Inspirational Poems and Poetry

Sunshine and Music

 

A laugh is just like sunshine

It freshens all the day,

It tips the peak of life with light,

And drives the clouds away.

 

The soul grows glad that hears it

And feels its courage strong.

A laugh is just like sunshine

For cheering folks along.

 

A laugh is just like music.

It lingers in the heart,

And where its melody is heard

The ills of life depart;

 

And happy thoughts come crowding

Its joyful notes to great;

A laugh is just like music

For making living sweet.

 

Author Unknown

Open Your Eyes

Open your eyes that you may see

The beauty that around you lies,

The misty loveliness of the dawn,

The glowing colors of the skies;

 

The child's bright eager eyes of blue,

The gnarled and wrinkled face of age,

The bird with crimson on his wing

Whose spirit never knew a cage;

 

The roadsides' blooming goldenrod

So brave through summer's wind and heat,

The brook that rushes to the sea

With courage that naught may defeat.

 

Open your eyes that you may see

The wonder that around you lies;

It will enrich your every day

And make you glad and kind and wise.

 

Emma Boge Whisenand

 I Have Found Such Joy

I have found such joy in simple things;

A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,

A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,

The shelter of a roof

 above my head,

And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,

Where yellow sunlight glimmers through a door.

 

I have found such joy in things that fill

My quiet days; a curtain's blowing grace,

A potted plant upon my window sill,

A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;

A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,

And books I long has loved beside me there.

 

Oh, I have found such joys I wish I might

Tell every woman who goes seeking far

For some elusive, feverish delight,

That very close to home the great joys are;

The elemental things - old as the race,

Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

 

Grace Noll Crowell

 

Life's Made Up Of Little Things

Life's made up of little things,

no great sacrifice or duty,

but smiles and many a cheerful word

fill up our lives with beauty.

 

The heartaches, as they come and go,

are but blessings in disguises,

for time will turn the pages o'er

and show us great surprises.

 

Mary R. Hartman

 

Morning Prayer

When little things would irk me, and I grow

Impatient with my dear ones, make me know

How in a moment joy can take its flight

And happiness be quenched in endless night.

 

Keep this thought with me all the livelong day

That I may guard the harsh words I might say

When I would fret and grumble, fiery hot,

At trifles that tomorrow are forgot -

Let me remember, Lord, how it would be

If these, my loved ones, were not with me.

 

Author Unknown

Temper

 

When I have lost my temper I have lost my reason, too.

I'm never proud of anything which angrily I do.

When I have talked in anger and my cheeks were flaming red,

I have always uttered something which I wish I hadn't said.

 

In anger I have never done a kindly deed or wise,

But many things for which I felt I should apologize.

In looking back across my life, and all I've lost or made,

I can't recall a single time when fury ever paid.

 

So I struggle to be patient, for I've reached a wiser age;

I do not want to do a thing or speak a word in rage.

I have learned by sad experience that when my temper flies

I never do a worthy thing, a decent deed or wise.

 

Author Unknown

A Prayer

Let me do my work each day;

And if the darkened hours of anxiety overcome me,

May I not forget the strength that comforted me

In the desolation of other times.

 

May I still remember the bright hours that found me

Walking over the silent hills of earlier days,

Or dreaming on the margin of the quiet river.....

When I vowed to have courage

Amid the tempests of the changing years.

 

Spare me from bitterness

And from the sharp passions of unguarded moments.

May I not forget that poverty and true riches are of the spirit.

 

Though the world know me not,

May my thoughts and actions be such

As shall keep me friendly with myself...

Give me a few friends who will love me for what I am;

And keep ever burning before my vagrant steps

The kindly light of hope.

 

And though age and infirmity overtake me,

And I come not within sight of the castle of my dreams,

Teach me still to be thankful for life,

And for time's olden memories that are good and sweet;

And may the evening's twilight find me gentle still.

 

Max Ehrmann

 

Courage to Live

To those who have tried and seemingly have failed,

Reach out, dear Lord, and comfort them today;

For those whose hope has dimmed, whose faith has paled,

Lift up some lighted heavenly torch, I pray.

