Skip to content
BOL Conferences
Learn More - Click Here!

Thread Options
#145264 - 01/02/04 09:47 PM Poet's Corner
Paragon Offline
Diamond Poster
Paragon
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 2,164
The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living
I want to know what you ache for
and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are
I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool
for love
for your dreams
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon...
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow
if you have been opened by life's betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your
fingers and toes
without cautioning us to
be careful
be realistic
to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand on the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
"Yes."

It doesn't interest me
to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after a night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the center of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like the company you keep
in the empty moments.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer



Return to Top
#145265 - 01/05/04 03:19 PM Re: Poet's Corner
Paragon Offline
Diamond Poster
Paragon
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 2,164
And If I Did Not Make Mistakes


And if I did not make mistakes
And give too brief a thought to heavy questions
And too much time to little matter;
Or if I always knew which road to travel
Where every step would lead me into daylight
And if each face that turned to watch me pass
Was broken by a smile;
Or if whenever I should choose to lay my heart
Bare upon the sun-warmed grass,
It always was returned with tender touches
And carried by a song;
And if my heaviest burden were only to be
A breeze upon my back, and blossom in my hair,
And my brow was never crossed with lines of pain;
If all this endless summer were my lot
And winter's fury never beat me back,
Then I never would have seen the stormy nights
Through which I've struggled, fought and won;
I never would have known the joy of needed comfort given,
Or the essence of a friend.

Katie Paton

Return to Top
#145266 - 01/05/04 08:29 PM Re: Poet's Corner
Anonymous
Unregistered

It Couldn't Be Done

Somebody said it couldn't be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldn't", but he would be one
Who wouldn't say so til he tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
on his face. If he worried, he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
that couldn't be done and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you'll never do that;
"At least no one ever has done it";
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
and the first thing we knew, he'd begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldn't be done and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophacy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
That "cannot be done", and you'll do it!

Edgar Guest

Now, if that's not a compliance officer's poem, I don't know what is>

Return to Top
#145267 - 01/05/04 09:03 PM Re: Poet's Corner
Anonymous
Unregistered

Sorry, I can't resist posting another of my favorites considering the appropriateness of the season just past:

A Merry Literary Christmas

When Christmas shopping time draws nigh,
and I am faced with gifts to buy,
I think about one relative
who always had one gift to give.
Year after year her present came,
and every year it was the same.
While other gifts were round and fat,
(their secrets hidden) hers were flat,
rectangular, the corners square,
I knew exactly what was there.
I'd pass it by without a look-
My aunt had sent another book!
I'd only open it to write
a "thank-you" that was too polite.
But every year when Christmas went
I'd read the book my aunt had sent,
And looking back, I realize
Each gift was treasure in disquise.
So now it's time to write her here
A thank you note that is sincere.

So-thanks for Alice and Sara Crewe,
For Christopher Robin and Piglet and Pooh,
For Little Nell and William Tell
and Peter and Wendy and Tinker Bell.
Thanks for Tom and Jim and Huck,
for Robinson Crusoe and Dab-Dab the duck,
For Meg and Jo and Johnny Crow
and Papa Geppetto's Pinocchio.

For Mary Poppins and Rat and Toad,
King Arthur and Dorothy's Yellow Brick Road,
For Kipling's Kim and tales from Grimm,
and Ferdinand, Babar, and Tiny Tim.

I loved them all, I'm glad I met them.
They're with me still, I won't forget them.
So I'll give books on Christmas Day
Though I know what all my nieces say-
I know it from the way they write
A "thank-you" that is too polite.

Alice Low

Return to Top

Moderator:  Andy_Z, John Burnett