Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Today’s Poem ~ I Am

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I Am
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Am
I know not whence I came,
I know not whither I go;
But the fact stands clear that I am here
In this world of pleasure and woe.
And out of the mist and the murk
Another truth shines plain –
It is my power each day and hour
To add to its joy or its pain.

I know that the earth exists,
It is none of my business why;
I cannot find out what it’s all about,
I would but waste time to try.
My life is a brief, brief thing,
I am here for a little space,
And while I stay I would like, if I may,
To brighten and better the place.

The trouble, I think, with us all
Is the lack of a high conceit.
If each man thought he was sent to this spot
To make it a bit more sweet,
How soon we could gladden the world,
How easily right all wrong,
If nobody shirked, and each one worked
To help his fellows along!

Cease wondering why you came –
Stop looking for faults and flaws;
Rise up to-day in your pride and say,
‘I am part of the First Great Cause!
However full the world,
There is room for an earnest man.
It had need of me, or I would not be –
I am here to strengthen the plan.’

Today’s Poem ~ I Love You

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I Love You
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I love your lips when they’re wet with wine
And red with a wild desire;
I love your eyes when the lovelight lies
Lit with a passionate fire.
I love your arms when the warm white flesh
Touches mine in a fond embrace;
I love your hair when the strands enmesh
Your kisses against my face.

Not for me the cold calm kiss
Of a virgin’s bloodless love;
Not for me the saint’s white bliss,
Nor the heart of a spotless dove.
But give me the love that so freely gives
And laughs at the whole world’s blame,
With your body so young and warm in my arms,
It sets my poor heart aflame.

So kiss me sweet with your warm wet mouth,
Still fragrant with ruby wine,
And say with a fervor born of the South
That your body and soul are mine.
Clasp me close in your warm young arms,
While the pale stars shine above,
And we’ll live our whole young lives away
In the joys of a living love.

Today’s Poem ~ Love Is Enough

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Love is Enough
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Love is enough. Let us not ask for gold.
Wealth breeds false aims, and pride and selfishness;
In those serene, Arcadian days of old
Men gave no thought to princely homes and dress.
The gods who dwelt on fair Olympia’s height
Lived only for dear love and love’s delight.
Love is enough.Love is enough. Why should we care for fame?
Ambition is a most unpleasant guest:
It lures us with the glory of a name
Far from the happy haunts of peace and rest.
Let us stay here in this secluded place
Made beautiful by love’s endearing grace!
Love is enough.

Love is enough. Why should we strive for power?
It brings men only envy and distrust.
The poor world’s homage pleases but an hour,
And earthly honours vanish in the dust.
The grandest lives are ofttimes desolate;
Let me be loved, and let who will be great.
Love is enough.

Love is enough. Why should we ask for more?
What greater gift have gods vouchsafed to men?
What better boon of all their precious store
Than our fond hearts that love and love again?
Old love may die; new love is just as sweet;
And life is fair and all the world complete:
Love is enough!

A Golden Day ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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A Golden Day

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

The subtle beauty of this day 
Hangs o'er me like a fairy spell, 
And care and grief have flown away, 
And every breeze sings, "all is well." 
I ask, "Holds earth or sin, or woe?" 
My heart replies, "I do not know."

Nay! all we know, or feel, my heart, 
Today is joy undimmed, complete; 
In tears or pain we have no part; 
The act of breathing is so sweet, 
We care no higher joy to name. 
What reck we now of wealth or fame?

The past--what matters it to me? 
The pain it gave has passed away. 
The future--that I cannot see! 
I care for nothing save today-- 
This is a respite from all care, 
And trouble flies--I know not where.

Go on, oh noisy, restless life! 
Pass by, oh, feet that seek for heights! 
I have no part in aught of strife; 
I do not want your vain delights. 
The day wraps round me like a spell 
And every breeze sings, "All is well." 

Worth While ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Worth While

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

It is easy enough to be pleasant
   When life flows by like a song,
But the man worth while is the one who will smile
   When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
   And it always comes with the years,
And the smile that is worth the praises of earth
   Is the smile that shines through tears.
It is easy enough to be prudent
   When nothing tempts you to stray,
When without or within no voice of sin
   Is luring your soul away;
But it’s only a negative virtue
   Until it is tried by fire,
And the life that is worth the honour on earth
   Is the one that resists desire.
p. 2By the cynic, the sad, the fallen,
   Who had no strength for the strife,
The world’s highway is cumbered to-day—
   They make up the sum of life;
But the virtue that conquers passion,
   And the sorrow that hides in a smile—
It is these that are worth the homage on earth,
   For we find them but once in a while.

