweet sleep of night,
When the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining bright
I arise from dreams of thee,
And a spirit in my feet
Has led me -- who knows how? --
To thy chamber-window, sweet!
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
The trick of Love is to never let it find you,
It's easy to get over missing out.
- Jon McLaughlin, Indiana
It's easy to get over missing out.
- Jon McLaughlin, Indiana
If I hold you in my heart, you'll wither;
Become a thorn if I hold you in my eyes.
No, I'll make a place for you within my soul instead
So you'll be my love in lives beyond this life.
- Rumi
Become a thorn if I hold you in my eyes.
No, I'll make a place for you within my soul instead
So you'll be my love in lives beyond this life.
- Rumi
Seize the moments of happiness, love and be loved! That is the only reality in the world, all else is folly. It is the one thing we are interested in here.
- Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
- Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
Why lay yourself on the torturer’s rack of the past and future?
The mind that tries to shape tomorrow beyond its capacities
will find no rest.
Be kind to yourself, dear- to our innocent follies.
Forget any sounds or touch you knew that did not help you dance.
You will come to see that all evolves us.
If you put your heart against the earth with me, in serving
every creature, our Beloved will enter you from our sacred realm
and we will be, we will be
so happy.
- Rumi, That Lives in Us
The mind that tries to shape tomorrow beyond its capacities
will find no rest.
Be kind to yourself, dear- to our innocent follies.
Forget any sounds or touch you knew that did not help you dance.
You will come to see that all evolves us.
If you put your heart against the earth with me, in serving
every creature, our Beloved will enter you from our sacred realm
and we will be, we will be
so happy.
- Rumi, That Lives in Us
And now we're apart and you're just some stranger who knows all my secrets and all my family members and all my quirks and flaws and it doesn't make sense.
- Gaby Dunn
- Gaby Dunn
It's often enough just to be with someone. I don't need to touch them. Not even talk. A feeling passes between you both. You're not alone.
- Marilyn Monroe
- Marilyn Monroe
Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.
- Anaïs Nin
- Anaïs Nin
I want your sun to reach my raindrops, so your heat can raise my soul upward like a cloud.
- Rumi
- Rumi
Love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun, more last than star…
- E.E. Cummings
- E.E. Cummings
Never be without love,
or you will be dead.
Die with love and you remain alive.
- Rumi
or you will be dead.
Die with love and you remain alive.
- Rumi
It's a most distressing affliction to have a sentimental heart and a skeptical mind.
― Naguib Mahfouz, Sugar Street
― Naguib Mahfouz, Sugar Street
At some point you have to stop questioning and give yourself to the one truth that I’ve ever found salvation from, which is just love and being loved and accepting love and giving love. And life gets pretty simple when you do that.
- Sturgill Simpson
- Sturgill Simpson
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
- W.H. Auden
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
- W.H. Auden
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.
John Masefield, Sea Fever
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull’s way and the whale’s way where the wind’s like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick’s over.
John Masefield, Sea Fever
You have to keep breaking your heart until it opens.
― Rumi
― Rumi
Te doy mi alma desnuda,
Como estatua a la cual ningún cendal escuda.
Desnuda con el puro impudor
De un fruto, de una estrella o una flor;
De todas esas cosas que tienen la infinita
Serenidad de Eva antes de ser maldita.
De todas esas cosas,
Frutos, astros y rosas,
Que no sienten vergüenza del sexo sin celajes
Y a quienes nadie osara fabricarles ropajes.
Sin velos, como el cuerpo de una diosa serena
¡Que tuviera una intensa blancura de azucena!
Desnuda, y toda abierta de par en par
¡Por el ansia del amar!
- Juana Fernández Morales
Como estatua a la cual ningún cendal escuda.
Desnuda con el puro impudor
De un fruto, de una estrella o una flor;
De todas esas cosas que tienen la infinita
Serenidad de Eva antes de ser maldita.
De todas esas cosas,
Frutos, astros y rosas,
Que no sienten vergüenza del sexo sin celajes
Y a quienes nadie osara fabricarles ropajes.
Sin velos, como el cuerpo de una diosa serena
¡Que tuviera una intensa blancura de azucena!
Desnuda, y toda abierta de par en par
¡Por el ansia del amar!
- Juana Fernández Morales
In this world things are beautiful only because they are not quite seen, or not perfectly understood. Poetry is precious chiefly because it suggests more than it declares.
― Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her?
― Anthony Trollope, Can You Forgive Her?
Whatever happens,
those who have learned
to love one another
have made their way
to the lasting world
and will not leave,
whatever happens.
- Wendell Berry
those who have learned
to love one another
have made their way
to the lasting world
and will not leave,
whatever happens.
- Wendell Berry
... for Art
never wasted anything.
- Wendell Berry
never wasted anything.
