Life’s Mirror
There are loyal hearts, there are spirits brave,
There are souls that are pure and true;
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.Give love, and love to your life will flow,
A strength in your utmost need;
Have faith, and a score of hearts will show
Their faith in your work and deed.Give truth, and your gift will be paid in kind;
And honor will honor meet,
And the smile which is sweet will surely find
A smile that is just as sweet.Give pity and sorrow to those who mourn;
You will gather in flowers again
The scattered seeds from your thought outborne,
Though the sowing seemed in vain.For life is the mirror of king and slave;
‘Tis just what we are and do;
Then give to the world the best you have,
And the best will come back to you.Madeline S. Bridges.
poem
The Hope of Loving ~ Poem by Meister Eckhart
The Hope of Loving
What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?
I think it is the hope of loving,
or being loved.
I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey
to find its source, and how the moon wept
without her lover’s
warm gaze.
We weep when light does not reach our hearts. We wither
like fields if someone close
does not rain their
kindness
upon
us.
Life ~ A Poem by Victor Hugo
Life
Let me but live my life from year to year,
With forward face and unreluctant soul;
Not hurrying to, nor turning from, the goal;
Not mourning for the things that disappear
In the dim past, nor holding back in fear
From what the future veils; but with a whole
And happy heart, that pays its toll
To Youth and Age, and travels on with cheer.
So let the way wind up the hill or down,
O'er rough or smooth, the journey will be joy:
Still seeking what I sought when but a boy,
New friendship, high adventure, and a crown,
My heart will keep the courage of the quest,
And hope the road's last turn will be the best.
Opportunity ~ Poem by Berton Braley
With doubt and dismay you are smitten You think there’s no chance for you, son?
Why, the best books haven’t been written The best race hasn’t been run,
The best score hasn’t been made yet, The best song hasn’t been sung,
The best tune hasn’t been played yet, Cheer up, for the world is young!
No chance? Why the world is just eager For things that you ought to create
Its store of true wealth is still meagre Its needs are incessant and great,
It yearns for more power and beauty More laughter and love and romance,
More loyalty, labor and duty,
No chance—why there’s nothing but chance!
For the best verse hasn’t been rhymed yet, The best house hasn’t been planned,
The highest peak hasn’t been climbed yet, The mightiest rivers aren’t spanned,
Don’t worry and fret, faint hearted, The chances have just begun,
For the Best jobs haven’t been started, The Best work hasn’t been done.Berton Braley.
Be The Best You Can ~ Poem by Douglas Malloch
Be The Best You Can
If you can’t be a pine on the top of the hill Be a scrub in the valley—but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill; Be a bush if you can’t be a tree.
If you can’t be a bush be a bit of the grass, And some highway some happier make;
If you can’t be a muskie then just be a bass— But the liveliest bass in the lake!
We can’t all be captains, we’ve got to be crew, There’s something for all of us here.
There’s big work to do and there’s lesser to do, And the task we must do is the near.
If you can’t be a highway then just be a trail, If you can’t be the sun be a star;
It isn’t by size that you win or you fail— Be the best of whatever you are!Douglas Malloch.
Life ~ A Poem by Charlotte Bronte
Life
LIFE, believe, is not a dream
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day.
Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall?
Rapidly, merrily,
Life’s sunny hours flit by,
Gratefully, cheerily
Enjoy them as they fly!
What though Death at times steps in,
And calls our Best away?
What though sorrow seems to win,
O’er hope, a heavy sway?
Yet Hope again elastic springs,
Unconquered, though she fell;
Still buoyant are her golden wings,
Still strong to bear us well.
Manfully, fearlessly,
The day of trial bear,
For gloriously, victoriously,
Can courage quell despair!
By: Charlotte Bronte
Sea and Shore ~ Poem by Henry van Dyke
Music, I yield to thee;
As swimmer to the sea
I give my Spirit to the flood of song:
Bear me upon thy breast
In rapture and at rest,
Bathe me in pure delight and make me strong;
From strife and struggle bring release,
And draw the waves of passion into tides of peace.
Remember’d songs, most dear,
In living songs I hear,
While blending voices gently swing and sway
In melodies of love,
Whose mighty currents move,
With singing near and singing far away;
Sweet in the glow of morning light,
And sweeter still across the starlit gulf of night.
Music, in thee we float,
And lose the lonely note
Of self in thy celestial-ordered strain,
Until at last we find
The life to love resigned
In harmony of joy restored again;
And songs that cheered our mortal days
Break on the coast of light in endless hymns of praise.
A Community of the Spirit ~ Poem by Rumi
A Community of the Spirit
There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street
and being the noise.
Drink all your passion,
and be a disgrace.
Close both eyes
to see with the other eye.
Open your hands,
if you want to be held.
Sit down in the circle.
Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd’s love filling you.
At night, your beloved wanders.
Don’t accept consolations.
Close your mouth against food.
Taste the lover’s mouth in yours.
You moan, “She left me.” “He left me.”
Twenty more will come.
Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!
Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?
Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.
Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.
From Rumi
Aware ~ Poem by D. H. Lawrence
Aware
Slowly the moon is rising out of the ruddy haze,Divesting herself of her golden shift, and soEmerging white and exquisite; and I in amazeSee in the sky before me, a woman I did not knowI loved, but there she goes and her beauty hurts my heart;I follow her down the night, begging her not to depart.~ D. H. Lawrence
Gifts ~ Poem by Sara Teasdale
Gifts
I gave my first love laughter,
I gave my second tears,
I gave my third love silence
Through all the years.
My first love gave me singing,
My second eyes to see,
But oh, it was my third love
Who gave my soul to me.
