Sonnet 10
I have sought Happiness, but it has been
A lovely rainbow, baffling all pursuit,
And tasted Pleasure, but it was a fruit
More fair of outward hue than sweet within.
Renouncing both, a flake in the ferment
Of battling hosts that conquer or recoil,
There only, chastened by fatigue and toil,
I knew what came the nearest to content.
For there at least my troubled flesh was free
From the gadfly Desire that plagued it so;
Discord and Strife were what I used to know,
Heartaches, deception, murderous jealousy;
By War transported far from all of these,
Amid the clash of arms I was at peace.
poem by Alan Seeger

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Loquacious
this afternoon, i talk a lot, and the more i talk,
the more words flowed from my mouth, the more i become less
of myself,
that is the irony of talking, the more i empty myself of this burden
using words, the lighter i become, the more useless i become of myself,
words and more words,
the more i have of them, the more meaningless my thoughts have become
and they who are listening have become more silent than ever,
i know, their minds are somewhere else, and i know that they know
that there is this spirit in front of them so restless,
wriggling like a worm, jumping like a horse, flapping like a bird
wanting to get rid of something: the fruit wanting to be free from the worm,
the horse from a gadfly, and the bird from the pricking flea....
what else can they say? they must have been saying.
we perfectly understand, we have been there, we were once a fruit
with a worm in our pulp, a horse with a gadfly in our tail,
a bird unable to get rid of the flea....
we were rotten once, we jumped the more, and now we are flying away.
what a life we have, we are never free, and we are never for even once
comfortable with what we are and what we have....
what we do not have of course, is what bothers us the most.
be it a horse, a bird, or a fruit, a flea, a worm, a gadfly of old
like what Socrates once mentioned before he took the fatal poison.
well he died, and here we are always trying to remember.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa

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Peace Eternal
I HAVE SLEPT IN THE DARK,
YES, I HAVE TASTED IT,
THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT,
SO SWEET IT WAS,
I WAS ENTHRANCED BY IT,
IT WAS SO SERENE,
SO VERY PEACEFULL,
NEVER WAS THERE ANYTHING LIKE IT,
THAT FORBIDDEN THING,
I HAVE DRUNK OF IT'S CUP,
FROM IT'S EVER SO PEACEFULL TRANQUILITY,
SO SWEET IT WAS,
SO SATISFYING IT WAS,
I HAVE TASTED PEACE ONCE,
I NOW WANT IT FOREVER,
THE FOOL CALLS IT DEATH,
THE WISE CALL IT SLEEP,
I CALL IT PEACE ETERNAL
poem by Overlord Don Manuel Ihcakeyno

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The Need to Love
The need to love that all the stars obey
Entered my heart and banished all beside.
Bare were the gardens where I used to stray;
Faded the flowers that one time satisfied.
Before the beauty of the west on fire,
The moonlit hills from cloister-casements viewed
Cloud-like arose the image of desire,
And cast out peace and maddened solitude.
I sought the City and the hopes it held:
With smoke and brooding vapors intercurled,
As the thick roofs and walls close-paralleled
Shut out the fair horizons of the world---
A truant from the fields and rustic joy,
In my changed thought that image even so
Shut out the gods I worshipped as a boy
And all the pure delights I used to know.
Often the veil has trembled at some tide
Of lovely reminiscence and revealed
How much of beauty Nature holds beside
Sweet lips that sacrifice and arms that yield:
Clouds, window-framed, beyond the huddled eaves
When summer cumulates their golden chains,
Or from the parks the smell of burning leaves,
Fragrant of childhood in the country lanes,
An organ-grinder's melancholy tune
In rainy streets, or from an attic sill
The blue skies of a windy afternoon
Where our kites climbed once from some grassy hill:
And my soul once more would be wrapped entire
In the pure peace and blessing of those years.
Before the fierce infection of Desire
Had ravaged all the flesh. Through starting tears
Shone that lost Paradise; but, if it did,
Again ere long the prison-shades would fall
That Youth condemns itself to walk amid,
So narrow, but so beautiful withal.
And I have followed Fame with less devotion,
And kept no real ambition but to see
Rise from the foam of Nature's sunlit ocean
My dream of palpable divinity;
And aught the world contends for to mine eye
Seemed not so real a meaning of success
As only once to clasp before I die
My vision of embodied happiness.
poem by Alan Seeger

