En.Citatepedia^®.ro

0046 The Measured Life

Here in the garden at the break of day,
the air’s been washed with holy water overnight,
and it’s so peaceful, as if nature at this hour
replays Creation’s dawn; takes a heartfelt pause
before it launches, first itself, then us,
into the business of the day and, so it seems,
to lose ourselves somewhere inside ourselves.

Sitting here, I meditate upon the silence and the stillness
at this thought-free hour of dawn; as if I and nature both
share that sweet mystery that movement, action,
arise from stillness, remain behind it all the day…

To measure out the use of this fine world –
to live, neither too little nor too much;
to be both actor and the watcher of all this,
sitting in delight at one’s own play…

And in the kitchen of the spirit,
where rolling-pins and herbs live lives of metaphor,
weigh out with balance, measure in the jug of life
the usage of this world;
in these scales, balance gold;
the gold that's earned, the gold that's given out;
from this jug, pours pure joy.

This evening, bruised and battered by the day
that I allowed to, worldly, use me thus,
I shall return to this same garden seat
showered and refreshed
by spirit’s bathing - mercy, grace –
to find again that peace which never left
this seat of love

poem by Michael Shepherd
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Water and Spirit

A son does what he sees and,
A daughter does what see see too;
For this world do go around us to learn always.
At the seventh hour,
At the moving of the water,
Of the scraps that remained after the work;
Begotten of water and spirit for the wind to blow where it will,
And others born of the flesh like a keeper who gets the ball.

Born of the spirit,
A player scores a goal!
Rivers of living waters like clay with the spittle;
He is of age and she is of age too,
But a man's mind is full of darkness.

Of ears to hear,
Of eyes to see and,
Of a nose to smell with too;
But the measure you give is the measure you get.

When the water moves,
The spirit gives life;
Like heavenly bodies and earthly things,
But deep inside the well is the darkeness of death.

The bridegroom gets the bride and,
The light of life is for us all to share;
Like water and spirit on the muse of one's birth.
I came into to share my mind,
You came into life to play your part,
For this world is like the water and the spirit around us;
But the wind blows to where it will.

poem by Edward Kofi Louis
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November 28,2007 is the International Day of Stillness: A Poem for the day

'Stillness is my beloved teacher.
From her, I learn new things every day.'
I said to Stillness,
How can you teach me so well?

Stillness said,
By being with you always.
I said to Stillness,
How can you teach me so much?

Stillness said,
Because you have much within you;
I, but a mirror for your mind;
I, but a mirror for your heart.

I said to Stillness,
O my beloved teacher, will you
promise me you will never leave me?

Stillness said,
I cannot leave you;
though you can leave me..
but what is stillness without a companion?
I said to Stillness,
Is your work hard?

Stillness said,
I have the most wonderful task that I could wish for:
I sit with babies while they smile;
I sit with children in the classroom
as they delight to learn;

I sit with the angry and disturbed,
and watch them grow to peace;
I sit with the sad and lonely and bereaved
and watch them rediscover happiness and joy;
I sit with kings and queens and rulers
while they find wisdom and mercy;

I sit with governments and committees
while they find reason and justice;
I sit with artists and scientists,
and watch them find new things outside themselves,
and find new things within themselves;

I sit with those who pray or meditate,
as they find God in themselves;
I sit at the feet of saints
while they become perfection;

I walk in the gardens of the dawn,
I walk in the gardens of the dusk;
in the deep of the night, I watch;
I fly with birds, in the silence of the air;
I watch the animals as they explore the earth;
I listen to the growing of the trees and plants;
I listen to the opening of the flowers;

Said Stillness,
I am the friend and the companion of all;
who would not love to share my life with me?
I said to Stillness,
May I never leave you.
And Stillness looked me in the eye,
and Stillness smiled at me:
‘I am born with every creature born
to be their friend for life.’

poem by Michael Shepherd
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The song that Mary sang

In the stillness of the dawn,
in the stillness of the dusk,
then, my heart is most alive,
there, my soul is most at peace.

In the freshness of the morning,
in the coolness of the eve,
the Lord God walks in every garden;
be still, so to know Him there.

All day long I tend my garden;
there, this evening, God may walk;
I may see Him; I may not - but
yet I meet Him in my work.

poem by Michael Shepherd
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Stillness: a Poem for the International Day of Stillness, November 28

'Stillness is my beloved teacher.
From her, I learn new things every day.'

