I turned to poetry to help alleviate my sorrow and found these two from Percy Bysshe Shelley that speak to me… maybe they will to you too.
I threw in a couple of Buddhist teachings as well as they appear to illustrate my points… 🙂
Feel free to share any poems or words of wisdom that have moved you over the years… we could all use a collection of good thoughts.
peace,
spider
The Tower of Famine ~
Published 1829
Which was the cradle and is now the grave
Of an extinguished people, – so that pity
Weeps o’er the shipwrecks of oblivion’s wave,
There stands the Tower of Famine. It is built
Upon some prison-homes, whose dwellers rave
For bread, and gold, and blood; pain, linked to guilt,
Agitates the light flame of their hours,
Until vital oil is spent or spilt.
….
A Dirge ~
Published 1824
Grief too sad for song;
Wild wind, when sullen cloud
Knells all the night long;
Sad storm, whose tears are vain,
Bare woods whose branches strain,
Deep caves and dreary main, –
Wail, for the world’s wrong.
The Dhammapada ~
Let him not do it again and again.
Let him not form a desire toward it,
A suffering is the accumulation of wrong.
118. Should a person do some good,
Let him do it again and again.
Let him form a desire toward it.
A happiness is the accumulation of good.
178. Better than sole sovereignty over the earth,
Or the journey to heaven,
Than lordship over all the worlds,
Is the Fruit of Stream Attainment.