"Outwitted" by Edwin Markham

"When my brothers try to draw a circle to exclude me, I shall draw a larger circle to include them." So said transgender civil rights activist Pauli Murray. That quotation from Murray reminded me of the inspirational poem below.


OUTWITTED
by Edwin Markham

He drew a circle that shut me out --
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in!

Edwin Markham

To read about him, click here.

"The Final Say: Saint Paul"

THE FINAL SAY: SAINT PAUL

by Monty Gilmer

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

     SAINT PAUL

     to the Galatians (in the Bible: Galatians 3:28-29, King James Version)

He knew that each fish

was given paradise

in its slimy skin,

in its little gasping kiss of the sea.

     ANNE SEXTON

     From "The Saints Come Marching In"

     in The Awful Rowing Toward God (1975)

"Love the Light-Giver" by Michelangelo

LOVE THE LIGHT-GIVER
by Michelangelo Buonarroti

To Tommaso De' Cavalieri

Veggio co' bei vostri occhi.

With your fair eyes a charming light I see,
    For which my own blind eyes would peer in vain;
    Stayed by your feet, the burden I sustain
    Which my lame feet find all too strong for me;
Wingless upon your pinions forth I fly;
    Heavenward your spirit stirreth me to strain;
    E'en as you will, I blush and blanch again,
    Freeze in the sun, burn 'neath a frosty sky.
Your will includes and is the lord of mine;
    Life to my thoughts within your heart is given;
    My words begin to breathe upon your breath:
Like to the moon am I, that cannot shine
    Alone; for lo! our eyes see nought in heaven
    Save what the living sun illumineth.


This poem is in the public domain. "Love the Light-Giver" was published in The Sonnets of Michael Angelo Buonarroti (T. B. Mosher, 1897), translated by John Addington Symonds.

Michelangelo (1475-1564)

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born on March 6, 1475, in Caprese, Italy. One of the most famous artists of the Italian Renaissance, he wrote close to 75 finished sonnets and about 95 madrigals, which were later compiled into translated collections. He died on February 18, 1564, in Rome, Italy.

"The Final Say: Spread No Rumors"

THE FINAL SAY: SPREAD NO RUMORS

by Monty Gilmer

I hate to spread rumors, but what else can one do with them?

     AMANDA LEAR

     French singer, quoted in the Los Angeles Times

Lord, who may enter your Temple?

Who may worship on Zion, your sacred hill?

Those who obey God in everything

   and always do what is right,

whose words are true and sincere,

   and who do not slander others.

They do no wrong to their friends

   nor spread rumors about their neighbors.

     DAVID

     in the Bible: Psalm 15:1-3 (Good News Translation)

"Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar

Have you ever yearned to be free from cares, duties, and social restrictions and yet could not follow the restless urging of your heart? If you have, perhaps you too know "what the caged bird feels."


SYMPATHY
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
   When the sun is bright on the upward slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass;
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
   When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals --
I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats his wing
   Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
   And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting --
I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
   When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore, --
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
   But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings --
I know why the caged bird sings!

Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

Dunbar gained international renown and popularized black literature by lecturing and reading his poetry. He published prolifically: seven volumes of verse (over 400 poems), four novels; four collections of short stories; dozens of articles in magazines; song lyrics, musical plays and sketches.

     --from African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773-1927, edited by Joan R. Sherman (Dover

       Publications, Inc., 1997)

To read more about Paul Laurence Dunbar, click here.

"Growing Apples" by Nancy Miller Gomez | Rattle: Poetry

Read the poem "Growing Apples" by Nancy Miller Gomez, and watch the video that accompanies it, a video of the author of that poem reciting it: https://www.rattle.com/growing-apples

The Final Say: On Giving of Yourself

     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 you may need them tomorrow?

     And tomorrow, what shall tomorrow bring to the overprudent dog burying bones in the trackless sand as he follows the pilgrims to the holy city?

     And what is fear of need but need itself?

     Is not dread of thirst when your well is full, the thirst that is unquenchable?

     KAHLIL GIBRAN

     in The Prophet (1923)

     Ralph Waldo Emerson, that lofty idealist who nevertheless had a penetratingly practical knowledge of human nature, wrote, "Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself."

     DAVID DUNN

     in Try Giving Yourself Away (1947),

     Second Edition (1956)

Langston Hughes reads his poems "African Dance," "Dream Variation" and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"

Bad Week for the Rains Down in Africa

It was a bad week for the rains down in Africa, according to the January 25, 2019, issue of THE WEEK Magazine, "after artist Max Siedentopf set up six speakers attached to a solar-powered MP3 player in the Namib Desert to play 'Africa,' the 1982 Toto hit, 'for all eternity.' Siedentopf said he 'wanted to pay the song the ultimate homage.'"

