Friday, October 30, 2020

SONGS OF RADHA - by Sarojini Naidu

 



SONGS  OF  RADHA 

by Sarojini Naidu


AT Dawn 


All night my heart its lonely vigil kept
Listening for thee, O Love. All night I wept.
Where went thy wanton footsteps wandering,
Sweet Ghanashyam, my King ?

My bridal veils are flung upon the floor,
My bridal garlands drop across the door.
The buds that on my bed their fragrance spilt,
Grief-scattered, wane and wilt.

O Flute-player, how quickly dost thou tire
Of thine own gladness and thine own desire!
Couldst thou not find upon my sheltering breast
Thy rapture and thy rest ?

Whose are the fingers that like amorous flocks
Raid the ambrosial thickets of thy locks?
Ah, whose the lips that smite with sudden drouth
The garden of thy mouth ?

What shall it profit to revile or hate
Thy fickleness, her beauty or my fate,
Or strive to tear with black and bitter art
Thine image from my heart ?

Without thy loveliness my life is dead,
Love, like a lamp with golden oils unfed.
Come back, come back from thy wild wandering.
Sweet Ghanashyam, my King!


AT Dusk

Krishna Murari, my radiant lover
Cometh O comrades haste.
Bring me rich perfumes my limbs to cover.
Saffron and sandal paste.
Bring shining garments for my adorning,
Blue of the dusk and rose of the morning.
Gold of the flaming noon.
Bring me a breastband of gems that shimmer,
Making the lamps of the stars grow dimmer,
Fillets and fringes of pearls whose glimmer
Shameth the Shravan moon.

Krishna Murari, my radiant lover
Cometh, O sisters spread
Buds and ripe blossoms his couch to cover,
Silver and vermeil red.
With flowering branches the doorways darken,
Is that his flute call? Sisters hearken!
Why tarrieth he so long?
O like a leaf doth my shy heart shiver,
O Like a wave do my faint limbs quiver.
Softly, softly, Jamuna river,
Sing thou our bridal song.


THE QUEST

My foolish love went seeking thee at dawn,
Crying — O wind where is Kanhaya gone?

I questioned at noonrise the forest glade,
Rests my sweet lover in thy friendly shade?

At dusk I pleaded with the dovegray tides,
O tell me where my Flute-player abides?

Dumb were the waters, dumb the woods, the wind,
They knew not where my playfellow to find.

I bowed my weeping face upon my palm,
Moaning — O where art thou, my Ghanashyam?

Then, like a boat that rocks from keel to rafter,
My heart was shaken by thy hidden laughter.

Then didst thou mock me with thy tender malice,
Like nectar bubbling from my own heart's chalice.

Thou saidst, — O faithless one, self-slain with doubt,
Why seekest thou my loveliness without,

And askest wind or wave or flowering dell
The secret that within thyself doth dwell?

I am of thee, as thou of me, a part.
Look for me in the mirror of thy heart.










TOO CLOSE - by Debora Greger

 

 

TOO  CLOSE

by Debora Gregor


I haven't met you yet. I'm out the door,
late for a bus, suitcase spilling open,
disgorging my life so far.

I won't be needing it, but don't know that yet.
Bus driver, go slowly around the bends
of dream so as not to wake me.

But don't fall asleep yourself, no matter how empty
the landscape of childhood seems.
There is dust on the dust

of the past. Through my reflection, I look
out the window onto nothing:
a fence full of tumbleweeds

trying to keep a vast emptiness off empty highway.
The past takes forever to cross. Bus driver,
don't drive so near the river .


 





UPSET - by DayDreamer11

 


 
 
UPSET

by   DayDreamer11



You asked me If I was upset last night
I said no.
I lied.

the truth is I was upset.
I had a few too many shots of the alcohol Hidden in my closet.
and after all the fun was over and I was left alone with my thoughts
I cried on the shower floor for an hour

I think back to last night and wonder
if I wasn't alone
would I have cried as much as I did ?
if I had a little bit more to drink
would I still be here right now ?

when you asked me if I was upset
I thought back on everything that ran through 
my mind the night before
I got that feeling in my throat
like I was about to burst in tears right there 
on the spot

everything hurts and I'm sorry I can't change 
any of it. I'm sorry my behavior worries you.


 
 






SWEET DREAMS AND HAPPY MEMORIES - by Doris Reed Tietz





SWEET  DREAMS  AND  HAPPY  MEMORIES

by  Doris Reed Tietz


Sweet dreams and happy memories,
A love that's good and true;
A home to care for tenderly;
A song to sing that's new
Sweet dreams and happy memories
And friends to join in mirth
Some tears to give to those who die,
And smiles to greet each birth.
Sweet dreams and happy memories,
To win a game or two.
The faith to know that Spring will come,
The strength to wait it through.
Sweet dreams and happy memories,
To do what there's to do
For joy is living day to day,
To make sweet dreams come true.







 



THROUGH YOU - by Vero Beach

 

 
 

THROUGH  YOU

by  Vero Beach 


It's a most daunting task to find words
That compare to the perfection that is you

In your eyes, I can see a gentle warmth
That could comfort any tragedy there could be

In your smile, I can feel an elegance and kindness
That could remedy all the pangs and 
strife life can deal

In your voice, I can hear a beautiful soundtrack
That I could listen to for the rest of my days

In your body, I can touch a figure
That can be descibed as nothing less than angelic

It is perfection,
These elements, almost like paints
Used on a canvas to make a masterpiece
Unlike that which the world has ever seen

And I can gladly say until death
I was part of the world
In which perfection lived and breathed
Through you.



