Love and Friendship -The Poetic Heart - Great Mystery Publishing Poetry Page

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A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM

Edgar Allan Poe

A Dream within a Dream

Take this kiss upon the brow!

And, in parting from you now,

Thus much let me avow-

You are not wrong, who deem

That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away

In a night, or in a day,

In a vision, or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

I stand amid the roar

Of a surf-tormented shore,

And I hold within my hand

Grains of the golden sand-

How few! Yet how they creep

Through my fingers to the deep,

While I weep-wile I weep!

O God! Can I not grasp

Them with a tighter clasp?

O God! Can I not save

One from the pitiless wave?

Is all that we see or seem

But a dream within a dream?

TAKE EASE

take ease my beautiful friend,

rest as you will and take your ease ...

and I shall sit with you in quiet contemplation

an arm around you, fingers to lightly brush your hair

or wipe away a tear ...

take ease my beautiful friend,

and let any pain of it flow from your mind and your body

breathe of air perfumed with my love and my peace

breathe clear and let your thoughts drift

until they find places to rest ...

take ease my beautiful friend,

and allow your heart to open and heal

breathe deeply and gently of tranquil friendship and care

let your wounds heal and let your doubts fall aside

until nothing remains but your dream ...

SELF LOVE

He that cannot choose but love,

And strives against it still,

Never shall my fancy move,

For he loves ‘gainst his will;

Nor he which is all his own,

And can at pleasure choose,

When I am caught he can be gone,

And when he list refuse.

Nor he that loves none but fair,

For such by all are sought;

Nor he that can for foul ones care,

For his judgment then is nought;

Nor he that hath wit, for he

Will make me his jest or slave’

Nor a fool, for when others…,

He can neither….:

Nor he that still his Mistress pays,

For she is thrilled therefore;

Nor he that pays not, for he says

Within She’s worth no more.

Is there then no kind of men

Whom I may freely prove?

I will vent that humour then

In mine own self-love.

John Donne (1572-1631)

English metaphysical poet

First Love

by John Clare

I ne’er was struck before that hour

With love so sudden and so sweet,

Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower

And stole my heart away complete.

My face turned pale as deadly pale.

My legs refused to walk away,

And when she looked, what could I ail?

My life and all seemed turned to clay.

And then my blood rushed to my face

And took my eyesight quite away,

The trees and bushes round the place

Seemed midnight at noonday.

I could not see a single ting,

Words from my eyes did start-They spoke as chords do from the string,

And blood burnt round my heart.

Are flowers the winter’s choice?

Is love’s bed always snow?

She seemed to hear my silent voice,

Not love’s appeals to know.

I never saw so sweet a face

As that I stood before.

My heart has left its dwelling-place

And can return no more.

BRIGHT STAR

(This verse was found on a separate page between a collection of Shakespeare’s Poems)

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art-

Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night

And watching, with eternal lids apart,

Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite,

The moving waters at their priest-like task

Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores,

Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask

Of snow upon the mountains and the moors-

No– yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,

Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast,

To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,

Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,

Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,

And so live ever-or else swoon to death.

“I own a pitbull that I had rescued from a local shelter. His name is Angus...he is black and sweet, though, since we have owned him, we have had such a hard time of things. Finding a home is one thing. No-one wants to rent to anyone owning a pitbull claiming they can't get insurance to cover for the dog or they don't want the dog there because he is considered vicious. Our loving dogs can't speak for themselves to tell us how much they just want to be accepted and loved and wouldn't harm a flea. We need to be a loud voice for our loved ones, our pets. I would rather live on the streets with my boy, then be in a home without him.”

—Rhonda Paul

From “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran

Let the winds of the heavens dance between you,

Love one another, but make not a bond of love

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls

And stand together yet not too near together,

For the pillars of the temple stand apart,

And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

WITH WARMED HEART

with warmed heart greet the new day ...

with warmed heart wear a fresh smile ...

with warmed heart imagine what you would

like to do and are able to today ...

with warmed heart leave your solitude

and enjoy some time where you would like to be ...

with warmed heart imagine being there

with someone you might desire ...

with warmed heart and wearing your new smile,

say hello to every face that might interest you ...

with warmed heart find some simple way to treat

yourself in public ... and later in private ...

and, as you drift into sleep ...

with warmed heart promise yourself

to do it again ...

that's how dreams come true ...

The Poetic Heart

Love & Friendship

Page 1— Page 2

From Song to Celia

by Ben Jonson

Drink to me only

With thine eyes,

And I will pledge

With mine;

Or leave a kiss but

In the cup

And I’ll not look

For wine.

Under the magnetism

of friendship

the modest man

becomes bold,

the shy, confident.

William M. Thackerary

A happy marriage has in it all the pleasures of friendship, all the enjoyments of sense and reason, and, indeed, all the sweets of life.

- Joseph Addison

"The supreme state of human love is the unity of one soul within two bodies"
- Sri Aurobindo

The Good Morrow

by John Donne

“My face in thine eye, thine in mine appears,

And true plain hearts do the faces rest,

Where can we find two better hemispheres

Without sharp North, without descending West?

Whatever dies, was not mixed equally;

If our two loves be one, or, thou and I

Love so alike, that none do slacken, none can die.”

The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and vile can be transformed, and ( c) doing that makes it that. We waste time looking for the perfect lover, instead of creating the perfect love.

- Tom Robbins

We're the bridge across forever, arching above the sea,
adventuring for our pleasure, living mysteries for the fun of it,
choosing disasters, triumphs, challenges, impossible odds,
testing ourselves over and again,
learning love and love and LOVE!

- Richard Bach (from "The Bridge Across Forever")

This is my beloved and this is my friend.

- Song of Solomon

Great Mystery Publishing

The Poetic Heart

Click here for poetry submission details.

ONE BRIGHT PEARL

I seek you in the crowded streets,

Amid the turmoil of the day,

The secrecy of night,

where feet

Of millions trample on the ways

You went—and where I

follow too,

With one bright Pearl I

bear for you.

The precious jewel that I possess,

I would that somehow I could show

Your eyes; for I must

needs confess,

My heart begins to overflow

When faithless doubt

demands I prove

The one bright Pearl I

bear for you.

Or shall I say that in its orb

We sink forever, in the midst

Of nowhere, that all wealth

is stored,

And poverty, in the abyss

Of all that we have

wandered through?

This one bright Pearl I

bear for you.

Forsake me you cannot, no

Than from your breast

could I, estranged,

Be sundered. Our one

ocean roars

Its epic of incessant

change—

Returns upon itself, yet

broods

The one bright Pearl I

bear for you.

The Logos in the Scriptures taught

That Man was not to live

alone;

And so I seek you as I ought:

Flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone.

See with these eyes,

that you may view

The one bright Pearl I

bear for you.

My Tangled Hair

My tangled hair

I shall not cut,

Your hand, my dearest,

Touched it as a pillow.

Anonymous

Translated from Japanese

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"We say we love flowers, yet we pluck them.
We say we love trees, yet we cut them down.
And people still wonder why some are afraid
when told they are loved!"

- Anonymous