Khalil Gibran (April 1913) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Cover via Amazon
I read this poem in a book by Kahlil Gibran. The words are magical. I hope you’ll like it as much as I did.
Tears that purify my heart and reveal
to me the secret of life and its mystery,
Laughter that brings me closer to
my fellowmen;
Tears with which I join the
broken-hearted,
Laughter that symbolizes joy over
my very existence.
I prefer death through happiness a
thousand fold to life in vain and in
despair.
An eternal hunger for love
and beauty is my desire;I know
now that those who possess bounty
alone are naught but miserable,
but to my spirit the sighs of
lovers are more soothing than
music of the lyre.
When night comes, the flower
folds its petals and slumbers
with love,and at dawn,it
opens its lips to receive the
sun’s kisses bespeckled by quick
dartings of clouds which come,
but surely go.
The life of flowers is hope and
fulfillment and peace; tears and laughter.
The water disappears and ascends
until it turns into clouds that
gather upon the hills and valleys;
and when it meets the breeze,it
falls down upon the fields and
joins the brook that sings it
way toward the sea.
The life of clouds is a life of
farewell and a life of reunion;
tears and laughter.
Thus the spirit separates itself
from the body and walks into
the world of substance,passing
like clouds over the valleys of
sorrow and mountains of happiness
until it meets the
breeze of death and returns to
its starting place,the endless
ocean of love and beauty which
is God.
Sabethville 