Platonia Final Master

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PLATONIA

by

Grahame Craig


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Copyright Grahame Craig 2008

First published 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any

means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,

without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

ISBN 978-0-47-14401-2

Collingwood Publishing Pty LtdMelbourne


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To Jan

May all your days fulfilling be

And happy as you once made me.

- May 8, 2008


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When you are old and grey and full of sleep,And nodding by the fire, take down this book,And slowly read, and dream of the soft look

Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,And loved your beauty with love false or true,But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,

Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fledAnd paced upon the mountains overheadAnd hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

- William Butler Yeats


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C O N T E N T S

1. WE TWO. 1

2. I LOVE YOU AS 3

3. ON YOUR BEAUTY.. 5

4. YOU WERE SPECIAL.. 7

5. MAYDAY. 9

6. CYBERLOVE.. 11

7. HIGHER LOVE.. 15

8. LOWER LUST 17

9. THE FOND FAREWELL.. 19

10. BELOVED INFIDEL... 23

11. QUANTUM ABSOLUTION . 27

12. WITHOUT YOU. 29

13. IF ONLY... 31

14. A PRAYER FOR A LOST LOVE.. 33

15. ON YOUR BIRTHDAY.......................................... 35

16. THE PATH AHEAD............................................... 3717. THE ROAD BACK.................................................. 39

18. MINDCOMBER...................................................... 41


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C O N T E N T S

19. LIGHTENING LOVE.............................................. 43

20. THE PRIZE---------------------------------------- 45

21. YOUR MOON.......................................................... 47

22. WINNERS AND LOSERS...................................... 49

23. CHRISTMAS TIME................................................. 51

24. A PIPER AT MY GRAVE..................................... 53

25. THE NEVIS.............................................................. 55

26. THE ALEXANDRA CLOCK.................................. 59

27. THE SEA-WRAITH................................................ 61

28. THE HAWK AND THE BUTTERFLY................... 63

29. OUR RABBIT-HUTCH REALITY........................ 65

30. WHAT PIGEONS DO........................................... 67

31. STATE HIGHWAY ONE........................................ 69

32. KURANUI................................................................ 71

33. A SUMMERTIME GARDEN................................. 73

34. THE TEA-CUP READING..................................... 7535. THE LEARNING WHEEL...................................... 77

36. THE HEART OF GLASS......................................... 79


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C O N T E N T S

37. KEEPING IN STEP 81

38. ON TOUCHING TOES. 83

39. DO YOU REMEMBER ?....................... 85

40. RAINBOWS END. 91

41. THE HOMECOMING.... 93

42. NOT SO TRUE LOVE.... 95

43. UNCONSCIONABLE 97

44. ALMOST. 101

45. THE LAST SHRED 103

46. MY VALENTINE.. 105

47. SO MANY THINGS WE NEVER DID 107

48. YOUR MEMORY.. 111

49. GRIEF. 113

50. LOVE AND FORTUNE 115

51. UNREQUITED LOVE. 117

52. PLATONIA I.. 119

53. PLATONIA II. 121


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Platonia

1. WE TWO

We share the same Soul

We Two

So You are never gone from Me

Nor Me from You

Though what I now know

You deny

Pray read my words below

And ask Why?

If I did not deeply care

For Us

Would I have ever grievedAnd written thus?

To see that coldness

In your eye

Is to lose ones life

Yet not to die

We share the same SoulWe do

So You will never go from Me

Nor Me from You.

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Platonia

Who knows how long Ive loved you?

You know I love you still

Will I wait a lonely lifetime?

If you want me to I will.

- The Beatles

..meanwhile know that I am grateful to have you in my life,

in my heart and I want you to know I love you. ..J

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Platonia

2. I LOVE YOU AS

I love you when your heart is sad

And your eyes with tears fill

When those tears flow no more

I will love you still

I love you as no other has

And as no other will

When my heart beats no more

I will love you still.

I love you in the Summers haze

And in the Winters chill

When the seasons are no more

I will love you still.

I love you as I always have

And as I always will

When time and tide flow no moreI will love you still.

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Platonia

She walks in beauty,

Like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes

- Lord Byron

A soul that sees beauty may sometimes walk alone.

- Johann von Goeth

To a true artist, only that face is beautiful, which, quite apart

from its exterior, shines with the truth within the soul.

- Mahatma Gandhi

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Platonia

3. ON YOUR BEAUTY

When I first beheld your face

I, in that instant saw

In one moment and one place

More than all before

Softness and enduring grace

Framed in tresses fair

That uniquely youthful trace

Time could never wear

Black diamond eyes, their gleam

Fused I know not how

That moment with a lifelong dream

In one eternal Now

That beauty and those eyes!

If he should write their due!

Will would say, This poet lies-

for none, could this be true

So fear not the demise

Of your beauty rare

Tis forever in your eyesAnd I will always find it there

Deep in those jewelled two

Wherein your soul I see

Where dwells the essence of you

Your beauty will always be.

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Platonia

Some people come into our lives

and leave footprints on our hearts

and we are never ever the same.

- Flavia Weedn

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Platonia

4. YOU WERE SPECIAL

You were Special

How did I know?

Seeing you first, imprinted as though

My life was a walk

Along the sea strand

Each instant a footprint in its wet sand

Your imprint alone remains to this day

No wave can ever wash it away

Morsel moments

Of our pleasure

Now hoarded as a priceless treasure

From first embraceTo farewell clasp

Remembered till my final gasp

How could perfection be so flawed?

One now despised, be still adored?

Like the sparkling

Precious stone

Your many facets brightly shoneBut for one

Well kept away

Lest its blemish blight the day

As love was based on all I saw

I missed my jewels fatal flaw.

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Platonia

.I am missing you and our contact terribly and feel a bit

adrift and scattered without you to talk with. It is a strange

feeling. Please call me if you have the chanceI know you are

as crazy as I was with more than 24 hours without contact. ..J

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Platonia

5. MAYDAY

Of all the treasured times I knew

The best of all was finding you

And asking you to be my wife

Youthe lover of my life

I asked you this one day in May

Before my life force ebbed away

In a peaceful parks domain

With roses and the falling rain

You answered me in words so clear

And chilling to my anxious earNow in my mind forever burned

Casting me among the spurned

Its broken now our special bond

It cant be fixed its gone beyond

Its broken now, I heard you say

As my life force ebbed away

Then nothingnessfor every word

You said thereafter went unheard

As my life force ebbed away

One sunless day in early May.

