A Moments Indulgence (Rabindranath Tagore)

I ask for a moment's indulgence to sit by thy side.
The works that I have in hand I will finish afterwards.

Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite,
And my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil.

Today the summer has come at my window with its sighs and murmurs;
And the bees are plying their minstrelsy at the court of the flowering grove.

Now it is time to sit quite, face to face with thee,
and to sing dedication of life in this silent and overflowing leisure.


 

Don't Leave Me (Pablo Neruda)

“Don't go far off, not even for a day,
because I don't know how to say it - a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in
an empty station when the trains are
parked off somewhere else, asleep.

Don't leave me, even for an hour, because then
the little drops of anguish will all run together,
the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift
into me, choking my lost heart.

Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve
on the beach, may your eyelids never flutter
into the empty distance. Don't leave me for
a second, my dearest, because in that moment you'll
have gone so far I'll wander mazily
over all the earth, asking, will you
come back? Will you leave me here, dying?”

Inspiration (Ian Kennedy)

Inspiration by the light of day,
Inspiration to make me pray.
Inspiration in my willingness to give,
Inspiration to move on and live!
Inspiration to tell my story,
Inspiration because there is no glory.
Inspiration comes from deep within,
Inspiration from sorrow and sin.
Inspiration makes this real,
Inspiration is how i feel.
Inspiration can come from rain,
Inspiration takes my pain.

I Am Not Yours (Sarah Teasdale)

I am not yours, not lost in you,
Not lost, although I long to be
Lost as a candle lit at noon,
Lost as a snowflake in the sea.

You love me, and I find you still
A spirit beautiful and bright,
Yet I am I, who long to be
Lost as a light is lost in light.

Oh plunge me deep in love -- put out
My senses, leave me deaf and blind,
Swept by the tempest of your love,
A taper in a rushing wind.

Friend (Mariena Soares)

A friend is someone we turn to
when our spirits need a lift.
A friend is someone we treasure
for our friendship is a gift.

A friend is someone who fills our lives
with beauty, joy, and grace.
And makes the whole world we live in
a better and happier place.

 

Love (Udiah)

Soft and warm
Sealed with care
Sweet and kind
Will ever share
Brave and strong
Yet so fair
That is her
She's always there

Sensitive
to despair
Harkens to
others welfare
Delicate
she's elsewhere
Beautiful
beyond compare

If you meet her
Best Beware
She'll steal your heart
unaware
Her name is Love
This I swear
There's none like her
anywhere

I Fear Thy Kisses (Percy B Shelley)

I fear thy kisses, gentle maiden;
Thou needest not fear mine;
My spirit is too deeply laden
Ever to burden thine.

I fear thy mien, thy tones, thy motion;
Thou needest not fear mine;
Innocent is the heart's devotion
With which I worship thine.

Cradle Song (William Blake)

Sleep, sleep, beauty bright,
Dreaming in the joys of night;
Sleep, sleep; in thy sleep
Little sorrows sit and weep.
Sweet babe, in thy face
Soft desires I can trace,
Secret joys and secret smiles,
Little pretty infant wiles.
As thy softest limbs I feel,
Smiles as of the morning steal
O'er thy cheek, and o'er thy breast
Where thy little heart doth rest.
O the cunning wiles that creep
In thy little heart asleep!
When thy little heart doth wake,
Then the dreadful night shall break.

The Flight (Sara Teasdale)

Look back with longing eyes and know that I will follow,
Lift me up in your love as a light wing lifts a swallow,
Let our flight be far in sun or blowing rain--
But what if I heard my first love calling me again?

Hold me on your heart as the brave sea holds the foam,
Take me far away to the hills that hide your home:
Peace shall thatch the roof and love shall latch the door--
But what if I heard my first love calling me once more?

A White Rose (John Boyle O'Reilly)

The red rose whispers of passion,
And the white rose breathes of love;
O, the red rose is a falcon,
And the white rose is a dove.

