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Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:39:46 -0800

Rest

O EARTH, lie heavily upon her eyes;
Seal her sweet eyes weary of watching, Earth;
Lie close around her; leave no room for mirth
With its harsh laughter, nor for sound of sighs.
She hath no questions, she hath no replies,
Hush'd in and curtain'd with a blessed dearth
Of all that irk'd her from the hour of birth;
With stillness that is almost Paradise.
Darkness more clear than noonday holdeth her,
Silence more musical than any song;
Even her very heart has ceased to stir:
Until the morning of Eternity
Her rest shall not begin nor end, but be;
And when she wakes she will not think it long.

Author: Christina Georgina Rossetti
Online Poetry at PoetryFeast.com

http://yamaska.stumbleupon.com/review/38000234/

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:44:59 -0800

His Last Sonnet
Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art! -
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like Nature's patient sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors -
No -yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,
Pillowed upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever -or else swoon to death.

Author: John Keats
Online Poetry at PoetryFeast.com

http://yamaska.stumbleupon.com/review/37942930/

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:59:34 -0800

Ode to Autumn
Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'erbrimmed their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing, and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Author: John Keats
Online Poetry at PoetryFeast.com

http://yamaska.stumbleupon.com/review/37937591/

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:53:15 -0800

The Female Of The Species
When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,
He shouts to scare the monster who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail,
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
When Nag, the wayside cobra, hears the careless foot of man,
He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can,
But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail -
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,
They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws -
`Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale -
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
Man's timid heart is bursting with the things he must not say,
For the Woman that God gave him isn't his to give away;
But when hunter meets with husband, each confirms the others tale -
The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
Man, a bear in most relations, worm and savage otherwise,
Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise;
Very rarely will he squarely push the logic of a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.
Fear, or foolishness, impels him, ere he lay the wicked low,
To concede some form of trial even to his fiercest foe.
Mirth obscene diverts his anger; Doubt and Pity oft perplex
Him in dealing with an issue - to the scandal of the Sex!
But the Woman that God gave him, every fibre of her frame
Proves her launched for one sole issue, armed and engined for the same,
And to serve that single issue, lest the generations fail,
The female of the species must be deadlier than the male.
She who faces Death by torture for each life beneath her breast
May not deal in doubt or pity - must not swerve for fact or jest.
These be purely male diversions - not in these her honor dwells -
She, the Other Law we live by, is that Law and nothing else!
She can bring no more to living than the powers that make her great
As the Mother of the Infant and the Mistress of the Mate;
And when Babe and Man are lacking and she strides unclaimed to claim
Her right as femme (and baron), her equipment is the same.
She is wedded to convictions - in default of grosser ties;
Her contentions are her children, Heaven help him, who denies!
He will meet no cool discussion, but the instant, white-hot wild
Wakened female of the species warring as for spouse and child.
Unprovoked and awful charges - even so the she-bear fights;
Speech that drips, corrodes and poisons - even so the cobra bites;
Scientific vivisection of one nerve till it is raw,
And the victim writhes with anguish - like the Jesuit with the squaw!
So it comes that Man, the coward, when he gathers to confer
With his fellow-braves in council, dare not leave a place for her
Where, at war with Life and Conscience, he uplifts his erring hands
To some God of abstract justice - which no woman understands.
And Man knows it! Knows, moreover, that the Woman that God gave him
Must command but may not govern; shall enthrall but not enslave him.
And She knows, because She warns him and Her instincts never fail,
That the female of Her species is more deadly than the male!

Author: Rudyard Kipling
Online Poetry at

http://yamaska.stumbleupon.com/review/37810435/

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:14:27 -0800

The Apple Orchard

Come let us watch the sun go down
and walk in twilight through the orchard's green.
Does it not seem as if we had for long
collected, saved and harbored within us
old memories? To find releases and seek
new hopes, remembering half-forgotten joys,
mingled with darkness coming from within,
as we randomly voice our thoughts aloud
wandering beneath these harvest-laden trees
reminiscent of Durer woodcuts, branches
which, bent under the fully ripened fruit,
wait patiently, trying to outlast, to
serve another season's hundred days of toil,
straining, uncomplaining, by not breaking
but succeeding, even though the burden
should at times seem almost past endurance.
Not to falter! Not to be found wanting!
Thus must it be, when willingly you strive
throughout a long and uncomplaining life,
committed to one goal: to give yourself!
And silently to grow and to bear fruit.

Author: Rainer Maria Rilke
Online Poetry at PoetryFeast.com

http://yamaska.stumbleupon.com/review/37779125/

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:49:38 -0800

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God

Your playing small doesn't serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us.
It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we're liberated from our own fear,
our presence automatically liberates others."

1994 Inaugural Speech - Nelson Mandela

http://yamaska.stumbleupon.com/review/37778347/

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:11:36 -0800

/>

let me decide

If you give me life
I will live it my way
I will learn,I will listen,
I will hear and understand.
I'll do all that I can.

If you give me love
I will love you back.
I will tolerate and appreciate
every moment that we spent.
I'll love, I will give and take.

For what I want is to be
free to choose, to disagree.
So when you give
You give it all.
Without pressure, without control.

I decide to think for me.
To take control of my destiny
And what I learn , I willteach.
I'll help you grow, but I won't preach
I won't demand, I'll help you reach.

http://yamaska.stumbleupon.com/review/37732859/

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:19:16 -0800

http://yamaska.stumbleupon.com/review/37723699/

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:06:02 -0800

Recommit, Refocus, Rejuvenate
by Fion Lim

As I sat on my bed
Pen in hand
Journal on lap
Mind splitting in tearing directions

My mind has declared vacation
Leaving my heart frantic
Mister Time mercilessly ticking by
A fresh year advancing fast

Reviewing months before
Alas some goals failed to materialise
Even when birthed from best intentions
Lack of focus escalating tension

Stop and take a deep breath,
Breath in breath out relax
Clear away clouds of mind fluff
Affirmations seeping through in comfort

Repeat, reaffirm, reassure,
Clutching these affirmations
Like a lifeline to regaining balance
Slowing down erratic heartbeats

A new chance to recommit will come again
Weaving up moments for one to refocus
Cuing one to rejuvenate as and when
Finally gathering my scattered wits

Affirming gently in my heart
Recommit, refocus, rejuvenate
Recommit, refocus, rejuvenate
Recommit, refocus, rejuvenate!

http://yamaska.stumbleupon.com/review/37670161/

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 11:17:29 -0800

To be an angel, one need not have wings.
In giving love there is an equal grace.
Nor need one seek the aura in the face,
As love unveils the beauty of all things.

http://www.poemsforfree.com