Day: May 1, 2018

davidbrucehaiku: pebble falls

highspeed-photography-2437729_1280.jpg

https://pixabay.com/en/highspeed-photography-water-2437729/

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PEBBLE FALLS

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drop pebble down an

oh-so-awfully deep well

wait for it … wait … plop!

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Edgar Lee Masters: Robert Fulton Tanner (Spoon River Anthology)

If a man could bite the giant hand
That catches and destroys him,
As I was bitten by a rat
While demonstrating my patent trap,
In my hardware store that day.
But a man can never avenge himself
On the monstrous ogre Life.
You enter the room that’s being born;
And then you must live work out your soul,
Of the cross-current in life
Which Bring honor to the dead, who lived in shame.

Another Version

If a man could bite the giant hand
That catches and destroys him,
As I was bitten by a rat
While demonstrating my patent trap,
In my hardware store that day.
But a man can never avenge himself
On the monstrous ogre Life.
You enter the room–that’s being born;
And then you must live–work out your soul,
Aha! the bait that you crave is in view:
A woman with money you want to marry,
Prestige, place, or power in the world.
But there’s work to do and things to conquer–
Oh, yes! the wires that screen the bait.
At last you get in–but you hear a step:
The ogre, Life, comes into the room,
(He was waiting and heard the clang of the spring)
To watch you nibble the wondrous cheese,
And stare with his burning eyes at you,
And scowl and laugh, and mock and curse you,
Running up and down in the trap,
Until your misery bores him.

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Lao-Tzu #23: “When you do not trust people, people will become untrustworthy.”

23

 

Nature uses few words:

when the gale blows, it will not last long;

when it rains hard, it lasts but a little while;

What causes these to happen? Heaven and Earth.

 

Why do we humans go on endlessly about little

when nature does much in a little time?

If you open yourself to the Tao,

you and Tao become one.

If you open yourself to Virtue,

then you can become virtuous.

If you open yourself to loss,

then you will become lost.

 

If you open yourself to the Tao,

the Tao will eagerly welcome you.

If you open yourself to virtue,

virtue will become a part of you.

If you open yourself to loss,

the lost are glad to see you.

 

“When you do not trust people,

people will become untrustworthy.”

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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

Aesop: The Hart and the Hunter

The Hart was once drinking from a pool and admiring the noble figure he made there. ‘Ah,’ said he, ‘where can you see such noble horns as these, with such antlers! I wish I had legs more worthy to bear such a noble crown; it is a pity they are so slim and slight.’ At that moment a Hunter approached and sent an arrow whistling after him. Away bounded the Hart, and soon, by the aid of his nimble legs, was nearly out of sight of the Hunter; but not noticing where he was going, he passed under some trees with branches growing low down in which his antlers were caught, so that the Hunter had time to come up. ‘Alas! alas!’ cried the Hart:

‘We often despise what is most useful to us.’