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Platonia

A man can be happy with any woman as long as he does not

love her.

- Oscar Wilde

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Platonia

6. CYBERLOVE

Two strangers once, perhaps by chance

Locked eyes in a cyber-glance

Soon, half a world apart they each

Spoke of their love in keyboard speech

A love both thought had always been

Deep in their souls, unfelt, unseen

A three-ply love, the perfect kind

That blends each body, soul and mind

Each day they talked and laughed anew

Made cyberlove, as lovers do

And dreamt of meeting face-to-face

Free from the bounds of cyberspace

And when they did, at once they knew

The love they shared blessed but a few

Inseparable, both night and day

They lived to love, to share and play

The years came by and went until

She wavered and then lost her will

Believing she had seen the traceOf betrayal in her loved ones face

Once bitten by that poisonous snake

Whose venom she would never shake

Her love for him grew cold and died

Perhaps as she had prophesied

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Platonia

Remember that the measure of love is in what it is worth, for

good or ill, to those one loves. There is no true love without

service. The love that will not suffer to hold another to the

highest and truest in them, is not true love.

- Rachel Williams

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Platonia

No reason thereno-one to blame

No need to bow a head in shame

Just sadness cloaked in disbelief

And never-ending waves of grief

His life would never be the same

Her love would never rise again

And fill the void or take the place

Of what once thrived in cyberspace

Gods plan or mindless act of fate?

What caused her love to dissipate?

Was it really love at all?

Or just a passions passing squall?

She showed no sorrow, guilt or painAnd gave no reason to explain

Was higher love in her mind just

Another term for heightened lust?

Where was her power to forgive

His sins and let her love still live?

Why did she have to crucify?

Did she never tell a lie?

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Platonia

..Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds

Or bends with the remover to remove

Oh no! It is ever a fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken

It is the star to every wandering barque.

- John Keats

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Platonia

7. HIGHER LOVE

(And its Six Choices)

To leave the stumbler where he lies

Or gently help him kneel and rise?

To kindly seek to understand

Or just condemn, out of hand?

To wisely help another grow

Or harshly deal a vengeful blow?

To gently raise a fallen crown

Or place a foot to hold it down?

To tell the truth in manner kind

Or stoop to gaming of the mind?

To accept that each and all are frail

Or judge and rule on those who fail?

Such choices in the lines aboveDefine the path of Higher Love.

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Platonia

I have sworn thee fair and thought thee bright

Who art as black as hell and dark as night.

- Shakespeare, Sonnet 147

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Platonia

8. LOWER LUST

(And its Six Stages)

Beware the lustful Hypocrite

Dressed as Love in false attire

In a cruel and dangerous game

That demands a practiced liar

Who starts with charming Coyness:

It takes a lot to turn this head

Then moves to Clinging clichs:

You are my teacher, will be said

From there to crude Carnality:

Take all of me Im yours

Followed by contrived Confusion:

About Whats real any more?

Then next, the cold Conclusion:To myself I must be true

(Or sometimes for variation:

Its for the higher good of you)

And last of all, the cowards Cut

To the already ravaged heart:

Loves flimsy guise is cast aside

To play the victims part

But Irefuse to be a victim!Is the accompanying cry

Beware my friend, be so aware

Of that pecker-pickin lie

In descending moral order sit

The Liar, then the Hypocrite.

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Platonia

I awoke this morning thinking of you and needto take a

moment to tell you what you mean to me. ..sweetheart, I

have never met anyone who could access his soul like you do,

and offer it up to me with such tenderness that it humbles

me. J

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Platonia

9. THE FOND FAREWELL

You thanked me for my fight for us

For refusing to let go

And yet you having spoken thus

Turned out to be the foe!

What was to be a fond farewell

Instead with teary eyes

You took the embers of our love

And doused them with your lies.

You let me strive to save us with

One last death knell appeal

While knowing wellright to that bell

Your love was never real

I knelt before you many times

And naively bared my soul

As all the while with practiced guile

The actress played her role

You had talked of living juicy

And of bravely risking all

But when it came to walk that talkYou couldnt raise a crawl

Would I have ever leaped

From that cliff-top up so high?

Knowing at the last, youd stand fast

And coldly watch me die?

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Platonia

And I shall find some girl perhaps

And a better one than you

With eyes as wise, but kindlier

And lips as soft, but true

And I daresay she will do.

- Rupert Brooke

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Platonia

Sad enough Loves object lacked

The honesty and grace

To gently tell the awful truth

To her luckless lovers face

But sadder still ten thousand-fold

When atop of truth denied

Her luckless lover learns too late

What never was had died.

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Platonia

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Platonia

10. BELOVED INFIDEL

Your outer beauty for so long

Beyond comparebut soon to fade

As does the echo of a song

Or flowers in a sunless glade

Leaving just the inner You

An empty shell of Soul bereft

You turned to ashes all we knew

No love, no friendship, nothing left

So your search for peace goes on

As you pray and self-obsess

Denying all youve done thats wrong

Expecting God to blindly blessThe hypocrite whose chilling stare

Condemned outright the very one

Who later laid her own lies bare

For justice to be seen (and done)

So too its clear youll not be bound

By the rules for judging sin:

That sin-free throwers must be foundBefore the stoning can begin

(Excluding too all those who dwell

In proverbial homes of glass)

Rules you must have heard them tell

In your Christian living class.

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Platonia

I know you, I feel you.I get scared sometimes, but never

doubt that I love you. .. J

Love is an act of faith, and whoever is of little faith is also of

little love.

- Erich Fromm

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Platonia

Most lies are of the temporal kind

All mortals tellthe foolish slip

But Soul-based lies are those that bind

And choke the spirit in their grip

Yours were always Soul-based lies

Of love expressed but never meant

Sacred words - deceitful eyes

Masked that mind of cruel intent.

