Best Alexander The Great Poems
Life is beautiful
Happiness is state of mind
Spiritual pursuit elevates soul
Alexander too departed with empty hand
Happiness is state of mind
Emperors too faced gloom’s wrath
Alexander too departed with empty hand
Eventually all is ash
Emperors too faced gloom’s wrath
Mahavira renounced Kingdom in search of Peace
Eventually all is ash
Live to Die with grace
Mahavira renounced kingdom in search of Peace
Temporal pursuits increase senses hunger
Live to die with grace
Die as if lived forever
Temporal pursuit increase senses hunger
Spiritual pursuit elevates soul
Die as if lived forever
Life is beautiful
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Notes :
Alexander the Great is the most celebrated Greek King, known for vast conquests, ruled
one of the largest empire in ancient history.
Mahavira, son of King Siddartha and Queen Trishla, ruled kingdom, now part of Bihar ( a
State of India). At the age of 30, Mahavira renounced his kingdom, gave up his his princely
possessions and spent 12 years as an ascetic. He went on to establish the central tenets of
Jainism. He was the 24th and last Jain Tirthankara.
© Hitendra Mehta
Place : Honorable Mention
Entry for Members contest – Pantoum by Paula Swanson
Figures of immense reputation and popularity they were
Attracting public attention and admiration in the pursuit of their great works
Leaving behind them a legacy of some kind
But going with them their unique characters.
Wasn’t the explosion of Christianity the work of Jesus of Nazareth?
And the burst of Islam not the work of Muhammed of Mecca?
Neither will the admirable leadership of Julius Caesar;
Nor the conquests of the unlearned Charlemane,
And the military successes of Alexander the great,
Be forgotten in History.
If the British can forget Napoleon’s continental system
Jews then, would forget Hitler’s concentration camps
And history would entirely cease recalling his mentor Mussolini.
What if Carl Marx did not propound radical socialism?
Lenin then, would not have smashed the bourgeoisie and ruled Russia
Neither would the principles of Marxism-Leninism be sustained by Stalin
Nor would Churchill seal the border between the East and the West with an iron curtain.
A grave mistake it would be to forget Martin Luther King Jr.
For if he be forgotten, Mahatma Ghandi then would also be
And the entire movement of nonviolence
Will stop covering many pages of modern history books.
Had it not for Kwame Nkruma and Hastings Banda to cut the rope of colonialism
The ambitious Cecil Rhodes then,
Would have drained the whole continent of all its economic wealth.
The ascendancy of Nelson Mandela from the horizon of apartheid
Was not the beginning of Maximillien Robespierre’s reign of terror;
Characterized by avenges and reprisals
But the emergence of Abraham Lincoln’s true democracy.
What if Caesar were not butchered?
William Shakespeare then, would not have been the greatest playwright
Causing Charles Dickens and Chinua Achebe not to appear.
For the existence of a Jewish state, David Ben Gulion fought
But for the reemergence of a Palestinian state, Yasser Arafat strives.
When manic, I feel, think, and speak like God:
like Superman (or the world’s savior)!
The rush from feeling like a demi-god
makes me believe I am a conqueror,
like another Alexander the Great!
So when I’m flung to the abyss of hell
when these erratic moods abruptly abate,
I rapidly cycle so that I can't tell
the bottomless and profound lows that turn
these immortal, Olympian, speed-like highs
into abject spiritual dead-ends; I learn
that (as this disorder intensifies)
delusions of real grandeur soon grow tempting,
especially when life feels not worth living.
O what a man, so bold and brave,
Could do, his mighty hand could save.
This noble warrior was a relative of Zeus himself
Or so they say
His kingly proise remains today,
A standard figure of Persian frays.
Lightning crashed and thunder rumbled,
Signifying that this man would become well-known,
Not one to be humbled.
He was said to have tamed a wild horse,
By the fullness of his brain, of course.
His athletic records, no one could break,
For they remained for his pride's sake.
He became a briliant man, built like a tower of steel
That led some to believe he was unreal.
One every man would have yearned to become,
His power, his splendor, an unbeatable contendor!
Until only by a fatal error, his well of talents stopped flowing
For once in his life.
No one could save him from this horrendous plight.
The face of death reared its grotesque head,
And only to the path of enternal stillness it lead.
However, his name, emblazened by his noble deeds, very old,
Will retain its place in history in its priceless weight of gold.
Once there were three great philosophers: The Big Three.
Street-corner philosopher, Philosopher who would be king,
long walk to the Golden Mean,
tutor to Alexander, the Great.
Bloody I dare to say “bloody” for thanks to “The Big Three”.
Oh, ancient Greece,
How much you have filled my soul.
The aesthetics of your kind,
Are more than satisfied
By your beautiful eyes.
The epics of grace,
Odysseus and Helen’s sublime face.
The war between two cities,
And a tale of returning to beauty.
