From the Quote of the Week Files, April 18, 2011

"For poems are not, as people think, simply emotions (one has emotions early enough)—they are experiences."

Rainer Maria Rilke

We continue with Poems for our Quote of the Week for April as it is National Poetry Month. Ever wonder what would have happened if you had chosen a different path? Robert Frost did in his poem, The Road Not Taken. Enjoy!

__________

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler,long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Robert Frost
__________

A Recycled Poem of the Week Classic...

Little Things

Little drops of water
Little grains of sand
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land.

Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love,
Make our world an Eden
Like the Heaven above.

Thus the little minutes
Humble though they be
Make the mighty ages
Of eternity.

Julia Carney
_________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

From the Quote of the Week Files, April, 11, 2011

Welcome to the Poem of the Week!

As you know it is National Poetry Month and we are featuring poems instead of the usual quotes. If there is a poem that you have found encouraging, inspiring,or uplifting, email it in and I will create a little Poem of the Week Anthology at the end of the month! (we have a few entries from last week)

This week, I Know Nothing but Miracles by Walt Whitman is the featured poem.

__________

I Know Nothing But Miracles

As for me, I know nothing else but miracles,

Whether I walk the streets of Manhattan,

Or dart my sight over the roofs of houses toward the sky,

Or wade with naked feet along the beach just in the edge of the

water,

Or stand under the trees in the woods,

Or talk by day with any one I love,

Or sleep in bed at night with any one I love,

Or watch honey bees busy around the hive of a summer

forenoon...

Or the wonderfulness of the sundown,

Or of stars shining so quiet and bright,

Or the exquisite delicate thin curve of the new moon in spring...

What stranger miracles are there?

Walt Whitman

__________

A Recycled Quote (Poem) of the Week Classic...

If If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;

If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,

And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breath a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Rudyard Kipling

__________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!

Welcome to the Quote of the Week! Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? (I just found out!) How about we feature poems this month for the Quote of the Week? The first featured poem is You Reading This, Be Ready by William Stafford. Being attentive to the present moment is the theme. Enjoy!
__________

You Reading This, Be Ready

Starting here, what do you want to remember?

How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?

What scent of old wood hovers, what softened

sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world

than the breathing respect that you carry

wherever you go right now? Are you waiting

for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this

new glimpse that you found; carry into evening

all that you want from this day. This interval you spent

reading or hearing this, keep it for life -

What can anyone give you greater than now,

starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

William Stafford

(1914-1993)

__________

A Recycled Quote of the Week Classic...

"Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things, what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit."

William James

________

Wishing you a most beautiful day, wherever this may find you!!!!