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Title: The Desirable Undefined
Author: Jared Barhite [
More Titles by Barhite]
I have often thought there's a power
Unknown to science or art,
That opens and closes the portals
That lead to the human heart.
I have learned there's a secret something
That remains yet undefined,
That touches the springs and pulleys
That open the human mind.
I have watched the glow of faces,
As a light from this occult source
Has touched some inert nature
With an energizing force.
The effect was so magnetic,
It seemed like creative skill
From the hand of the Great Master,
To give passive being will.
Sometimes its power seemed but presence,
Sometimes, a soft, mild tone,
Sometimes, a look of decision,
Ofttimes, from a source unknown.
There's a something wrapped in th' nature
Of those most adapted to teach
That charms and holds the attention
Of those whom its powers reach.
There's a sound from some vibration
Within the human voice
That arouses the latent spirit
And makes the soul rejoice.
Its tone has a magic power
Whereby the heart is impressed
With the weight of its noble mission
And unselfish interest.
There's a mystic charm most winsome
In th' glance of a speaking eye
Whose light shines in dark recesses
And explores them in passing by.
It illumines the page of the student
As his soul warms by its fire,
And stirs him to greater action,
And lifts aspirations higher.
Every word and look and action
Has weight on trustful youth,
That needs no sage to interpret
Or explain its vital truth.
They are fully comprehended
Through the instinct, every one,
And need no labored searching
In a massive lexicon.
Some call this power attraction,
Some term it affinity,
But all recognize its existence
And wonderful potency.
There's also a power of repulsion
That breathes with abated breath,
Whose presence is best betokened
By ominous signs of death.
No word has an inspiration,
No look has a sign of cheer,
Each act reveals that a burden
Must be borne in sorrow and fear.
The wrecks that are made by its presence
Have filled almshouses and jails
With the deepest of lamentations,
The saddest of human wails.
A selfish, terrible monster
That drives away honor and truth
Is the cold-blooded fiend Repulsion,
The destroyer of tender youth.
The sea in its frenzy and fury,
When lashed by the wintry gales
Casts on the rocks its vessels
Bereft of their spars and sails;
The path of the fierce tornado,
Overstrewn with wild debris
Of fallen habitations
And uprooted forest tree;
The wreck of a world of matter
That transforms revolving spheres,
Which have gathered all their greatness
Through the lapse of a million years;
The snow-clad mountain terror--
The fearful avalanche--
Whose thunders are heard in valleys
Where imploring faces blanch;
The mouth of a raging Etna
With its stifling breath of fire,
Wherein the pride of a city
In a moment may expire;
The trembling of the mountains
When an earthquake passes by,
And the terror of the people
Struck dumb in their agony;
The rage of a foaming torrent,
After the bursting cloud
Has poured its liquid fury
In destruction wild and loud;
Are but the potent protests
Of Nature's elements
Against some ill arrangement
That brings them discontents.
But these in separate actions,
Or in forces all combined,
Leave not so sad a ruin
As the wreck of one human mind.
The voice, the eye, and the manner
Are all unlocked by a key
That has for its great attraction
A confiding sympathy.
The knowledge of books is essential
To those who youth would guide,
But the grace of earnest endeavor
Excels all else beside.
Truth in its plainness is beauty,
Science itself is a charm,
But the frown of a tyrant tutor
Puts both in constant alarm.
To receive a healthful impression,
Mind must be free from fear,
Will must be held by attraction,
Soul, by a soul sincere.
[The end]
Jared Barhite's poem: Desirable Undefined
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