The Laws of God, The Laws of Man

The laws of God, the laws of man
    He may keep that will and can
Not I: Let God and man decree
    Laws for themselves and not for me;

And if my ways are not as theirs
    Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and most condemn
    Yet when did I make laws for them?

Please yourselves, Say I, and they
    Need only look the other way.
But no, they will not; they must still
    Wrest their neighbor to their will,

And make me dance as they desire
    With jail and gallows and hellfire
And how am I to face the odds
    Of man's bedevilment and God's?

I, a stranger and afraid
    In a world I never made
They will be master, right or wrong;
    Though, both are foolish, both are strong

And since, my soul, we cannot flee
    To Saturn or to Mercury
Keep we must, If we can
    These foreign laws of God and man.


A.E. Housman

Peace

Peace,

Sometimes a distant dream, sometimes a whole new revolution, and when I seek it within me, I see a new evolution.

How often I hear this word; each day new voices conjure new thoughts, new meanings and sometimes new definitions.

Of what people, what colour and which tongue does war speak?

War, it knows no country, no colour, only of hatred, misinterpretations and wrongs it reeks.

Peace begins with me, my inner self rising to new heights of truth and understanding,

It makes me surrender my fears, the unwanted obligations and worldly issues slowly disbanding.

When I be at peace with my own self, I realise, I appreciate, I respond and I achieve more each passing day,

Than just pondering aimlessly over disagreements with me, with people around me and everything that comes my way.

I become the sunshine, the silver lining in a bleak gloomy afternoon,

For my heart and my mind to hope and to acceptance, I can effortlessly attune.

When with me I agree, when with myself I needn’t strive,

I am better at comprehending others and I feel more alive.

There are times when we need to just listen, but how can we with a prejudiced mind?

But when I am at peace with me, new solutions each thought unwinds.

I harmonise with the world around me better, I have faith and belief to bring a better change,

I work towards it with fervour for I have the power to transform even the strange.

I am happy and content; I become more than just a voice,

I am able to bring people closer; I am able to give others a choice.

What is contained in me, is what around me I will radiate,

Sometimes with a tiny smile at an unknown passerby, sometimes with a reason to laugh with friends and sometimes with a little kindness, a fraction of the misery around me, I abate.

I know and I know enough that once upon a time,

There was a world we dream of, a world soothing and sublime.

When I reflect on how this perfect world could be,

I know unless I am at peace with myself and the world, it won’t be at peace with me.

undone......

Finding solace in somber beings,

Words, thoughts, dreams conjure new meanings. 

The world around is filled with mindless chatter, 

unpoised, uncertain, unreasonable clatter.

But within the noise, within their soul, looks for meaning who? i wonder!

So loosely bound, such shallow ties,

a thought so empty, so often reprised.

Truth and illusion cross their lines,

smudge and smear and together entwine.

So hard to tell one from another, but who has time to stop and ponder!

The day is gone, the night follows fast,

and what is there that will truly last?

You and me are for a moment here,

and tomorrow we are nothing, but earth and air.

So it ends, just as it began, how soon for i had just been born!

And now to me this vacuum speaks,

And now i sing of a haunting bleak,

The shadows are now clear in sight,

and now i smile and look at my flickering light.

So soon undone, i barely was, no time to know, no time to mourn!

the first flight

The little bird gathers up all courage, 

It stands alone and when within the fears forage,

The strength to brave the winds and soar above,

To the clouds and wind it then makes love.

It is born winged,

But is scared and hinged,

And then as the gentle breeze welcomes its first flight,

It looks up and prays to that eternal light,

And leaps away into the arms of self belief,

And then nothing can stop that beautiful leap.

It flies, yes flies higher and higher away,

To a kingdom where night merges with the day.

No earthly boundations caging its dream,

Just miles and miles of open realms.

But when the flight is done,

When all the races have been run,

When the world spins into a circle complete,

When Apollo grudgingly drags away his fleet,

When the day falls drowsily into the arms of night,

When suddenly stars burst out into the sky and blink bright,

The little bird doth head back home,

For only there it can learn and not be alone.

The sky might be its territory,

The flight its dream and victory,

But if it never comes down, how will it see,

What heights it reached, what bird it can be,

The bird who sings or the bird that flies,

But surely a bird that with this world has ties.

i might be a bird that flies high,

soars into the infinity of the sky,

but not a bird that loses its sight,

But one that finds its way back home each night. 

Memory

A veiled vision comes to me,
perhaps a remnant of some reverie,

a silent tear breaks away,

like shadows branching from the day.

A tiny smile floats for a while,

and memories flood a mile.

Memory is an amazing thing,

it makes us laugh it makes us cry,

we close our eyes and watch,

as it slowly passes by.

We choose each day and each day we fight,

but little to us is known,

it is this choice that keeps us alive

even when we are gone.