Thoughts in Rhyme
THOUGHTS SOUND GOOD, IF SOMETIMES
THEY'RE NICELY PUT IN OLD-FASHIONED RHYMES
By Rahomme de Linde |
VII. ASPECTS OF LIVING
- EXPERIENCES
- The pain that seems for ever to last
Will some day be of the past.
- Pleasure is sin only when
It results in pain instead of fun.
- Neither intense pleasure nor constant pain
Can the body for long sustain.
- Joys and sorrows, great and small
Will melt some day beyond recall.
- Tears come when glad or sad;
But laughter never when things are bad.
- Don't try one's grief to understand;
Just extend a caring and friendly hand.
- Rejoice this day the best you can;
Things may turn not as morrow's plan.
- Joy and sorrow to the mind are bound:
Pleasure and pain in the body found.
- Lust is heightened fantasies
Of thrills with bodies one only sees.
- What we like to do, we do with pleasure;
What we have to do, under pressure.
- FOOD AND EATING
- It isn't food that makes you fat.
But overeating: Don't forget that.
- A rule for losing weight might say:
The mouth be shut for many a day.
- Both are white and both feel grainy
One's for soup, the other for tea.
- Fasting is when we eat the least;
Eating most is a feast.
- Eating is a supreme pleasure
If done in its proper measure.
- Eat you may on your own,
But you cannot feast all alone.
- There's more to eating than nourishment:
It should also be an enjoyment.
- Sharing foods without conversation
Is like dancing all alone in isolation.
- Each time we eat, let's also know
That it's the farmers who cause the foods to grow.
- The energy in the food, though not the fun,
Has come to us from the distant sun.
- GUIDELINES
- Life isn't long: take it but lightly.
Our needs are strong: work not too slightly.
- When gift or kindness comes your way
"You shouldn't have," one mustn't say.
- Quench a quarrel before it grows;
Before it turns to harsh words and blows.
- Care not what your neighbors say
Of how you spend your night or day.
- Heartily give to one and all
Counsel and help if on you they call.
- Advice none on why or whom
They should take as bride or groom.
- Don't try to rid the world of all its weeds,
Attend to just one person's needs.
- Avert the bad, if it's not too late;
If it has happened, call it fate.
- Wish one and all from all your heart
Happiness of every sort.
- If your choice is between reason and good,
Reason it out, but choose the good.
- HUMAN BEINGS
- We can be noble, we can be mean,
Most often we are in between.
- Reason and morals are cast to dust
When one is blinded by the fire of lust.
- Naught we know can the cosmos span
Save the measuring mind of puny Man.
- For fast and swift orgasmic pleasure
People have lost their name and treasure.
- No one is always good or bad;
No one for ever is glad or sad.
- The body's beauty is just outside;
There's blood and flesh and filth inside.
- We have affected the world indeed,
With thought and word and drastic deed.
- We are the only earthly creature
That talks of past and thinks of future.
- Those who are great and good in fame
May not at home be quite the same.
- Some are poor and some are wealthy;
Fortunate those who just are healthy.
- LIFE
- There's more to life than food and drink:
It's a scope to build, a chance to think.
- Life isn't just for one's own living:
It's also for loving, and for giving.
- Who predict the course of life by star
Oft know not what stars really are.
- Time creeps slow from future to past;
But look behind: it has slipped by fast.
- The world is ruled by physical laws.
But chance is what life's patterns draws.
- Take not life too seriously
Nor treat it rather frivolously.
- Life is precious, there's much to do.
Care for and respect other lives too.
- On Time's endless, evolving line
We are but dots invisibly fine.
- Between the stretches of future and past,
Only for a moment do we really last.
- Life is for laughing, loving, crying,
Some reflecting, and then just dying.
- RULES FOR LIVING
- Those who're richer, envy them not;
Share with the poorer whatever you've got.
- Hurting none in body or mind
Is the noblest law that you can find.
- Let ire and hateful attitude
Be allowed only in solitude.
- Do some good to some, to all be kind;
Even if searching, no God you find.
- When you are right and also strong,
Help the weak, and correct the wrong.
- If a hurt results that you did not will,
Feel no guilt, but be helpful still.
- Expect not, but always say
"Thanks" to someone every day.
- Smile at someone every day,
And to someone kind words say.
- Trim the trees and cut the grass
But in the home let love not pass.
- You may for yourself much expect:
Remember to always others respect.
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