But I send you a cream-white rosebud
With a flush on its petal tips;
For the love that is purest and sweetest,
Has a kiss of desire on the lips.

Advice to Son On Marriage (Mary Barber)

When you gain her Affection, take care to preserve it;
Lest others persuade her, you do not deserve it.
Still study to heighten the Joys of her Life;
Not treat her the worse, for her being your Wife.

If in Judgment she errs, set her right, without Pride:
'Tis the Province of insolent Fools, to deride.
A Husband's first Praise, is a Friend and Protector,
Then change not these Titles, for Tyrant and Hector.

Let your Person be neat, unaffectedly clean,
Tho' alone with your wife the whole Day you remain.
Choose Books, for her study, to fashion her Mind,
To emulate those who exell'd of her Kind.

Be Religion the principal Care of your Life,
As you hope to be blest in your Children and Wife:
So you, in your Marriage, shall gain its true End;
And find, in your Wife, a Companion and Friend.

Odes of Nea (Thomas Moore)

Nay, tempt me not to love again:

...There was a time when love was sweet;

Dear Nea! had I known thee then,

...Our souls had not been slow to meet!

But, oh! this weary heart hath run

...So many a time the rounds of pain,

Not even for thee, thou lovely one!

...Would I endure such pangs again.

April, April (William Watson)

April, April,

Laugh thy girlish laughter;

Then, the moment after,

Weep thy girlish tears!

April, that mine ears

like a lover greetest,

If I tell thee, sweetest,

All my hopes and fears,

April, April,

Laugh thy golden laughter,

But, the moment after,

Weep thy golden tears!

Illumination of Heart(Rumi)

Soul receives from soul that knowledge,
therefore not by book
nor from tongue.
If knowledge of mysteries
come after emptiness of mind,
that is illumination of heart.

Invitation (Rumi)

Come, come, whoever you are.
Wanderer, idolater, worshipper of fire,
Come even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
Come, and come yet again.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Quest (Rumi)

Why should I seek?
I am the same as He.
His essence speaks through me.
I have been looking for myself.

Apache Wedding Prayer

Now you will feel no rain,
for each of you will be shelter for the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there will be no loneliness,
for each of you will be companion to the other.
Now you are two persons,
but there is only one life before you.
May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead
and through all the years.
May happiness be your companion,
and your days together be good and long upon the earth.

Treat yourselves and each other with respect,
and remind yourselves often of what brought you together.
Give the highest priority to the tenderness,
gentleness and kindness that your connection deserves.
When frustration, difficulty and fear
assail your relationship - as they threaten all relationships
at one time or another -
remember to focus on what is right between you,
not only the part which seems wrong.
In this way, you can ride out the storms
when clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives
- remembering that even if you lose sight of it
for a moment, the sun is still there.
And if each of you takes responsibility
for the quality of your life together,
it will be marked by abundance and delight.

The Guest House (Rumi)

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

Oh Heart, Why Is It That You Cry (Javed Akhtar)

“When clouds of pain loom in the sky
When a shadow of sadness flickers by
When a tear finds its way to the eye
When fear keeps the loneliness alive
I try and console my heart
Why is it that you cry? I ask

This is only what life imparts
These deep silences within
Have been handed out to all by time
Everyone’s story has a little sorrow
Everyone’s share has a little sunshine

No need for water in your eyes
Every moment can be a new life
Why do you let them pass you by?
Oh heart, why is it that you cry?”

The Road Not Taken (Robert Frost)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

Tread Softy On My Dreams (W B Yeats)

Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet.

But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.

Being Peace (Thick Nhat Hanh)

My well-being, my happiness depends very much on you,
And your well-being, and your happiness depends on me.

I am responsible for you, and you are responsible for me.
Anything I do wrong, you will suffer and
Anything you do wrong, I have to suffer.

Therefore, in order to take care of you,
I have started taking care of myself. 