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Unpleasant Days (after-effects of my fathers death)
Im a troubled child in the face of the moon,
Raised without a father,
Bred without a silver spoon.
Im a troubled child who seeks nothing but perfection,
Annointed to blossom in the pastures of my misconceptions.
Im a troubled child violated of my peace,
Battling burdens with no ease
When will these dark days come to cease.
Im a troubled child with great charisma & no fear,
Catastrophies Im faced with
My life seems so unfair.
poem by Siyabonga Njica

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Lesson Learnt
Lesson learnt
What is it that's worrying me so much
An insecurity suffocating me as such
Why is it that i cant share it with anyone
is it real or just a phantom on run
I may pretend to be strong and mature
Deep inside me is a child scared and unsure
Looking for acceptance not rejection
Wearing a mask of confidence a deception
Its love and approval that i desire
Which i have aplenty but for more i sigh
Its the only pray i never forget each day
Lord let love flow in abundance my way
Let praise rain and appreciations shower
Let approvals of my doings be as Huge as a tower
But today when my chance came to approve
To acknowledge Someones work i just disapproved
Burning with jealousy i just turned away
Pretended its not worth it i just walked away
My Soul my being knew i was doing wrong
My body walked straight pretending to be strong
But my heart wilted with unknown pain
My inner voice told me nothing i shall gain
For you shall reap what you sow
What you desire give others in a row
I am sorry o lord please forgive me
I forgot its to live and to let others be
As i realised my mistake my heart grew light
My inner voice comforted me as it knew my plight
It said stop worrying Dont feel troubled
Remember when you make others happy your happiness doubles
poem by Rima Sharda

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let The New Year 2k+9 Bloom!
In a world that is
Free from terrible terrorism and death
Full of happy harmony and warmth
Free from fateful wars and schisms
Full of hopping hopes and optimism
Free from wretched hatred and bigotry
Full of pure happiness and joy
Free from painful penury and poverty
Full of crystal understanding and aplomb
Free from nasty violence and bombs
Full of sweet smiles and cheers
Free fromdeadly flaws and fears
Full of pleasant peace and poise
Free from fanatic racism and strife
Full of prosperous pleasure and health
Free from disastrous floods and quakes
Full of vergent vegetation and lands
Free from global warming and heat
Full of bracing breeze and air
Free from wicked ego and envy
Full of Divine wisdom and knowledge
Let the NEW YEAR 2K + 9 bloom!
poem by Subbaraman N V

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Jealously
Who was with you - where you been?
Baby it can't be this again
I can't cool it 'cos i can't win it with you
Words like punches - things we said
Under the belt and in the head
Down for the count in a cold cold bed
Beat by jealousy
Jealousy - jealousy
Stanglehold - love can't breathe
Let me be - set me free
Jealousy
You won't hear what i imply
What you say - i won't buy
You deny but you lie
Jealousy
Jealousy - jealousy
Stanglehold - love can't breathe
Let me be - set me free
Jealousy
Down suspicious - torn in doubt
Dirty vicious - knock me out
Danger, danger - stakes are high
Hook the blow between the eyes
Every round - we lose more ground
Jealousy
Jealousy - jealousy
Stanglehold - love can't breathe
Let me be - set me free
Jealousy
song performed by by Heart

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Venus's Looking-Glass
I marked where lovely Venus and her court
With song and dance and merry laugh went by;
Weightless, their wingless feet seemed made to fly,
Bound from the ground and in mid air to sport.
Left far behind I heard the dolphins snort,
Tracking their goddess with a wistful eye,
Around whose head white doves rose, wheeling high
Or low, and cooed after their tender sort.
All this I saw in Spring. Through Summer heat
I saw the lovely Queen of Love no more.
But when flushed Autumn through the woodlands went
I spied sweet Venus walk amid the wheat:
Whom seeing, every harvester gave o'er
His toil, and laughed and hoped and was content.
poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti

