Bare Foot Truth by Benjamin Volkov ‘Nicolaievitch’

 Bare Foot Truth

***W***

I stuck my board down in the sand

A guy came up and shook my hand

I saw he didn’t own his shoes

His feet would go just where he planned

***H***

We talked a while and all he told

The things he knew both new and old

Of things that men can often lose

And how a heart and mind run cold

***E***

He slapped my board then walked away

I asked him why he couldn’t stay

He smiled and said “I got one fuse”

But what he meant I couldn’t say

***T***

I watched him as he turned and walked

I thanked him as some others mocked

They might have thought he was some ruse

But truth was in the way he talked

***H***

He’s gone now but still in my mind

I hear his words ‘just seek and find’

But was he just some common muse?

Or can truth still be deeper mined

***E***

I stuck my board back in the sand

Just hoping I could understand

The wisdom covered in tattoos

With weathered skin so deeply tanned

***R***

And when I finally walked away

I had the urge to wait and stay

But some things come in fading hues

If there was more I’d have to pay

***End***

Benjamin Volkov ‘Nicolaievitch’ (that wanderingly vague last name)

Casabianca" by Felicia Hemans (1793 - 1835)

 

Casabianca ^{1}

The boy stood on the burning deck
  Whence all but he had fled;
The flame that lit the battle's wreck
  Shone round him o'er the dead.

Yet beautiful and bright he stood,
  As born to rule the storm;
A creature of heroic blood,
  A proud, though child-like form.

The flames rolled on–he would not go
  Without his Father's word;
That father, faint in death below,
  His voice no longer heard.

He called aloud–'say, Father, say
  If yet my task is done?'
He knew not that the chieftain lay
  Unconscious of his son.

'Speak, father!' once again he cried,
  'If I may yet be gone!'
And but the booming shots replied,
  And fast the flames rolled on.

Upon his brow he felt their breath,
  And in his waving hair,
And looked from that lone post of death
  In still yet brave despair.

And shouted but once more aloud,
  'My father! must I stay?'
While o'er him fast, through sail and shroud,
  The wreathing fires made way.

They wrapt the ship in splendour wild,
  They caught the flag on high,
And streamed above the gallant child,
  Like banners in the sky.

There came a burst of thunder sound–
   The boy–oh! where was he?
Ask of the winds that far around
  With fragments strewed the sea!–

With mast, and helm, and pennon fair,
  That well had borne their part–
But the noblest thing which perished there
  Was that young faithful heart.

Notes:

1. Young Casabianca, a boy about thirteen years old, son of the admiral of the Orient, remained at his post (in the Battle of the Nile), after the ship had taken fire, and all the guns had been abandoned; and perished in the explosion of the vessel, when the flames had reached the powder.

Hedonism ii

 

I love my love by Arthur Clark Kennedy

  I Love My Love

I love my Love because my Love loves me.
Ah! that she did so as I'd fain be loved
With love by which the mountains may be moved,
Uprooted and cast in the midmost sea.

Such love surpassing, deep and broad and high,
O'ershadowing all things else in earth, in heaven,
Love unalloyed at morn, at noon, at even,
Love unalloyed when darkness holds the sky.

A Love that overcometh and will prove
Itself through storm and sunshine, frost and fire;
A Love which naught can change, which naught
⁠can tire,
Even Death's self can not destroy such love.

​So, Sweet, let me set seal upon your mouth
And lie within your arms' encircling fold,
Gaze in your eyes, and in their depth behold
Twin starry loves whilst all the balmy South

Gives up her richest spices in your breath,
When heart tumultuously doth beat on heart,
The while our spirits mingle ne'er to part
Wholly again, though earthly ties by Death

Are severed, 'tis but for a time, and then
Our spirits will commingle and commune,
Each with the other strung to Love's one tune
And the sweet memories of what has been.

For past and present still to us belong,
To you and I, dear Love, then wherefore waste
Thoughts on the unknown future, rather taste
The sweets of life and do not call it wrong

To be too happy. Let us therefore cast
An offering to the Gods like those of eld
Strove to appease the Deity who held
The compensating balances. And last,

When this life's cup is drunken to the lees,
Leaving its after-taste upon your tongue,
You yet will kiss my lips with lips unwrung
By bitterness regretful. On my knees

​I pray you, Sweetheart, to be wise in time.
You cannot change the Ethiop's dusky skin!
The leopard's spots! So leave him with his sin
Ere his contagion drags you through more slime.

The false God whom you worshipp'd shall lie dead,
His groves hewn down, his altar overthrown;
Peace, happiness, and love shall be your own,
Three golden halos hung above your head.

For you have eaten of the tree of life
After the tree of knowledge, and shall live
Another life, and all the past shall give
Its blackness up, its sorrow, sin, and strife,

To form a background for the fair "to be,"
Which we'll embroider with love's golden skein
The story of your past, of false love slain
And true love shrined upon its memory.

The past shall be a dream; you will awake
And wonder could such things have ever been.
Your scars of slavery which now are green
Shall be no more. You will arise and take

Within your grasp that fellow hand which Fate
At length has guided to its destined end.
We grope the whole world round until we bend
Our steps predoom'd through Love's celestial gate.

Love me

 

[i Carry Your Heart With Me(i Carry It In] E.E. CummingsBy E.E. Cummings

[i Carry Your Heart With Me(i Carry It In]

By E.E. Cummings More E.E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
                                                      i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

E.E. Cummings. "[i Carry Your Heart With Me(i Carry It In]." Family Friend Poems, 2006. https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/i-carry-your-heart-with-me-by-ee-cummings  

Narnia