tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60797364556238651372024-02-20T02:53:09.011-05:00Meretricious ConsiderationMy personal blog is elsewhere and highly secret and password protected. I am setting up this account so that I can comment on the blogs my friends have set up and seen fit to disallow anonymous comments on. I'm also using it, obviously, to preserve poems I like.Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.comBlogger93125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-74574707598874147642023-04-24T14:21:00.003-04:002023-04-24T14:21:57.330-04:00Atlas<span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">There is a kind of love called maintenance</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Which stores the WD40 and knows when to use it;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Which checks the insurance, and doesn’t forget</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The milkman; which remembers to plant bulbs;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Which answers letters; which knows the way</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The money goes; which deals with dentists</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">And Road Fund Tax and meeting trains,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">And postcards to the lonely; which upholds</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The permanently rickety elaborate</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Structures of living, which is Atlas.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">And maintenance is the sensible side of love,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Which knows what time and weather are doing</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">To my brickwork; insulates my faulty wiring;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">Laughs at my dryrotten jokes; remembers</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">My need for gloss and grouting; which keeps</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">My suspect edifice upright in air,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">As Atlas did the sky.</span><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #3e3e3e; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #3e3e3e; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Arial, sans-serif;">Ursula Askham Fanthorpe 1929 - 2009</span></span></div>Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-16368690200387013092022-10-30T20:35:00.004-04:002022-10-30T20:37:34.283-04:00Don't Cry, Darling, It's Blood All Right<p><span>Whenever poets want to give you the idea that something is particularly meek and mild,</span></p><p><span>They compare it to a child,</span></p><p><span>Thereby proving that though poets with poetry may be rife</span></p><p><span>They don’t know the facts of life.</span></p><p><span>If of compassion you desire either a tittle or a jot,</span></p><p><span>Don’t try to get it from a tot.</span></p><p><span>Hard-boiled, sophisticated adults like me and you</span></p><p><span>May enjoy ourselves thoroughly with Little Women and Winnie-the-Pooh,</span></p><p><span>But innocent infants these titles from their reading course eliminate</span></p><p><span>As soon as they discover that it was honey and nuts and mashed potatoes instead of human flesh that Winnie-the-Pooh and Little Women ate.</span></p><p><span>Innocent infants have no use for fables about rabbits or donkeys or tortoises or porpoises,</span></p><p><span>What they want is something with plenty of well-mutilated corpoises.</span></p><p><span>Not on legends of how the rose came to be a rose instead of a petunia is their fancy fed,</span></p><p><span>But on the inside story of how somebody’s bones got ground up to make somebody else’s</span></p><p><span>bread.</span></p><p><span>They go to sleep listening to the story of the little beggarmaid who got to be queen by</span></p><p><span>being kind to the bees and the birds,</span></p><p><span>But they’re all eyes and ears the minute they suspect a wolf or a giant is going to tear</span></p><p><span>some poor woodcutter into quarters and thirds.</span></p><p><span>It really doesn’t take much to fill their cup;</span></p><p><span>All they want is for somebody to be eaten up.</span></p><p><span>Therefore I say unto you, all you poets who are so crazy about meek and mild little</span></p><p><span>children and their angelic air,</span></p><p><span>If you are sincere and really want to please them, why just go out and get yourselves</span></p><p><span>devoured by a bear.</span></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p><span>Ogden Nash 1902 - 1971, from Parents Keep Out</span></p>Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-90712842161335514952021-10-27T12:58:00.001-04:002023-04-23T21:08:16.551-04:00Leisure<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">What is this life if, full of care,</span></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">We have no time to stand and stare.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">No time to stand beneath the boughs</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">And stare as long as sheep or cows.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">No time to see, when woods we pass,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">No time to see, in broad daylight,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">Streams full of stars, like skies at night.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">No time to turn at Beauty's glance,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">And watch her feet, how they can dance.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">No time to wait till her mouth can</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">Enrich that smile her eyes began.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">A poor life this if, full of care,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;">We have no time to stand and stare.</span><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms"; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: trebuchet ms;">William Henry Davies 1971 - 1940</span></span></div>Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-31732744957086552832020-03-24T16:51:00.003-04:002021-10-27T13:14:56.476-04:00Keeping Quiet<span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">Now we will count to twelve</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">and we will all keep still</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">for once on the face of the earth,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">let’s not speak in any language;</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">let’s stop for a second,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">and not move our arms so much.