Meditation on a Bone

A piece of bone, found at Trondhjem in 1901, with the following runic inscription (about A.D. 1050) cut on it: I loved her as a maiden; I will not trouble Erlend’s detestable wife; better she should be a widow.

Words scored upon a bone,

Scratched in despair or rage —

Nine hundred years have gone;

Now, in another age,

They burn with passion on

A scholar’s tranquil page.

The scholar takes his pen

And turns the bone about,

And writes those words again.

Once more they seethe and shout

And through a human brain

Undying hate rings out.

“I loved her when a maid;

I loathe and love the wife

That warms another’s bed:

Let him beware his life!”

The scholar’s hand is stayed;

His pen becomes a knife

To grave in living bone

The fierce archaic cry.

He sits and reads his own

Dull sum of misery.

A thousand years have flown

Before that ink is dry.

And, in a foreign tongue,

A man, who is not he,

Reads and his heart is wrung

This ancient grief to see,

And thinks: When I am dung,

What bone shall speak for me?

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Poems in English 

• Occupy the Wall Street by Sunil Sharma by Sunil Sharma
• Morale by Sunil Sharma by Sunil Sharma
• Finding freedom from invisible bonds by Sunil Sharma by Sunil Sharma
• Birds heavenly by Sunil Sharma by Sunil Sharma
• Afternoon song by Sunil Sharma by Sunil Sharma
• A daily prayer by a kid by Sunil Sharma by Sunil Sharma
• A beach dawn by Sunil Sharma by Sunil Sharma
• The Pretense of Gathering Pebbles by the Shore by Syed Kawsar Jamal by Poetry In English
• The Magician by Syed Kawsar Jamal by Poetry In English
• Sunday Morning by Susan King Saunders by Poetry In English
• Sitting atop the mountain hill by Swami Aaron Thomas by Poetry In English
• Shattered Dreams by SWARAJ PRASAD by Poetry In English
• Romantic Hour by Suuk Simon Subinimah by Poetry In English
• Rememberance of that Power by sylvan lightbourne by Poetry In English
• Protest poem by Susan King Saunders by Poetry In English
• Od’d(ode) to Whitey Bulger by Susan King Saunders by Poetry In English
• Michelle Obama Tribute by Susan King Saunders by Poetry In English
• Little Girl Dancing by Susan King Saunders by Poetry In English
• Independent at Birth by Suuk Simon Subinimah by Poetry In English
• I am not ashamed of myself by Swami Aaron Thomas by Poetry In English

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Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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