Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Unity

http://www.unityproject.net/

 “We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business;

we are each other's magnitude and bond.”

― Gwendolyn Brooks

“Pit race against race, religion against religion,

prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer!

We must not let that happen here.”

― Eleanor Roosevelt

“I felt knowledge and the unity of the world

circulate in me like my own blood.”

― Hermann Hesse, Siddhartha

 "Unity" Sculpture at Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Midweek Motif ~ Unity

Is there anything that doesn't work better with Unity?

As a principle of design, unity: "occurs when all of
the elements of a piece combine to make a balanced,

harmonious, complete whole. Unity is another of those

hard-to-describe art terms but, when it's present,

your eye and brain are pleased to see it."

 Versus:

Dis                 u

n

i                                                     ty

Your Challenge: In a new poem, bring diverse or disparate entities into unity.  

Excerpt from The Anti-Suffragists

BY CHARLOTTE ANNA PERKINS GILMAN

Fashionable women in luxurious homes,

With men to feed them, clothe them, pay their bills,

Bow, doff the hat, and fetch the handkerchief;

Hostess or guest, and always so supplied

With graceful deference and courtesy;

Surrounded by their servants, horses, dogs, —

These tell us they have all the rights they want.

Successful women who have won their way

Alone, with strength of their unaided arm,

Or helped by friends, or softly climbing up

By the sweet aid of ‘woman’s influence’;

Successful any way, and caring naught

For any other woman’s unsuccess, —

These tell us they have all the rights they want.

. . . .  (Read the rest of this amazing poem HERE.)

I Have Learned So Much

BY HAFITZ

I
haveLearned

So much from God
That I can no longer
Call
Myself

A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim,
A Buddhist, a Jew.

The Truth has shared so much of Itself
With me

That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, an angel,
Or even pure
Soul.

Love has
Befriended Hafiz so completely
It has turned to ash
And freed
Me

Of every concept and image
My mind has ever known.

The Red Wheelbarrow

by William Carlos Williams

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

#

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and then visit others in the spirit of the community.

( Next week Sumana’s Midweek Motif will be ~ Change)

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Unity

source

“All for one and one for all.” 
― Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers

“Pit race against race, religion against religion, 
prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! 
We must not let that happen here.” 

― Eleanor Roosevelt

“If everyone helps to hold up the sky, 
then one person does not become tired.” 
― Askhari Johnson Hodari

Midweek Motif ~ Unity

How wonderful when it is true marriage (union); 

How stunning when it overcomes differences (accord);

How amazing when it is paradox  (oddly true). 

Your Challenge: Let your new poem reveal Unity.

Say I am You

     by Jelaluddin Rumi

I am dust particles in sunlight.
I am the round sun.

To the bits of dust I say, Stay.
To the sun, Keep moving.

I am morning mist, and the breathing of evening.
I am wind in the top of a grove, and surf on the cliff.

Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.

I am a tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought, and voice.

The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of a stone, a flickering in metal.

Both candle and the moth crazy around it.
Rose, and the nightingale lost in the fragrance.

I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift,
and the falling away. What is, and what isn't.

You who know Jelaluddin, You the one in all,
say who I am. 

Say I am You.

The Building of the Ship

BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW

"Build me straight, O worthy Master!

Stanch and strong, a goodly vessel,

That shall laugh at all disaster,

And with wave and whirlwind wrestle!"

The merchant's word

Delighted the Master heard;

For his heart was in his work, and the heart

Giveth grace unto every Art.

A quiet smile played round his lips,

As the eddies and dimples of the tide

Play round the bows of ships,

That steadily at anchor ride.

And with a voice that was full of glee,

He answered, "Erelong we will launch

A vessel as goodly, and strong, and stanch,

As ever weathered a wintry sea!"

And first with nicest skill and art,

Perfect and finished in every part,

A little model the Master wrought,

Which should be to the larger plan

What the child is to the man,

Its counterpart in miniature;

. . . . 

Read the rest of this magnificent poem

HERE at the Poetry Foundation.

For those who are new to Poets United: 

• Post your new Unity poem on your site, and then link it here.
• Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 
• If you use a picture include its link.  
• Please leave a comment here and visit and comment on our poems.

(Next week Susan's Midweek Motif will be Acceptance.)