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PLATONIA
by
Grahame Craig
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Copyright Grahame Craig 2008
First published 2008
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN 978-0-47-14401-2
Collingwood Publishing Pty LtdMelbourne
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To Jan
May all your days fulfilling be
And happy as you once made me.
- May 8, 2008
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When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,And loved your beauty with love false or true,But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fledAnd paced upon the mountains overheadAnd hid his face amid a crowd of stars.
- William Butler Yeats
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C O N T E N T S
1. WE TWO. 1
2. I LOVE YOU AS 3
3. ON YOUR BEAUTY.. 5
4. YOU WERE SPECIAL.. 7
5. MAYDAY. 9
6. CYBERLOVE.. 11
7. HIGHER LOVE.. 15
8. LOWER LUST 17
9. THE FOND FAREWELL.. 19
10. BELOVED INFIDEL... 23
11. QUANTUM ABSOLUTION . 27
12. WITHOUT YOU. 29
13. IF ONLY... 31
14. A PRAYER FOR A LOST LOVE.. 33
15. ON YOUR BIRTHDAY.......................................... 35
16. THE PATH AHEAD............................................... 3717. THE ROAD BACK.................................................. 39
18. MINDCOMBER...................................................... 41
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C O N T E N T S
19. LIGHTENING LOVE.............................................. 43
20. THE PRIZE---------------------------------------- 45
21. YOUR MOON.......................................................... 47
22. WINNERS AND LOSERS...................................... 49
23. CHRISTMAS TIME................................................. 51
24. A PIPER AT MY GRAVE..................................... 53
25. THE NEVIS.............................................................. 55
26. THE ALEXANDRA CLOCK.................................. 59
27. THE SEA-WRAITH................................................ 61
28. THE HAWK AND THE BUTTERFLY................... 63
29. OUR RABBIT-HUTCH REALITY........................ 65
30. WHAT PIGEONS DO........................................... 67
31. STATE HIGHWAY ONE........................................ 69
32. KURANUI................................................................ 71
33. A SUMMERTIME GARDEN................................. 73
34. THE TEA-CUP READING..................................... 7535. THE LEARNING WHEEL...................................... 77
36. THE HEART OF GLASS......................................... 79
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C O N T E N T S
37. KEEPING IN STEP 81
38. ON TOUCHING TOES. 83
39. DO YOU REMEMBER ?....................... 85
40. RAINBOWS END. 91
41. THE HOMECOMING.... 93
42. NOT SO TRUE LOVE.... 95
43. UNCONSCIONABLE 97
44. ALMOST. 101
45. THE LAST SHRED 103
46. MY VALENTINE.. 105
47. SO MANY THINGS WE NEVER DID 107
48. YOUR MEMORY.. 111
49. GRIEF. 113
50. LOVE AND FORTUNE 115
51. UNREQUITED LOVE. 117
52. PLATONIA I.. 119
53. PLATONIA II. 121
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Platonia
1. WE TWO
We share the same Soul
We Two
So You are never gone from Me
Nor Me from You
Though what I now know
You deny
Pray read my words below
And ask Why?
If I did not deeply care
For Us
Would I have ever grievedAnd written thus?
To see that coldness
In your eye
Is to lose ones life
Yet not to die
We share the same SoulWe do
So You will never go from Me
Nor Me from You.
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Platonia
Who knows how long Ive loved you?
You know I love you still
Will I wait a lonely lifetime?
If you want me to I will.
- The Beatles
..meanwhile know that I am grateful to have you in my life,
in my heart and I want you to know I love you. ..J
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Platonia
2. I LOVE YOU AS
I love you when your heart is sad
And your eyes with tears fill
When those tears flow no more
I will love you still
I love you as no other has
And as no other will
When my heart beats no more
I will love you still.
I love you in the Summers haze
And in the Winters chill
When the seasons are no more
I will love you still.
I love you as I always have
And as I always will
When time and tide flow no moreI will love you still.
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Platonia
She walks in beauty,
Like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes
- Lord Byron
A soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.
- Johann von Goeth
To a true artist, only that face is beautiful, which, quite apart
from its exterior, shines with the truth within the soul.
- Mahatma Gandhi
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Platonia
3. ON YOUR BEAUTY
When I first beheld your face
I, in that instant saw
In one moment and one place
More than all before
Softness and enduring grace
Framed in tresses fair
That uniquely youthful trace
Time could never wear
Black diamond eyes, their gleam
Fused I know not how
That moment with a lifelong dream
In one eternal Now
That beauty and those eyes!
If he should write their due!
Will would say, This poet lies-
for none, could this be true
So fear not the demise
Of your beauty rare
Tis forever in your eyesAnd I will always find it there
Deep in those jewelled two
Wherein your soul I see
Where dwells the essence of you
Your beauty will always be.
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Platonia
Some people come into our lives
and leave footprints on our hearts
and we are never ever the same.
- Flavia Weedn
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Platonia
4. YOU WERE SPECIAL
You were Special
How did I know?
Seeing you first, imprinted as though
My life was a walk
Along the sea strand
Each instant a footprint in its wet sand
Your imprint alone remains to this day
No wave can ever wash it away
Morsel moments
Of our pleasure
Now hoarded as a priceless treasure
From first embraceTo farewell clasp
Remembered till my final gasp
How could perfection be so flawed?
One now despised, be still adored?
Like the sparkling
Precious stone
Your many facets brightly shoneBut for one
Well kept away
Lest its blemish blight the day
As love was based on all I saw
I missed my jewels fatal flaw.
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Platonia
.I am missing you and our contact terribly and feel a bit
adrift and scattered without you to talk with. It is a strange
feeling. Please call me if you have the chanceI know you are
as crazy as I was with more than 24 hours without contact. ..J
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Platonia
5. MAYDAY
Of all the treasured times I knew
The best of all was finding you
And asking you to be my wife
Youthe lover of my life
I asked you this one day in May
Before my life force ebbed away
In a peaceful parks domain
With roses and the falling rain
You answered me in words so clear
And chilling to my anxious earNow in my mind forever burned
Casting me among the spurned
Its broken now our special bond
It cant be fixed its gone beyond
Its broken now, I heard you say
As my life force ebbed away
Then nothingnessfor every word
You said thereafter went unheard
As my life force ebbed away
One sunless day in early May.
