You tell me many times…
I am beautiful!
Your words take me to cloud nine,
In exhilaration, I sail, I float, I glide!
Do I believe you, or not?
Because beauty lies in the
Eyes of the beholder!
The world may not agree with you,
But you are firm in your belief.
My parents thought that
Their girl was the prettiest,
My kindest friends considered me gorgeous!
But I knew in my heart,
Beauty lies within,
In kindness, in love, in grace.
In courage, in bravery, in dedication!
Beauty lies in a mother’s boundless love for her baby,
A father’s unlimited affection for his children,
Beauty lies in a teacher’s care for her students,
Beauty lies in admiring and portraying bountiful nature.
Faith in our saviour,
Our prayers, full of devotion,
Every little child is magically blessed
Every little child is heavenly angelic!
Something old, and ancient
something abandoned, and rusty,
All are priceless when we value the sentiments attached to the object.
If beauty is but skin deep,
I prevailed upon her to construe,
'Does it lie in the eye of the beholder
or, of the two which one is true?'
For we can't judge the book
by the cover, with but one look,
as what's inside truly counts
far much more than that.
And tho' to me she bemoaned,
'I am big-boned'
I've yet to see a skeleton which looks fat.
As he rested upon my delicate but strong shoulder.
I realized beauty is truly in eyes of the beholder.
I also realized for him I am willing to be bolder.
"Good deeds are more important than good looks."
The proverb was first recorded by Chaucer in 'The Wife of Bath's Tale' (c. 1387)
You saw the beauty past her scars.
You looked inside her fragile soul.
You cared not for the angry wars.
You sought the good the battles stole.
You sang with angels through the stars.
You set compassion as your goal.
You took care when you consoled her.
Beautiful is the beholder.
Staring through,
Eyes so new.
Forgive me,
For judging you.
We've been trained to,
Single out the few,
who dont fit the view.
Picking them apart,
Like the vultures do.
--------------
Growing more each day,
Seeing the error of my way.
I start thinking,
About what to say.
How words play,
such important roles,
Touching souls,
So deep,
They weep.
--------------
As we grow older,
The surface grows colder.
Often giving someone,
The cold shoulder.
Words from the past,
They smolder.
Creating a boulder,
Robbing our opportunity,
blocking life's beauty.
Hiding the truth of love,
From The Eyes Of The Beholder
I saw outside
All the beauty
Light of my eyes.
I appear ugly when alone
I look normal in company
Self-loathing needs no embrace
Rather than scoring myself
I'm ugly prettiness wronged
I’m shocked by my beauty
Again and again, till I'm cuts
When each slice is mystery
The clue to beauty's murder
Is finding how lovely I was
If everyone is like me then
Who then is ugly like me?
When you leave, I'm homely
The less fortunate comforting
There, self-hatred finds a home
Even if it's a tent by the road
Diaspora from self, preservation
Society casts normalcy
However, I seem to look
Self-loathing is inherited
Plastic surgeons can't erase plain
If disfigured, burn your image
Better defeat than surrender
Victory is my futility
Cry out to your mothers
Who still loves you mangled
Before crimes against your face
Ugly is the eyes of the beholder
Those pretty eyes looking in
Defille your ugliness for good
We remake pristine history
In our honest image
I have taken pictures
Of a perfect summer's day;
Flowers, alive and new, in spring;
An elephant, majestic and proud, staring at me.
I have witnessed
A robin standing curiously in the fresh snow;
A blackbird feeding her young;
The dew on the grass on a crisp autumn morning;
Dogs running wildly and happily in a field.
But none have been more beautiful
Than you and the smile that graces your lips.
I have seen all the wonder this earth has to offer
From far and wide,
But nothing is more perfect than home:
And my home is with you.
FOR EYE AM THE EyE OF THE BEHOLDER-
Who am I to mumble?
Righteously so I should be humble
For I am the eye of the beholder
To seek, to plead grace, to see your face amongst your people
When I look at me, it’s honestly not me I see
For when you see me, I am defying eye see not me
Lord I seek grace with you, my entire fate is in you
I just learnt what to do, so I plead to seek your grace
That I may see your face
Mine faith is the substance hope for
Evidence of the things not seen
For I cry, for I cry out to Him
I smile for my burden, already won, My Father God Elohim
Did win,
Night time, new day dawn and noon I cry out
In distress and He My Father heard my distress
My Father God Elohim, Did win,
Night time, new day dawn and noon I cry out
In distress and He My Father heard my distress
Lord I seek grace with you
My entire fate is in you, I just learnt what to do
So I plead to seek your grace
That I may see your face
For eye am the eye of the beholder
8/16/2024
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2024©
Beauty more than ever
Will run its fickle course
It never lasts forever
But may leave a pretty corpse
Lure of mirage
in deranged dunes,
dances in
dandelion rhythm
with oasis dream,
illusion inscribed
in sane sands of time,
sliding continuum
with desiccated travail,
thirst unquenched,
stimulus perpetual.
Dormant despair
usurps harps of hope,
vibrato dissipates
unperceived,
wisdom shroud
unfurls crafty chimera
in life of actuality,
awareness imbibed.
Stifling shadow
of ebony anguish cloud
creeps remorseless,
dissension darkness drips
opaque desolateness
on listless landscape,
mangled in
strife maelstrom,
mind sucked within
hope vortex,
umbrage unushered.
Silver spectrum
of lines transient
in acumen cloud,
splits into colors
of radiant reverie
in optimistic prism.
Convoluted canvas,
carapace conjured
for contorted hideous faces,
turning in a trance
into baroque frescos,
flicker of beauty
sparkles sneaky
in conceived smile.
…beholder, the painter.
she is so ugly
the operation went wrong
she's so beautiful
Beauty in the eye of the beholder
Rare trees and abandoned homes
Where doors are full of bullet holes
And the wicked sun tries to dye the paint
On the walls that smell like a salty water
Of the place where mermaids sang to Ulysses.
Beauty in the eye of the beholder
Traffic jams
giant malls
toxic environment
Everyone is in a hurry
Even the guys filling the air with Hari Rama
Brining hope for no one
And money for beneficiaries.
Beauty in the eye of the beholder
I escaped to the peaceful land
It keeps me rested and maybe a bit bored
So I take a train to a bigger city when needed.
I am still learning how to love all the places
Find a light in the darkness
And the Golden Ratio in the chaos.
Beauty in the eye of the beholder
And I am trying to be the one.
11/06/2022
Surrounded by toys the toddler played in the sand with three rocks and five sticks.
Through the smoke filled air
sunlight snared me a glimpse
of the expansive landscape painting.
It spoke to me convincingly about its inherent worth
matching the picture window view
stroke for stroke
shadow for shadow
sparkle glimmer
and the dark murky horizon.
You could walk into either
as if into ether
and wander
seeking the truth upon which each scene is built.
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