If…

If you can keep your head when all about you

    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

 

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;

    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

 

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

    To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

 

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

    If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

RUDYARD KIPLING

Never Seek to Tell thy Love

Never seek to tell thy love

Love that never told can be

For the gentle wind does move

Silently invisibly

I told my love I told my love

I told her all my heart

Trembling cold in ghastly fears

Ah she doth depart

Soon as she was gone from me

A traveller came by

Silently invisibly

O was no deny

 

WILLIAM BLAKE

Unfettered? – a poem in three parts

I

unfeigned 

what is your occupation, 

other than to make love an obligation,

despite repeat requests for cessation,

you will not decline ‘abdication’,

your insatiable demands for adulation‎, 

result in many-a-castigation.

 

II

‘mercy’

Negation of ovation, dissention, pretension,

mutually assured gradual asphyxiation,

oblation, subjugation, deification,

continual proffering of stale oblation,

elevation, idolization, veneration,

utterance of supposed ideation,

ambition, your attrition & rationalisation,

– oft preferred to humility and consideration.

 

III

rebuke

Coquetry, pageantry, puppetry ‘performant’

predictability becomes you dear ‘conformant’,

rehashed masquerade, unabashed schadenfreude,

duplicitous serf whose stratagems are allayed.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Cedit Ensis Calamo” | Notes and thoughts

Is the pen is mightier than the sword? Can one exist without the other – particularly as words can compel us to act and vice versa. Whatever your stance, there’s no definitive answer which could aptly represent a universal consensus of opinion. Personally, when faced with the metaphorical sword (be it adversity, misfortune, or in my present scenario – receiving the folly of others) I strive to find the beauty amidst the imperfections; re-focus and create something wonderful.

As it is commonly said, ‘whatever’s bad your heart is good for your art’. Hate, love, pain are the subject matter Here I present the poem ‘Unfettered?’ which was partially conceived last November – with part I as a 6 line stanza (sestet). Upon reverting back to this first draft an eruption of words flowed onto the paper, culminating into my first ever three part poem…

Each of the three poems titled ‘unfeigned’, ‘mercy’ and ‘rebuke’ represent various aspects of love (of any variety) and delicately intertwine the five stages of grief : denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Therefore, grief does not specifically presume actual death, but loss too.

Part I fuses initial acceptance and bargaining.

Part II continues the theme of bargaining plus incorporates the feigning of love and depression (to maintain the captivity and ‘limbo’) as well as unfeigned denial & anger (from the perpetrator); so is written as a plea for a cessation of deplorable behaviours / actions – e.g. “Negation of ovation” = (requiring acclaim for merely existing),”dissension” = (bickering, divisiveness), “pretension” = (humility instead of posturing). RESPONSE(S) (highlighted in orange text) : “mutually assured gradual asphyxiation” (or in other words, ‘if I go down, i’m taking you with me’.

Part III (my favourite). A quatrain which factually articulates displeasure with use of simple rhetoric.

I’ll allow you to draw your conclusions based on your perceptions and interpretations, as to whether art is imitating life.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Spring has just sprung and I am impatiently sating wanderlust one artwork at a time.

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This exquisite painting by John Singer Sargent is titled ‘Palms’, was painted in 1917 & is currently displayed in the Worcester Art Museum [Massachusetts].

“People look for retreats for themselves, in the country, by the coast, or in the hills … There is nowhere that a person can find a more peaceful and trouble-free retreat than in his own mind.… So constantly give yourself this retreat, and renew yourself.
—MARCUS AURELIUS”

I’m delighted to catch up with some reading – the first title is Thrive by Arianna Huffington. It’s quite an engaging read; I’m at the chapter which extols the virtues of meditation, which I’d been quite reticent about till having it be redefined as a method flexible enough to adopt existing traditions and beliefs, including the practice of mindfulness. My personal system is similar – typified by prayer, contemplation, striving for betterment and increased personal awareness, utilising gratitude) and centering exercises (combining inner peace, maintaining stillness of mind and positive focus in stressful situations).  I eagerly await the health / happiness benefits from more fully incorporating this practise into daily life.

Isn’t it a universal goal to create a life from which you don’t need to vacation (or to escape) from, and a heart and mind which are in peaceful accordance?

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 Tell me more about you

• How do you maintain happiness during stressful occasions?
• What makes you feel most peaceful?

 

Mimi ✗O

How do I love thee?

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A beautiful bouquet (1 of 3) from my husband, who also chose the following poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning “How do I love thee, let me count the ways” : How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,  I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Sonnet 75: So Are You To My Thoughts As Food To Life – Shakespeare

Pour mon amour.

There’s much I love about sonnet LXXV, particularly the two extremes of satiety and starvation – for which there is no equilibrium.

…………………………………………………………

So are you to my thoughts as food to life,
Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground;
And for the peace of you I hold such strife
As ‘twixt a miser and his wealth is found.
Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon
Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure;
Now counting best to be with you alone,
Then bettered that the world may see my pleasure;
Sometimes all full with feasting on your sight,
And by and by clean starvèd for a look;
Possessing or pursuing no delight
Save what is had, or must from you be took.
Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day,
Or gluttoning on all, or all away.

…………………………………………………………

PARAPHRASE
As food is to the body so are you to my soul and mind,
Or as spring showers are to the ground;
And for the contentment you bring me I allow such inner strife
As the conflict between a miser and his money;
Who takes joy in his wealth, but soon
Fears that ruthless competitors will steal his treasure
Now thinking it best to have you alone,
Then thinking that the world should see how happy I am;
At one moment wholly satisfied by feasting on your sight
And the next moment utterly starved for a look at you:
Having or seeking no pleasure
Except what you have given me or what I will demand.
And so I starve or feed to excess depending on the day,
Either gorging on you, or not having you at all.

…………………………………………………………

SUMMARY and ANALYSIS
The poet is torn by contrary feelings that he cannot reconcile. His relationship with the youth alternates between pleasure — “Sometime all full with feasting on your sight” — and uneasiness — “And by and by clean starved for a look.” Nor does he know whether to be alone with his love or show it off to the world. Embedded in these words lurks a sense of dependence: “So are you to my thoughts as food to life, / Or as sweet-seasoned showers are to the ground.” Following as it does the morbid sonnets dealing with death, in this sonnet the poet gains no pleasure either from fulfillment or desire: “Possessing or pursuing no delight / Save what is had or must from you be took.”

SUMMARY and ANALYSIS courtesy of Cliffsnotes, originally published here

A close up of my orchids. Aren’t they otherworldly #floweroftheday 🌷💐🌹

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Beautiful fall colours to brighten your day 💐

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Picture taken during a recent walk. I quite enjoy the splendor of an #Englishcountrygarden.

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This excerpt of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘The Glory of The Garden’ eloquently expresses my sentiments:

Our England is a garden that is full of stately views,
Of borders, beds and shrubberies and lawns and avenues,
With statues on the terraces and peacocks strutting by;
But the Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.

Today’s mood, eloquently conveyed by one of my favourite poems and poets #poetry #wordgasm #hope

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