Poetry
On 1/5/2020 at SouthWest UU in N. Royalton OH
in lieu of a sermon, we picked these pieces of poetry at random and read them to each other.
"Hope" is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson
“Hope” is the thing with feathers--
That perches in the soul--
And sings the tune without the words--
And never stops—at all--
And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard--
And sore must be the storm--
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm--
I’ve heard it in the chillest land--
And on the strangest Sea--
Yet—never—in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of me.
Come, come, whoever you are.
Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.
- St Francis of Assisi
An excerpt from Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
There is that in me — I do not know what it is — but I know it
The past and present wilt — I have fill'd them, emptied them,
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.
Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a
minute longer.)
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Love is love is love is love by Lin Manuel Miranda
My wife’s the reason anything gets done.
She nudges me towards promise by degrees.
She is a perfect symphony of one.
Our son is her most beautiful reprise.
We chase the melodies that seem to find us
Until they’re finished songs and start to play.
When senseless acts of tragedy remind us
That nothing here is promised, not one day
This show is proof that history remembers
We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger
We rise and fall and light from dying embers,
Remembrances that hope and love last longer.
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love, cannot be killed or swept aside.
I sing Vanessa’s symphony, Eliza tells her story.
Now fill the world with music, love, and pride.
Do not stand at my grave and weep by Mary Elizabeth Frye
Do not stand at my grave and weep:
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starshine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry:
I am not there; I did not die.
How did the Rose
Ever open its heart
And give the world all of its beauty?
It felt encouragement of light against its being.
Otherwise we all remain too frightened.
-Hafiz
If someone speaks ill of You Swami Sivananda
If anyone speaks ill of you,
Praise him always.
If anyone injures you,
Serve him nicely.
If anyone persecutes you,
Help him in all possible ways.
You will attain immense strength.
You will control anger and pride.
You will enjoy peace, poise and serenity.
You will become divine.
Endless Ages by the 5th century Zen Buddhist monk Bodhidharma.
Through endless ages, the mind has never changed
It has not lived or died, come or gone, gained or lost.
It isn’t pure or tainted, good or bad, past or future.
true or false, male or female. It isn’t reserved for
monks or lay people, elders to youths, masters or
idiots, the enlightened or unenlightened.
It isn’t bound by cause and effect and doesn’t
struggle for liberation. Like space, it has no form.
You can’t own it and you can’t lose it. Mountains.
rivers or walls can’t impede it. But this mind is
ineffable and difficult to experience. It is not the
mind of the senses. So many are looking for this
mind, yet it already animates their bodies.
It is theirs, yet they don’t realize it.
Fear-Doubt-Insecurity-Uncertainty, an excerpt from “The Wings of Light” by Sri Chinmoy.
Dark fear invades my body.
Wild doubt fills my mind.
Feeble insecurity empties my heart.
Eyeless uncertainty veils my soul.
Yet my life-river cheerfully
Wants to flow
Into the stream of the Will-Supreme.
It’s the old shell trick with a twist:
I saw God put Himself in one of your pockets.
You are bound
To find him.
More Traffic Than You Think
By St Theresa of Avila
God stood at the shore of Himself and dove in.
How can He do things like that?
Anything goes with the Big Guy,
I guess.
What is it you want to change?
Your hair, your face, your body?
Why?
For God is in love with all these things
And He might weep when they are gone.
-St Catherine of Sienna
God and I have become like
Two giant fat people
Living in a tiny boat.
We keep bumping into each other
And laughing!
-Hafiz
We Are, Therefore, We Love
By Richard S Gilbert
We are, therefore we love.
Cosmic bits of mass and energy
Come to life together.
We love, therefore we are.
May we be humbled before the wonder
Of what we dare to create.
Faults by Sara Teasdale
They came to tell your faults to me,
They named them over one by one;
I laughed aloud when they were done,
I knew them all so well before -
Oh, they were blind, too blind to see
Your faults had made me love you more.
The Stars are Dancing By Om Prakash
The stars are dancing tonight,
while the moon sits in her golden hammock,
swaying back and forth to the rhythm of celestial voices.
The Beloved is full of rapture,
dancing worlds and stars into being,
drunk with the wine of passion
and filling the heavens with song.
Do not sit alone in the dark
while creation sings three-part harmony.
Dance, my friends.
Dance wildly,
sing joyfully,
fill your heart with the beauty of the Beloved
as the Beloved turns your soul to light.
One instant is eternity;
Eternity is the now.
When you see through this one instant,
You see through the one who sees.
Singing the Image of Fire by Kukai
A hand moves, and the fire’s whirling takes different shapes:
All things change when we do.
