Assessment of Reading Comprehension

Assessment of reading comprehension presentation on 10/2/2014

A Pinch of Romanticism

As I was looking through my blog, I noticed how most of my posts, especially my poems were serious and dealt with serious issues, most of which were matters of "life and death." So for a change I decided to add to them a pinch of romanticism, to change the flavour, so here is a poem that I wrote exactly twenty years ago, that is in 1992.

Spring time summer time winter and fall

They come, but soon they end

I wish in true love I could fall

With her my whole life I would spend.

With her my whole life I would spend

And live happily ever after

Even if good meals she couldn’t mend

This, for sure, will never matter.

This for sure will never matter

As long as her heart is pure

It is much better than getting fatter

With her anything I would endure.

With her anything I would endure

Even if we had to die

As long as our hearts are so pure

Our souls to heaven would fly.

Life

Can you live life but with much care?

Can you but criticize what you can’t bear?

Can you live as happy as birds on boughs? 

Can you lead a life as naive as cows? 

In a world full of trouble and plight, 

Can you surrender or will you fight?

Can you surrender? or will you fight,

Evil and vice for the sake of right?

When gluttony and hatred our hearts dwell, 

What can we do to break such a spell?

When all around is so absurd,

Object!? You’ll wish you’ve never murmured.

Object!? You’ll wish you’ve never murmured,

If you don’t agree with the absurd,

Agree with Lucifer, whatever he says,

And play the tune he himself plays,

So that you’d be so wise a man,

Who against wrong-doing did all he can.

Oh! No, God, I will never give up,

Nor my strife against wrong-doing shall I stop,

I’ll fight and fight, till the very end,

Till these beliefs the world shall comprehend,

Till virtue and justice shall at last prevail, 

Till evil can no longer hide behind his veil. 

Never give up, nor think of maybe or might,

But of the darkness overcome by light,

With this concept we will victorious be,

United, no one can conquer you and me.

Happy April Fool's Day

On April fool's Day, this is a short narrative by Gibran Kahlil Gibran that came to my mind and decided to share:

"Upon a day Beauty and Ugliness met on the shore of a sea. And they said to one another, “Let us bathe in the sea.”

Then they disrobed and swam in the waters. And after a while Ugliness came back to shore and garmented himself with the garments of Beauty and walked away.

And Beauty too came out of the sea, and found not her raiment, and she was too shy to be naked, therefore she dressed herself with the raiment of Ugliness. And Beauty walked her way.

And to this very day men and women mistake the one for the other.

Yet some there are who have beheld the face of Beauty, and they know her notwithstanding her garments. And some there be who know the face of Ugliness, and the cloth conceals him not from their eyes."

Comment:

Is it really this hard to recognize real beauty?

Is it really this easy for ugliness to hide itself from us?

Are we really aware of the real criteria of ugliness and beauty?

Real beauty is beauty that comes from the inside.

Real beauty is surely not the beauty of the face or the outer appearance.

Real beauty is the beauty of the spirit.

Real beauty is the beauty of the thoughts.

Real beauty is the is the beauty of manners.

Real beauty is the beauty of ethics and morals.

That is why we can not recognize real beauty quickly and easily.

That is why we are often deceived by the concealed ugliness.

That is why we sometimes seem blind, though we have healthy eyes and deaf though we have healthy ears. Because there are things that neither the eyes nor the ears can perceive; their perception needs a strong insight and a capable mind.

On April fool's day, which is tomorrow, today, yesterday and every day, I really hope that everyone of us searches and finds the real beauty within himself and the real beauty in others, bringing back the garment of beauty to beauty and assisting this beauty to shine into the ugly darkness of the night turning it into light.

Patience, a Way to Triumph

Where should one seek comfort and joy,

When the world is full of deception?

When the life of a person's just a toy,

In the hands of treachery and aggression,

Where should thou seek some peace of mind,

When thou hast no place to run?

When thy destiny to foul thou hast to bind,

And thy fate of suffering thou can not shun

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And thy fate of suffering thou can not shun,

No matter how much effort thou make,

With thy day of birth thy strife's begun,

In this world where everything is fake,

Where the virtuous for their virtue are convicted,

And the vicious ones for their vice rewarded,

And people's gluttony can not be depicted,

And the innocent art not safe nor well guarded.

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And the innocent art not safe nor well guarded,

Because such people in this life have no place,

As these days humans and humanity have parted

But we shall walk with so steady a pace

Patient we are and our patience so great

And our patience is the way to the victory ahead

To us life is mere glory and thus our fate

Is to meet sweet triumph, no matter how long it’s fled.

Beauty and the Beast

When one reads the title of this post, the first thing that may come to his mind is the very well known fairy tale of the enchanted prince who was transformed into an ugly and horrible beast by a wicked witch and the lovely, beautiful girl who decided to make a great sacrifice and live with the beast just to save her father. 

...But this post has nothing to do with this fairy tale nor this beauty nor this beast.  

Beauty

This is beauty, natural beauty that may astound the eyes of the viewer so much that he feels the urge to keep looking without quenching the thirst of his soul no matter how much it gulps from its magnificence.

Beauty- Karaoun lake- A marvelous view- 25/3/2012- 04:00 p.m.

The Beast

This is the beast, the dreadful beast of pollution, the murderous servant of ignorance and the treacherous vampire of beauty. A beast that is so envious that he was so determined to distort this beauty  and deform its magnificence. A beast that has a great beauty-thirst that he sucks and sucks beauty right out of nature.

The Beast- Karaoun Lake- A dreadful view- 25/3/2012- 04:01 p.m.

Breaking the Spell

How long should we wait before we try to break the spell and liberate the beauty of our nature from the poisonous fangs of the beast? 

When will we decide to kill the monster within us that is so determined to rob us of a very precious gift that GOD has blessed us with?

When will we be ready to sacrifice a bit of our individual

selfishness for the sake of our social well-being?

When will crimes against the environment be punished with the same severity as the crimes against humanity especially that such a crime is a kind of  mass-murder?

When will Environmental education be an essential part of the curriculum, classified as survival education?

When will we manage to change this savage, murderous beast into a friendly, helpful prince?

We are not just dreaming of the impossible, all of this can be done through determination, hard work, love, readiness to sacrifice and wisdom.

Come Hither

Pick up thy fruit it's harvest time,

Play thy lute, and follow this rhyme,

Don't go mute, tune up thy chime,

Thy sorrow shoot, it is no crime.

This old oak tree, gives peace of mind

Thou'll be free, nothing thy soul can bind

Two days or three, thyself thou'll find

Come hither pre thy heart goes blind.

Come hither and with thyself reconcile

Let nothing in the world thy soul defile.

29/5/1999