Favourite poems and quotes!

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Pel
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Joined: June 4th, 2011, 9:40 pm

Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by Pel »

Peace everyone. Some of my favorite poems and quotes are from Rumi: They are the following: Choose Love

Because of the beloved my heart is happy, my soul illuminated.

From the beloved’s greenery hundreds of blessed rivers are flowing to the rose gardens.

In order to enter into your rose garden, the soul makes peace with thethorns.

Choose love. Choose love. Without this beautifullove,life is nothingbuta burden.

And : I sipped some of love's sweet wine, and now I am ill. My body aches, my fever is high. They called in the doctor and he said, drink this tea! Ok, time to drink this tea. Hesaid,Take these pills! Ok, time to take these pills. The doctor said, And get rid of thesweetwineof love's lips! Ok, time to get rid of the doctor.

Some of my favorite quotes are. Wound isw here light enters. ByRumi.

And. I can't stay loyal to my prinfiples, my family, friends and my country all at thesame time( I can't remember who said this. If you Google integrity quotes you might find it)

And my favorite quote/saying of all is:

Quran 42:43 And for he who is patient and forgives, that is an indication of strenght.

What are yours?

Thanks
My real name is Ervin.
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Hypedupturtle
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Favorite Philosopher: John Berger + Nietzsche +Jung

Re: Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by Hypedupturtle »

Poem? Hmm, I like Emily Dickinson's "This World is not Conclusion" (poem 501)

This World is not Conclusion.
A Species stands beyond—
Invisible, as Music—
But positive, as Sound—
It beckons, and it baffles—
Philosophy—don't know—
And through a Riddle, at the last—
Sagacity, must go—
To guess it, puzzles scholars—
To gain it, Men have borne
Contempt of Generations
And Crucifixion, shown—
Faith slips—and laughs, and rallies—
Blushes, if any see—
Plucks at a twig of Evidence—
And asks a Vane, the way—
Much Gesture, from the Pulpit—
Strong Hallelujahs roll—
Narcotics cannot still the Tooth
That nibbles at the soul—


Also Emily Bronte's "The Night Wind"

In summer's mellow midnight
A cloudless moon shone through
Our open parlour window
And rosetrees wet with dew

I sat in silent musing
The soft wind waved my hair;
It told me Heaven was glorious
And sleeping Earth was fair

I needed not its breathing
To bring such thoughts to me,
But still it whispered lowly
"How dark the woods will be!

"The thick leaves in my murmur
Are rustling like a dream,
And all their myriad voices
Instinct with spirit seem."

I said "Go, gentle singer
Thy wooing voice is kind
But do not think its music
Has power to reach my mind

"Play with the scented flower,
The young tree's supple bough
And leave my human feelings
In their own course to flow."

The Wanderer would not leave me;
Its kiss grew warmer still
"O come", it sighed so sweetly,
"I'll win thee 'gainst thy will."

"Have we not been from childhood friends?
Have I not loved thee long?
As long as though hast loved the night
Whose silence wakes my song.

"And when thy heart is resting
Beneath the churchyard stone
I shall have time for mourning
And thou for being alone."


Lyrics to "All Souls Night" by Loreena McKennit. Sorry about the constant enjambment - I haven't an original copy and hold it in too high a regard to second-guess whether/how Loreena meant her lines to be end-stopped.

Bonfire dot the rolling hillsides
Figures dance around and around
To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness
Moving to the pagan sound.

Somewhere in a hidden memory
Images float before my eyes
Of fragrant nights of straw and of bonfires
And dancing till the next sunrise.

I can see the lights in the distance
Trembling in the dark cloak of night
Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing
A waltz on All Souls Night.

Figures of cornstalks bend in the shadows
Held up tall as the flames leap high
The green knight holds the holly bush
To mark where the old year passes by.

I can see the lights in the distance
Trembling in the dark cloak of night
Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing
A waltz on All Souls Night.

Bonfires dot the rolling hillsides
Figures dance around and around
To drums that pulse out echoes of darkness
Moving to the pagan sound.

Standing on the bridge that crosses
The river that goes out to the sea
The wind is full of a thousand voices
They pass by the bridge and me.

I can see the lights in the distance
Trembling in the dark cloak of night
Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing
A waltz on All Souls Night.


