Inspirational poems or sayings

[mongos bird]

Fab post In A Pickle, thanks for sharing that with us.

 It's got me thinking.  When you're feeling at a low ebb, what poem or saying gives you strength?  My fave is the Desiderata.  No matter what crisis looms, I always seem to find some words which are appropriate.  It's hanging on the back of my bathroom door so it's there to read when on the loo. 

[Grunty]

'If' by Rudyard Kipling.

Yes I know it's fashionable to denigrate him as imperialist, racist, sexist etc., but all he was doing was reporting attitudes of the times he lived in.  Many of his works wouldn't fit into today's world but I think that one is timeless.

[mongos bird]

Thanks Grunty, that's also one of me faves.

[thebigchill]

I dont know where these originated from but my favourites are   " Do not go where the path may lead. Instead, go where there is no path and leave a trail" and When you were born you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die the world cries and you rejoice"

[Xollob]

How about:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

Often attributed to St Francis of Assisi, but more likely to be from Reinhold Niebuhr.

[GucciGal]

I have a few ...... Positive Thinking
If you create a powerful thought every day with deep reverence, it becomes a power that dwarfs all your problems and carries you higher than you can dream of

Seeds Of Hope
The world is your garden from which you remove weeds of doubt and replace them with seeds of hope. 

Faith
Faith makes things possible, it does not make them easy. 

Great Drama Of Life
If I recognise that whatever is happening in the great drama of life is beneficial, then my courage will never fail.

 

 

[PlainJane]

Robert Frost 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 marked 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.

[KittyGlitter]

Check out Oriah mountain dreamer, The Invitation:

http://www.oriahmountaindreamer.com 

[davver]

Kipling's 'If' for me too. And 'these things are sent to try us'!

[hartley]

Have a look at wordsofinspiration.co.uk . It's not quite as highbrow as some of the other suggestions but there's always something on there that raises a smile.

[jno]

When I am sad and weary. When I think all hope has gone.
When I walk along High Holborn, I think of you with nothing on 

Adrian Mitchell

[jno]

btw, how do you get each line on to a separate line? When I hit the paragraph button it leaves a blank line

[Xollob]

jno - <shift>+<return>

[jno]

thanx
Xollob

[nitrouk]

'Footprints'
A man is walking along a beach. Looking behind, he see's two sets of footprints - one set his and one set, the Lord. Alongside the footprints are his memories, good and bad. He notices that when he went through troubled times, there was only one set of footprints instead of two.
Troubled, he asked 'Lord, there is only one set of footprints during the bad times, why did you leave me then?'
The Lord smiled 'My sweet precious child, those footprints you see belong to me. This is where I carried you through.'

[neurosurgon*]

i to like 'Footprints'.  other poems i like are Shel Silverstiens 'The Unicorns', and theres a quote from one of my favorite books:

Honor those the dragons heed, in thought and favor, word and deed, worlds are lost or worlds are gained by those dangers Dragon-braved.  Dragonman avoid excess, greed will bring the Wyer distress, to the acient laws adhere, prospers thus the Dragon-wyer.
this is from Ann McCaffery's Dragonflight.

[neurosurgon*]

sorry about any spelling errors on my answer.

[Guinevere]

When I am dead,
Let it be said,
"Her sins were scarlett,
But her hair was red!"

Think it's great (me being a red-head!)

Dunno where it's originally from but it was on adverts for Beamish Red a few years ago.

[jno]

It was a pun, by Hilaire Belloc:

When I die I hope it may be said,
'His sins were scarlet but his books were read'.

[Otrere]

Nil carborundum illegitimi - Don�t let the b*stards grind you down.

There are loads of songs and things whose lyrics I could name but I am feeling very tired and lazy :-)