LENTEN MESSAGE

A poem for today’s installment.

This poem, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, is a poem about life...   

     not a clench-fisted railing against death

("Do not go gentle into that good night,

   old age should burn and rave against close of day; 

   Rage, rage against the dying of the light” – Dylan Thomas)

but more of a “Let’s seize the day!” kind of poem!    

So seize the day!   

Remember, we're all in this together... let us be brave and strong, helping each other along!  

  

Enjoy!

A Psalm of Life – By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    

   What The Heart Of The Young Man Said  To The Psalmist.

   Tell me not, in mournful numbers, 

      Life is but an empty dream! 

   For the soul is dead that slumbers, 

      And things are not what they seem. 

   Life is real! Life is earnest! 

      And the grave is not its goal; 

   Dust thou art, to dust returnest, 

      Was not spoken of the soul. 

   Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, 

      Is our destined end or way; 

   But to act, that each to-morrow 

      Find us farther than to-day. 

   Art is long, and Time is fleeting, 

      And our hearts, though stout and

       brave, 

   Still, like muffled drums, are beating 

      Funeral marches to the grave. 

   In the world’s broad field of battle, 

      In the bivouac of Life, 

   Be not like dumb, driven cattle! 

      Be a hero in the strife! 

   Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant! 

      Let the dead Past bury its dead! 

   Act,— act in the living Present! 

      Heart within, and God o’erhead! 

   Lives of great men all remind us 

      We can make our lives sublime, 

   And, departing, leave behind us 

      Footprints on the sands of time; 

   Footprints, that perhaps another, 

      Sailing o’er life’s solemn main, 

   A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, 

      Seeing, shall take heart again. 

 Let us, then, be up and doing, 

       With a heart for any fate; 

 Still achieving, still pursuing, 

   Learn to labor and to wait.