Double Bind
The book of Life too soon is signed
away, as to eternity
all vain pretentions are resigned,
few dare discover secret key
unlocking cipher which behind
the letters here or there that we
may string together – for mankind
has other claims, priority.
For Cause, Effect, in double bind
united are – and who’d be free
from one the other meets behind
the veil through which few mortals see.
Complexity’s thus intertwined
with what appears simplicity -
yet some solutions groomed may bind
to tomb the doomed had thought to flee.
No culture code or time-line twined
with cant restraints can ever be
maintained for long, life’s dice remind
contentment knows no prepaid fee,
no cash-and-carry cheque combined
with D.N.A. for passage free
accorded some, - the rest, resigned,
monopolizing misery.
There is no fate which, pre-defined,
MUST circumscribe life’s destiny,
or cheese for some, for others rind
to gnaw while stretching sanity
beyond the limits humankind
should tolerate, while vanity -
inanity – must soon unwind
its substance rotting on life’s tree.
When I was born I woke to find
a world in bloom, but lived to see
the flowers fade. Death came, unkind.
May joys not jade, nor love, for thee.
Beyond Time’s dark, incessant, grind,
find ways with creativity
to soar, explore, - scope redesigned -
rejecting blind conformity.
The moral here is underlined: -
play for the day, meet what will be
with open heart and open mind, -
sufficient flexibility,
to see Chance is not undermined,
that every opportunity
may lead beyond bare alley blind
towards serenity.
poem by Jonathan Robin
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Related quotes
Fate vs Destiny
To find your true happiness tempt fate to discover your destiny.
You must hearken back to when real happiness was known
Remember its impact on your life
Opportunity knocks, open the door, you will see it coming.
You may be surprised to discover fate can mask your destiny.
Your fate and your destiny are not one in the same.
Your fate is what you settle for in life.
What you take as your life marches on day by day, an obligation to life.
Destiny is the gate you find at the end of the path you blaze
As you strive to attain life’s goal open the gate and find love,
Happiness and contentment; true peace of heart and mind.
Fate may leave you at destiny’s gate at the end of life.
Knowing only the travails of your battles to achieve life’s goal
Knowing not the sweetness of your victories.
The gate may not be open, leaving you empty
At the end of life's journey.
The path to your destiny is yours and yours alone
Ask yourself whether you wish to settle for your fate or…
Tempt your fate and discover the path.
The dark side of life; fear and self doubt can blur and cover the path.
Not always seen in the clear; hidden in your memory
Or on the full plate before you the path is always there.
Those who have known the depth of their love, the strength of their spirit,
Will find a guiding light illuminates their path.
In these qualities of character you will discover your true self
And the key to unlock the gate.
You will recognize the guide of your light.
The choice is yours, settle for fate or follow the light,
Find the key, unlock the gate … discover your destiny.
poem by William J. Henderson Jr.
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Charmed Encounter of a Very Special Kind
CHARMED ENCOUNTER OF A VERY SPECIAL KIND
Charmed initials Mon Coeur signals, touching tendrils in the mind
Open onto a stupendous spacious hall,
Reaching out nerves strain synapses in attempt to slip behind
Real reeled cause/effect conditions, great and small.
Infinitely blessed is brillance whose bright colours, unconfined
Enrapture, glow beholden, golden ball,
Reckon up fair features Beauty claims her own as wined and dined
Are arteries well warmed where inner call
Sacred sentiments suggest, surely defined.
Charmed sensations echo empathy, concordance dance we find
Offered where before life seemed an empty wall,
Rigid barricades numb, soul's song dumb, ambitions undefined
Regretfully awaiting Charon's call.
Idyllic seems this atmosphere, unlimited, enshrined
Existence blossoms clearing karmic shawl,
Reveals how many lifetimes skillful Fate had intertwined
As links sweet, strong, that nothing could forestall:
Suprising tryst dispersing mists in mind.
Charmed day whose ray more hopeful may at last dawn for mankind
One over all, where Nature holds in thrall
Rising, falling, generations for fair silken tresses twined
Relegate to Lethe others' fates withal.
It appears ideal encounter of a very special kind
Exalting, whirled with beauty of the ball,
Rare this ecstasy, see supernova which can't be outshined
As all galaxies combine in southern Gaul,
Spirit elevate to purify one's mind.
Charm no others know - their surface glow soon fades, maids may not bind,
Only by her side may Pride stand sprightly tall,
Registers finess of features with quick spirit nought can blind,
Respect and admiration never pall.
