Foreign Lands

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by Robert Louis Stevenson

Up into the cherry tree
who should climb but little me?
I held the trunks with both my hands
and look abroad on foreign lands.

I saw the next-door garden lies,
adorned with flowers, before my eye,
and many pleasant faces more
that I had never seen before.

I saw the dimpling river pass
and be the sky's blue looking glass;
the dusty roads go up and down
with people tramping it to town.

If I could find a higher tree
farther and farther I should see,
to where the grown-up river slips
into the sea among the ships.

To where the roads on either hands
lead onward into fairy land,
where all the children dine at five
and all the playing things come alive.

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On Giving

Then said the rich man, speak to us of giving.
          And he answered:
          you give but little when you give of your possessions.
          It is when you give of yourself that you truly give,
          for what are your possessions but things you keep and guard
for fear may need them tomorrow?
          And tomorrow - what shall tomorrow give to the over prudent
dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the
Pilgrims to the holy city?
          And what is fear of need but needs itself?
          Is not dread of thirst, when your well is full, the thirst
that is unquenchable?
          There are those who give little of the much of which they have-
and they give it for recognition , and their hidden desire makes
their gifts unwholesome.
          And there are those who give little and give it all.
          These are the believers in life and the bounty of life, and
their coffer is never empty.
          There are those who give for joy, and that joy is their reward.
          And there are those who give and know not pain in giving,
nor they seek joy nor give with mindfulness of virtue;
          they give as in yonder valley the myrtle breathes its
fragrance into space.
          Through the hands of such as these God speaks, and from
behind their eyes He smiles upon the earth.
          It is well to give when asked, but it  is better to give
unasked through understanding;
          and to the openhanded the search for one who shall receive
is joy greater than giving,
          in there is aught you would withhold?
          All you have shall someday be given;
          therefore give now, that the season of giving maybe yours
and not your inheritors'
          you often say, "I would give but only to the deserving."
          the trees in your orchard say not so, nor the flocks in your pasture.
          They give that they may live, for to withhold is to perish.
          Surely, he who is worthy to receive his days and his nights
is worthy of all else from you.

Author: Kahlil Gibran

Another Dawn

With low sun and homebound herons,
horizons prods divine art to stack
lilies in my throat recalling.....
a boat that bowed down to the boiling sea.

For a moment, the sea was a scene
of frenzy and screams and bubbling head-
all in frantic fray to cluctch breath
upon a bow to Saint Raphael,
silenced soon by bitter blast of waves.

Drifted ashore by blind belief,
I discerned the graves loss embedded
in mind the fervor the heart needs
for being bloodsucker to her deeds,

And the hurt heart itched by the blue
charmed of entwining arms behind shrub
on low sun with song of crickets
daedaled desire for another dawn
to impel fleshness before fall of night.

Author: Celedonia G. Aguilar

The Slave

They set the slave free, striking of his chain;
then he was as much of a slave than ever.

          He was still chained to servility,
          he was still manacled to indolent and sloth,
          he was still bound by fear and superstition,
          by ignorance, suspicion and savagery,
          his slavery was not in the chains,
          but in himself.

They can only set free men free.
And there is no need of that:
free men set themselves free.

Author: James Oppenheim

The Folishness In Trusting In Riches

Anyone can see that even wise men die,
     as well as foolish and stupid man.
they all leave their richest to their
     descendants
their graves are their home forever;
     there they stay for all time
     though they once had lang on their own.
A man's greatness cannot keep them from death;
     he will still die like animals.

See what happens to those who trust in themselves,
     the fate of those whose are satisfied with their wealth-
they are doomed to die like sheep,
     and death will be their shepherd.
The righteous will triumph over them,
     as their bodies quickly decay
     in the world of the dead far from their homes.
But God will rescue me;
     He will save me from the power of death.

Don't be upset when a man become rich,
     when his wealth grows even greater;
he cannot take them with him when he die;
     his wealth will not go with him to the grave.

The Wonderful World

                                  Image via Wikipedia

Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful world,

with the wonderful water around you curled,

and the wonderful grass upon your breast-

World, you are beautifully dressed!

The wonderful air is over me,

and the wonderful wind is shaking the tree;

it walks on the water, and whirls the mills,

and talks to itself on the top of the hills.

You, friendly earth, how far do you go,

With the wheat-fields that nod, and the rivers that flow,

with cities and gardens and cliffs and isles

and people upon you, for thousands of miles?

Ah! You are so great and I am so small,

I tremble, to think of you, World, at all;

and yet, when I said my prayers today,

a whisper inside me seemed to say:

"You are more than the earth, though you are such a dot;

you can love and think, and the earth cannot!"

By: William Brighty Rands

The Whole Duty Of A Man

Meaningless! Meaningless!
     say the teacher
Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless!

What does a man gain from all his labor
     at which he toils under the sun?
Generations come and generations go,
     but the earth remains forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets,
     and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
     and turns to the north;
     and round and round it goes,
     ever returning on it's course...
The eye never has enough of seeing
     or the ear its fill of hearing.
What has been will be again,
     what has been will be again;
     there is nothing new under the sun.
...here is the conclusion of the matter:
fear God and keep his commandments
for this is the whole duty of a man.

The Monkeys In Council

                         Image via Wikipedia

Three Monkeys sat under the coconut tree,
discussing things as they were said to be.

Now listen here you two,
there's a certain rumor that can't be true,
that man descended from our noble ways!
the very idea is a disgrace.

No monkeys ever deserted his wife,
starved her babies and ruined her life;
and you've never known a mother monk,
to leave her babies with others to bunk.

And another thing you'll never see,
a monk build a fence around a coconut tree,
and let coconut go to waste
forbidding all other monks to taste.

Here's another thing a monk won't do:
go out at night and get in a stew,
or use a gun, or club, or knife
to take some other monkey's life.

Yes, man descended - the monkeys cuss-
but, rather, he didn't descend from us!

The Mountain and The Squirrel

                Image by abroadjz via Flickr

The mountain and the squirrel
had a quarrel,
and the former called the latter
"Little Prig."
Bun replied,
"You are doubtless very big;
but all sorts of things and weather
must be taken in together
To make up a year
and a sphere,
And I think it no disgrace
To occupy my place,
If I'm not so large as you,
You are so small as I,
And not half so Spry.
I'll not deny you make
A very pretty squirrel track;
Talents differ; all is well and
wisely put;
If I cannot carry forest on my back,
Neither can you crack a nut."

Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson