Stray Birds — A Closer Reading

Power said to the world, "You are mine. The world kept it prisoner on her throne. Love said to the world, "I am thine." The world gave it the freedom of her house.

94 The mist is like the earth's desire. It hides the sun for whom she cries.

95 Be still, my heart, these great trees are prayers.

96 The noise of the moment scoffs at the music of the Eternal.

97 I think of other ages that floated upon the stream of life and love and death and are forgotten, and I feel the freedom of passing away.

98 The sadness of my soul is her bride's veil. It waits to be lifted in the night.

99 Death's stamp gives value to the coin of life; making it possible to buy with life what is truly precious.

100 The cloud stood humbly in a corner of the sky. The morning crowned it with splendour.

101 The dust receives insult and in return offers her flowers.

102 Do not linger to gather flowers to keep them, but walk on, for flowers will keep themselves blooming all your way.

103 Roots are the branches down in the earth. Branches are roots in the air.

104 The music of the far-away summer flutters around the Autumn seeking its former nest.

105 Do not insult your friend by lending him merits from your own pocket.

106 The touch of the nameless days clings to my heart like mosses round the old tree.

107 The echo mocks her origin to prove she is the original.

108 God is ashamed when the prosperous boasts of His special favour.

109 I cast my own shadow upon my path, because I have a lamp that has not been lighted.

110 Man goes into the noisy crowd to drown his own clamour of silence.

111 That which ends in exhaustion is death, but the perfect ending is in the endless.

112 The sun has his simple robe of light. The clouds are decked with gorgeousness.

113 The hills are like shouts of children who raise their arms, trying to catch stars.

114 The road is lonely in its crowd for it is not loved.

115 The power that boasts of its mischiefs is laughed at by the yellow leaves that fall, and clouds that pass by.

116 The earth hums to me to-day in the sun, like a woman at her spinng, some ballad of the ancient time in a forgotten tongue.

117 The grass-blade is worth of the great world where it grows.

118 Dream is a wife who must talk. Sleep is a husband who silently suffers.

119 The night kisses the fading day whispering to his ear, "I am death, your mother. I am to give you fresh birth."

120 I feel, thy beauty, dark night, like that of the loved woman when she has put out the lamp.

121 I carry in my world that flourishes the worlds that have failed.

122 Dear friend, I feel the silence of your great thoughts of may a deepening eventide on this beach when I listen to these waves.

123 The bird thinks it is an act of kindness to give the fish a lift in the air.

124 "In the moon thou sendest thy love letters to me," said the night to the sun.

"I leave my answers in tears upon the grass."

125 The Great is a born child; when he dies he gives his great childhood to the world.

126 Not hammerstrokes, but dance of the water sings the pebbles into perfection.

127 Bees sip honey from flowers and hum their thanks when they leave. The gaudy butterfly is sure that the flowers owe thanks to him.

128 To be outspoken is easy when you do not wait to speak the complete truth.

129 Asks the Possible to the Impossible, "Where is your dwelling place?"

"In the dreams of the impotent," comes the answer.

130 If you shut your door to all errors truth will be shut out.

131 I hear some rustle of things behind my sadness of heart,--I cannot see them.

132 Leisure in its activity is work. The stillness of the sea stirs in waves.

133 The leaf becomes flower when it loves. The flower becomes fruit when it worships.

134 The roots below the earth claim no rewards for making the branches fruitful.

135 This rainy evening the wind is restless. I look at the swaying branches and ponder over the greatness of all things.

136 Storm of midnight, like a giant child awakened in the untimely dark, has begun to play and shout.

137 Thou raisest thy waves vainly to follow thy lover. O sea, thou lonely bride of the storm.

138 "I am ashamed of my emptiness," said the Word to the Work. "I know how poor I am when I see you," said the Work to the Word.

139 Time is the wealth of change, but the clock in its parody makes it mere change and no wealth.