Soul-based liars cannot love

Or even be loved in return

Because they cannot rise above

Base lust - unable to discern

Between the two, confusing each

Their spirit stifled by deceit

Their hollow prayers will never reachThe God whose aid they vainly seek

There are two choices facing all

Self-proclaimed God-fearing folk

To strive to live by your beliefs?

Or merely wear them as a cloak?

Of all the vile deceptions few

Stand out as more profaneThan a cardboard cut-out Christian

Seeking refuge in His name

The spirit never can be whole

For a liar of the soul.

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Platonia

I volunteer at church Sundaysuntil about 1:30.

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Platonia

11. QUANTUM ABSOLUTION

When this Universe is reduced to soup

And Father Time has a terminal stoop

There will be writ in some quantum code

The following simple and sorrowful ode:

Each said I love you to the others ear

Many times overthat much is clear

For one, those words came from the soul

Blind to the others deceitful role.

Yet whether one acts to deceive or notIn reality - it doesnt matter a jot

Whether ones conduct is cruel or fair

Is probably neither here nor there

Whether one chooses to admit or stall

In the fullness of Time, at the final call

All is absolvedthat too is clear

If one becomes a church volunteer.

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Platonia

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Platonia

12. WITHOUT YOU

Without you there is nothing

Nothing to feel

Neither wound nor pain

Nothing to heal

Hollow eyes looking

With nothing to see

What lies behind them

Is no longer me

An empty dry shell

On a sea-less beachWith no end in sight

And nothing to reach

Only the torment

Of how it would feel

If instead of a dream

You had been real

Wellintentioned advice

Notwithstanding it seems

The two worst mistakes -

To Trust and have Dreams.

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Platonia

Trying to forget someone you love is like trying to remember

someone you never knew.

- Anonymous

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Platonia

13. IF ONLY

Tell me that you love me

Even if you dont

Tell me that youll miss me

Even if you wont

So shrink not from the lie

That keeps at bay the pain

Of feeling your love die

And not seeing you againIf only that it did not matter

If only that I did not care

If only I could just pretend

That you were never there.

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Platonia

You gentle me and calm me in a way I have never

experienced before. You have a way of making me feel loved

and cherished and protected even from so far away. I know

now, as a result of what you have given me, that I will never

ever be the same J

I think sometimes I dont give you all the things you give to

me. I want to try to do better and show you how much youmean to me baby. You really are my rockI love and adore

you. .. J

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Platonia

14. A PRAYER FOR A LOST LOVE

May she think of just our good times

And do so with a smile

And one day find true happiness

And every little while

Please remind her gently, of all I used to say

To lift her soul and help her

Through every lonely dayRemind her of her beauty rare

Whenever she is low

And that someone out there loves her

More than she can ever know.

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Platonia

Fly free and happy beyond birthdays and across forever, and

we'll meet now and then when we wish, in the midst of the one

celebration that never can end.

- Richard Bach

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Platonia

15. ON YOUR BIRTHDAY

May God bless you on this day

With happiness to light your way

Though we only shared but two

Of your lifespan years lived through

Those two years will always be

The happiest of all for me

Better to have loved and lost

Regardless of the pain or cost

Than to balk at Cupids call

And never to have loved at all

To have found a mirrored soul

And have fleetingly felt wholeFulfilled, contented and complete

With love impervious to defeat.

So my love for you lives on

Defiant though the dream is gone

At my demise your face will be

The very last that I shall see

Away beyond this realm of pain

I pray that well be friends again

If not in this world or clime

Perhaps another space and time

May God be always at your side

And His grace with you abide.

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Platonia

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and

endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet

with a success unexpected in common hours.

- Henry David Thoreau

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Platonia

16. THE PATH AHEAD

I see our path ahead untrod

Loves ashes strewn about unblessed

Joy and laughter unexpressed

A phantom future laid to rest

For reasons only known to God

A path now in my mind I plod

Cobbled with our might-have-beens

To re-enact those ghostly scenes

That haunt the graveyard of my dreamsIn places only known to God.

In years to come, when I nod

Pensive in my fireside chair

Heed not the disembodied stare

Im dreaming of us both somewhere

Together in the eyes of God.

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Platonia

Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild

With a faery, hand in hand,

For the world's more full of weeping

Than you can understand.

- William Butler Yeats

Truth, not cruelty to a friend;

Pleasure, not in haste to end

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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Platonia

17. THE ROAD BACK

Despite the very best intent

To turn away from all thats spent

Resolutely not to seek

Justice for the stinging cheek

But turn the other to the foe -

Yet still my mind yearns to know

An answer - a reason to explain

Such cruel and undeserved pain

A demon in a mind possessed

The cuckoo in the warbler's nest?

But no, I never can go back

Along that twisted, tortured track

Its littered leaves of looks and lies

Remnants of a lover's guise

All those hollow words to pass

Pools of tears a looking glass

Telling all I fear to know

Leading where I fear to goA barren and forbidding land

With no trusted guiding hand.

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Platonia

The mind is its own place, and in itself

Can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.

- John Milton

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Platonia

18.

MINDCOMBER

In my mind

You rummage still

Fossicking

Against my will

Turning thoughts

Upside down

Discarding some

With a frown

Pausing

Every little while

With yourBabydoodle smile

Leaving things

In such a mess

And leaving me

With you to bless

Yet in my heartIts you I keep

Your hand I hold

As I sleep.

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Platonia

Believe me, it is no time for words when the wounds are fresh

and bleeding; no time for homilies when the lightning's shaft

has smitten, and the man lies stunned and stricken. Then let

the comforter be silent; let him sustain by his presence, not by

his preaching; by his sympathetic silence, not by his speech.

- George Horace Lorimer

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Platonia

19. LIGHTENING LOVE

Love like lightening strikes but once

If at all, along the path of Life

A swift and awful cosmic knife

Stabbing forth from Passions passing squall

Its victim burnt, broken and left to sprawl

In time to rise and stumble on

Hollow-eyed, aimless and aloneHe who never finds, forever hunts.

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Platonia

A life without love in it is like a heap of ashes upon a deserted

hearth - with the fire dead, the laughter stilled, and the light

extinguished.