"Africa" by Toto

(Official Music Video)

"The Golden Rule": A Poem of Jesus Christ

It was Gary Hamel (born 1954), an American management expert and founder of Strategos, an international consulting firm based in Chicago, who said, "The fact is, society is made more hospitable by every individual who acts as if 'do unto others' really was a rule." Here from the Bible is a found poem of mine about "do unto others," the Golden Rule.


THE GOLDEN RULE
A Poem of Jesus Christ
from the Bible: Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31
(New Revised Standard Version)

In everything do to others
as you would have them do to you;
for this is the law
and the prophets. Do to others
as you would have them do to you.

"A Very Valentine" by Gertrude Stein

Here is a poem by American writer Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) for Valentine's Day, which is today.


A VERY VALENTINE

Very fine is my valentine.
Very fine and very mine.
Very mine is my valentine very mine and very fine.
Very fine is my valentine and mine, very fine very mine and mine is my valentine.

Gertrude Stein in 1935

(Photograph by Carl Van Vechten)

A Glimpse

From Leaves of Grass (1892)
by Walt Whitman

A glimpse through an interstice caught,
Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark'd seated in a corner,
Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand,
A long while amid the noises of coming and going, of drinking and oath and smutty jest,
There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

"The Things I Prize" by Henry van Dyke

This inspirational bit of poetry is from Part VII of "God of the Open Air" in Music and Other Poems by Henry van Dyke (copyright 1904 by Charles Scribner's Sons and 1932 by Henry van Dyke).


THE THINGS I PRIZE

These are the things I prize
   And hold of dearest worth:
Light of the sapphire skies,
Peace of the silent hills,
Shelter of the forests, comfort of the grass,
Music of birds, murmur of little rills,
Shadows of cloud that swiftly pass,
   And, after showers,
   The smell of flowers
And of the good brown earth --
And best of all, along the way, friendship and mirth.

Henry van Dyke (1852-1933)

Abraham Lincoln, Born February 12, 1809

On this day in 1809, according to the Associated Press, "Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in a log cabin in Hardin (now LaRue) County, Kentucky." Here are a poem and two quotations about Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)

Photograph by Alexander Gardner

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BORN FEB. 12, 1809
by Walt Whitman

Publish'd Feb. 12, 1888

To-day, from each and all, a breath of prayer -- a pulse of thought,
To memory of Him -- to birth of Him.


Two presidential quotations about Abraham Lincoln:

Mr. Lincoln has come and gone. . . . He has been raising a respectable pair of dark-brown whiskers, which decidedly improve his looks, but no appendage can ever render him remarkable for beauty.
     JAMES A. GARFIELD
     in a letter to Mrs. Garfield
     February 16, 1861

Lincoln was a very normal man with very normal gifts, but all upon a great scale, all knit together in loose and natural form, like the great frame in which he moved and dwelt.
     WOODROW WILSON
     in a speech in Chicago, Illinois
     February 2,1909

From Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare

Here are two erotic stanzas from Venus and Adonis, a narrative poem by William Shakespeare. In each of the stanzas below, Venus is speaking to Adonis.

"Is thine own heart to thine own face affected?
Can thy right hand seize love upon thy left?
Then woo thyself, be of thyself rejected,
Steal thine own freedom, and complain on theft.
   Narcissus so himself himself forsook,
   And died to kiss his shadow in the brook."

"Fondling," she saith, "since I have hemm'd thee here
Within the circuit of this ivory pale,
I'll be a park, and thou shalt be my deer;
Feed where thou wilt, on mountain or in dale:
   Graze on my lips, and if those hills be dry,
   Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie."

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

William Shakespeare on Love and Lust

A stanza from Venus and Adonis (1592)
a narrative poem by William Shakespeare

(Adonis is speaking to Venus.)

"Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,
But Lust's effect is tempest after sun;
Love's gentle spring doth always fresh remain,
Lust's winter comes ere summer half be done;
   Love surfeits not, Lust like a glutton dies;
   Love is all truth, Lust full of forged lies."

To read about Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis click here.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

The Final Say: On Charity and Forgiveness

CHARITY

Author Unknown

There is so much good in the worst of us,

And so much bad in the best of us,

That it ill behooves any of us

To find fault with the rest of us.

A quotation from Martin Luther King, Jr., on forgiveness:

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.

