Quatrain Corner

[Turtle]

let us story days gone by

and courses past thereby;

let us strike the drum and sing

of wing beats on the fly

:Glasses:

[Turtle]

flying fastly for flung fish,

whying wastly wore wrung wish.

drying dastly drawer dung dish,

cheesing chastly chore chung chish.

:Glasses:

[Turtle]

whisht covert treasure this pome hold?

something winsome; something bold?

what orby's, drip's, or tarant's mold;

to go about the days?

:Glasses:

[Tarantism]

digging through sand

an ancient architecture found

crossing the bridge

with four crossed lines proceeding

[Tarantism]

bring forth the light that guides our stumbling feet

towards the obelisk of remaining light

liquid color shines obsidian walls

north now we ride towards a technicolor sunset

[Turtle]

who knew the pollen tube;

afore the light of micro scope?

who knew the phallic dance;

afore the dark of night had broke?

:Glasses:

[Sci]

< 0 >

— The Poetic Form —

 

The verses beat the same, in measured chime;

Lines one-two set the stage, one-two-four rhyme.

Verse three’s the pivot around which thought turns;

Line four delivers the sting—just in time.

 

 

< 1 >

— Whens —

 

Life is a web of whos, whys, whats, and hows,

Stretched in time between eternal boughs.

Gossamer threads hold the beads that glisten,

Each minute a sequence of instant nows.

 

< 2 >

— A Question of Life or Death —

 

Since death is a certain fate on the Earth,

One might ask: How shall I live my worth?

Stay busy living—or you’ll be dying.

The answer please: There’s life after birth!

 

< 3 >

— Distant Promise —

 

To future columns we stretch our present row,

By a lifeline of tenuously spun vow.

Oh how soon the weighted web begins to fail—

The only real time under our feet is NOW.

 

< 4 >

— Pity the Poor Sultan —

 

Where the river runs, far from Sultan’s throne,

We live by the stream-side, just us alone.

We’ve found the perfect equilibrium:

Poor but rich, home yet free, great but unknown.

 

< 5 >

— Thought Experiment —

 

Hence old or sick, you might regret or pine,

Giving all to have back some better time;

Now you are young and fine, so, be glad, smile—

Ne’er again will you live this life of thine.

 

< 6 >

— The Fluttering Songbird of Youth —

 

The child in us was warm, playful, and bold,

But vanished, ere we knew, leaving us cold.

Now this we know: The day we stop being

Playful is the day we start to get old.

 

< 7 >

— Self-Less —

 

When younger, I knew not my elder same,

But, when older, I told my younger same

That youth must be young—he knew not my name!

It was my younger self that was to blame.

 

< 8 >

— Queen for a Day —

 

A rose’s prime lasts for but an hour of morn—

Flowering and free, then fragile and forlorn,

The petals float to earth, and there signify

That beauty’s past, for all that’s left is the thorn.

 

< 9 >

— About Time —

 

At last we retrieve the wingèd hours,

Those that drudges stole and overpowered:

Hours gentle and mild, like cleansing showers

That fill the cup and freshen the flowers.

 

< 10 >

— The Facts of Life —

 

Fresh winds make love to the blossoms of May;

The spring flowers reach for the light of day.

Drinking deep droughts of life’s sunny delight,

The fields burst with the joy of love’s bouquet.

[edit]

The Poet Seers → Rumi's Poetry → Ghazal 314

 

Ghazal 314

 

You who are not kept anxiously awake for love's sake, sleep on.

 

In restless search for that river, we hurry along;

you whose heart such anxiety has not disturbed, sleep on.

 

Love's place is out beyond the many separate sects;

since you love choosing and excluding, sleep on.

 

Love's dawn cup is our sunrise, his dusk our supper;

you whose longing is for sweets and whose passion is for supper, sleep on.

 

In search of the philosopher's stone, we are melting like copper;

you whose philosopher's stone is cushion and pillow, sleep on.

 

I have abandoned hope for my brain and head; you who wish for

a clear head and fresh brain, sleep on.

 

I have torn speech like a tattered robe and let words go;

you who are still dressed in your clothes, sleep on.

