peace

Dreamland

Gill Washington Christina Rossetti, Poems, Spirituality , , , 0 Comment

By Christina Rossetti

Where sunless rivers weep
Their waves into the deep,
She sleeps a charmed sleep:
Awake her not.
Led by a single star,
She came from very far
To seek where shadows are
Her pleasant lot.
She left the rosy morn,
She left the fields of corn,
For twilight cold and lorn
And water springs.
Through sleep, as through a veil,
She sees the sky look pale,
And hears the nightingale
That sadly sings.
Rest, rest, a perfect rest
Shed over brow and breast;
Her face is toward the west,
The purple land.
She cannot see the grain
Ripening on hill and plain;
She cannot feel the rain
Upon her hand.
Rest, rest, for evermore
Upon a mossy shore;
Rest, rest at the heart’s core
Till time shall cease:
Sleep that no pain shall wake;
Night that no morn shall break
Till joy shall overtake
Her perfect peace.

Read more poems from Christina Rossetti

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The Secret of Perfect Relationships

Gill Washington Guy Finley, Poems , , , 0 Comment

 

Guy Finley

The less we learn to long for — or depend upon —
Special understanding from others,

The less we will suffer for not receiving this.

The less we suffer over what others

Seem incapable of giving to us,

The less unhappy will we find ourselves

In these unanswered moments of our lives

Spent in the company of friends and foes alike.

The less pain we have over what life appears to deny us,

The more at peace we naturally become with ourselves.

The more of this serenity we grow to know within ourselves,

The easier it becomes for us to give to others

This harmony founded in our New Understanding.

Whenever we give others this new order of Understanding

Without asking for anything in return,

Those we greet with this Gift are silently touched; they are moved

By this willingness to put their concerns before our own.

And it is this one action that awakens in them . . .

Their sleeping need to respond in kind.

Happiness is the wholeness found in conscious kindness.

This is the secret of perfect relationships.

 

How Clear She Shines!

Gill Washington Emily Bronte, Poems , , 0 Comment

 

Emily Bronte

How clear she shines! How quietly
I lie beneath her guardian light;
While heaven and earth are whispering me,
“To morrow, wake, but dream to-night.”

Yes, Fancy, come, my Fairy love!
These throbbing temples softly kiss;
And bend my lonely couch above,
And bring me rest, and bring me bliss.

The world is going; dark world, adieu!
Grim world, conceal thee till the day;
The heart thou canst not all subdue
Must still resist, if thou delay!

Thy love I will not, will not share;
Thy hatred only wakes a smile;
Thy griefs may wound–thy wrongs may tear,
But, oh, thy lies shall ne’er beguile!

While gazing on the stars that glow
Above me, in that stormless sea,
I long to hope that all the woe
Creation knows, is held in thee!

And this shall be my dream to-night;
I’ll think the heaven of glorious spheres
Is rolling on its course of light
In endless bliss, through endless years;

I’ll think, there’s not one world above,
Far as these straining eyes can see,
Where Wisdom ever laughed at Love,
Or Virtue crouched to Infamy;

Where, writhing ‘neath the strokes of Fate,
The mangled wretch was forced to smile;
To match his patience ‘gainst her hate,
His heart rebellious all the while.

Where Pleasure still will lead to wrong,
And helpless Reason warn in vain;
And Truth is weak, and Treachery strong;
And Joy the surest path to Pain;

And Peace, the lethargy of Grief;
And Hope, a phantom of the soul;
And life, a labour, void and brief;
And Death, the despot of the whole!