davidbrucehaiku: WALKING TOGETHER

girl-3300207_1280

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WALKING TOGETHER

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Walking together

Companionship in nature

A walk in the woods

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davidbrucehaiku: LIFE CHOICES

fork-2115485_1280

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This road, or that road?

If you take this road, will you

Ever take that road?

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Lao-Tzu: #2 — When people see things as beautiful, ugliness is created.

2

 

When people see things as beautiful,

ugliness is created.

When people see things as good,

evil is created.

 

Being and non-being produce each other.

Difficult and easy complement each other.

Long and short define each other.

High and low oppose each other.

Fore and aft follow each other.

 

Therefore the Master

can act without doing anything

and teach without saying a word.

Things come her way and she does not stop them;

things leave and she lets them go.

She has without possessing,

and acts without any expectations.

When her work is done, she takes no credit.

That is why it will last forever.

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Tao Te Ching

By Lao-Tzu

A translation for the public domain by j.h.mcdonald, 1996

www.wright-house.com/religions/taoism/tao-te-ching.html

Robert Graves: The Assault Heroic

DOWN in the mud I lay,       

Tired out by my long day      

Of five damned days and nights,       

Five sleepless days and nights,…      

Dream-snatched, and set me where          

The dungeon of Despair        

Looms over Desolate Sea,      

Frowning and threatening me 

With aspect high and steep—

A most malignant keep.                 

My foes that lay within        

Shouted and made a din,        

Hooted and grinned and cried:           

“Today we’ve killed your pride;       

Today your ardour ends.               

We’ve murdered all your friends;      

We’ve undermined by stealth

Your happiness and your health.       

We’ve taken away your hope;           

Now you may droop and mope                

To misery and to Death.”      

But with my spear of Faith,  

Stout as an oaken rafter,        

With my round shield of laughter,     

With my sharp, tongue-like sword            

That speaks a bitter word,     

I stood beneath the wall         

And there defied them all.      

The stones they cast I caught

And alchemized with thought       

Into such lumps of gold         

As dreaming misers hold.       

The boiling oil they threw     

Fell in a shower of dew,         

Refreshing me; the spears              

Flew harmless by my ears,    

Struck quivering in the sod;   

There, like the prophet’s rod,

Put leaves out, took firm root,           

And bore me instant fruit.

My foes were all astounded, 

Dumbstricken and confounded,         

Gaping in a long row; 

They dared not thrust nor throw.      

Thus, then, I climbed a steep         

Buttress and won the keep,   

And laughed and proudly blew          

My horn, “Stand to! Stand to!          

Wake up, sir! Here’s a new   

Attack! Stand to! Stand to!”

Aesop: The Lion’s Share

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The Lion went once a-hunting along with the Fox, the Jackal, and the Wolf. They hunted and they hunted till at last they surprised a Stag, and soon took its life. Then came the question how the spoil should be divided. ‘Quarter me this Stag,’ roared the Lion; so the other animals skinned it and cut it into four parts. Then the Lion took his stand in front of the carcass and pronounced judgment: The first quarter is for me in my capacity as King of Beasts; the second is mine as arbiter; another share comes to me for my part in the chase; and as for the fourth quarter, well, as for that, I should like to see which of you will dare to lay a paw upon it.’

‘Humph,’ grumbled the Fox as he walked away with his tail between his legs; but he spoke in a low growl .’You may share the labours of the great, but you will not share the spoil.’