Water Lilies

Source: Favim

If you have forgotten water lilies floating
On a dark lake among mountains in the afternoon shade,
If you have forgotten their wet, sleepy fragrance,
Then you can return and not be afraid.

But if you remember, then turn away forever
To the plains and the prairies where pools are far apart,
There you will not come at dusk on closing water lilies,
And the shadow of mountains will not fall on your heart.

~ Sara Teasdale

Water Lilies

Source: Favim

If you have forgotten water lilies floating
On a dark lake among mountains in the afternoon shade,
If you have forgotten their wet, sleepy fragrance,
Then you can return and not be afraid.

But if you remember, then turn away forever
To the plains and the prairies where pools are far apart,
There you will not come at dusk on closing water lilies,
And the shadow of mountains will not fall on your heart.

~ Sara Teasdale

FAULTS

FAULTS

Joy

Photo credit: lukeok from morguefile.com

I am wild, I will sing to the trees,

I will sing to the stars in the sky,

I love, I am loved, he is mine,

Now at last I can die!

I am sandaled with wind and with flame,

I have heart-fire and singing to give,

I can tread on the grass or the stars,

Now at last I can live!

~ Sara Teasdale

___________________________________________

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. ~ Mother Teresa

Joy

Photo credit: lukeok from morguefile.com

I am wild, I will sing to the trees,

I will sing to the stars in the sky,

I love, I am loved, he is mine,

Now at last I can die!

I am sandaled with wind and with flame,

I have heart-fire and singing to give,

I can tread on the grass or the stars,

Now at last I can live!

~ Sara Teasdale

___________________________________________

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. ~ Mother Teresa

Two Minds

Your mind and mine are such great lovers they

Have freed themselves from cautious human clay,

And on wild clouds of thought, naked together

They ride above us in extreme delight;

We see them, we look up with a lone envy

And watch them in their zone of crystal weather

That changes not for winter or the night.

~ Sara Teasdale

_________________________________________

What I need to live has been given to me by the earth. Why I need to live has been given to me by you. ~ Anonymous

Two Minds

Your mind and mine are such great lovers they

Have freed themselves from cautious human clay,

And on wild clouds of thought, naked together

They ride above us in extreme delight;

We see them, we look up with a lone envy

And watch them in their zone of crystal weather

That changes not for winter or the night.

~ Sara Teasdale

_________________________________________

What I need to live has been given to me by the earth. Why I need to live has been given to me by you. ~ Anonymous

THE GREAT WAY IS NOT DIFFICULT

The Great Way is not difficult

for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent

everything becomes clear and undisguised.

Make the smallest distinction, however

and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

If you wish to see the truth

then hold no opinions for or against anything.

To set up what you like against what you dislike

is the disease of the mind.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood

the minds essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

The Way is perfect like vast space

where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.

Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject

that we do not see the true nature of things.

Live neither in the entanglements of outer things,

nor in inner feelings of emptiness.

Be serene in the oneness of things

and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.

When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity

your very effort fills you with activity.

As long as you remain in one extreme or the other

you will never know Oneness.

- Sengstan (translated from the Chinese)

________________________________________________
 

I make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes. ~ Sara Teasdale, "The Philosopher"

THE GREAT WAY IS NOT DIFFICULT

The Great Way is not difficult

for those who have no preferences.

When love and hate are both absent

everything becomes clear and undisguised.

Make the smallest distinction, however

and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.

If you wish to see the truth

then hold no opinions for or against anything.

To set up what you like against what you dislike

is the disease of the mind.

When the deep meaning of things is not understood

the minds essential peace is disturbed to no avail.

The Way is perfect like vast space

where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.

Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject

that we do not see the true nature of things.

Live neither in the entanglements of outer things,

nor in inner feelings of emptiness.

Be serene in the oneness of things

and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.

When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity

your very effort fills you with activity.

As long as you remain in one extreme or the other

you will never know Oneness.

- Sengstan (translated from the Chinese)

________________________________________________
 

I make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes. ~ Sara Teasdale, "The Philosopher"

Lovely Chance

O lovely chance, what can I do

To give my gratefulness to you?

You rise between myself and me

With a wise persistency;

I would have broken body and soul,

But by your grace, still I am whole.

Many a thing you did to save me,

Many a holy gift you gave me,

Music and friends and happy love

More than my dearest dreaming of;

And now in this wide twilight hour

With earth and heaven a dark, blue flower,

In a humble mood I bless

Your wisdom—and your waywardness.

You brought me even here, where I

Live on a hill against the sky

And look on mountains and the sea

And a thin white moon in the pepper tree.

-- Sara Teasdale

Lovely Chance

O lovely chance, what can I do

To give my gratefulness to you?

You rise between myself and me

With a wise persistency;

I would have broken body and soul,

But by your grace, still I am whole.

Many a thing you did to save me,

Many a holy gift you gave me,

Music and friends and happy love

More than my dearest dreaming of;

And now in this wide twilight hour

With earth and heaven a dark, blue flower,

In a humble mood I bless

Your wisdom—and your waywardness.

You brought me even here, where I

Live on a hill against the sky

And look on mountains and the sea

And a thin white moon in the pepper tree.

-- Sara Teasdale

There will come soft rain

There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire.

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly.

And Spring herself when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

-- Sara Teasdale

There will come soft rain

There will come soft rain and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire.

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree,
If mankind perished utterly.

And Spring herself when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

-- Sara Teasdale

Snowfall

"She can't be unhappy," you said,
"The smiles are like stars in her eyes,
And her laugh is thistledown
Around her low replies."
"Is she unhappy?" you said --
But who has ever known
Another's heartbreak --
All he can know is his own;
And she seems hushed to me,
As hushed as though
Her heart were a hunter's fire
Smothered in snow.

- by Sara Teasdale

Snowfall

"She can't be unhappy," you said,
"The smiles are like stars in her eyes,
And her laugh is thistledown
Around her low replies."
"Is she unhappy?" you said --
But who has ever known
Another's heartbreak --
All he can know is his own;
And she seems hushed to me,
As hushed as though
Her heart were a hunter's fire
Smothered in snow.

- by Sara Teasdale