I said to Stillness,
how can you teach me so well?

Stillness said,
By being with you always.

I said to Stillness,
How can you teach me so much?

Stillness said,
Because you have much within you;
I, but a mirror for your mind;
I, but a mirror for your heart.

I said to Stillness,
O my beloved teacher, will you
promise me you will never leave me?

Stillness said,
I cannot leave you;
though you can leave me..
but what is stillness without a companion?

I said to Stillness,
Is your work hard?

Stillness said,
I have the most wonderful task that I could wish for:

I sit with babies while they smile;

I sit with children in the classroom
as they delight to learn;

I sit with the angry and disturbed,
And watch them grow to peace;

I sit with the sad and lonely and bereaved
and watch them rediscover happiness and joy;

I sit with kings and queens and rulers
while they find wisdom and mercy;

I sit with governments and committees
while they find reason and justice;

I sit with artists and scientists,
and watch them find new things outside themselves,
and find new things within themselves;

I sit with those who pray or meditate,
and watch them find God in themselves;

I sit at the feet of saints
while they become perfection;

I fly with birds, in the silence of the air;
I watch the animals as they explore the earth;
I hear the growing of the trees and plants;
I listen to the opening of the flowers;

I walk in the gardens of the dawn;
I walk in the gardens of the dusk;
in the deep of the night, I watch.

Said Stillness,
I am the friend and the companion of all;
who would not love to share my life with me?

I said to Stillness,
may I never leave you.

And Stillness looked me in the eye,
and Stillness smiled at me:

‘I am born with every creature born
to be their friend for life.’

*
(With acknowledgements to Iain Trousdell of New Zealand, whose poem quoted from in the first two lines inspired this extension..)

poem by Michael Shepherd
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In the spirit of Rumi - 80 - Meditation

To the Lord, my Beloved, I said,
my Beloved: often I pray to You,
but more often, I confess,
it is to ask from You;
less often, to thank You or to praise You…

teach me, then, about meditation,
which men say to be a way
to be near You,
even beyond thanks or praise…

the Lord, my Beloved, said,
O you whom I love dearly as Myself,
whose praise and thanks are dear to Me
in ways that only I may know…
such is My nature, and is that of yours,
that only meditation may teach you meditation…

but this is all I ask of you:
that twice a day – and best,
at dawn and dusk, which are
the times I can be known to walk
in My garden of the world,
in the stillness of the morning,
in the stillness of the evening,
when My nature wakes or sleeps in peace…

that twice a day, you spend some time
saying – as if it were only once, and always once –
My name for you; your name for Me;
this will be our time of love;
this will be My test of your true love for Me:

and if at any time, your thoughts
stray away from Me, wandering in
the byways of the world –
that will not diminish My eternal love for you;
it will only mean, that you have forgotten
for the time not being, My love for you –

but if you truly love Me, then you will return
as a straying son returns,
and if you truly love Me,
you will then, know My love’s increase..

this will be our daily time together,
you and I; that is all I ask of you;

yet if, in all the other hours of the day,
I seem to you to stay
so much the nearer to you, close to you –
then that is but the mark of My love for you,
O you whom I love dearly as Myself;

so, together, let us speak each other’s name,
as lovers always shall.

poem by Michael Shepherd
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Sojourns in the Parallel World

We live our lives of human passions,
cruelties, dreams, concepts,
crimes and the exercise of virtue
in and beside a world devoid
of our preoccupations, free
from apprehension--though affected,
certainly, by our actions. A world
parallel to our own though overlapping.
We call it "Nature"; only reluctantly
admitting ourselves to be "Nature" too.
Whenever we lose track of our own obsessions,
our self-concerns, because we drift for a minute,
an hour even, of pure (almost pure)
response to that insouciant life:
cloud, bird, fox, the flow of light, the dancing
pilgrimage of water, vast stillness
of spellbound ephemerae on a lit windowpane,
animal voices, mineral hum, wind
conversing with rain, ocean with rock, stuttering
of fire to coal--then something tethered
in us, hobbled like a donkey on its patch
of gnawed grass and thistles, breaks free.
No one discovers
just where we've been, when we're caught up again
into our own sphere (where we must
return, indeed, to evolve our destinies)
--but we have changed, a little.