- Anonymous

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Platonia

20. THE PRIZE

Even should I conquer all the Earth

For me, there can but be one hearth

Of one house and one room therein

And in that room a bed

Where one woman lays her head

No greater prize could any mortal win

When the Universe, unknown, unseenUnfolds as one vast, timeless scene

All Pasts and Futures are the same

An infinity of Nows, but one

One Now alone tells of who won

That prize, and his immortal name.

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Platonia

White in the moon the long road lies,

The moon stands blank above;

White in the moon the long road lies

That leads me from my love.

- AE Housman

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Platonia

21. YOUR MOON

Once in happy times before

When we lived and loved as one

We made love on a western shore

And shared its setting sun

Next day on to the eastern coast

As your moon above us shone

We loved again so we could boast

An east-west double done

And in between the night was spent

Camped out just like two teens

Inside a truck in lieu of a tentNo matter the lack of means

On that wind-whipped western shore

In my mind I often stand

My heart as cold and heavy

As its dark and clammy sand

Such memories as these I keepAnd when night skies are clear

The sunset sees me quietly weep

And your moon brings forth a tear.

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Platonia

I see before me the Gladiator lieHe leans upon his hand, his manly brow

Consents to death but conquers agony

And his droopd head sinks gradually low

And through his side, the last drops ebbing slow

Fall heavy, one by one

Like the first of a thunder shower

The arena swims around him he is gone

Ere ceased the inhuman shout

Which hailed the wretch who won.

- Lord Byron

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Platonia

22. WINNERS AND LOSERS

That smoky bar

In Houston town

It wasnt far

You took me down

The black rock band

Loudly playing

You, cue in hand

Gently swaying

(Much later you

Would share with me

For that venueA fantasy)

You and me

All in fun

Played best of three

You lost I won

But when it cameTo count the cost

Of Loves game

You won I lost.

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Platonia

I have that terrible feeling, much like I get at Christmas, and

of course New Years Eve. I really, really wanted to connect

with you. Im feeling so far away from you sweetheart.

Desolate, lonely and aloneI love you J

The unexamined life is not worth living for a human being.

- Socrates

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Platonia

23. CHRISTMAS TIME

Christmas time has come around

Bringing with it time to pause

To dwell upon the lost and found

And ponder too, effect and cause

What was gained and at what cost

In new love found or old love lost

Subject the soul to steady gaze

With reflective eye to self-appraise

Be bold enough to open wide

The inner selfnot turn asideFrom any thought, however sad

Or any deed however bad

Thoughts you cannot bear to think

(Unless you have another drink)

Continue till all thoughts are thunk

(And you are either dead or drunk)

Somehow it all adds up to nowt

If the one you love, you are without.

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Platonia

For so long as one hundred men remain alive, we shall never

under any conditions submit to the domination of the English.

It is not for glory or riches or honours that we fight, but only

for liberty, which no good man will consent to lose but with his

life.

- The Declaration of Arbroath, 1320

Twelve Highlanders and a bagpipe make a rebellion.

- Scottish Proverb

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Platonia

24. A PIPER AT MY GRAVE

Being of Scots descent

For better or for worse

My soul needs a lament

It is the Scottish curse

Naturally a restless race

And quick to join a fray

With Sassenachs in their face

The pipers led the way

Those melancholy strains

Send visions to the soul

Of hungered Highland pains

And their tragic toll

Of the hated loyal oath

And every murderous deed

Butcher Billys hand in both

His name a stinking weed

So spare the hymns that stir

And the drummers roll

Recall not things that wereNor the stories droll

Theres just one simple task

Lest my spirit misbehave

My last wish and all I ask:

A piper at my grave.

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Platonia

The ancient and surreal schist rock formations of

Central Otago, New Zealand

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Platonia

25. THE NEVIS

Your stark and tortured towers of schist

That rise to taunt the winters mist

Yet stand so awkward and awry

Under summers sapphire sky

As sentinels they watching keep

Vigil oer a breathless sweep

From valleys dappled green and gold

To ragged ranges rising bold

Their whitecaps acquiesce to haze

Maddening to the keenest gaze.

What galls your brooding brows of stoneBorn of chaotic times unknown?

Rippled lines, all weather-pocked

Life forms therein, for aeons locked

In natures time-warp capsule sealed

Prisoners she will never yield

To see again the light of day

In this, a world thats lost its way

Do those stony furrowed browsIn silence know the fault is ours?

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Platonia

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen

at once.

- Albert Einstein

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Platonia

26. THE ALEXANDRA CLOCK

I need to deal

With that clock on the hill

Counting my days

In contempt of my will

Our eyes seem to lock

Each now and then

No escaping the gaze

Of that craggy Big Ben

Keeping its vigil

Away to the east

Pausing for none

Not even the least

Beneath it an endless

Green snake slithers by

Alluding that Time

Never ceases to fly

Yet Relativity shows

That Time in fact slows

For any mass-matterThe faster it goes

So I need to travel

Lightening fast

And still faster again

To revisit the past

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Platonia

Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the

age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen.

- Mark Twain

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Platonia

Far from the gaze

Of that tyrant of Time

On its grandiose perch

And lofty incline

Back to my youth

And a time long ago

When the problem with clocks

Was ticking too slow.

Life must be lived forwards

But what is perverse

It can be understood only

If lived in reverse.

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There is a pleasure in the pathless woods

There is a rapture on the lonely shoreThere is society where none intrudes

By the deep sea, and music in its roar

- Lord Byron

Painting reproduced courtesy of Phillipa Bayley, Tauranga, NZ,

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27. THE SEA-WRAITH

I went down to the sea

A sea in my dreams

Drawn by its roar

And seabirds screams

It was there that I saw

The wraith as she ran

As if floating to me

Over the sand

Laughing, arms reaching

Hair flying, eyes wild

The beautiful face

Of a sea-storm child

We kissed, then I woke

Not knowing where

I was, till I found

Sea-sand in my hair

And salt on my lips

And the roar in my ear

From a stormy seaThat I can still hear

And the pretty sea-wraith

Floating over the sand?

Turning I found

I was holding her hand.

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We are like butterflies who flutter for a day and think it is

forever.