 

 

Translated by Jack Marshall

Arabian Nights Coffeehouse Press, October 1986

 

The Poet Seers → Rumi's Poetry → Ghazal 314

[edit]

hi again here cos i

am in a timespace

internet

forums

loop

[edit]

like at haj

dust to dust...

Tsela` (Hebrew) A rib, side;

a quarter of the heavens;

a part or division

padme`

and..

 

Exploring KhayyâmَPrincipally devoted to the understanding and enjoyment of quatrains attributed to Omar Khayyâm

 

Quatrain 32

Thursday Print Article

 

Oh, threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!

One thing at least is certain—This Life flies;

One thing is certain and the rest is Lies;

The flower that once has blown for ever dies.

FitzGerald, stanza 63, 5th ed.

(FG has italicized 'This' in line 2)

 

I refer viewers to Quatrain 12 of this weblog where I have presented the quatrain-source for this stanza, O 35 = Dashti 17, Saidi 88, Hedayat 47, Whinfield 107. Here is the stanza in FitzGerald's first edition, which he revised in the second edition of 1868 (stanza 66 there) to read as above in this 2nd and in subsequent editions:

 

Oh, come with old Khayyam and leave the Wise

To talk: one thing is certain, that Life flies.

One thing is certain and the rest is Lies;

The flower that once has blown for ever dies.

FitzGerald, Stanza 26, 1st edition

 

Here is the source (O 35 -- also in Calcutta according to Heron-Allen, 97 and Arberry 208)

 

می خور که به زیرگِل بسی خواهی خفت

 

بی مونس و بی حریف و بی همدم و جفت

 

زنهار به کس مگو تو این راز نهفت

 

هر لاله که پژمرد نخواهد بشکفت

(under quatrain 12, I credited Dashti 17, p. 247)

 

may khor ke be zir-e gel basi khaahi khoft

bi munes o bi harif o bi hamdam o joft

zenhaar be kas magu to in raaz-e nehoft

har laale ke pezhmord nakhaahad beshkoft

 

Drink wine! long must you sleep within the tomb,

Without a friend, or wife to cheer your gloom;

Hear what I say, and tell it not again,

"Never again can withered tulips bloom."

Whinfield, quatrain 107

 

Ah, drink! Beneath the earth you shall be lain,

Without friend, mate or spouse you shall remain --

This hidden mystery to none explain:

The tulip withered won't its bloom regain!

Saidi, quatrain 88

 

This quatrain above (and quatrain 12 in this weblog), which appeared in both of FitzGerald's sources, likely inspired the last two lines of FitzGerald's stanza; the first two lines apparently inspired part, if not the whole, of the following stanza (see Heron-Allen, pp. 41 and 97).

 

Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend,

Before we too into the Dust descend;

Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie

Sans Wine, sans Song, sans Singer, and -- sans End!

FitzGerald, stanza 24, 5th edition

 

What was FitzGerald's inspiration for the first two lines of stanza 26, 1st edition and stanza 63 of the remaining editions after the 1868 edition? Arberry, 208: "FitzGerald supplied the greater part of this stanza out of the general context of Omar's poems." FitzGerald's muse, which must have appeared to him in his walks where he worked out his versfication, can I think be credited with the first two lines, better for the revision of 1868.

 

btw... from wikipedia - hajj ...Ihram is the name given to the special state in which Muslims live while on the pilgrimage.

....while in theosophy

Hierophant [from Greek hierophantes from hieros sacred + phainein to show] A revealer of sacred mysteries; title given to the highest adepts in the temples of antiquity, who taught and expounded the Mysteries. The attributes of a hierophant were those of Hermes or Mercury, being both expounder and mystagog or conductor of souls. In Hebrew an equivalent is found in the hierarchy of the 'elohim. Many names of man-gods refer to archaic hierophants, such as Orpheus, Enoch, etc. The hierophants of ancient Egypt handed down the sacred teachings, some of which were, however, lost by the deaths of hierophants before they had completed their message because, due to the degeneration which had come upon the West, they were unable to find appropriate pupils to receive the wisdom.