Infinite shining armoured knights slay dragons base, unkind,
Effortlessly pleasing qualities Time's squall
Resist like Romeo and Juliet whose love, combined,
Approach the trust 'twixt Jonathan and Saul
Sapphire sky blue signals, soul to soul shall bind.
Charmed soul's aware 'twould thrones forswear, go where gold signet signed,
Obey joy's gift, as high priestess install
Revered as muse forever, Queen above mere womankind
Recanting empty idols one and all
Independantly of time and place, of meetings Chance may trawl,
Eternity, true witness, shall be never undermined,
Repudiated not though aeons far beyond recall
Awareness dull for all else yet, entrapped beneath one thrall,
Symphonic recognition underlined.
Charmed verse more verse would here rehearse, sing praises but, unkind,
Old English, narrow, lacks rhymed wherewithal.
Review true talent, virtues few aspire to, most, resigned,
Regret their springs so swiftly sag, unwind.
In one reflection happiness, contentment unconfined
Emanates, whose rays may never pall,
Resplendent render life's meander, haze and maze maligned,
As empathy, emotions waterfall:
Stream serene and optimistic, cares and trammels left behind.
4 October 2008 after a 19910118 variation of robi03_1220 acrostic Corrieras rewritten - Index Number out of Chronological Sequence
robi03_0365_robi03_0000 AXX_LXX
poem by Jonathan Robin
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Time Trap
Juxtaposition in an active mind:
unstretched potential and a spirit free
seek space to taste then test eternity,
leaving wasted years far, far behind.
Intense the need for speed, choice voice must find,
before too late, - an opportunity
tuned to new horizons’ patterned key.
Before too late... life its own double bind
sees night light follow as Time’s skeins unwind,
as most is swallowed, soon forgotten, - we,
today ahead, tomorrow sped, can’t flee
Nature’s mortal paradox designed.
Whether open, closed, the intellect
self justifies through merge-urge to project...
poem by Jonathan Robin
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An Image Springs to Mind
An image springs to mind:
A child, with childish innocence
upon the shores of life, inclined
to play, without pretence
or mask. Or, if a mask there be,
it still retains a quality
allowing all with empathy to penetrate behind.
An image springs to mind:
So freely see the child dispense
the sifting sand, so unrefined,
with slight apparent sense.
It takes some perspicacity
to see each grain is memory -
dispersed or treasured as may be - quicksilverly defined.
An image springs to mind:
The shifting sands are implements
used differently by different blind
for good or ill intents immense.
Some knowledge is acquired for free,
transmitted some, instinctively,
the balance, finely tuned as we progress or slip behind.
An image springs to mind:
The grain in youth packed tight and dense
Age often loosens, cannot bind, -
how great the difference!
If we could meet mortality
with every thought recorded, we
could help those after us to see the answers we can’t find.
An image springs to mind:
These answers must, in self defence,
be hid from those who’d grind Mankind,
enslaving innocence.
Both Time and Knowledge thus should be
weaved secret in Life’s mystery
from here until eternity - or so it seems designed...
poem by Jonathan Robin
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They Gave Their All
I may not understand the wars
Or the fields of rotting corpses
I've read all the poems
Of wars from the past
And cannot imagine
The life lived back then
A blood soaked battlefield
Death wading with glee
At those that have fallen
For the right to be free
So many souls lost in time
Fighting a cause, humanity blind
Dare I say, what I read?
In between the lines
A poet soldier
Who needs to be free?
Do I have a right?
To question their fight
They gave their all
In what they believed
Teardrops fall as I continue my rhyme
But what I do understand
Is that they fought through all the wars
So that we can be free
To choose our lives
And live to be
What we want to be
All the bloodshed fields
The entire hero's lost in wars
I bow my head, and pray to thee
Thank you all
For letting me breathe
To learn and discover
The meaning of me
Tears trickle down
As I cry for your loss
You never got the chance to be free
You never found your path in life
You never came home to your loved ones, friends, and family
So what gives us the right?
The generation of today
To say how boring
Our life is today
When those in war
Never had a full life
They gave it all
So we could be free
To live a full life
I thank the hero's
Of past, present and yet to be
What so sad for humankind
Is that war is our history
Perhaps in the future
We can see peace and harmony
Perhaps dare I say it
A world weapon free
poem by Kaila George
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Message
Before wan weight of waiting worms one's mind
to karma and coincidence thoughts fly,
to Cause, Effect, in search to satisfy
the need to understand joy underlined
encountered in eyes' sapphire welcome kind.
Fey glance fantastic Styx hex could belie,
would heart and spirit soul electify.
This message warmed, enflamed, consumed: thus blind
before one must have been who would defy
the laws which most to gravity still tie.
Shedding base substance, purity refined
aired excitement trammels left behind.