- Wendell Berry
I am in love
with a man
who is gone now
hunting
for vision
His bones
know the
scent of it
His hands full of
intuition
and praise
What he lacks
he seeks
And I watch him
from my hill
As he treads
the countryside
and splits the great
and fertile valleys
like the hips of
a woman
he has loved
for centuries
in many forms
As an eagle
a warrior
a stone
I love him
Over there
Far from me
- Jewel Kilcher
with a man
who is gone now
hunting
for vision
His bones
know the
scent of it
His hands full of
intuition
and praise
What he lacks
he seeks
And I watch him
from my hill
As he treads
the countryside
and splits the great
and fertile valleys
like the hips of
a woman
he has loved
for centuries
in many forms
As an eagle
a warrior
a stone
I love him
Over there
Far from me
- Jewel Kilcher
That night is many years ago
And gone, and still I see you clear,
Clear as the lamplight in your hair.
The old time comes around me now,
And I remember how you glanced
At me, and how we stepped and swayed.
I can't forget the way we danced...
- Wendell Berry
And gone, and still I see you clear,
Clear as the lamplight in your hair.
The old time comes around me now,
And I remember how you glanced
At me, and how we stepped and swayed.
I can't forget the way we danced...
- Wendell Berry
Once, many days ago, we almost held it,
The love we so desired;
but our shut eyes saw not, and fate dispelled it
Before our pulses fired
To flame, and errant fortune bade us stand
Hand almost touching hand.
- Emily Pauline Johnson (aka Tekahionwake), Close By
The love we so desired;
but our shut eyes saw not, and fate dispelled it
Before our pulses fired
To flame, and errant fortune bade us stand
Hand almost touching hand.
- Emily Pauline Johnson (aka Tekahionwake), Close By
My life is a fault, at last, I fear:
It seems too much like a fate, indeed!
Though I do my best, I shall scarce succeed.
- Robert Browning
It seems too much like a fate, indeed!
Though I do my best, I shall scarce succeed.
- Robert Browning
in every breath
if you're the center
of your own desires
you'll lose the grace
of your beloved
but if in every breath
you blow away
your self claim
the ecstasy of love
will soon arrive
in every breath
if you're the center
of your own thoughts
the sadness of autumn
will fall on you
but if in every breath
you strip naked
just like a winter
the joy of spring
will grow from within
all your impatience
comes from the push
for gain of patience
let go of the effort
and peace will arrive
all your unfulfilled desires
are from your greed
for gain of fulfillments
let of of them all
and they will be sent as gifts
fall in love with
the agony of love
not the ecstasy
the the beloved
will fall in love with you
- Rumi
if you're the center
of your own desires
you'll lose the grace
of your beloved
but if in every breath
you blow away
your self claim
the ecstasy of love
will soon arrive
in every breath
if you're the center
of your own thoughts
the sadness of autumn
will fall on you
but if in every breath
you strip naked
just like a winter
the joy of spring
will grow from within
all your impatience
comes from the push
for gain of patience
let go of the effort
and peace will arrive
all your unfulfilled desires
are from your greed
for gain of fulfillments
let of of them all
and they will be sent as gifts
fall in love with
the agony of love
not the ecstasy
the the beloved
will fall in love with you
- Rumi
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
- Aristotle
- Aristotle
At the touch of love, everyone becomes a poet.
- Plato
- Plato
Soul meets soul on lovers' lips.
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Tis true, ‘tis day; what though it be?
O wilt thou therefore rise from me?
Why should we rise, because ‘tis light?
Did we lie down, because ‘twas night?
Love, which in spite of darkness brought us hither,
Should in despite of light keep us together.
- John Donne, Break of Day
O wilt thou therefore rise from me?
Why should we rise, because ‘tis light?
Did we lie down, because ‘twas night?
Love, which in spite of darkness brought us hither,
Should in despite of light keep us together.
- John Donne, Break of Day
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
-Lord Byron, She Walks in Beauty
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that’s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes;
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o’er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express,
How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.
And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!
-Lord Byron, She Walks in Beauty
Forlorn! the very word is like a bell
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?
-John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale
To toll me back from thee to my sole self!
Adieu! the fancy cannot cheat so well
As she is fam'd to do, deceiving elf.
Adieu! adieu! thy plaintive anthem fades
Past the near meadows, over the still stream,
Up the hill-side; and now 'tis buried deep
In the next valley-glades:
Was it a vision, or a waking dream?
Fled is that music:—Do I wake or sleep?
-John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale
how do i know
how i lost my way
i know for sure
i was all straight
before i was
seduced by love
- Rumi
how i lost my way
i know for sure
i was all straight
before i was
seduced by love
- Rumi
Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin. But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lacked anything.
- George Herbert, Love III
Guilty of dust and sin. But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lacked anything.
- George Herbert, Love III
Only one who has been undressed by Love,
is free of defect and desire.
- Rumi, Song of the Reed
is free of defect and desire.
- Rumi, Song of the Reed
"Most people think I'm crazy because I paint dance hall girls and clowns and whores. But that's where you find real character."
- Lust for Life by Irving Stone
- Lust for Life by Irving Stone
Let the more loving one be me.
- W.H. Auden
- W.H. Auden
I want a heart torn open with longing
to share the pain of this love.
-Rumi, Song of the Reed
to share the pain of this love.