 

During the celebration of the ancient Mysteries, the hierophant in

the drama of the Mysteries represented the demiurge,

the Third Logos,

opening or revealing the mysteries of the universe and, in consequence, of human nature to the neophytes. He was thus the sacred teacher.

 

teach in a hologram the graham

..from stone to light and

back 2.... anew you

if the ears are 2 too

[Turtle]

when no eyes 're not alone

beat the grain and

gnash the bone;

to ken the savor, ken the tone

:Glasses:

[Sci]

< 11 >

— For-Rest —

 

With her I strolled the wooded scene,

Beholding forest wonders seldom seen:

The leaves breathed deep in the wandering airs,

With the growth of spring thrust upon them green.

 

< 12 >

— In the Wilderness —

 

She was sweet, soft, and inconsummably wild

As she lay beside me like a sleeping child.

Her quiet breathing stirred not the wooded scene

As she rested silently on the forest green.

 

< 13 >

— Wine, Bread, and Thou —

 

I caressed her tresses in romantic rhythm

To the contented sighs she sent toward Heaven.

We slumbered where the grass fledged the stream,

Half-awake or asleep in love’s peaceful dream.

 

< 14 >

— Under the Bough —

 

Above us the branches slowly swayed and fanned

Away the little creatures that tried to land.

The trickling waters played tinkling lullabies,

While flocks of returning geese flew the skies.

 

< 15 >

— Signs of Life —

 

Throughout the day we sat beside a brook,

Reading with life its most wonderful book,

Then slept with each other in a sweet nook—

And this of her and me was all it took.

 

< 16 >

— Seeing You —

 

A fish swam in the reflected sky;

Sunset’s image burned the water dry.

I looked in the pond, but saw her face,

For we had merged in love, she and I.

 

< 17 >

— Resonance —

 

Kissing on the rocks, down by the riverside,

Our rhythm rippled the water, raised the tide,

Rang ship’s bells, danced lights across sea and sky—

All vibrations from hearts that were satisfied.

 

< 18 >

— At-one-ment —

 

For my sins of spring I repent my part—

No! I mustn’t repent for how, apart,

Could I resist the beauty of love’s truth

When roses and tulips bloom in loving hearts?

 

< 19 >

— Intellectual Beauty —

 

The well-spring calls, the weary traveler rests,

As from a torrent, when, riding waves and crests,

One looks in depth to find a deeper source

And “hears” by inner sense against it pressed.

 

< 20 >

— Fountain of Light —

 

Soul to soul, it said to me, I’m the light,

Thy spirit’s sight, a beauty bold and bright,

An inspiration come from darkest night,

A newborn star aglow with insight.

 

< 21 >

— Tantric Exercise —

 

Look at the stars in the depths of the night—

Hold their flames in your mind, keeping them bright.

Their power flows, energizing you from

The Eternal Charger—you see the light!

 

< 22 >

— Thought-Full —

 

Insight stabs the utter darkness of nought,

As ideas that wink in the mind as thought.

This is the only knowledge to be known—

All else is aforethought or afterthought.

 

< 23 >

— Sci-fi —

 

Among the lights that dance in the sky,

A haven waits out there for you and I—

A world where flowers bloom and fountains spray—

A paradise called Earth to glorify.

 

< 24 >

— We are the Cosmos —

 

Life’s a continual cosmic energy dance,

From some ultimate underlying happenstance.

We’re immersed in matter’s universal rhythm;

Therefore, we must all participate in the dance.

[Sci]

 

 

 

[Loricybin]

pockets full of first world problems;

running low on cash,

checked facebook 19 times today

with backseats full of trash.

[Turtle]

goddamn i love an honest quatrain!

right to the point;

scrabbling loose change,

or your kid falling out of a tree or such a matter.

:Glasses:

[Tarantism]

fungal stuttering across space-time

and dimensions fo(u)r will settle the score

the ticker tape is running out, soon I explore the infinite space

between dreams and reality.

[Turtle]

poets oh poets

come out from your dens;

come chide and cajole us

we womens and mens.

:Glasses: