quotes from The Prophet
by Kahlil Gibran

	                 Of Love

       Mom        Kaitlin Alexis      Dad
 
	When love beckons to you, follow him,
            Though his ways are hard and steep.           
            And when his wings enfold you, yield to him,
	Though the sword hidden among his
pinions may wound you
	And when he speaks to you, believe in him,
	Though his voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.                ["He Is Like Sweet Spring"]
 
	For even as love crowns you so shall he
crucify you.  Even as he is for your growth
so is he for your pruning.
	Even as he ascends to your height and
caresses your tenderest branches that quiver
in the sun,
 
So shall he descend to your roots and
shake them in their clinging to the earth.                ["Accustomed to Cold"]
 
	All these things shall love do unto you
that you may know the secrets of your heart, 
and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
 
	But if in your fear you would seek only
love's peace and love's pleasure,
	Then it is better for you that you cover
your nakedness and pass out of love's
threshing-floor,
	Into the seasonless world where you
shall laugh, but not all of your laughter,
and weep, but not all of your tears.
 
	Love gives naught but itself and takes
naught but from itself.
	Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
	For love is sufficient unto love.             ["If You Were Truly Kind"]
 
	When you love you should not say,
"God is in my heart," but rather, "I am in the
heart of God."
	And think not you can direct the course
of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs
your course.
 
	Love has no other desire but to fulfill
itself.
	But if you love and must needs have
desires, let these be your desires:
	To melt and be like a running brook
that sings its melody to the night.
	To know the pain of too much tenderness.
	To be wounded by your own understanding            ["Waiting"]
of love;
	And to bleed willingly and joyfully.
	To wake at dawn with a winged heart
and give thanks for another day of loving;
	To rest at the noon hour and meditate
love's ecstasy;
	To return home at eventide with gratitude;
	And then to sleep with a prayer for the 
beloved in your heart and a song of praise
upon your lips.
   (from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran)

Denna Rae & William 

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
 
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
 
or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
 
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
 
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands
							(e.e. cummings)

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			Of Marriage
 
	
	You were born together, and together you
shall be forevermore.
	You shall be together when the white wings
of death scatter your days.
	Ay, you shall be together even in the
silent memory of God.
	But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
	And let the winds of the heavens dance 
between you.
 
	Love one another, but make not a bond
of love:
	Let it rather be a moving sea between 
the shores of your souls.
	Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup.
	Give one another of your bread but eat
not from the same loaf.
	Sing and dance together and be joyous,
but let each one of you be alone,
	Even as the strings of a lute are alone
though they quiver with the same music.
 
	Give your hearts, but not into each
other's keeping.
	For only the hand of Life can contain
your hearts.
	And stand together yet not too near
together:
	For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
	And the oak tree and the cypress grow
not in each other's shadow.
(from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran)

DeniTaree     Denna Rae      Erica    William
 
			Of Children

DeniTaree Kaitlin Alexis

      Your children are not your children,	
      They are the sons and daughters of Life's
longing for itself.
	They come through you but not from you,
	And though they are with you yet they
belong not to you.
 
	You may give them your love but not
your thoughts,
	For they have their own thoughts.
	You may house their bodies but not
their souls,
	For their souls dwell in the house of
tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in
your dreams.
	You may strive to be like them, but seek 
not to make them like you.
	For life goes not backward nor tarries
with yesterday.
				
	You are the bows from which your children 
as living arrows are sent forth.
	The archer sees the mark upon the path
of the infinite, and He bends you with His
might that His arrows may go swift and far.
	Let your bending in the archer's hand
be for gladness;
	For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.
(from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran)
 

 
in Just-
spring	when the world is mud-
luscious the little
lame balloonman
 
whistles    far     and wee
 
and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring
 
when the world is puddle-wonderful
 
the queer
old balloonman whistles
far     and     wee
and bettyandisabel come dancing
 
from hop-scotch and jump-rope and
 
it's
spring
and
	the
 
		goat-footed
 
balloonMan	whistles
far
and 
wee
							(e.e. cummings)
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Full Moon (Stained glass by Denna Rae) Oceanside (oil painting by Denna Rae)

"Waterlilies" (Stained glass by Denna Rae)

Of Work

	You work that you may keep pace with
the earth and the soul of the earth.
	For to be idle is to become a stranger
unto the seasons, and to step out of life's
procession, that marches in majesty and
proud submission towards the infinite.
              	. . .
	. . . when you work you fulfill a part of earth's
furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was
born,
	And in keeping yourself with labour you
are in truth loving life,		
	And to love life through labour is to be 
intimate with life's inmost secret.
				. . .
	You have been told also that life is darkness,
and in your weariness you echo what was said by
the weary.
	And I say that life is indeed darkness save
when there is urge,
	And all urge is blind save when there is
knowledge,
	And all knowledge is vain save when there
is love;
	And when you work with love you bind
yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.
				
	And what is it to work with love?
	It is to weave the cloth with threads
drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved
were to wear that cloth.
				. . .
	It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap
the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved
were to eat the fruit.
	It is to charge all things you fashion with
a breath of your own spirit,
	And to know that all the blessed dead
are standing about you and watching.
				. . .
	Work is love made visible.
	And if you cannot work with love but only
with distaste, it is better that you should
leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple
and take alms of those who work with joy.
	For if you bake bread with indifference,
you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half
man's hunger.
	And if you grudge the crushing of the 
grapes, your grudge distills a poison in the wine.
	And if you sing though as angels, and
love not the singing, you muffle man's ears
to the voices of the day and the voices of
the night.
(from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran)
 
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