Bee

Stanley Kunitz - The Layers I have walked through many lives, some of them my own, and I am not who I was, though some principle of being abides, from which I struggle not to stray. When I look behind, as I am compelled to look before I can gather strength to proceed on my journey, I see the milestones dwindling toward the horizon and the slow fires trailing from the abandoned camp-sites, over which scavenger angels wheel on heavy wings. Oh, I have made myself a tribe out of my true affections, and my tribe is scattered! How shall the heart be reconciled to its feast of losses? In a rising wind the manic dust of my friends, those who fell along the way, bitterly stings my face. Yet I turn, I turn, exulting somewhat, with my will intact to go wherever I need to go, and every stone on the road precious to me. In my darkest night, when the moon was covered and I roamed through wreckage, a nimbus-clouded voice directed me: "Live in the layers, not on the litter." Though I lack th...

    T here is a thing in me that dreamed of trees,  A quiet house, some green and modest acres A little way from every troubling town,  A little way from factories, schools, laments. I would have time, I thought, and time to spare,  With only streams and birds for company. To build out of my life a few wild stanzas. And then it came to me, that so was death,  A little way away from everywhere. There is a thing in me still dreams of trees,  But let it go. Homesick for moderation,  Half the world’s artists shrink or fall away. If any find solution, let him tell it. Meanwhile I bend my heart toward lamentation Where, as the times implore our true involvement,  The blades of every crisis point the way. I would it were not so, but so it is. Who ever made music of a mild day?  Mary Oliver  

O Soldier Won't You Marry Me Melody - O soldier, soldier, won't you marry me With your musket fife and drum? O no sweet maid I cannot marry you For I have no coat to put on. So up she went to her grandfather's chest And she got him a coat of the very, very best And the soldier put it on. 2. O soldier, soldier, won't you marry me With your musket fife and drum? O no sweet maid I cannot marry you For I have no hat to put on. So up she went to her grandfather's chest And she got him a hat of the very, very best And the soldier put it on. 3. O soldier, soldier, won't you marry me With your musket fife and drum? O no sweet maid I cannot marry you For I have no gloves to put on. So up she went to her grandfather's chest And she got him a pair of the very, very best And the soldier put them on. 4. O soldier, soldier, won't you marry me With your musket fife and drum? O no sweet maid I cannot marry you For I have no boots to put on. So up she went to ...

1789 .象潟もけふは恨まず花の春 kisagata mo kyô wa uramazu hana no haru even Kisa Lagoon isn't hateful today... blossoming spring Before the earthquake of 1804, Kisa Lagoon (Kisagata) was, in Shinji Ogawa's words, "beautiful ... like a miniature archipelago." Shinji sees in this haiku an allusion to a sentence in Bashô's Oku no hosomichi ("Narrow Road to the Far Provinces"): "Matsushima is smiling, Kisagata grieving." Though Bashô uses the word, uramu , it does not mean "hateful" but rather "melancholy" (the literary meaning of uramu ). Shinji paraphrases, "Though Bashô called it 'melancholy,' Kisagata is not melancholy today because of the blossoming spring." Makoto Ueda notes that this haiku shows the playful humor typical of the Katsushika school that influenced Issa in his early years; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 14. 1792 .初霜や蕎麦悔...

DO IT ANYWAY People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway. Mother Teresa 1910-1997

Sweetest of the flowers a-blooming In the fragrant vernal days Is the Lily of the Valley With its soft, retiring ways. Well, you chose this humble blossom As the nurse’s emblem flower, Who grows more like her ideal Every day and every hour. Like the Lily of the Valley In her honesty and worth, Ah, she blooms in truth and virtue In the quiet nooks of earth. Tho’ she stands erect in honor When the heart of mankind bleeds, Still she hides her own deserving In the beauty of her deeds. In the silence of the darkness Where no eye may see and know, There her footsteps shod with mercy, And fleet kindness come and go. Not amid the sounds of plaudits, Nor before the garish day, Does she shed her soul’s sweet perfume, Does she take her gentle way. But alike her ideal flower, With its honey-laden breath, Still her heart blooms forth its beauty In the valley shades of death. **Paul Laurence Dunbar