Eride, V
Now in the palace gardens warm with age,
On lawn and flower-bed this afternoon
The thin November-coloured foliage
Just as last year unfastens lilting down,
And round the terrace in gray attitude
The very statues are becoming sere
With long presentiment of solitude.
Most of the life that I have lived is here,
Here by the path and autumn's earthy grass
And chestnuts standing down the breadths of sky
Indeed I know not how it came to pass,
The life I lived here so unhappily.
Yet blessing over all! I do not care
What wormwood I have ate to cups of gall;
I care not what despairs are buried there
Under the ground, no, I care not at all.
Nay, if the heart have beaten, let it break!
I have not loved and lived but only this
Betwixt my birth and grave. Dear Spirit, take
The gratitude that pains, so deep it is.
When Spring shall be again, and at your door
You stand to feel the mellow evening wind.
Remember if you will my heart is pure,
Perfectly pure and altogether kind;
That not an aftercry of all our strife
Troubles the love I give you and the faith:
Say to yourself that at the ends of life
My arms are open to you, life and death.
How much it aches to linger in these things!
I thought the perfect end of love was peace
Over the long-forgiven sufferings.
But something else, I know not what it is,
The words that came so nearly and then not,
The vanity, the error of the whole,
The strong cross-purpose, oh, I know not what
Cries dreadfully in the distracted soul.
The evening fills the garden, hardly red;
And autumn goes away, like one alone.
Would I were with the leaves that thread by thread
Soften to soil, I would that I were one.
poem by Trumbull Stickney from Dramatic Verses (1902)
Submitted by anonym
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Related quotes
What Do You Do I Ask
(5/4/12)
What do you do when you feel all hope is gone
And hanging by a thread you linger on.
What do you do when you take three steps forward
And eight steps back, and in life you're always under attack.
What do you do when you have door after door
Slam in your face, and to hide - there is no place.
What do you do when your loved ones have lost faith in you
And you don't know what to do.
What do you do when you pray every day
And the answers don't come your way.
Is this really the time to give up hope
When all your life you learned to cope.
Your dreams don't come when you want
And may never come at all
And to the ground they may fall.
Your dreams may not be what GOD has intended
But in your life, your dreams may be ended.
There may be another path that he wants you to travel
And his answers will all unravel.
Your life is not lived just for yourself
You must touch everyone else.
We are surrounded by millions of people
And each life touching another
And giving hope to so many others.
We can not see what he has in store
But we live with faith as we open the new door.
The door may be something that we don't expect
And it will make our lives better yet.
So open the door and let that radiating light shine through
For this is the light and path that belongs to you.
poem by Louis Rams
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Clock of Life
You fought for my freedom.
I lived like a slave.
You gave your life for me.
So I could be saved.
From a life lived for myself.
More was never enough.
The things I thought made life easier.
But it just made life tough.
Keeping up with the Joneses.
Of my treasures I’d boast.
My material possessions.
Were the things I loved most.
Not the gifts that you lent me.
But the treasures I earned.
Now I see just how Satan.
Wants me to get burned.
Keep your eyes on the prizes.
Let your gifts pay the price.
For all your heart it goes into.
Holds you tight like a vice.
It will squeeze your life from you.
You’ll leave God behind.
You don’t realize that Satan.
Is robbing you blind.
Once he has taken it from you.
He will take your last breath.
And what once was a gift.
Has now become death.
He keeps you in your past.
Makes you think of tomorrow.
And this takes your today.
Time it cannot be borrowed.
For it’s all that you have.
And it is what he will take.
Til your heart is so broken.
That your spirit will break.
Life lived for your body.
Or lived for your mind.
The truths of the earth.
Keeps your spirit confined.
Your love is your time.
Your heart ticks like a clock.
And when it is over.
Your time it will stop.
When it is finished.
When you are gone.
Will your spirit die too.
Or will it live on?
Spend your time very wisely.
And in others invest.
This is what the Lord tells us.
And our Father knows best.
Live your life by your spirit.
Body and mind they will die.
One day they’ll be buried.
But your spirit will fly.
poem by Ryan Lee Morris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Life's Slacker
The saddest sort of death to die
Would be to quit the game called life
And know, beneath the gentle sky,
You'd lived a slacker in the strife.
That nothing men on earth would find
To mark the spot that you had filled;
That you must go and leave behind
No patch of soil your hands had tilled.
I know no greater shame than this:
To feel that yours were empty years;
That after death no man would miss
Your presence in this vale of tears;
That you had breathed the fragrant air
And sat by kindly fires that burn,
And in earth's riches had a share
But gave no labor in return.
Yet some men die this way, nor care:
They enter and they leave life's door
And at the end, their record's bare—
The world's no better than before.
A few false tears are shed, and then,
In busy service, they're forgot.
We have no time to mourn for men
Who lived on earth but served it not.
A man in perfect peace to die
Must leave some mark of toil behind,
Some building towering to the sky,
Some symbol that his heart was kind,
Some roadway where strange feet may tread
That out of gratitude he made;
He cannot bravely look ahead
Unless his debt to life is paid.
poem by Edgar Albert Guest
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Journey
Ah, could I lay me down in this long grass
And close my eyes, and let the quiet wind
Blow over me—I am so tired, so tired
Of passing pleasant places! All my life,
Following Care along the dusty road,
Have I looked back at loveliness and sighed;
Yet at my hand an unrelenting hand
Tugged ever, and I passed. All my life long
Over my shoulder have I looked at peace;
And now I fain would lie in this long grass
And close my eyes.
Yet onward!
Cat birds call
Through the long afternoon, and creeks at dusk
Are guttural. Whip-poor-wills wake and cry,
Drawing the twilight close about their throats.
Only my heart makes answer. Eager vines
Go up the rocks and wait; flushed apple-trees
Pause in their dance and break the ring for me;
And bayberry, that through sweet bevies thread
Of round-faced roses, pink and petulant,
Look back and beckon ere they disappear.
Only my heart, only my heart responds.
Yet, ah, my path is sweet on either side
All through the dragging day,—sharp underfoot
And hot, and like dead mist the dry dust hangs—
But far, oh, far as passionate eye can reach,
And long, ah, long as rapturous eye can cling,
The world is mine: blue hill, still silver lake,
Broad field, bright flower, and the long white road
A gateless garden, and an open path:
My feet to follow, and my heart to hold.
poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Remember Me When Im Gone
Why I don't know why even how?
How Lovers turn strangers
How all the passion and love
Turn in to ashes just in a while
How your real love flew
How it could be true
The love between me and you
The thing that I've never got
How the love like flower dies
How Would you tell me how
How you could forget the love
For It's sake days and nights breathless stood there
Never got tired of knocking the doors of my heart
love I loved you and lived for your love even after you've gone
Love I loved and I lived your pain
For your sake I used to love your pain
Because my love was real and
Truer than true
No one ever will be loved like The way I loved you
Someday you will comeback
But it'll be too late
never again you'll find me there
A lifetime I'm standing right here
Got tired this heart of mine
Long years alone waited for your return
If I had one more life I would sacrifice for your love
But when the time of leaving comes
There's nothing to do my love
When you come back when I'm gone
you will return home broken
That moment you'll feel how much you've hurt the one who loved you more than her life
I'll go far away taking with me your love and all the memories
Those memories never gone away
Like my shadow always chased my way
Remember me when I'm gone
Because even in my grave I'll always love those smiling green eyes.
poem by Sossi Khachadourian
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Then You're Blessed My Friend
if you still have around
People make you feel the life is hard
to be lived without
And all the time you care about
Then you're blessed and beyond
Because the love has wrapped you around
Don't you ever fear
If you still can tear
So proud you may feel
If your heart others pain still can feel
Be grateful to the God above
Because your ways are guided with love
If your heart shivery cries
Because of all recent poverty and tries
To be the hope for the broken hearts
If inside your soul angels begin to cry
While looking to innocent children's cry
If your heart does care even for strangers heartaches
You may feel thankful my friend
Because you are still safe in humanity's path.
poem by Sossi Khachadourian
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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If I Lived One More LIfe... I Would
If I lived one more life
I would melt by the gentle sight of you
I would believe that your love is true
I would erase my fake intention
I would hold back all my foolish emotion
If I lived one more life
I would read all yr colorful envelopes
I would never burn your words of hopes
I would cherish your banner on the wall
I would make sure it will never fall
If I lived one more life
I would pick up your call night & days
I would guarantee your mind not decays
I would let my door open at all time
I would safe your sanity to prevent any crime
If I lived one more life
I would stand before you on my knee
I would beg your family to forgive me
I would plead to share your torture
I would fight to bring back your future
If I lived one more life
I would endure all your hate
I would accept you as my fate
I would strive to give you the best of me
I would die in your arms and be happy
If I lived one more life … I would
Dedicated to D.N.R – It’s been 14 years… This is my apology, I mean every word.
poem by Niken Kusuma Wardani
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More
(oliveiro/ortolani/ciorciolini/newell)
More
Than the greatest love the world
Has known,
This
Is the love Ill give to you
Alone.