Senses swam, delights Time's thralls deny
surfing through perfumed light none can descry.
The message all embraced, and underlined
significance the senses satisfy
as sentiments thought conscious magnify
to a degree undreamt of by mankind.
Impressions were so heightened hope could find
ease, all answered, thence identify
the meaning of the universe thereby.
Like lightening current passed. With wings aligned,
soul swept the air full seven heavens high,
within a vortex top-like sucked. How? Why?
Its spinning harmony what earthly mind
has illustrated? Unseen and undefined
yet omnipresent, all else empty lie.
Soul starwards starwards soared with an ecstatic cry.
I freer, lighter, felt as two combined
Earth’s atoms in a trice, in timeless tie,
emotions felt which seemed to signify
implicit trust which soul to soul could bind.
I nowhere stood, with all was intertwined,
all understood which logic could defy,
apart from, yet part of all was I!
I could not think Fate would be so unkind
as thus to tempt two hearts and then fall shy
of unity where twinned souls’ sole reply
could flash as understanding pre-divined,
enlightenment, whose limits, undefined,
would as the oceans’ depths thus testify
its fount in well-spring which could ne’er run dry.
If then, dear heart, this verse you chance to find,
and turn towards it with deep-seeing eye,
think we are twins, may back together fly.
In strangest ways may Destiny unwind.
Joy comet-like, lights hopes, awakens mind,
frontiers defies, flares far flung splendorous sky,
horizons beckon beacon bright, won't die.
(27 October 1990 revised 17 June 1991 and 14 October 2008)
poem by Jonathan Robin
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Live Your Life Be Free
Live your life be free
Live your life be free
Open up your mind and you will see
You should be with me baby
You should be with me
I see you walking with her
I see you all around
But you don't seem very happy now
You seem very down
I know you feel an obligation
To her emotional state of mind
This is the time in your life baby
When you should be having a good time
And if you want me I'll be there
To run my fingers through your hair
And if you need me its alright
Come on over baby, and see me tonight
You got to
Live your life be free
Live your life be free
Open your mind and you will see
You should be with me baby
You should be with me
You know that I'll be waiting
You know my heart is true
I will be your everything
And give everything to you
So if you want me baby I know
Don't have to knock knock down my doors
Her heart was meant to be broken that day
You got a lot of love to live
So why dont you
Live your life be free
Live your life be free
Open your mind and you will see
You should be with me baby
You should be with me
You should be with me baby
You should be with me
Live your life be free baby
Live your life be free baby
Live your life be free baby
Live your life be free baby
Live your life be free baby
Live your life be free baby
Live your life be free baby
Live your life be free baby
And when you free your mind
You will leave your past behind
Live your life be free
Live your life be free
Open your mind and you will see
You should be with me baby
You should be with me
Live your life be free
Live your life be free
Open your mind and you will see
You should be with me baby
You should be with me
song performed by by Belinda Carlisle
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Rainbow Vision
RAINBOW VISION
Anticipating liberty
judgemental values leave behind!
Empowerment, responsive, free,
mocks conformity confined.
Expanding opportunity
detests blind vested interest bind,
uniform security,
empty options predefined,
unquestioning stability,
finds vital freedoms undermined.
Intelligence refutes decree,
autonomy seeks, nothing binds.
Open source as course sounds sweet,
spurns tunnel vision parakeet.
Subservience to hierarchy
often atrophies the mind,
obedience to authority
self-serving, stamped and countersigned,
frequently turns misery,
cramps principles of any kind,
as bullet-backed absurdity
sees joy and self-respect unwind.
The search for serendipity
rejects priorities assigned
which free-will weaken covertly, -
behind closed doors cogs ruthless grind.
Bias tends to self-defeat,
Leaves truth uncomfortable to meet.
20 March 2009
robi03_1870_robi03_0000 SXX_EJX
poem by Jonathan Robin
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Open Your Heart
Don't let the sun go down on me
Open your heart
Just let me be your destiny
Open your heart
What I never felt before
I really need you more and more
Don't let the sun go down on me
Open your heart
Open your heart
Open your heart
Open your heart
Open your heart
Open your heart
Even when you're far away
You're on my mind, every night and day
Don't let me live without a goal
Deep inside you are my soul
I've been fooled by love so many times
I've been blind, I've seen no signs
You're the one for me, we'll never part
Stay with me and open your heart
I can't express what's goin' on
I feel so lonely when you're gone
Is it real or is it fake
Am I dreaming, am I awake
You're the one I have been waiting for
I can't hold it back no more
You're the one for me, we'll never part
Stay with me and open your heart
I need you, don't let the sun, go down on me
Count on me, let me be your destiny,
See you got the key, to my Heart
We'll never part, from the start till the end of time,
You' re always mine, take a glass of wine
And let the sun shine, find out,
What is right or wrong,
What's going on, I feel lonely when you're gone
You're style is Magic - you hypnotise me
You came into my life, set me free
Light and energy, all around the galaxy
You made it brighter so that I could see
Like a melody in ecstasy,
See our love will last, eternally
Seems that your life is the golden key
Don't let the sun go down on me
song performed by by DJ Bobo
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ire On Cross Sect_I_On Spire Pyre
Black books some find
grant ease of mind
responsibility
remove behind
dark veil and blind
bewailing liberty.
