Modern Love XXI: We Three Are
We three are on the cedar-shadowed lawn;
My friend being third. He who at love once laughed,
Is in the weak rib by a fatal shaft
Struck through, and tells his passion's bashful dawn
And radiant culmination, glorious crown,
When 'this' she said: went 'thus': most wondrous she.
Our eyes grow white, encountering that we are three,
Forgetful; then together we look down.
But he demands our blessing; is convinced
That words of wedded lovers must bring good.
We question; if we dare! or if we should!
And pat him, with light laugh. We have not winced.
Next, she has fallen. Fainting points the sign
To happy things in wedlock. When she wakes,
She looks the star that thro' the cedar shakes:
Her lost moist hand clings mortally to mine.
poem by George Meredith
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Washington McNeely
Rich, honored by my fellow citizens,
The father of many children, born of a noble mother,
All raised there
In the great mansion-house, at the edge of town.
Note the cedar tree on the lawn!
I sent all the boys to Ann Arbor, all the girls to Rockford,
The while my life went on, getting more riches and honors—
Resting under my cedar tree at evening.
The years went on.
I sent the girls to Europe;
I dowered them when married.
I gave the boys money to start in business.
They were strong children, promising as apples
Before the bitten places show.
But John fled the country in disgrace.
Jenny died in child-birth—
I sat under my cedar tree.
Harry killed himself after a debauch,
Susan was divorced—
I sat under my cedar tree.
Paul was invalided from over study,
Mary became a recluse at home for love of a man—
I sat under my cedar tree.
All were gone, or broken-winged or devoured by life—
I sat under my cedar tree.
My mate, the mother of them, was taken—
I sat under my cedar tree,
Till ninety years were tolled.
O maternal Earth, which rocks the fallen leaf to sleep!
poem by Edgar Lee Masters from Spoon River Anthology
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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The Cedar Has Fallen
The spirit of compassion and supplication,
And of the waves of the sea to touch my heart;
For the cedar has fallen into my garden.
I am from the waterless pit and,
The Nile will dry up for me to wlk through;
For the axe is now laid against the tree of love.
Blessed are the merciful and love to the King!
But the cedar has fallen next to me;
And Rachel is now weeping for her children.
Curse be the deceiver!
And of lamentation and bitter weeping;
But at the fall of the night i will be with you.
Be as wise as the serpent and,
Ride on the donkey of love;
For i do have five loaves of bread and two fish to share,
And each day has its own trouble in this life.
poem by Edward Kofi Louis
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Aubade
THE lark now leaves his wat'ry nest,
And climbing shakes his dewy wings.
He takes this window for the East,
And to implore your light he sings--
Awake, awake! the morn will never rise
Till she can dress her beauty at your eyes.
The merchant bows unto the seaman's star,
The ploughman from the sun his season takes,
But still the lover wonders what they are
Who look for day before his mistress wakes.
Awake, awake! break thro' your veils of lawn!
Then draw your curtains, and begin the dawn!
poem by Sir William Davenant
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So tender [Atât de fragedă]
You are so tender, just like when
The cherry blossom is pure, white
And like an angel among men
Into my life you come in sight.
You barely touch the rug below
The silk is rustling at your feet
And as you walk, from head to toe,
You float like eagles in the heat.
Out of your pleated dress you rise
Like a white marble and I'm struck...
My soul clings quickly to your eyes,
So full of tears and of good luck.
Oh, happy dream of love with style
Bride from old stories, little star,
Stop smiling! For your pretty smile
Reveals how beautiful you are.
How can you, with the charm of night,
Darken my eyes with so much grace,
And with your whispers, hot and light,
And with the chill of your embrace?
A thought is passing, I remark,
A wave upon your fervent eyes:
It's the surrender, deep and dark,
Shadow of lust that gently cries.
You go away; I comprehend,
To follow you is a vain goal,
You're lost for ever, it's the end,
O, dearest bride of my poor soul!
I saw you, it's my fault all right,
My heart forgiveness now withstands,
I'll expiate my dream of light
Reaching my hand for desert lands.
And like an icon you'll appear
Of Mary, for whom people yearn,
Wearing the crown on your head dear -
Where do you go? When you return?
poem by Mihai Eminescu, translated by Octavian Cocoş
Submitted by anonym
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The Woman at the Crossroad Who Laughed
As I walked up the pavement, up the slight hill
to the traffic lights at the crossroads outside the station,
I saw her waiting to cross.
Or rather, I saw first, her laugh..
She held the hand of her son
as she exchanged words with a passing friend
and laughed..
and what I saw in her eyes, her whole face,
as she laughed, was that as she laughed -
(did she know this? How could I tell her, a stranger?
