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The Gift Of Harun Al-Rashid

KUSTA BEN LUKA is my name, I write
To Abd Al-Rabban; fellow-roysterer once,
Now the good Caliph's learned Treasurer,
And for no ear but his.
Carry this letter
Through the great gallery of the Treasure House
Where banners of the Caliphs hang, night-coloured
But brilliant as the night's embroidery,
And wait war's music; pass the little gallery;
Pass books of learning from Byzantium
Written in gold upon a purple stain,
And pause at last, I was about to say,
At the great book of Sappho's song; but no,
For should you leave my letter there, a boy's
Love-lorn, indifferent hands might come upon it
And let it fall unnoticed to the floor.
pause at the Treatise of parmenides
And hide it there, for Caiphs to world's end
Must keep that perfect, as they keep her song,
So great its fame.

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poem by William Butler Yeats
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Queen Mab: Part II.

If solitude hath ever led thy steps
To the wild ocean's echoing shore,
And thou hast lingered there,
Until the sun's broad orb
Seemed resting on the burnished wave,
Thou must have marked the lines
Of purple gold that motionless
Hung o'er the sinking sphere;
Thou must have marked the billowy clouds,
Edged with intolerable radiancy,
Towering like rocks of jet
Crowned with a diamond wreath;
And yet there is a moment,
When the sun's highest point
Peeps like a star o'er ocean's western edge,
When those far clouds of feathery gold,
Shaded with deepest purple, gleam
Like islands on a dark blue sea;
Then has thy fancy soared above the earth
And furled its wearied wing

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poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley
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The Old Cumberland Beggar

I saw an aged Beggar in my walk;
And he was seated, by the highway side,
On a low structure of rude masonry
Built at the foot of a huge hill, that they
Who lead their horses down the steep rough road
May thence remount at ease. The aged Man
Had placed his staff across the broad smooth stone
That overlays the pile; and, from a bag
All white with flour, the dole of village dames,
He drew his scraps and fragments, one by one;
And scanned them with a fixed and serious look
Of idle computation. In the sun,
Upon the second step of that small pile,
Surrounded by those wild unpeopled hills,
He sat, and ate his food in solitude:
And ever, scattered from his palsied hand,
That, still attempting to prevent the waste,
Was baffled still, the crumbs in little showers
Fell on the ground; and the small mountain birds,
Not venturing yet to peck their destined meal,

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poem by William Wordsworth
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On The Pleasures Of College Life

With tears I leave these academic bowers,
And cease to cull the scientific flowers;
With tears I hail the fair succeeding train,
And take my exit with a breast of pain.
The Fresh may trace these wonders as they smile;
The stream of science like the river Nile,
Reflecting mental beauties as it flows,
Which all the charms of College life disclose;
This sacred current as it runs refines,
Whilst Byron sings and Shakspeare's mirror shines.
First like a garden flower did I rise,
When on the college bloom I cast my eyes;
I strove to emulate each smiling gem,
Resolved to wear the classic diadem;
But when the Freshman's garden breeze was gone;
Around me spread a vast extensive lawn;
'Twas there the muse of college life begun,
Beneath the rays of erudition's sun,

Where study drew the mystic focus down,

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poem by George Moses Horton
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Lenexa Baptist Church Poet Tom Zart’s = Christian Quotable Quotes Of Life!

TOM ZART’S CHRISTIAN QUOTABLE QUOTES

THE POWER of WORDS

Words are the most powerful tools used by man
As hearts and souls reach for one another.
Sharing feelings of fear, wisdom and joy
Or our love for a significant other.

Where would we be without words
Which inspire, unite and motivate.
Songs, poems, stories, blogs, books
wars, religion, love, lust and hate.

Jesus preached words to the multitudes
And nourish their hunger within.
The stories we tell portray our spirit
As examples of weakness, triumph or sin.

