World Poetry Day

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HEPZIBAH
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World Poetry Day

Post by HEPZIBAH »

Apparently today, March 21st, is World Poetry Day! When I read this I instantly remembered the poem Abou Ben Adhem which I read in quite early childhood and loved the flow of it and the imagery in it. I couldn't remember who wrote it and when I did a search discovered that it was by James Henry Leigh Hunt. He wrote many poems and I have copied another one below as it fits this forum - The Nile.

Abou Ben Adhem - Poem by James Henry Leigh Hunt

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold:—
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the Presence in the room he said
"What writest thou?"—The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still, and said "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men."

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.


The Nile - Poem by James Henry Leigh Hunt

It flows through old hushed Egypt and its sands,
Like some grave mighty thought threading a dream,
And times and things, as in that vision, seem
Keeping along it their eternal stands,--
Caves, pillars, pyramids, the shepherd bands
That roamed through the young world, the glory extreme
Of high Sesostris, and that southern beam,
The laughing queen that caught the world's great hands.
Then comes a mightier silence, stern and strong,
As of a world left empty of its throng,
And the void weighs on us; and then we wake,
And hear the fruitful stream lapsing along
'Twixt villages, and think how we shall take
Our own calm journey on for human sake.


Image Experience is not what happens to you;
it is what you do with what happens to you.
-Aldous Huxley
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