More
Than the simple words
Ive tried to say,
Ill only live to love you
More each day.
More than youll ever know,
My arms long to hold you so.
My life will be in your keepin,
Wakin... sleepin... laughin...weepin.
Longer
Than always is a long, long time,
But far beyond forever,
Youll be mine.
I know Ive never lived before,
And my heart is very sure
No one else could love you more.
I know Ive never lived before,
And my heart is very sure
No one else could love you more.
song performed by by Nat King Cole
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Life
Life is measured by consequences and deeds
How one lived their life and helped those in need
By the journeys taken and the dreams we did seek
And not accepting sin or temptation when the soul was weak
Life always begins here and it ends way over there
It starts with a birth and always ends with a prayer
Loved ones will remember with a kindness and care
As sinners and the unrighteous will be remembered with a stare
Life is learning every day as we get older
To say no to temptation and yes to truth as we get bolder
In life our journey must be truthful and straight forward
Not a life of lying and cheating and looking over ones shoulder.
poem by Randy McClave
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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My Mom
My Mom was like a perfect rose at springtime,
Pure and beautiful, and the petals perfectly formed,
And it's fragrance sweet and pleasing to the senses.
For the rose, as my mom, came into this world as a thing of beauty.
As time passed, the winds came into my mother's life,
For as life brings the rose, it also brings the winds.
The wind blows the petals off the rose and it is no longer new
And struggles through the wind to regain its strength and beauty.
Because the rose by God's design is a thing of splendor,
The petals grow back as the winds die down,
As did my mother, for her spirit was strong,
And she lived her life with a love that had no boundaries.
My Mom fought many winds with grace and strength,
Always with a smile and never to bring sadness to anyone,
For she could not bear to see anyone cry,
She was too full of love and life to let the wind touch her spirit.
Mom was my perfect rose; beautiful, warm, loving, and sweet.
She is safe from the winds now and lives in Heaven.
She will live on in my heart always,
And ease the strong wind that weakens me.
Someday the wind will be only a gentle breeze upon my face,
And I will know that she lives on in me forever.
I will know that my Mom is still with me,
Still beautiful and strong and loving.
She is safe now and so much stronger than the winds
The she so courageously endured.
And in that she taught me to believe, have faith, and to know
That I have the strength to endure the winds of my own sorrow.
I love you Mom, you are forever in my heart - you are forever.
poem by Sally DeSmet Trueblood
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Life is a Journey; Not a Destination
The time has come
To say good bye
I gave it my all
I really did try
I took your heart
Which I broke in two
I tried to fix it
I did all I could do
Your eyes once warm
Now dead and cold
Your words once soft
Now cutting and bold
I became the man
You knew I could be
But now it's too late
These changes you won't see
You live in my past
Not here in today
Tomorrow doesn't matter
Our dreams washed away
You need to be happy
So I need to go
These changes to you
Are only a show
I bid you farewell
I wish you the best
I hope you find peace
I hope you find rest
I hope you find life
How you want it to be
I hope you find love
Even if not with me
My journey continues
Even if I'm alone
My Lord God will guide me
To wherever is home
For He knows my heart
And he knows my soul
In him I do trust
I am not alone
For the day will come
When I know his plan
I once was a boy
But now I'm a man
Even though I feel weak
I know I am strong
My path it is narrow
My path is so long
So I bid you farewell
And I hope I will find
That your path is not different
You're just two steps behind
For this is life is so short
And I have no control
My one living wish
Is to be one with your soul
It may not be tomorrow
But in the next life
Eternity together
As husband and wife
Take care my sweet princess
Take care my best friend
I will love you forever
As time has no end
On my path I continue
My heart it does know
Where God wants to take me
So with Him I will go
poem by Ryan Lee Morris
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Look At Life
(sylvester / clarke)
Look at life, take a look around you
Look at life, doesnt it astound you
See the colors of the sky
Watch the colors of a rainbow
Were so lucky, you and i
Look at life
Its there for us
So why dont we use it
Four seasons of the year
All you do is choose it
Warm summers bring the sun,
And with the falling leaves the autumn
All the new things come with spring
Look at life
Warm summers bring the sun,
And with the falling leaves we get the autumn,
The autumn
You see a young boy pick a flower
Why does he do it
He picks it for the one he loves
Thats why he does it
He sees the colors of the sky,
Watches the colors of a rainbow
Were so lucky, you and i
Look at life
Look at life look at life look at life
Look at life look at life look at life
song performed by by Hollies
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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An Autumn—Blooming Rose
I found, and plucked, an autumn-blooming rose,
And shut my eyes, and scented all its savour:
When lo! as in the month the blackthorn blows,
Lambs 'gan to bleat, and merle and lark to quaver.