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Platonia
A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not
love her.
- Oscar Wilde
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Platonia
6. CYBERLOVE
Two strangers once, perhaps by chance
Locked eyes in a cyber-glance
Soon, half a world apart they each
Spoke of their love in keyboard speech
A love both thought had always been
Deep in their souls, unfelt, unseen
A three-ply love, the perfect kind
That blends each body, soul and mind
Each day they talked and laughed anew
Made cyberlove, as lovers do
And dreamt of meeting face-to-face
Free from the bounds of cyberspace
And when they did, at once they knew
The love they shared blessed but a few
Inseparable, both night and day
They lived to love, to share and play
The years came by and went until
She wavered and then lost her will
Believing she had seen the traceOf betrayal in her loved ones face
Once bitten by that poisonous snake
Whose venom she would never shake
Her love for him grew cold and died
Perhaps as she had prophesied
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Platonia
Remember that the measure of love is in what it is worth, for
good or ill, to those one loves. There is no true love without
service. The love that will not suffer to hold another to the
highest and truest in them, is not true love.
- Rachel Williams
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Platonia
No reason thereno-one to blame
No need to bow a head in shame
Just sadness cloaked in disbelief
And never-ending waves of grief
His life would never be the same
Her love would never rise again
And fill the void or take the place
Of what once thrived in cyberspace
Gods plan or mindless act of fate?
What caused her love to dissipate?
Was it really love at all?
Or just a passions passing squall?
She showed no sorrow, guilt or painAnd gave no reason to explain
Was higher love in her mind just
Another term for heightened lust?
Where was her power to forgive
His sins and let her love still live?
Why did she have to crucify?
Did she never tell a lie?
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Platonia
..Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds
Or bends with the remover to remove
Oh no! It is ever a fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken
It is the star to every wandering barque.
- John Keats
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Platonia
7. HIGHER LOVE
(And its Six Choices)
To leave the stumbler where he lies
Or gently help him kneel and rise?
To kindly seek to understand
Or just condemn, out of hand?
To wisely help another grow
Or harshly deal a vengeful blow?
To gently raise a fallen crown
Or place a foot to hold it down?
To tell the truth in manner kind
Or stoop to gaming of the mind?
To accept that each and all are frail
Or judge and rule on those who fail?
Such choices in the lines aboveDefine the path of Higher Love.
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Platonia
I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright
Who art as black as hell and dark as night.
- Shakespeare, Sonnet 147
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Platonia
8. LOWER LUST
(And its Six Stages)
Beware the lustful Hypocrite
Dressed as Love in false attire
In a cruel and dangerous game
That demands a practiced liar
Who starts with charming Coyness:
It takes a lot to turn this head
Then moves to Clinging clichs:
You are my teacher, will be said
From there to crude Carnality:
Take all of me Im yours
Followed by contrived Confusion:
About Whats real any more?
Then next, the cold Conclusion:To myself I must be true
(Or sometimes for variation:
Its for the higher good of you)
And last of all, the cowards Cut
To the already ravaged heart:
Loves flimsy guise is cast aside
To play the victims part
But Irefuse to be a victim!Is the accompanying cry
Beware my friend, be so aware
Of that pecker-pickin lie
In descending moral order sit
The Liar, then the Hypocrite.
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Platonia
I awoke this morning thinking of you and needto take a
moment to tell you what you mean to me. ..sweetheart, I
have never met anyone who could access his soul like you do,
and offer it up to me with such tenderness that it humbles
me. J
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Platonia
9. THE FOND FAREWELL
You thanked me for my fight for us
For refusing to let go
And yet you having spoken thus
Turned out to be the foe!
What was to be a fond farewell
Instead with teary eyes
You took the embers of our love
And doused them with your lies.
You let me strive to save us with
One last death knell appeal
While knowing wellright to that bell
Your love was never real
I knelt before you many times
And naively bared my soul
As all the while with practiced guile
The actress played her role
You had talked of living juicy
And of bravely risking all
But when it came to walk that talkYou couldnt raise a crawl
Would I have ever leaped
From that cliff-top up so high?
Knowing at the last, youd stand fast
And coldly watch me die?
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Platonia
And I shall find some girl perhaps
And a better one than you
With eyes as wise, but kindlier
And lips as soft, but true
And I daresay she will do.
- Rupert Brooke
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Platonia
Sad enough Loves object lacked
The honesty and grace
To gently tell the awful truth
To her luckless lovers face
But sadder still ten thousand-fold
When atop of truth denied
Her luckless lover learns too late
What never was had died.
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Platonia
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Platonia
10. BELOVED INFIDEL
Your outer beauty for so long
Beyond comparebut soon to fade
As does the echo of a song
Or flowers in a sunless glade
Leaving just the inner You
An empty shell of Soul bereft
You turned to ashes all we knew
No love, no friendship, nothing left
So your search for peace goes on
As you pray and self-obsess
Denying all youve done thats wrong
Expecting God to blindly blessThe hypocrite whose chilling stare
Condemned outright the very one
Who later laid her own lies bare
For justice to be seen (and done)
So too its clear youll not be bound
By the rules for judging sin:
That sin-free throwers must be foundBefore the stoning can begin
(Excluding too all those who dwell
In proverbial homes of glass)
Rules you must have heard them tell
In your Christian living class.
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Platonia
I know you, I feel you.I get scared sometimes, but never
doubt that I love you. .. J
Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of
little love.
- Erich Fromm
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Platonia
Most lies are of the temporal kind
All mortals tellthe foolish slip
But Soul-based lies are those that bind
And choke the spirit in their grip
Yours were always Soul-based lies
Of love expressed but never meant
Sacred words - deceitful eyes
Masked that mind of cruel intent.
Soul-based liars cannot love
Or even be loved in return
Because they cannot rise above
Base lust - unable to discern
Between the two, confusing each
Their spirit stifled by deceit
Their hollow prayers will never reachThe God whose aid they vainly seek
There are two choices facing all
Self-proclaimed God-fearing folk
To strive to live by your beliefs?
