If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream- -and not make dreams your master;
......
Old elm that murmured in our chimney top
The sweetest anthem autumn ever made
And into mellow whispering calms would drop
When showers fell on thy many coloured shade
And when dark tempests mimic thunder made -
While darkness came as it would strangle light
With the black tempest of a winter night
That rocked thee like a cradle in thy root -
How did I love to hear the winds upbraid
Thy strength without - while all within was mute.
......
When Mother divorced you, we were glad. She took it and
took it in silence, all those years and then
kicked you out, suddenly, and her
kids loved it. Then you were fired, and we
grinned inside, the way people grinned when
Nixon's helicopter lifted off the South
Lawn for the last time. We were tickled
to think of your office taken away,
your secretaries taken away,
your lunches with three double bourbons,
......
I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.
I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
They don't like the way I pray
And they ban free poetry.
......
In spite of war, in spite of death,
In spite of all man's sufferings,
Something within me laughs and sings
And I must praise with all my breath.
In spite of war, in spite of hate
Lilacs are blooming at my gate,
Tulips are tripping down the path
In spite of war, in spite of wrath.
"Courage!" the morning-glory saith;
"Rejoice!" the daisy murmureth,
......
Something is pulling my leg.
I'm stranded in an ocean, and I've given up my tread.
The depth of the darkness submerges my head.
When I take my last breath, my mind lays to rest.
I kept swimming towards land, but got dragged by the currents.
I kept pursuing Your Word, but got distracted by his deterrents.
I have yet to find yesterday’s best, with hope that tomorrow will never event.
In the beginning it was either "take her or take me”,
But tonight, you'll find me begging to be freed.
......
my one embarrassment; i hate you.
i hate the way even the thought of you made my heart stutter,
the way you made me think life is better as two.
how the thought of that made me misstep, blushing at my blunder.
i hate you wholeheartedly,
even though it hurts a bit to say,
regardless if it was because of something said belatedly,
and that i was the one who had to pay.
......
Agonizing is thee
(as Agonizing is thee without)
Pain in Pain out, Pain all around
(Pain within, lacking without)
Hatred of thee Hatred of me
(Of all the loathing of each other
Greater the loathing of self)
Like the Thorns of a rose is our Love
......
When Letting people,
into your life,
you share your dreams,
and live your lives.
But if you’re brave,
to walk the mile,
you’ve reached success,
and passed the trial.
......
Machete salutations sweat
The rims of blades.
Sparks sprinkle fire-spittle
On the confused breath of hostile fumes
Branded Death.
Brines grow on festered fringes
Dappled with pestle-prints of
Silence,
Yet Death is borne on yawning.
......