Good And Evil Xxii

And one of the elders of the city said, "Speak to us of Good and Evil." And he answered: Of the good in you I can speak, but not of the evil. For what is evil but good tortured by its own hunger and thirst? Verily when good is hungry it seeks food even in dark caves, and when it thirsts, it drinks even of dead waters.

Oh! Flower, I Feel Sorry For You! ! !

I saw a nice little flower… Enjoying herself in the nice warm fields… The place felt fine, what a beautiful sight! ! Why didn't it come yesterday? ! But the joy didn't last long enough…what a pity! ‘Cause the flower was plucked away! ! ! It was no longer there So was the beauty How gloomy the place felt now for sight! ! Why do flowers bloom, if it has to be murdered this way? ?

Alas! This Is Not What I Thought Life Was

Alas! this is not what I thought life was. I knew that there were crimes and evil men, Misery and hate; nor did I hope to pass Untouched by suffering, through the rugged glen. In mine own heart I saw as in a glass The hearts of others ... And when I went among my kind, with triple brass Of calm endurance my weak breast I armed, To bear scorn, fear, and hate, a woful mass!

Douglass

Ah, Douglass, we have fall'n on evil days, Such days as thou, not even thou didst know, When thee, the eyes of that harsh long ago Saw, salient, at the cross of devious ways, And all the country heard thee with amaze. Not ended then, the passionate ebb and flow, The awful tide that battled to and fro; We ride amid a tempest of dispraise. Now, when the waves of swift dissension swarm,

Holocaust

As seen through the eyes of those who witnessed first hand, and liberated the scenes of the Holocaust The rain how it fell; the cadaver smell My eyes transfixed on that pit of Hell, Vapid flesh foul, horrendously bland. But why this carnage, I don’t understand; Retching, gagging, holding back the bile.

Black Stone On Top Of A White Stone

I shall die in Paris, in a rainstorm, On a day I already remember. I shall die in Paris- it does not bother me- Doubtless on a Thursday, like today, in autumn. It shall be a Thursday, because today, Thursday As I put down these lines, I have set my shoulders To the evil. Never like today have I turned, And headed my whole journey to the ways where I am alone.

A Song Of The Degrees

I Rest me with Chinese colours, For I think the glass is evil. II The wind moves above the wheat- With a silver crashing, A thin war of metal. I have known the golden disc,

Another Dark Lady

Think not, because I wonder where you fled, That I would lift a pin to see you there; You may, for me, be prowling anywhere, So long as you show not your little head: No dark and evil story of the dead Would leave you less pernicious or less fair— Not even Lilith, with her famous hair; And Lilith was the devil, I have read. I cannot hate you, for I loved you then.

The Criminal V

A young man of strong body, weakened by hunger, sat on the walker's portion of the street stretching his hand toward all who passed, begging and repeating his hand toward all who passed, begging and repeating the sad song of his defeat in life, while suffering from hunger and from humiliation. When night came, his lips and tongue were parched, while his hand was still as empty as his stomach. He gathered himself and went out from the city, where he sat under a tree and wept bitterly. Then he lifted his puzzled eyes to heaven while hunger was eating his inside, and he said, 'Oh Lord, I went to the rich man and asked for employment, but he turned me away because of my shabbiness; I knocked at the school door, but was forbidden solace because I was empty- handed; I sought any occupation that would give me bread, but all to no avail. In desperation I asked alms, but They worshippers saw me and said 'He is strong and lazy, and he should not beg.'

Villanelle Of Spring Bells

Bells in the town alight with spring converse, with a concordance of new airs make clear the fresh and ancient sound they sing. People emerge from winter to hear them ring, children glitter with mischief and the blind man hears bells in the town alight with spring. Even he on his eyes feels the caressing finger of Persephone, and her voice escaped from tears

Sonnet: Respect

Respect your elders all if they deserve; Respect your servants too who you well serve; Respect your father for tilling the soil; Respect your mother for her love and toil. Respect all teachers who gave you knowledge; Respect your friend who saved you from the ledge; Respect all good minds who advised you good; Respect the man of God who gave soul’s food.

How Many Kisses: To Lesbia

Lesbia, you ask how many kisses of yours would be enough and more to satisfy me. As many as the grains of Libyan sand that lie between hot Jupiter’s oracle, at Ammon, in resin-producing Cyrene, and old Battiades sacred tomb: or as many as the stars, when night is still, gazing down on secret human desires: as many of your kisses kissed are enough, and more, for mad Catullus,

Lesbia's Sparrow

All you Loves and Cupids cry and all you men of feeling my girl's sparrow is dead, my girl's beloved sparrow. She loved him more than herself. He was sweeter than honey, and he knew her, as she knows her mother. He never flew out of her lap, but, hopping about here and there, just chirped to his lady, alone.

Masnawi

In the prologue to the Masnavi Rumi hailed Love and its sweet madness that heals all infirmities, and he exhorted the reader to burst the bonds to silver and gold to be free. The Beloved is all in all and is only veiled by the lover. Rumi identified the first cause of all things as God and considered all second causes subordinate to that. Human minds recognize the second causes, but only prophets perceive the action of the first cause. One story tells of a clever rabbit who warned the lion about another lion and showed the lion his own image in a well, causing him to attack it and drown. After delivering his companions from the tyrannical lion, the rabbit urges them to engage in the more difficult warfare against their own inward lusts. In a debate between trusting God and human exertion, Rumi quoted the prophet Muhammad as saying, "Trust in God, yet tie the camel's leg."8 He also mentioned the adage that the worker is the friend of God; so in trusting in providence one need not neglect to use means. Exerting oneself can be giving thanks for God's blessings; but he asked if fatalism shows gratitude.

The Man Whose Riches Satisfy His Greed

The man whose riches satisfy his greed Is not more rich for all those heaps and hoards Than some poor man who has enough to feed And clothe his corpse with such as God affords. I have no use for men who steal and cheat; The fruit of evil poisons those who eat. Some wicked men are rich, some good men poor, But I would rather trust in what's secure;

Let’s Live And Love: To Lesbia

Let us live, my Lesbia, let us love, and all the words of the old, and so moral, may they be worth less than nothing to us! Suns may set, and suns may rise again: but when our brief light has set, night is one long everlasting sleep. Give me a thousand kisses, a hundred more, another thousand, and another hundred, and, when we’ve counted up the many thousands, confuse them so as not to know them all,

Money

Money is the root of all evil, Money was blessed by the devil, Money, money can kill, Money can cheat, steal… Ask the disbarred lawyer, What this sad creature Can do: It can commit suicide, Money, money can divide, Money is not what you think it is, Having money is not going to put you really at ease,

Chasing The Wind

No matter how hard we tried We couldn't stop their use Despite all that had died By such an evil abuse. They wouldn't read the facts They said we were all wrong So they continue their evil acts As they sing the same old song.

We Know This Much

We know this much Death is an evil; we have the gods' word for it; they too would die if death were a good thing

Bahnhofstrasse

The eyes that mock me sign the way Whereto I pass at eve of day. Grey way whose violet signals are The trysting and the twining star. Ah star of evil! star of pain! Highhearted youth comes not again Nor old heart's wisdom yet to know