Or merely wear them as a cloak?
Of all the vile deceptions few
Stand out as more profaneThan a cardboard cut-out Christian
Seeking refuge in His name
The spirit never can be whole
For a liar of the soul.
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Platonia
I volunteer at church Sundaysuntil about 1:30.
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Platonia
11. QUANTUM ABSOLUTION
When this Universe is reduced to soup
And Father Time has a terminal stoop
There will be writ in some quantum code
The following simple and sorrowful ode:
Each said I love you to the others ear
Many times overthat much is clear
For one, those words came from the soul
Blind to the others deceitful role.
Yet whether one acts to deceive or notIn reality - it doesnt matter a jot
Whether ones conduct is cruel or fair
Is probably neither here nor there
Whether one chooses to admit or stall
In the fullness of Time, at the final call
All is absolvedthat too is clear
If one becomes a church volunteer.
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Platonia
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Platonia
12. WITHOUT YOU
Without you there is nothing
Nothing to feel
Neither wound nor pain
Nothing to heal
Hollow eyes looking
With nothing to see
What lies behind them
Is no longer me
An empty dry shell
On a sea-less beachWith no end in sight
And nothing to reach
Only the torment
Of how it would feel
If instead of a dream
You had been real
Wellintentioned advice
Notwithstanding it seems
The two worst mistakes -
To Trust and have Dreams.
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Platonia
Trying to forget someone you love is like trying to remember
someone you never knew.
- Anonymous
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Platonia
13. IF ONLY
Tell me that you love me
Even if you dont
Tell me that youll miss me
Even if you wont
So shrink not from the lie
That keeps at bay the pain
Of feeling your love die
And not seeing you againIf only that it did not matter
If only that I did not care
If only I could just pretend
That you were never there.
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Platonia
You gentle me and calm me in a way I have never
experienced before. You have a way of making me feel loved
and cherished and protected even from so far away. I know
now, as a result of what you have given me, that I will never
ever be the same J
I think sometimes I dont give you all the things you give to
me. I want to try to do better and show you how much youmean to me baby. You really are my rockI love and adore
you. .. J
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Platonia
14. A PRAYER FOR A LOST LOVE
May she think of just our good times
And do so with a smile
And one day find true happiness
And every little while
Please remind her gently, of all I used to say
To lift her soul and help her
Through every lonely dayRemind her of her beauty rare
Whenever she is low
And that someone out there loves her
More than she can ever know.
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Platonia
Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever, and
we'll meet now and then when we wish, in the midst of the one
celebration that never can end.
- Richard Bach
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Platonia
15. ON YOUR BIRTHDAY
May God bless you on this day
With happiness to light your way
Though we only shared but two
Of your lifespan years lived through
Those two years will always be
The happiest of all for me
Better to have loved and lost
Regardless of the pain or cost
Than to balk at Cupids call
And never to have loved at all
To have found a mirrored soul
And have fleetingly felt wholeFulfilled, contented and complete
With love impervious to defeat.
So my love for you lives on
Defiant though the dream is gone
At my demise your face will be
The very last that I shall see
Away beyond this realm of pain
I pray that well be friends again
If not in this world or clime
Perhaps another space and time
May God be always at your side
And His grace with you abide.
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Platonia
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and
endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet
with a success unexpected in common hours.
- Henry David Thoreau
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Platonia
16. THE PATH AHEAD
I see our path ahead untrod
Loves ashes strewn about unblessed
Joy and laughter unexpressed
A phantom future laid to rest
For reasons only known to God
A path now in my mind I plod
Cobbled with our might-have-beens
To re-enact those ghostly scenes
That haunt the graveyard of my dreamsIn places only known to God.
In years to come, when I nod
Pensive in my fireside chair
Heed not the disembodied stare
Im dreaming of us both somewhere
Together in the eyes of God.
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Platonia
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you can understand.
- William Butler Yeats
Truth, not cruelty to a friend;
Pleasure, not in haste to end
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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Platonia
17. THE ROAD BACK
Despite the very best intent
To turn away from all thats spent
Resolutely not to seek
Justice for the stinging cheek
But turn the other to the foe -
Yet still my mind yearns to know
An answer - a reason to explain
Such cruel and undeserved pain
A demon in a mind possessed
The cuckoo in the warbler's nest?
But no, I never can go back
Along that twisted, tortured track
Its littered leaves of looks and lies
Remnants of a lover's guise
All those hollow words to pass
Pools of tears a looking glass
Telling all I fear to know
Leading where I fear to goA barren and forbidding land
With no trusted guiding hand.
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Platonia
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.
- John Milton
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Platonia
18.
MINDCOMBER
In my mind
You rummage still
Fossicking
Against my will
Turning thoughts
Upside down
Discarding some
With a frown
Pausing
Every little while
With yourBabydoodle smile
Leaving things
In such a mess
And leaving me
With you to bless
Yet in my heartIts you I keep
Your hand I hold
As I sleep.
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Platonia
Believe me, it is no time for words when the wounds are fresh
and bleeding; no time for homilies when the lightning's shaft
has smitten, and the man lies stunned and stricken. Then let
the comforter be silent; let him sustain by his presence, not by
his preaching; by his sympathetic silence, not by his speech.
- George Horace Lorimer
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Platonia
19. LIGHTENING LOVE
Love like lightening strikes but once
If at all, along the path of Life
A swift and awful cosmic knife
Stabbing forth from Passions passing squall
Its victim burnt, broken and left to sprawl
In time to rise and stumble on
Hollow-eyed, aimless and aloneHe who never finds, forever hunts.
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Platonia
A life without love in it is like a heap of ashes upon a deserted
hearth - with the fire dead, the laughter stilled, and the light
extinguished.
- Anonymous
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Platonia
20. THE PRIZE
Even should I conquer all the Earth
For me, there can but be one hearth
Of one house and one room therein
And in that room a bed
Where one woman lays her head
No greater prize could any mortal win
When the Universe, unknown, unseenUnfolds as one vast, timeless scene
All Pasts and Futures are the same
An infinity of Nows, but one
One Now alone tells of who won
That prize, and his immortal name.
