Poetic Words and Wisdom that inspire Creative Thought and Action

[emilynghiem]

This selection of Quotations was very inspiring to read
at a time of great change. I'm asking other people to
work together, and change how we frame problems
and solutions instead of dividing and blaming. The poet is Maya Angelou.
If you have a similar slide show of quotations that inspire you, please post!
Thanks for sharing!

 

[OldLady]

Not exactly about problem solving, but about hope in others:
Walt Whitman (1819–1892). Leaves of Grass. 1900.

254. Song of the Universal


1
COME, said the Muse,
Sing me a song no poet yet has chanted,
Sing me the Universal.

In this broad Earth of ours,
Amid the measureless grossness and the slag, 5
Enclosed and safe within its central heart,
Nestles the seed Perfection.

By every life a share, or more or less,
None born but it is born—conceal’d or unconceal’d, the seed is waiting.

 

[Penelope]

Desiderata

Max Ehrmann's "Desiderata"

 

[SeaGal]

Not a slide show of quotes, just a long time favorite poem about Life...'If' by Rudyard Kipling.

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

 

[SeaGal]

...and another favorite...

A Bag of Tools
by R. L. Sharpe
I SN'T IT strange
That princes and kings,
And clowns that caper
In sawdust rings,
And common people
Like you and me
Are builders for eternity?

Each is given a bag of tools,
A shapeless mass,
A book of rules;
And each must make—
Ere life is flown—
A stumbling block
Or a steppingstone.

 

[SeaGal]

...one more...
save the songs of David in Psalms, and Jesus words in the New Testament - these three poems have had a profound effect on my life's philosophy beyond any others.

Hyacinths to Feed Thy Soul -
by Sadi

If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft,

And from thy slender store two loaves alone to thee are left,

Sell one, and with the dole

Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.