< 25 >
— Coffee Invented —
Coffee plants were in the desert first seen,
By a starving outcast, who ate the bean—
And found it bitter, hard; so, boiled some, tart,
Finding that the water was the better part.
< 26 >
— Coffee Resented —
Such, from asylum, he returned home, quaint,
And for his coffee was declared a saint,
Though its drinkers were despised by clerics—
The partakers dallied over their cups!
< 27 >
— Unheard From —
Don’t let life’s noise bother you, day and night—
Find some secret place, far from the spotlight,
Where silence can’t be drowned, where you can hear
The voice of your inner chorus singing outright.
< 28 >
— Sanctifier —
My soul to solitude does oft retire
When the noise of life sets my nerves on fire.
There the rhythmic songs of nature inspire—
I sense the vibrance of my inner choir.
< 29 >
— Best Friend —
Dear solitude, who with silence does blend
Quietly, to let all my thoughts ascend:
With you I’m alone but never lonely,
For I am my own best and loving friend.
< 30 >
— Recipe —
Sunbeams, breezes, dewdrops everywhere,
Nature, love, friends, sensation, adventure—
We have it all—four elements are there:
Life’s a mix of earth, fire, water and air.
< 31 >
— Grateful Prayer —
My blood runs warm with the sun’s heat at noon.
My spirit is swept by the swelling moon.
Air surrounds me. The ocean flows through me.
Earth’s rhythm is always playing my tune.
< 32 >
— Balance —
Not quite sober blessed nor drunk to excess,
Never too foolish nor very reckless—
Oh, one’s passion is so reasonable
In this delicate state of awareness.
< 33 >
— The Union Begets All —
There’s a subtle, interlinked complexity of
Life, a relation that unites the world in love—
The earth is our mother, sustaining from below;
The sky is our father, nourishing from above.
< 34 >
— A Word’s Girth —
I notice here, a great pittance and dearth
Of words that rhyme with our beloved ‘Earth’;
So, aside from mirth, how can poems give birth
To all that life on this planet is worth?
< 35 >
— Sum of the Parts —
Life must be more like a mosaic done,
Than a focused laser tunnel of sun.
Since few lengthy pleasures are lent to us,
We build a stained-glass window of small ones.