The dialectic of Socrates trial,
The Christ before Christ on clouds much higher.
The dialogues devoted to supreme justice,
By Plato’s divine universals.
Aristotle’s poetics devoted to the epics,
And particulars brought by the golden ethical’s.
Sappho and her poetry,
Herodotus and a tale of histories.
The land of marble devoted to democracy,
The Spartan grandeur and Athenian cultured society.
The Oedipus complex brought to Sophocles.
Vengeful acts by Media for adultery.
I sing joy to all the tragedies,
Aeschylus and the dance of the Eumenides.
The Minoan society and the island of Crete,
Greek culture and so much to keep.
Athena the bright eyed goddess of wisdom,
Came of Zeus, our lord of Jupiter.
Juno and her rivals in the kingdom,
Brought us tales of jealousy for the future.
The pre-Socratics of philosophy,
Thales, Heracleitus, and Anaximenes.
The golden verses of Pythagoras,
And the sophist named Protagoras.
Aristotle’s pupil brought grandeur to the dream,
Alexander the great extended the means.
The logic, the literature, and the home of philosophy,
Mythology, and the tragedies, histories of epic poetry.
The things that have been and will always be,
I will always remember the glory that was Greece.
" Long be his journey to death! ", someone hollered
as he dragged his feet into the rising dust hotter than sand;
only a defeated and tormented soul would have admitted
looking ahead," Much innocent blood I have shed! "
Gazing sterner than a warrior or merciless king,
he was fearless of what was prophesied by twilight
to him in a temple veiled in crimson and white...
although he claimed his usurped power with a ring.
His palace adorned with ionic, glittering columns
of pure gold stripped off Troy's temples...they were carved by the hands
of slaves, but their phantoms pitifully stared at him begging for their return
to the sun-gilded murals so that they would breath once again.
" Alexander the Great is coming from the North
with a mighty army, even the stones make away
for his conquest as he holds up up his victorious sword...
let him in your city, open the gate and obey! "
A few days passed, then the young conqueror appeared
wearing a shining, silver armor as he gloriously towered
over fortified Athens, the city that later will be conquered by mighty Rome,
and resuming his gallop, he hailed," Long be his journey to death, let him roam! "
Fancy Dress
You could;
Come as an Indian Chief
Or perhaps a Downhill Skier?
Come as a Jewel Thief
Or a red nose Reindeer
Come as a Grizzly Bear
Or a puppet on a string
Trousers with a wide flair
Or just about anything
Why not a Preacher?
Or an Alien from space
An absent-minded teacher
Or clown with painted face
A character from history
Like Alexander the Great
Someone cloaked in mystery
A juggler from the fete
So, put on your thinking cap,
There’s lots that you could be.
What’s it going to be old chap?
Please not the same as me!
There is no need for blades of steel.
Now, missiles and bombs do the job.
To warmongers that has appeal.
Man might someday be one big blob.
Yes. Fighting commenced long ago.
It started with Able and Cain.
Cain killed with a rock, not a bow.
Continuous envy … insane!
There were wars before 1 B. C.
The Battle of Kadesh was one.
‘Though it ended with a treaty,
Bloodshed for power had begun.
There was Alexander the Great.
His thrusting spear won many wars.
And the deaths never did abate.
Killing is what Heaven abhors.
There were Greek wars and Cretan War.
Caesar’s Invasion of Britain,
Roman Wars and the Chinese War.
Enemies they would stab or Bludgeon.
Weapons of war were of metal.
Armor did not end the bloodshed.
Back then, like now, death was brutal.
Blood bathed killing in the world … spread.
Back in the Eighteenth Century,
Freedom and brotherhood converged.
Engraved, a sword blade said boldly.
Free people are brothers … life urged.
Gone, all those years, yet, man still kills.
Freedom has brought joy to many.
Brotherhood builds a bond and thrills.
Freedom gives its joy to any.
Teach trust; then, live and love in peace.
We must encourage and applaud.
Anger and hatred has to cease.
Each of us is a child of God.
And that makes all of us brothers.
There is no need for blades of steel.
We must all love one another.
Then, peace on Earth will become real.
1/16/2017
Inspired by the contest, the Contest:
The Swords Speak
Attributes, many I adore
Innocent like a Child
Honest like a Spiritual Master
Fighting Spirit like a Soldier
Motivator like a Leader
Intelligent like a Einstein
Diligent like a Bee
Humorous like Circus Joker
Passionate like Picasso
Ambitious like Alexander the Great
Mass appeal like Mahatma Gandhi
Attributes, all in one are rare
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
By Hitendra Mehta
May 2011
For Members contest - Top Ten by Adeleke Adeite
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As a yellow Asian man
from the poor country
next to Afghanistan
I am also was very proud
when mister Obama
won electing company in US.
