dunia kita: May 2006

XXXIV

NATURE is what we see,
The Hill, the Afternoon—
Squirrel, Eclipse, the Bumble-bee,
Nay—Nature is Heaven.

Nature is what we hear,
The Bobolink, the Sea—
Thunder, the Cricket—
Nay,—Nature is Harmony.

Nature is what we know
But have no art to say,
So impotent our wisdom is
To Her simplicity.

- emily dickinson

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If you can dream it, you can do it.

-Walt Disney

XXXIV

WHO never lost, are unprepared
A coronet to find;
Who never thirsted, flagons
And cooling tamarind.

Who never climbed the weary league—
Can such a foot explore
The purple territories
On Pizarro’s shore?

How many legions overcome?
The emperor will say.
How many colors taken
On Revolution Day?

How many bullets bearest?
The royal scar hast thou?
Angels, write “Promoted”
On this soldier’s brow!

- emily dickinson

XXXII

HOPE is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I ’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

- emily dickinson

XXVII

I'm nobody! Who are you?
Are you nobody, too?
Then there’s a pair of us—don’t tell!
They’d banish us, you know.

How dreary to be somebody!
How public, like a frog
To tell your name the livelong day
To an admiring bog!

- emily dickinson

there but for the grace

it could have happened.
it had to happen.
it happened sooner. later.
nearer. farther.
it happened not to you.

you survived because you were the first.
you survived because you were the last.
because you were alone. because of people.
because you turned left. because you turned right.
because rain fell. because a shadow fell.
because sunny weather prevailed.

luckily there was a wood.
luckily there were not trees.
luckily there was a rail, a hook, a beam, a brake,
a frame, a bend, a milimeter, a second.
luckily a straw was floating on the surface.

thanks to, because, and yet, in spite of.
what would have happened had not a hand, a foot,
by a step, a hairsbreadth
by sheer coincidence.

so you're here? straight from a moment still ajar?
the net had one eyehole, and you got through it?
there's no end to my wonder, my silence.
listen
how fast your heart beats in me.

- wislawa syzmborska

let evening come

let the light of late afternoon
shine through chinks in the barn, moving
up the bales as the sun moves down.

let the cricket take up chafing
as a woman takes up her needles
and her yarn. let evening come.

let dew collect on the hoe abandoned
in the long grass. let the stars appear
and the moon disclose her silver horn.

let the fox go back to its sandy den.
let the wind die down. let the shed
go black inside. let evening come.

to the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop
in the oats, to air in the lung
let evening come.

let it come as it will, and don't
be afraid. god does not leave us
comfortless, so let evening come.

- jane kenyon

I see trees of green, red roses too
I see them bloom for me and you
And I think to myself.. what a wonderful world

I see skies of blue, clouds of white
Bright blessed days, dark sacred nights
And I think to myself.. what a wonderful world

The colors of a rainbow, so pretty in the sky
Are also on the faces of people going by
I see friends shaking hands, saying how do you do
They're really saying I love you

I hear babies cry, I watch them grow
They'll learn much more than I'll never know
And I think to myself.. what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself.. what a wonderful world

- louis armstrong

Worry is a misuse of the imagination.

-Dan Zadra

When we look into our own hearts and begin to discover what is confused and what is brilliant, what is bitter and what is sweet, it isn't just ourselves that we're discovering. We're discovering the universe.

-Pema Chodron