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The Wisdom Of Eld

We spend our lives in learning pilotage,
And grow good steersmen when the vessel's crank!
Gap-toothed he spake, and with a tottering shank
Sidled to gain the sunny bench of Age.
It is the sentence which completes that stage;
A testament of wisdom reading blank.
The seniors of the race, on their last plank,
Pass mumbling it as nature's final page.
These, bent by such experience, are the band
Who captain young enthusiasts to maintain
What things we view, and Earth's decree withstand,
Lest dreaded Change, long dammed by dull decay,
Should bring the world a vessel steered by brain,
And ancients musical at close of day.

poem by George Meredith
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Related quotes

Begin again

Infant...
Crying, needing, wanting, diaper changing
Playful, tearful, cooing, smiling

Then you grow
Things change
We begin again

Toddler....
Curious, adventurous, laughing, talking
Walking, needing, busy, whining

Then you grow
Things change
We begin again

Child....
Sports, schooling, friendships, sharing
Learning, listening, reading, caring

Then you grow
Things change
We begin again

Tween...
Sleepovers, boyfriends, conflicts, responsibility
Band, homework, joking, growing

Then you grow
Things change
We begin again

Teen....
Not quite there yet
Looking forward to the ride
Who ever, what ever I'll be by your side.

You may grow
Things will change
But I will always be here for when you need to begin again.

poem by Amber Wellman
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The Vessel That I am!

I am a weak vessel.
Strengthen me, O Lord!
Help me fill up to the brim
With virtues of all sorts.

I am a small vessel.
Make me hold more, O Lord!
Take away my porosity;
Let things remain intact.

I am a clay vessel.
Polish my sides, O Lord!
Let me stand most splendidly,
Glorifying my God.

I am a mere vessel,
Distorted somewhat, O Lord!
Place me on a rocky base,
To show the world my class!

The vessel whatever that I am
Will serve Thee only, Lord.
Fill me up with thy grace, O God
To prove that I’m fine clod!

poem by John Celes
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I'm Usually Happy...Tonight Not So Much

Not the man I used
to be…No more trust…
or faith
Rests inside of me

A bitter man
I’ve come to be
Devoid of faith
or charity

An empty vessel
A hollow shell…
poisonous as
A tainted well

A blank canvas
A sterile page
A muted man
of monstrous rage

I hate the world
That tacky stage
I hate the words
upon this page

I hate ugly words
Like snot and cooty
I guess you could say
That I’m kinda moody

No I’m not the man
I used to be
But it could be worse…
You could be me!

poem by David Whalen
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Writers Block

The worst thing any writer can experience
is the most dreaded writers block.
Sitting in front of a blank sheet of paper
waiting and waiting for the words to come.
It is the curse of all writers
whether they are good or bad.
The frustration of trying to unblock their mind.
We try it with reading others words or soothing music
hoping to stimulate the little grey cells into working.
However it is never as easy as it sounds
as a writers block can sometimes last for years,
I know that from experience as
I have been down that road before.
Then the inexplicable happens and you pick up a pen
and that blank page is not blank anymore,
it is filled with words galore.
The torture is over and a new start begins.
You give a big sigh of relief as your writing begins again,
but being always weary in case that block comes back again.

14 January 2011

poem by David Harris
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The World Is A Sacred Vessel

'The world is a sacred vessel...' Thomas Merton

blue vessel
in black vacuum

miracle world
encircling
thrall of this perfect star

sacred vessel,
His living cup
to beloved proffered,

wedding gift
beyond measure.

poem by Steven Federle
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The Campaign Trail

Aged or youth, you make the call, one will rise the other will fall,
Wisdom is grounded in age, as youth wants to turn a new page.
Both desire to take the lead, to address and handle every need,
Going on surely not to lose, but to be the one that men choose.

One, with his charismatic zeal, to the youth he has much appeal,
Speaking of much need change, while others he tries to engage.
Trying to create a broader base, to eloquently lay down his case,
That experience has little to do, in being a leader for me and you.

