Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o’erbrimmed their clammy cells.
Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind,
Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.
Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.
by John Keats 1795-1821
Posted on ZEITGEIST
Life in France
Tags: english, hampstead, italy, john keats, literature, Ode to Autumn, odes, poem, poet, poetry, Protestant Cemetery, romantic, rome, sensual, Spanish Steps
One of his students asked Buddha, “Are you the messiah?”
“No”, answered Buddha.
“Then are you a healer?” asked the student.
“No”, Buddha replied.
“Then are you a teacher?” the student persisted.
“No, I am not a teacher.” replied Buddha.
“Then what are you?” asked the student, exasperated.
“I am awake”, Buddha replied.
Posted on ZEITGEIST
Life in France
Tags: are you the Buddha?, are you the messiah?, buddha, buddhist, funny, healer, I am awake, questions, student, teacher
THE oleander on the wall
Grows crimson in the dawning light,
Though the grey shadows of the night
Lie yet on Florence like a pall.
The dew is bright upon the hill,
And bright the blossoms overhead,
But ah! the grasshoppers have fled,
The little Attic song is still.
Only the leaves are gently stirred
By the soft breathing of the gale,
And in the almond-scented vale
The lonely nightingale is heard.
The day will make thee silent soon,
O nightingale sing on for love!
While yet upon the shadowy grove
Splinter the arrows of the moon.
Before across the silent lawn
In sea-green vest the morning steals,
And to love’s frightened eyes reveals
The long white fingers of the dawn.
Fast climbing up the eastern sky
To grasp and slay the shuddering night,
All careless of my heart’s delight,
Or if the nightingale should die.
by Oscar Wilde
‘By the Arno’ was originally published in the Dublin University Magazine, 1876.
Posted on Zeitgeist
RICHARDS REALM
Tags: An Ideal Husband, author, By The Arno, Dublin, Ireland, irish, Lady Windermere's Fan, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde, oscar-wilde, playwright, poem, poet, poetry, The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray, wit, witty
Give me women, wine, and snuff
Until I cry out “hold, enough!”
You may do so sans objection
Till the day of resurrection:
For, bless my beard, they aye shall be
My beloved Trinity.
by John Keats
The Wine Connoisseur
Tags: english, Give Me Women Wine and Snuff, john keats, poem, poet, poetry, romantic
Thou shalt not weigh more than ……. thy fridge.
I knew there was a very good reason why I wanted the ridiculously huge fridge we purchased when we moved here to France. 
Life in France
Tags: diet, fat, flowers, fridge, heavy, large, obese, overweight, quote, weigh, weight
The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour.
Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes.
Not through mere perversity do men run after it.
~ William James
The Wine Connoisseur
Tags: alcohol, Alice James, american, doctor, Henry James, medical, philosopher, pragmatism, psychologist, quote, the sway of alcohol over mankind, William James
Walk and touch peace every moment.
Walk and touch happiness every moment.
Each step brings a fresh breeze.
Each step makes a flower bloom.
Kiss the Earth with your feet.
Bring the Earth your love and happiness.
The Earth will be safe
when we feel safe in ourselves.
by Thich Nhat Hahn (Nguyễn Xuân Bảo)
LIFE IN THE SLOW LANE
Tags: buddhist, Kiss The Earth, Mahayana, monk, Nguyễn Xuân Bảo, Plum Village, poem, poet, poetry, Shakya, Thich Nhat Hahn, Vietnamese, zen
My Garden
The world is sadly sick, they say,
And plagued by woe and pain.
But look! How looms my garden gay,
With blooms in golden reign!
With lyric music in the air,
Of joy fulfilled in song,
I can’t believe that anywhere
Is hate and harm and wrong.
A paradise my garden is,
And there my day is spent;
A steep myself in sunny bliss,
Incredibly content.
Feeling that I am truly part
Of peace so rapt and still,
There’s not a care within my heart . . .
How can the world be ill?
Aye, though the land be sick they say,
And named unto pain,
My garden never was so gay,
So innocent, so sane.
My roses mock at misery,
My thrushes vie in song . . .
When only beauty I can see,
How can the world be wrong?
by Robert Service
RICHARDS REALM
Tags: Bard of the Yukon, Canada, england, My Garden, poem, poet, poetry, Robert Service, Robert William Service, Scottish
