love and life

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Life is full of challenges. Economic difficulties, serious illnesses, family problems, and political unrest plague people on a daily basis. How a person faces each challenge that comes their way however, says much about their character, who they are on the inside. Some people draw strength and inspiration from the experiences of others. Many famous poets from both the past and present have helped and inspired people to face and overcome life's many challenges through the words of their poems. Such poems help people to see they are not alone in their struggles and that it is possible to overcome their problem.

LIFE, believe, is not a dream
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day.
Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall ?

Rapidly, merrily,
Life's sunny hours flit by,
Gratefully, cheerily,
Enjoy them as they fly !

What though Death at times steps in
And calls our Best away ?
What though sorrow seems to win,
O'er hope, a heavy sway ?
Yet hope again elastic springs,
Unconquered, though she fell;
Still buoyant are her golden wings,
Still strong to bear us well.
Manfully, fearlessly,
The day of trial bear,
For gloriously, victoriously,
Can courage quell despair !

We are the sum of experiences that we encounter as we go through life. Day to day struggles and triumphs are experienced by all of the world's creatures. As human beings, when we encounter a challenge, we have freedom to choose how to react. Every decision that we make leads us down a different road. We will never come to exactly the same crossroads. Every decision that we make has significance. The tiniest choice that we make reverberates throughout the entire universe.

Romantic relationships are the spice of life, they make us feel alive in a way that nothing else can. Genuine romance exists when two people show that they care for each other through small acts of love and affection. We feel loved and cared for when we know that our significant other is thinking about how to give us the most pleasure. Romance is the key to keeping the sparks flying. Without it, any relationship will soon lose its shine.

Not while the fever of the blood is strong,
The heart throbs loud, the eyes are veiled, no less
With passion than with tears, the Muse shall bless
The poet-sould to help and soothe with song.
Not then she bids his trembling lips express
The aching gladness, the voluptuous pain.
Life is his poem then; flesh, sense, and brain
One full-stringed lyre attuned to happiness.
But when the dream is done, the pulses fail,
The day's illusion, with the day's sun set,
He, lonely in the twilight, sees the pale
Divine Consoler, featured like Regret,
Enter and clasp his hand and kiss his brow.
Then his lips ope to sing--as mine do now.

"My Heart" by Kim Addonizio
That Mississippi chicken shack...

"Negotiations" by Rae Armantrout
The best part…

"In Our Late Empire, Love" by Malachi Black
drops from upper air...

“Love Comes Quietly” by Robert Creeley
Love comes quietly…

"Love in the Morning" by Annie Finch
Morning's a new bird...

“Happy first anniversary (in anticipation of your thirty ninth)” by Bob Hicok
I don’t have much time. I’m an important person…

“For What Binds Us” by Jane Hirshfield
There are names for what binds us…

“The moon rose over the bay. I had a lot of feelings.” by Donika Kelly
I am taken with the hot animal…

"Someone" by Joseph O. Legaspi
Somewhere someone rises …

"Electrons" by Ruth Madievsky
The eye chews the apple …

“syntax” by Maureen N. McLane
and if…

“The Imprint” by Jennifer Moxley
We will count on these walls…

"Chess" by Aimee Nezhukumatathil
Exactly four different men have tried…

"How to Love" by January Gill O'Neil
After stepping into the world again...

"Divine Overdose" by Matthew Rohrer
We are even more modern …

“Imaginary Morning Glory” by C. D. Wright
Whether or not the water was freezing. The body…

"Things Said To Be Ineffable" by Mark Yakich
"The Buried Life" by Matthew Arnold
Light flows our war of mocking words, and yet...

"Serenade" by Djuna Barnes
Three paces down the shore, low sounds the lute …

"Love" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
We cannot live, except thus mutually...

"Meeting at Night" by Robert Browning
The gray sea and the long black land...

"She Walks in Beauty" by George Gordon Byron
She walks in beauty, like the night...

"Love" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
All thoughts, all passions, all delights...

“somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond” by E. E. Cummings
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond…

"Wild Nights – Wild Nights! (249)" by Emily Dickinson
Wild Nights - Wild Nights!

"Eros" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The sense of the world is short …

“The City is Peopled” by H. D.
The city is peopled…

"Of Love: A Sonnet" by Robert Herrick
How love came in I do not know...

“The Awakening” by James Weldon Johnson
I dreamed that I was a rose…

"Ode to Psyche" by John Keats
O Goddess! hear these tuneless numbers, wrung …

"Endymion" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The rising moon has hid the stars …

"Love" by James Russell Lowell
True Love is but a humble, low-born thing…

"The Definition of Love" by Andrew Marvell
My Love is of a birth as rare...

"The White Rose" by John Boyle O'Reilly
The red rose whispers of passion...

"What Was Told, That" by Jalalu'l-din Rumi
What was said to the rose that made it open was said...

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? (Sonnet 18)" by William Shakespeare
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day...

"The Look" by Sara Teasdale
Strephon kissed me in the spring...

“Vivien’s Song” by Alfred Lord Tennyson
‘In Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours…

Tick tock...tick tock...
Life is counting down on your internal clock.

Memories that feel as if they occurred yesterday
turn to flashes of moments that seem to fade away.

People you once knew
walk by without a clue.

The times you once shared
exist as if you were never there.

Years fly...friends die...
and you never know when you'll say your last goodbye.

Oh, how I wish I could turn back time,
spend it with loved ones and cherish what once was mine.

Or to go back even more,
being a kid in a candy store.

How I miss the way I used to feel
on Christmas day when Santa was real.

But back to reality...back to today,
family is scarce and memories continue to fade away.

Tick tock...tick tock...
How I wish I could control this clock.