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Platonia
White in the moon the long road lies,
The moon stands blank above;
White in the moon the long road lies
That leads me from my love.
- AE Housman
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Platonia
21. YOUR MOON
Once in happy times before
When we lived and loved as one
We made love on a western shore
And shared its setting sun
Next day on to the eastern coast
As your moon above us shone
We loved again so we could boast
An east-west double done
And in between the night was spent
Camped out just like two teens
Inside a truck in lieu of a tentNo matter the lack of means
On that wind-whipped western shore
In my mind I often stand
My heart as cold and heavy
As its dark and clammy sand
Such memories as these I keepAnd when night skies are clear
The sunset sees me quietly weep
And your moon brings forth a tear.
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Platonia
I see before me the Gladiator lieHe leans upon his hand, his manly brow
Consents to death but conquers agony
And his droopd head sinks gradually low
And through his side, the last drops ebbing slow
Fall heavy, one by one
Like the first of a thunder shower
The arena swims around him he is gone
Ere ceased the inhuman shout
Which hailed the wretch who won.
- Lord Byron
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Platonia
22. WINNERS AND LOSERS
That smoky bar
In Houston town
It wasnt far
You took me down
The black rock band
Loudly playing
You, cue in hand
Gently swaying
(Much later you
Would share with me
For that venueA fantasy)
You and me
All in fun
Played best of three
You lost I won
But when it cameTo count the cost
Of Loves game
You won I lost.
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Platonia
I have that terrible feeling, much like I get at Christmas, and
of course New Years Eve. I really, really wanted to connect
with you. Im feeling so far away from you sweetheart.
Desolate, lonely and aloneI love you J
The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.
- Socrates
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Platonia
23. CHRISTMAS TIME
Christmas time has come around
Bringing with it time to pause
To dwell upon the lost and found
And ponder too, effect and cause
What was gained and at what cost
In new love found or old love lost
Subject the soul to steady gaze
With reflective eye to self-appraise
Be bold enough to open wide
The inner selfnot turn asideFrom any thought, however sad
Or any deed however bad
Thoughts you cannot bear to think
(Unless you have another drink)
Continue till all thoughts are thunk
(And you are either dead or drunk)
Somehow it all adds up to nowt
If the one you love, you are without.
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Platonia
For so long as one hundred men remain alive, we shall never
under any conditions submit to the domination of the English.
It is not for glory or riches or honours that we fight, but only
for liberty, which no good man will consent to lose but with his
life.
- The Declaration of Arbroath, 1320
Twelve Highlanders and a bagpipe make a rebellion.
- Scottish Proverb
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Platonia
24. A PIPER AT MY GRAVE
Being of Scots descent
For better or for worse
My soul needs a lament
It is the Scottish curse
Naturally a restless race
And quick to join a fray
With Sassenachs in their face
The pipers led the way
Those melancholy strains
Send visions to the soul
Of hungered Highland pains
And their tragic toll
Of the hated loyal oath
And every murderous deed
Butcher Billys hand in both
His name a stinking weed
So spare the hymns that stir
And the drummers roll
Recall not things that wereNor the stories droll
Theres just one simple task
Lest my spirit misbehave
My last wish and all I ask:
A piper at my grave.
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The ancient and surreal schist rock formations of
Central Otago, New Zealand
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25. THE NEVIS
Your stark and tortured towers of schist
That rise to taunt the winters mist
Yet stand so awkward and awry
Under summers sapphire sky
As sentinels they watching keep
Vigil oer a breathless sweep
From valleys dappled green and gold
To ragged ranges rising bold
Their whitecaps acquiesce to haze
Maddening to the keenest gaze.
What galls your brooding brows of stoneBorn of chaotic times unknown?
Rippled lines, all weather-pocked
Life forms therein, for aeons locked
In natures time-warp capsule sealed
Prisoners she will never yield
To see again the light of day
In this, a world thats lost its way
Do those stony furrowed browsIn silence know the fault is ours?
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The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen
at once.
- Albert Einstein
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26. THE ALEXANDRA CLOCK
I need to deal
With that clock on the hill
Counting my days
In contempt of my will
Our eyes seem to lock
Each now and then
No escaping the gaze
Of that craggy Big Ben
Keeping its vigil
Away to the east
Pausing for none
Not even the least
Beneath it an endless
Green snake slithers by
Alluding that Time
Never ceases to fly
Yet Relativity shows
That Time in fact slows
For any mass-matterThe faster it goes
So I need to travel
Lightening fast
And still faster again
To revisit the past
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Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the
age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.
- Mark Twain
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Far from the gaze
Of that tyrant of Time
On its grandiose perch
And lofty incline
Back to my youth
And a time long ago
When the problem with clocks
Was ticking too slow.
Life must be lived forwards
But what is perverse
It can be understood only
If lived in reverse.
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There is a pleasure in the pathless woods
There is a rapture on the lonely shoreThere is society where none intrudes
By the deep sea, and music in its roar
- Lord Byron
Painting reproduced courtesy of Phillipa Bayley, Tauranga, NZ,
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27. THE SEA-WRAITH
I went down to the sea
A sea in my dreams
Drawn by its roar
And seabirds screams
It was there that I saw
The wraith as she ran
As if floating to me
Over the sand
Laughing, arms reaching
Hair flying, eyes wild
The beautiful face
Of a sea-storm child
We kissed, then I woke
Not knowing where
I was, till I found
Sea-sand in my hair
And salt on my lips
And the roar in my ear
From a stormy seaThat I can still hear
And the pretty sea-wraith
Floating over the sand?
Turning I found
I was holding her hand.
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We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is
forever.
- Carl Sagan
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28. THE HAWK AND THE BUTTERFLY
They caught my eye
In the still dry heat
Of a late summer sky
The fluky flight
As it fluttered by -
The lifetime day
Of a butterfly
Ducking and dipping
And direction-flipping
As if it knew
Its life was slipping
Then above and afar
The hawk I spied
Slowly soaring
In effortless glide
Two creatures caughtIn the same space-time
With me, as their lives
Intersected with mine
Yet so different in span
And in relative roles
Of instinct and plan
But at end, those lives
Though seeming diverseCount for the same
In our sensed Universe
Mere illusory chips
In some deitys game
Unless you could add
A dimension or two
And by doing reveal
The Platonian view.