Flower of my life! inestimably dear,
Now that its calendar wanes sere and sober,
To me your freshness, turning back the year,
Makes that seem April others call October.
With me 'tis Autumn, and with you 'tis Spring,
But Love hath brought these seasons sweet together.
Within your leafy life I sit and sing,
And you with me share wealth of harvest weather.
Thus all things we exchange, and nothing lose:
Take you life's wisdom, lend to me life's sweetness.
Your vernal voice shall wed my mellow muse,
And song give youth, and youth give song, completeness.
poem by Alfred Austin
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Homage to his old lady, Lakshmi.
Long back, lived a lady aged ninety
And her maternal great grand son.
He loved her; she loved him.
No one loved him that much.
No one he loved that much.
At her age, no purpose for such love.
At his age, no reason for such love.
She was poor, alone, lived away.
He knows her as sunken, skinny, utter black,
With so much love, with no one to share with,
With no one to tend or care her.
She had unfailing power of reciting
Mile long mythological verses
That she got by hearing and not reading.
Herself starving, she took pain
To have come to him to feed him
With poorly made cakes and snacks.
She reproduced many, who, in turn, many, who, in turn, many.
None came by when she went insane.
He never saw her first son’s son
Ever see, love or care her at any stage,
With her eldest son dead young.
And with no respite with her youngest son,
Who was the constant tormentor.
She had a sad death, a miserable death.
Even now, after half a century,
He pities her, mourns her death.
Even now, he weeps for her.
Long live her parental grand children,
None of whom is in prosperity,
19.04.2001, Pmdi
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Amanda Todd
Once there was a girl
Not that far away
Who loved and laughed
And danced and played
Then one day
While she was talking with her friends
She made a mistake
That would haunt her till it's ends
They called her lovely and dazzling
They called her perfect and stunning
Thinking it would do none harm
She sent it over, right into their arms
A year went by
Along with everyday life
Then one day a message came
He threatened to expose her
To everyone that knows her
But she ignored the menace.....
On Christmas Break
Came a knock on the door
He had sent her photo everywhere
To all, what she had ever dared
Her friends had shunned her
She became the loner
Addicted to drugs
She slowly sunk down
Another new school came and went
But still the picture was sent and sent
Depressed and alone
She needed someone
But no one came or cared
Weather she lived or breathed
The air
So she used pain as an escape
Tried to drape her pain
In bleach
The mystery man
Still unknown to her
Had created a page to
Drive all who she had left, away
Alone and depressed
Stressed and done crying
She finally did what everyone said she should
She took her own life
All she needed was someone there
Someone to care
Her name was Amanda Todd
This was her never ending story
This was her life
poem by Autumn Winds
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Life and Death, How Ironic
Life, it described my Mother
Life, she was the image
Life, she was healthy
Life, she loved every day
Life, you saw it in her eyes
Life, you heard it in her voice
Life, how ironic it could be
Death, the impossible
Death, too somber a thought for her
Death, she would live a long, long time before it would confront her
Death, sickness maybe, but there is always a cure
Death, not even a thought in the doctor’s mind
Death, it now replaced life
Life and death, my mother passed away with a look of peace on her face
She died knowing that she lived every moment to the fullest.
poem by Janice Karp
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So Much Life Longing For More Life
SO MUCH LIFE LONGING FOR MORE LIFE
So much life longing for more life
Wanting to live so much
To feel to experience to know to enjoy to love.
So much life
Others have lived
So much life
I would have lived.
And the life I have lived?
More than I can know or understand
So much of it gone forever.
And all the longing and all the memories
And all the love,
Where is it now?
I have lived so much
And never lived enough
And want to live too much more
And know I will never live enough
And know I have lived so much much more
Than I will ever know again.
Life and more life,
Longing and more longing,
Life- Please God-
Not Death.
poem by Shalom Freedman
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A grief ago
'There is no grief
which time does not lessen
or soften' -
so said Cicero, a man so often right;
a Stoic, those for whom
all life presents a lesson
to be learned from,
and then, to move on from..
