[The World's Need]
[High Noon]
[Transformation]
[Thought-Magnets]
[Smiles]
[The Undiscovered Country]
[The Universal Route]
[Earthly Pride]
[Unanswered Prayers]
[Thanksgiving]
[A Maiden To Her Mirror]
[The Kettle]
[Contrasts]
[Thy Ship]
[The Tryst]
[Life]
[A Marine Etching]
[The Duel]
["Love Thyself Last"]
[Christmas Fancies]
[The River]
[Sorry]
[The Old Wooden Cradle]
[Ambition's Trail]
[The Traveled Man]
[Uncontrolled]
[The Tulip Bed At Greeley Square]
[Will]
[To An Astrologer]
[The Tendril's Faith]
[The Times]
[The Question]
[Sorrow's Uses]
[If]
[Which Are You?]
[The Creed To Be]
[Music In The Flat]
[Inspiration]
[The Wish]
[Three Friends]
[You Never Can Tell]
[Here And Now]
[Unconquered]
[All That Love Asks]
[Does It Pay]
[Sestina]
[The Optimist]
[The Pessimist]
[The Hammock's Complaint]
[Life's Harmonies]
[Preaching vs. Practice]
[An Old Man To His Sleeping Young Bride]
[I Am]
[Two Nights]
[Preparation]
[Custer]
[BOOK FIRST.]
[BOOK SECOND.]
[BOOK THIRD.]
The World's Need
So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind,
Is all the sad world needs.
High Noon
Time's finger on the dial of my life
Points to high noon! and yet the half-spent day
Leaves less than half remaining, for the dark,
Bleak shadows of the grave engulf the end.
To those who burn the candle to the stick,
The sputtering socket yields but little light.
Long life is sadder than an early death.
We cannot count on raveled threads of age
Whereof to weave a fabric. We must use
The warp and woof the ready present yields
And toil while daylight lasts. When I bethink
How brief the past, the future still more brief,
Calls on to action, action! Not for me
Is time for retrospection or for dreams,
Not time for self-laudation or remorse.
Have I done nobly? Then I must not let
Dead yesterday unborn to-morrow shame.
Have I done wrong? Well, let the bitter taste
Of fruit that turned to ashes on my lip
Be my reminder in temptation's hour,
And keep me silent when I would condemn.
Sometimes it takes the acid of a sin
To cleanse the clouded windows of our souls
So pity may shine through them.
Looking back,
My faults and errors seem like stepping-stones
That led the way to knowledge of the truth
And made me value virtue; sorrows shine
In rainbow colors o'er the gulf of years,
Where lie forgotten pleasures.
Looking forth,
Out to the western sky still bright with noon,
I feel well spurred and booted for the strife
That ends not till Nirvana is attained.