Poetry Thursday: Thoughts on Life

This week I'm ignoring (for now) the prompt for Poetry Thursday, although I may revisit it at some time. The idea - to try to write a poem as if I was someone else - sounds fascinating and I can't wait to see what other people do with it. I was reading a poetry anthology earlier this week and kept finding myself drawn to some very brief verses and gradually realized that many of the ones I was drawn to had a couple of things in common. They were older poems with more formal rhyme schemes, and they had to do with attitudes toward life. So I want to share three of these today because somehow in my mind they all sort of go together. Life is mostly froth and bubble, Two things stand like stone, Kindness in another's trouble, Courage in your own. ~~~Adam Lindsay Gordon Bitter-Sweet Ah my dear angry Lord, Since thou dost love, yet strike; Cast down, yet help afford; Sure I will do the like. I will complain, yet praise; I will bewail, approve; And all my sour-sweet days I will lament, and love. ~~~George Herbert An Epilogue I have seen flowers come in stony places And kind things done by men with ugly faces, And the gold cup won by the worst horse at the races, So I trust, too. ~~~John Masefield "Ephemeral" (clickable if you want to see it larger in a new window) You can find links to more poetry here.