Daily rambles about quilting, gardening, reading, cooking and just plain old being.

Thursday, April 24, 2008

The Universe Speaks again and again...

I'm supposed to be cleaning house and I am...sort of. I swear, but I just ran across a hand copied poem from back in the days when copying by hand was one of the better options. I had an infatuation with the poet John Boyle O'Reilly at the end of my teens. I think maybe it was because I had to search volume after musty volume to find his work.

This one surprised me as I read it today...the final line speaks to me.

What is Good

"What is the real good?"
I asked in musing mood.
Order, said the court;
Knowledge, said the school;
Truth, said the wise man;
Pleasure, said the fool;
Love, said the maiden;
Beauty, said the page;
Freedom, said the dreamer;
Home, said the sage;
Fame, said the soldier;
Equity, the seer---

Spake my heart full sadly;
"The answer is not here."

Then within my bosom
Softly this I heard:
"Each heart holds the secret;
Kindness is the word."

John Boyle O'Reilly

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