The first word, “Ah,” blossoms into all others.
Each of them is true.
Gratitude to the Unknown Instructors by Yeats
What they undertook to do
They brought to pass;
All things hang like a drop of dew
Upon a blade of grass.
In our souls everything
moves guided by a mysterious hand.
We know nothing of our own souls
that are ununderstandable and say nothing.
The deepest words
of the wise man teach us
the same as the whistle of the wind when it blows
or the sound of the water when it is flowing.
I ask them with reverence,
of my mother the earth,
of the sky, moon, and sun my father.
I am old age: the essence of life,
I am the source of all happiness.
All is peaceful, all in beauty,
all in harmony, all in joy.
First He looked confused
I could not lie anymore so I started to call my dog “God.”
First he looked
confused,
then he started smiling, then he even
danced.
I kept at it: now he doesn’t even
bite.
I am wondering if this
might work on
People?
The birds have vanished into the sky
And now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
Until only the mountain remains.
Labyrinth by Leslie Takahashi
Walk the maze
within your heart: guide your steps into its questioning curves.
This labyrinth is a puzzle leading you deeper into your own truths.
Listen in the twists and turns.
Listen in the openness within all searching.
Listen: a wisdom within you calls to a wisdom beyond you and in that dialogue lies peace.
Give All to Love by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Give all to love; Obey thy heart;
Friends, kindred, days, Estate, good-fame,
Plans, credit and the Muse,— Nothing refuse.
’T is a brave master; Let it have scope:
Follow it utterly, Hope beyond hope.
It was never for the mean; It requireth courage stout.
Souls above doubt, Valor unbending,
It will reward,— They shall return
More than they were, And ever ascending.
Cherish Myself
I know how it will be when I die.
My beauty will be so extraordinary that God will worship me.
He will not worship me from a distance, for our minds will have wed.
Our souls will have flowed into each other.
How to say this: God and I
Will forever cherish
Myself.
-Rabia, 8th century Islamic female saint
On 1/5/2020 at SouthWest UU in N. Royalton OH
in lieu of a sermon, we picked these pieces of poetry at random and read them to each other.
"Hope" is the thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson
“Hope” is the thing with feathers--
That perches in the soul--
And sings the tune without the words--
And never stops—at all--
And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard--
And sore must be the storm--
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm--
I’ve heard it in the chillest land--
And on the strangest Sea--
Yet—never—in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of me.
Come, come, whoever you are.
Wonderer, worshipper, lover of leaving.
It doesn't matter.
Ours is not a caravan of despair.
Come, even if you have broken your vow
a thousand times
Come, yet again, come, come.
- Rumi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life. Amen.
- St Francis of Assisi
An excerpt from Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
There is that in me — I do not know what it is — but I know it
The past and present wilt — I have fill'd them, emptied them,
And proceed to fill my next fold of the future.
Listener up there! what have you to confide to me?
Look in my face while I snuff the sidle of evening,
(Talk honestly, no one else hears you, and I stay only a
minute longer.)
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)
Love is love is love is love by Lin Manuel Miranda
My wife’s the reason anything gets done.
She nudges me towards promise by degrees.
She is a perfect symphony of one.
Our son is her most beautiful reprise.
We chase the melodies that seem to find us
Until they’re finished songs and start to play.
When senseless acts of tragedy remind us
That nothing here is promised, not one day
This show is proof that history remembers
We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger
We rise and fall and light from dying embers,
Remembrances that hope and love last longer.
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love, cannot be killed or swept aside.
I sing Vanessa’s symphony, Eliza tells her story.
Now fill the world with music, love, and pride.
Do not stand at my grave and weep by Mary Elizabeth Frye
Do not stand at my grave and weep:
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning’s hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the soft starshine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry:
I am not there; I did not die.
How did the Rose
Ever open its heart
And give the world all of its beauty?
It felt encouragement of light against its being.
Otherwise we all remain too frightened.
-Hafiz
If someone speaks ill of You Swami Sivananda
If anyone speaks ill of you,
Praise him always.
If anyone injures you,
Serve him nicely.
If anyone persecutes you,
Help him in all possible ways.
You will attain immense strength.
You will control anger and pride.
You will enjoy peace, poise and serenity.
You will become divine.
Endless Ages by the 5th century Zen Buddhist monk Bodhidharma.
Through endless ages, the mind has never changed
It has not lived or died, come or gone, gained or lost.
It isn’t pure or tainted, good or bad, past or future.
true or false, male or female. It isn’t reserved for
monks or lay people, elders to youths, masters or
idiots, the enlightened or unenlightened.