-Rumi, Song of the Reed
We have fallen into the place
where everything is music.
-Rumi, Where Everything is Music
where everything is music.
-Rumi, Where Everything is Music
When my devotions could not pierce
Thy silent ears;
Then was my heart broken, as was my verse:
My breast was full of fears
And disorder:
My bent thoughts, like a brittle bow,
Did fly asunder:
Each took his way; some would to pleasures go,
Some to the wars and thunder
Of alarms.
As good go any where, they say,
As to benumb
Both knees and heart, in crying night and day,
Come, come, my God, O come,
But no hearing.
O that thou shouldst give dust a tongue
To cry to thee,
And then not hear it crying! all day long
My heart was in my knee,
But no hearing.
Therefore my soul lay out of sight,
Untuned, unstrung:
My feeble spirit, unable to look right,
Like a nipped blossom, hung
Discontented.
O cheer and tune my heartless breast,
Defer no time;
That so thy favors granting my request,
They and my mind may chime,
And mend my rime.
- George Herbert, Denial
Thy silent ears;
Then was my heart broken, as was my verse:
My breast was full of fears
And disorder:
My bent thoughts, like a brittle bow,
Did fly asunder:
Each took his way; some would to pleasures go,
Some to the wars and thunder
Of alarms.
As good go any where, they say,
As to benumb
Both knees and heart, in crying night and day,
Come, come, my God, O come,
But no hearing.
O that thou shouldst give dust a tongue
To cry to thee,
And then not hear it crying! all day long
My heart was in my knee,
But no hearing.
Therefore my soul lay out of sight,
Untuned, unstrung:
My feeble spirit, unable to look right,
Like a nipped blossom, hung
Discontented.
O cheer and tune my heartless breast,
Defer no time;
That so thy favors granting my request,
They and my mind may chime,
And mend my rime.
- George Herbert, Denial
Beauty surrounds us,
but usually we need to be walking
in a garden to know it.
- Rumi
but usually we need to be walking
in a garden to know it.
- Rumi
He is here, who was never gone
The water never left this river
He is pure musk, I his scent
Can you smell one without the other?
- Rumi
The water never left this river
He is pure musk, I his scent
Can you smell one without the other?
- Rumi
Before you, I was living on an island
And all around the seas of that lonely coast
Cast up their imitation jewels, cast
Their fables and enigmas, questioning, sly.
I never solved them, or ever even heard,
Being perfect in innocence: unconscious of self;
Such ignorance of history was all my wealth--
A geographer sleeping in the shadow of virgins.
But though my maps were made of private countries
I was a foreigner in all of them after you had come,
For when you spoke, it was with a human tongue
And never understood by my land-locked gentry.
Then did the sun shake down a million bells
And birds bloom on bough in wildest song!
Phlegmatic hills went shivering with flame;
The chestnut trees were manic at their deepest boles!
It is little strange that nature was riven in her frame
At this second creation, known to every lover--
How we are shaped and shape ourselves in the desires of the other
Within the tolerance of human change.
Out of the spring’s innocence this revolution,
Created on a kiss, announced the second season,
The summer of private history, of growth, through whose sweet sessions
The trees lift toward the sun, each leaf a revelation.
Our bodies, coupled in the moonlight’s album,
Proclaimed our love against the outlaw times
Whose signature was written in the burning towns.
Your face against the night was my medallion.
Your coming forth aroused unlikely trumpets
In the once-tame heart. They heralded your worth
Who are my lodestar, my bright and ultimate North,
Marrying all points of my personal compass.
- Tom McGrath
And all around the seas of that lonely coast
Cast up their imitation jewels, cast
Their fables and enigmas, questioning, sly.
I never solved them, or ever even heard,
Being perfect in innocence: unconscious of self;
Such ignorance of history was all my wealth--
A geographer sleeping in the shadow of virgins.
But though my maps were made of private countries
I was a foreigner in all of them after you had come,
For when you spoke, it was with a human tongue
And never understood by my land-locked gentry.
Then did the sun shake down a million bells
And birds bloom on bough in wildest song!
Phlegmatic hills went shivering with flame;
The chestnut trees were manic at their deepest boles!
It is little strange that nature was riven in her frame
At this second creation, known to every lover--
How we are shaped and shape ourselves in the desires of the other
Within the tolerance of human change.
Out of the spring’s innocence this revolution,
Created on a kiss, announced the second season,
The summer of private history, of growth, through whose sweet sessions
The trees lift toward the sun, each leaf a revelation.
Our bodies, coupled in the moonlight’s album,
Proclaimed our love against the outlaw times
Whose signature was written in the burning towns.
Your face against the night was my medallion.
Your coming forth aroused unlikely trumpets
In the once-tame heart. They heralded your worth
Who are my lodestar, my bright and ultimate North,
Marrying all points of my personal compass.
- Tom McGrath
The art of losing isn’t hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
- Elizabeth Bishop
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.
Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.
I lost my mother’s watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.
—Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident
the art of losing’s not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.
- Elizabeth Bishop
