poet

“Mission” Poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Mission

If you are sighing for a lofty work,
   If great ambitions dominate your mind,
Just watch yourself and see you do not shirk
   The common little ways of being kind.

If you are dreaming of a future goal,
   When, crowned with glory, men shall own your power,
Be careful that you let no struggling soul
   Go by unaided in the present hour.

If you are moved to pity for the earth,
   And long to aid it, do not look so high,
You pass some poor, dumb creature faint with thirst—
   All life is equal in the eternal eye.

If you would help to make the wrong things right,
   Begin at home: there lies a lifetime’s toil.
Weed your own garden fair for all men’s sight,
   Before you plan to till another’s soil.”

Excerpt From
Poems of Power
Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“God of My Life” Poem on Love by Karl Rahner

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God of my life

Only in love can I find you, my God.
        In love the gates of my soul spring open,
        allowing me to breathe a new air of freedom
        and forget my own petty self.

In love my whole being streams forth
       out of the rigid confines of narrowness and anxious self-assertion,
       which makes me a prisoner of my own poverty and emptiness.

In love all the powers of my soul flow out toward you,
       wanting never more to return,
       but to lose themselves completely in you,
       since by your love you are the inmost center of my heart,
       closer to me than I am to myself.

But when I love you,
      when I manage to break out of the narrow circle of self.

—Karl Rahner

“Someone Like You” Poem by James Foley

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“Some one like you makes the heart seem the lighter,
Some one like you makes the day’s work worth while,
Some one like you makes the sun shine the brighter,
Some one like you makes a sigh half a smile.”

Excerpt From
Some One Like You
James W. Foley

“If All The Skies” Poem by Henry Van Dyke

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IF ALL THE SKIES

by Henry Van Dyke

If all the skies were sunshine,  Our faces would be fainTo feel once more upon them  The cooling plash of rain.

If all the world were music,  Our hearts would often longFor one sweet strain of silence.  To break the endless song.

If life were always merry,  Our souls would seek relief,And rest from weary laughter  In the quiet arms of grief.

“To Nature” Poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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To Nature

It may indeed be phantasy, when I
Essay to draw from all created things
Deep, heartfelt, inward joy that closely clings ;
And trace in leaves and flowers that round me lie
Lessons of love and earnest piety.
So let it be ; and if the wide world rings
In mock of this belief, it brings
Nor fear, nor grief, nor vain perplexity.
So will I build my altar in the fields,
And the blue sky my fretted dome shall be,
And the sweet fragrance that the wild flower yields
Shall be the incense I will yield to Thee,
Thee only God ! and thou shalt not despise
Even me, the priest of this poor sacrifice

“Love’s Philosophy” ~ Poem by Shelley

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Love’s Philosophy

The fountains mingle with the river,
  And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever
  With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
  All things by a law divine
In another’s being mingle–
  Why not I with thine?

See, the mountains kiss high heaven,
  And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower could be forgiven
  If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
  And the moonbeams kiss the sea;–
What is all this sweet work worth,
  If thou kiss not me?

“A Nation’s Strength ~ Poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson

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A Nation’s Strength

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What makes it mighty to defy

The foes that round it throng?

It is not gold. Its kingdoms grand

Go down in battle shock;

Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,

Not on abiding rock.

Is it the sword? Ask the red dust

Of empires passed away;

The blood has turned their stones to rust,

Their glory to decay.

And is it pride? Ah, that bright crown

Has seemed to nations sweet;

But God has struck its luster down

In ashes at his feet.

Not gold but only men can make

A people great and strong;

Men who for truth and honor’s sake

Stand fast and suffer long.

Brave men who work while others sleep,

Who dare while others fly…

They build a nation’s pillars deep

And lift them to the sky.

“How Do I Love Thee” Poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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How Do I love Thee

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of being and ideal grace.

I love thee to the level of every day’s

Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.

I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

“My Heart Leaps Up” Poem by William Wordsworth on Real Joy

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My Heart Leaps Up

My heart leaps up when I behold 

   A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began; 

So is it now I am a man; 

So be it when I shall grow old, 

   Or let me die!

The Child is father of the Man;

And I could wish my days to be

Bound each to each by natural piety.

“Serenity” Poem by Edward Rowland Sill

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Serenity

Brook,
Be still,—be still!
Midnight’s arch is broken
In thy ceaseless ripples.
Dark and cold below them
Runs the troubled water,—
Only on its bosom,
Shimmering and trembling,
Doth the glinted star-shine
                  Sparkle and cease.

                  Life,
Be still,—be still!
Boundless truth is shattered
On thy hurrying current.
Rest, with face uplifted,
Calm, serenely quiet;
Drink the deathless beauty—
Thrills of love and wonder
Sinking, shining, star-like;
Till the mirrored heaven
Hollow down within thee
Holy deeps unfathomed,
Where far thoughts go floating,
And low voices wander

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