Lady, lady, at the crossroad of our lives,
I’m writing this poem for you now…)
as she laughed, while she laughed,
I saw that she was in touch, the whole of her,
with her deepest self – just that… all that…
and as I saw that self, which was
(Lady, are you reading this?)
the perfection of perfection, all that’s perfect…
it was as if – no, it was just so –
her self looked at me, and so
the perfect looked at the perfect;
herself and mine together laughed,
laughed at imperfection
and as the perfect looked, it saw perfection
spreading through my eyes from our shared self
so that her son was perfect; and her friend was perfect;
and all around us, every they and it were perfect..
(Lady, Lady, at the Cross’s foot,
was it like this for You?)
the light turned green. And we were free
to cross the road; and
free to live; and
free to laugh away illusion; and
free to be ourselves; forever,
in that time which is forever.
Lady, by my faith, this by my hand;
and with my life I do yet swear
upon my life, this to be true;
Lady, hear, in this my orison,
there are no sins
to be remembered.
poem by Michael Shepherd
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Love
I love you
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.
I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.
I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find
I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple.
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.
I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good.
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means,
After all.
Happiness
Can you tell me what I like to hear
all the things that bring to my ear
joyous thoughts, pleasing words
that makes me feel like everything's right
within my world that I hold dear?
Can I close ny eyes and never see
all the things that bring to me
painful scenes, hurtful sights
that makes me feel like everything's wrong
within my world that's dimmed the lights?
Can I breathe in all the sweet aromas
of all the things to remind me where home is.
Pine and cedar, salty sea air
that makes me feel like there is nowhere
within my world that brings such bliss?
If I can hear the things I love
and I can always stay above
all the things that make me sad
and I can inhale the scents I've had
within my world to remind me of
my inner self?
Then happiness is mine.
poem by Edwina Reizer
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Blessings Of Life
rain good friend to soil
your blessing is soft moist earth
rain good friend to plants
your blessing is fruitful growing life
rain good friend to animals
your blessing is healthy vibrant diversity
rain good friend to dry land
your blessing is lakes streams rivers
rain everywhere I rapture look
yours blessing bestows beauty
poem by Terence George Craddock
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Beautiful Bashful Eyes
Big beautiful bashful eyes
with lashes oh so long
I love your beautiful bashful eyes.
They remind me of a song.,
a song to describe their color
and their lids that are half closed.
They never let me see behind them.
What they're feeling is never exposed.
Big beautiful bashful eyes
are lost in timid intent.
I wish for them to open wide
to see where they have spent
their shy-retiring gazes?
Were they ever looking my way?
Or were they lost in silent thought
afraid that they might stray
And find that all around you
eyes would be looking your way?
My eyes would be among them
and you would hear me say.
'Big beautiful bashful eyes
with lashes oh so long
you've captivated my attention
and are now the words to my song.
'Beautiful eyes, bashful and blue
my thoughts are lost in you.
Your lashes long, your lids dreamy-eyed,
no one can tell what secrets they hide.
I have secrets my eyes hide too.
They're all about my feelings for you.
Those bashful eyes have become for me
everything that I dreamed they would be.'
poem by Edwina Reizer
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The Nightingale Near The House
Here is the soundless cypress on the lawn:
It listens, listens. Taller trees beyond
Listen. The moon at the unruffled pond
Stares. And you sing, you sing.
That star-enchanted song falls through the air
From lawn to lawn down terraces of sound,
Darts in white arrows on the shadowed ground;
And all the night you sing.
My dreams are flowers to which you are a bee
As all night long I listen, and my brain
Receives your song, then loses it again
In moonlight on the lawn.
Now is your voice a marble high and white,
Then like a mist on fields of paradise,
Now is a raging fire, then is like ice,
Then breaks, and it is dawn.
poem by Harold Monro
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Rainforest
(Sonnet To Tree Lovers)
How beautiful this place, we named “Cedar Haven”
Nestled in the foothills, on west slope of Mt Hood
A place inhabited by bear, deer, coyote and raven
A place where stands of old growth fir once stood
Should rain, wind or flood, dare come our way
Towering cedar trees surround, protect this land
Silent giants shade below, as happy children play
Come and gone, a hundred generations spanned
Rainforest undisturbed, forever does renew
Contributing to Earth’s health and balance
Reaching for the Sun, through skies of blue
Filters air we breathe, then oxygen enhanced
Protect forest land; take not trees for granted
Rewards abound for every seedling planted
ROTMS
poem by Ray Lucero
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The Lost Thrill
I grow so weary, someway, of all things
That love and loving have vouchsafed to me,
Since now all dreamed-of sweets of ecstasy
Am I possessed of: The caress that clings—
The lips that mix with mine with murmurings
No language may interpret, and the free,
Unfettered brood of kisses, hungrily
Feasting in swarms on honeyed blossomings
Of passion's fullest flower—For yet I miss
The essence that alone makes love divine—
The subtle flavoring no tang of this
Weak wine of melody may here define:—
A something found and lost in the first kiss
A lover ever poured through lips of mine.