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poem by Tom Zart
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Master Valluvan, The Long-Misunderstood Tamil Mentor

'The Kurral owes much of its popularity to its exquisite poetic form. A kurral is a couplet containing a complete and striking idea expressed in a refined and intricate metre. No translation can convey an idea of its charming effect. […] The brevity rendered necessary by the form [composed in the Venpa metre] gives an oracular effect to the utterances of the great Tamil ‘Master of the sentences.' They are the choicest of moral epigrams. […] Tiruvalluvar is generally very simple, and his commentators very profound.'
Rev. G.U. Pope, Former Fellow of Madras University

[Pardon these futile measly words from your great Potiya height: they can hardly belittle your true worth.]

Under what leaky hutment roof by stamped-mud floors
trembling clair-oscuro straw-wick kuttuvilakku
on the stark anvil of crisp phrase and sparse syntax
by the raging nama-nir rhyming brine
at Mayilapur's S.Thomé sandy doors
while peacocks danced to your innate pulsating chimes
have you chipped away at uncut gems

Those the Yavanas brought with the monsoons
or such as your sea-daring captain friend Elela-Cinkan's
Even those the Christian missionaries preached
in daredevil enticement
after St.Thomas fell to a vel stuck in his bosom
or of
those like you who were stamped underfoot

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poem by T. Wignesan
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The Tale of the Tiger-Tree

A Fantasy, dedicated to the little poet Alice Oliver Henderson, ten years old.

The Fantasy shows how tiger-hearts are the cause of war in all ages. It shows how the mammoth forces may be either friends or enemies of the struggle for peace. It shows how the dream of peace is unconquerable and eternal.

I

Peace-of-the-Hea rt, my own for long,
Whose shining hair the May-winds fan,
Making it tangled as they can,
A mystery still, star-shining yet,
Through ancient ages known to me
And now once more reborn with me: —

This is the tale of the Tiger Tree
A hundred times the height of a man,
Lord of the race since the world began.

This is my city Springfield,
My home on the breast of the plain.

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poem by Vachel Lindsay
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Green Monkey

When the deep blue night is running close on your track
And you can feel the green monkey crawlin across your back
Dont take me so real that you forget how to feel
Dont let the threat of the dagger turn your heart into steel
Smell the perfume of the silent dream
Fly the ocean, read a story to me
Speak the wisdom of a redwood tree
Speak to me
So you think that star cluster shining bright in the sky
Will speak the fate of your evening, tell the truth to your lie
Dont let the features you read control the tickets you buy
Soon as you learn that you live, youre just beginning to die
Smell the perfume of the silent dream
Fly the ocean, read a story to me
Speak the wisdom of a redwood tree
Speak to me
Smell the perfume of the silent dream
Fly the ocean, read a story to me
Speak the wisdom of a redwood tree
Speak to me

song performed by America
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Spirit Of A Boy, Wisdom Of A Man

He was 16, tender and tough.
She was too, and he'd do anything to prove his love.
With so much riding on the choice at hand,
the spirit of a boy, or the wisdom of a man.
Hearts caught fire and love ran wild.
She cried the day she called to say she was having his child.
With so much riding on the choice at hand,
the spirit of a boy or the wisdom of a man.
There's a constant contradiction, what feels good and what feels right.
But, you live with decisions that you make in your life.
And what steers your direction is hard to understand,
the spirit of a boy, or the wisdom of a man
Now he drives a diesel out of Dallas,
hauling cars out to the coast.
It ain't the dream that he remembered, just a few short years ago.
But tonight at a truckstop, while drinking a cup,
the waitress grins and winks at him,
and says,

song performed by Randy Travis
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Warchild ('78 Demo)

Warchild, your heart is broken
Your mind is breakin', it's such a shame
Warchild, your body's broken
Your woman's taken, it's not a game
People once shared your wisdom
Shared your memory, shared your dreams
Now your thoughts have all been shattered
What once was rhythm are now just screams
Warchild, I used to love you
The whole world loved you, we used to care
Warchild, your mind has been emptied
So all you do now is just sit n' stare
People once shared your wisdom
Shared your memory, shared your dreams
Now your thoughts have all been shattered
What once was rhythm are now just screams
Your lady's waiting, she's hesitating
Not knowing why
Warchild, the pain you're showing
The pain is knowing that you're gonna die

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song performed by Def Leppard
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