His opponent on the other hand; experience is his stage to stand,
Speaking of all he has done, and all he will do, once he has won.
With experience makes the claim, he’s more than just a new name,
His experience charts his course, unlike who may be a dark horse.

Each one, from the campaign trail, watches the other rant and rail,
As they do all that they can, in changing minds of opposing men.
While scrambling to win the race, missing is the element of grace,
Grace that sustains the nation, allowing them both in this situation.

Campaigning on strengths they hold, the issue is not young or old,
Nor is the issue wisdom, my friend, if it is only the wisdom of men.
And neither campaign can afford, to ignore the issues of The Lord,
They can run with a confident nod, but, will not get far without God.

The outcome will be God’s selection, for the winner of this election,
Affecting not just two men, but all, with the changes big, not small,
No matter what the polls do say, changes ahead will be God’s way,
Using the final outcome friend, for blessing or judgment in the end.

poem by Bob Gotti
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The Chronicles Of A Day Stranded In Nature Part 4 Spend A Day

One day
I had another fey
Imbroglio... why you there reader would you care?
Why stay there
Reading this... I urge you
That you could share my experiences too
Spend just one fey day at least
In nature stranded with only essentials as for food, don't bring a feast
Spend a day
Reading me, stranded in nature, for that is when you truly know me
Or spend a day, stranded in nature, reading you, for that is when you truly
Truly... find yourself

poem by David Knox
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Restrict the wants to things in hand

The milk that is not full in a vessel
Can be full in an exact vessel
And even spill over from a smaller one.
Your want is the vessel and things, the milk.
25.12.2000, Pmdi

poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar
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Writing Requires Experience

Pen poised between my fingers,
but on the page the ball point lingers.
I am willing the lyrics to flow
on what topic? I still don't know.

I realize then that writing poetry
requires experience not gained easily.
A good poet no doubt very wise is,
consequently, the problem arises:
how to gain this vital experience?
The dilemma, and source of my grievance:
how does a coward like me,
hiding from a world I can't stand,
become wise without learning
life lessons first hand?

Can my poems ooze hatred
when I've never been betrayed?
Can I speak vividly of love
when my heart hasn't yet been inflamed
by the warmth it is said to bring?
Will my lyrics be able to sing
with conviction clear and true
and so invoke any sense of relatedness in you?

I want to write
about any and everything
from now till kingdom come.
Sadly, I lack both the experience,
and the wisdom.

poem by Shaqueena Celestin
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In the New Year, Let’s Change …

Change is something that must come;
Change is good for everyone.
Change is something that will come;
Change is one we must welcome!

Change is good if one’s better;
Change is better to be best;
Change is nice if life’s better;
Change is the key to all success!

Let’s change our attitudes in life;
Let’s change our outlooks, behavior;
Let’s change if it can help us fare;
Let’s change the way, we see the world!

But change, we must anticipate in life;
We must be ready to take up change;
We ought to change if change we must;
But let us first believe in change!

Let change not remove identity;
Let change not weaken traditions;
Let change not ‘shake the tree by roots! ’
Let change bring effects desired by us.

Let changes come in the New Year;
Let changes make a man better;
Let changes better humanity;
Let changes not undo our gains!

Rein in the changes, advantageous;
Bring in the changes essential;
Take up the changes, we must make;
Let changes bolster life’s purpose!

Let New Year change the heart of man;
Let New Year change the mind and thoughts;
Let New Year change our living styles;
Let New Year change our sinful soul.

Let’s change and change the world around;
Let’s change our inner world and home;
Let’s change the things, we need to change;
Let’s change our lack of trust in God.

The more we change, ’tis good for us;
The less, we change, our life stagnates;
Changes are a part of life;
By changing, culture keeps alive!

No change can question definitions;
No change must threaten foundations;
No change shall endanger our lives;
All changes must remain ‘pro-life’!

Change shouldn’t alienate us from God;
Change should not be unnatural;
Change should not increase vice in man;
Change should not derail our right tracks.

Let change bring change in ways we think;
Let change bring success in all fields;
Let change foster more love for life;
Let change take pride and hatred off!

Let changes be for good of man;
Let changes reduce stress and strife;
Let changes make a virtuous man;
Let changes take us closer to God!

