Though it may get me labeled a traitor
And it surely won’t make me rich
In the face of all those who hate them
I announce: I love the French.
For De Tocqueville and Voltaire
For L’Enfant who designed DC
For the fact that without their
Aid this country would never have come to be
For Dumas, Joan of Arc, Exupery
Doctors without Borders, and
For a civilized society,
Low crime rates and beautiful land
For their gorgeous, passionate women
For Cezanne and for Gaughin
For wine valleys, chateux – earth heaven -
For Riviera, Paris, Sorbonne
For their foreign aid to the poor
And diplomatic outreach -
There is one thing I know for sure:
Hear me saying: I love the French.
As Voltaire might have said,
“ And yet it all works”
Did you know, dear friends, that our galaxy
Dash through space,
at a speed of 2.3 million kilometres per hour,
How does it not disintegrate?
Why does the sun keep shining?
How the earth turns around sun
While it is also running at 2.3 million km/h?
I know, there is in this perfect mechanics
Something divine,
As Voltaire wrote,
“ I cannot think that this clock exists
And that it has no watchmaker.”
On our way, no obstacles,
Only a cluster of galaxies 150,000 light-years away
Ahead, nothing can stop our galaxy,
“ And yet it all works”
Could have written voltaire,
at 2.3 million km/h We can safely
Drinking our coffee, isn’t that fantastic?
A witty saying proves nothing,
Especially in a generation that
Doesn’t tend to be so loving
To one another because of the
Love of money.
So much pushing and shoving.
Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
We constantly dream of personal
Satisfaction, especially when we don’t
Have ourselves together.
A selfish mind has sex with
A woman, then wakes up the next
Morning just to realize that it never
Met her.
I just want to see the day where
I can hold my head up high and
Keep my life together.
My life is a struggle.
I find myself having to juggle
With emotions that are so confused
That they want to snuggle.
The ear is the avenue
To the heart
And the power of the words
Can tame it or tear it apart.
It’s not enough to conquer,
One must learn to seduce.
Seduction is a sexual tactic
Used to daze and confuse.
The masters of it simply
Recycle the same words
To reduce and reuse a-
Forget it.
“Life is thickly sown with thorns, and I know no other remedy than to pass quickly through them. The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.” Voltaire
In sapphire skies, so soft, serene and fair,
a balloon floats adrift in tepid air.
Nonchalant it hovers without a care.
Over and under clouds like they're not there.
It's mindful not to burn from the sun's glare.
keeping clear from branches, so not to tear.
At peace it seems, wandering unaware,
until a storm forms to cause it despair.
Gruesome gales force it to blow everywhere,
grim rain has no mercy for its welfare.
Breathless, it deflates into disrepair,
plunging, it no longer looks debonair.
The pursuit of life can become unfair,
just like the thickly sown thorns of Voltaire.
"Good and plenty!"
"Too much cream
in my coffee?"
"It does seem
overly much there."
"So it's extreme
to you?" "Voltaire,
Oh, he'll agree,
none to spare."
A sculptor was Jean-Antoine Houdon
large scale art of his one may come upon
His 'Voltaire' commissioned by Madame Denis
altogether his most famous piece*
*https://www.wikiart.org/en/jean-antoine-houdon/voltaire
Common
Quote by Voltaire
To be common is to be normal,
It’s to have the sense to keep your mouth shut
And your smile wide.
To smile is not to smile
For your showing your pearly white teeth
Your actual soul is nowhere to be found,
Is it so abnormal to have a sharp tongue?
To smile with actual joy?
That’s the thing about being common,
It’s no fun at all
Date: 2/1/22
One leading theory was proposed by the writer
and philosopher Voltaire. He was the first to claim
in 1771 that the prisoner wore an iron mask.
Voltaire also claimed that he was the older,
illegitimate brother of Louis XIV.
Could he have been hidden away to prevent
any claim on the throne?
Man in the iron mask
FLAWED not the prince, sealed into an iron MASK
Uncovered now, one mad kings, CRACKED FACADE
ILLUSION revealed, metal veil, abstractly BROKEN
IMPERFECT grotesque, why TORN face’s are bespoken
Writing Prompt - Flawed - Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Constance La France
flawed, mask, broken, cracked,
facade, torn, illusion, imperfect,
16/06/2021
In full abandon to splendor,
We immerse in sweet surrender,
For the time to be just somewhere,
When we breathe the words by Voltaire.
