Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Blessings


Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Matthew 5 : 8



Source



"That we are not much sicker and much madder than we are is due exclusively to that most blessed and blessing of all natural graces, sleep."--- Aldous Huxley




"The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God - if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That's what I think."--- Maya Angelou 




"Every blessing ignored becomes a curse."--- Paulo Coelho



                  Midweek Motif ~ Blessings




Blessing is a gift of bliss, affirmation, hope and inspiration bestowed upon a person.

Let’s find out who showers Blessings even in these days of guilt, abuse, greed, misery, crimes and cares.  

Sometimes we are at the receiving end and sometimes giving.

Capture your Blessings in your lines today.


The Negro Mother

By Langston Hughes

 Children, I come back today 

To tell you a story of the long dark way
 
That I had to climb, that I had to know 

In order that the race might live and grow.

 
Look at my face -- dark as the night -- 

Yet shining like the sun with love's true light.



I am the dark girl who crossed the red sea 

Carrying in my body the seed of the free.

 
I am the woman who worked in the field 

Bringing the cotton and the corn to yield.



 I am the one who labored as a slave,
 
Beaten and mistreated for the work that I gave -- 

Children sold away from me, I'm husband sold, too.


 No safety , no love, no respect was I due.



Three hundred years in the deepest South: 

But God put a song and a prayer in my mouth .

 
God put a dream like steel in my soul.

 
Now, through my children, I'm reaching the goal.

 
 
Now, through my children, young and free, 

I realized the blessing deed to me.


                                 (The rest is here)



Thanksgiving

By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
We walk on starry fields of white  And do not see the daisies;  For blessings common in our sight  We rarely offer praises.  We sigh for some supreme delight  To crown our lives with splendor,  And quite ignore our daily store  Of pleasures sweet and tender. Our cares are bold and push their way  Upon our thought and feeling.  They hang about us all the day,  Our time from pleasure stealing.  So unobtrusive many a joy  We pass by and forget it,  But worry strives to own our lives  And conquers if we let it. There's not a day in all the year  But holds some hidden pleasure,  And looking back, joys oft appear  To brim the past's wide measure. But blessings are like friends, I hold,  Who love and labor near us.  We ought to raise our notes of praise  While living hearts can hear us. Full many a blessing wears the guise  Of worry or of trouble.  Farseeing is the soul and wise  Who knows the mask is double.  But he who has the faith and strength  To thank his God for sorrow  Has found a joy without alloy  To gladden every morrow. We ought to make the moments notes  Of happy, glad Thanksgiving;  The hours and days a silent phrase  Of music we are living.  And so the theme should swell and grow  As weeks and months pass o'er us,  And rise sublime at this good time,  A grand Thanksgiving chorus. 

No. 5

By Boris Chichibabin
(Translated by Richard McKane)
May the lord grant you that from root to crown
the parting may be a gathering point without disaster.
For those who leave—a parting greeting.
For those who stay—brotherhood and sisterhood.
Remember our winter snows
in the hot foreign lands.
The train whistles for those going away.
Retribution for those who stay.
Both good and evil fate
are apportioned rationally.
I understand those who leave,
I know those who stay.
The limit of the soul is Old Russia’s pain,
bells chiming to each other the origins,
(I don’t argue with those who leave,
I remain with those who stay.)
Give us who live with snowstorms and ice,
you who do not judge and forgetful,
love to those who leave,
hope to those who stay.
He who is weak, and he who is stern
each chooses between:
the sword and work of leaving,
the hope or remaining.
But according to the covenant of Sabaoth
at the end of this very road,
there is Sinai for those who leave,
and Golgotha for those who stay…

I am tired of making snap judgments,
of measuring the immeasurable with the temporal.
Sadness to those who leave.
Faithfulness to those who stay.
Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community
(Next week Susan's Midweek Motif will be ~ Conquest )

18 comments:

  1. Thank you for another midweek blessing.. not sure we are entirely in tune with the prompt but we are thankful for the poems and also love the Huxley quote

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  2. What a wonderful topic, Sumana.

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  3. Thanks for a lovely midweek challenge, haven't yet posted mine will do so later

    much love...

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  4. What a beautiful midweek challenge! Looking forward to read all the beautiful poems here :)

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  5. Thank you for the great theme, Sumana. Blessing to you and all the participants.

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  6. I really enjoyed this motif! I may write another ....

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  7. Hey everyone,

    Hope you're having an amazing day so far :D sharing my poem 'Benison' thank you Sumana for the wonderful opportunity :D


    Lots of love,
    Sanaa

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  8. Hello my friends. I hope you enjoy my piece for today. Have a blessed day!

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  9. Hi all, hope everyone's having a dandy week. Here's to enjoying some more fine poetry.

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  10. I am, as usual, late to the party, kids. I am off to a babysitting job, so I will write to this wonderful topic when I return, and then read yours, this evening.A great topic to contemplate in the middle of bad news everywhere.

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  11. Hello Sumana and everyone –

    What a beautiful prompt!

    I am sharing a haibun I wrote yesterday, originally for another prompt. A comment by Susan made me realise I was describing a blessing!

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  12. I am linking after a short break! I loved the prompt and the poems that are linked up. :)

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  13. Perfect for me as I have been thinking about blessings (and their opposite) a lot this week. Thanks!

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