Poverty parts friends

Poor relations can be an embarrassment. Who wants to listen to you modestly bragging about your latest expensive acquisition when they are on food stamps? Some people are poor through their own follies and others through misfortune but it rubs it in if friends start to progress in opposite directions.

If your friends are struggling while you are becoming successful you will have less and less in common and your outlook on life will change from theirs. Where they see despair and hopelessness you could be looking at prosperity and improvement. Some friendships will last through good and bad times but eventually there will be drift away from weaker ties. Life is tough and you need to look after number one.

Most people would regard it as right that you should try to help friends in trouble but there will come a point when you have to say enough is enough -- you can't let others pull you down unfairly. When to let go and part company is a difficult judgement to make but sometimes it has to be done.


Learn to write limericks and you are half way to song lyrics:
700 Limericks & How to Write Them by William Clark

Love makes one fit for any work

Poets have long hailed the inspiring power of love; from Helen of Troy to the cute girl next door, no self-respecting weilder of the pen can do without the sublime influence of a lovely lady. Not many people would rush to regard poetry writing as work but for those to whom it is a vocational calling it is almost as important as the loaf of bread won by much toil in field and factory.

The poet has no doubt about the importance of love in its most refined and basic forms to inspire and drive activity but all humans are motivated by this mysterios joy to greater achievement and worthiness. True love elevates the spirit. ennobles the soul and magnifies the mind of the inspired person who has increased zest and power to accomplish. The knowledge that someone you love and respect reciprocates your feelings is the greatest boost to self-esteem you can have.


However, like all good things love has its downside and we find in the songs of the world many sad lyrics of love lost, love betrayed, stolen love and heartbreak. Those of us who have toiled under a heavy heart know how difficult it is to keep positive and engaged with daily tasks; but as the Scottish poet, Robert Burns, said, "The joys o' love are sweeter far than any other pleasure And if so dear its sorrows are, enjoyment what a treasure".

Friendship can be steadier and more reliable than the foibles of love. Try this song on Amie Street. This is a download site that lets you purchase for a few cents in the early days of a song's release before the price rises. If this blog is of value to you purchases help to fund it, thanks. (You get a free listen to part)

Ol' Jim (Magic in Them Feet)


For more on romantic verse and tips on writing them you might like to try my blog:
Limericks Verse Poetry

This book will help you write your own verse, romantic or otherwise:
700 Limericks & How to Write Them by William Clark

Love lives in cottages as well as in courts

Amour courtois, courtly love, was very fashionable in Europe in the High Middle Ages of the 12th century. Possibly drawing some inspiration from the Arab world, it began in the French aristocratic courts and is particularly associated with Eleanor of Aquitaine who was queen of France and, later, Queen of England. She loved the attention of the troubadour poets and singers and displays of refined, romantic, chaste love.

Her adventurous life spanned, for those times, an enormous 83 years, and included many children by her two husbands, so perhaps she knew something. This was at a time when people married for position and wealth and their true feelings could only be expressed in poetry and song.

History tends not to record the lives of ordinary folk but it is tempting to think that those who were free to marry for love might have had far happier lives than their aristocratic lords. The bonds of natural affection would likely have been just as real for the untutored, illiterate peasant as for the well-educated, refined lords and ladies. However, the hardness of life might have made marriage a mainly practical method of surviving and procreating for all classes.

For more on romantic verse and tips on writing them you might like to try my blog:
Limericks Verse Poetry

This book will help you write your own verse, romantic or otherwise:
700 Limericks & How to Write Them by William Clark

As a memorial to a fine man who was a friend to all, the author of your blog wrote a tribute song "Ol' Jim (Magic in Them Feet)" now available as a digital download from iTunes and other stores.

Ol' Jim (Magic in Them Feet)

Rest breeds rust

The balance between work and play is a difficult one to get right. Shakespeare observed: "If all the year were holidays to play would be as tedious as to work."

Most people work because they need to earn money and are usually tempted by extra income to work longer hours. Knowing when to stop and put family and friends first is a difficult judgement to make but if you take too much time off then your work will suffer.

This saying implies that if you overdo rest and relaxation you will find it more difficult to make a success of whatever tasks you have. Working long hours might reduce your effectiveness but it is likewise with too much laziness.

A well-oiled, regularly run machine can last longer than one left lying idle.

Ol' Jim (Magic in Them Feet)