Dead Presidents
By Anthony Bergen
E-Mail: bergen.anthony@gmail.com
If there is something to desire,
There will be something to regret.
If there is something to regret,
There will be something to recall.
If there is something to recall,
There was nothing to regret.
If there was nothing to regret,
There was nothing to desire.
— Vera Pavlova, If There Is Something To Desire: One Hundred Poems
The Lip and the Heart.
One day between the Lip and the Heart
A wordless strife arose,
Which was expertest in the art
His purpose to disclose.
The Lip called forth the vassal Tongue,
And made him vouch—a lie!
The slave his servile anthem sung,
And brav’d the listening sky.
The Heart to speak in vain essay’d,
Nor could his purpose reach—
His will nor voice nor tongue obeyed,
His silence was his speech.
Mark thou their difference, child of earth!
While each performs his part,
Not all the lip can speak is worth
The silence of the heart.
— John Quincy Adams, poet and 6th President of the United States