poem by Denise Levertov
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Hour Of Gold

(Emmylou Harris)
I have seen your soul turn black
And then retreat
To that dark place where no one else may follow
I waited here for your returning
To roll your cigarette
And wash your bloodied feet
You have heard the silent running
Of my dreams
Broke me from the grip of grief and fever
With the sound of your voice speaking my name
And a kiss
That I will feel forever
In the hour of gold, the hour of lead
WG did forge our wedding bed
On a hard and holy road
We lay down our head
In tha hour of gold, the hour oi lead
I have watched you riding on
The wall of death
And when il finally breaks you and you fall
I will tear this dress of muslin that you gave me
To bind the fatal wound
And catch your last sweet breath
In the hour of gold, the hour of lead
We did forge our wedding bed
On a hard and holy road
We lay down our head
In the hour of gold, the hour of lead
But the world will be my witness when
They excavate my heart
And find the image of your face
Imprinted there like some Shroud of Turin
That neither time Nor tundra could erase
In the hour of gold, the hour of lead
We did forge our wedding bed
On a hard and holy road
We lay down our head
In the hour of gold, the hour of lead

song performed by by Emmylou Harris
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Silver And Gold

Silver, silver and gold
Silver and gold, silver and gold
Ev'ryone wishes for silver and gold
How do you measure its worth?
Just by the pleasure it gives here on earth.
Silver and gold, silver and gold
Mean so much more when I see
Silver and gold decorations
On ev'ry Christmas tree.
Silver, silver and gold
Silver, silver and gold
Silver and gold
Silver and gold
Silver and gold
Wise men brought gifts to the mange I'm told
Mary was humble to see
Shepherds and kings there on bended knees
It's silver and gold, silver and gold
Feeling the world with their lives
Silver and gold how they shimmer on ev'ry Christmas night
On ev'ry Christmas night
Silver, silver and gold

song performed by by Vanessa Williams
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Silver & Gold

Words and Music by Johnny Marks.
Silver, silver and gold
Silver and gold, silver and gold
Ev'ryone wishes for silver and gold
How do you measure its worth?
Just by the pleasure it gives here on earth.
Silver and gold, silver and gold
Mean so much more when I see
Silver and gold decorations
On ev'ry Christmas tree.
Silver, silver and gold
Silver, silver and gold
Silver and gold
Silver and gold
Silver and gold
Wise men brought gifts to the mange I'm told
Mary was humble to see
Shepherds and kings there on bended knees
It's silver and gold, silver and gold
Feeling the world with their lives
Silver and gold how they shimmer on ev'ry Christmas night
On ev'ry Christmas night
Silver, silver and gold

song performed by by Vanessa Williams
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Heart Of Gold

He is a man forced to live with the rats
But he is dying for a smile from you
He is a man without a home in his life
Is that a reason to walk on the line
Its like a game - dont mess around
Dont be a fool so just go on
No life of double standard what hes looking for
Only a dream of tender delight
No more a bloody fool in this dirty town
So get away take your own line
Hard is the game - dont turn around
You make the rules so hold your ground
Hes got a heart of gold
The brain to realize he leads the better life
Hes got a heart of gold
So free your mind - live with a smile
Heart of gold - just like a diamond in the rough
He is dying for a touch from you
No more a bloody fool in this God damned town
Please be strong for just one time
So play this game and move the pawns
Its up to you so just go on
Hes got a heart of gold
The heart to free his soul, the heart to reach the goal
Sweet little a heart of gold
So free and fine - live with a smile
Live with a smile on your face
Hard is the game - dont turn around
No more a fool so just go on
Hes got a heart of gold
The brain to realize he leads the better life
Hes got a heart of gold
So free your mind - live with a smile
Hes got a heart of gold
The heart to free his soul, the heart to reach the goal
Sweet little a heart of gold
So free and fine - live with a smile
Just live with a smile on your face
He is dying for a smile from you
So just go on - go on - go on
With your heart of gold
Dont turn around
You make the rules so hold your ground
Sweet little a heart of gold
Sweet little a heart of gold

song performed by by U. D. O.
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Garden

I know a garden like a child,
Clean and new-washed and reconciled.
It grows its own sweet way, yet still
Has guidance of some tender will
That clips, confines, its wilder mood
And makes it happy, being good.

