Lotus by Rabindranath Tagore

Lotus
by Rabindranath Tagore


On the day when the lotus bloomed, alas, my mind was straying,
and I knew it not. My basket was empty and the flower remained unheeded.

Only now and again a sadness fell upon me, and I started up from my
dream and felt a sweet trace of a strange fragrance in the south wind.

That vague sweetness made my heart ache with longing and it seemed to
me that is was the eager breath of the summer seeking for its completion.

I knew not then that it was so near, that it was mine, and that this
perfect sweetness had blossomed in the depth of my own heart.


Lovely, memorable poem. A link to read more about this poet is here. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1913/tagore-bio.html

The Bait by John Donne

The Bait
by John Donne


Come live with me and be my love,
And we will some new pleasures prove
Of golden sands and crystal brooks,
With silken lines and silver hooks.

There will the river whispering run,
Warm'd by thy eyes, more than the sun.
And there the 'enamour'd fish will stay,
Begging themselves they may betray.

When thou wilt swim in that live bath,
Each fish, which every channel hath,
Will amorously to thee swim,
Gladder to catch thee, than thou him.

If thou, to be so seen, be'st loth,
By sun or moon, thou dark'nest both;
And if myself have leave to see,
I need not their light, having thee.

Let others freeze with angling reeds,
And cut their legs with shells and weeds,
Or treacherously poor fish beset
With strangling snare or windowy net.

Let coarse bold hands from slimy nest
The bedded fish in banks out-wrest,
Or curious traitors, sleeve-silk flies,
Bewitch poor fishes' wand'ring eyes.

For thee, thou need'st no such deceit,
For thou thyself art thine own bait:
That fish, that is not catch'd thereby,
Alas, is wiser far than I.




Written in the 1600's, great old poem on love. A link to read more about this poet and his poems is here. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/john-donne

Love by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Love

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

We cannot live, except thus mutually

We alternate, aware or unaware,

The reflex act of life: and when we bear

Our virtue onward most impulsively,

Most full of invocation, and to be

Most instantly compellant, certes, there

We live most life, whoever breathes most air

And counts his dying years by sun and sea.

But when a soul, by choice and conscience, doth

Throw out her full force on another soul,

The conscience and the concentration both

Make mere life, Love. For Life in perfect whole

And aim consummated, is Love in sooth,

As nature’s magnet-heat rounds pole with pole.

I love her poems, the rhyme is wonderful. Great statement on love.

A link to read more about her is here. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/elizabeth-barrett-browning

Distance by Nichita Stanescu

Distance 
by Nichita Stanescu


Distance is the cog wheel
on the haunted axle of my hearing,
grinding fine the deadened mind
of that unborn god
waiting to be caught
by the earth's blue speed,
and carrying in a handled urn
the plucked heart - ours,
it's beating, it's heard, it's beating, it's heard,
a sphere in wild growth -
the roads are wet with tears,
memory frail and elastic,
a sling for stones, a gondola
drowned in childlike Venice's,
a tooth yanked from the cells with a string -
down the empty socket of Vesuvius. And you exist.

Translation by Thomas Carlson and Vasile Poenaru. Great poem, I like this poets style of wording. 

A Song by Helen Maria Williams

A Song 

by Helen Maria Williams

                         I

No riches from his scanty store

   My lover could impart;

He gave a boon I valued more —

   He gave me all his heart!

                         II

His soul sincere, his generous worth,

   Might well this bosom move;

And when I asked for bliss on earth,

   I only meant his love.

                         III

But now for me, in search of gain

   From shore to shore he flies;

Why wander riches to obtain,

   When love is all I prize?

                         IV

The frugal meal, the lowly cot

   If blest my love with thee!

That simple fare, that humble lot,

   Were more than wealth to me.

                         V

While he the dangerous ocean braves,

   My tears but vainly flow:

Is pity in the faithless waves

   To which I pour my woe?

                         VI

The night is dark, the waters deep,

   Yet soft the billows roll;

Alas! at every breeze I weep —

   The storm is in my soul.

When someone gives their heart that is the treasure. A link to read more about this poet is here. http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/helen-maria-williams

Like Barley Bending by Sarah Teasdale

Like Barley Bending
by Sarah Teasdale


Like barley bending
In low fields by the sea,
Singing in hard wind
Ceaselessly;

Like barley bending
And rising again,
So would I, unbroken,
Rise from pain;

So would I softly,
Day long, night long,
Change my sorrow
Into song. 


Visually I love the site of barley bending in the breeze. A link to read more is here. http://www.poemhunter.com/sarah-teasdale/

Patience by Rabindranath Tagore

Patience 
by Rabindranath Tagore


If thou speakest not I will fill my heart with thy silence and endure it.
I will keep still and wait like the night with starry vigil
and its head bent low with patience.

The morning will surely come, the darkness will vanish,
and thy voice pour down in golden streams breaking through the sky.

Then thy words will take wing in songs from every one of my birds' nests,
and thy melodies will break forth in flowers in all my forest groves.




Patience has it's own rewards. A link to read more is here. Photo is mine. http://allpoetry.com/Rabindranath_Tagore