Absence (Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

After you went away, our lovely room
    Seemed like a casket whence the soul had fled.
I stood in awful and appalling gloom,
    The world was empty and all joy seemed dead.

I think I felt as one might feel who knew
    That Death had left him on the earth alone.
For "all the world" to my fond heart means you;
    And there is nothing left when you are gone.

Each way I turned my sad, tear-blinded gaze,
    I found fresh torture to augment my grief;
Some new reminder of the perfect days
    We passed together, beautiful as brief.

There lay a pleasing book that we had read---
    And there your latest gift; and everywhere
Some tender act, some loving word you said,
    Seemed to take form and mock at my despair.

All happiness that human heart may know
    I find with you; and when you go away,
Those hours become a winding-sheet of woe,
    And make a ghastly phantom of To-day.

A Red Flower (Claude McKay)

Your lips are like a southern lily red,
Wet with the soft rain-kisses of the night,
In which the brown bee buries deep its head,
When still the dawn's a silver sea of light.

Your lips betray the secret of your soul,
The dark delicious essence that is you,
A mystery of life, the flaming goal
I seek through mazy pathways strange and new.

Your lips are the red symbol of a dream.
What visions of warm lilies they impart,
That line the green bank of a fair blue stream,
With butterflies and bees close to each heart!

Brown bees that murmur sounds of music rare,
That softly fall upon the languorous breeze,
Wafting them gently on the quiet air
Among untended avenues of trees.

O were I hovering, a bee, to probe
Deep down within your scented heart, fair flower,
Enfolded by your soft vermilion robe,
Amorous of sweets, bur but one perfect hour! 

If ... (Rudyard Kipling)

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream---and not make dreams your master;
If you can think---and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And---which is more---you'll be a Man, my son!

Dreams (Langston Hughes)

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Agnipath (Harivansh Rai Bachchan)

वृक्ष हों भले खड़े,
हो घने, हो बड़े,
एक पत्र-छॉंह भी मॉंग मत, मॉंग मत, मॉंग मत!
अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ!

तू न थकेगा कभी!
तू न थमेगा कभी!
तू न मुड़ेगा कभी!
कर शपथ! कर शपथ! कर शपथ!

ये महान दृश्य है, चल रहा मनुष्य है,
अश्रु श्वेत् रक्त से,
लथ पथ, लथ पथ, लथ पथ !
अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ! अग्नि पथ!

Life is a ...

Life is an Adventure - Dare it.
Life is a Beauty - Praise it.
Life is a Challenge - Meet it.
Life is a Duty - Perform it.
Life is a Love - Enjoy it.
Life is a Tragedy - Face it.
Life is a Struggle - Fight it.
Life is a Promise - Fulfill it.
Life is a Game - Play it.
Life is a Gift - Accept it.
Life is a Journey - Complete it.
Life is a Mystery - Unfold it.
Life is a Goal - Achieve it.
Life is an Opportunity - Take it.
Life is a Puzzle - Solve it.
Life is a Song - Sing it.
Life is a Sorrow - Overcome it.
Life is a Spirit - Realize it.

Which Are You (Ella Wheeler Wilcox)

There are two kinds of people on earth today;
Just two kinds of people, no more, I say.

Not the sinner and saint, for it's well understood,
The good are half bad, and the bad are half good.

Not the rich and the poor, for to rate a man's wealth,
You must first know the state of his conscience and health.

Not the humble and proud, for in life's little span,
Who puts on vain airs, is not counted a man.

Not the happy and sad, for the swift flying years
Bring each man his laughter and each man his tears.

No; the two kinds of people on earth I mean,
Are the people who lift, and the people who lean.

Wherever you go, you will find the earth's masses,
Are always divided in just these two classes.

And oddly enough, you will find too, I ween,
There's only one lifter to twenty who lean.

In which class are you? Are you easing the load,
Of overtaxed lifters, who toil down the road?

Or are you a leaner, who lets others share
Your portion of labor, and worry and care?