heart

Slow and Reluctant Was the Long Descent

Gill Washington Dreams, George Santayana, Nature, Poems, Spirituality , , , 0 Comment

By George Santayana

SLOW and reluctant was the long descent,
With many farewell pious looks behind,
And dumb misgivings where the path might wind,
And questionings of nature, as I went.
The greener branches that above me bent,
The broadening valleys, quieted by mind,
To the fair reasons of the Spring inclined
And to the Summer’s tender argument.
But sometimes, as revolving night descended,
And in my childish heart the new song ended,
I lay down, full of longing, on the steep;
And, haunting still the lonely way I wended, childish,
Into my dreams the ancient sorrow blended,
And with these holy echoes charmed my sleep.

Read more poems from George Santayana

Index of poets on Allspirit

 

I Would I Might Forget That I am I

Gill Washington George Santayana, I Am, Poems, Spirituality , , , 0 Comment

By George Santayana

I would I might forget that I am I,
And break the heavy chain that binds me fast,
Whose links about myself my deeds have cast.
What in the body’s tomb doth buried lie
Is boundless; ’tis the spirit of the sky,
Lord of the future, guardian of the past,
And soon must forth, to know his own at last.
In his large life to live, I fain would die.
Happy the dumb beast, hungering for food,
But calling not his suffering his own;
Blessed the angel, gazing on all good,
But knowing not he sits upon a throne;
Wretched the mortal, pondering his mood,
And doomed to know his aching heart alone.

Read more poems from George Santayana

Index of poets on Allspirit

 

Premonition

Gill Washington George Santayana, Nature, Poems, Spirituality , , , , 0 Comment

By George Santayana

The muffled syllables that Nature speaks
Fill us with deeper longing for her word;
She hides a meaning that the spirit seeks,
She makes a sweeter music than is heard.

A hidden light illumines all our seeing,
An unknown love enchants our solitude.
We feel and know that from the depths of being
Exhales an infinite, a perfect good.

Though the heart wear the garment of its sorrow
And be not happy like a naked star,
Yet from the thought of peace some peace we borrow,
Some rapture from the rapture felt afar.

Our heart strings are too coarse for Nature’s fingers
Deftly to quicken as she pulses on,
And the harsh tremor that among them lingers
Will into sweeter silence die anon.

We catch the broken prelude and suggestion
Of things unuttered, needing to be sung;
We know the burden of them, and their question
Lies heavy on the heart, nor finds a tongue.

Till haply, lightning through the storm of ages,
Our sullen secret flash from sky to sky,
Glowing in some diviner poet’s pages
And swelling into rapture from this sigh.

Read more poems from George Santayana

Index of poets on Allspirit

 

0 World, thou choosest not

Gill Washington Faith, George Santayana, Poems, Spirituality, Wisdom , , , , 0 Comment

 

By George Santayana

O World, thou choosest not the better part!
It’s not wisdom to be only wise –
And on the inward vision close the eyes,
But it is wisdom to believe the heart.
Columbus found a world, and had no chart,
Save one that faith deciphered in the skies;
To trust the soul’s invincible surmise
Was all his science and his only art.
~ Our knowledge is a torch of smoky pine
That lights the pathway but one step ahead
Across a void of mystery and dread.
Bid, then, the tender light of faith to shine
By which alone the mortal heart is led
Unto the thinking of the thought divine.

Read more poems from George Santayana

Index of poets on Allspirit

 

The Lovers

Gill Washington Love, Poems, Rumi, Spirituality, Sufism , , , , , , 0 Comment

By Rumi

The Lovers
will drink wine night and day.
They will drink until they can
tear away the veils of intellect and
melt away the layers of shame and modesty.
When in Love,
body, mind, heart and soul don’t even exist.
Become this,
fall in Love,
and you will not be separated again.

From: Hush Don’t Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi
Translated by Sharam Shiva

Read more poems from Rumi

Index of poets on Allspirit

Only You

Gill Washington Desire, Faith, Poems, Rumi, Spirituality, Sufism , , , 0 Comment

By Rumi

Only you
I choose among the entire world.
Is it fair of you
letting me be unhappy?

My heart is a pen in your hand.
It is all up to you
to write me happy or sad.

I see only what you reveal
and live as you say.
All my feelings have the color
you desire to paint.

From the beginning to the end,
no one but you.

Please make my future
better than the past.

When you hide I change
to a Godless person,
and when you appear,
I find my faith.

Don’t expect to find
any more in me
than what you give.

Don’t search for
hidden pockets because
I’ve shown you that
all I have is all you gave.

Translated by Nader Khalili

Read more poems from Rumi

Index of poets on Allspirit

 

Cradle My Heart

Gill Washington Poems, Rumi, Spirituality, Sufism , , , , 0 Comment

By Rumi

Last night,
I was lying on the rooftop,
thinking of you.
I saw a special Star,
and summoned her to take you a message.
I prostrated myself to the Star
and asked her to take my prostration
to that Sun of Tabriz.
So that with his light, he can turn
my dark stones into gold.
I opened my chest and showed her my scars,
I told her to bring me news
of my bloodthirsty Lover.
As I waited,
I paced back and forth,
until the child of my heart became quiet.
The child slept, as if I were rocking his cradle.
Oh Beloved, give milk to the infant of the heart,
and don’t hold us from our turning.
You have cared for hundreds,
don’t let it stop with me now.
At the end, the town of unity is the place for the heart.
Why do you keep this bewildered heart
in the town of dissolution?
I have gone speechless, but to rid myself
of this dry mood,
oh Saaqhi, pass the narcissus of the wine.

From: Hush Don’t Say Anything to God: Passionate Poems of Rumi,

Translated by Sharam Shiva

Read more poems from Rumi

Index of poets on Allspirit