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So we set our eyes, not on what we can see, but on what we
cannot see. What we see will last only a short time, but what
we cannot see will last forever.
- Corinthians 4, Verse 18
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29. OUR RABBIT-HUTCH REALITY
Nothings ever as it seems
Blind by what we see
Children of the inland plains
Know nothing of the sea
Captives of dimensions four
Rabbit-hutch confined
Had we one dimension more
True freedom of the mind!
Would Times arrowed line
Turn out to be a sphere?
With every Now that ever was
Or will be - in one Here?
One vast eternal Present
No beginning and no end
No yesterdays are absent
All tomorrows too, attend
So Death is mere release
No sting, nor pain as suchAll that shall decease
Is the bondage of that hutch
The end reality, you see
Is more than all thats been
More than what could ever be
And more than every Dream.
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Have you ever noticed
When you're feeling quite good
There's always a pigeonWill come shit on your hood
You're feeling loved and fulfilled
And your life seems on track -
Then some cowgirl from Texas
Sticks a knife in your back
Pick inarticulate cowboys
If compelled to wreck lives
As words have more might
Than the sharpest of knives.
(with apologies to John Prine)
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30. WHAT PIGEONS DO
I never really cared, or knew
What pigeons do
Till I saw thema flock
In tight formation
They flew
Moving patterns on a canvas
Of still, clear blue
As I watched, their formation
Unformed then re-formed anew
Each formation
Less a fewThen randomness took hold
Till I swear
As if to mock
They spelled letters in the air !
For an instant, clear and bold
Three letters
Did I construe
There and thenThey spelled POO.
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Auckland and fair Welly-town
Both cities for their winds renown
Wellys from the chilly south
Aucklands blasts from every mouth.
(with apologies to none)
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31. STATE HIGHWAY ONE
Feelin down, lets quit this townLand of Auck
And trendy talk
Drive like fury
Past dreary Drury
Thenoh no !
Its Pokeno
On to Mercer
What could be worser?
To put it bluntly
Huntly
(Almost a tie
With Ohinewai)
A horror too
Is Horatiu
Then Hamilton
Born and gone
Cambridge treesPesky leaves
Tin sheep and cow
At Tirau
Toko still
Stinks of mill
Barely saw
Toe-paw
Army stew
At WaiouruThroughTaihape
Made it snappy
Headache pill
At Hunterville
Wheel-spin
Through Levin
Paikakariki
Feelin peaky
To Welly-town, still feelin down
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(Gareth Edwards, Wales and British Lions rugby international, and
inaugural Hall of Famer)
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32. KURANUI
One summers eve, when all is still
We two again shall run that hill
And with each stride shall fall away
All our yearsday by day
Till at the top when we shall see
Each other as we used to be
Strong of limb and keen of eye
With dreams beyond the bluest skyPlaying every famous field
Winning, never once to yield
Our lives ahead, beyond that hill
Shaped by dreams, remembered still.
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Dear Colin
This is to say au revoir. I am off to France tonight - Good luck
to you old chap
Love from
Daddy
(Postcard from Lt-Col George Craig, DSO, officer commanding No.1
New Zealand Field Ambulance, to his son, April, 1916)
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33. A SUMMERTIME GARDEN
Hunkered down in his hermetic haze
Of blue pipe-smoke and remembered days
Days of which he never spoke
But the silence and the distant look
The place of words most eloquent took
His mind still saw the sightless eyes
Forever fixed on foreign skies
Begging their body - escape, take flight
Flee now from this unspeakable plight!
Now! To that painless eternal night
His ears still heard last words unsaid
By mortally wounded long since dead
In a war replaced by the one in his head
From times long past, to now and here
In a summertime garden with ginger beer
Regret and sorrow that I never asked
A troubled man of his troubling pastBack when I was a troublesome boy
Who knew no better and knew no fear
In a summertime garden with ginger beer.
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- Isaiah 41:10- from the diary of Gwenda Craig, 1957
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34. THE TEA-CUP READING
In childhood, I remember still
My mother would, for her
And their amusement tell
The fortunes of her friends
With a natural psychic skill
By the reading of their tea-cups
And she mostly did it well
A joke that she would often play
Before the reading had begun
Cup in hand, her eyes downcast
And with a gentle gypsy smile
She would ominously say
Cross my palm with silver dear
Else Ill tell your past.
When my tea-cup she did hold
I would also be amused
By the words she would intone
But those that came to haunt meWere from the Bible tale of old:
You will always be a Daniel
And like him - stand alone.
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Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the
world better.
- Martin Luther King
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35. THE LEARNING WHEEL
The greatest invention of all time
Far and away, the most sublime
Is the humble Wheelits clear
Not just the one we ride and steer
But more the one by which we learn
To live, to love, our means to earn
A living and our way through Life
Striving for Peace and ending Strife
Success requires the Mind to change
Blend the Familiar with the Strange
With each turn of the Learning WheelSlowly and surelyour Fate to seal
The myopic Mind perceives the world
And the Wheel marks of those before
Reflection then, till the Mind unfurled
Is moved to act in novel ways
Toward that goal of better days
Progress made is progress learned
From the efforts of the humble FewFor whom that Wheel freely turned.
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36. THE HEART OF GLASS
One birthday long since gone
When we were far apart
My lover sent to me
A pretty crystal heart
I used to hold it in my palm
To touch so tenderlyA symbol of our lasting love
Was what it was to me
Then one day she took it back
Her reason she would say
My treasured gift of love to you
Was never on display
And I was left to wonder
To ponder on and on
If something cant be seen
Does that really mean its gone?
To give and then take back
Is that really fair?Especially when the taker
Leaves in its place despair?
Sadly now the answers clear
From all that came to pass
That pretty crystal heart to her
Was just a glob of glass.
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Every life is a march from innocence, through temptation, to
virtue or vice.
