Love after Love ~ Derek Walcott

“ The time will come 

when, with elation 

you will greet yourself arriving 

at your own door, in your own mirror 

and each will smile at the other's welcome, 

and say, sit here. Eat. 

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart 

to itself, to the stranger who has loved you 

all your life, whom you ignored 

for another, who knows you by heart. 

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, 

the photographs, the desperate notes, 

peel your own image from the mirror. 

Sit. Feast on your life” 

~Dereck Walcott

More at  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Walcott

Artwork from Georges Lemmen. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lemmen

Know What You're Hoping ~ Piet Hein

“Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,
and you're hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find, 
is simply by spinning a penny.
No - not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you're passively standing there moping; 
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you're hoping. ” 

~ Piet Hein

More at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Hein_(scientist)

Artwork by Linda Marrinon https://www.mca.com.au/collection/artist/marrinon-linda/

We Dig ~ Lois Rock

"We think the Earth is ours,
We dig it, drill it, plough it, mine it, pave it bomb it.
Then from within the heart of things, the Earth erupts, it shakes, it quakes, it shifts and drifts.
May we learn to respect the Earth, for it is shaped by forces greater than our own, and we should live in awe of them."

~ Lois Rock

More at http://www.lionhudson.com/author_display.asp?SF1=sort_name&ST1=ROCKLOIS

Artwork from Hannah Firmin http://www.hannahfirmin.com/

Let Them Grow ~ E. Nesbit

"All round the year the changing suns and rains
Beat on men’s work—to wreck and to decay—
But nature builds more perfectly than they,
Her changing unchanged sea resists, remains.
All round the year new flowers spring up to shew
How gloriously life is more strong than death;
And in our hearts are seeds of love and faith,
Ah, sun and showers, be kind, and let them grow."

E.Nesbit

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._Nesbit

Artwork by the painter, and friend of Nesbit, Hugh Bellingham Smith, about whom the internet tells us little.

Foolish as Much as the Wise ~ Walt Whitman

“I am of old and young, of the foolish as much as the wise,
Regardless of others, ever regardful of others,
Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man,
Stuffed with the stuff that is course, and stuffed with the stuff that is fine, one of the nation, of many nations, the smallest the same and the the largest”

~ Walt Whitman

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Whitman

I cant track down the artist of this linocut, but am on the case!

The Long Way Home ~ Sylvia Townsend Warner

"Go the long way, the long way home.

Over this gate and that lean, at the three lanes' meeting delay,
Look well at that field of hay, eye closely the drilled loam,
Finger the springing corn, count every petal
Of the hedge rose and the guelder rose.
Under the bosom of the blossomed elder stay,
Delay, linger, browse deep on all this green and all this growing,
Slant cheek to the sweet air, with deep greeting survey
The full-leaved boughs like water flowing,
The corn-waves hurrying uphill as the wind blows.
Look overhead into the blue, look round,
Watch this bird fly and that bird settle,
With slow treading and sure greet the assuring ground:
Go slowly, for slowly goes this midsummer day,
And this is the last time you will come this way.

Go the long way, the long way home.
Aye, and when you've arrived and the sighing gate falls to,
Go slowly, go heedfully your garden through.
Breathe in the spice pinks, turn face up to the soft
Ripe rose that wags aloft,
Nod to the old rake, rub thumbs along the spade's edge,
Measure the potato hills and the tall bean rows,
Pledge cherry and currant bush, pledge lily and lily leaf spear
And rebel the nettles waving along the hedge;
Look closely, look well,
See how your garden grows,
Ponder yourself even into the secret cell
Of this year's honeycomb:
Look long, for long has this been yours and long been dear,
And this is the last time you will stand here.

Go the long way, the long way home.
Though you are weary, hasten not ghost to ground,
Tarry this last hour out, take your last look round,
Greet finally the earth, greet leaf and root and stock.
Stand in your last hour poised, like the dandelion clock-
Frail ghost of the gaudy raggle-taggle that you were-
Stand up, O homing phantom, stand up intact and declare
The goodness of earth the greatest good you found,
Ere the wind jolts you, and you vanish like the foam."

-Sylvia Townsend Warner

More at ~  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Townsend_Warner

Yours are the Feet ~ Teresa of Avila

"Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours."

Teresa of Avila (1515–1582)

Artwork by Raphael Soyer  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Soyer

More at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_of_%C3%81vila

False Alam ~ Joni Mitchell

"People will tell you where they've gone
They'll tell you where to go
But till you get there yourself you never really know
Where some have found their paradise
Other's just come to harm
Oh Amelia, it was just a false alarm"

Words art and music by Joni Mitchell  http://www.jonimitchell.com/

Where Truth Abides ~ Robert Browning

"Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, whate’er you may believe.
There is an inmost centre in us all,
Where truth abides in fullness; and around,
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,  
This perfect, clear perception—which is truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Binds it, and makes all error: and, to know,
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without."

~ Robert Browning

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning

Artwork Salvador Dali http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD

Pied Beauty ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins

Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:        
Praise him.

