This Too Shall Pass

When some great sorrow, like a mighty river,
Flows through your life with peace-destroying power
And dearest things are swept from sight forever,
Say to your heart each trying hour:
"This, too, shall pass away."

When ceaseless toil has hushed your song of gladness,
And you have grown almost too tired to pray,
Let this truth banish from your heart its sadness,
And ease the burdens of each day:
"This, too, shall pass away."

When fortune smiles, and, full of mirth and pleasure,
The days are flitting by without a care,
Lest you should rest with only earthly treasure,
Let these few words their fullest import bear:
"This, too, shall pass away."

When earnest labor brings you fame and glory,
And all earth's noblest ones upon you smile,
Remember that life's longest, grandest story
Fills but a moment in earth's little while:
"This, too, shall pass away."

-Lanta Wilson Smith

rain

The rain fell softly and slowly,
its pitter-patter lulling the man
into thoughts of comfort,
but never warning him
of the oncoming storm.

a nothing

if i was eliminated,
    snuffed out,
    wiped away clean.
nothing would be different,
    it all would be the same.

a george bailey i'm not,
    with a wonderful life.
i couldn't even say
    my life was filled with strife.

i'm a nothing
    with a nothing, pitiful course,
    that no one will ever know.

and the marks that i have made
    i don't even think will show.