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Riding The Rainbow
(words & music by weisman - wise)
Im riding the rainbow, hitting the highway to happiness
Oh yes, Im looking to find someone whose meant to be mine
Im living to love
And loving to live
Ive got a heart
Im longing to give
Im riding the rainbow, Ill follow that star to where you are
Im riding the rainbow, heading for heaven and happiness
I guess somebody somewhere, someday will teach me to care
But being alone,
Dont bother me
Im free to have fun
Its fun to be free
Im riding the rainbow, Ill follow that star
Im riding the rainbow to where you are
song performed by by Elvis Presley

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Life Like Blown Empty Bellies
Life turned blown-empty
Like poverty-plagued bellies
When true, free will vanished
Into louder cries of hurt sanctity
It became a deformed goat
Limping in auburn flesh
Horns useless
He may fight no restraints
As to sauntering the length and lengths
Stretching the physical beyond
But in the unfaltering limp- up, down, up
His drive falters
And is weighed down by despondence in fatigue
O! Life sagged like dried sunburnt banana leaves
When our Moses cleaved Herod's throne
And one fine Isrealite tint
Waded through the Nile's blood
When good turned bad
Bad turned worse
Worse turned worst
And now, worst turns good
Truth has of long been locked behind lies
Wedged to every plate of
Harbingers of inhumanity
Plunking rotten meats
Beneath our plates, around our cups
Like ashen slaves on the Atlantic
Our biceps grow, minds flow, flow away
Like fondled harmattan dust
Will and purpose from our heads have
Been stricken
Truth and 'loved love' trounced
By pestles of insanity
And confused sense
Hallowed in gloom of deception
When true, free will vanished
Like poverty-plagued bellies
Life turned blown-empty
poem by Oludipe Samuel

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Set Free!
Do you know how it is to be free?
I'm not talking of finite human rules
That complicate our life in trumpery
And flood these basal earth with fools
With motives naked of coercion
Allow me then this moment's piece
Experience is the better option
And from there, I will explain this
In forty -five years of fake religion
I assumed that I knew all of God
But like many lost in that Deception
An outside impression was all I had
All those years I was chained in anger
Plagued by fears and uncertainties
The unforgiving, wretched prisoner
Too proud to seek that inner Peace
When at the end of my rope I bled
I called on the Name 'Christ Jesus! '
That cry had my whole life in it said
And God's forgiveness cleared my dues
Joy first flooded my hardened heart
Peace made whole my brokenness
Christ in me, He will never depart -
I was set free by God's Grace and Kindness!
-
'For it is by grace you have been save through faith...'
Ephesians 2: 8-9
poem by Cynthia Buhain-Baello

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I starve for a fruit on a tree
I am forbidden to pluck
the fruit that ripened.
I can get access to fallen
fruit, but it is rotten.
My desire exists.
My want is not sated.
One consolation-
I am not weary of you
who I am in pursuit of
and in whom my taste is alive
as you aren’t a fallen fruit.
04.05.2001, Pmdi
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

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Involvement makes you happy
Absence of unhappiness is the peace
Peace itself is not the happiness.
To involve is the happiness;
To withdraw is the peace.
Love, marry, deliver, toil, rear and serve.
You will have found your happiness.
25.05.2002, pakd
poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

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A Birthday Trifle
Here in this gold-green evening end,
While air is soft and sky is clear,
What tender message shall I send
To her I hold so dear?
What rose of song with breath like myrrh,
And leaf of dew and fair pure beams
Shall I select and give to her—
The lady of my dreams?
Alas! the blossom I would take,
The song as sweet as Persian speech,
And carry for my lady’s sake,
Is not within my reach.
I have no perfect gift of words,
Or I would hasten now to send
A ballad full of tunes of birds
To please my lovely friend.
But this pure pleasure is my own,
That I have power to waft away
A hope as bright as heaven’s zone
On this her natal day.
May all her life be like the light
That softens down in spheres divine,
“As lovely as a Lapland night,”
All grace and chastened shine!
poem by Henry Kendall

