Encouragement Poems

Giving

If we give love and sympathy

Even to those who hate us

We fill them so with mystery

They know not how to rate us.

Many Things

O, there be many things

That seem right fair, below, above;

But sure not one amount them all

Is half so sweet as love.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Most Vital Thing In Life

When you feel like saying something

That you know you will regret,

Or keenly feel an insult

Not quite easy to forget,

That's the time to curb resentment

And maintain a mental peace,

For when your mind is tranquil

All your ill-thoughts simply cease.

It is easy to be angry

When defrauded or defiled,

To be peeved and disappointed

If your wishes are denied;

But to win a worthwhile battle

Over selfishness and spite,

You must learn to keep strict silence

Though you know you're in the right.

So keep your mental balance

When confronted by a foe,

Be it enemy in ambush,

Or some danger that you know.

If you are poised and tranquil

When all around is strife,

Be assured that you have mastered

The most vital thing in life.

Grenville Kleiser

Worthwhile

It is easy enough to be pleasant,

When life flows by like a song,

But the man worthwhile is one who will smile,

When everything goes dead wrong.

For the test of the heart is trouble,

And it always comes with the years,

And the smile that is worth the praises of earth

Is the smile that shines through tears.

It is easy enough to be prudent,

When nothing tempts you to stray,

When without or within no voice of sin

Is luring your soul away;

But it's only a negative virtue

Until it is tried by fire,

And the life that is worth the honor on earth

Is the one that resists desire.

By the cynic, the sad, the fallen,

Who had no strength for the strife,

The worlds' highway is cumbered today;

They make up the sum of life.

But the virtue that conquers passion,

And the sorrow that hides in a smile,

It is theses that are worth the homage on earth

For we find them but once in a while.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox