Poems of Power | Page 7

ghost
Of that innumerable host.
Concern yourself with but to-day;
Woo it and teach it to obey
Your wish and will. Since time began
To-day has been the friend of
man.
But in his blindness and his sorrow
He looks to yesterday and
to-morrow.
You and to-day! a soul sublime
And the great pregnant hour of time.
With God between to bind the train,
Go forth, I say--attain--attain.
THE REASON
Do you know what moves the tides
As they swing from low to high?
'Tis the love, love, love,

Of the moon within the sky.
Oh! they follow where she guides,
Do
the faithful-hearted tides.
Do you know what moves the earth
Out of winter into spring?
'Tis the love, love, love,
Of the sun, the mighty king.
Oh the rapture that finds birth
In the
kiss of sun and earth!
Do you know what makes sweet songs
Ring for me above earth's strife?
'Tis the love, love, love,
That you bring into my life,
Oh the glory of the songs
In the heart
where love belongs!
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.
God chooses His own leaders in the world,
And from the rest He asks but willing hands.
As mighty mountains
into place are hurled,
While patient tides may only shape the sands.
REPETITION
Over and over and over
These truths I will weave in song -
That God's great plan needs you
and me,
That will is greater than destiny,
And that love moves the world along.
However mankind may doubt it,
It shall listen and hear my creed -
That God may ever be found within,

That the worship of self is the only sin,
And the only devil is greed.
Over and over and over
These truths I will say and sing,
That love is mightier far than hate,

That a man's own thought is a man's own fate,
And that life is a goodly thing.

BEGIN THE DAY
Begin each morning with a talk to God,
And ask for your divine
inheritance
Of usefulness, contentment, and success.
Resign all fear,
all doubt, and all despair.
The stars doubt not, and they are
undismayed,
Though whirled through space for countless centuries,

And told not why or wherefore: and the sea
With everlasting ebb
and flow obeys,
And leaves the purpose with the unseen Cause.
The
star sheds radiance on a million worlds,
The sea is prodigal with
waves, and yet
No lustre from the star is lost, and not
One drop is
missing from the ocean tides.
Oh! brother to the star and sea, know
all
God's opulence is held in trust for those
Who wait serenely and
who work in faith.
WORDS
Words are great forces in the realm of life:
Be careful of their use. Who talks of hate,
Of poverty, of sickness, but
sets rife
These very elements to mar his fate.
When love, health, happiness, and plenty hear
Their names repeated over day by day,
They wing their way like
answering fairies near,
Then nestle down within our homes to stay.
Who talks of evil conjures into shape
The formless thing and gives it life and scope.
This is the law: then
let no word escape
That does not breathe of everlasting hope.

FATE AND I
Wise men tell me thou, O Fate,
Art invincible and great.
Well, I own thy prowess; still
Dare I flout thee with my will
Thou canst shatter in a span
All the earthly pride of man.
Outward things thou canst control;
But stand back--I rule my soul!
Death? 'Tis such a little thing -
Scarcely worth the mentioning.
What has death to do with me,
Save to set my spirit free?
Something in me dwells, O Fate,
That can rise and dominate
Loss, and sorrow, and disaster, -
How, then, Fate, art thou my
master?
In the great primeval morn
My immortal will was born,
Part of that stupendous Cause
Which conceived the Solar Laws,
Lit the suns and filled the seas,
Royalest of pedigrees.
That great Cause was Love, the Source
Who most loves has most of
Force.
He who harbours Hate one hour
Saps the soul of Peace and Power.
He who will not hate his foe
Need not dread life's hardest blow.
In the realm of brotherhood
Wishing no man aught but good,
Naught but good can come to me -
This is Love's supreme decree.
Since I