Sunshine & Shadow ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Sunshine and Shadow
 

 Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 

 Life has its shadows, as well as its sun; 
 Its lights and its shades, all twined together.
 I tried to single them out, one by one, 
 Single and count them, determining whether
 There was less blue than there was grey, 
 And more of the deep night than of the day.
 But dear me, dear me, my task’s but begun, 
 And I am not half way into the sun.
 

 For the longer I look on the bright side of earth, 
 The more of the beautiful do I discover; 
 And really, I never knew what life was worth
 Till I searched the wide storehouse of happiness over.
 It is filled from the cellar well up to the skies, 
 With things meant to gladden the heart and the eyes.
 The doors are unlocked, you can enter each room, 
 That lies like a beautiful garden in bloom.
 

 Yet life has its shadow, as well as its sun; 
 Earth has its storehouse of joy and sorrow.
 But the first is so wide – and my task’s but begun –
 That the last must be left for a far-distant morrow.
 I will count up the blessings God gave in a row, 
 But dear me! When I get through them, I know
 I shall have little tine left for the rest, 
 For life is a swift-flowing river at best. 

Our Blessings ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Our Blessings
 

 Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 

 Sitting to-day in the sunshine, 
 That touched me with fingers of love, 
 I thought of the manifold blessings
 God scatters on earth, from above; 
 And they seemed, as I numbered them over, 
 Far more than we merit, or need, 
 And all that we lack is the angels
 To make earth a heaven indeed.
 The winter brings long, pleasant evenings, 
 The spring brings a promise of flowers
 That summer breathes to fruition, 
 And autumn brings glad, golden hours.
 The woodlands re-echo with music, 
 The moonbeams ensilver the sea; 
 There is sunlight and beauty about us, 
 And the world is as fair as can be.
 But mortals are always complaining, 
 Each one thinks his own a sad lot; 
 And forgetting the good things about him, 
 Goes mourning for those he has not.
 Instead of the star-spangled heavens, 
 We look on the dust at our feet; 
 We drain out the cup that is bitter, 
 Forgetting the one that is sweet.
 We mourn o’er the thorn in the flower, 
 Forgetting its odour and bloom; 
 We pass by a garden of blossoms, 
 To weep o’er the dust of the tomb.
 There are blessings unnumbered about us, –
 Like the leaves of the forest they grow; 
 And the fault is our own – not the Giver’s –
 That we have not an Eden below.

It Might Have Been ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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It Might Have Been
 

 Ella Wheeler Wilcox
 

 We will be what we could be. Do not say, 
     "It might have been, had not or that, or this." 
 No fate can keep us from the chosen way; 
     He only might who is.
 

 We will do what we could do. Do not dream 
     Chance leaves a hero, all uncrowned to grieve. 
 I hold, all men are greatly what they seem; 
     He does who could achieve.
 

 We will climb where we could climb. Tell me not 
     Of adverse storms that kept thee from the height. 
 What eagle ever missed the peak he sought? 
     He always climbs who might.
 

 I do not like the phrase, "It might have been!" 
     It lacks all force, and life's best truths perverts: 
 For I believe we have, and reach, and win, 
     Whatever our deserts.

Life’s Scars ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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They say the world is round, and yet
I often think it square,
So many little hurts we get
From corners here and there.
But one great truth in life I’ve found,
While journeying to the West-
The only folks who really wound
Are those we love the best. 

The man you thoroughly despise
Can rouse your wrath, ’tis true;
Annoyance in your heart will rise
At things mere strangers do;
But those are only passing ills;
This rule all lives will prove;
The rankling wound which aches and thrills
Is dealt by hands we love. 

The choicest garb, the sweetest grace,
Are oft to strangers shown;
The careless mien, the frowning face,
Are given to our own.
We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest,
And deal full many a thoughtless blow
To those who love us best. 

Love does not grow on every tree,
Nor true hearts yearly bloom.
Alas for those who only see
This cut across a tomb!
But, soon or late, the fact grows plain
To all through sorrow’s test:
The only folks who give us pain
Are those we love the best. 

Shadows ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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“I am sorry in the gladness
   Of the joys that crown my days,
For the souls that sit in sadness
   Or walk uninviting ways.

On the radiance of my labour
   That a loving fate bestowed,
Falls the shadow of my neighbour,
   Crushed beneath a thankless load.

As the canticle of pleasure
   From my lovelit altar rolls,
There is one discordant measure,
   As I think of homeless souls.

And I know that grim old story,
   Preached from pulpits, is not so,
For no God could sit in glory
   And see sinners writhe below.

In that great eternal Centre
   Where all human life has birth,
Boundless love and pity enter
   And flow downward to the earth.

And all souls in sin or sorrow
   Are but passing through the night,
And I know on some to-morrow
   God will love them into light.”

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