Life should be led,
shared, free from lead
respectability,
What lies ahead?
Hell? lies, instead
seems crass conformity.
Lip service paid
by man or maid
to bias, bigotry,
replace game played,
joy unafraid,
with sects that narrow be.
Turn more to hope
for increased scope
throughout life's comedy,
beware time's rope
that hangs who grope
for creeds rarely agree
on godhead fair
with love to spare,
or core divinity.
Seek self - truth's there -
'ware cupboards bare,
wraith faiths' fatuity.
23 April 2010
poem by Jonathan Robin
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Live Your Live Be Free
I see you walking with her
I see you all around
But you dont seem very happy now
You seem very down
I know you feel an obligation
To her emotional state of mind
But this is the time of your life baby
And you should be having a good time
And if you want me Ill be there
To run my fingers through your hair
If you need me its alright
Come on over baby, and see me tonight (youve got to)
Live your life be free
Live your life be free
Open up your mind and you will see
You should be with me
You know that Ill be waiting
You know my heart is true
I will be your everything
And give everything to you
So is you want me baby, Im yours
You dont have to knock, kick down my doors
Rules are made to be broken every day
You got one life to live, so hey (why dont you)
Live your life be free
Live your life be free
Open up your heart and you will see
You should be with me, baby
You should be with me
Live your life be free
Live your life be free
And when you free you mind
You will leave your past behind
Live your life be free
Live your life be free
Open up your eyes and you will see
You should be with me, baby
You should be with me
Live your life be free
Live your life be free
Open up your heart and you will see
You should be with me baby
You should be with me
song performed by by Belinda Carlisle
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Chorus of the Dead
And all returns to Thee, alone eternal,
And all Thee returning.
Oh Death, in Thy vast shadow,
Simple and bare we languish,
Not happy, but from the anguish
Of life at last set free. The night profoundly
Falls on the shaken spirit,
And dark in dark confuses;
The withered soul sourage and hope refuses;
Spent and uncaring,
Free now from sorrow and from fear for ever,
We lie here undespairing
Through void eternity.
We lived... And as a phantom from a dream of terror
Wanders into the day,
And draws across the speechless souls of children
A memory and a fear,
We, as we linger here,
Are haunted still by life: but fears of children
Haunt us not now. What were we?
What was that bitter point in time
That bore the name of life?
Mysterious, stupendous,
Lost in our thought that hidden country lies:
As in our day of life there lay
The secret land of death. And as from dying
Our living souls drew back, so now they draw
Back from the flame of life,
Simple and bare to languish,
Not happy, but not in anguish;
For happiness we know
Fate upon life or death will not bestow.
poem by Count Giacomo Leopardi
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Mantis and Chameleon Combined
MANTIS AND CHAMELEON COMBINED
Mantis and chameleon combined
In sorrow-smile strange siren spectrum sings.
Rainbow surface spins unfathomed rings,
Intense emotions stirs. Heart, unassigned,
Awaits soft spell but enters hell, won't bind.
Much time is wasted, time whose acid stings
Must dreams dissolve, naught solve. Vain vampire wings
Each night takes flight, though fantasy, resigned,
No spice retains, scope wanes as hopes unwind.
Defensive moats must lapse, emotions bring
Ease, understanding, joy in everything,
Serenity with sharing redefined.
Mobility of spirit and of mind
Must self-acceptance learn, fears leave behind.
30 October 2001 revised 25 April 2009
robi03_0956_robi03_0000 ASX_DEU
Mantis and Chameleon Combined poem (c) Jonathan Robin
poem by Jonathan Robin
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Transience V
Sandy sickle trickle flows
from sure to shore which no-one knows.
Time rhyme measured by man’s mind
soon carved in rime is left behind.
Children that man, spendthrift, sows,
confirm or turn initial woes
as to his heirs ‘the undersigned’
entrusts whatever they may find
to prop or rock, to open close,
to greet as friend or treat as foes,
to spur ambitions transient, blind.
