QUOTES COMPETITION--Kahlil Gibran

Thank you for this competition. I found it inspiring immediately. I am indeed a fan of his work. My favourite quote of his is " Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."  


Under The Rainbow

If not for our vulnerability
inexplainable solice
and deathly self-inflicted

silence


in candle lit rooms
hovels and
heartless homes

We'd have nothing to
shout
at the world
If the world
had no need to
listen

But they come with money
we need it
The money burst into
tears
crying
howling pain
falling to
dry hard ground

The book screamed
in murderous tones
as it felt the first
cut in
it's legs
from vibrating motors
and lubricated chains

Here we stand
I give you three
crying notes
You put a howling book
into a plastic packet

The bag
muzzled sounds
of family life
painted by a
ladybird

in hope


-x-

Umbilical

The cousins of our home, the trees
Have man to thank upon their knees
For over time destroying all
That trees were guarding from the fall.

Of how they kept the history
From turning into mystery
Within the rings their bodies stored,
The loss of which we can't afford.

Despite the treasure trove of trees,
The high rise place for birds & bees,
The gentle giants' ev'ry breath
Gives humans life instead of death.

But human kind since biblical
Have long cut the umbilical.
For idol gods & sacrifice
Man laid them waste for war & vice.

Though often living side by side
While giving food & rest abide,
So few would heed their company.
Instead gave in to gluttony.

So where has wanton gotten us:
Less need, less greed, superfluous?
And always poets write of loss,
Of lonely lives that pay the cost.

Greatest Fires

Where are the poems I've yet to write
the ones in ether between the worlds?
look to the sky to find their source
in nature's grasp the words will show
I'll walk to woods to find the spark
the muse says seek there for the fount
it is not what you would expect
when you’re inspired by nature’s breadth.

The paths below the trees are broad
passage shorn by human kind
by cut of blade and stamp of feet
made to ease the travels there
though it seems the moment blinks
waiting for the men to leave
before the tracks are taken back
by the artists high over head.

The turn of seasons colors them
in brilliant colors or tame green
sometimes to strip them bare
of paint them with white stain
these banners shame mortal men
with variation none can replace
the crooked lines are God's madness
made fully sane in woodland glade.

These silent sentries hold their circles
embracing change pressed in the sky
by the sun that promotes growth
or pall of gloom when all is mute
the rings proclaim the pass of years
speaking of the boom and bust
through all these the tall survive
until their time when they die.

The stanzas written defy count
each moment fated to longhand's gap
once unfolded they retreat
replaced by vistas more complete
ten thousand books are just a start
to spaces needed to capture all
beneath the canopy of nature's church.

This was my vision on that path
now held tight in twilight's grasp
for sun had set while I mused
seeing sights beyond myself
I stand too mute in dim response
unable to echo just small part
meager crumbs compared to the feast
of these masters of tall repute.

These true poets writing life
humbled me in my reproach
retreating to the four walls
made full straight by man's hands
there I scribble on phantom skin
come from the masters of the glens
asking for some small spark
embers from the greatest fires.

Trees

We build with it
we clean with it
we walk on it
and eat on it
we read on it
and burn it
but first
we kill it

green....


the moon, the skies
these distant things
that have our eyes
 
we should adjust our gaze
end our unjust ways
limited are our final days
 
look around focus down
or in the earth's wrath
we will drown
 
technology proud
egotistic and loud
our nature to over-crowd
 
toxic pollution
no action towards solution
the food chain needs
a new revolution
 
for all these years
earth met life's every need
but it can't keep up
with human greed
we'll graze it down
to the very last seed

On Love and Marriages

seek not the shackles that bind
the fingers in golden circles
should hearts be wild yet
and seek the taste of nectar
on the buds foreign

lead not your hopes for faith
love giving and fidelity
when tears still stroll unheeded
in raw wounds cut of yesterdays

should love be professed
let there be space in your togetherness
stand together yet not too near together
for space between need air for breathing

be yourself for yourself  and in  honesty
to others, it satisfy all without pain
nor allow the question be asked
by the green eyed monster

for unto marriage a vow made
to have and to hold and forsake
all others in your arms and heart
yet respectfully allow silent companionship

for your home is your palace
as the Pillars of the temple stand apart
bearing the weight and holding it up
so do you as together as intertwined twins.

*the Italics are borrowed from Khalil Gibran*

Grampa's Bible

From seed of thought
Planted in my conscience
During formidable years of my delicate youth
Spent balanced precariously on the strengths
Of his knee
My seat of knowledge
From a book bound in tattered leather
Worn by ages of eager hands
Who thumbed its pages with reverent turn
It grew into the manna
That fueled my conviction
My fruit of life that gave spirit to principle
And with each days reading God passed to me with quiet hands my daily bread