Also, "Skellig" by the same artist:

O light the candle, John
The daylight has almost gone
The birds have sung their last
The bells call all to mass
Sit here by my side
For the night is very long
There's something I must tell
Before I pass along.

I joined the brotherhood
My books were all to me
I scribed the words of God
And much of history
Many a year was I
Perched out upon the sea
The waves would wash my tears
The wind, my memory.

I'd hear the ocean breathe
Exhale upon the shore
I knew the tempest's blood
Its wrath I would endure
And so the years went by
Within my rocky cell
With only a mouse or bird
My friend; I loved them well.

And so it came to pass
I'd come here to Romani
And many a year it took
Till I arrived here with thee
On dusty roads I walked
And over mountains high
Through rivers running deep
Beneath the endless sky.

Beneath these jasmine flowers
Amidst these cypress trees
I give you now my books
And all their mysteries
Now take the hourglass
And turn it on its head
For when the sands are still
'Tis then you'll find me dead.

O light the candle, John
The daylight has almost gone
The birds have sung their last
The bells call all to mass.


And of course, a personal favourite by Lord Byron:

I would I were a careless child,
Still dwelling in my Highland cave,
Or roaming through the dusky wild,
Or bounding o'er the dark blue wave;
The cumbrous pomp of Saxon pride
Accords not with the freeborn soul,
Which loves the mountain's craggy side,
And seeks the rocks where billows roll.

Fortune! take back these cultured lands,
Take back this name of splendid sound!
I hate the touch of servile hands,
I hate the slaves that cringe around.
Place me among the rocks I love,
Which sound to Ocean's wildest roar;
I ask but this - again to rove
Through scenes my youth hath known before.
Few are my years, and yet I feel
The world was ne'er designed for me:
Ah! why do dark'ning shades conceal
The hour when man must cease to be?
Once I beheld a splendid dream,
A visionary scene of bliss:
Truth! - wherefore did thy hated beam
Awake me to a world like this?

I loves - but those I love are gone;
Had friends - my early friends are fled:
How cheerless feels the heart alone,
When all its former hopes are dead!
Though gay companions o'er the bowl
Dispel awhile the sense of ill'
Though pleasure stirs the maddening soul,
The heart - the heart - is lonely still.

How dull! to hear the voice of those
Whom rank or chance, whom wealth or power,
Have made, though neither friends nor foes,
Associates of the festive hour.
Give me again a faithful few,
In years and feelings still the same,
And I will fly the midnight crew,
Where boist'rous joy is but a name.

And woman, lovely woman! thou,
My hope, my comforter, my all!
How cold must be my bosom now,
When e'en thy smiles begin to pall!
Without a sigh would I resign
This busy scene of splendid woe,
To make that calm contentment mine,
Which virtue know, or seems to know.

Fain would I fly the haunts of men -
I seek to shun, not hate mankind;
My breast requires the sullen glen,
Whose gloom may suit a darken'd mind.
Oh! that to me the wings were given
Which bear the turtle to her nest!
Then would I cleave the vault of heaven,
To flee away, and be at rest.


I also very much love "To Autumn" by Keats, and a lot of obscure Irish poetry :)
Pel
Posts: 102
Joined: June 4th, 2011, 9:40 pm

Re: Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by Pel »

Good stuff hperdupturtle, just a bit long.
My real name is Ervin.
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PaulNZ
Posts: 595
Joined: January 27th, 2011, 3:56 pm
Favorite Philosopher: Marcus Aurelius

Re: Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by PaulNZ »

This is one I live my life by:

Marge, don't discourage the boy! Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals! Except the weasel.

Homer Simpson


PaulNZ :wink:
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Rasonus
Posts: 26
Joined: January 28th, 2010, 4:32 am
Favorite Philosopher: Socrates

Re: Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by Rasonus »

"It's all crazy. You have to go crazy."

