Hakim Sanai And if, my friend, you ask me the way, I’ll tell you plainly, it is this: to turn your face toward the world of life, and turn your back on rank and reputation; and, spurning outward prosperity, to bend your back double in his service; to part company with those who deal in words, [...]
Archive for the ‘Lead Poems’ Category
June 1st, 2010 - 12:00 am § in Lead Poems
The Answer
Rudyard Kipling A Rose, in tatters on the garden path, Cried out to God and murmured ‘gainst His Wrath, Because a sudden wind at twilight’s hush Had snapped her stem alone of all the bush. [...]
May 1st, 2010 - 12:00 am § in Lead Poems
In Blackwater Woods
Mary Oliver Look, the trees are turning their own bodies into pillars [...]
May 1st, 2010 - 12:00 am § in Lead Poems
A single word can brighten the face
Yunus Emre A single word can brighten the face of one who knows the value of words. Ripened in silence, a single word acquires a great energy for work. [...]
April 1st, 2010 - 12:00 am § in Lead Poems
A New World
Hafiz (1320-1389) Let’s offer flowers, pour a cup of libation, split open the skies and start anew on creation. If the forces of grief invade our lovers’ veins, cupbearer and I will wash away this temptation. [...]
April 1st, 2010 - 12:00 am § in Lead Poems
God’s Grandeur
Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844 – 1889) The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out, like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod? [...]
March 1st, 2010 - 12:00 am § in Lead Poems
A slave’s freedom
Farid ud-Din Attar Loghman of Sarrakhs cried: “Dear God, behold Your faithful servant, poor, bewildered, old– An old slave is permitted to go free; I’ve spent my life in patient loyalty, I’m bent with grief, my black hair’s turned to snow; Grant manumission, Lord, and l[...]
March 1st, 2010 - 12:00 am § in Lead Poems
The Desolate Field
William Carlos Williams Vast and grey, the sky is a simulacrum to all but him whose days are vast and grey and – In the tall, dried grasses a goat stirs with nozzle searching the ground. My head is in the air but who am I . . . ? – and my heart stops amazed at the thought of love vast an[...]
January 1st, 2010 - 12:01 am § in Lead Poems
I had supposed that, having passed away
Abu ‘l-Husayn al-Nuri (? – 908) I had supposed that, having passed away From self in concentration, I should blaze A path to Thee, but ah! No creature may Draw near thee, save Thy appointed ways. [...]
December 1st, 2009 - 1:47 am § in Lead Poems
Song of a Man Who Has Come Through
D. H. Lawrence Not I, not I, but the wind that blows through me! A fine wind is blowing the new direction of Time. If only I let it bear me, carry me, if only it carry me! If only I am sensitive, subtle, oh, delicate, a winged gift! If only, most lovely of all, I yield myself and am [...][...]