Crossing paths

 

Like a comet pulled from orbit,
As it passes a sun.
Like a stream that meets a boulder,
Halfway through the wood.
Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?
But because I knew you,
I have been changed for good

It well may be,
That we will never meet again,
In this lifetime.
So let me say before we part,
So much of me,
Is made of what I learned from you.
You’ll be with me,
Like a handprint on my heart.
And now whatever way our stories end,
I know you have re-written mine,
By being my friend…

Like a ship blown from its mooring,
By a wind off the sea.
Like a seed dropped by a skybird,
In a distant wood.
Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?
But because I knew you,
Because I knew you,
I have been changed for good.”
― Stephen Schwartz, Wicked: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical

REMEMBER ME

But Not Forgotten

I think no matter where you stray,
That I shall go with you a way.
Though you may wander sweeter lands,
You will not forget my hands,
Nor yet the way I held my head
Nor the tremulous things I said.
You will still see me, small and white
And smiling, in the secret night,
And feel my arms about you when
The day comes fluttering back again.
I think, no matter where you be,
You’ll hold me in your memory
And keep my image there without me,
By telling later loves about me.

Dorothy Parker

The Field Where I Died…

At times I almost dream—
I too have spent a life the Sages’ way,
And tread once more familiar paths. Perchance
I perish’d in an arrogant self-reliance
An age ago; and in that act, a prayer
For one more chance went up so earnest,so
Instinct with better light let in by Death,
That life was blotted out-not so completely
But scatter’d wrecks enough remain to wake
Dim memories; as now, when once more seems
The goal in sight again.

– From “Paracelsus” by Robert Browning

Promise Yourself

To be so strong that nothing
can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity
to every person you meet.

To make all your friends feel
that there is something in them
To look at the sunny side of everything
and make your optimism come true.

To think only the best, to work only for the best,
and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own.

To forget the mistakes of the past
and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile.

To give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear,
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.

To think well of yourself and to proclaim this fact to the world,
not in loud words but great deeds.
To live in faith that the whole world is on your side
so long as you are true to the best that is in you.”
― Christian D. Larson, Your Forces and How to Use Them

 

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr

 

See you there dad………

Lenore

Words fascinate me, enthrall…..stirs my emotions….Poe was one such poet who drew out my restless spirit when it came to the written word:

Ah, broken is the golden bowl! the spirit flown forever!
Let the bell toll! -a saintly soul floats on the Stygian river –
And, Guy De Vere, hast thou no tear? -weep now or never more!
See! on yon drear and rigid bier low lies thy love, Lenore!
Come! let the burial rite be read -the funeral song be sung! –
An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young –
A dirge for her, the doubly dead in that she died so young.

“Wretches! ye loved her for her wealth and hated her for her pride,
And when she fell in feeble health, ye blessed her -that she died!
How shall the ritual, then, be read? -the requiem how be sung
By you -by yours, the evil eye, -by yours, the slanderous tongue
That did to death the innocence that died, and died so young?”

Peccavimus; but rave not thus! and let a Sabbath song
Go up to God so solemnly the dead may feel no wrong!
The sweet Lenore hath “gone before,” with Hope, that flew beside,
Leaving thee wild for the dear child that should have been thy bride –
For her, the fair and debonnaire, that now so lowly lies,
The life upon her yellow hair but not within her eyes –
The life still there, upon her hair -the death upon her eyes.

Avaunt! tonight my heart is light. No dirge will I upraise,
But waft the angel on her flight with a paean of old days!
Let no bell toll! -lest her sweet soul, amid its hallowed mirth,
Should catch the note, as it doth float up from the damned Earth.
To friends above, from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven –
From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven –
From grief and groan to a golden throne beside the King of Heaven.”

Mermaid Tears

A poem by my daughter:

Tears flowed through her lonely eyes

Waiting for his return

Droplets fell upon the sea rocks

Making them shine like the stars

Longing for her love to come back

Being together as one now and forever

No sign of her love over the horizon

Sweet tears filling the ocean

Drop by drop the tears came out                                         

Waiting and waiting until

She saw her lover coming for her

Now the tears has turn to joy

Time is my enemy

I look back at my life

I look in the mirror

Do I recognize who I am

Where I have gone?

My heart aches for change

Reflections into the past.

Is time my enemy?

Or a comforting friend?

Showing me the way forward

Remembering the way back.

Memories enfold into my heart

As I realize the gift of time to bear.

For time is not my enemy

But an old familiar friend……….

Silently

LOVE’S SECRET

by: William Blake (1757-1827)

• EVER seek to tell thy love,

  Love that never told can be;

  For the gentle wind doth move

  Silently, invisibly.

  I told my love, I told my love,

  I told her all my heart,

  Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears.

  Ah! she did depart!

  Soon after she was gone from me,

  A traveller came by,

  Silently, invisibly:

  He took her with a sigh.

The Angel

At midnight an angel was crossing the sky, And quietly he sang; The moon and the stars and the concourse of clouds Paid heed to his heavenly song.He sang of the bliss of the innocent souls In heavenly gardens above; Of almighty God he sang out, and his praise Was pure and sincere. He bore in his arms a young soul To our valley of sorrow and tears; The young soul remembered the heavenly song So vivid and yet without words. And long did it struggle on earth, With wondrous desire imbued; But none of the tedious songs of our earth Could rival celestial song. Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov