Blog Catalog

Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts

Thursday, May 7, 2020

Thought for the Day


The reality of the last cycle.
"Reality is what we take to be true. 
What we take to be true is what we believe. 
What we believe is based upon our perceptions. 
What we perceive depends on what we look for. 
What we look for depends on what we think. 
What we think depends on what we perceive. 
What we perceive determines what we believe. 
What we believe determines what we take to be true. 
What we take to be true is our reality."

~ David Bohm


Friday, March 27, 2020

Poem For Our Time


I found this today as I do so many things this week, online, since we're all at home, isolated. I thought it fantastic and so appropriate.


When this is over

May we never again
Take for granted
A handshake with a stranger
Full shelves at the store
Conversations with the neighbors
A crowded theatre
Friday night out
The taste of communion
A routine checkup
The school rush each morning
Coffee with a friend
The stadium roaring
Each deep breath
A boring Tuesday
Life itself

When this ends
May we find
That we have become
More like the people
We wanted to be
We were called to be
We hoped to be

And may we stay
That way – better
For each other
Because of the worst

– Laura Kelly Fanucci


Be well out there, y'all. Stay safe. Stay home.


Tuesday, March 24, 2020

Quote -- Poem -- of the Day; On Coronavirus, Kindness and All of Us


The Power of a Random Act of Kindness

I can't imagine anything more timely, pertinent and poignant just now, in this situation, than this.

History will remember when the world stopped
And the flights stayed on the ground.
And the cars parked in the street.
And the trains didn’t run.

History will remember when the schools closed
And the children stayed indoors
And the medical staff walked towards the fire
And they didn’t run.

History will remember when the people sang
On their balconies, in isolation
But so very much together
In courage and song.

History will remember when the people fought
For their old and their weak
Protected the vulnerable
By doing nothing at all.

History will remember when the virus left
And the houses opened
And the people came out
And hugged and kissed
And started again

Kinder than before.

--Donna Ashworth


Sunday, September 30, 2018

"Pity the Nation"


A friend on Facebook posted the following poem written by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

I thought it uncannily appropriate and timely.

Image result for trump

"PITY THE NATION"
(After Khalil Gibran)

Pity the nation whose people are sheep
And whose shepherds mislead them
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars
Whose sages are silenced
And whose bigots haunt the airwaves
Pity the nation that raises not its voice
Except to praise conquerers
And acclaim the bully as hero
And aims to rule the world
By force and by torture
Pity the nation that knows
No other language but its own
And no other culture but its own
Pity the nation whose breath is money
And sleeps the sleep of the too well fed
Pity the nation oh pity the people
who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away
My country, tears of thee
Sweet land of liberty!




Friday, June 8, 2018

Quote of the Day -- Poetry Version


Related image

Pity the nation whose people are sheep,
and whose shepherds mislead them.
Pity the nation whose leaders are liars, whose sages are silenced,
and whose bigots haunt the airwaves.
Pity the nation that raises not its voice,
except to praise conquerors and acclaim the bully as hero
and aims to rule the world with force and by torture.
Pity the nation that knows no other language but its own
and no other culture but its own.
Pity the nation whose breath is money
and sleeps the sleep of the too well fed.
Pity the nation — oh, pity the people who allow their rights to erode
and their freedoms to be washed away.
My country, tears of thee, sweet land of liberty.

― Lawrence Ferlinghetti


Thursday, January 5, 2017

Quote of the Day -- On Living



With Mr. Trump soon to be in office, and the Republicans in control of Congress in Washington and 32 of the 50 statehouses, we'll have to lean heavily on the "hate tyrants" part.

Have a great day, y'all and keep warm.


Monday, October 31, 2016

On This Day, 1795


The birth of one writer/poet John Keats.

Image result for john keats


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'er-brimmed their clammy cell.

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. 


Also the birthday of one Chiang Kai-Shek (1887) and Vanilla Ice (1967).

Have a great day, y'all and Happy Hallowe'en.