To provoke dreams of terror in the slumber of prosperity has become the moral duty of literature.
quote by Ernst Fischer

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Prosperity to humanity
Prosperity, prosperity
Prosperity to humanity
I brought to you
Love and solidarity
Peace and harmony
Kings go to war
And humanity fall
But i brought prosperity to humanity
So why then should you curse me
Instead of blessing me
I need you to love me
For it is prosperity
I brought to humanity
It power and glory to humanity
Accountability and transparency
A higher levity
Prosperity, prosperity
Prosperity to humanity
poem by Matt Ancient

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To be beneficent when we can is a duty; and besides this, there are many minds so sympathetically constituted that, without any other motive of vanity or self-interest, they find a pleasure in spreading joy around them, and can take delight in the satisfaction of others so far as it is their own work. But I maintain that in such a case an action of this kind, however proper, however amiable it may be, has nevertheless no true moral worth, but is on a level with other inclinations.... For the maxim lacks the moral import, namely, that such actions be done from duty, not from inclination.
Immanuel Kant in Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Duty
Duty that’s to say, complying,
With whate’er’s expected here;
On your unknown cousin’s dying,
Straight be ready with the tear;
Upon etiquette relying,
Unto usage nought denying,
Lend your waist to be embraced,
Blush not even, never fear;
Claims of kith and kin connection,
Claims of manners honour still,
Ready money of affection
Pay, whoever drew the bill.
With the form conforming duly,
Senseless what it meaneth truly,
Go to church the world require you,
To balls the world require you too,
And marry papa and mamma desire you,
And your sisters and schoolfellows do.
Duty ’tis to take on trust
What things are good, and right, and just;
And whether indeed they be or be not,
Try not, test not, feel not, see not:
’Tis walk and dance, sit down and rise
By leading, opening ne’er your eyes;
Stunt sturdy limbs that Nature gave,
And be drawn in a Bath chair along to the grave.
’Tis the stern and prompt suppressing,
As an obvious deadly sin,
All the questing and the guessing
Of the souls own soul within:
’Tis the coward acquiescence
In a destiny’s behest,
To a shade by terror made,
Sacrificing, aye, the essence
Of all that’s truest, noblest, best:
’Tis the blind non-recognition
Or of goodness, truth, or beauty,
Save by precept and submission;
Moral blank, and moral void,
Life at very birth destroyed.
Atrophy, exinanition!
Duty!
Yea, by duty’s prime condition
Pure nonentity of duty!
poem by Arthur Hugh Clough

Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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There is one moral duty that moralists underrate almost criminally - the duty to enjoy god's world.
Oh The Poems
OH THE POEMS AND THE POEMS AND THE POEMS
Oh the poems and the poems and the poems
Oh the love of Literature
Oh all that stuff
I have given my life to-
Words and meanings and feelings
Pages and pages and pages –
What it is all this literary life for?
When out the window out the door
With our eyes we see in an instant other worlds other dreams?
I don’t know and I will never know
And Literature is certainly far more than I can say it is-
Oh the poems and this poem and this day turning grey
And all my life old and old and more old and more old-
Oh why oh why oh why
And always back to God
My last rescue and refuge and escape
I who have read so much Great Literature
And can only write this-
Oh the why and the oh oh oh and the words
And the whole world of Literature
I would belong to and do not.
Oh the words oh the world oh the Literature
Oh God help me please can’t you please help me a little or not?
poem by Shalom Freedman

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Untitled
- Faith provoke me to have hope, hope inspire me to have peace, peace please provide happiness for me.
- Joy provoke me to wake, wake inspire me to sleep, sleep please provide for me dreams.
- Reality provoke me to have goals, goals inspire to achieve, achieve please be like faith, joy and reality and provoke for me to succeed
poem by Thato Maluleka

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Watch Me Sleep, Will You?
My father resigned to his bed
And you know how I knew?
He left the television vulnerable
And what disturbed me was
The television’s monotonously
Eerie sound.
A screeching horror.
A flat, blunted line of terror.
My father was unshaken.
He was peculiarly idle on his bed
And he looked like he was
Having the best of the heavens
In his slumber
And how I envied him.
Sometimes, I wonder
Will someone ever watch me sleep?
Will someone tell me
That I am having
The best of the heavens
In my slumber?
I do not know
Because people are either
Too uninterested
Or too sedentary
To saunter past the hollow halls
Of a home
Straight into my room of pungent dreams
And look at me as I lay there,
On my bed
And think to himself or herself,
“My, he’s having the best of the heavens
In his sleep.”
But then, they would not
Look for me
Nor at least take an abrupt photograph
Of me in my slumber.
You know why?
Because I always leave the television too,
Making those horrendous sounds
Of monotonous deaths
Over a bed of midnight senility.
They weren’t sedentary
Nor uninterested.
They were very
Afraid of the sheer beauty
Of a man who sleeps whilst
Having the best of death,
And not of heaven.
poem by Windsor Guadalupe Jr

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Literature has to serve as a moral control of politics.
quote by Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.
quote by William O. Douglas

