Miscellaneous

Poems

I have included a couple of poems that to me are inspirational. I have also included a couple of my own, one is an attempt to be more disciplined and is supposed to be an Iambic Trimeter, inspired by the beauty of the desert.

List of Poems

I Rise by Maya Angelou
Invictus by William Ernest Henley
An nafud by Richard Perry
Bastion of the Night by Richard Perry

I Rise by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
you may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise

Maya Angelou

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Invictus by William Ernest Henley,

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

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An nafud by Richard Perry

"Listen to the stillness,
to the total quiet.
Listen to the calmness,
the beating of your heart.
Feel the baking dryness,
Blasting upon your face.
Feel the rivulets of sweat,
Cascading down your brow.

As you take the first steps
Across sun baked sabkha,
towards the blowing sands,
hear the crisp, sharp footsteps
as you crunch cross the land,
turn and stop a moment.

Watch footprints disappear
washed by rolling sands.
Watch the dhub lizard bask
and the sand fish burrow
in the cool leeward sand.

Take all this in as you
inhale the desert air,
as it burns throat and lungs,
remember where you are.
Marvel at the beauty,
the Place called "an nafud",
the "empty quarter", where
peace is all around, and
where tranquility hangs
the vastness of the sands."

Richard Perry

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Bastion of the Nights

Blazing Helios dipping into western shores,
Azure elements speckled with vermilion chariots of fire,
Streaks of subtle verdant as Mighty Helios sinks beneath the waves, while
Tinges of pink illuminate the sky.
Indiscernible dawning of another night as
Onward marches Prussian blue inking slowly into Black
Now Diana's softer embrace wraps her arms around.

Only now do scorpion and gerd
From cool holes emerge.

The scarab scurries swiftly over sand as
Helios' hellish heat dissipates
Eventually to a chill

Night's refreshing embrace
Invigorates the soul, as
Great Bear points Polaris straight and Orion
His arms hold the jeweler's velvet cloth on which
Thrown across the myriad of stars like diamonds
Sparkle with your love for me.

Richard Perry

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