They are so frightened, Lord; reach out a hand.

They are so hurt and helpless, be their friend.

Baffled and blind, they do not understand -

They think this dark and tangled road the end.

Oh, touch to flame their hope that has burned low,

And strike with fire faith's ashes that are dead.

Let them walk proudly once again, and go

Seeking the sure and steadfast light ahead.

Help them to move amount their fellow men

With courage to live, courage to try again.

 

Grace Noll Crowell

Good Thoughts

Good thoughts are the threads

With which we weave the web of life;

The threads which build

The strong and fibrous cloth

We know as character.

And, like the patterns,

That looms of modern science weave,

Our lives can be no lovelier,

No stronger, than the threads

From which our lives are made.

 

Katherine Maurine Haaff

 

Talk Happiness

Talk happiness. The world is sad enough

Without your woe. No path is wholly rough;

Look for the places that are smooth and clear,

And speak of those, to rest the weary ear

Of Earth, so hurt by one continuous strain

Of human discontent and grief and pain.

 

Talk faith. The world is better off without

Your uttered ignorance and morbid doubt.

If you have faith in God, or man, or self,

Say so. If not, push back upon the shelf

Of silence, all your thoughts, till faith shall come;

No one will grieve because your lips are dumb.

 

Talk health. The dreary, never-ending tale

Of mortal maladies is more than stale.

One cannot charm, or interest, or please

By harping on that minor chord, disease.

Say you are well, or all is well with you,

And God shall hear your words and make them true.

 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

A Prayer For Faith

God, give me back the simple faith

that I so long have clung to,

My simple faith in peace and hope,

in loveliness and light -

Because without this faith of mine,

the rhythms I have sung to

Become as empty as the sky upon a starless night.

 

God, let me feel that right is right,

that reason dwells with reason,

And let me feel that something grows

whenever there is rain -

And let me sense that splendid truth

that season follows season,

And let me dare to dream

that there is tenderness in pain.

 

Go, give me back my simple faith

because my soul is straying

Away from all the little creeds

that I so long have known;

Oh, answer me while still I have

at least the strength for praying,

For if the prayer dies from my heart

I will be quite alone.

 

 

Margaret E. Sangster

How Do I Love Thee

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

I love thee to 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

 

 

Give All to Love

Give all to love;

Obey they heart;

Friends, kindred, days,

Estate, good-fame,

Plans, credit, and the Muse -

Nothing refuse.

 

'Tis a brave master;

Let it have scope:

Follow it utterly,

Hope beyond hope:

High and more high

It dives into noon,

With wing unspent,

Untold intent;

But it is a god,

Knows its own path,

And the outlets of the sky.

 

It was not for the mean;

It requireth courage stout,

Souls above doubt,

Valor unbending;

Such 'twill reward -

They shall return

More than they were,

And ever ascending.

 

Leave all for love;

Yet, hear me, yet,

One word more thy heart behooved,

One pulse more of firm endeavor -

Keep thee today,

Tomorrow, forever,

Free as an Arab

Or thy beloved.

 

Cling with life to the maid;

But when the surprise,

First vague shadow of surmise

Flits across her bosom young

Of  joy apart from thee,

Free be she, fancy-free;

Nor thou detain her venture's hem,

Nor the palest rose she flung

From her summer diadem.

 

Though thou loved her as thyself,

As a self of purer clay,

Though her parting dims the day,

Stealing grace from all alive;

Heartily know,

When half-gods go,

The gods arrive.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

Get a Transfer

If you are on the Gloomy Line,

Get a transfer.

If you're inclined to fret and pine,

Get a transfer.

 

Get off the track of doubt and gloom,

Get on the Sunshine Track - there's room -

Get a transfer.

 

If you're on the Worry Train,

Get a transfer.

You must not stay there and complain,

Get a transfer.

 

The Cheerful Cars are passing through,

And there's lots of room for you -

Get a transfer.

 

If you're on the Grouchy Track,

Get a transfer.

Just take a Happy Special back,

Get a transfer.

 

Jump on the train and pull the rope,

That lands you at the station Hope -

Get a transfer.

 

Author Unknown