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">It would be an exotic moment</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">without rush, without engines;</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">we would all be together</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">in a sudden strangeness.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">Fishermen in the cold sea</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">would not harm whales</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">and the man gathering salt</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">would not look at his hurt hands.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">Those who prepare green wars,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">wars with gas, wars with fire,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">victories with no survivors,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">would put on clean clothes</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">and walk about with their brothers</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">in the shade, doing nothing.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">What I want should not be confused</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">with total inactivity.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">Life is what it is about;</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">I want no truck with death.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">If we were not so single-minded</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">about keeping our lives moving,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">and for once could do nothing,</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">perhaps a huge silence</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">might interrupt this sadness</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">of never understanding ourselves</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">and of threatening ourselves with death.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">Perhaps the earth can teach us</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">as when everything seems dead</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">and later proves to be alive.</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">Now I’ll count up to twelve</span><br style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #212529; content: " "; display: block; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px; line-height: 22px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #212529; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">and you keep quiet and I will go.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #212529; font-family: Georgia;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;">Pablo Neruda 1904 - 1973</span></span>Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-19902244956219886472020-03-21T15:21:00.001-04:002020-03-21T15:21:45.471-04:00If I Wanted A Boat<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I would want a boat, if I wanted a</div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">boat, that bounded hard on the waves,<br />that didn't know starboard from port<br />and wouldn't learn, that welcomed<br />dolphins and headed straight for the<br />whales, that, when rocks were close,<br />would slide in for a touch or two,<br />that wouldn't keep land in sight and<br />went fast, that leaped into the spray.<br />What kind of life is it always to plan<br />and do, to promise and finish, to wish<br />for the near and the safe? Yes, by the<br />heavens, if I wanted a boat I would want<br />a boat I couldn't steer. </span></div>
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">Mary Oliver 1935 - 2019</span></div>
Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-59316896875865718332019-05-16T19:18:00.001-04:002019-05-16T19:18:57.169-04:00She sweeps with many-colored broomsShe sweeps with many-colored brooms,<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
And leaves the shreds behind;<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
Oh, housewife in the evening west,<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
Come back, and dust the pond!<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<br />
You dropped a purple ravelling in,<br />
You dropped an amber thread;<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
And now you’ve littered all the East<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
With duds of emerald!<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
<br />
And still she plies her spotted brooms,<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
And still the aprons fly,<br />
Till brooms fade softly into stars—<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span><br />
And then I come away.<br />
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Emily Dickinson 1830 - 1886Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-64711486086566710872019-05-16T19:05:00.001-04:002019-05-16T19:07:14.337-04:00The world is full of trouble<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px;">The world is full of trouble,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px;">From top to bottom.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px;">But all can be swiftly healed</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12px;">By the balm of love.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.05px;">Rumi 1207 – 1273</span>Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-76650623679750290172018-04-10T18:39:00.000-04:002019-02-17T20:22:52.379-05:00Friendship After LoveAfter the fierce midsummer all ablaze<br />
Has burned itself to ashes, and expires<br />
In the intensity of its own fires,<br />
There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin days<br />
Crowned with the calm of peace, but sad with haze.<br />
So after Love has led us, till he tires<br />
Of his own throes, and torments, and desires,<br />
Comes large-eyed friendship: with a restful gaze,<br />
He beckons us to follow, and across<br />
Cool verdant vales we wander free from care.<br />
Is it a touch of frost lies in the air?<br />
Why are we haunted with a sense of loss?<br />
We do not wish the pain back, or the heat;<br />
And yet, and yet, these days are incomplete.<br />