- Carl Sagan

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28. THE HAWK AND THE BUTTERFLY

They caught my eye

In the still dry heat

Of a late summer sky

The fluky flight

As it fluttered by -

The lifetime day

Of a butterfly

Ducking and dipping

And direction-flipping

As if it knew

Its life was slipping

Then above and afar

The hawk I spied

Slowly soaring

In effortless glide

Two creatures caughtIn the same space-time

With me, as their lives

Intersected with mine

Yet so different in span

And in relative roles

Of instinct and plan

But at end, those lives

Though seeming diverseCount for the same

In our sensed Universe

Mere illusory chips

In some deitys game

Unless you could add

A dimension or two

And by doing reveal

The Platonian view.

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So we set our eyes, not on what we can see, but on what we

cannot see. What we see will last only a short time, but what

we cannot see will last forever.

- Corinthians 4, Verse 18

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29. OUR RABBIT-HUTCH REALITY

Nothings ever as it seems

Blind by what we see

Children of the inland plains

Know nothing of the sea

Captives of dimensions four

Rabbit-hutch confined

Had we one dimension more

True freedom of the mind!

Would Times arrowed line

Turn out to be a sphere?

With every Now that ever was

Or will be - in one Here?

One vast eternal Present

No beginning and no end

No yesterdays are absent

All tomorrows too, attend

So Death is mere release

No sting, nor pain as suchAll that shall decease

Is the bondage of that hutch

The end reality, you see

Is more than all thats been

More than what could ever be

And more than every Dream.

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Have you ever noticed

When you're feeling quite good

There's always a pigeonWill come shit on your hood

You're feeling loved and fulfilled

And your life seems on track -

Then some cowgirl from Texas

Sticks a knife in your back

Pick inarticulate cowboys

If compelled to wreck lives

As words have more might

Than the sharpest of knives.

(with apologies to John Prine)

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30. WHAT PIGEONS DO

I never really cared, or knew

What pigeons do

Till I saw thema flock

In tight formation

They flew

Moving patterns on a canvas

Of still, clear blue

As I watched, their formation

Unformed then re-formed anew

Each formation

Less a fewThen randomness took hold

Till I swear

As if to mock

They spelled letters in the air !

For an instant, clear and bold

Three letters

Did I construe

There and thenThey spelled POO.

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Auckland and fair Welly-town

Both cities for their winds renown

Wellys from the chilly south

Aucklands blasts from every mouth.

(with apologies to none)

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31. STATE HIGHWAY ONE

Feelin down, lets quit this townLand of Auck

And trendy talk

Drive like fury

Past dreary Drury

Thenoh no !

Its Pokeno

On to Mercer

What could be worser?

To put it bluntly

Huntly

(Almost a tie

With Ohinewai)

A horror too

Is Horatiu

Then Hamilton

Born and gone

Cambridge treesPesky leaves

Tin sheep and cow

At Tirau

Toko still

Stinks of mill

Barely saw

Toe-paw

Army stew

At WaiouruThroughTaihape

Made it snappy

Headache pill

At Hunterville

Wheel-spin

Through Levin

Paikakariki

Feelin peaky

To Welly-town, still feelin down

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(Gareth Edwards, Wales and British Lions rugby international, and

inaugural Hall of Famer)

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32. KURANUI

One summers eve, when all is still

We two again shall run that hill

And with each stride shall fall away

All our yearsday by day

Till at the top when we shall see

Each other as we used to be

Strong of limb and keen of eye

With dreams beyond the bluest skyPlaying every famous field

Winning, never once to yield

Our lives ahead, beyond that hill

Shaped by dreams, remembered still.

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Dear Colin

This is to say au revoir. I am off to France tonight - Good luck

to you old chap

Love from

Daddy

(Postcard from Lt-Col George Craig, DSO, officer commanding No.1

New Zealand Field Ambulance, to his son, April, 1916)

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33. A SUMMERTIME GARDEN

Hunkered down in his hermetic haze

Of blue pipe-smoke and remembered days

Days of which he never spoke

But the silence and the distant look

The place of words most eloquent took

His mind still saw the sightless eyes

Forever fixed on foreign skies

Begging their body - escape, take flight

Flee now from this unspeakable plight!

Now! To that painless eternal night

His ears still heard last words unsaid

By mortally wounded long since dead

In a war replaced by the one in his head

From times long past, to now and here

In a summertime garden with ginger beer

Regret and sorrow that I never asked

A troubled man of his troubling pastBack when I was a troublesome boy

Who knew no better and knew no fear

In a summertime garden with ginger beer.

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- Isaiah 41:10- from the diary of Gwenda Craig, 1957

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34. THE TEA-CUP READING

In childhood, I remember still

My mother would, for her

And their amusement tell

The fortunes of her friends

With a natural psychic skill

By the reading of their tea-cups

And she mostly did it well

A joke that she would often play

Before the reading had begun

Cup in hand, her eyes downcast

And with a gentle gypsy smile

She would ominously say

Cross my palm with silver dear

Else Ill tell your past.

When my tea-cup she did hold

I would also be amused

By the words she would intone

But those that came to haunt meWere from the Bible tale of old:

You will always be a Daniel

And like him - stand alone.


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Platonia

Almost always, the creative dedicated minority has made the

world better.

- Martin Luther King

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35. THE LEARNING WHEEL

The greatest invention of all time

Far and away, the most sublime

Is the humble Wheelits clear

Not just the one we ride and steer

But more the one by which we learn

To live, to love, our means to earn

A living and our way through Life

Striving for Peace and ending Strife

Success requires the Mind to change

Blend the Familiar with the Strange

With each turn of the Learning WheelSlowly and surelyour Fate to seal

The myopic Mind perceives the world

And the Wheel marks of those before

Reflection then, till the Mind unfurled

Is moved to act in novel ways

Toward that goal of better days

Progress made is progress learned

From the efforts of the humble FewFor whom that Wheel freely turned.

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36. THE HEART OF GLASS

One birthday long since gone

When we were far apart

My lover sent to me

A pretty crystal heart

I used to hold it in my palm

To touch so tenderlyA symbol of our lasting love

Was what it was to me

Then one day she took it back

Her reason she would say

My treasured gift of love to you

Was never on display

And I was left to wonder

To ponder on and on

If something cant be seen

Does that really mean its gone?

