Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
Sing, and the hills will answer;
Sigh, it is lost on the air.
The echoes bound to a joyful sound,
But shrink from voicing care.
Rejoice, and men will seek you;
......
With no companion to my mood,
Against the wind as it should be,
I walk, but in my solitude
Bow to the wind that buffets me.
You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it--it's the
only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks
your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually
drunk.
But on what?Wine, poetry or virtue, as you wish. But be
drunk.
And if sometimes, on the steps of a palace or the green grass of
a ditch, in the mournful solitude of your room, you wake again,
drunkenness already diminishing or gone, ask the wind, the wave,
the star, the bird, the clock, everything that is flying, everything
......
The Frost performs its secret ministry,
Unhelped by any wind. The owlet's cry
Came loud--and hark, again ! loud as before.
The inmates of my cottage, all at rest,
Have left me to that solitude, which suits
Abstruser musings : save that at my side
My cradled infant slumbers peacefully.
'Tis calm indeed ! so calm, that it disturbs
And vexes meditation with its strange
And extreme silentness. Sea, hill, and wood,
......
How vainly men themselves amaze
To win the Palm, the Oke, or Bayes;
And their uncessant Labours see
Crown'd from some single Herb or Tree,
Whose short and narrow verged Shade
Does prudently their Toyles upbraid;
While all Flow'rs and all Trees do close
To weave the Garlands of repose.
Fair quiet, have I found thee here,
......
My emotional ineptitude has led me to intellectual escapism,
My numb body is ironed by the oppressive walls of an inhumane job,
My troubled sleep has been ongoing for so long,
Occasionally I get to revel in a fleeting reprieve,
The entire world seems devoid of meaning
Loneliness has seeped into every pore of my being,
Everyone seems so distant, so emotionally unavailable,
There's no more hope in me,
Do I find strength in my alienating solitude?
There's no meaning in suffering,
......
walking through sunset
vividly i see a beauty if forms
i breathe and think — inhaling the dirty air
which brushes past against my skin
envisaging a life that one may please
to have . . .
all stones crushing beneath my feet
nothing i feel but a heart-clenching sore
misty-eyed as i reminisce
......
I did not sing today.
I walked long,
But there was no song
As I went about my way.
I did not talk today.
There was no friend
With smile to lend
And kind thought steered my way.
......
People often ask me
what are you doing, where are you going.
Well actually I don't know what I'm doing
I don't know where I'm going.
I can still feel my feet on the ground
tomorrow the weather may wear a different gown
despite a date for measured crown.
West to east
Laiden without feast
provide and chase the least.
......
He tastes solitude
on Gama,
Savoury to his buds.
He is a bird,
Pearching hymns,
He is a fig
Among fronds.