Around the lordly mountains stand,
For this is an enchanted land,
As though their splendours stood to grace
This little lovely garden place,
Looking with wise and keeping eyes
Upon the garden sanctities.

Box borders edge each little bed,
Paths narrow for a child to tread
Divide the kitchen garden, dear
And sweet with musk and lavender,
And water-mints and beans in bloom.
Be sure the honeybee's at home.

How should I tell in a sweet list
Of beauties, rose and amethyst;
The little water-garden cool
On sultry days, and beautiful
The wall-garden, the shade, the sun,
Since they are lovely, every one.

Hot honey of the pines is sweet,
And when the day's at three o'clock heat
A winding walk will you invite
To a new garden out of sight.
And a green seat is set so near
The sluggish, stealing backwater.

The Spirit of the garden plays
At hide-and-seek an hundred ways
And when you've captured her, she will
Elude you, calling backward still,
A silver echo -- a sweet child,
Demure and lovesome, gay and wild.

poem by Katharine Tynan
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You Got Gold

Is there ever enough space between us
To keep us both honest and true?
Why is it so hard just to sit in the yard
And stare at the sky so blue?
Ive got a new way of walking and a new way of talking
Honey when Im around you,
But it gives me the blues when Ive got some good news
And youre not there to bring it to.
Life is a blessing, its a delicatessen
Of all the little favors you do.
All wrapped up together no matter the weather,
Baby you always come through.
Its a measure of treasure that gives me the pleasure
Of loving you the way I do
And you know I would gladly say I need your love badly
And bring these little things to you.
Cause you got gold
Gold inside of you
You got gold
Gold inside of you
Well I got some
Gold inside me too
Well Im thinking Im knowing that I gotta be going
You know I hate to say so long.
It gives me an ocean of mixed up emotion
Ill have to work it out in a song.
Well Im leaving a lot for the little I got
But you know a lot a little will do
And if you give me your love
Ill let it shine up above
And light my way back home to you.
Cause you got gold
Gold inside of you
Cause you got gold
Gold inside of you
Well I got some
Gold inside me too
You got wheels
Turning inside of you
You got wheels
Turning inside of you
Well I got wheels
Turning inside me too

song performed by by John Prine
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Where Nightmares Reign

Life is living the sunset rays
Or remaining awake on a starless night
Dreaming of blue gold days
Keeping nightmares out of sight!
Nightmares, they keep coming back
To steal the stillness in your heart
That waits for the opaque to crack
For the spirit to rise and depart!
You start believing in them
In a world the dark dreams make
Slowly you love playing the game
Not knowing the real from the fake!
Blue gold day is now folklore
You live where nightmares reign
In your eyes the hot tears pour
It’s over you can’t live again!

poem by Pradip Chattopadhyay
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Get The Balance Right.

Commitment is made, to live and love.
Don't let the colour fade, below or above.
You've got to give and take, right down the line.
If you don't, things will break everything that is going fine.

Admit when you are wrong, being right is not to pretend,
Balance the weak and strong, maintain the right blend.

Just remember, when life doesn't flow, balance the scales,
Deep inside you know, it never fails.

07/09/87

poem by Guy Lipmore
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An Open Grave

The water in the pond is like the gold of Uphaz,
But the realm of the Chaldeans is like a cake unturned!
To the residence of the heathen with eyes to see,
For behold! I am for you like the breath of life.
I will turn my door wide open for you always,
Of the garden of sweet love to touch your heart;
So come into my room and see the sweet bed of love.

I am from the four winds of the earth,
And i am always around you to share my love with;
So come and expose your nakedness to me,
Like the sweet garden of love with sweet apples.
Don't be like an open grave without a clue,
For you are so beautiful by all standards!
Because, the water from your pond is like the gold of Uphaz.

poem by Edward Kofi Louis
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I'm Tired Of Life

I'm tired, I'm tired of life, brother!
Of all that meets my eye;
And my weary spirit fain would pass
To worlds beyond the sky.
For there is naught on earth, brother,
For which I'd wish to live;
Not all the glittering gauds of wealth
One hour of peace can give.