Flea on the music industry.
I do not like what I can't articulate
Pel
Posts: 102
Joined: June 4th, 2011, 9:40 pm

Re: Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by Pel »

Peace. Here is another good poem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbWUEzCh39I

Enjoy

Thanks
My real name is Ervin.
Nick_A
Posts: 3364
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:45 pm

Re: Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by Nick_A »

Hello Pei

I find the depth within this excerpt both awe inspiring and enlightening:

“The sea is not less beautiful to our eye because we know that sometimes ships sink in it. On the contrary, it is more beautiful still. If the sea modified the movement of its waves to spare a boat, it would be a being possessing discernment and choice, and not this fluid that is perfectly obedient to all external pressures. It is this perfect obedience that is its beauty.” “All the horrors that are produced in this world are like the folds imprinted on the waves by gravity. This is why they contain beauty. Sometimes a poem, like the Iliad, renders this beauty.” “Man can never escape obedience to God. A creature cannot not obey. The only choice offered to man as an intelligent and free creature, is to desire obedience or not to desire it. If he does not desire it, he perpetually obeys nevertheless, as a thing subject to mechanical necessity. If he does desire obedience, he remains subject to mechanical necessity, but a new necessity is added on, a necessity constituted by the laws that are proper to supernatural things. Certain actions become impossible for him, while others happen through him, sometimes despite him.” Excerpt from: Thoughts without order concerning the love of God, in an essay entitled L'amour de Dieu et le malheur (The Love of God and affliction). Simone Weil
Man would like to be an egoist and cannot. This is the most striking characteristic of his wretchedness and the source of his greatness." Simone Weil....Gravity and Grace
Pel
Posts: 102
Joined: June 4th, 2011, 9:40 pm

Re: Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by Pel »

Nick_A wrote:Hello Pei

I find the depth within this excerpt both awe inspiring and enlightening:

“The sea is not less beautiful to our eye because we know that sometimes ships sink in it. On the contrary, it is more beautiful still. If the sea modified the movement of its waves to spare a boat, it would be a being possessing discernment and choice, and not this fluid that is perfectly obedient to all external pressures. It is this perfect obedience that is its beauty.” “All the horrors that are produced in this world are like the folds imprinted on the waves by gravity. This is why they contain beauty. Sometimes a poem, like the Iliad, renders this beauty.” “Man can never escape obedience to God. A creature cannot not obey. The only choice offered to man as an intelligent and free creature, is to desire obedience or not to desire it. If he does not desire it, he perpetually obeys nevertheless, as a thing subject to mechanical necessity. If he does desire obedience, he remains subject to mechanical necessity, but a new necessity is added on, a necessity constituted by the laws that are proper to supernatural things. Certain actions become impossible for him, while others happen through him, sometimes despite him.” Excerpt from: Thoughts without order concerning the love of God, in an essay entitled L'amour de Dieu et le malheur (The Love of God and affliction). Simone Weil
Peace. Thats nice Nick. May I ask what philosophy or religion do you belong to or what's the closest one or a combination of them?

Thanks
My real name is Ervin.
Nick_A
Posts: 3364
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:45 pm

Re: Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by Nick_A »

Pel wrote:
Nick_A wrote:Hello Pei

I find the depth within this excerpt both awe inspiring and enlightening:

“The sea is not less beautiful to our eye because we know that sometimes ships sink in it. On the contrary, it is more beautiful still. If the sea modified the movement of its waves to spare a boat, it would be a being possessing discernment and choice, and not this fluid that is perfectly obedient to all external pressures. It is this perfect obedience that is its beauty.” “All the horrors that are produced in this world are like the folds imprinted on the waves by gravity. This is why they contain beauty. Sometimes a poem, like the Iliad, renders this beauty.” “Man can never escape obedience to God. A creature cannot not obey. The only choice offered to man as an intelligent and free creature, is to desire obedience or not to desire it. If he does not desire it, he perpetually obeys nevertheless, as a thing subject to mechanical necessity. If he does desire obedience, he remains subject to mechanical necessity, but a new necessity is added on, a necessity constituted by the laws that are proper to supernatural things. Certain actions become impossible for him, while others happen through him, sometimes despite him.” Excerpt from: Thoughts without order concerning the love of God, in an essay entitled L'amour de Dieu et le malheur (The Love of God and affliction). Simone Weil
Peace. Thats nice Nick. May I ask what philosophy or religion do you belong to or what's the closest one or a combination of them?

