Poem of the Week [P.o.t.W.]

It has been quite a while since last we posted a poem.  

I [Sarah] would like to share one from a book called "It Can Be Done," originally published in 1921 and containing 239 poems.  My edition has been edited by Mr. Scott T. Brown, where he has put together those he loved most, with a little intro before the majority of poems.  Eventually, I would love to purchase the original copy, but this one will do.  =]  

Side note:  The next few poems posted will most likely come from this book. . .

This one is titled, "Life and Death."

"Many a man would die for wife and children, for faith, for country.  But would he live for them?  That, often, is the more heroic course--and the more sensible.  A rich man was hiring a driver for his carriage.  He asked each applicant how close he could drive to a precipice without toppling over.  'One foot,' 'Six inches,' Three inches,' ran the replies.  But an Irishman declared 'Faith, and I'd keep as far away from the place as I could.'  'Consider yourself employed,' was the rich man's comment."

So he died for his faith.  That is fin,

More than most of us do.

But stay, can you add to that line

That he lived for it, too?

In death he bore witness at last

As a martyr to truth.

Did his life do the same in the past

From the days of his youth?

It is easy to die. Men have died

For a wish or a whim--

From bravado or passion or pride.

Was it harder for him?

But to live: every day to live out

All the truth that he dreamt,

While his friends met his conduct with doubt,

And the world with contempt--

Was it thus that he plodded ahead,

Never turning aside?

Then we'll talk of the life that he led--
Never mind how he died.

[Ernest H. Crosby]

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Do not worry about how you might leave this world.  Make an effort to LIVE.