Devourers [Lyric Poem]

We were classed: Consumer.
 And that became our task.
  The stores grew like tumors,
    and in stuff piles we basked.

DAILY PHOTO: Comenius University, Bratislava

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Five Wise Lines from “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” [Plus Five Lines, More]

No bird soars too high, if he soars with his own wings.

william blake

The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.

William blake

Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion.

William Blake

The fox condemns the trap, not himself.

William Blake

Exuberance is Beauty.

William blake

Without Contraries is no Progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence.

William Blake

If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.

William blake

The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind.

William Blake

I also asked Isaiah what made him go naked and barefoot three years. He answer’d: ‘The same that made our friend Diogenes, the Grecian.’

William Blake

The most sublime act is to set another before you.

William blake

NOTE: William Blake’s “The Marriage of Heaven in Hell” is available in many collections of his poetry, and is in the public domain and available via Project Gutenberg at: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45315

One Fish… Airport Fish? [Haiku]

in the airport,
 i stop mid-stride, a fish
  has my attention.

Limerick of the German Baker

There was a royal baker in Germany
 whose bread the king despised fervently.
The king issued a decree:
 Death, or bread passing light times three!
The baker twisted dough so three holes showed,
                  and bestowed it earnestly.

DAILY PHOTO: Gommateshwara, Shravanbelagola

Ship on the Horizon [Sonnet]

You see that one ship out on the horizon,
and feel that unique tang of loneliness.
There's far, far too much blank sea to thrive in,
and all the makings for keen ghostliness.

That boat will soon be passing beyond sight,
and maybe it will falter, maybe sink.
The sea has created a million plights,
and hazards there will honor no strict brinks.

In Shakespeare, ships are lost, often as not.
See: "Tempest," "Merchant," "Pericles,” and so on.
Perhaps, you'll say that today isn't so fraught
with maritime menace and sea demons.

Why more vexed than those who keep ships running?
'Cause sailors will never, ever, see it coming.

Skyward [Tanka]

i look skyward,
 and others stop to look.
  those who wonder
 why I'm looking up,
   might wonder why they weren't.

Black Sand Beach [Haiku]

the black sand beach
 is no less pristine, but 
  the mind feels it is.

DAILY PHOTO: A Tiny Beach in Southern Bali

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