Thanks
I resonate with the perennial tradition of esoteric Christianity. Along with the universal skeleton offered by Panentheism, it offers answers to the questions I've always had concerning universal meaning and purpose and and Man's place within these levels of reality that comprise the skeleton. It explains to me why everything is as it is which without it, I never could understand.

http://www.hermes-press.com/esoteric_christianity.htm

Peace to you as well
Man would like to be an egoist and cannot. This is the most striking characteristic of his wretchedness and the source of his greatness." Simone Weil....Gravity and Grace
Pel
Posts: 102
Joined: June 4th, 2011, 9:40 pm

Re: Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by Pel »

Nick_A wrote:
Pel wrote: Peace. Thats nice Nick. May I ask what philosophy or religion do you belong to or what's the closest one or a combination of them?

Thanks
I resonate with the perennial tradition of esoteric Christianity. Along with the universal skeleton offered by Panentheism, it offers answers to the questions I've always had concerning universal meaning and purpose and and Man's place within these levels of reality that comprise the skeleton. It explains to me why everything is as it is which without it, I never could understand.

http://www.hermes-press.com/esoteric_christianity.htm

Peace to you as well
Peace. So you are to Christianity what sufis ate to Islam. Am I right. And how do you like my poems and quoted?

Thanks
My real name is Ervin.
Nick_A
Posts: 3364
Joined: April 19th, 2009, 11:45 pm

Re: Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by Nick_A »

Hi Pel. You asked: "Peace. So you are to Christianity what sufis are to Islam. Am I right. And how do you like my poems and quoted?

Very true IMO. I must admit I find the poetry a bit sugary but I do respect Rumi. I've learned that the word love as with the word art has become degraded so perhaps I overreact to it.

An ancestor of mine was a good artist. I remember being at an exhibition where one of his paintings was featured. As I was taking it in, two sufi's were there and noticed my interest. Since it features "light" we started speaking of the meaning of "light." After a while they suggested going to lunch in the museum cafeteria. We were able to share a great deal.

It seemed odd that we should be talking of things only a few would be interested in instead of prefering to kill each other in wars. The concept of Christianity has a different quality of meaning depending upon whether one means the exoteric, esoteric, or transcendent level of reality. But how many recognize this distinction?

Frithjof_Schuon is a Sufi who understands levels of reality and the idea that religion manifests that corresponds to each level of quality

http://www.monasticdialog.com/a.php?id=151
Man would like to be an egoist and cannot. This is the most striking characteristic of his wretchedness and the source of his greatness." Simone Weil....Gravity and Grace
Lorenzo
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Re: Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by Lorenzo »

There are no facts, only interpretations - Friedrich Nietzsche
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Doolhoofd
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Re: Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by Doolhoofd »

Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of them are stupider than that.
- George Carlin
Blazing Donkey
Posts: 329
Joined: December 25th, 2012, 3:52 pm
Favorite Philosopher: Voltaire

Poems

Post by Blazing Donkey »

Note: Due to the formatting of this particular forum software, until someone else posts another poem here, I'm afraid this post will go endlessly. My apologies for the length; there is nothing I can do about it.

-----


Juliek's Violin by Michael Blumenthal

"Was it not dangerous to allow your vigilance to fail, even for a moment, when at any minute death could pounce on you? I was thinking of this when I heard the sound of a violin, in this dark shed, where the dead were heaped on the living. What madman could be playing the violin here, at the bring of his own grave? It must have been Juliek... The whole of his life was gliding on the strings: his lost hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future. He played as he would never play again." -- Elie Wiesel, Night

"Ahnest Du den Schopfer, Welt?" ("World, do you feel the Maker near?") -- Schiller, Ode To Joy

In the dank halls of Buchenwald,
a man is playing his life.

It is only a fragment from Beethoven--
soft, melodic, ephemeral as the sleep
of butterflies, or the nightmares of an infant,
but tonight it is his life.

In one hand, he holds the instrument,
resonant with potential. In the other,
the fate of the instrument: hairs
of a young horse strung between wood,
as the skin of a lampshade is strung between wood.

The bow glides over the strings, at first,
with the grace of a young girl brushing her hair.
Then, suddenly, Juliek leans forward
on his low stool. His knees begin to quiver,
and the damp chamber fills with a voice
like the voice of a nightingale.

Outside, the last sliver of light
weaves through the fence. A blackbird
preens its feathers on the lawn as if
to the music, and a young child watches
from the yard, naked and questioning.

