This isn't a poem, but someone just sent it to me, and I figured I'd stick it here.

......................

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or
the prize in a treasure hunt.
Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own
past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience on
humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and
understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and
people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice
something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them
together into that pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has
dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of
success or failure is of less account.

John Gardner

Thanks Ellis. I really like that.

Ellis....what a woman you are! Thanks for sharing that...perked up my day.
blessings,
blackbird

2 poems from the Prophet

"Joy & Sorrow"

Then a woman said, "Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow."

And he answered:

Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.

And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.

And how else can it be?

The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.

Is not the cup that hold your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter's oven?

And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.

Some of you say, "Joy is greater than sorrow," and others say, "Nay, sorrow is the greater."

But I say unto you, they are inseparable.

Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.

Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.

Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.

When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.



"Friendship"

And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."

Your friend is your needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

And he is your board and your fireside.

For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

~Kahlil Gibran

Thank you Squeak... I love reading Kahlil Gibran...

These were so beautiful that tears came to my eyes.
Thank you so much for sharing.

"Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return."

Mary Jean Iron

Wow, Ellis! That one really gets to me. Thanks so much.

Thanks for the words of wisdom ladies! I love reading the Prophet

Thank all of you for your words and poems.

Phew! Had to dig for this one!!

I found this in the Globe and Mail the other day and liked it:

"The logic of worldly success rests on a fallacy: the strange error that our perfection depends on the thoughts and opinions and applause of other men! A weird life it is, indeed, to be living always in somebody else's imagination, as if that were the only place in which one could at last become real!"
Thomas Merton

I like that one Ellis! I agree too. we have to invent ourselves. If we wait to let someone ELSE do that we will always feel unfulfilled.

That is a very cool quote Ellis! Thanks for sharing.

I was thinking about this thread the other day.

Let's try to keep it active. It took me about 1/2 hour to find the damned thing.

Sounds good. Here is one:

maggie and milly and molly and may
E. E. Cummings


maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach(to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose(like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea