My Favorite Poems:
Footprints
One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the Lord. Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene, he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to him, the other to the Lord.
When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times of his life.
This really bothered him and he questioned the Lord about it. "Lord you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way. But I have noticed that during the most troublessome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me."
The Lord replied, "My son, my precious child, I love you and would never leave you. During your times or trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."
Author Unknown
Remember
Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more day by day.
You tell me of our future that you planned:
Only remember me: you'll understand
It will be too late to counsel then, or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of thoughts that I once had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.
Christina Rossetti
Tears, Idle Tears
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the underworld,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
Dear as remembered kisses after death
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feighned
Oh lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O death in Life, the days that are no more.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Sonnet 43, from the Sonnets from the Portuguese
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and bredth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the the level of everyday'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.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Love Implies Freedom
If you truly enjoy the beauty of the flowers in the meadow, you won't pick them.
If you truly care for the animals in the forest, you won't capture them.
If you truly love a person, you won't possess them.
For love implies freedom.
And it follows that any emotion less than love must also imply freedom.
Gregory M. Ahlijian
Comes the Dawn
After a while you learn the subtle difference
Between holding a hand and chaining a soul
And you learn that love doesn't mean leaning
And company doesn't mean security
And you begin to understand
That kisses aren't contracts
And presents aren't promises
And you begin to accept your defeats
With the grace of a woman
Not the grief of a child
You learn to build your roads
On today, because tomorrow's ground
Is too uncertain for plans, and futures have
A way of falling down in mid flight
And after a while you learn that even sunshine
Burns if you get too much
So you plan you own garden
And decorate your soul
Instead of waiting for others to bring you flowers
And you learn that you really can endure
That you really are strong
And you really have worth
And you learn and you learn
With every good-bye you learn
Veronica Shaffstall
A Friend Can Never Be Forgotten
Life is like a jouney.
We may be walking along a path
with friends
and then come upon a crossroad
Where we each must choose
the road that is right
for each of us individually.
At times we may find ourselves
walking a path alone,
but somewhere along the road
we find new friends to walk with,
friends to love,
friends to grow with,
friends to share with.
The path of life has many crossroads,
and at each one it's difficult
to say goodbye
and go our own separate ways,
choosing the direction that is
right for each of us.
But the memory of a friend
will always remain.
And there is always the chance
that our paths will cross again.
Donna Yee
The Road Not Taken
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth,
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost
Let every day
be a dream
we can touch.
Let every day
be a love
we can feel.
Let every day
be a reason
to live.
Claudia Adrienne Grandi
If it should happen
that your dreams
are shattered,
do not be afraid.
Have the courage
to pick up the pieces
and smile at the world.
For dreams that are
easily shattered
can just as easily
be rebuilt.
Chris Jensen
Something to Remember
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help little men by tearing down big men.
You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage payer.
You cannot further brotherhood of man by encouraging class hatred.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot establish sound security on borrowed money.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you earn.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves.
Abraham Lincoln
In Germany, the Nazis first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me.
Rev. Martin Niemoeller
Time is too slow for those who wait,
Too swift for those who fear,
Too long for those who grieve;
Too short for those who rejoice;
But for those who love,
Time is eternity.
Henry Van Dyke
Back-->