But, like Schiller crying out
Ahnest Du den Schopfer, Welt,
Juliek plays on.

And the children,
as if in answer,
burn.

-- Updated Sat Dec 29, 2012 4:20 am to add the following --

The Substitute by Leslie Adrienne Miller

We knew only that she was too pretty
for 8th grade English, and that she'd had
a baby, but never a husband.
This gave us every right to moral outrage
and meanness. Somebody passed a note:
Nobody answer her, and we knew how
this worked, how the girls who swelled
a bit at the waist and took on that pale,
stricken look became invisible to us
soon after. Too pretty, too willing.
We wondered how the school could have missed
what we knew. This one with her great sheaf
of blonde hair bound in a silk scarf,
her hips and stomach returned to maiden
slimness did not fool us. We knew
the threads of story caught from the mouths
of mothers over the fence at the Country Club Pool,
whispers and glances when she came back
in the first bikini we'd seen on a woman,
and this only months after. No good, was all
my father said when I asked about the man
who left her. She was ours then,
for three weeks and a whole unit
of grammar. Simple choice: was/were,
she/her. We all looked out the window
at the mown hill, the adult world
driving down the afternoon; we traced
the hoops and lines of our games to keep
from looking into her eyes. Charlie
blew an obscene pink bubble, Shawn popped
her knuckles, and Kitty let go a whole
set of colored pencils. Somebody passing
in the hall squished their nose on the door
glass, and the substitute threw her hair
back over her shoulder like a heavy brocade.
Chester panted, Pete squirmed and banged
the locks of his spine down the chair back.
She couldn't go to the principal,
she couldn't single out the intractable ones,
so she huffed, rolled her blue queen's eyes,
and answered the questions herself,
looking out above us somewhere,
and taking the tail of hair back
into her hands again and again: lie/lay,
she/her, he/him, while the chalk dust
gathere in pilars of sunlight: ride/
rode/ridden
-- We worked at our picture
of the man, swarthy, animal-eyed, possibly
astride a motorcycle, cruelly muscled, steaming
bare chest. Scum, I thought, as I snuck
peeks at her creamy skin, the svelte navy skirt
she couldn't have worn when it happened.
I drew horses on all my notebooks,
topping them with girls who filled
their hands with streaks of mane,
blissful, reckless, while the substitute
went on invoking correct pronouns,
agreeing verbs, and we/us, I/me
dismantled her, her breasts, her lover,
her speckled scarves and dainty feet,
whatever we could conceive of her sex,
and carried it away in doodles, reveries,
silence, to the great cache of our rich
and dangerous unknowing.

Like Deer Our Bodies by Wayne Dodd

All the way home the ground
Fog rises and swirls

Around us, snow turning to air
As we breath, as we drive

This familiar road
Back through February

Home. Houses, whole hillsides of
Trees bulk beside us, seen

Only in memory.
Like deer our bodies,

Silent together in secret
Grass, do not

Speak but dream
Still, beneath the hovering

Cold, of food
And ease among friends. Soon

Together we will sleep one more
Our separate lives. And when

Tomorrow at first light we
Wake, each

Branch and blade on
Peach Ridge Road will flash

New ice: fog
Remembered, fog saved.

-- Updated Sun Dec 30, 2012 5:34 pm to add the following --

Test.
No man is an island, but if you tie a bunch of dead guys together they make a pretty good raft.
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Ezio Anon
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Re: Favourite poems and quotes!

Post by Ezio Anon »

I am enjoying the previous poems. I have not actually heard of some of them before, so they have been a good read.

One of my favourite quotes was from my Late Grandfather. He used to say 'You can always change your mind, but you can't always change your trousers' I also Love the quote by Marcus Aurelius 'The best revenge is to be unlike your enemy'

As far as poems go my favourite Poem is probably one by Alredd Noyes called The Highwayman. I think I first heard it as a 9 or 10 year old at school, and for some reason it really had an affect on me. I'd be interested to see what others think of it. (Sorry I could not format it in the way it should be, I hope it still comes across well)


The Highwayman

The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees. The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas. The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, And the highwayman came riding— Riding—riding— The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

He’d a French cocked-hat on his forehead, a bunch of lace at his chin, A coat of the claret velvet, and breeches of brown doe-skin. They fitted with never a wrinkle. His boots were up to the thigh. And he rode with a jewelled twinkle, His pistol butts a-twinkle, His rapier hilt a-twinkle, under the jewelled sky.