- Lyman Abbott
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37. KEEPING IN STEP
When Love eludes her yet again
Resulting in that old refrain
My pecker-pickers got it wrongJust as it has done all along
Then the simple question begs
For that theory to have legs
Those peckers must be all the same
If the picker be to blame.
Though the theory has appeal
It seems a fraction too facile
Given that, and laws of chance
Another tune may fit that dance
Like the army marching past
One troopers step is out of cast
The army out of step with him?Or does he need his step to trim?
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I need to toe touch with you baby. To feel you being real. To
tell you how much I love you, to know that this is not a dream.
Baby, I hope you know how much you mean to me, how much
I have changed as a result of being with you, being loved by
you and having you in my life has healed me on such a core
level. I can never repay you for that darling, this lesson of love.
It is a sacred gift. It is a divine blessing. I thank you. I love
you.. ..J
Well I dont know, things will normalize soon,.but
somehow Im compelled to seek you out and toe touch. J
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38. ON TOUCHING TOES
I remember once, and see it still
That Christmas when you fell so ill
With fever plagued - no end in sight
Left unchecked, a dangerous plight
You told me it was nothing much
As long as we two played toe-touch
And so we did, all through the night
Till that foul ferment took its flight
You were sleeping by the morn
Me so relieved you saw that dawn
Toe-touching was from then declared
Our signal for love felt and shared.
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.I am so grateful G, for your persistence, for your
determination, for your confidence. I love you.....I miss you....I
need you so badly in my life sweetheart.....J
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39. DO YOU REMEMBER?
Do you remember when
At the airport that night
For our very first sight
Of each other at last
So nervous at first
Hearts beating fast
Your balloons had all burst
Do you remember then?
Do you remember when
On your couch we first sat
Together to chat
But the talking soon stoppedAnd we just looked
Till your shoes both dropped
And things came unhooked
Do you remember then?
Do you remember when
My choc cowboy you ate
Because you couldnt waitAnd by your hand I was led
From the room that was spare
To your bed instead
To make love then and there
Do you remember then?
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What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now forever taken from my sight
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind
- William Wordsworth
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Do you remember when
Across Texas we sped
In your roadster red
That spring before last
Your long golden hair
Streamed in the blast
Of rock music and airDo you remember then?
Do you remember when
That Guadalupe day
On its banks where we lay
The photos you took
After playing our game
Of my happy look
So pleased that you came
Do you remember then?
Do you remember when
One San Antonio night
We dined in the light
Of the rivers soft glowAfter our visit
To the Alamo camp
That lit Freedoms lamp
Do you remember then?
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It was a bittersweet day for me as I strolled the streets of
Gruen and ate at the Grist Mill. You know what filled my
thoughts and how the memories of my last visit were. I so
miss you darling. I need a toe touch. I floated down the river,
watching the snapping turtles, the rocky rivers edge, thinking
how I wish it was you beside me. How I would goose you
with my foot as you watched the circling falcons. Splashing
you, irritating you. And then dinner, ironically at the verytable we were at 4 months ago. J
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Do you remember when
At Gruen we stayed
The love that we made
In a four-poster bed
Then soaked for hours
In the old bath where I said
I wish we could wed
Then I took off my ring
And gave it to you
For that wish to come true
Do you remember then?
I will always remember then
How that which took
My whole life to find
Existed only in my mind
How commonsense
Could ever miss
Deceit embedded in a kiss
How harsh Fate would me deny
The chance to look you in the eye
And ask the simple question Why?Yes, I remember when.
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Let no-one who loves be unhappy even love unreturned has
its rainbow.
- James Matthew Barrie
Rainbow over the Raggedy Range, Alexandra, Otago, New Zealand
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40. RAINBOWS END
Love is like a rainbows end
With its fabled pot of gold
Unseen you blindly hope its there
But never will be, as foretold
So you only find despair
As rainbows quickly fade away
Loves spark will soon be shed
From thefaithless loved ones eye
So leaving you for deadBut cruelly not to die
Yet still you love her as before
But now your heart pretends
To feel her love, just as though
Rainbows really did have ends
With pots of gold below.
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I came home early after going to dinner.I just missed you so
much sweetheart. I needed to come home to you even though
you arent there. I am comforted just to be able to think of the
possibility of you being there. Im so blessed to have you in mylife my love. I adore you. J
We are one honey I love you so much. Was thinking about
our love tonight as we drove along the bay yes, you have
spoiled me forever darling that old song love to love you
keeps humming in my head. I am ruined for life, I finally
know now J
I keep leaving men, and give them houses and housefuls too,
yet start over and do it again J
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41. THE HOMECOMING
I came home one day, from wearisome toil
For the sight of youmy eyes to spoil
Door, then passage, walking through
Softly calling endearments to youSilence, too loud, greeted each name
Yet my first thought was - this is a game
You had invented and wanted to play
To lift from my mind, the weight of the day
Or perhaps you had simply gone for awhile
To soon re-appear, with a kiss and a smile
So I turned to walk back and into our room
And blinked as if hit by a flash in the gloom
Disbelieving the scene again and again
As slowly arose the most sickening pain
You had goneeverything, everywhere
Empty spaceas if youd never been there
And you, all I loved, existed no more
The essence of me, my innermost core
Torn out in a planned and merciless swoopOne cruel and cowardly avenging scoop
But worse, much worse, was yet to befall
When I learnt you had never existed at all.
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Im not in love with himI dont feel my toes curlI still
have half an eye peeled for the princethe 8lbs since he has
seen me, so maybe that is my way of putting him off
even if I look yucky will you love me anywaybecauseyou are my heart, Jesus I love you, love you beyond
descriptionyou are minegoing to be in your arms soon
honey J
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42. NOT SO TRUE LOVE
I was not in love with him as all but he now knows
Although he made me laugh, he didnt curl my toes
I kept telling him I love him, and did so all along
You are my heart and soul Id say knowing it was wrong
When he sees me next, I was heard to scoff
I hope my gain in weight will serve to put him off
I tried to blame his lying but its hard to make that stickWhen I was not being truthful (such hypocrisy is sick!)
So to salve my conscience I needed some excuse -
The rope for me to hanghim (Id already made the noose)
To him must go all blame because I lacked the couth
To do as I had asked of him and simply tell the Truth
But why such blatant cruelty did I hear you plead?
