Kipling (excerpt #1)

The Birth of Venus by Adolphe William Bouguereau

For Truth is a naked lady,

And if by accident she is drawn up;

From the bottom of the sea.

It behoves a gentleman,

Either to give her a print petticoat,

Or to turn his face to the wall,

And vow he did not see.

Aphrodite by Konstantin Makovski Geburt

Who Am I?

Picture © Chattering Magpie

My head knocks against the stars.

My feet are on the hilltops.

My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.

Down in the sounding foam of primal things I,

Reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.

I have been to hell and back many times.

I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.

I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.

I know the passionate seizure of beauty

And the marvellous rebellion of man at all signs,

Reading "Keep Off."

My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive,

In the universe.

Carl Sandburg

Picture © Chattering Magpie

The Truth by Betty Ashe

Picture © Chattering Magpie

This is the truth

I have betrayed you

This is the truth

I have lied to you

This is the truth

I feel no remorse

This is the truth

I will do it again

or

Is this the truth?

It meant nothing!

Is this the truth?

Please believe me

Is this the truth?

I am truly sorry

Is this the truth?

It won't happen again

or

The truth is this

I was a bit bored

The truth is this

Just a bit of fun

The truth is this

I got caught out

The truth is this

I'm only human

Picture © Chattering Magpie

TRUTH

Picture © Chattering Magpie

As gold the Lydian touch-stone tries,

So man the virtuous, valiant, wise.

Must to all powerful Truth submit,

His virtue, valour, and his wit.

Bacchylides

A poem by Sheikh Muzaffer (excerpt #2)

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Love is a special pleasurable pain.

Whoever has this in the heart will know the secret.

They will see that everything is Truth,

And that everything leads to Truth.

There is nothing but Truth.

In the realisation of that;

They will be overcome.

They will sink into the sea of truth.

Picture copyright the Chattering Magpie

A poem by Rumi (excerpt #1

Picture the Chattering Magpie © 2009

Those who don’t feel this love,

Pulling them like a river,

Those who don’t drink dawn,

Like a cup of spring water,

Or take in sunset like supper,

Those who don’t want to change,

Let them sleep.

This love is beyond the study of theology,

That old trickery and hypocrisy,

If you want to improve your mind that way,

Sleep on.

I’ve given up on my brain,

I’ve torn the cloth to shreds,

And thrown it away.

If you’re not completely naked,

Wrap your beautiful robe of words,

About you and sleep.

Picture copyright the Chattering Magpie © 2014

A poem by Sheikh Muzaffer (excerpt #1)

Love makes us speak, love makes us moan,

Love makes us die, love brings us to life,

Love makes us drunk and bewildered,

It sometimes makes one a king.

Love and the lover have no rigid doctrine.

Whichever direction the lover takes,

He turns towards his beloved.

Wherever he may be, he is with his beloved.

Wherever he goes, he goes with his beloved.

He cannot do anything,

He cannot survive even for one moment,

Without his beloved.

He constantly recalls his beloved,

As his beloved remembers him.

Lover and beloved, remember and remembered,

Are ever in each other’s company, always together.

The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq by Ibn al-Arabi

'My heart has become capable of every form,

It is a pasture for gazelles and a convent for Christian monks,

And a temple for idols and the pilgrim's Ka‘ba,

And the tables of the Tora and the book of the Koran.

I follow the religion of Love: whatever way Love's camels take,

That is my religion and my faith.'

The Tarjuman al-Ashwaq, by Ibn al-Arabi.

Trans: Reynold A. Nicholson (1911).