Over the cobbles he clattered and clashed in the dark inn-yard. He tapped with his whip on the shutters, but all was locked and barred. He whistled a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter, Bess, the landlord’s daughter, Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.

And dark in the dark old inn-yard a stable-wicket creaked Where Tim the ostler listened. His face was white and peaked. His eyes were hollows of madness, his hair like mouldy hay, But he loved the landlord’s daughter, The landlord’s red-lipped daughter. Dumb as a dog he listened, and he heard the robber say—

“One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I’m after a prize to-night, But I shall be back with the yellow gold before the morning light; Yet, if they press me sharply, and harry me through the day, Then look for me by moonlight, Watch for me by moonlight, I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way.”

He rose upright in the stirrups. He scarce could reach her hand, But she loosened her hair in the casement. His face burnt like a brand As the black cascade of perfume came tumbling over his breast; And he kissed its waves in the moonlight, (O, sweet black waves in the moonlight!) Then he tugged at his rein in the moonlight, and galloped away to the west.

PART TWO

He did not come in the dawning. He did not come at noon; And out of the tawny sunset, before the rise of the moon, When the road was a gypsy’s ribbon, looping the purple moor, A red-coat troop came marching— Marching—marching— King George’s men came marching, up to the old inn-door.

They said no word to the landlord. They drank his ale instead. But they gagged his daughter, and bound her, to the foot of her narrow bed. Two of them knelt at her casement, with muskets at their side! There was death at every window; And hell at one dark window; For Bess could see, through her casement, the road that he would ride.

They had tied her up to attention, with many a sniggering jest. They had bound a musket beside her, with the muzzle beneath her breast! “Now, keep good watch!” and they kissed her. She heard the doomed man say— Look for me by moonlight; Watch for me by moonlight; I’ll come to thee by moonlight, though hell should bar the way!

She twisted her hands behind her; but all the knots held good! She writhed her hands till her fingers were wet with sweat or blood! They stretched and strained in the darkness, and the hours crawled by like years Till, now, on the stroke of midnight, Cold, on the stroke of midnight, The tip of one finger touched it! The trigger at least was hers!

The tip of one finger touched it. She strove no more for the rest. Up, she stood up to attention, with the muzzle beneath her breast. She would not risk their hearing; she would not strive again; For the road lay bare in the moonlight; Blank and bare in the moonlight; And the blood of her veins, in the moonlight, throbbed to her love’s refrain.

Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot! Had they heard it? The horsehoofs ringing clear; Tlot-tlot; tlot-tlot, in the distance? Were they deaf that they did not hear? Down the ribbon of moonlight, over the brow of the hill, The highwayman came riding— Riding—riding— The red coats looked to their priming! She stood up, straight and still.

Tlot-tlot, in the frosty silence! Tlot-tlot, in the echoing night! Nearer he came and nearer. Her face was like a light. Her eyes grew wide for a moment; she drew one last deep breath, Then her finger moved in the moonlight, Her musket shattered the moonlight, Shattered her breast in the moonlight and warned him—with her death.

He turned. He spurred to the west; he did not know who stood Bowed, with her head o’er the musket, drenched with her own blood! Not till the dawn he heard it, and his face grew grey to hear How Bess, the landlord’s daughter, The landlord’s black-eyed daughter, Had watched for her love in the moonlight, and died in the darkness there.

Back, he spurred like a madman, shouting a curse to the sky, With the white road smoking behind him and his rapier brandished high. Blood red were his spurs in the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat; When they shot him down on the highway, Down like a dog on the highway, And he lay in his blood on the highway, with a bunch of lace at his throat.

. . .

And still of a winter’s night, they say, when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas, When the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, A highwayman comes riding— Riding—riding— A highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn-door.

Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn-yard. He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred. He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there But the landlord’s black-eyed daughter, Bess, the landlord’s daughter, Plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair.
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January 2023

Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul

Mark Victor Hansen, Relentless: Wisdom Behind the Incomparable Chicken Soup for the Soul
by Mitzi Perdue
February 2023

Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness

Rediscovering the Wisdom of Human Nature: How Civilization Destroys Happiness
by Chet Shupe
March 2023

The Unfakeable Code®

The Unfakeable Code®
by Tony Jeton Selimi
April 2023

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
by Alan Watts
May 2023

Killing Abel

Killing Abel
by Michael Tieman
June 2023

Reconfigurement: Reconfiguring Your Life at Any Stage and Planning Ahead

Reconfigurement: Reconfiguring Your Life at Any Stage and Planning Ahead
by E. Alan Fleischauer
July 2023

First Survivor: The Impossible Childhood Cancer Breakthrough

First Survivor: The Impossible Childhood Cancer Breakthrough
by Mark Unger
August 2023

Predictably Irrational

Predictably Irrational
by Dan Ariely
September 2023

Artwords

Artwords
by Beatriz M. Robles
November 2023

Fireproof Happiness: Extinguishing Anxiety & Igniting Hope

Fireproof Happiness: Extinguishing Anxiety & Igniting Hope
by Dr. Randy Ross
December 2023

Beyond the Golden Door: Seeing the American Dream Through an Immigrant's Eyes

Beyond the Golden Door: Seeing the American Dream Through an Immigrant's Eyes
by Ali Master
February 2024

2022 Philosophy Books of the Month

Emotional Intelligence At Work

Emotional Intelligence At Work
by Richard M Contino & Penelope J Holt
January 2022

Free Will, Do You Have It?

Free Will, Do You Have It?
by Albertus Kral
February 2022

My Enemy in Vietnam

My Enemy in Vietnam
by Billy Springer
March 2022

2X2 on the Ark

2X2 on the Ark
by Mary J Giuffra, PhD
April 2022

The Maestro Monologue

The Maestro Monologue
by Rob White
May 2022

What Makes America Great

What Makes America Great
by Bob Dowell
June 2022

The Truth Is Beyond Belief!

The Truth Is Beyond Belief!
by Jerry Durr
July 2022

Living in Color

Living in Color
by Mike Murphy
August 2022 (tentative)

The Not So Great American Novel

The Not So Great American Novel
by James E Doucette
September 2022

Mary Jane Whiteley Coggeshall, Hicksite Quaker, Iowa/National Suffragette And Her Speeches

Mary Jane Whiteley Coggeshall, Hicksite Quaker, Iowa/National Suffragette And Her Speeches
by John N. (Jake) Ferris
October 2022

In It Together: The Beautiful Struggle Uniting Us All

In It Together: The Beautiful Struggle Uniting Us All
by Eckhart Aurelius Hughes
November 2022

The Smartest Person in the Room: The Root Cause and New Solution for Cybersecurity

The Smartest Person in the Room
by Christian Espinosa
December 2022

2021 Philosophy Books of the Month

The Biblical Clock: The Untold Secrets Linking the Universe and Humanity with God's Plan

The Biblical Clock
by Daniel Friedmann
March 2021

Wilderness Cry: A Scientific and Philosophical Approach to Understanding God and the Universe

Wilderness Cry
by Dr. Hilary L Hunt M.D.
April 2021

Fear Not, Dream Big, & Execute: Tools To Spark Your Dream And Ignite Your Follow-Through

Fear Not, Dream Big, & Execute
by Jeff Meyer
May 2021

Surviving the Business of Healthcare: Knowledge is Power

Surviving the Business of Healthcare
by Barbara Galutia Regis M.S. PA-C
June 2021

Winning the War on Cancer: The Epic Journey Towards a Natural Cure

Winning the War on Cancer
by Sylvie Beljanski
July 2021

Defining Moments of a Free Man from a Black Stream

Defining Moments of a Free Man from a Black Stream
by Dr Frank L Douglas
August 2021

If Life Stinks, Get Your Head Outta Your Buts

If Life Stinks, Get Your Head Outta Your Buts
by Mark L. Wdowiak
September 2021

The Preppers Medical Handbook

The Preppers Medical Handbook
by Dr. William W Forgey M.D.
October 2021

Natural Relief for Anxiety and Stress: A Practical Guide

Natural Relief for Anxiety and Stress
by Dr. Gustavo Kinrys, MD
November 2021

Dream For Peace: An Ambassador Memoir

Dream For Peace
by Dr. Ghoulem Berrah
December 2021