Leafy-with-love banks and the green waters of the canal
Pouring redemption for me, that I do
the will of God, wallow in the habitual, the banal,
Grow with nature again as before I grew.
The bright stick trapped, the breeze adding a third
Party to the couple kissing
dance
Posted on by James Woodward
To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me- That is my dream!
From Langston Hughes, Dream Variations
eyes
Posted on by James Woodward
Love is the cure.
Your pain will keep giving birth to more pain.
Just let your eyes breathe out love
as easily as a flower breathes out its sweetness.
Rumi, Love is the cure,
awakened, lips parted
Posted on by James Woodward
This form, this face, this life
Living to live in a world of time beyond me;
let me Resign my life for this life, my speech for that unspoken,
The awakened, lips parted, the hope, the new ships.
From T.S.Eliot, Marina
Church Going by Philip Larkin
Posted on by James Woodward
Once I am sure there's nothing going on
I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty,
dark
Posted on by James Woodward
Like the water
of a deep stream, love is always too much. We
did not make it. Though we drink till we burst
we cannot have it all, or want it all.
In its abundance it survives our thirst.
In the evening we come down to the shore
to drink our fill, and sleep, while it
flow
light
Posted on by James Woodward
A poet is someone
who can pour
light
into a cup,
then raise it
to nourish
your beautiful,
parched,
and holy heart.
Hafiz
decline
Posted on by James Woodward
one day a day woke up and
was sky, air, light
and itself. Later, evening
tapped my shoulder:
a reminder, a privilege,
a job to do. Record, it said
the elegance of the day's decline,
and the perfect curves
of all that is left
of a tulip.
Tom Davis, after Denise Levertov
Church Going
Posted on by James Woodward
Once I am sure there's nothing going on
I step inside, letting the door thud shut.
Another church: matting, seats, and stone,
And little books; sprawlings of flowers, cut
For Sunday, brownish now; some brass and stuff
Up at the holy end; the small neat organ;
And a tense, musty
wild flower
Posted on by James Woodward
To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour.
From William Blake, Auguries of Innocence
radiant
Posted on by James Woodward
The middle region of the sky, where spirit lives, is radiant with the music of light;
There, where the pure white music blossoms, God lives, in delight.
Kabir (15c)
crocuses
Posted on by James Woodward
Spring is the Period
Express from God.
Among the other seasons
Himself abide,
But during March and April
None stir abroad
Without a cordial interview
With God.
Emily Dickinson
fire
Posted on by James Woodward
An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and
Until I Was Nearly Fifty
Posted on by James Woodward
Until I was
Nearly fifty
I rarely thought
Of age
But now
As I approach
Becoming
An elder
I find I want
To give all
That I know
To youth.
Those who sit
Skeptical
With hooded
Eyes
Wondering
If there really
Is
A path ahead
& Whether
There really
Are
Elders
Upon it
Yes. We are
light
Posted on by James Woodward
A poet
is someone
who can pour light
into a cup
then offer it
to refresh
your beautiful
parched
and
holy
heart.
Hafiz
peace
Posted on by James Woodward
THE PEACE of great doors be for you.
Wait at the knobs, at the panel oblongs.
Wait for the great hinges.
The peace of great churches be for you,
Where the players of loft pipe organs
Practice old lovely fragments, alone.
The peace of great books be for you,
Stains of pressed
generosity
Posted on by James Woodward
Lord, said David, since you do not need us,
why did you create these two worlds?
Reality replied: O prisoner of time,
I was a secret treasure of kindness and generosity,
and I wished this treasure to be known,
so I created a mirror: its shining face, the heart;
its darkened
not to the play, but to itself
Posted on by James Woodward
The poem of the mind in the act of finding
What will suffice.
It has to be living, to learn the speech of the place.
It has to construct a new stage. It has to be on that stage,
And, like an insatiable actor, slowly and
With meditation, speak words that in the ear,
In th
DON’T BE JUST A VISITOR TO THIS WORLD
Posted on by James Woodward
When it's over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it's over, I don't want to wonder
If I have made of my life something particular, and real
I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened
to express the sky
Posted on by James Woodward
This is the grass your feet are planted on.
You paint it orange or you sing it green,
But you have never found
A way to make the grass mean what you mean.
A cloud can be whatever you intend:
Ostrich or leaning tower or staring eye.
But you have never found
A cloud sufficient
