In spite of war, in spite of death,
In spite of all man's sufferings,
Something within me laughs and sings
And I must praise with all my breath.
In spite of war, in spite of hate
Lilacs are blooming at my gate,
Tulips are tripping down the path
In spite of war, in spite of wrath.
"Courage!" the morning-glory saith;
"Rejoice!" the daisy murmureth,
......
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.
......
Life is a privilege. Its youthful days
Shine with the radiance of continuous Mays.
To live, to breathe, to wonder and desire,
To feed with dreams the heart’s perpetual fire,
To thrill with virtuous passions, and to glow
With great ambitions – in one hour to know
The depths and heights of feeling – God! in truth,
How beautiful, how beautiful is youth!
Life is a privilege. Like some rare rose
......
GREAT are the myths--I too delight in them;
Great are Adam and Eve--I too look back and accept them;
Great the risen and fallen nations, and their poets, women, sages,
inventors, rulers, warriors, and priests.
Great is Liberty! great is Equality! I am their follower;
Helmsmen of nations, choose your craft! where you sail, I sail,
I weather it out with you, or sink with you.
Great is Youth--equally great is Old Age--great are the Day and
Night;
......
Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
Sailed off in a wooden shoe,--
Sailed on a river of misty light
Into a sea of dew.
"Where are you going, and what do you wish?"
The old moon asked the three.
"We have come to fish for the herring-fish
That live in this beautiful sea;
Nets of silver and gold have we,"
Said Wynken,
......
They say the waves at the shore, where foam meets the sand,
That once upon a time, no foam there did stand.
Until an old blind woman, knitting night and day,
Her sorrows and her joys of life in thread would lay,
Showed them to the sea, and the sea, in envy’s gleam,
Took up those crafts and donned them as foam’s white seam.
Upon the wet sand lay a ragged patchwork old,
Just enough for Tasso’s to sit, cross-legged and bold,
Knitting with her needles, tirelessly she toiled,
......
SEA WANTS ME
Waves are here for the winners
spirals floating in turquoise
dance ululating undulating
blue bright sight
a point with paddle board
to soar sanguine Seas
I know not whether I’m
merman or beach sand speck
......
TURTLE DOVE
A turtle dove
I landed on your chest
widened the jagged crack
Your Heart chambers shivered
quiet silver ripples in a
tender Garden of Eden
Watching me, your son
......
Scarlet sun peeks through
a slit in darkling storm clouds.
Butterflies go home.
Sky meets sea at plum border
as pink moon trails, in order.
Sea are you like a Creek?
Or are you more like a Flood?
Don’t worry I'll tell thee
you’re much like humankind
childlike like a Creek you start
come the dark times and into a flood you grow up
A Flood that seems to swallow everything whole
Ferocious and evil you will become
Lose the empathy for nature and all