My Wage (Jessie B. Rittenhouse)

I bargained with life for a penny,
And life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;

For life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of life,
Life would have paid.

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?”