Let changes improve air and soil;
Let changes better lives for all;
Let changes never destroy life;
Let changes make earth paradise.

Let change in world give lasting peace;
Let change in heart, more charity;
Let change in rules afford security;
Let change in mankind, integrity!

Let’s change the world for progeny;
Let’s fine-tune changes children need;
Let change the world and make it safe;
Let’s change the landscape if we must!

Let’s change the laws if need be;
Let’s change the rules for more safety;
Let’s change the ways, we view others;
Let’s change the way, we treat brothers!

Let changes come, if they must come;
Let changes reform society;
Let changes lessen anxiety;
Let changes foster love of life!

Dedicated to American Prez. Barrack Obama
the man who hopes to change most things in the world;
Let’s pray his heart must change to bring just those changes
that God would expect him to change,
and not what the world prefers him to change!

poem by John Celes
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The Table Turned

Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books;
Or surely you'll grow double:
Up! up! my Friend, and clear your looks;
Why all this toil and trouble?

The sun, above the mountain's head,
A freshening lustre mellow
Through all the long green fields has spread,
His first sweet evening yellow.

Books! 'tis a dull and endless strife:
Come, hear the woodland linnet,
How sweet his music! on my life,
There's more of wisdom in it.

And hark! how blithe the throstle sings!
He, too, is no mean preacher:
Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.

She has a world of ready wealth,
Our minds and hearts to bless--
Spontaneous wisdom breathed by health,
Truth breathed by cheerfulness.

One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can.

Sweet is the lore which Nature brings;
Our meddling intellect
Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things:--
We murder to dissect.

Enough of Science and of Art;
Close up those barren leaves;
Come forth, and bring with you a heart
That watches and receives.

poem by William Wordsworth
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Growing Old

What is it to grow old?
Is it to lose the glory of the form,
The lustre of the eye?
Is it for beauty to forego her wreath?
Yes, but not for this alone.

Is it to feel our strength
Not our bloom only, but our strength decay?
Is it to feel each limb
Grow stiffer, every function less exact,
Each nerve more weakly strung?

Yes, this, and more! but not,
Ah, 'tis not what in youth we dreamed 'twould be!
'Tis not to have our life
Mellowed and softened as with sunset-glow,
A golden day's decline!

'Tis not to see the world
As from a height, with rapt prophetic eyes,
And heart profoundly stirred;
And weep, and feel the fulness of the past,
The years that are no more!

It is to spend long days
And not once feel that we were ever young.
It is to add, immured
In the hot prison of the present, month
To month with weary pain.

It is to suffer this,
And feel but half, and feebly, what we feel:
Deep in our hidden heart
Festers the dull remembrance of a change,
But no emotion none.

It is last stage of all
When we are frozen up within, and quite
The phantom of ourselves,
To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost
Which blamed the living man.

poem by Matthew Arnold (1867)
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Opens Both Ways

walking into death...
hands that grasped for so long,
learning to let go!
we spend our lives
in front of the easel...
and now the paint begins to dry.

at best, our dying
is the culmination of,
the fulfillment of destiny,
perhaps...
it finalizes the giving,
leaving the perfume of identity
hanging in the air.

we make love on a bed of pine needles,
small impressions on the ground.
the earth turns, the tides return,
the fires gone dim with stillness.
nothing to fear that we can change,
we've already laid the plank.
the door opens both ways...

the key on the windowsill!

poem by Eric Cockrell
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Within this Earthen Vessel

WITHIN this earthen vessel are bowers and groves,
and within it is the Creator:
Within this vessel are the seven oceans
and the unnumbered stars.
The touchstone and the jewel-appraiser are within;
and within this vessel the Eternal soundeth,
and the spring wells up.
Kabîr says:
'Listen to me, my Friend!
My beloved Lord is within.'

poem by Kabir
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Confucius

i am sebastian but
at the same time i am also
not sebastian
i am in a vessel i am contained
at the same time
i am the vessel
it's complicated and it the simplest
thing that can be said about it
it is and yet it is also both not
what it is
tomorrow i change and i tomorrow itself
changes
i am change and i do not change
to change
it is simple as it is as complicated
when it becomes that
simple
i am heaven and i am earth
i am sky and i am sun.

poem by Sebastian Soberania
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Childhood - The 21st Century

How advanced they are, these children of the future,
Like small adults, within their tiny frames,
They grow up in a fast 'speed driven' culture,
Where 'learning pressures' change their kind of games,
Where is their childhood, in all this hurly burly,
Where is their pure untainted view of things,
Why do they have to grow so old, so early,
And lose the joy that only childhood brings.

