CHARITIES ON ALL

Have love: not love alone for one,

But man as man thy brother call,

And scatter like the circling sun

Thy charities on all.

- Schiller

ON NEST BUILDING

Mud is not bad for nest building.
Mud and sticks
And a fallen feather or two will do
And require no reaching.
I could rest there, with my tiny ones,
Sound for the season, at least.

But -
If I may fly awhile -
If I may cut through a sunset going out
And a rainbow coming back,
Color upon color sealed in my eyes -
If I may have the unboundaried skies
For my study,
Clouds, cities, rivers for my rooms -
If I may search the centuries
For melody and meaning -
If I may try for the sun -

I shall come back
Bearing such beauties
Gleaned from God's and man's very best.
I shall come filled.

And then -
Oh, the nest that I can build!

- Carol Lynn Pearson

I CARRY YOUR HEART

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart);
I am never without it (anywhere I go you go, my dear;
And whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling).
I fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet);
I want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true).
And it's you are whatever a moon has always meant,
And whatever a sun will always sing, is you.
Here is the deepest secret nobody knows,
Here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud,
And the sky of the sky of a tree called life;
Which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide.
And this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart.

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart).

- E.E. Cummings