Latvia

Thaw in Ludza

I carry my love
As a child—a one year old—
Carries a chestnut leaf:
So seriously holds the outstretched hand,—
It’s so difficult to balance the tiny step
With giant autumn all around.—
From the trees
Fall and fall
Rustling golden secrets
And confuse his steps.
But the little one doesn’t slip.
He carries his leaf.
He holds on to his leaf
And elegantly walks into the blizzard of leaves

-VIZMA BELŠEVICA

“Unable are the Loved to die. For Love is Immortality». ~Emily Dickinson

Vatican City

 

Poem 151 by Michaelangelo

 

Not even the best of artists has any conception that a single marble block does not contain within its excess, and that is only attained by the hand that obeys the intellect. The pain I flee from and the joy I hope for are similarly hidden in you, lovely lady, lofty and divine; but, to my mortal harm, my art gives results the reverse of what I wish.

Love, therefore, cannot be blamed for my pain, nor can your beauty, your hardness, or your scorn, nor fortune, nor my destiny, nor chance, if you hold both death and mercy in your heart at the same time, and my lowly wits, though burning,  cannot draw from it anything but death.

 

“We live in a wonderful world that is full of beauty, charm and adventure. There is no end to the adventures we can have if only we seek them with our eyes open.” –Jawaharial Nehru

The Netherlands

Dream by Pagan Warrior

 

Why do I have dreams I’m flying


Floating above the Earth uncontrolably


I feel so weightless and so free


Without my feet underneath me


But then I go and float off


And always catch myself in time


As I float away into the sky


I have a hard time staying in control


Of how high up I float


I drift free of the envy


Of those on the ground beneath me


Wishing with the birds they could fly


I hope not to drop too fast and die


But overall I am free


From all the mundane stress and worries


Could it not be a dream, instead my astral self?


Or only wishful thinking I could reach the top shelf


I experiment with these things, and think them over in my mind


Wait to see what I find out, it’s only a matter of time

 

Denne bildekrusellen krever javaskript.

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

 

India

 

Illusion and Reality by Kabir

What is seen is not the Truth
What is cannot be said
Trust comes not without seeing
Nor understanding without words
The wise comprehends with knowledge
To the ignorant it is but a wonder
Some worship the formless God
Some worship His various forms
In what way He is beyond these attributes
Only the Knower knows
That music cannot be written
How can then be the notes
Says Kabir, awareness alone will overcome illusion

Denne bildekrusellen krever javaskript.

 

«The self is like a pearl. To find it you must dive deep down into silence, deeper and ever deeper until it is reached.» – Sri Ramana Maharshi

 

USA

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Denne bildekrusellen krever javaskript.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

 

 

Thailand

Houses and People by Angkarn Chantatip

Each spot each spot kindles an image…


the seashore the plain the top of a mountain


the rice field the roadside he bleak grey twilight

there, then here, the light is tended…

Glistening splendour of life


each place each direction arrives in the city

the countryside riversides near far


never without houses and people 

The forms of the houses are created by people


everywhere is old from the beginning


the dark ancient times are finished
go beyond the past until you reach the present

People build houses homes


their dreams are built from the light of their lives


the truth of all things is sustained


by that – forever

Each place is the dream of an image


reveals a truth stronger than
the heart of the darkest darkness


everywhere under the sky there is light

Glistening brilliance of life


the deep dark night the traveller the wide world


each place everywhere it breaks through
never without houses and people

 

 

Denne bildekrusellen krever javaskript.

 

 

“The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson

 

 

French Polynesia

 

Denne bildekrusellen krever javaskript.

“There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

 

 

Ghana

The Dance of the Earth By Nana Yeboaa Poku

 

Every movement is a dance


To the tune of whistling winds


Mother of earth dances to the sounds of silence


To the hum of the sea


With wave-like fluidity


Sliding over rocks and soil


She dreams of home , of the unborn child



Mother of earth’s sway of arms


Is like the brushes dancing in the wind


Her lips sing in dialects foreign and exotic


Her very movement is a dance to many drums.

Denne bildekrusellen krever javaskript.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller

South Africa

Speech on Release from Prison, 1990 by Nelson Mandela

 

Our march toward freedom is irreversible. We must not allow fear to stand in our way.

Universal suffrage on a common voters roll in a united, democratic and non-racial South Africa is the only way to peace and racial harmony.

In conclusion, I wish to go to my own words during my trial in 1964 – they are as true today as they were then:

I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunity. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But, if need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

Denne bildekrusellen krever javaskript.

“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.» – Nelson Mandela

 

Hong Kong

Walking from Xiamen and Looking at the Blue Sea by Cao Cao

 

East of Jieshi mountain, I gaze at the blue sea.
The water dances so gently, the mountain island towers.
Trees here grow thick, a hundred grasses are lush.
The autumn wind soughs, great waves rise up.
The path of the sun and moon, seems to come from within.
The splendid Milky Way, seems to come from inside.

Oh, I am so lucky, to be singing my song!

Denne bildekrusellen krever javaskript.

«He who conquers himself is the mightiest warrior»- Confucius