~ Gerard Manley Hopkins

More at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_Manley_Hopkins

Artwork Beatrix Potter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrix_Potter

In All Simplicity ~ Christina Rossetti

"O Lord, whose way is perfect, 
help us, we pray Thee, always to trust in Thy goodness:
that walking with Thee and following Thee in all simplicity
we may possess quiet and contented minds and trust ourselves 
to the love of our heavenly Father
now and evermore"

~ Christina Rossetti

More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/christina-rossetti/11534.html

Artwork by Iain MacNab http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Macnab

All 's Right with the World ~Robert Browning

"The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hillside's dew-pearl'd;
The lark's on the wing;        
The snail's on the thorn;
God 's in His heaven—
All 's right with the world!"

~Robert Browning

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Browning

Like a Pebble ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“There are moments in life, when the heart is so full of emotion
that if by chance it be shaken, or into its depths like a pebble
Drops some careless word, it overflows, and its secret,
Spilled on the ground like water, can never be gathered together.”

~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow

Artwork by Stephen S Yaeger http://www.yaegerart.com/

The Book our Mothers Read ~ John Greenleaf Whittier

"We search the world for truth;
We cull the good, the pure, the beautiful,
From all old flower fields of the soul;
And weary seekers of the best,
We come back laden from our quest,
To find that all the sages said,
Is in the book our mothers read."

John Greenleaf Whittier

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Greenleaf_Whittier

The photograph is of Louisa Hooper Stewart, 1818-1918 http://www.stokenewingtonquakers.org.uk/nbhist1.html

Kriyat Shema

"I herewith forgive all those who have angered or taunted me,
all those who have sinned against my person,
my wealth, my possessions or my honour,through compulsion, knowingly with malice, or in ignorance,
by their words or by their deeds.
No one should suffer punishment because of me."

More at  http://halachipedia.com/index.php?title=Kriyat_Shema_Al_HaMitah

Artwork by David Bekker http://www.chicagomodern.org/artists/david_bekker/

Barking with the Dog ~ Leonard Cohen

"I never really understood
what he said
but every now and then
I find myself
barking with the dog
or bending with the irises
or helping out
in other little ways"

More at  http://www.leonardcohen.com/us/home

Artwork by Igor Potash  http://www.ipostash.com/

I Am Involved in Mankind ~ John Donne

"No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."

-  John Donne

More at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Donne

Artwork by Thomas Hart Benton  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Hart_Benton_(painter)

That Perfect Silence ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

"Let us labor for an inward stillness--
An inward stillness and an inward healing.
That perfect silence where the lips and heart
Are still, and we no longer entertain
Our own imperfect thoughts and vain opinions,
But God alone speaks to us and we wait
In singleness of heart that we may know
His will, and in the silence of our spirits,
That we may do His will and do that only”

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

More at http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Henry_Wadsworth_Longfellow

Picture Friends Meetinghouse Oxford, UK

Lord of all Hopefulness ~ Jan Struther

"Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy,
Whose trust, ever childlike, no cares can destroy,
Be there at our waking, and give us, we pray,
Your bliss in our hearts, Lord, at the break of the day.

Lord of all eagerness, Lord of all faith,
Whose strong hands were skilled at the plane and the lathe,
Be there at our labours, and give us, we pray,
Your strength in our hearts, Lord at the noon of the day.

Lord of all kindliness, Lord of all grace,
Your hands swift to welcome, your arms to embrace,
Be there at our homing, and give us, we pray,
Your love in our hearts, Lord, at the eve of the day.

Lord of all gentleness, Lord of all calm,
Whose voice is contentment, whose presence is balm,
Be there at our sleeping, and give us, we pray,
Your peace in our hearts, Lord, at the end of the day."

Jan Struther

More at  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_of_All_Hopefulness

I know this as a childhood hymn sung to this old Irish tune

Music from the excellent Purple Hulls  http://thepurplehulls.com/videos/

Your Life is a Leaf ~ Leonard Cohen

Oh the sisters of mercy, they are not departed or gone.
They were waiting for me when I thought that I just can't go on.
And they brought me their comfort and later they brought me this song.
Oh I hope you run into them, you who've been travelling so long.

Yes you who must leave everything that you cannot control.
It begins with your family, but soon it comes around to your soul.
Well I've been where you're hanging, I think I can see how you're pinned:
When you're not feeling holy, your loneliness says that you've sinned.

Well they lay down beside me, I made my confession to them.
They touched both my eyes and I touched the dew on their hem.
If your life is a leaf that the seasons tear off and condemn
They will bind you with love that is graceful and green as a stem.

When I left they were sleeping, I hope you run into them soon.
Don't turn on the lights, you can read their address by the moon.
And you won't make me jealous if I hear that they sweetened your night:
We weren't lovers like that and besides it would still be all right,
We weren't lovers like that and besides it would still be all right.

Leonard Cohen

 The Sisters of Mercy on facebook http://www.facebook.com/MercySisters?fref=ts

Art by Penny Peckham - http://wordandimage-pennypeckham.blogspot.co.uk/2011_10_01_archive.html

More at http://www.leonardcohen.com/us