It isn’t bound by cause and effect and doesn’t
struggle for liberation. Like space, it has no form.
You can’t own it and you can’t lose it. Mountains.
rivers or walls can’t impede it. But this mind is
ineffable and difficult to experience. It is not the
mind of the senses. So many are looking for this
mind, yet it already animates their bodies.
It is theirs, yet they don’t realize it.
Fear-Doubt-Insecurity-Uncertainty, an excerpt from “The Wings of Light” by Sri Chinmoy.
Dark fear invades my body.
Wild doubt fills my mind.
Feeble insecurity empties my heart.
Eyeless uncertainty veils my soul.
Yet my life-river cheerfully
Wants to flow
Into the stream of the Will-Supreme.
It’s the old shell trick with a twist:
I saw God put Himself in one of your pockets.
You are bound
To find him.
- Tukaram, a 17th century Indian saint
More Traffic Than You Think
By St Theresa of Avila
God stood at the shore of Himself and dove in.
How can He do things like that?
Anything goes with the Big Guy,
I guess.
What is it you want to change?
Your hair, your face, your body?
Why?
For God is in love with all these things
And He might weep when they are gone.
-St Catherine of Sienna
God and I have become like
Two giant fat people
Living in a tiny boat.
We keep bumping into each other
And laughing!
-Hafiz
We Are, Therefore, We Love
By Richard S Gilbert
We are, therefore we love.
Cosmic bits of mass and energy
Come to life together.
We love, therefore we are.
May we be humbled before the wonder
Of what we dare to create.
Faults by Sara Teasdale
They came to tell your faults to me,
They named them over one by one;
I laughed aloud when they were done,
I knew them all so well before -
Oh, they were blind, too blind to see
Your faults had made me love you more.
The Stars are Dancing By Om Prakash
The stars are dancing tonight,
while the moon sits in her golden hammock,
swaying back and forth to the rhythm of celestial voices.
The Beloved is full of rapture,
dancing worlds and stars into being,
drunk with the wine of passion
and filling the heavens with song.
Do not sit alone in the dark
while creation sings three-part harmony.
Dance, my friends.
Dance wildly,
sing joyfully,
fill your heart with the beauty of the Beloved
as the Beloved turns your soul to light.
One instant is eternity;
Eternity is the now.
When you see through this one instant,
You see through the one who sees.
- Wu-Men
Singing the Image of Fire by Kukai
A hand moves, and the fire’s whirling takes different shapes:
All things change when we do.
The first word, “Ah,” blossoms into all others.
Each of them is true.
Gratitude to the Unknown Instructors by Yeats
What they undertook to do
They brought to pass;
All things hang like a drop of dew
Upon a blade of grass.
In our souls everything
moves guided by a mysterious hand.
We know nothing of our own souls
that are ununderstandable and say nothing.
The deepest words
of the wise man teach us
the same as the whistle of the wind when it blows
or the sound of the water when it is flowing.
- Antonio Machado
I ask them with reverence,
of my mother the earth,
of the sky, moon, and sun my father.
I am old age: the essence of life,
I am the source of all happiness.
All is peaceful, all in beauty,
all in harmony, all in joy.
- Anonymous Navajo prayer
First He looked confused
I could not lie anymore so I started to call my dog “God.”
First he looked
confused,
then he started smiling, then he even
danced.
I kept at it: now he doesn’t even
bite.
I am wondering if this
might work on
People?
- Tukaram, a 17th century Indian saint
The birds have vanished into the sky
And now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
Until only the mountain remains.
- Li Po
Labyrinth by Leslie Takahashi
Walk the maze
within your heart: guide your steps into its questioning curves.
This labyrinth is a puzzle leading you deeper into your own truths.
Listen in the twists and turns.
Listen in the openness within all searching.
Listen: a wisdom within you calls to a wisdom beyond you and in that dialogue lies peace.
Give All to Love by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Give all to love; Obey thy heart;
Friends, kindred, days, Estate, good-fame,
Plans, credit and the Muse,— Nothing refuse.
’T is a brave master; Let it have scope:
Follow it utterly, Hope beyond hope.
It was never for the mean; It requireth courage stout.
Souls above doubt, Valor unbending,
It will reward,— They shall return
More than they were, And ever ascending.
Cherish Myself
I know how it will be when I die.
My beauty will be so extraordinary that God will worship me.
He will not worship me from a distance, for our minds will have wed.
Our souls will have flowed into each other.
How to say this: God and I
Will forever cherish
Myself.
-Rabia, 8th century Islamic female saint