Our childhood was filled with thoughts of joy and gladness,
We lived our lives, oblivious to the world
And all the hardships, wars, the grief and sadness,
We stood, waiting for our lives to be unfurled.
We had time to grow, and gain an understanding,
Of each new phase, each change along the way,
As we grew slowly, our senses all expanding,
So with clarity, we slowly changed our play.

We had a framework on which to build and flourish,
Slow and steady, this was no rushed affair,
Taking each step, then step by step to nourish,
Our childhood, so finally adulthood we would share.
What will become, of these 'New Century' learners,
I doubt if they, a dreamy childhood see,
Will they then tell to all those bright discerners
Of their own, how they remembered their childhood to be.

poem by Ernestine Northover
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A free Park

that's the brain?
a stage set for the gods
to embark on their strategies
to be close to the soul and man
a free park nature roots itself
to grow in and out of us
that's the brain? nature's
handiwork, the weight
of its spirit and intelligence
at work, at work

poem by John Tiong Chunghoo
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I Believe

I believe that the sun shines after the rain
I believe if you don't get hurt you'll never gain
I believe in not doing things the easy way
I believe that being selfish doesn’t pay

I believe in a second chance
I believe in a life long romance
I believe there is life after death
And standing up to a life of mess

I believe in love at first sight
I believe that revenge isn’t right
I believe that first impressions last
And there is nothing better then a good laugh

I believe that dreams do come true
I believe there's destiny for me and you
I believe that good things come to those who wait
I believe love never arrives too late

I believe something good comes from something bad
I believe that for tears of happiness there are tears of sad
I believe everyone has a guardian angel
And the good you do will be rewarded well

I believe sometimes there is no explanation
I believe money can't buy people's affection
I believe you don't know what you've got until it's gone
I believe a new day arrives with every dawn

I believe a smile can be contagious
I believe in being very outrageous
I believe in living with no regrets
I believe that life is as good as it gets

I believe that God watches over us
I believe the little things are worth the fuss
I believe you have each friend for a reason
I believe you will get punished for treason

I believe that what comes first is family
I believe we should all live in harmony
I believe in making the most of a beautiful day
And it's not the end until everything's okay

I believe absence makes the heart grow fonder
I believe you will lose if you sit and wonder
I believe every experience teaches you a lesson
And nothing cures better then a drinking session

I believe everyone has one true love
I believe sometimes we need a little shove
I believe the whole world is a stage
I believe we only get better with age

I believe that to learn you have to live
I believe that to love someone you have to give
I believe one moment can change your life
And there's still help when you’re in strife

I believe everyone has one true friend
I believe love helps a broken heart mend
I believe in the power of a song
And things will change before too long

I believe living is the best experience
I believe in not laughing at other people’s expense
I believe it’s hard to watch a lover leave
And when they’re gone all you can do is breath

I believe to always look on the bright side
I believe that life is just one big ride
I believe when I die people will grieve
But it’s ok because I believe

poem by Kayla Neil
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I believe in a second chance

I believe that the sun shines after the rain
I believe if you don't get hurt you'll never gain
I believe in not doing things the easy way
I believe that being selfish doesn’t pay

I believe in a second chance
I believe in a life long romance
I believe there is life after death
And standing up to a life of mess

I believe in love at first sight
I believe that revenge isn’t right
I believe that first impressions last
And there is nothing better then a good laugh

I believe that dreams do come true, I believe there's destiny for me and you,
I believe something good comes from something bad I believe everyone has one true love

I believe there's destiny for me and you
I believe that good things come to those who wait
I believe love never arrives too late