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A Star In The East
FOR THE ART EXHIBITION AT ST. JUDE'S, WHITECHAPEL
LIKE a fair flower springing fresh, sweet, and bright,
Through prison stones; or like one perfect song
Heard in a dream on one remembered night,
When waking worlds were dumb with grief and wrong;
Like the one kiss that links--first kiss and last--
The inevitable future spent apart
With the immutable divided past:
So in the east shines out this star of Art.
The narrow-shouldered, pale-faced girl and boy
Nestle against Art's new-found, love-warm breast,
And feel vague stirrings of a far-off joy,
Which life has never for themselves possessed,
And dimly guess at wonders hardly known--
Even as dreams--and weep glad tears to see
A loveliness that is at once life's own,
And yet is something life can never be.
Not worse will work the flying busy hand
Because the soul has drunk a cup of pleasure,
Has picked up on its leaden-coloured strand
Some little jewel of Art's splendid treasure,
Nor will less work be done because men see
That work is not the only thing in life,
Because they have been glad at heart and free
A little space 'mid sorrow, sin, and strife.
And this sweet draught may banish men's content?
For this we pray and strive--not all in vain--
That men may reach such heights of discontent
As never to fall back to peace again
Where no peace is--nor rest from strife and prayers,
But tread firm-footed up the thorny way,
Till all that spring of art and joy is theirs
Whereof they taste so small a draught to-day.
poem by Edith Nesbit

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(Beat By) Jealously
Who was with you - where you been?
Baby it can't be this again
I can't cool it 'cos I can't win it with you
Words like punches - things we said
Under the belt and in the head
Down for the count in a cold cold bed
Beat by jealousy
Jealousy - jealousy
Stanglehold - love can't breathe
Let me be - set me free
Jealousy
You won't hear what I imply
What you say - I won't buy
You deny but you lie
Jealousy
Jealousy - jealousy
Stanglehold - love can't breathe
Let me be - set me free
Jealousy
Down suspicious - torn in doubt
Dirty vicious - knock me out
Danger
song performed by by Heart from Passion Works

Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Licia Sonnets 20
First did I fear, when first my love began,
Possessed in fits by watchful jealousy
I sought to keep what I by favor won,
And brooked no partner in my love to be.
But tyrant sickness fed upon my love,
And spread his ensigns, dyed with color white;
Then was suspicion glad for to remove,
And loving much did fear to lose her quite.
Erect, fair sweet, the colors thou didst wear;
Dislodge thy griefs, the short'ners of content;
For now of life, not love, is all my fear,
Lest life and love be both together spent.
Live but, fair love, and banish thy disease,
And love, kind heart, both when and whom thou please.
poem by Giles Fletcher The Elder

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Rainbow Country "A Place of Love"
I'm riding the range in the rainbow country.
Where the skies are always filled with glistening stars.
Where the air is always pure and comforting to the heart.
Where my mind can ride the range in search of eternal peace.
Where dreams turn out so wonderful and freely.
I'm riding the range in the rainbow country.
Where love is fair and free.
Where love never dies.
Were love can be nurtured and always stay high.
Where the heart always remains serene and peaceful.
In the rainbow country:
A place fo love.
A place of peace.
Hence, I'll continue to ride the range in the rainbow country.
So my soul can remain free.
poem by Nora Belle Bynum

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Flesh and Spirit
No! 'twas the questing dream that first achieved her--
More sensed for knowing no material part,
More real that no false outward eye perceived her,
Too gross, but that pure eye within my heart.
Nor feigned I, as my spirit so embraced her,
These arms encumbered might; ah! could they too,
Would she not fade as vision e'er effaced her,
As loves in this weak flesh so often do?
In flesh she might escape me, might expire
In the vicissitudes through flesh that range;
But, being the shadow of my heart's desire,
She could not pass beyond me, could not change.
O paradox! Want food--you are richer fed!
Lack the coarse crumbs--you find diviner bread!
poem by William Baylebridge

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Unexpected Memento
a sweet, unexpected gift from a great poet Kevin:
Through the valley of poems I roam
To come upon a little fruit, a sweet morsel
A poem that brews into sentimental foam
Shaping the smile of the poetess Jessel
Her lovely face appears with delectable taste
She hurries to mine heart in passionate haste
Her smile designed from her hearts desire
Her eyes an emotional sea of feeling
Each poem the air of her thoughts fire
Burning her inside, quietly healing
The pain of her and the pain of another
Her smile, her sweet reverie, where she rest in peace
As peace finds rest, in her sweet smile crease…
poem by Jessel Jane Tevar

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