But I wonder about all this:
is grief ever lessened or softened?
Is it not, perhaps, overlaid
in our so various ways?
For some, grief framed and falsified
to ease that grief;
For some, like hyacinths and crocus bulbs,
left in a dark cupboard in the autumn of our grief
to respond to time, and
become at last
themselves?
gently, gently, the covers pulled
over the loving bed,
the true, the pure, the lovely painful grief,
the memory deep cherished,
gently, gently, folded
into the cupboards of the heart
there to be known, without the door disturbed
until the time - 'a grief ago' as Dylan wrote -
the cupboard opened only for love's sake
without grief...:
those carefully folded memories
brought out and loved
and lived a while...
not grief, not grief...but
the pure memory of grief
and behold,
life.
poem by Michael Shepherd
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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From The Portuguese
I
When I lived in the village of youth
There were lilies in all the orchards,
Flowers in the orange-gardens
For brides to wear in their hair.
It was always sunshine and summer,
Roses at every lattice,
Dreams in the eyes of maidens,
Love in the eyes of men.
When I lived in the village of youth
The doors, all the doors, stood open;
We went in and out of them laughing,
Laughing and calling each other
To shew each other our fairings,
The new shawl, the new comb, the new fan,
The new rose, the new lover.
Now I live in the town of age
Where are no orchards, no gardens.
Here, too, all the doors stand open,
But no one goes in or goes out.
We sit alone by the hearthstone
Where memories lie like ashes
Upon a hearth that is cold;
And they from the village of youth
Run by our doorsteps laughing,
Calling, to shew each other
The new shawl, the new comb, the new fan,
The new rose, the new lover.
Once we had all these things -
We kept them from the old people,
And now the young people have them
And will not shew them to us -
To us who are old and have nothing
But the white, still, heaped-up ashes
On the hearth where the fire went out
A very long time ago.
II
I had a mistress; I loved her.
She left me with memories bitter,
Corroding, eating my heart
As the acid eats into the steel
Etching the portrait triumphant.
Intolerable, indelible,
Never to be effaced.
A wife was mine to my heart,
Beautiful flower of my garden,
Lily I worshipped by day,
Scented rose of my nights.
Now the night wind sighing
Blows white rose petals only
Over the bed where she sleeps
Dreamless alone.
I had a son; I loved him.
Mother of God, bear witness
How all my manhood loved him
As thy womanhood loved thy Son!
When he was grown to his manhood
He crucified my heart,
And even as it hung bleeding
He laughed with his bold companions,
Mocked and turned away
With laughter into the night.
Those three I loved and lost;
But there was one who loved me
With all the fire of her heart.
Mine was the sacred altar
Where she burnt her life for my worship.
She was my slave, my servant;
Mine all she had, all she was,
All she could suffer, could be.
That was the love of my life,
I did not say, 'She loves me';
I was so used to her love
I never asked its name,
Till, feeling the wind blow cold
Where all the doors were left open,
And seeing a fireless hearth
And the garden deserted and weed-grown
That once was full of flowers for me,
I said, 'What has changed? What is it
That has made all the clocks stop?'
Thus I asked and they answered:
'It is thy mother who is dead.'
And now I am alone.
My son, too, some day will stand
Here, where I stand and weep.
He too will weep, knowing too late
The love that wrapped round his life.
Dear God spare him this:
Let him never know how I loved him,
For he was always weak.
He could not endure as I can.
Mother, my dear, ask God
To grant me this, for my son!
poem by Edith Nesbit
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Conviction Of The Heart
Where are the dreams that we once had?
This is the time to bring the back.
What were the promises caught on the tips of our tongues?
Do we forget or forgive?
Theres a whole other life waiting to be lived when...
One day were brave enough
To talk with conviction of the heart.
And down your streets Ive walked alone,
As if my feet were not my own
Such is the path I chose, doors I have opened and closed
Im tired of living this life,
Fooling myself, believing were right, when...
Ive never given love
With any conviction of the heart
One with the earth, with the sky
One with everything in life
I believe well survive
If we only try...
How long must we wait to change
This world bound in chains that we live in
To know what it is to forgive,
And be forgiven?
Its been too many years of taking now.
Isnt it time to stop somehow?
Air thats too angry to breathe, water our children cant drink
Youve heard it hundreds of times
You say your aware, believe, and you care, but...
Do you care enough
To talk with conviction of the heart?
song performed by by Kenny Loggins
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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