But now when American police
failed deeply in our region,
and the US-airbase in Manas
has expelled from Kyrgyzstan,
i am understood clearly
the popular nowadays proverb
son of slave cannot be a good king
and in his place would been luckier McCain,
sorry all of us, dear Obama,
but our world in your time,
has been needfull deadly
for somebody remained little
Alexander the Great.
Who just come in Central Asia
with peaceful and strong invasion
and expelled the evil and rotten regimes,
that enslaved our people and dozen nations,
instead have been expelled himself
and left us for multiplying destroyers.
But I am hope for West that returning again
as coming from where the truly Christianity
and free and deep interpretation of Holy scriptures,
and hope for Eternal life and peace
where shall not been the great empires
and theirs games, intrigues and bloody sacrifices.
If I Were An Elephant
I am a part of a faceless nation.
I am the poachers' whore.
Because of this genocide for trinkets...
I soon will be no more.
Then...
I was a warrior in many battles...
An instrument of war...
A tower with soldiers on my back;
The odds were mine to score!
I was once with Alexander the Great,
Also with Hannibal...
Great Sultans loved me and knew me as brave,
Deemed more than animal.
Now...
I am trapped in snares and let starve to death;
I am shot--SHOT with guns;
My water-holes are laced with cyanide...
Then the poacher comes.
I am still alive when the axing begins...
Too weak to move...or try...
They CHOP...and WHACK...my face away for tusks...
I feel each GOUGE...and cry...
And so these tusks that were my protection
Have now become my doom.
The loss of a species, just for trinkets...
Elephant...nom de plume.
©deborah burch
12/11/2016
glorious and tall i stood...
you could lie and say i was king
and still tell the truth
i defeated Attila the Hun
and outwitted Alexander the great
upstaged Julius Caesar.
i crawled through the dunes of Arabia
and splattered them with bandit blood
i took the lives of many
that my people may be safe another day
i fought bravely for my country
and now, Valhalla awaits.
*i know the history is incorrect, but its figurative.
Start
If someone asked me, “A penny for your thought”
I’ll tell him, “Sorry! It can’t be bought”
The thought process runs like a train
Fed by emotions and nurtured by the brain
Said Swami Vivekananda, “Thoughts have made us what we are”
“Words are secondary, thoughts live and travel far”
Friedrich opines thoughts are the shadows of our feelings
Always darker, emptier, and simpler in all dealings
The quality of a leader is determined by his thought
Said Alexander the Great after the battles he fought
“It’s better to have an army of sheep led by a lion raising his battle cry
Than an army of lions led by a sheep that leaves everyone high and dry”
It is believed that the power of thought is the path to discovery
Never underestimate it, or your dreams will be past recovery
The soul of God pours into the world through the thoughts of human
And becomes dyed with its color that embodies his acumen
Bertrand Russell characterizes thought as subversive and revolutionary
Men in power fear it most as their style of functioning is perfunctory
Thought is indifferent to authority and defiant to the wisdom of the ages
It inculcates the sense of logic to the news around at all stages
The quality of the thoughts decide the happiness in life
Reining of evil thoughts will prevent further strife
We’ve created a vicious world in which we are caught
To change the world we have to change our thought.
End
That was the worthiest step and decision
our pressing to US for its airbase in Manas expelling
from our land. The politic so vexed
so self-destructive and depressive
from various points and consequences.
When all our ancestors
from beginning of times, edem and hell
dreamed unlock our region
for west legions,
even if that were a war troops.
We gratefully received Alexander the Great,
for his strong impetus
joining West and East
and after his death
created own legion
of great conquerors,
from Kudzula Kadfises,
till Atilla the Great, Tamerlan
and last dreamers - great Mogols.
All of them devoured to reach
the West values almost maniacal
through India, Russian, Byzantium, Germany
mainly on horses
but sometimes on bouts of Baltics Vikings.
So mister president of Kyrgyz Republic
be honest and wise and brave
for truly friendship with West air force,
that so kind and friendly
deployed in our land
and so profitable
give us great money for our safety,
instead our paying them.
Why on Earth we trying
to be so polite with Russian
and so harsh and rude with USA?
West in our hearts
ask our grandfathers
from Kudzula
till yours favorite Kutuzov?
All of them fighting for freedom
and West values.
I didn understand completely
yours Kremlin patron
for his unnatural hatred
the USA and West as whole
as if Russia don't belong to Europe,
so strangely polite with various enemies
of West,
as if he badly want to leave
in company
with Ahmanijad, Bashar Asad,
Kim Chen Yr
and other moderns Orcas and Goblins,
where nothing from common sense and eloquent.
We are urgently ask you, mister Putin,
left this airbase with us.
Kyrgyz people so long
wanted to be with West
even with its military base
better, then with traditional allies
our bastard friends and cultural comrades
around us
right in the centre
so long and hopeless locked Eurasia.