Long Poems on Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be not the slave of your own past - plunge into the sublime seas,
dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-
respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that  
 shall explain and overlook the old.”    
    
                      ― Ralph Waldo Emerson    
   
   
Don't fear the deep;    
it is what you fear that    
will ultimately free you.    
It might be full of sharks,    
but you learn to avoid them.    
It might be dark, but in this    
your vision will improve.    ...

The men that find such beauty when it’s theirs,    
Each one expects his sum for all he owns.   
To walk and pace and call it forth by name,   
While noting of each feature like his child.  
Purveyors of the land on others’ backs,   
These owners of the gullies, woods and vales.   
The arteries that give drink to the fields,  
Of long and winding rows so straightly plowed.  
   
Corrections overseen by foreman’s hand,
Where script allots the hedge and masonry.  
That show ahead where every tree will stand,   
No curvature...