Spun cause, effect, as they unwind
may opportunity disclose
to seek behind rind surface shows,
discover meaning silver-lined...
poem by Jonathan Robin (11 March 2006)
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Transience V
Sandy sickle trickle flows
from sure to shore which no-one knows.
Time rhyme measured by man’s mind
soon carved in rime is left behind.
Children that man, spendthrift, sows,
confirm or turn initial woes
as to his heirs ‘the undersigned’
entrusts whatever they may find
to prop or rock, to open close,
to greet as friend or treat as foes,
to spur ambitions transient, blind.
Spun cause, effect, as they unwind
may opportunity disclose
to seek behind rind surface shows,
discover meaning silver-lined...
poem by Jonathan Robin
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A New Life
It's time to start a new life.
Leave behind all the trash and blithe.
Leave behind those who bring me down,
leave me feeling like a dying man without a sound.
To start a new life will be my only saving grace.
Put my mind at a slow and steady pace.
I cannot go on floundering in this current time.
To all the beauty around me I have become so blind.
Start a new life to break this bind.
Eternall joy and happiness is what I hope to find.
Where do I begin,
and how do I recind all the terrible lonliness I find myself?
I have to try,
I have to fight.
For a new life with strength and might.
I hope now that I'll find it soon.
On this current path I'm doomed.
So here I go I must be brave.
To start a new life and no longer be a slave.
poem by Michael McParland
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Had You?
Had you forget the time you knock on my door?
One sweet touch and its wide open
Then we drawn on expected courtesy
I’d serve you the best corner to decorate
Free and content on yr possession
Had you lost yr key to recognize the place?
It’s been a pleasure to welcome you back
Surrender with the thought of sharing you the grand life
I lit the flame to cuddle your mind and let the time be our charm
But you never rest the nerve to melt with ease
Had you stole some of the dream?
It was gone leaving your bare foot step
It’s a treasure to keep my vanity and your sanity
Spend it wisely if you must or preserve it right
Seems like your fake intention had taken a part
Had you decide to ignore the beat?
The rush of emotion still playing to redeem our desire
Pour us the need to bind the tiny cell of mind
When I’m there and you’re not around
Or when you’re too lonely to have fun
Had you give up haunting me?
Coz you cherish the tattoo near my heart
Creep the night to greet me morning
Though I always fall for reason and alibi
I’d try to be fair ‘till the end of our line
poem by Niken Kusuma Wardani
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Timed Thread
Pattern shifts as time from time’s t[h]read stock
mutates or waits on catalyst to key
into, through, metamorphosis to see
beyond historic references’ lock
beyond straitjackets that clear thinking block.
The answer may not individuality
be seen to be but ways which destiny
choice negociates as life’s short clock
tic tocs from birth to berth, first shock, last dock.
Genes seldom hold free-will or equity
in fee - to Darwin contradictory -
from bloom to tomb dreams compromised half-cock.
Through open options, opportunity,
Mankind high rises evolution’s tree.
poem by Jonathan Robin
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Reprieved
How strange it is to be pain free
after long years of misery.
A life confined to my wheelchair
I found was difficult to bear.
I tried to bear it patiently
and clung to one hope stubbornly
That they would find a cure for me
and once again I would be free.
To live quite independently.
Take control of my destiny
To come and go just as I pleased,
from my paralysis released.
Freedom took me by surprise.
It took a while to realise
that I was free completely free
no longer tied to my body.
I had not thought of death as kind
. I can see now that I was blind
Death turned the key to set me free
and I rejoice exultantly.
I’ve left a hollow shell behind.
I spread my wings and go to find
those that I loved who’ve gone before.
I do not think I’d ask for more.
17-Oct-07
poem by Ivor Or Ivor.e Hogg
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We're Sighing
We're sighing because it's just all we can do,
We've tried all there is just to get through to you;
You say that you'll try to be better next time,
We're afraid that, again, you're just using that line.
You don't seem to care how much trouble you cause,
And between your mad antics there's hardly a pause;
You drive in the wedge a bit further each time,
Your behaviour towards us we see as a crime.
What you want out of life is a mystery to me,
You will never be happy until you are free;
Free to discover it's not what you thought,
This bed of red roses, so eagerly sought.
You're blind to the fact that this world's a tough place,
You may find it bitter when you've had a taste;
All those who would help you have done all they can,
You've rejected us all, every woman and man.
You have carefully burned all your bridges behind,
By the things you have said, they were very unkind;
Every knot that was tied you have slowly undone,
The web of your sorrows, yourself you have spun.
(Written June 1995)
poem by John Carter Brown
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