Last Dance [Octave]

I'm wired and amped; my feet know the last dance.
   What's a poor old end-run death dog to do 
 But surrender to music's honeyed trance,
   Waltzing to it like dreams that seem cuckoo?
 But nothing 's crazy at last dance juncture --
   Just before the call for all to get lost:
 When sanity stretches but won't rupture,
   And one can see crystalizing hoarfrost.

If — by Rudyard Kipling [w/ Audio]

If you can keep your head when all about you
   Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
 If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
   But make allowance for their doubting too;
 If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
   Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
 Or being hated don't give way to hating,
   And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
   If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim:
 If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
   And treat those two imposters just the same;
 If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
   Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
 Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
   And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
   And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
 And lose, and start again at your beginnings
   And never breathe a word about your loss;
 If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
   To serve your turn long after they are gone,
 And so hold on when there is nothing in you
   Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
   Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
 If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
   If all men count with you, but none too much;
 If you can fill the unforgiving minute
   With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
 Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
   And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

Translucent [Haiku]

sunlight shines
 through the butterfly's wing:
  yet, it seems sluggish.

The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats [w/ Audio]

I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
   And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
 Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
   And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
   Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
 There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
   And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
   I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
 While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
   I hear it in the deep heart's core. 

Glass River [Haiku]

the flowing river
looks still as glass, until
fallen leaf ripples.

The Frog by Hilaire Belloc [w/ Audio]

Be kind and tender to the Frog,
   And do not call him names,
 As 'Slimy skin,' or 'Polly-wog,'
   Or likewise 'Ugly James,'
 Or 'Gape-a-grin, or 'Toad-gone-wrong,'
   Or 'Billy Bandy-knees':
 The Frog is justly sensitive
   To epithets like these.
 No animal will more repay
   A treatment kind and fair;
 At least so lonely people say
   Who keep a frog (and, by the way,
 They are extremely rare).

Two-Tier World [Haiku]

the foggy valley
 looks like a depthless painting
  through fall foliage.

Tell all the truth but tell it slant — (1263) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

Tell all the truth but tell it slant --
   Success in Circuit lies
 Too bright for our infirm Delight
   The Truth's superb surprise
 As Lightning to the Children eased
   With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
   Or every man be blind --

Fall Tenacity [Haiku]

dry and yellow,
 fall leaves hang on like a thick
  head of gray hair.