M.O.T.H: Matters of the Heart "A Book of Poetry"

By Melissa Monék

A book of love on every level. This book is combined with poetry for every heart. It helps you understand the depths of love and the things we endure trying to find it. A must read for the heart that needs to know that love doesn't always have to hurt. Love can find you when you least expect it. Let M.O.T.H. take you on that journey.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 20, 2014
• ISBN: 9781496919304

Melissa Monék

Melissa Monek, a native of Miami, Florida is an artist, writer, poet, and educator. As she continues her journey from her first published book, M.O.T.H(Matters of the Heart), she begins to depict an insight of her life through poetry. In this unique way, Melissa decided to put a twist on speaking her voice, using this platform to hopefully reach and inspire those who haven't yet found the courage to tell their story. She know how it feels to be in dark places with no one to turn to, to wear scars that no one can see, and to bear the pain of life with her head held high and a smile on her face. She is truly a testimony of her many tests. A conqueror, a fighter, a survivor are all the titles that Melissa wear as she continues to press forward on her own self healing journey. Everyday isn't a bad day but when they are, she holds on to God's unchanging hand and weather the storm. She defines herself as a Beautiful Disaster, a Diamond in the rough that will shine so brightly with everyone she meets.

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© 2014 Melissa Monék. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 06/16/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4969-1931-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4969-1930-4 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Just Because

Introduction

To Love Me

My First Love

I Came to You

A Fool for You

How Could You

Love

I Was Wrong

I Gave To You

Love Lost

Thoughts of Wonder

Here I am

My Feelings For You

Crazy Love

I’m Yours

My World

You and I

A World Full….

A Part of Me

Suddenly

Let Me Love You

Hand in Hand

Whose Is It

Thinking of You

How Do You

Lonely Heart

I’m Not Gonna Cry

Love’s Hurt

Fantasy

Say That

In Friendship and In Love

Assurance

The Way of Love

A Variety of Love

Are You The One

Today I Realized

From Me To You

Twelve Twenty-Three

Love Me When It Hurts

My Lover, My Friend

Matters Of The Heart

Once In a Lifetime

If Loving You Is Wrong

The Air You Breathe

You Are My Sunshine

If Only You Knew

Love Without You

My Last First Kiss

Come Into My Life

Crazy Love The Sequel

Love of My Life

Looking For Love

Look Into My Eyes

You Can’t Hurt Me Anymore

You Don’t Have To Love Me

Trust

Giving Myself To You

In The Morning

Rest Of My Life

All Cried Out

Our Special Place

Saving Forever

About the Book

This book is dedicated to everyone who believes in love, ever felt love, and knows what it is to respect love.

Just Because

You made my heart whole. You loved it beyond measure. You took what I thought was a disaster and made it your special treasure. When I was face down in the dirt you pulled me out and loved me through all the hurt. When no one cared enough to see about me, you showed up and healed my heart, now it can breathe. You have become my lover, my friend and only if you knew; there’s nothing in this world for you I wouldn’t do. So to you I dedicate what is now Matters of the Heart. You see it took us a long time to get here and nothing can tear us apart.

I love you for who you are.

I love you for who I now am.

I love you for who we’ve become.

-Melissa Monék

To my favorite girl. Thank you for always believing in me. Thank you for always supporting me. Thank you for understanding my love and still loving me in spite of. I know you’re looking down on me with a smile on your face. Rest well Mama. I Love You!

Roslyn Gail Mackey

October 25, 1955-April 20, 2006

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Introduction

Love, you knocked me on my ass; what a hard fall I took. You tore me down so badly, I closed every chapter in my heart’s book. Every time I got up you were right

Reviews for M.O.T.H

[edwin6gleaves · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is not the Edward Fitzgerald translation of "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam of Naishapur" but an Iranian production in Persian, English, French, German, and Arabic, with introductory material in the Western languages, including a "Pubishers' Foreward" [sic] in English. The illustrations are tantalizingly lovely and well preserved. A section on "Omar Khayam: The Sage" appears in Persian at the end of the book.

[rmmee · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The trouble is that we are all reviewing different versions. Mine is the 75 stanza first edition of Fitzgerald's verse translation, reproduced by the Folio Society in 1955. It is a lovely little book (so little that it only took me 30 minutes to read it). And it has nice 10th century Persian illustrations. But as for the actual poetry, I can't find any major praises to sing about it. It is certainly worth glancing through, but unless you are an afficianado, this is not something I would strongly recommend.

[zasmine_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent Luminous Poetry.

[sashame-485567 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

lots of this is super super beautiful, but the lack of class consciousness and un-critical obsession w alcohol both started to get to me :/

[lisamaria_c · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is the poetry of Omar Khayyam, a Persian poet and scientist who lived from 1048-1131. He actually wrote one of the most important treatises on Algebra before modern times. The very name "Ruba'yat" actually comes from an Arab word for "four" and refers to the quatrain structure and was given to a selection of Khayyam's poems by Edward Fitzgerald, who first popularized the poems in the West with his translations into English in editions published from 1895 to 1889. The most famous verses of this translation would be recognized by many:A Book of Verses underneath the Bough,A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread--and ThouBeside me singing in the Wilderness--Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!However famous though, Fitzgerald's version famously took many liberties. The translation I have on my shelves is by Peter Avery and John Heath-Stubbs, and purports to be as faithful as possible to the original. So the lines above are rendered:If chance supplied a loaf of white bread,Two casks of wine and a leg of mutton,In the corner of a garden with a tulip-cheeked girl,There'd be enjoyment no Sultan could outdo.The Avery/Heath-Stubbs version has the reputation of being more restrained, and I think that's captured in the two quotations. Actually, that does make me want to seek out Fitzgerald's version, even if it's more romantic Victorian than true to the original. But the Avery/Heath-Stubbs was the version through which I became acquainted with this poetry, and I found it beautiful. I picked it up because The Ruba'yat was on a list of "100 Significant Books" in Good Reading only to find myself entranced. It's a very slim volume of 104 pages of 235 quatrains.

[gbill_7 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Omar Khayyam wrote the poems that make up “The Ruba’iyat” over the course of his life about a thousand years ago in what is now Iran (1048-1131). He was an astronomer and mathematician in addition to being a poet; his religious views are subject to debate but it’s clear they were not orthodox. Some see him as a Sufi mystic, others as a humanist skeptic, regardless, his poetry is enjoyable and speaks to me across the centuries. The predominant theme is a recognition of the transience of life; Khayyam tells us to be happy and enjoy ourselves before we pass on, as those who came before us have. This is also a very beautiful edition which includes a large number of Persian paintings in color.Quotes:On happiness in the now:“Go for pleasure, life only gives a moment,Its every atom from a Kaikobad’s or a Jamshid’s dust;The world’s phenomena and life’s essenceAre all a dream, a fancy, and a moment’s deception.”“These few odd days of life have passedLike water down the brook, wind across the desert;There are two days I have never been plagued with regret for,Yesterday that has gone, tomorrow that will come.”“It is we who are the source of our own happiness, the mine of our own sorrow,The repository of justice and foundation of iniquity;We who are cast down and exalted, perfect and defective,At once the rusted mirror and Jamshid’s all-seeing cup.”On sleep:“I was asleep, a wise man said to me‘The rose of joy does not bloom for slumberers;Why are you asleep? Sleep is the image of death,Drink wine, below the ground you must sleep of necessity.’”On death:“Though you may have lain with a mistress all your life,Tasted the sweets of the world all your life;Still the end of the affair will be your departure – It was a dream that you dreamed all your life.”On the passing of youth:“When we were children we went to the Master for a time,For a time we were beguiled with our own mastery;Hear the end of the matter, what befell us; We came like water and we went like wind.”On drinking wine:“Oh heart you will not arrive at the solving of the riddle,You will not reach the goal the wise in their subtlety seek;Make do here with wine and the cup of bliss,For you may and you may not arrive at bliss hereafter.”“Drinking wine and consorting with good fellowsIs better than practicing the ascetic’s hypocrisy;If the lover and drunkard are to be among the damnedThen no one will see the face of heaven.”“I drink no wine, but not because I’m poor,Nor get drunk, though not through fear of scandal;I drank to lighten my heartBut now that you have settled in my heart, I drink no more.”On meaninglessness:“What have you to do with Being, friend,And empty opinions about the notion of mind and spirit?Joyfully live and let the world pass happily,The beginning of the matter was not arranged with you in mind.”On the transience of life, wow I love this one:“Every particle of dust on a patch of earthWas a sun-cheek or brow of the morning star;Shake the dust off your sleeve carefully – That too was a delicate, fair face.” As well as this one: “The globe is the image of a ball compacted of our bones,The Oxus, a trickle of our distilled tears;Hell is a spark from our consuming torrents,Paradise, a moment from our space of reprieve.”

[michael5rimmer · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Having loved Edward FitzGerald's free translation of these verses for many years, I wanted to read a more literal translation, which I got with this edition.

Initially, I wasn't taken: the verses were stark and plain for the most part, and there was no real connection between one quatrain and the next. But I persevered and as the memory of FitzGerald receded somewhat, I was able to enjoy the poems on their own terms. The humour and beauty of the "originals" (as close as a non-Persian speaker can get to the originals, anyway) shone through and won me over.

It was fun, too, to recognise some old friends in new clothes.

The translators' fascinating introduction and appendices were worth the price of the book by themselves, enhancing enjoyment of the verses by giving some context.

I guess I still prefer FitzGerald's translation because it's the one I've grown up with, but I will definitely revisit this edition, too.