Grief, loss, and poetry
Aug. 28th, 2011 11:18 am(from a FB update)
In the last twenty-four hours I have heard news of loss and portends of loss.
I find poems soothing and this poem today fulfilled its role
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths
by Philip James Bailey
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
And he whose heart beats quickest lives the longest:
Lives in one hour more than in years do some
Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along their veins.
Life's but a means unto an end; that end,
Beginning, mean, and end to all things—God.
The dead have all the glory of the world.
In the last twenty-four hours I have heard news of loss and portends of loss.
I find poems soothing and this poem today fulfilled its role
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths
by Philip James Bailey
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
And he whose heart beats quickest lives the longest:
Lives in one hour more than in years do some
Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along their veins.
Life's but a means unto an end; that end,
Beginning, mean, and end to all things—God.
The dead have all the glory of the world.