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dare to be a Dreamer
Dream reality,
Dream with dignity,
Dream for humanity,
Dream for prosperity.
Dream for a change,
Don't dream with second chances,
For dreaming isn't a duty,
Don't dream a dream full of pity.
Dream to inspire,
Be your own empire,
Be the master of your dreams,
Dream a dream you can claim.
poem by Marlene Rashidi

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A Departed Friend
He is sleeping, sounding sleeping
In the cold and silent tomb.
He is resting, sweetly resting
In perfect peace, all alone.
He has left us, God bereft us,
And his will must e'er be done,
It will grieve us, and bereave us
To think of this noble son.
While on earth he done his duty,
To all his fellow men,
Some will miss him in his of office,
Where he often used the pen.
He was witty, always happy,
Kind and genial in his way;
He was generous in his actions,
And his honor could display.
He has held many an office,
And has done his duty well;
And his name will be remembered
By the friends that knew him well.
Friends are weeping, softly weeping,
In his kind and loving home;
Let him slumber, sweetly slumber,
Till God calls him from the tomb.
poem by Julia A Moore

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Literature should not be surpressed merely because it affects the moral code of the censor.
quote by William Orville Douglas

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Dreams On Lay-Away
As soon as we eliminate the wars.
To enable us to restore our economic prosperity...
I will guarantee all of you,
Jobs to afford the realization of your dreams.
'Wasn't it just last week,
That same guy proposed an increase...
Of troops and weapons until we all witnessed,
A bonafide and unquestionable victory? '
~Hey...
That's the same guy who opposes,
What the other guy has been saying all along.~
'Who are we to believe? '
~Well...
Anyone who has previously stated,
That the automobile industry should go bankrupt.
And then promises to create 12 million jobs within 4 years,
If elected to lead with his vision of prosperity...
Is counting on an effective fantasy to feed,
Every mind he can still find attached...
To a recycling of their delusions.~
'And what does he exactly mean by saying...
'Jobs To Afford The Realization Of Your Dreams? ''
~That depends.
Does a 'realization' of dreams,
Put into 'reality' an effectiveness that is realized?
I know folks already with jobs,
Who can not put their dreams on lay-away.
Even if they tried to save.~
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar

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Given the devaluation of literature and of the study of foreign languages per se in the United States, as well as the preponderance of theory over text in graduate literature studies, creative writing programs keep literature courses populated.
quote by Marilyn Hacker

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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To encourage literature and the arts is a duty which every good citizen owes to his country.
quote by George Washington

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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To Dream
'Neath these hallowed halls of dreams
Came a stirring blush of aware
Deeply felt-too soon to melt
The warmth of 'truly care';
Truly care grew into love
Where dreams make their way
In tender arms of loves embrace
My dream came true this day;
Slumber, oh sweet slumber, sublime
I thank you from my core
For showing me, loves divinity
With the promise of forevermore;
poem by Theodora Onken

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The one that the child loves
The child loves most the one
Whom it defies, demands, dictates
And is at liberty to provoke
And not the one whom it obeys,
Concedes, and fear to provoke.
Grandparents score over parents.
09.07.2009
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

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Justice is the sum of all moral duty.
quote by William Godwin

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sleep Well
Sleep well my dear
And may you find the morning bright
And may your dreams of fond delight
Entrance you while you slumber.
Sleep well my dear
And may angels dance in fairytales
And ships float by with magic sails
To delight you while you slumber.
Sleep well my dear
And may your cares float clear away
And may you hear me softly say
I love you while you slumber.
poem by David Keig

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Monster Presiding Dreams, Not My Wake. There I Drove Him With A Stake
I lay there wrapped
in very bushy arms
Whispers ‘sleep now
I am here’
With the warmth
washing of this love,
I drift to a place
that is unknown
I see at play our children
Flowers fit for
a wedding day
perhaps I am skinny
having wine with a friend
flying a magic carpet
or riding an elephant
Sleep should be
a place of contentment
The mind at rest
body free and light
spirit drifts to where
all is good and right
In a flash that face
could appear
The one that harms
causes terror
That it that deserves
no mention
The one that my
tension originated
with the vileness
of his being
In those moments
did so maltreat
I may wake from
dead sleep on my feet
Took what to only
belonged to me
my blissful slumber
now without sweet dreams
song of my heart in twain
never to be joined
My heart hostage
and injuriously awake
Peaceful eyes waiting
to soon be as afore
Broken, wondering if
I will achieve sleep
the way others win awards
If in my sleep
that piece of dung
appears
slumber is deferred
to my fears
In that flash
I feel a racing heart,
viscous breath,
shuddering body
stiffens me wide-awake.
I touch the headboard,
the wall,
my pillow
to feel where I am.
I say “I am in my house,
he is not in my bed,
he has never been here.
I am safe and
without dread”
It is then I realize
the wrapping arms
of the most lovely man
are ever there
I settle consciously
to be calm
without dread
left to reconcile
how long- a season,
how many moons
will slumber
escape my being
For as I wake
the monster
does not preside
In His Dark heart
I drove a stake
With daylight
I push it aside
Though sleep
will come
that very
next night! ?
I would like
to slumber
simple sleep
without dreams
or of beauty, lifes frills
To be as I was before
Happy to sleep
with each moon
Peaceful heart
without disparity
I wish sleep
to meet me
with pleasured dreams
poem by Sandra Dodd

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