 




HOME IS HOME - by AmNat789

 



 


HOME  IS  HOME  

by  AmNat789



With roaring wind and crushing tides,
All alone and cold in the wild.
There's no need to be alone,
For a place of love and happiness abide,
A place full of warmth and love.
Don't live your life feeling cold.
Feel the warmth of Home.








Thursday, October 29, 2020

DISAPPOINTMENT - by Richard Lynott O'Malley

 

 
 


DISAPPOINTMENT

by Richard Lynott O'Malley



    I awoke at the dawn of a school holiday,
    And the heavens with clouds were o'ercast;
    And I prayed for the sunlight's tiniest ray,
    But the rain fell heavy and fast,
    Then I calmed my heart with the hope that soon
    It would clear; and the sun at last
    I saw, and I hoped, but alas! at noon
    The rain fell heavy and fast.

    Now faster and faster poured the rain,
    Still I hoped through the storm and the blast;
    And the night came frowning; my hopes were vain,
    For the rain fell heavy and fast.
    Ah! my holiday fled on her own rainy wind,
    And my hopes followed close on her flight;
    But the cold disappointment still clouded my mind
    Which had chilled me from morning till night.
    Then I thought "It is thus with full many a life;
    Each hope comes and goes like a breath;
    And the mortal toils on with vain hope through the strife,
    From childhood to manhood and death."


 
 
 






DISENCHANTMENT - by Emily Dickinson

 






DISENCHANTMENT

by Emily Dickinson



    It dropped so low in my regard
    I heard it hit the ground,
    And go to pieces on the stones
    At bottom of my mind;


    Yet blamed the fate that fractured, less
    Than I reviled myself
    For entertaining plated wares
    Upon my silver shelf.







A FAIRLY SAD TALE - by Dorothy Parker

 

 
 


A  FAIRLY  SAD  TALE  

by  Dorothy Parker


I think that I shall never know
Why I am thus, and I am so.
Around me, other girls inspire
In men the rush and roar of fire,
The sweet transparency of glass,
The tenderness of April grass,
The durability of granite;
But me- I don't know how to plan it.
The lads I've met in Cupid's deadlock
Were- shall we say?- born out of wedlock.
They broke my heart, they stilled my song,
And said they had to run along,
Explaining, so to sop my tears,
First came their parents or careers.
But ever does experience
Deny me wisdom, calm, and sense!
Though she's a fool who seeks to capture
The twenty-first fine, careless rapture,
I must go on, till ends my rope,
Who from my birth was cursed with hope.
A heart in half is chaste, archaic;
But mine resembles a mosaic-
The thing's become ridiculous!
Why am I so? Why am I thus? 








Wednesday, October 28, 2020

A FRIEND I CAN COUNT ON - by Joanna Fuchs

 



A  FRIEND  I  CAN  COUNT  ON

by Joanna Fuchs



When troubles come a callin’
As those gremlins often do,
And my spirit keeps on fallin’
Till I feel low down and blue…

When I look around for comfort,
Someone quickly jumps to mind,
One who always will support me,
And whose words are always kind.

Who will make my mood feel lighter,
Who’ll help beat my troubles back,
He/She makes the sun shine brighter
And gets my spirit back on track.

Who helps the road seem straighter,
And helps me get around each bend,
Who makes each day seem greater,
And that someone is you, my friend.







WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND ? - by James Kavanaugh

 




WILL  YOU  BE  MY  FRIEND ? 

by James Kavanaugh


Will you be my friend ?
There are so many reasons why you never should:
I’m sometimes sullen, often shy, acutely sensitive,
My fear erupts as anger, I find it hard to give,
I talk about myself when I’m afraid
And often spend a day without anything to say.
    But I will make you laugh
And love you quite a bit
And hold you when you’re sad.
I cry a little almost every day
Because I’m more caring than the strangers ever know,
And, if at times, I show my tender side
(The soft and warmer part I hide)
I wonder, will you be my friend ?

    A friend who far beyond the feebleness of any vow or tie
Will touch the secret place where I am really I,
To know the pain of lips that plead and eyes that weep,
Who will not run away when you find me in the street
Alone and lying mangled by my quota of defeats
But will stop and stay-to tell me of another day
When I was beautiful.
Will you be my friend ?

    There are so many reasons why you never should:
Often I’m too serious, seldom predictably the same,
Sometimes cold and distant, probably I’ll always change.
I bluster and brag, seek attention like a child,
I brood and pout, my anger can be wild,
But I will make you laugh and love you quite a bit
And be near you when you’re afraid.

    I shake a little almost every day
Because I’m more frightened than the strangers ever know
And if at times I show my trembling side
(The anxious, fearful part I hide)
I wonder, will you be my friend ?

    A friend who, when I feel your closeness, feels me push away
And stubbornly will stay to share what’s left on such a day,
Who, when no one knows my name or calls me on the phone,
When there’s no concern for me – what I have or haven’t done-
And those I’ve helped and counted on have oh, so deftly, run,
Who, when there’s nothing left but me, stripped of charm and
Subtlety, will nonetheless remain.

    Will you be my friend ?
For no reason that I know, Except I want you so.