Poems of Power | Page 8

are being done."?Who set the stars on their eternal courses
Has fashioned this strange earth by some sure plan.?Bow low, bow low to those majestic forces,
Nor dare to doubt their wisdom, puny man.
You cannot put one little star in motion,
You cannot shape one single forest leaf,?Nor fling a mountain up, nor sink an ocean,
Presumptuous pigmy, large with unbelief.?You cannot bring one dawn of regal splendour,
Nor bid the day to shadowy twilight fall,?Nor send the pale moon forth with radiance tender -
And dare you doubt the One who has done all?
"So much is wrong, there is such pain--such sinning."
Yet look again--behold how much is right!?And He who formed the world from its beginning
Knows how to guide it upward to the light.?Your task, O man, is not to carp and cavil
At God's achievements, but with purpose strong?To cling to good, and turn away from evil.
That is the way to help the world along.
HIGH NOON
Time's finger on the dial of my life?Points to high noon! and yet the half-spent day?Leaves less than half remaining, for the dark,?Bleak shadows of the grave engulf the end.?To those who burn the candle to the stick,?The sputtering socket yields but little light.?Long life is sadder than an early death.?We cannot count on ravelled threads of age?Whereof to weave a fabric. We must use?The warp and woof the ready present yields?And toil while daylight lasts. When I bethink?How brief the past, the future, still more brief?Calls on to action, action! Not for me?Is time for retrospection or for dreams,?Not time for self-laudation or remorse.?Have I done nobly? Then I must not let?Dead yesterday unborn to-morrow shame.?Have I done wrong? Well, let the bitter taste?Of fruit that turned to ashes on my lip?Be my reminder in temptation's hour,?And keep me silent when I would condemn.?Sometimes it takes the acid of a sin?To cleanse the clouded windows of our souls?So pity may shine through them.
Looking back,?My faults and errors seem like stepping-stones?That led the way to knowledge of the truth?And made me value virtue; sorrows shine?In rainbow colours o'er the gulf of years,?Where lie forgotten pleasures.
Looking forth,?Out to the western sky still bright with noon,?I feel well spurred and booted for the strife?That ends not till Nirvana is attained.
Battling with fate, with men, and with myself,?Up the steep summit of my life's forenoon,?Three things I learned, three things of precious worth,?To guide and help me down the western slope.?I have learned how to pray, and toil, and save:?To pray for courage to receive what comes,?Knowing what comes to be divinely sent;?To toil for universal good, since thus?And only thus can good come unto me;?To save, by giving whatsoe'er I have?To those who have not--this alone is gain.
THOUGHT-MAGNETS
With each strong thought, with every earnest longing
For aught thou deemest needful to thy soul,?Invisible vast forces are set thronging
Between thee and that goal
'Tis only when some hidden weakness alters
And changes thy desire, or makes it less,?That this mysterious army ever falters
Or stops short of success.
Thought is a magnet; and the longed-for pleasure,
Or boon, or aim, or object, is the steel;?And its attainment hangs but on the measure
Of what thy soul can feel.
SMILES
Smile a little, smile a little,
As you go along,?Not alone when life is pleasant,
But when things go wrong.?Care delights to see you frowning,
Loves to hear you sigh;?Turn a smiling face upon her -
Quick the dame will fly.
Smile a little, smile a little,
All along the road;?Every life must have its burden,
Every heart its load.?Why sit down in gloom and darkness
With your grief to sup??As you drink Fate's bitter tonic,
Smile across the cup.
Smile upon the troubled pilgrims
Whom you pass and meet;?Frowns are thorns, and smiles are blossoms
Oft for weary feet.?Do not make the way seem harder
By a sullen face;?Smile a little, smile a little,
Brighten up the place.
Smile upon your undone labour;
Not for one who grieves?O'er his task waits wealth or glory;
He who smiles achieves.?Though you meet with loss and sorrow
In the passing years,?Smile a little, smile a little,
Even through your tears.
THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY
Man has explored all countries and all lands,?And made his own the secrets of each clime.?Now, ere the world has fully reached its prime,?The oval earth lies compassed with steel bands,?The seas are slaves to ships that touch all strands,
And even the haughty elements, sublime?And bold, yield him their secrets for all time,?And speed like lackeys forth at his commands.
Still, though he search from shore to distant shore,
And no strange realms, no unlocated plains?Are left for his attainment and control,?Yet is there one more kingdom to explore.
Go, know thyself, O man! there yet remains?The undiscovered country of thy soul!
THE UNIVERSAL ROUTE
As we journey along, with a laugh and a song,
We see, on youth's flower-decked slope,?Like a beacon of light, shining fair on the sight,
The beautiful Station of Hope.
But the wheels of old Time roll along as we climb,
And our youth speeds away on