A Series of Philosophical Verses, Keith R (Bob) Perry [best novels for students .txt] 📗

A SERIES OF PHILOSOPHICAL VERSES

By Keith R (Bob) Perry


COPYRIGHT © 1973
Published and printed by:
Keith Robert (Bob) Perry
2/31 Wansfell St
Picnic Bay
Queensland 4819
AUSTRALIA


Each verse is a separate unit. It is written with a philosophical theme and the entire work is linked with this common thread.

Each verse is loosely adapted from the 19th century work of Edward Fitzgerald’s 5th translation of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

Omar Khayyam was a 12th century Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer.
He invented the Arabic calendar.



INDEX
4...Good Morning
6...Peace of Mind
7...Desert Snow
8...The Loveliest and the Best
9...Priests and Doctors
10...Sir! My Glass is Empty
11...Gently Brother
12...Change of Heart
13..Roses and Thorns
14..Happiness and Leisure
15..Understanding
16..The Loves of My Life
17..Fate
18..The Purpose?
19..The Light?
20..Would He Break the Cup?
21..Could God Make a Mistake?
22..Just What the Publican Ordered
23..Would the Moonlight Help?
24..Without End


GOOD MORNING

Arise, a new day is dawning and
The stars of night have gone:
The sky has turned from red to blue
And it’s a new day.

A little after the crack of dawn
I thought I heard a lost soul crying.
The world is preparing for another day.
Why be drowsy – welcome the morning.

And for all the lovers of today,
“Open the curtains of your mind,
And let the morning sun shine in.
Who knows, it may be too late tomorrow.

Remember the loves of yesterday?
They put their souls to rest
Where the beautiful flowers in the garden grow-
There are the lovers of yesterday.


4

PEACE OF MIND
There is that happy medium
Where serenity fills the soul,
Where the rich in love and the poor in spirit
Will be offered peace of mind.

With a favourite CD in the shade of a flowering tree
A bottle to drink and a chicken to eat,
And you and I to enjoy the tranquillity.
Would we not call this Paradise.

Politicians and pop-stars ive in glory.
Religious leaders offer a Paradise to come.
Enjoy what you have – not what they promise,
And don’t fight another man’s war.

A person who is rich in inner beauty says,
“I offer you a share of my happiness,
It is within your reach-
Help me spread it like seeds in the wind.”

Farmers who real riches from the soil
And those who help to cultivate it,
Turn to the bounty of Mother Nature
With hope of harvest before it becomes suburbia.


6


DESERT SNOW

Which mankind strives for
Will succeed – or fail.
It’s like snow upon the desert:
Shines a few seconds then gone forever.

In these battered conditions we call life,
Time passes quickly – night follows day.
Kings and Presidents with all their power
We’re here for but a little while and then no more.

There is a park where children play
Beneath which the Churchills and the Hitlers are buried
Along with the dead of their great armies,
The children cannot break their sleep.

The young couple who just made love in the garden,
The same garden where great armies bled.
Many a battle for life or death happened there.
He picked a rose and put it in her hair.

And the fruit trees that grow on the bank of the river
Beneath which we sit – Oh! Don’t pollute the water!
Nor strip the trees bare! Hundreds before you enjoyed it
Hundreds after you will share what you leave behind.


7


THE LOVELIEST AND THE BEST
Sweetheart, let’s make a toast today,
A toast that clears today of regrets and fears,
Tomorrow is another day, my love,
And yesterday is dead and gone.

They had their moment with the loveliest and the best
That old father time allowed them;
They had their glasses of wine and made passionate love,
And at the end of the day went to rest.

Hey! It’s party time in the room they left behind
We enjoyed ourselves there.
But as we grow old, the young
Now make party in that same room.

“She was saved from the boys
And given to the worms,” says a grandmother.
“Buried beneath a clod of clay,
Without wine, without song, without singer and without end.”

Do you live for today?
Do you work hard so that tomorrow might be better?
All the philosophers in the pub will tell you,
“Fools – your reward does not exist.”


8


PRIESTS AND SCIENTISTS

The priests and scientists who discuss
Creation and evolution so wisely,
It matters not when and where they go,
It is only their opinion or writings in some book.

