Video for Today: Ballet dancer Rhys Kosakowski ~ 'Levitate'

Two Proverbs on Kindness

From the Bible: Proverbs 11:17 and 25:21-22 (Good News Translation)

You do yourself a favor when you are kind. If you are cruel, you only hurt yourself.

If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them a drink. You will make them burn with shame, and the Lord will reward you.

"I Shall Not Pass This Way Again"

"I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again." So wrote William Penn (1644-1718). To read an article about William Penn, click here.


I SHALL NOT PASS THIS WAY AGAIN
Author Unknown

Through this toilsome world, alas!
Once and only once I pass;
If a kindness I may show,
If a good deed I may do
To a suffering fellow man,
Let me do it while I can.
No delay, for it is plain
I shall not pass this way again.

Each and Every Day: A Trio of Quotations

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.
     JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE (1749-1832)
     To read an article about Goethe, click here.

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.
     CHARLES ELIOT NORTON (1827-1908)
     To read an article about Norton, click here.

Though it would be dangerous to make calendars the basis of Culture, we should all be much improved if we began each day with a fine passage of English poetry.
     OSCAR WILDE (1856-1900)
     To read an article about Wilde, click here.

"Autumn Song" by Paul Verlaine

AUTUMN SONG
by Paul Verlaine

(Translated, from the French, by Arthur Symons)

When a sighing begins
In the violins
Of the autumn-song,
My heart is drowned
In the slow sound
Languorous and long.

Pale as with pain,
Breath fails me when
The hours toll deep.
My thoughts recover
The days that are over,
And I weep.

And I go
Where the winds know,
Broken and brief,
To and fro,
As the winds blow
A dead leaf.


Credit: This poem is in the public domain.
Source: poets.org

Paul Verlaine (1844-1896)

A Quotation from John Kieran

It probably is true that a man sees more things and makes more searching observations in the field when he is alone, but there is a virtue in companionship that makes up for any decrease in the supply of clinical notes. A pleasure shared is a pleasure doubled. I always like to have companions on my tramps through the woods, my walks through the fields or my trips to the seashore.
     JOHN KIERAN (1892-1981)
     Quoted in Thoughts from the Mountains (Heartland Samplers, Inc., 1992)

To read an article about John Kieran, click here.

John Kieran in 1947

(This photo is in the public domain.)

A Quotation from Hal Borland

I can report now that grass grows, flowers bloom, birds sing. I can report that the sun rises and sets, the moon keeps its own schedule, the stars follow patterns they have followed since man first saw them in the night sky. I know these truths. Lesser truths will take more learning, but I can live with what I now know.
     HAL BORLAND (1900-1978)
     Quoted in Thoughts from the Mountains (Heartland Samplers, Inc., 1992)

To read an article about Hal Borland, click here.

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

On this day in 1999, according to the Associated Press, "the U.S. version of the quiz show 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,' hosted by Regis Philbin, began a limited two-week run on ABC."

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, "'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?' is a song written by Cole Porter for the 1956 film High Society, where it was introduced by Frank Sinatra and Celeste Holm.

"While looking at expensive wedding presents, the singers decide that they in fact have little desire to be fabulously wealthy." Watch the music video below.

Picture for Today: August

August brings the sheaves of corn,

Then the harvest home is borne.

--from "The Garden Year" (1834)

by Sara Coleridge

Quotation from Celia Thaxter

Earth seems to hold her breath before the expected fury. Lightning scores the sky from zenith to horizon, and across from north to south "a fierce, vindictive scribble of fire" writes its blinding way, and the awesome silence is broken by the cracking thunder that follows every flash.
     --Celia Thaxter (1835-1894), American writer of poetry and stories

Source: Thoughts from the Mountains (Heartland Samplers, Inc., 1992)

Celia Thaxter

"Eve Remembering" by Toni Morrison (1931-2019)

Read Genesis 3:1-24 (King James Version)

To read Genesis 3 (KJV), click here.

According to the Academy of American Poets, "Toni Morrison was born on February 18, 1931, in Lorain, Ohio. She received a BA from Howard University in 1955. She was the author of one volume of poetry, Five Poems (Rainmaker Editions, 2002), which features poems alongside illustrations by Kara Walker. She is the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the 1993 Nobel Prize for Literature. She died on August 5, 2019 in New York."

"Eve Remembering" is one of Toni Morrison's Five Poems. To read that poem, click here.

God Is Here!

Here is a bit of poetry by Madeleine Aaron.

God is here!
I hear His voice
While thrushes make the woods rejoice.
I touch His robe each time I place
My hand against a pansy's face.
I breathe His breath if I but pass
Verbenas trailing through the grass.
God is here!
From every tree
His leafy fingers beckon me.


Source: Thoughts from the Mountains (Heartland Samplers, Inc., 1992)

Find

Here is a short, untitled poem of mine, the second line of which is a link not to Facebook but to "Find," the poem by Instagram poet Luigi Coppola (@poetrypreacher) that inspired this poem of mine. The word "Finders" contains the same letters as the word "Friends."

Finders, keepers.
Find Friends
who are keepers.