To give and then take back

Is that really fair?Especially when the taker

Leaves in its place despair?

Sadly now the answers clear

From all that came to pass

That pretty crystal heart to her

Was just a glob of glass.

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Every life is a march from innocence, through temptation, to

virtue or vice.

- Lyman Abbott

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37. KEEPING IN STEP

When Love eludes her yet again

Resulting in that old refrain

My pecker-pickers got it wrongJust as it has done all along

Then the simple question begs

For that theory to have legs

Those peckers must be all the same

If the picker be to blame.

Though the theory has appeal

It seems a fraction too facile

Given that, and laws of chance

Another tune may fit that dance

Like the army marching past

One troopers step is out of cast

The army out of step with him?Or does he need his step to trim?

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I need to toe touch with you baby. To feel you being real. To

tell you how much I love you, to know that this is not a dream.

Baby, I hope you know how much you mean to me, how much

I have changed as a result of being with you, being loved by

you and having you in my life has healed me on such a core

level. I can never repay you for that darling, this lesson of love.

It is a sacred gift. It is a divine blessing. I thank you. I love

you.. ..J

Well I dont know, things will normalize soon,.but

somehow Im compelled to seek you out and toe touch. J

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38. ON TOUCHING TOES

I remember once, and see it still

That Christmas when you fell so ill

With fever plagued - no end in sight

Left unchecked, a dangerous plight

You told me it was nothing much

As long as we two played toe-touch

And so we did, all through the night

Till that foul ferment took its flight

You were sleeping by the morn

Me so relieved you saw that dawn

Toe-touching was from then declared

Our signal for love felt and shared.

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.I am so grateful G, for your persistence, for your

determination, for your confidence. I love you.....I miss you....I

need you so badly in my life sweetheart.....J

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39. DO YOU REMEMBER?

Do you remember when

At the airport that night

For our very first sight

Of each other at last

So nervous at first

Hearts beating fast

Your balloons had all burst

Do you remember then?


On your couch we first sat

Together to chat

But the talking soon stoppedAnd we just looked

Till your shoes both dropped

And things came unhooked



My choc cowboy you ate

Because you couldnt waitAnd by your hand I was led

From the room that was spare

To your bed instead

To make love then and there


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What though the radiance which was once so bright

Be now forever taken from my sight

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower

We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind

- William Wordsworth

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Across Texas we sped

In your roadster red

That spring before last

Your long golden hair

Streamed in the blast

Of rock music and airDo you remember then?


That Guadalupe day

On its banks where we lay

The photos you took

After playing our game

Of my happy look

So pleased that you came



One San Antonio night

We dined in the light

Of the rivers soft glowAfter our visit

To the Alamo camp

That lit Freedoms lamp


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It was a bittersweet day for me as I strolled the streets of

Gruen and ate at the Grist Mill. You know what filled my

thoughts and how the memories of my last visit were. I so

miss you darling. I need a toe touch. I floated down the river,

watching the snapping turtles, the rocky rivers edge, thinking

how I wish it was you beside me. How I would goose you

with my foot as you watched the circling falcons. Splashing

you, irritating you. And then dinner, ironically at the verytable we were at 4 months ago. J

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At Gruen we stayed

The love that we made

In a four-poster bed

Then soaked for hours

In the old bath where I said

I wish we could wed

Then I took off my ring

And gave it to you

For that wish to come true


I will always remember then

How that which took

My whole life to find

Existed only in my mind

How commonsense

Could ever miss

Deceit embedded in a kiss

How harsh Fate would me deny

The chance to look you in the eye

And ask the simple question Why?Yes, I remember when.

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Let no-one who loves be unhappy even love unreturned has

its rainbow.

- James Matthew Barrie

Rainbow over the Raggedy Range, Alexandra, Otago, New Zealand

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40. RAINBOWS END

Love is like a rainbows end

With its fabled pot of gold

Unseen you blindly hope its there

But never will be, as foretold

So you only find despair

As rainbows quickly fade away

Loves spark will soon be shed

From thefaithless loved ones eye

So leaving you for deadBut cruelly not to die

Yet still you love her as before

But now your heart pretends

To feel her love, just as though

Rainbows really did have ends

With pots of gold below.

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I came home early after going to dinner.I just missed you so

much sweetheart. I needed to come home to you even though

you arent there. I am comforted just to be able to think of the

possibility of you being there. Im so blessed to have you in mylife my love. I adore you. J

We are one honey I love you so much. Was thinking about

our love tonight as we drove along the bay yes, you have

spoiled me forever darling that old song love to love you

keeps humming in my head. I am ruined for life, I finally

know now J

I keep leaving men, and give them houses and housefuls too,

yet start over and do it again J

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41. THE HOMECOMING

I came home one day, from wearisome toil

For the sight of youmy eyes to spoil

Door, then passage, walking through

Softly calling endearments to youSilence, too loud, greeted each name

Yet my first thought was - this is a game

You had invented and wanted to play

To lift from my mind, the weight of the day

Or perhaps you had simply gone for awhile

To soon re-appear, with a kiss and a smile

So I turned to walk back and into our room

And blinked as if hit by a flash in the gloom

Disbelieving the scene again and again

As slowly arose the most sickening pain

You had goneeverything, everywhere

Empty spaceas if youd never been there

And you, all I loved, existed no more

The essence of me, my innermost core

Torn out in a planned and merciless swoopOne cruel and cowardly avenging scoop

But worse, much worse, was yet to befall

When I learnt you had never existed at all.

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Im not in love with himI dont feel my toes curlI still

have half an eye peeled for the princethe 8lbs since he has

seen me, so maybe that is my way of putting him off

even if I look yucky will you love me anywaybecauseyou are my heart, Jesus I love you, love you beyond

descriptionyou are minegoing to be in your arms soon

honey J

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42. NOT SO TRUE LOVE

I was not in love with him as all but he now knows

Although he made me laugh, he didnt curl my toes

I kept telling him I love him, and did so all along

You are my heart and soul Id say knowing it was wrong

When he sees me next, I was heard to scoff

I hope my gain in weight will serve to put him off

I tried to blame his lying but its hard to make that stickWhen I was not being truthful (such hypocrisy is sick!)