I'm weary,--sick at heart, brother,
Of heartless pomp and show!
And ever comes some cloud to dim
The little joy I know.
This world is not the world, brother,
It seemed in days agone,
When I viewed it through the rainbow mists
Of childhood's rosy dawn.

I would not pain your heart, brother--
I know you love me well;
And that love is laid upon my soul,
E'en as a holy spell.
But I'm weary of this world, brother,
This world of sin and care;
And my spirit fluttereth to be free,
To mount the upper air!

I know not of the world, brother,
To which I wish to go;
And perhaps my soul may there awake
To know a deeper woe!
They say the pure of earth, brother,
Find there undying bliss;
While all the wicked ones are cast
Into a dark abyss!

I look upon the stars, brother,
That gem the vault of blue;
And when they tell me 'God is love,'
I feel it must be true;
For I see on all around, brother,
The impress of a hand
That blendeth and uniteth all
In one harmonious band.

I am that which I am, brother,
As the Creator made;
To _Him_, all-holy and all-pure,
No fault can e'er be laid.
He knows my weakness well, brother,
And I can trust his love
To bear me safe through Jordan's stream
To brighter worlds above.

poem by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
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In the spirit of Rumi - 36 - The rose told me

In the garden,
I look at a rose and wonder

Is this rose
laughing with God?
Is it God’s smile, and message, to the earth?
Does it tell
Of God’s goodness, truth, and beauty?
Of God’s stillness? Peace? and silence?

Or if you gazed at it long enough
and carefully enough,
perhaps with a laugh or smile,
in stillness, peace, and silence,
would it tell you everything
that God would have you know?

* * *

For even if you are
a cynic, locked into your own mind
by your own key
and say, oh, it’s just
savage, ruthless nature, competing
with all the other flowers, for the bees –
for nothing but its own selfish ends -
you must admit
that Whoever allowed, invented, made, decreed
the laws for the construction of
such complex, simple beauty (which a bee may never know?)
is pretty cool.

poem by Michael Shepherd
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Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day
Nothing gold can stay.

poem by Robert Frost
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Who can weigh love?

Light. Lightness. Light-heartedness.
Who can measure their measureless weight?

On the kitchen scales, we balance
weight against weight; but how different
the substances - on the one scale,
iron weights with their iron discipline
maintain like monks and nuns their constancy;

on the other scale, perhaps fine flour,
poured as bakers recommend, from a height
to catch the air between the grains; a foretaste
of that greater levity that yeast will bring;

Lorenzo de’ Medici, praising publicly his tutor,
Marsilio Ficino, said of him, that one thing in him which he loved
was that in his speech, gravity was mixed with levity,
and levity, with gravity;

what then, of our substance? In the lightness
of our being, then how bright the light! And in
the dark and heavy days, what lightness of the light may lurk
in melancholia – a yeast of wisdom yet to act?

And then – there’s love…its golden weightiness
so full of light; and hammered out and spread,
the brighter then…oh, who can measure out
the lightness, brightness, of our joy? What golden scales
of justice, mercy, grace,
may weigh the shining of a shining face?

poem by Michael Shepherd
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Laid me to rest and take me in your Hands

let the sacred soul return, the spirit that tired from a
bounded journey and nestle in the acumen of fresh
hyacinth of angels home, the endless paradise of the
seven heaven glows of avenue with the ONE

laid, my holy body in the engrave stone and shower
with a drops of the sacred fume of incense; with
the harmony of notes in the altar park to stand, glow
and wind the candle chandelier, with the angel's
choir in every ladder i step in the garrison of soul,
where I come from

let me speak of the language of the angel, and seat
a side with the judge as i remain calm, silent me in
the midst and wait till, the sun will lead me to rest,
touch me dear Holy One, for my aching soul fall me
down, leaving my wounded spirit to lay my head in
the soil, for i forever return

rise me at the end of the day; a second, a minute, an
hour, is just a longing to see, tears dropp wouldn't
hold me to be in the heaven i permanent stay, melted
candle and scented silent prayer will only appease
your mercy in me, may the grace and mercy pity my
poor soul for the judgment will always be with me

live no regret; humble your heart and leaving no
souls stray; pure every moment with your love one
and take each day that seems you leave with nobody
want you to be free

be ready and leave with full of joy and happiness in
your heart........its everybody's Journey...

poem by Antonio Liao
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