Walkers With the Dawn
Langston Hughes
Being walkers with the dawn and morning,
Walkers with the sun and morning,
We are not afraid of night,
Nor days of gloom,
Nor darkness–
Being walkers with the sun and morning.
Poets
Today’s Poem ~ Give Me Strength
Give Me Strength
Rabindranath Tagore
This is my prayer to thee, my lord—strike,
strike at the root of penury in my heart.
Give me the strength lightly to bear my joys and sorrows.
Give me the strength to make my love fruitful in service.
Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might.
Give me the strength to raise my mind high above daily trifles.
And give me the strength to surrender my strength to thy will with love.
Today’s Poem ~ There is Strength in Proving it Can be Borne
There is Strength in Proving it Can be Borne
by Emily Dickinson
There is strength in proving that it can be borne
Although it tear —
What are the sinews of such cordage for
Except to bear
The ship might be of satin had it not to fight —
To walk on seas requires cedar Feet
Although it tear —
What are the sinews of such cordage for
Except to bear
The ship might be of satin had it not to fight —
To walk on seas requires cedar Feet
Today’s Poem ~ The Key to Love
The Key to Love
Author Unknown
The key to love is understanding..
The ability to comprehend not only the spoken word
But those unspoken gestures
The little things that say so much by themselves.
The key to love is forgiveness..
To accept each others faults and pardon mistakes
Without forgetting, but with remembering
What you learn from them.
The key to love is sharing..
Facing your good fortunes as well as the bad, together
Both conquering problems, forever searching for ways
To intensify your happiness.
The key to love is giving..
Without thought of return
But with the hope of just a simple smile
And by giving in but never giving up.
The key to love is respect..
Realising that you are two separate people, with different ideas
That you don’t belong to each other
That you belong with each other, and share a mutual bond.
The key to love is inside us all..
It takes time and patience to unlock all the ingredients
That will take you to its threshold
It is the continual learning process that demands a lot of work..
But the rewards are more than worth the effort.
And that is the key to love.
Today’s Poem ~ Sonnet 29
Sonnet 29
William Shakespeare
When, in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state,
And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries,
And look upon myself, and curse my fate,
Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,
Featur’d like him, like him with friends possess’d,
Desiring this man’s art and that man’s scope,
With what I most enjoy contented least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,
Haply I think on thee, and then my state,
Like to the lark at break of day arising
From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven’s gate;
For thy sweet love remember’d such wealth brings
That then I scorn to change my state with kings.
Today’s Poem ~ The Madness of Love
The Madness of love
Hadewijch of Antwerp
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.
Today’s Poem ~ With That Moon Language
With That Moon Language
Hafiz
Admit something:
Everyone you see, you say to them, ‘Love me.’
Of course you do not do this out loud, otherwise
someone would call the cops.
Still, though, think about this, this great pull in us to connect.
Why not become the one who lives with a
full moon in each eye that is
always saying,
with that sweet moon language,
what every other eye in
this world is
dying to
hear?
Today’s Poem ~ Love’s Reality
Love’s Reality
Coventry Patmore
I walk.
I trust, with open eyes;
I’ve travelled half my worldly course;
And in the way behind me lies
Much vanity and some remorse;
I’ve lived to feel how pride may part
Spirits, tho’ matched like hand and glove;
I’ve blushed for love’s abode, the heart;
But have not disbelieved in love;
Nor unto love, sole mortal thing
Or worth immortal, done the wrongT
o count it, with the rest that sing,
Unworthy of a serious song;
And love is my reward: for now,
When most of dead’ning time complain,
The myrtle blooms upon my brow,
Its odour quickens all my brain.
Today’s Poem ~ Life
Life
Charlotte Bronte
LIFE, believe, is not a dream
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day.
Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall ?
Rapidly, merrily,
Life’s sunny hours flit by,
Gratefully, cheerily,
Enjoy them as they fly !
What though Death at times steps in
And calls our Best away ?
What though sorrow seems to win,
O’er hope, a heavy sway ?
Yet hope again elastic springs,
Unconquered, though she fell;
Still buoyant are her golden wings,
Still strong to bear us well.
Manfully, fearlessly,
The day of trial bear,
For gloriously, victoriously,
Can courage quell despair !
Today’s Poem ~ The Character of a Happy Life
The Character of a Happy Life
Sir Henry Wotton
How happy is he born or taught
That serveth not another’s will,
Whose armor is his honest thought,
And simple truth his highest skill;
Whose passions not his masters are;
Whose soul is still prepared for death,
Untied unto the world with care
Of princes’ grace or vulgar breath;
Who envies none whom chance doth raise,
Or vice; who never understood
The deepest wounds are given by praise,
By rule of state but not of good;
Who hath his life from rumours freed,
Whose conscience is his strong retreat,
Whose state can neither flatterers feed
Nor ruins make accusers great;
Who God doth late and early pray
More of his grace than goods to send,
And entertains the harmless dayW
ith a well-chosen book or friend.
This man is free from servile bands
Of hope to rise or fear to fall,
Lord of himself, though not of lands,
And having nothing, yet hath all.
