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Poetry for Pottery People Volume 1





My old website had many of my favourite poems on my "about us page" - I already told you more than I know. This time I will start by posting a Poem attributed to Omar Khayyam and translated by Edward Fitzgerald and sketched by Edmund J. Sullivan and  "Revelation" by Bliss Carman.

REVELATION
John in Patmos had a vision, told in the Apocalypse,
Full of dark unsolved enigmas leaving reason in eclipse.

But this common world of beauty is our vision to behold,
As significant, entrancing, and inspired as John's of old.

John interpreted in fable records of the Hidden Mind.
Whoso reads the blessed scriptures of the wilderness may find

What God means by night and morning, by the wild bird songs in spring,
Or the mighty dirge of winter when the great pines sway and sing.

Whoso reads the shining legend written in the stony brook
By the Author of the granite and the midnight's starry book,

Shall find radiant revelation. Science toils through glimmering night,
Until Wisdom of a sudden floods the shadowy peaks with light.

Wouldst thou learn God's primal secret? Hark what Beauty has to say,
When the spirit thrills with rapture and the gates of pride give way.

In the respite after seeking comes the whisper of the Voice,
Bidding soul maintain her birthright, mind fear not and heart rejoice.

Ask no Medium to teach thee. God exists but to inspire.
To the seeker comes the knowledge. To the kindling comes the fire.

Is thy speech as sweet as lilacs, and thy touch as clean as dew?
Truth is walking in the twilight still, and has a word for you.

Vital, vibrant, overruling are the forces of this earth,
The creative urge forever bringing miracles to birth.

We are dream-enchanted beings, kin to rhythms of light and air.
Singing wind and running water have us in their fostering care.

Let the punctual tides instruct thee, and the planets give thee poise.
Take the pine tree for thy teacher whom life never irks nor cloys.

Live in friendship with the seasons, and their skill will make thee whole.
Take the bird's call and the brook's note for their tonic to thy soul.

Bathe in renaissance of morning, drink the solace twilight brings,
Feed on beauty for thy welfare and the strength whence rapture springs;

So thy living soul shall sense the meaning of the Wandering Word,
And thy being know the secret that creation's morning heard.

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