Poetry is the mainstay of oral tradition and, over centuries, can communicate the innermost values of diverse cultures.
I selected these poems based on my knowledge and love of the genre. Each theme illustrates a universal truth: The Evanescence of Time, Forgiveness, Longing, Love, Wisdom, and nature. The artwork I created is a cross between Illustration and Collage, two of my favorite mediums.
“Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be...”
― William Wordsworth
I Tend a White Rose (Verse XXXIX)
I cultivate a white rose In July as in January
For the sincere friend who gives me his hand frankly.
And for the cruel one who tears out the heart with which I live,
I cultivate neither nettles nor thorns:
I cultivate a white rose.
__ José Martí
Thoughts in the Silent Night
Beside my bed a pool of light—
Is it hoarfrost on the ground?
I lift my eyes and see the moon,
I bend my head and think of home.
__ Li Bai
“When your beauty struck me, it dissolved me.
Deep down, I am not different from you.
I dreamed you, I wished for your existence.
I see in you that part of me which is you.
I surrender my sincerity because if I love you it
means we share the same fantasies,
we share the same madness.”
__ Anaïs Nin
It was at the dawn of spring,
in the shadow of the birch-trees,
that you dropped your gaze
before me with a smile…
__ Count Alekséy Tolstoy
You are not just a drop in the ocean
You are the mighty ocean in the drop.
__ Rumi