When I was young the priests and politicians
Tried to change my life style
With arguments or threats,
Though I stood fast.

I took some scholars under my wing
And did my best to educate them.
At the end of the day it was I who was educated.
I found myself to be a free spirit.

In this Universe my spark of life began,
I knew not where or why.
When conceived in my mother’s womb,
It began my lottery of birth.

I did not hurry nor ask neither where I went nor why.
Neither religion nor politics showed the way.
My teacher’s taught me why.
Will my life slip away with my indecision.


9

SIR! MY GLASS IS EMPTY

I had an out-of-body experience
And to the heavens I flew.
I learned a lot as I went on,
But not the secret of man’s destiny.

There was a mystery,
It perplexed me:
We shared our life for a brief while
Before death struck us down.

The answer was not hidden from us.
The mysteries of the seas beneath and the stars above,
Every day and night reveals their answers
If you know where to look.

My soul guides my gently through the darkness
And I lifted my heart,
To find a light at the end of the tunnel
And I heard a voice crying – “Are you blind.”

I tried to learn the secret of my life
While looking into an empty glass.
And all the life that had drunk from that glass whispered,
“Drink – you may never pass by this way again.”


10


GENTLY BROTHER

This empty glass was once sand upon a beach
And had fought the sea for a million years.
Ah! Drink, for what passive lip
Might kiss this glass when I have gone.

I remember playing sandcastles on the beach
I saw he machine of industry change my sandcastles
Into glass. It whispered as I drank,
“Gently brother, gently please.

I’ve heard a few wild stories in my time.
Of Adam and Eve and creation!
Really – can a chunk of earth
Be made into a human being?

Not a drop of water shall reach your lips
In the fires of hell
For it is forbidden
God commanded it so.

The sunflower in the morning seeks the rising sun
And locks onto its movement all day long.
Is your day a search for sunshine and beauty?
Surely this would be a noble ambition.


11

CHANGE OF HEART

Whether ‘it is’ or ‘is not’ so,
Whether it’s black or white I do not care for,
All I could give a dam about
Was to enrich my life with love.

At the door to my heart
Came Cupid with his bow and arrows.
He should shoot us all through the heart
It feels wonderful all over – I fell in love.

Seek love!
Not by school or church though
As neither can
Change the heart.

The greatest people in my life,
Some derelict, some beautiful and some were rich,
Cause me fears and sorrows
And only love could change this.

Come with me to some secluded place
Where we can forget the mysteries of life
And you and I in that quite corner
Can poke fun at those who does the same to us.


12


ROSES AND THORNS

TV documentaries on the world around us
Convince us that we should care.
But Mother Nature, in one foul swoop
Could wreck you and I and the TV show too.

If your life is full of love
It will end when you go.
But when you return
That love will be much stronger.

You are like a rose in a beautiful garden
But roughly treated you will thorn me,
But when your petals have dropped one by one,
You will no longer be noticed, though the thorns will remain.

Mother Nature controls our lives
And fate and destiny rule the nights and days.
This makes you go ‘down’, ‘up’ and ‘around’.
Then beneath the earth to lie.

In the election of life it matters not
If you vote yes or no.
I put it to you: please consider this –
Your God knows it all – He knows!


13


HAPPINESS AND PLEASURE

God is here and God is there.
You might not think so with all your pain,
But He’s in Mother Nature and in your very being,
Everything on this planet will eventually perish – except Him.

Our life is but a moment timed by God’s watch.
You cannot see him no matter what the drama might be,
Though taking into account all eternity –
He made it, He controls it and only He will end it.

No matter how vain you are, heaven will not open its activities and d door.
While you are on this earth as you are today,
You cannot change the past or the future.
Though what will happen when you are you no more?


Don’t waste your time dreaming,
Be wary of activities and disputes.
Better be happy with a beautiful girl –
What do you want – success, disputes or pretty girls?

I got a divorce and soon after remarried
Booted out unhappiness and despair,
Now I make love with happiness and pleasure
And I feel much better for it.


14

UNDERSTANDING

‘Is’ and ‘is not’ is no problem to me,
‘Up’ and ‘down’ and ‘around about’,
Is not a problem to me.
Simply because I couldn’t care less.

My use of words people say
Have cast a light on their lives –
Not so, it’s