To read about Martin Luther King, Jr., click here.

"Cinquain on Life's Bridges": A Found Poem

Oprah Winfrey was quoted in the New York Post as saying, "One of the hardest things in life to learn are which bridges to cross and which bridges to burn." Here is a found poem of mine in which I slightly altered that quotation from Oprah.


CINQUAIN ON LIFE'S BRIDGES
by Monty Gilmer

(A found poem: a slightly altered quotation
from Oprah Winfrey}

One of
the hardest things
in life to learn is which
bridges to cross and which bridges
to burn.

Charles Eliot Norton (1827-1908),

who wrote, "Whatever your occupation may be

and however crowded your hours with affairs,

do not fail to secure at least a few minutes every day

for refreshment of your inner life with

a bit of poetry."

"The Final Say: Kinder, Gentler"

THE FINAL SAY: KINDER, GENTLER

by Monty Gilmer

If each man or woman could understand that every other human life is as full of sorrows, or joys, or base temptations, of heartaches and of remorse as his own . . . how much kinder, how much gentler he would be.

     WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE

I want a kinder, gentler nation.

     GEORGE BUSH

January Haiku: Found Poems from the Journals of Henry David Thoreau

January Haiku by Zphx on Twitter:
Found Poems from the Journals
of Henry David Thoreau

January 1, 2019, tweet: Three haiku

January 4, 2019, tweet: Three haiku

January 7, 2019, tweet: Perfect winter day.

January 9, 2019, tweet: Cold, but clear and bright.

January 17, 2019, tweet: The unclouded mind,

January 18, 2019, tweet: "Our very shadows

January 21, 2019, tweet: Against a dark roof

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

A Bit of Poetry by George Cooper on Hope

Brave your storm with firm endeavor,
   Let your vain repinings go!
Hopeful hearts will find forever
   Roses underneath the snow!
      --from "Roses Underneath the Snow"
        by George Cooper (1838-1927)

And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
      --The Bible: Romans 5:5 (New International Version)

Old Rose Dr. Van Fleet Climber

(Vasenka Photography)

"Sounds of the Winter" by Walt Whitman

SOUNDS OF THE WINTER
from Leaves of Grass (1892)
by Walt Whitman

Sounds of the winter too,
Sunshine upon the mountains -- many a distant strain
From cheery railroad train -- from nearer field, barn, house,
The whispering air -- even the mute crops, garner'd apples, corn,
Children's and women's tones -- rhythm of many a farmer and of flail,
An old man's garrulous lips among the rest, Think not we give out yet,
Forth from these snowy hairs we keep up yet the lilt.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

The Rooster's Rhyme: An Anonymous Nursery Rhyme

"Angus lost a shoe not far from the folly. Alethea vanished from a picnic. Albert left for Peru." So wrote Edward Gorey in The Helpless Doorknob: A Shuffled Story (1989), a pack of twenty cards featuring his finely detailed, enigmatic art and text. I based my selection and arrangement of the three sentences by Edward Gorey that I quoted above on the following anonymous nursery rhyme:


Cock-a-doodle-doo!
My dame has lost her shoe,
My master's lost his fiddlestick,
And knows not what to do.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!
What is my dame to do?
Till master finds his fiddlestick,
She'll dance without her shoe.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!
My dame has found her shoe,
My master's found his fiddlestick.
Sing doodle-doodle-doo!

Cock-a-doodle-doo!
My dame will dance with you,
While master fiddles his fiddlestick
For dame and doodle-doo.

"I Never Knew You": A Poem of Jesus Christ

David the psalmist wrote, "Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity; for the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping" (Psalm 6:8, King James Version).


I NEVER KNEW YOU
A Poem of Jesus Christ
from the Bible: Matthew 7:21-23 (King James Version)

Not every one that saith unto me, "Lord, Lord,"
Shall enter into the kingdom of heaven;
But he that doeth the will of my Father
Which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, "Lord, Lord,
Have we not prophesied in thy name?
And in thy name have cast out devils?
And in thy name done many wonderful works?"
And then will I profess unto them,
"I never knew you:
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity."

An Observation by Henry David Thoreau on 2 February 1854

On this day (Groundhog Day) in 1854, Henry David Thoreau wrote the following observation in his journal:

Already we begin to anticipate spring, and this is an important difference between this time and a month ago. We begin to say that the day is springlike.
     Is not January the hardest month to get through? When you have weathered that, you get into the gulf stream of winter, nearer the shores of spring.

Source: Daily Observations: Thoreau on the Days of the Year (2005), edited by Steve Grant

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)