So to salve my conscience I needed some excuse -

The rope for me to hanghim (Id already made the noose)

To him must go all blame because I lacked the couth

To do as I had asked of him and simply tell the Truth

But why such blatant cruelty did I hear you plead?

Well I live by flexi-ethics, flexed according to my need

Im whats called a bolter - unable to sustain

Any lasting union, but its never me to blame

Relationships that fail and the blame therefore

Is not my choice of topic for discussion any more

So to all his missives - I simply dont reply

Because I know full well that I would tell another lie

My sponsors act for me - behind him or her I hideSo I can abdicate all care and just enjoy the ride!

No doubt the time will come, when my deceit returns -

And me who set the fires becomes the one who burns.

Look honestly into my past - see each sorry scam

Look deeply into my eyes - see how shallow I am.

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My greatest fear is deception, lies and not knowingI would

rather discuss the realities of other relations than live in

duplicity. I guess this is a topic that we should explore at some

point. J

I love you with such depth it brings tears to my eyes. I knowthat company is something we can grow together to secure our

future and I am so grateful for your foresight.my future

however is with you regardless of commerce. J

.I am mainly coming over for business reasons but I am

meeting a friend, though I am not sure of the outcome. Iwant to be considerate of his feelings, however, yes I would

like to meet you in person, if you would like to.no it

would not be intruding, it is not like that. I would like to see

you if at all possible.

It has been a week since we met. I really enjoyed seeing

you face to face, Chris. You are everything I expected. Therewas so much I wanted to say after I walked away I guess you

were wise saying to wait for awhilesaying there were 3

other women you were attracted too, and were not in a place

emotionally to be available. Still.

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43. UNCONSCIONABLE

Unconscionable

A powerful and unusual word

Not very often said or heard

Except by judges at judgment time

To denounce an unusually heinous crime

Or to describeThe devious deeds of those who sell

Used cars to victims of Katrinas hell

Or one who travels to a far-off land

To see her lover, for their lives to plan

But well before even starting to pack

She arranges a tryst behind his back

Saying

Im coming for business, meeting a friend

(= Mind games to play, his dreams to end)

The day for the tryst duly arrives

And to work the unknowing lover drives

Leaving her free for her clandestine meet

The callous deception is soon complete

Saying

I really enjoyed seeing you face to face -Everything I expected. (= wish to embrace)

There was so much more I wanted to say

After I turned and walked away -

In saying to wait for awhile you were wise

With three other women as emotional ties

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With vice allied, however pure

No virtue can be long secure

Shun then the traitress and her wiles

Whateer she touches she defiles.

- Aesops Fables

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Yet still

She tells the lover It was all for us

That she left her home and travelled thus

To see him alone and their lives to plan

(= Her chance to effect a change of man)

UnconscionableA powerful and unusual word

Meaning by conscience undeterred.

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To be a friend in the truest sense, may sometimes mean that

you will be set down as an easy mark, a pushover..I should

rather believe in something and be wrong, than not believe in

it and be right...Above all, friendship means theimmeasurable capacity for forgiveness. It means the ability to

shuck off resentment rather than let it persist and poison the

spirit. He is a green hand at life, who cannot forgive any

mortal thing.

- Henry David Thoreau

It is much more important to do right, than not to do wrong.

The one is possible, the other, has always been, and always will

be, impossible.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

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44. ALMOST

You once described you

In writing to me

As the almost-woman

And I thought at the time

What a sad self-view

But one I now see

Has taken on more

Of a rose-tinted hue

To the point that the term

Almost-human

Now seems to be

More descriptive of you

To be human you see

To be part of that race

And above the mere beast

There must be some grace-

The will to Forgive

And the Truth to live

But I see neither in you

Instead all I seeIs all that I fear

So I pray hard and long

That one day my dear

You will prove us both wrong.

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I sat here in the night after waking in a panic and realizedhow fortunate I am to have you in my life and to experience

your love. I have never had what you are giving to me.thank

you my darling for showing me the finest example of love I

have ever had. J

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45. THE LAST SHRED

Its gone, all hope has gone

That clutched and fraying shred

Now the final slender strand

Of its last remaining thread

Has broken - instantly to send

My dying dream of friendship

Crashing to its end

Against the unforgiving bent

Of her mindless misbelief

A self-raised monument

To anothers needless grief

Yet she who called the love

I gave her as the best

(Of all her lifethe finestAnd far above the rest)

Will go to meet her maker

Whenever that may be

Still thinking well of her

And naught but ill of me

So at her final place of rest

Wherever that may be

The headstone should attest:Here lies one

Of devious will

And cruel deeds done

She lies still

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Jan says:

I NEVER TOLD YOU HAPPY VALENTINES DAY MY LOVER

GOD I LOVE YOU GRAAAAAAAHAMMMMMMEEEEEEEE

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46. MY VALENTINE

Loved and lovely Valentine

Though never yours, you were mine

Within my being, can still be found

Love and reasons battleground

But reason never wins the day

And so my heart bids me to sayWords as if you were still mine

My loved and lovely Valentine.

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I have so much to learn about you, so much to share. I

indulged my imagination by fabricating a life together that

would have avoided all of the pain I have lived through since

leaving New Zealand. I found myself becoming resentful for

not finding you before, greedy for the memories I missed withyou, the life we could have had together. But I am positive

now that I reframe it, that it is who I am today that treasures

you so much more than I possibly could if I had not had the

trials in my life. And perhaps you wouldnt be who you are

today if you had shared the last 25 years with me. I like to

think that we are living that scenario in another dimension I

am so grateful for your persistence, for your determination, for

your confidence. I love you .J

Thinking of you my darling, imagining you here with us,

exploring the universeI cant sleep and need to at least

make contact with you, miss you and love you J

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47. SO MANY THINGS WE NEVER DID

So many things we never did

Before our last farewell was bid

Stand cheek to cheek on a lofty peak

Splash naked in a mountain creek

Softly kiss your sleeping eyes

See countless suns set and riseRun wild and free in childish glee

On a stormy beach with thunderous sea

See you take a childs hand

And kneeling build a fort of sand

The child in you in plain view

Till soon you have me kneeling too

Talk with you a whole night long

Of dreams, beliefs and all thats wrong

Of quantum things and all that springs

From what each to the other brings

Dance with you beneath your moon

To a slow and haunting tune

We gently pause my cheek on yours

Immersed in Loves effect and cause

So many things we never did

Before our last farewell was bid

To test each lie that you deny

And watch your weak and wavering eye.

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... in the crowd,

They could not deem me one of such

I stood among them, but not of them,

In a shroud

Of thoughts which were not their thoughts.....

- Lord Byron

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48. YOUR MEMORY

Every day we live as one

Your memory and me

See that every chore gets done

And share each cup of tea

When I take a walk beside

The river or the sea

We are always stride-for-stride

Your memory and me

Before you overtook my heart

Even when amidst a crowd

I would often feel apart

Settled in a self-made shroud

Never morebecause you seeAlthough my friends be few

I always know I have with me

My memory of you

On entering our room whereon

Our bed your clothes still lie

And your roses that festoon

The bedside table catch my eyeThen grief my old companion

Turns we two into a three

In a brief but rude intrusion

On your memory and me.

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.....And I would also deem

Oer others griefs that some sincerely grieve

That two, or one are almost what they seem

That goodness is no name, and happiness no dream.

- Lord Byron

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You are still my precious dream

As you will always be

Till the stars fall from the heavens

And the sky sinks to the sea

And when that comes to pass

I will set your memory free

And journey on to other worlds

My dream of you and me.

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49. GRIEF

I will always love

My reminders of you

The way we were

The times we knew

My mornings now

Are as the duskMy hollowed heart

A brittle husk

My suns become

Unseemly shy

By dark clouds scolded

From my sky

My minds a lodging

An inn once blessed

Now the demon grief

Its only guest

If hope springs eternal

So does despairAs grief burns infernal

Fuelled from its air

Sadness enough

At Loves bitter end

But grief on grief

To lose also a friend.

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....When the whole host of hatred stood hard by

To watch, and mock thee shrinking

Thou hast smiled, with a sedate and all-enduring eyeWhen Fortune fled her spoild and favourite child

He stood unbowed neath ills upon him piled.

- Lord Byron

The only place where I can really be defeated, is my own soul.

Only my own thoughts can conquer me. Only my own

passions can consume me. Let me fight it out then, alone, and

triumph in my own arena, no matter if they overcome me in

theirs.

- Mahatma Gandhi

.

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50. LOVE AND FORTUNE

A fortune made

A woman loved

Both lost

Some things

Are meant to be

Some scenesAre destined

To be played

The rest are dreams

Forever stayed

When I come to leave

Reingas coast

Ask me which loss

Scarred me most -

The fortune

Or the woman loved?

The first from me

False freedom stole

The second took

My very soul.

(According to Maori mythology, the spirits of the dead travel to the tip

of Cape Reinga, the northern most part of Aotearoa, (New Zealand),

and from there depart on their journey to the afterlife).

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I love you more, and yet you love me not

And never shall, Love dwells not in your will

Nor do I blame thee, though it be my lot

To strongly, wrongly, vainly love you still.

- Lord Byron

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51. UNREQUITED LOVE

Its said that unrequited Love

By natures law returns

From the heart that cannot giveTo heal the one that yearns

But no Love ever does accord

With any plan or law

Nor heed the will or prayer

Of any, rich or poor

At the beck and call of none

And more sought than found

Far more often lost than won

On that virtual battleground

Where the reasons of the mind

Fight the seasons of the heart

Loves Summer falls to Autumns grief

Cold despair plays Winters part

And hope aligns with Springs new leaf

But reason says all hope is falseDespair and grief alone are real

We can but one short Summer steal.

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Platonia

I need a name for the land of Nows. Plato, who lived about a

century after Heraclitus and Parminedes, taught that the only

real things are forms or ideas existing in a timeless realm.I

shall call (this land) PlatoniaPlatonia is the arena which Ithink should replace space and time.

- Dr Julian Barbour,UK Theoretical Physicist

.In a certain sense, therefore, I hold it true that pure thought

can grasp reality, as the ancients dreamed.

- Albert Einstein

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Platonia

52. PLATONIA I

The poet Pope once wrote:

Nature, and natures laws

Lay hid by night

God said Let Newton be

And all was light.

Not quite-

There was far more to see

Popes night endured to hide

Till God let Einstein be

Space and time to show

As both illusory

But unified-

To a deeper Truth concealed

Which Einstein vainly strove

Himself to see revealed

For peace of mind to prove

His intuitions strong advice:

God plays no dice

Soon again Gods insight giftOn a chosen one bestowed

Will in time last shadows lift

To finally evoke

The endless, massless, timeless realm

Of which Plato spoke.

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Platonia

.I love thee with the breath

Smiles, tears, of all my life

And if God choose

I shall but love thee better after death.

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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Platonia

53. PLATONIA II

So heres a toast to Theory M

Its coexisting worlds of strings

Making Nows of every Then

Illusions of familiar things

Plus at least dimensions ten

This mother of all theories brings

Enabling us to see all Nows

That ever were or could have been

A landscape vast and free to browse

To wander to and from each scene

So never need we mourn the loss

Of any Love or any Dream

Imagine if we were as free

In Body as we are in Mind

So thoughts were there for eyes to see

And dreams were there for hearts to find

If those of yours became of me

Would our Souls be then entwined?

An infinity of worlds diverseEnveloping our homely sod

This earth, indeed this universe

By each and every count is odd

The product of mere chance perverse

Or providential hand of God?

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Time does not bring relief, you all have lied

Who told me time would ease my pain

I miss you in the weeping of the rain

I want you at the shrinking of the tide

The old snows melt from every mountain side

And last years leaves are smoke in every lane

But last years bitter loving must remain

Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide

There are one hundred places where I fear

To go so with your memories they brimAnd entering with relief some quiet place

Where never fell your foot nor shone your face

I say There is no memory of you here

And so stand stricken, shedding still a tear.

- Edna St Vincent Millay


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EPILOGUE

Perhaps the Universe remains as it was in the beginning,

when all places were one place, and

all times were one time, and

all things the same thing,

in the ultimate

singularity

- Doh!

Date post:	13-Apr-2018
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Platonia Final Master

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