Adesola Oladoja writes

The Little Bird

Your song,

Your glee

Where has it gone?

The you of yesteryears

Oozed giant drops

Tapped joyful tears

From our rivulets

But then you left our nest and garden

You've been gone for just a season

Was it the terrain that chided you

Or innocuous smiles of us?

Was it the climes, maybe the times?

For now we see you no more

Yes, you returned

But not the you

We parted with

For your song now sags our ears

Melancholy trails it

Hostility smells within your mile

It's lucid to the blind

O little bird

I love you so

But change your change with haste

For we still listen to your songs

Though it hurts our ears

Sunah Kim writes

Laurie Kuntz writes

Monday's vacant 

park bench

glistens

Daipayan Nair writes

TWO PHASES
----------------

(Fantasy)

When dawn serves caffeine warm
I offer notes of life
to souls reading death.

When noon serves carbonates chilled
I gather ice from canopies wild
teasing the stagnant breath.

(Reality)

When dusk comes saree clad
I stare sadly at my path to return
unlike some
whose life just seems to begin.

When night comes
I am just a fleshless feather
perched alone
unlike the lively skins.

Adesola Oladoja writes

My Fear

Let he who is

Sinless

Cast a stone first

We run from the truth

The truth we know

We know will bring the light

Why?

I do not cringe at failure

I've been in its mire

I have arisen a better me

I do not fear my flaws

I've known the strength

Of their weakness

I do not fear defeat

I've seen the victory therein

Which no ephemerality could behold

This is what I fear

That I'll one day run away

And dodge as soon as I hear

The footsteps of

My truth

The truth I so preach

Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox paints

Cosmic Ouroboros

Oil on linen 120 x 150 cm http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/cosmic-ouroboros.html

Laurie Kuntz writes

I don't know the flowers' names

that persist

on blooming

William H. Drummond writes

You Taught Me

Somewhere from deep mem’ry’s rivers
Comes a face that’s all smile and bright eyes
And a laugh that sends echoes of shivers
It’s a laugh that will brook no disguise
And the joy that’s alive in that laughter
Is a joy that I find at my core
And I know, although many years after
That you planted it there for evermore

Chorus:
You taught me how to laugh
You taught me how to cry
You taught me how to live
You taught me how to die

And those rivers of mem’ry are swollen
By the tears that flow without restraint
So much pain that my life is near stolen
And regret for my sins makes me faint
But you taught me that pain can bring healing
That we all make mistakes and do wrong
To forgive brings a marvelous feeling
And that what doesn’t kill makes you strong

Chorus:
You taught me how to laugh
You taught me how to cry
You taught me how to live
You taught me how to die

On the river of life we are drifting
With its storms and its eddies and shoals
Hidden traps, waterfalls, sandbars shifting
That prevent us from reaching our goals
But you showed that no matter the weather
Or the obstacles we must evade
That we float on the river together
And to live means to give others aid

Chorus:
You taught me how to laugh
You taught me how to cry
You taught me how to live
You taught me how to die

Now I see in the distance the ocean
And it’s dark and it’s deep and it’s gray
And I feel irresistible motion
And the river gets shorter each day
But I fear not the mystery looming
Nor the end of the river so near
For the joy you have taught me is blooming
And such joy overcomes every fear

Chorus:
You taught me how to laugh
You taught me how to cry
You taught me how to live
You taught me how to die

Abel Iseyen Ancientman

REMEMBERING BABEL

O when I think of the world before Babel
My eyes drips with rivers of tears...

That world was free from insanity,
Poverty and discriminations.
It was pure, even more purer than the springs -
Which revive the dying plants.
It was undefiled like the seventh heaven.
That world was a snow;
Serene, with no room for Lucifer's chicanery.
It was peaceful like mares.
It was as beautiful as the colours of the rainbow
Which kisses the smiling sky in seasons.
That world was devoid of pain and sorrow,
With bonds among friends growing stronger every passing day.
It was the period of bellies going to beds in good moods,
Without swords
Nor spears
Nor guns
Nor bombs reducing its population.
That world was marriage made in heaven,
With love guiding every single deed.
That world had no Hitler
Nor religion
Nor philosophies.
It was flawless,
Infallible,
And spotless.
It was a world devoid of sounds of cries beneath dark huts.
It was a world where mothers never buried their offspring.
Comrades, such a time, the earth still yearns for it.
Then came Babel,
Such a significant structure it was;
Borne out of humans' talents and philosophies.
It was indeed a beautiful curse.
Then suddenly things fell out of shape.
Unified tongues suddenly generated diverse languages.
Bonds among brothers loosened.
Love turned cold.
Eyes no longer saw the back.
Discriminations became the order of the day.
Diverse skins no longer mingled.
Love died!
Then science bred Hitlers,
Hitlers in return invented reasons to kill.
Peace disappeared.
So we became ingordigious  monsters,
with no distinctions between us and animals.

So the world became too small for us,
With territorial wars claiming souls like rabid infernos.

But if you happen to see those who built Babel,
Tell them that they have done us more evil than good.
Tell them that the burden they placed
On us is beyond our weight.
Please tell them, yes,
When you come across them,
That they should turn back the hands of time.



M. C. Escher

Ajarn Wu Hsih writes

" Nondual-dual-nondual Tree of Life"

The tree of life grows

From beginninglessness to endlessness.

Its root grows from Infinity.

Its tip extending to Infinity.

There are branches,

There are leaves,

There are flowers,

There are fruits,

But there is only One 

Nondual-dual-nondual Tree!

And so, there are palpable prominences

Of falling leaves,

Of drying flowers,

Of rottening fruits,

Of falling branches;

Fuelling the flame

Of embered desires,

Of greed.

Leaving only ashes of vanity.

Until comes the regeneration 

Of the Seed.

The budding of evergreen leaves.

Bearing flowers of hope

And fruits of deliverance

By The One who uttered,

"BE!"

And it is.