poem

The Madness of Love ~ Poem by Hadewijch of Antwerp

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The Madness of love

The madness of love
Is a rich fief;
Anyone who recognized this
Would not ask Love for anything else:
It can unite Opposites
And reverse the paradox.
I am declaring the truth about this:
The madness of love makes bitter what was sweet,
It makes the stranger a kinsman,
And it makes the smallest the most proud.

To souls who have not reached such love,
I give this good counsel:
If they cannot do more,
Let them beg Love for amnesty,
And serve with faith,
According to the counsel of noble Love,
And think: ‘It can happen,
Love’s power is so great!’
Only after his death
Is a man beyond cure.

– Hadewijch of Antwerp

Love’s Language ~ Poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Love’s Language

When silence flees before the voice of Love,
Of what expression does that god approve?
Is dulcet song or flowing verse his choice,
Or stately prose, made regal by his voice?
Speaks Love in couplets, or in epics grand?
And is Love humble, or does he command?

There is no language that Love does not speak:
To-day commanding and to-morrow meek,
One hour laconic and the next verbose,
With hope triumphant and with doubt morose,
His varying moods all forms of speech employ.
To give expression to his painful joy.

To voice the phases of his joyful pain,
He rings the changes on the poet’s strain.
Yet not in epic, epigram or verse
Can Love the passion of his heart rehearse.
All speech, all language, is inadequate,
There are no words with Love commensurate.

Will ~ Poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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You will be what you will to be;
   Let failure find its false content
   In that poor word “environment,”
But spirit scorns it, and is free.

It masters time, it conquers space,
   It cowes that boastful trickster Chance,
   And bids the tyrant Circumstance
Uncrown and fill a servant’s place.

The human Will, that force unseen,
   The offspring of a deathless Soul,
   Can hew the way to any goal,
Though walls of granite intervene.

Be not impatient in delay,
   But wait as one who understands;
   When spirit rises and commands,
The gods are ready to obey.

p. 95The river seeking for the sea
   Confronts the dam and precipice,
   Yet knows it cannot fail or miss;
You will be what you will to be!

The Stairway of Existence ~ Poem by Hafiz on Love

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The Stairway of Existence

We
Are not
In pursuit of formalities
Or fake religious
Laws,

For through the stairway of existence
We have come to God’s
Door.

We are
People who need to love, because
Love is the soul’s life,

Love is simply creation’s greatest joy.

Through
The stairway of existence,
O, through the stairway of existence, Hafiz

Have
You now come,
Have we all now come to
The Beloved’s
Door.

Unsubduded ~ Poem by S. E. Kiser

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  I have hoped, I have planned, I have striven,
    To the will I have added the deed;
  The best that was in me I’ve given,
    I have prayed, but the gods would not heed.

  I have dared and reached only disaster,
    I have battled and broken my lance;
  I am bruised by a pitiless master
    That the weak and the timid call Chance.

  I am old, I am bent, I am cheated
    Of all that Youth urged me to win;
  But name me not with the defeated,
    To-morrow again, I begin.

S.E. Kiser.

A Lowly Flower ~ Poem by Bay Sie T’Iao

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A Lowly Flower

BY BAY SIE T’IAO

T’ang Dynasty

A flowering grass I rise
From the side of a far-spread lake,
Whose waters lave and fertilize,
And all my thirsty tissues slake.
The dews of Spring with gentle power
Evolve my glossy emerald leaves;
The colours of my fragrant flower
The rime of early Autumn weaves.
And yet in trembling fear I grow,
Lest root and stem should be uptorn
By sudden storm or rushing flow,
And leave me helpless and forlorn.[106]
So here contented will I lie,
Although a plant of humble birth;
Nor try to soar to realms on high
Above the confines of the earth.
For never yet has living soul
By strength or wisdom changed his fate;
All things are under heaven’s control,
Who allocates to each his state.

The Rulers of Destiny ~ Poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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The Rulers of Destiny

There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,
Can circumvent, or hinder, or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul.
Gifts count for nothing; will alone is great;
All things give way before it soon or late.
What obstacle can stay the mighty force
Of the sea-seeking river in its course,
Or cause the ascending orb of day to wait?
Each well-born soul must win what it deserves.
Let the fool prate of luck. The fortunate
Is he whose earnest purpose never swerves,
Whose slightest action or inaction serves
The one great aim.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

A Mile With Me ~ Poem by Victor Hugo

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  O who will walk a mile with me
       Along life's merry way?
     A comrade blithe and full of glee,
     Who dares to laugh out loud and free,
     And let his frolic fancy play,
     Like a happy child, through the flowers gay
     That fill the field and fringe the way
       Where he walks a mile with me.

     And who will walk a mile with me
       Along life's weary way?
     A friend whose heart has eyes to see
     The stars shine out o'er the darkening lea,
     And the quiet rest at the end o' the day,—
     A friend who knows, and dares to say,
     The brave, sweet words that cheer the way
       Where he walks a mile with me.

     With such a comrade, such a friend,
     I fain would walk till journeys end,
     Through summer sunshine, winter rain,
     And then?—Farewell, we shall meet again!

The Pleasures of a Simple Life with Nature ~ Poem by Li-Shang-Lin

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The Pleasures of a Simple Life with Nature

By Li-Shang-Lin

On these pleasant hills residing,
Far from worldly din and strife,
Leisurely with nature living,
Here I pass a happy life.
Gently wave the bamboo copses,
Fanned by evening breezes light;
While the flowers and moon-beams mingle
In the ghostly hours of night.
Through ravines the waters gurgle,
Stemmed by scattered rock and stone;
Round the bends the footpath wanders—
By the mosses overgrown.
Here with friends and habits simple,
And a cup of generous wine,
Fingering lute and old songs singing—
For no other heaven I pine.

All Things Bright & Beautiful ~ Poem by Cecil Frances Alexander

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All Things Bright and Beautiful

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,—
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,—
He made their glowing colors,
He made their tiny wings.

The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate.

The purple-headed mountain,
The river running by,
The morning, and the sunset
That lighteth up the sky,

The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,—
He made them, every one.

The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows where we play,
The rushes by the water
We gather every day,—

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty,
Who hath made all things well.

Cecil Frances Alexander.

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