poem by James Whitcomb Riley
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Cedar Tree
You dug a well
You dug it deep
For every wife you buried
You planted a cedar tree
The best
The best you ever had
I stand where you stood
I stand for bad or good
And I am green and you are wood
The best
The best he ever had
I dig a well
I dig it deep
And for my only love
I plant a cedar tree
The best
The best we ever had
song performed by by Indigo Girls
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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You Were A Star (But Fallen From Grace)
each time i looked
so humbly at your darling face
i could see the shine in your eyes
the smile, the joy, the wise
the heart of likeness
but all left mine unknown to none
faded away all at once
and never saw you shine again
but, you were a star
that sent me away at once
and faded,
if it were a star i need
i would low my speed
to see the light indeed
and stand by you as a kid
would do, my own seed
has fallen by the grains of weed
never to source me a feed
but faded,
each tree by their own stem
curing its leaves for them
to green and shade over them
without care of which worm
amongst them
has any problem
to grow and seed on them
when the rain starts to fall on them
but still faded,
each moment has a memory
and each memory has a story
from each story, have said sorry
and please don't worry
but why would i worry
when all merry shall mellow
and all scary shall let go
and still faded,
to reveal is to declare
to feel the will is to dare
awe is never than stare
a science of love and care
but why dare
today
and run without say
whence all shine has gone there
and downed the star that was there
and faded away...never to shine there
but you were a star
fallen from grace
yet gone by the dark
each time i looked into yours
a star i could see
any man could reckon with
but now you are never a star
but that which fell from grace
that day you were, a star!
poem by Onalethuso Petruss Ntema
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Star Has Lost Her Starshine
Star used to Shine for all to see
But now that's just a Memory
Of one more thing that used to be
For Star has lost Her Starshine
Another time that she went Dark
Her Soulmate gone, life's meaning stark
She watched him to the Heavens arc
He took with him Her Starshine
Never understanding why
There was no time for said good-byes
Nor one last time for his blue eyes
To ever see His Star shine
Upon the Skyline she would gaze
Her Soulful eyes were teardropped glazed
She couldn't see her yesterdays
They blinded all her Starshine
To understand the plan Divine
She searched within and tried to find
A reason not to lose her mind
As she had lost her Starshine
She really didn't want to stay
To face Life's struggles every day
The Light too dim to see the way
For her to find her Starshine
And then one day she found a Friend
Inspired the poems she'd someday Pen
His Mission was a Hand to lend
For her to find her Starshine
Her head upon the pillow lay
As Stari dreamed of Words to say
To lure the Muse who slipped away
To bring back all her Starshine
And then one day a brilliant Light
The Muse appeared within her sights
Inspired fingers told to Write
Directions to her Starshine
One evening when her day was done
She met a Blue-Eyed Blonde for fun
She never dreamed he'd be the One
To find her missing Starshine
Her Starshine to her had returned
She found another Him to yearn
More brilliant than before it Burned
Illuminating Star's Shine
She Melded unlike times before
To him who made her Spirit soar
To Places never reached before
He magnified her Starshine
Blinding to all those whose Eyes
Saw Star's light blazing in the skies
Fueled from Gazes from Blue Eyes
Mirroring the Star's shine
But Dreams we dream can never be
Unless we take the Chance to see
If they could be Reality
Or just appear in our minds
Sometimes Dreams can't last Forever
Sometimes lasting next to Never
Dreams we dream so easily severed
Dreams dreamt under The Moon's shine
A Cloud filled Sky she feels the pain
Of having lost a Love again
Tears from Eyes of green do rain
The Clouds all hide Her Starshine
She opens up and tells her Friend
Who once again his Hand does lend
To dry her Tears and her Heart mend
To help to find The Star's shine
It's only for a little while
For soon he'll make his Stari smile
And then again men she'll Beguile
As she turns on Her Starshine
Neither of them have regrets
Lovers grateful to have met
Memories shared they can't Forget
Of Blonde Hair, Blue Eyes
And Star's Shine
Sweet memories linger as they Sleep
Tucked within their Hearts to keep
Will never melt from Tears they Weep
From Eyes on Whom the Stars shone
So do not Cry or Weep for me
For someday soon Star's shine you'll see
From Memories made and those to be
They all make up
My Star Shine
To A Cat
STATELY, kindly, lordly friend,
Condescend
Here to sit by me, and turn
Glorious eyes that smile and burn,
Golden eyes, love's lustrous meed,
On the golden page I read.