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Ella Wheeler Wilcox 1850 - 1919Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-37051948749647257982018-03-23T00:42:00.002-04:002018-03-23T00:42:32.534-04:00This is what you shall do (from Leaves of Grass)<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: #eeeecc;">T</span><span style="background-color: white;">his is what you shall do:</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Love the earth and sun and the animals,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">despise riches,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">give alms to every one that asks,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">stand up for the stupid and crazy,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">devote your income and labor to others,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">hate tyrants,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">argue not concerning God,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">have patience and indulgence toward the people,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book,</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">dismiss whatever insults your own soul;</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Walt Whitman 1819 - 1892</span></span>Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-11141250105637423792017-07-18T14:21:00.000-04:002017-07-18T14:21:07.667-04:00When You Are OldWhen you are old and grey and full of sleep,<br />
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,<br />
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look<br />
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;<br />
<br />
How many loved your moments of glad grace,<br />
And loved your beauty with love false or true,<br />
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,<br />
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;<br />
<br />
And bending down beside the glowing bars,<br />
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled<br />
And paced upon the mountains overhead<br />
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.<br />
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William Butler Yeats 1865 - 1939<br />
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Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-90594737016820369402017-07-14T13:27:00.001-04:002023-05-11T03:49:45.962-04:00Golden Slumbers Kiss Your Eyes<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Golden slumbers kiss your eyes, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Smiles awake you when you rise ; </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And I will sing a lullaby, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Rock them, rock them, lullaby. </span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Care is heavy, therefore sleep you, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">You are care, and care must keep you ; </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">And I will sing a lullaby, </span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Rock them, rock them, lullaby. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Thomas Dekker 1572 - 1632</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "roboto" , sans-serif; font-size: 17px;"><br /></span>Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-4310996472890726752016-12-14T12:24:00.001-05:002017-05-05T15:33:16.807-04:00Understanding<pre id="poem" itemprop="description" style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.35em; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">I understood the rest too well,
And all their thoughts have come to be
Clear as grey sea-weed in the swell
Of a sunny shallow sea.
But you I never understood,
Your spirit's secret hides like gold
Sunk in a Spanish galleon
Ages ago in waters cold.</pre>
<pre id="poem" itemprop="description" style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.35em; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;"></pre>
<pre id="poem" itemprop="description" style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.35em; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Sara Teasdale 1884 – 1933</pre>
Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-39978416701358694382015-10-01T13:55:00.001-04:002015-10-01T13:55:51.144-04:00October's Bright Blue WeatherO suns and skies and clouds of June, <br /> And flowers of June together, <br /> Ye cannot rival for one hour <br /> October's bright blue weather;<br /><br /> When loud the bumble-bee makes haste, <br /> Belated, thriftless vagrant, <br /> And Golden-Rod is dying fast, <br /> And lanes with grapes are fragrant;<br /><br /> When Gentians roll their fringes tight <br /> To save them for the morning, <br /> And chestnuts fall from satin burrs <br /> Without a sound of warning;<br /><br /> When on the ground red apples lie <br /> In piles like jewels shining, <br /> And redder still on old stone walls <br /> Are leaves of woodbine twining;<br /><br /> When all the lovely wayside things <br /> Their white-winged seeds are sowing, <br /> And in the fields, still green and fair, <br /> Late aftermaths are growing;<br /><br /> When springs run low, and on the brooks, <br /> In idle golden freighting, <br /> Bright leaves sink noiseless in the hush <br /> Of woods, for winter waiting;<br /><br /> When comrades seek sweet country haunts, <br /> By twos and twos together, <br /> And count like misers, hour by hour, <br /> October's bright blue weather.<br /><br /> O suns and skies and flowers of June, <br /> Count all your boasts together, <br /> Love loveth best of all the year <br /> October's bright blue weather.<br />
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Helen Hunt Jackson 1830 - 1885 Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-66105520542708206802015-07-03T00:16:00.003-04:002015-07-03T00:19:07.694-04:00My life closed twice before its close<pre style="background-color: #fcf9f9; font-family: 'Poets Electra Web', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.26316em; margin-top: 1.26316em; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">My life closed twice before its close—
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me
So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.</pre>
<pre style="background-color: #fcf9f9; font-family: 'Poets Electra Web', 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 17px; line-height: 24px; margin-bottom: 1.26316em; margin-top: 1.26316em; white-space: pre-wrap; word-wrap: break-word;">Emily Dickinson <span class="date-display-single" content="1830-12-10T00:00:00-05:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime" property="dc:date" style="font-family: founders_grotesk_textsemibold, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 2.10526em;">1830</span><span style="font-family: founders_grotesk_textsemibold, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 2.10526em;"> </span><span style="font-family: founders_grotesk_textsemibold, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 2.10526em;">-</span><span style="font-family: founders_grotesk_textsemibold, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 2.10526em;"> </span><span class="date-display-single" content="1886-05-15T00:00:00-05:00" datatype="xsd:dateTime" property="dc:date" style="font-family: founders_grotesk_textsemibold, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 2.10526em;">1886</span></pre>
Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-44802868775642220512014-07-28T16:30:00.001-04:002014-07-28T16:30:12.516-04:00The Moment<div class="poemTitle" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; text-transform: uppercase; white-space: nowrap;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; white-space: nowrap;">
The moment when, after many years</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; white-space: nowrap;">
of hard work and a long voyage<br />you stand in the centre of your room,<br />house, half-acre, square mile, island, country,<br />knowing at last how you got there,<br />and say, I own this,<br /><br />is the same moment when the trees unloose<br />their soft arms from around you,<br />the birds take back their language,<br />the cliffs fissure and collapse,<br />the air moves back from you like a wave<br />and you can't breathe.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; white-space: nowrap;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; white-space: nowrap;">
No, they whisper. You own nothing.<br />You were a visitor, time after time<br />climbing the hill, planting the flag, proclaiming.<br />We never belonged to you.<br />You never found us.<br />It was always the other way round.</div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; white-space: nowrap;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px; white-space: nowrap;">
Margaret Atwood 1939 -</div>
Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-79356177949772204192014-07-23T12:49:00.001-04:002014-07-23T12:49:36.009-04:00Sonnet: Against Entropy<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">The worm drives helically through the wood<br />And does not know the dust left in the bore<br />Once made the table integral and good;<br />And suddenly the crystal hits the floor.<br />Electrons find their paths in subtle ways,<br />A massless eddy in a trail of smoke;<br />The names of lovers, light of other days<br />Perhaps you will not miss them. That's the joke.<br />The universe winds down. That's how it's made.<br />But memory is everything to lose;<br />Although some of the colors have to fade,<br />Do not believe you'll get the chance to choose.<br />Regret, by definition, comes too late;<br />Say what you mean. Bear witness. Iterate.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #363636; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22px;">John M. Ford 1957 - 2006</span>Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-30220450033818615122014-05-03T18:58:00.002-04:002018-04-10T18:48:23.911-04:00Die Slowly<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">He who becomes the slave of habit,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">who follows the same routes every day,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">who never changes pace,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">who does not risk and change the color of his clothes,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">who does not speak and does not experience,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">dies slowly.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">He or she who shuns passion,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">who prefers black on white,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">dotting ones "i’s" rather than a bundle of emotions, the kind that make your eyes glimmer,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">that turn a yawn into a smile,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">dies slowly.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">who is unhappy at work,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">who does not risk certainty for uncertainty,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">to thus follow a dream,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">those who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">die slowly.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">He who does not travel, who does not read,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">who does not listen to music,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">who does not find grace in himself,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">she who does not find grace in herself,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">dies slowly.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">who does not allow himself to be helped,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck, about the rain that never stops,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">dies slowly.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">He or she who abandon a project before starting it, who fail to ask questions on subjects he doesn't know, he or she who don't reply when they are asked something they do know,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">die slowly.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">Let's try and avoid death in small doses,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">reminding oneself that being alive requires an effort far greater than the simple fact of breathing.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: georgia, serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">Only a burning patience will lead</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">to the attainment of a splendid happiness.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #181818; font-family: "georgia" , serif; font-size: 14.44444465637207px; line-height: 18px;">Martha Medeira b. 1961</span>Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-70790329400192781112014-04-11T22:07:00.000-04:002014-04-11T22:07:00.205-04:00A Shropshire Lad II: Loveliest of Trees<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;">Loveliest of trees, the cherry now</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;">Is hung with bloom along the bough,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;">And stands about the woodland ride</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;">Wearing white for Eastertide.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;">Now, of my threescore years and ten,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;">Twenty will not come again,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;">And take from seventy springs a score,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;">It only leaves me fifty more.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;">And since to look at things in bloom</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;">Fifty springs are little room,</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;">About the woodlands I will go</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;">To see the cherry hung with snow.