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Index of Poems:
The Poetry Corner
After a While
Page One
Persistence
I'd Pick More Daisies
If
Only What I Need
Warning
Page Two
The Man In the Glass
As Fall the Leaves
Touch of the Master's Hand
How Do I Love Thee
Page Three
Desiderata
Page Four
Wear Sunscreen
Page Five
The Road Not Taken
The Invitation
Page Six
I've Learned
Page Seven
Your Children
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Press on
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.
Talent will not.
Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not.
Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education alone will not.
The world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge ( 1872 - 1933 )
If I could live my life again,
I'd be a little lazy,
I'd stop this rushing to and fro
And stop to pick more daisies.
Through all the lovely summer months,
Though days be clear or hazy,
No more to fret over tasks undone,
I'd stop to pick a daisy.
Not so important what I did,
This fact time now discloses,
While running through
Life's garden green,
I'd stop to smell the roses,
If I could hold my little ones,
The children in my care,
I'd scold them less and love them more
with so much love to share.
If I could pass this way again,
Though folks might think I'm crazy,
I'd work and worry less, but I'd
Take time to pick a daisy.
The rush of life has passed me by,
Now I have leisure hours.
but time has taken such a toll.
It's to late to pick the flowers
Mildred F. Rowe
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
and make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;
If you can think-and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And to hold on when there is nothing in you except the will
which ways to them: "Hold on";
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings-nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty
seconds' worth of distance run
-- Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more
--you'll be a Man, my son!
Rudyard Kipling
God seldom, gives me what I want
But gives me what I need.
I ask for wealth, He gives me health-
For love, He gives me seeds.
"Go sow the seeds",
He seems to say,
And love will grow for you,
And health will be the wealth you need
To share the loves you grew."
And when I pray for worldly goods
And comforts of a king,
He fills my heart with little joys,
For simple, common things;
And when I beg for things I see-
Of envy to my mind-
He guides my steps to happy souls
Who are completely blind.
So, now, I just come unto
Him In simple, humble prayer
And only ask He keep me safe
From harm and life's despair.
For He has shown that
He will not Reward my prayers of greed.
And will not give me what I want-
But only what I need.
Michael Dubina
( a poem featured in the book "When I am Old I Shall Wear Purple" )
When I am an old women I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickles for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beer mats and things in boxes.
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
Jenny Joseph
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