All your wondrous wealth of hair,
Dark and fair,
Silken-shaggy, soft and bright
As the clouds and beams of night,
Pays my reverent hand's caress
Back with friendlier gentleness.
Dogs may fawn on all and some
As they come;
You, a friend of loftier mind,
Answer friends alone in kind.
Just your foot upon my hand
Softly bids it understand.
Morning round this silent sweet
Garden-seat
Sheds its wealth of gathering light,
Thrills the gradual clouds with might,
Changes woodland, orchard, heath,
Lawn, and garden there beneath.
Fair and dim they gleamed below:
Now they glow
Deep as even your sunbright eyes,
Fair as even the wakening skies.
Can it not or can it be
Now that you give thanks to see ?
May not you rejoice as I,
Seeing the sky
Change to heaven revealed, and bid
Earth reveal the heaven it hid
All night long from stars and moon,
Now the sun sets all in tune?
What within you wakes with day
Who can say?
All too little may we tell,
Friends who like each other well,
What might haply, if we might,
Bid us read our lives aright.
Wild on woodland ways your sires
Flashed like fires;
Fair as flame and fierce and fleet
As with wings on wingless feet
Shone and sprang your mother, free,
Bright and brave as wind or sea.
Free and proud and glad as they,
Here to-day
Rests or roams their radiant child,
Vanquished not, but reconciled,
Free from curb of aught above
Save the lovely curb of love.
Love through dreams of souls divine
Fain would shine
Round a dawn whose light and song
Then should right our mutual wrong---
Speak, and seal the love-lit law
Sweet Assisi's seer foresaw.
Dreams were theirs; yet haply may
Dawn a day
When such friends and fellows born,
Seeing our earth as fair at morn,
May for wiser love's sake see
More of heaven's deep heart than we.
poem by Algernon Charles Swinburne
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A Vow to Heavenly Venus
We that with like hearts love, we lovers twain,
New wedded in the village by thy fane,
Lady of all chaste love, to thee it is
We bring these amaranths, these white lilies,
A sign, and sacrifice; may Love, we pray,
Like amaranthine flowers, feel no decay;
Like these cool lilies may our loves remain,
Perfect and pure, and know not any stain;
And be our hearts, from this thy holy hour,
Bound each to each, like flower to wedded flower.
poem by Joachim du Bellay
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Rewrite Her Lines
Recently uncovered these lunar lines
bout spacey romantic other times
within another life I hear her name
so listen catch my stargazing game.
Tonight I investigate midnight stars
check out venus soul and mars
charter her planetary sign
read far reaches of mine.
Tonight I'm dressed to confess
leather clad to impress
unmask my lovers disguise
to open her lost eyes.
Tonight black cat moans low
as our astral bodies glow
glow beneath star dripping sky
grappling with ecstasy we lie.
Tonight constellations in flight
blossom full in lunar starlight
as I undress heart and moon
venus spinning through loom.
Tonight I'm laying her bare
going where love navigators dare
hoping to make high score
knocking upon the seductive door.
Tonight I embrace midnight star
reach out to smooth the scar
to crown her vacant star tonight
till dawns first changing light.
Lines sound starry high I guess
overly romantic others might confess
while I'm simply lost within star eyes
imagining in love how time flies.
poem by Wayne Falconer
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Until Now...
Until now, thought I’d never live to see
The steady growth of yonder cedar tree
Growing up, we moved quite frequently
Establishing roots is new to me...
(Thanks Laureen for our Cedar Haven nest)
ROTMS
poem by Ray Lucero
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Lovers Never Grow Old
Trees of light hail the day
Climb the ladder of ivory
Pythagoras has left the mortal
The measure of all things divine
Bright aqua suns sire minstrels
The dragon cannot escape
Trumpets call the children
Dreamers of the rainbow
The unorganized call of love
No grandiosity where masks revile
Souls travel the sublime gate
Now the tides bless me with awe
Sleep in waves of Celtic tribes
Blue fish amidst the coral
Villages drink mountain streams
Basking in sanctuary
Visions and dreams dance
Deep beneath the obvious crust
Time and matter were sons and stars
Woman made of beauty
Enchantment a star necklace
The look in her eyes
The gleam of eternal light
Roses grew like living moons
Kisses lasted forever
Rivers sang with their joy
Forests laughed with stars
Hear the gardens come closer
Hear the voice of the elders
Givers that never quit giving
Ash, aspen and mystic cedar
The lion and the lamb drink
Look! There is a ship
Lovers never grow old
poem by Joseph Narusiewicz
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