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.680000305175781px;">A. E. Housman 1859 – 1936</span>Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-24939189140113134392014-03-23T14:31:00.000-04:002014-03-23T14:31:52.353-04:00Sir, more than kisses<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;">Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;">For thus, friends absent speak. This ease controls</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;">The tediousness of my life; but for these</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;">I could ideate nothing which could please,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;">But I should wither in one day and pass</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;">To a bottle of hay, that am a lock of grass.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;">Life is a voyage, and in our lives' ways</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;">Countries, courts, towns are rocks, or remoras;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;">They break or stop all ships, yet our state's such,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;">That, though than pitch they stain worse, we must touch.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;">John Donne 1572 - 1631</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: 12.800000190734863px; line-height: 14.5600004196167px;">From <i>To Sir Henry Wotton</i></span>Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-43388885608504353722013-11-15T12:58:00.000-05:002015-07-03T00:29:04.001-04:00The Attic<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">And after you were gone</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">And I knew</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">I would never see you again,</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">I folded my memory of you</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">And my love for you</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">Like an old lace shawl</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">That is too fragile</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">To be worn daily</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">And too precious to be thrown away</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">And placed them in a trunk</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">In the attic of my mind.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14.399999618530273px; line-height: 15.199999809265137px;">© 2007 William Fox Payne</span>Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-19323755822604444612013-01-05T21:16:00.003-05:002013-01-05T21:24:51.785-05:00Guest House<br />
This being human is a guest house<br />
Every morning a new arrival.<br />
A joy, a depression, a meanness,<br />
some momentary awareness comes<br />
as an unexpected visitor.<br />
Welcome and entertain them all!<br />
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,<br />
who violently sweep your house<br />
empty of its furniture,<br />
still treat each guest honorably.<br />
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.<br />
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,<br />
meet them at the door laughing,<br />
and invite them in.<br />
Be grateful for whoever comes,<br />
because each has been sent<br />
as a guide from beyond.<br />
<br />
Rumi 1207 – 1273Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-25973373264959350562013-01-05T21:14:00.001-05:002013-01-05T21:15:19.760-05:00Origin of the World<br />
<br />
A boy hurtles across the park to his mother<br />
flinging himself into her skirts<br />
embracing her thighs as wide as his arms will allow<br />
pushing his face full fair into the darkness<br />
where the air is laden with the scent of home.<br />
<br />
<br />
James Oglethorpe 1952 -<br />
<br />Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-49119103440050814972013-01-05T20:52:00.001-05:002019-02-03T22:40:02.971-05:00The Prophet on Marriage<br />
Then Almitra spoke again and said, And what of Marriage, master?<br />
<br />
And he answered saying:<br />
<br />
You were born together, and together you shall be for evermore.<br />
<br />
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.<br />
<br />
Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.<br />
<br />
But let there be spaces in your togetherness.<br />
<br />
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.<br />
<br />
Love one another, but make not a bond of love:<br />
<br />
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.<br />
<br />
Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.<br />
<br />
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.<br />
<br />
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,<br />
<br />
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.<br />
<br />
Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.<br />
<br />
And stand together yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart,<br />
<br />
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.<br />
<br />
Kahlil Gibran 1883 – 1931<br />
The ProphetMeretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-51779920425915844522013-01-05T20:01:00.002-05:002022-04-12T14:49:05.428-04:00There Will Come Soft Rains<br />
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,<br />
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;<br />
<br />
And frogs in the pools singing at night,<br />
And wild plum trees in tremulous white;<br />
<br />
Robins will wear their feathery fire,<br />
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;<br />
<br />
And not one will know of the war, not one<br />
Will care at last when it is done.<br />
<br />
Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,<br />
If mankind perished utterly;<br />
<br />
And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn<br />
Would scarcely know that we were gone.<br />
<br />
Sara Teasdale 1884 – 1933<br />
Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6079736455623865137.post-74959083410508677982013-01-05T19:22:00.000-05:002013-01-05T19:23:00.336-05:00The Peace of Wild Things<br />
When despair for the world grows in me<br />
and I wake in the night at the least sound<br />
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,<br />
I go and lie down where the wood drake<br />
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.<br />
I come into the peace of wild things<br />
who do not tax their lives with forethought<br />
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.<br />
And I feel above me the day-blind stars<br />
waiting with their light. For a time<br />
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.<br />
<br />
Wendell Berry 1934 -Meretricious Considerationhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13813914481226306776noreply@blogger.com1