Poems
Desiderata
The Road Not Taken
Te Tao Ching Chapter 33 - Lao Tzu
To understand others is to be knowledgeable
To understand yourself is to be wise
To conquer others is to have strength
To conquer yourself is to be strong
To know when you have enough is to be rich
To go forward with strength is to have ambition
To not lose your place is to last long
To die but not be forgotten - that's true long life
Friends are patient and kind,
they are not jealous or boastful,
they are not annoyed or rude.
Friends do not insist on their own way,
they are not irritable or resentful,
they do not rejoice at wrong,
but delight in what is right.
Friendship bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Friendship never ends.
I Corinthians 13:4-8
Desiderata
Go placidly amid the noise and the haste,
And remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible, without surrender,
Be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
And listen to others,
Even to the dull and ignorant;
They too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons;
They are vexatious to the spirit,
If you compare yourself with others,
You may become vain or bitter,
For always there will be greater and
lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career,
However humble, it is a real possession
in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
For the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals,
And everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
For in the face of all aridity and disengagement,
It is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
Gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune;
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
Be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
No less than the trees and the stars;
You have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
No doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
Whatever you conceive him to be.
And whatever your labours and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life,
Keep peace in your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.
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 the 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