To stroll the pathways of free souls,
Advance concepts of righteous goals,
Detachment from church and the state,
And learned traits firsthand on our plate.
2019 December 27
LAY It On Me - 8x8 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: charles messina
RhymingScheme;
aa bb cc dd
Howmanysyllables;
8 lines x 8 syllables per = 64 syllables total
A long time ago there lived one Isaac Newton,
a great scientist of all times, a famous Briton.
Born premature, into a quart mug he would fit,
said his mother, who left him to grow up on his wit.
Isaac Newton with a refined brain
stood on shoulders of giants to gain
view of the far none had seen.
On him fell an apple green,
derived gravity from his thought train.
Newton had no commerce with women, Voltaire said.
In science endeavor mathematical matrix he had laid.
With disarrayed mind he had died mired in controversy,
alchemic pursuits poisoned him with mercury, a mystery.
September 9, 2019
Syllable count (Limerick) : 9/9/7/7/9
Checked on howmanysyllables.com
Contest : Clerimerick Couplets (Hybrid Form)
Sponsor : Mark Toney
Gone is the era of the Renaissance Man
Who delved into Milton, Voltaire and Rosseau
Knew the difference between Cezanne and Gaugin
Could parse a sentence and quote Henry Thoreau
Came Woodstock, he was buried deep in time's sands
Covered over by Joplin and Country Joe...
Social media's dug man's hole even worse
Alexa and Cortana ~ My lips are pursed
The critic Voltaire
Had plenty to share
Endowed with acerbic satire
He played to the audience with fire.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A famous person or celebrity contest
Hosted by Tania Kitchin
Placed 4th
1 Syllable
air · bare · bear · blair · blare · chair · cher · claire · clare
· dare · dear · err · fair · fare · flair · flare · frigidaire · gair
· gare · glar · glare · hair · haire · hare · heir · lair · lare · lehr
· mair · maire · mare · nare · ne'er · pair · pare · pear · prayer
· rare · rear · sare · scare · serr · share · skare · snare · spare
· square · stair · stare · swear · tear · their · there · they're
· ware · wear · were · werre · where
2 Syllables
affair · anywhere · aware · belair · belaire · belare · beware
· compare · declare · dispair · eclair · ensnare · forswear
· frontiere · healthcare · impair · mcnair · midair · o'hare
· pierre · prepare · repair · st_claire · takecare · unfair
· voltaire · welfare · westair · whitehair
3 Syllables
billionaire · debonair · delaware · disrepair · doctrinaire
· everywhere · javier · jeanpierre · millionaire · questionnaire
· solitaire · somewhere · st_pierre · unaware · underwear
If man has become the measure of all
Our world anon will crumple and shrivel
Without a moral compass to keep us in thrall
Failure and success,the deadly ploys of the devil,
Or the cold ugliness of hideous revenge
Could inflict defeat on the Prime Mover's mission
That, discipleless, He can no longer challenge.
And so to Satan leaves us in submission
Man exists in a festering and noxious swamp
Where reason plays handmaiden to naked power
And shameless words service man's pride and pomp
A Voltaire is most sorely needed at this hour
To bring us back into the pure light of the sun.
If ,alas, there is no God,man must invent one.
Voltaire just Kant angle cut it
Beauvoir broad side view
abut the narrow Rousseau
gender Thoreau thought causeway
As Sarte Marx the entrance unlit —
Avicena chapiters atop da Vinci pillars,
Stuart Mill sturdily sit
Arendt spiral steps turn Spinoza
down to the Alighieri depths
Socrates ambience got a Dewey dungeon
decimal Fodio gradient affectation
Awolowo still wanna Sodipo cubit cut it,
but some Augustinus genius
won’t even Nyerere beveling make
the reed Descartes arch decision
Wollstonecraft overlaid on contoured Witt
Piper leveled with Gargi precision ...
A Solomon blueprint found in a keen closet
Sub Categories
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