Well I live by flexi-ethics, flexed according to my need
Im whats called a bolter - unable to sustain
Any lasting union, but its never me to blame
Relationships that fail and the blame therefore
Is not my choice of topic for discussion any more
So to all his missives - I simply dont reply
Because I know full well that I would tell another lie
My sponsors act for me - behind him or her I hideSo I can abdicate all care and just enjoy the ride!
No doubt the time will come, when my deceit returns -
And me who set the fires becomes the one who burns.
Look honestly into my past - see each sorry scam
Look deeply into my eyes - see how shallow I am.
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My greatest fear is deception, lies and not knowingI would
rather discuss the realities of other relations than live in
duplicity. I guess this is a topic that we should explore at some
point. J
I love you with such depth it brings tears to my eyes. I knowthat company is something we can grow together to secure our
future and I am so grateful for your foresight.my future
however is with you regardless of commerce. J
.I am mainly coming over for business reasons but I am
meeting a friend, though I am not sure of the outcome. Iwant to be considerate of his feelings, however, yes I would
like to meet you in person, if you would like to.no it
would not be intruding, it is not like that. I would like to see
you if at all possible.
It has been a week since we met. I really enjoyed seeing
you face to face, Chris. You are everything I expected. Therewas so much I wanted to say after I walked away I guess you
were wise saying to wait for awhilesaying there were 3
other women you were attracted too, and were not in a place
emotionally to be available. Still.
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43. UNCONSCIONABLE
Unconscionable
A powerful and unusual word
Not very often said or heard
Except by judges at judgment time
To denounce an unusually heinous crime
Or to describeThe devious deeds of those who sell
Used cars to victims of Katrinas hell
Or one who travels to a far-off land
To see her lover, for their lives to plan
But well before even starting to pack
She arranges a tryst behind his back
Saying
Im coming for business, meeting a friend
(= Mind games to play, his dreams to end)
The day for the tryst duly arrives
And to work the unknowing lover drives
Leaving her free for her clandestine meet
The callous deception is soon complete
Saying
I really enjoyed seeing you face to face -Everything I expected. (= wish to embrace)
There was so much more I wanted to say
After I turned and walked away -
In saying to wait for awhile you were wise
With three other women as emotional ties
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With vice allied, however pure
No virtue can be long secure
Shun then the traitress and her wiles
Whateer she touches she defiles.
- Aesops Fables
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Yet still
She tells the lover It was all for us
That she left her home and travelled thus
To see him alone and their lives to plan
(= Her chance to effect a change of man)
UnconscionableA powerful and unusual word
Meaning by conscience undeterred.
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To be a friend in the truest sense, may sometimes mean that
you will be set down as an easy mark, a pushover..I should
rather believe in something and be wrong, than not believe in
it and be right...Above all, friendship means theimmeasurable capacity for forgiveness. It means the ability to
shuck off resentment rather than let it persist and poison the
spirit. He is a green hand at life, who cannot forgive any
mortal thing.
- Henry David Thoreau
It is much more important to do right, than not to do wrong.
The one is possible, the other, has always been, and always will
be, impossible.
- Robert Louis Stevenson
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44. ALMOST
You once described you
In writing to me
As the almost-woman
And I thought at the time
What a sad self-view
But one I now see
Has taken on more
Of a rose-tinted hue
To the point that the term
Almost-human
Now seems to be
More descriptive of you
To be human you see
To be part of that race
And above the mere beast
There must be some grace-
The will to Forgive
And the Truth to live
But I see neither in you
Instead all I seeIs all that I fear
So I pray hard and long
That one day my dear
You will prove us both wrong.
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I sat here in the night after waking in a panic and realizedhow fortunate I am to have you in my life and to experience
your love. I have never had what you are giving to me.thank
you my darling for showing me the finest example of love I
have ever had. J
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45. THE LAST SHRED
Its gone, all hope has gone
That clutched and fraying shred
Now the final slender strand
Of its last remaining thread
Has broken - instantly to send
My dying dream of friendship
Crashing to its end
Against the unforgiving bent
Of her mindless misbelief
A self-raised monument
To anothers needless grief
Yet she who called the love
I gave her as the best
(Of all her lifethe finestAnd far above the rest)
Will go to meet her maker
Whenever that may be
Still thinking well of her
And naught but ill of me
So at her final place of rest
Wherever that may be
The headstone should attest:Here lies one
Of devious will
And cruel deeds done
She lies still
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Jan says:
I NEVER TOLD YOU HAPPY VALENTINES DAY MY LOVER
GOD I LOVE YOU GRAAAAAAAHAMMMMMMEEEEEEEE
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46. MY VALENTINE
Loved and lovely Valentine
Though never yours, you were mine
Within my being, can still be found
Love and reasons battleground
But reason never wins the day
And so my heart bids me to sayWords as if you were still mine
My loved and lovely Valentine.
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I have so much to learn about you, so much to share. I
indulged my imagination by fabricating a life together that
would have avoided all of the pain I have lived through since
leaving New Zealand. I found myself becoming resentful for
not finding you before, greedy for the memories I missed withyou, the life we could have had together. But I am positive
now that I reframe it, that it is who I am today that treasures
you so much more than I possibly could if I had not had the
trials in my life. And perhaps you wouldnt be who you are
today if you had shared the last 25 years with me. I like to
think that we are living that scenario in another dimension I
am so grateful for your persistence, for your determination, for
your confidence. I love you .J
Thinking of you my darling, imagining you here with us,
exploring the universeI cant sleep and need to at least
make contact with you, miss you and love you J
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Platonia
47. SO MANY THINGS WE NEVER DID
So many things we never did
Before our last farewell was bid
Stand cheek to cheek on a lofty peak
Splash naked in a mountain creek
Softly kiss your sleeping eyes
See countless suns set and riseRun wild and free in childish glee
On a stormy beach with thunderous sea
See you take a childs hand
And kneeling build a fort of sand
The child in you in plain view
Till soon you have me kneeling too
Talk with you a whole night long
Of dreams, beliefs and all thats wrong
Of quantum things and all that springs
From what each to the other brings
Dance with you beneath your moon
To a slow and haunting tune
We gently pause my cheek on yours
Immersed in Loves effect and cause
So many things we never did
Before our last farewell was bid
To test each lie that you deny
And watch your weak and wavering eye.
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Platonia
... in the crowd,
They could not deem me one of such
I stood among them, but not of them,
In a shroud
Of thoughts which were not their thoughts.....
- Lord Byron
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Platonia
48. YOUR MEMORY
Every day we live as one
Your memory and me
See that every chore gets done
And share each cup of tea
When I take a walk beside
The river or the sea
We are always stride-for-stride
Your memory and me
Before you overtook my heart
Even when amidst a crowd
I would often feel apart
Settled in a self-made shroud
Never morebecause you seeAlthough my friends be few
I always know I have with me
My memory of you
On entering our room whereon
Our bed your clothes still lie
And your roses that festoon
The bedside table catch my eyeThen grief my old companion
Turns we two into a three
In a brief but rude intrusion
On your memory and me.
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Platonia
.....And I would also deem
Oer others griefs that some sincerely grieve
That two, or one are almost what they seem
That goodness is no name, and happiness no dream.
- Lord Byron
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Platonia
You are still my precious dream
As you will always be
Till the stars fall from the heavens
And the sky sinks to the sea
And when that comes to pass
I will set your memory free
And journey on to other worlds
My dream of you and me.
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Platonia
49. GRIEF
I will always love
My reminders of you
The way we were
The times we knew
My mornings now
Are as the duskMy hollowed heart
A brittle husk
My suns become
Unseemly shy
By dark clouds scolded
From my sky
My minds a lodging
An inn once blessed
Now the demon grief
Its only guest
If hope springs eternal
So does despairAs grief burns infernal
Fuelled from its air
Sadness enough
At Loves bitter end
But grief on grief
To lose also a friend.
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Platonia
....When the whole host of hatred stood hard by
To watch, and mock thee shrinking
Thou hast smiled, with a sedate and all-enduring eyeWhen Fortune fled her spoild and favourite child
He stood unbowed neath ills upon him piled.
- Lord Byron
The only place where I can really be defeated, is my own soul.
Only my own thoughts can conquer me. Only my own
passions can consume me. Let me fight it out then, alone, and
triumph in my own arena, no matter if they overcome me in
theirs.
- Mahatma Gandhi
.
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Platonia
50. LOVE AND FORTUNE
A fortune made
A woman loved
Both lost
Some things
Are meant to be
Some scenesAre destined
To be played
The rest are dreams
Forever stayed
When I come to leave
Reingas coast
Ask me which loss
Scarred me most -
The fortune
Or the woman loved?
The first from me
False freedom stole
The second took
My very soul.
(According to Maori mythology, the spirits of the dead travel to the tip
of Cape Reinga, the northern most part of Aotearoa, (New Zealand),
and from there depart on their journey to the afterlife).
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Platonia
I love you more, and yet you love me not
And never shall, Love dwells not in your will
Nor do I blame thee, though it be my lot
To strongly, wrongly, vainly love you still.
- Lord Byron
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Platonia
51. UNREQUITED LOVE
Its said that unrequited Love
By natures law returns
From the heart that cannot giveTo heal the one that yearns
But no Love ever does accord
With any plan or law
Nor heed the will or prayer
Of any, rich or poor
At the beck and call of none
And more sought than found
Far more often lost than won
On that virtual battleground
Where the reasons of the mind
Fight the seasons of the heart
Loves Summer falls to Autumns grief
Cold despair plays Winters part
And hope aligns with Springs new leaf
But reason says all hope is falseDespair and grief alone are real
We can but one short Summer steal.
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Platonia
I need a name for the land of Nows. Plato, who lived about a
century after Heraclitus and Parminedes, taught that the only
real things are forms or ideas existing in a timeless realm.I
shall call (this land) PlatoniaPlatonia is the arena which Ithink should replace space and time.
- Dr Julian Barbour,UK Theoretical Physicist
.In a certain sense, therefore, I hold it true that pure thought
can grasp reality, as the ancients dreamed.
- Albert Einstein
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52. PLATONIA I
The poet Pope once wrote:
Nature, and natures laws
Lay hid by night
God said Let Newton be
And all was light.
Not quite-
There was far more to see
Popes night endured to hide
Till God let Einstein be
Space and time to show
As both illusory
But unified-
To a deeper Truth concealed
Which Einstein vainly strove
Himself to see revealed
For peace of mind to prove
His intuitions strong advice:
God plays no dice
Soon again Gods insight giftOn a chosen one bestowed
Will in time last shadows lift
To finally evoke
The endless, massless, timeless realm
Of which Plato spoke.
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.I love thee with the breath
Smiles, tears, of all my life
And if God choose
I shall but love thee better after death.
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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53. PLATONIA II
So heres a toast to Theory M
Its coexisting worlds of strings
Making Nows of every Then
Illusions of familiar things
Plus at least dimensions ten
This mother of all theories brings
Enabling us to see all Nows
That ever were or could have been
A landscape vast and free to browse
To wander to and from each scene
So never need we mourn the loss
Of any Love or any Dream
Imagine if we were as free
In Body as we are in Mind
So thoughts were there for eyes to see
And dreams were there for hearts to find
If those of yours became of me
Would our Souls be then entwined?
An infinity of worlds diverseEnveloping our homely sod
This earth, indeed this universe
By each and every count is odd
The product of mere chance perverse
Or providential hand of God?
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Time does not bring relief, you all have lied
Who told me time would ease my pain
I miss you in the weeping of the rain
I want you at the shrinking of the tide
The old snows melt from every mountain side
And last years leaves are smoke in every lane
But last years bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide
There are one hundred places where I fear
To go so with your memories they brimAnd entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell your foot nor shone your face
I say There is no memory of you here
And so stand stricken, shedding still a tear.
- Edna St Vincent Millay
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EPILOGUE
Perhaps the Universe remains as it was in the beginning,
when all places were one place, and
all times were one time, and
all things the same thing,
in the ultimate
singularity
- Doh!
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