Poems of Peace/Patience
PATIENCE
Why this fierce struggle to achieve thine ends?
This selfish argument? This fire which lends
Heat to resentment, ashes to remorse?
Canst thou bend Truth and Nature to thy will?
Bend thou, and work and wait; be strong and still;
Soft growth is stronger than vehement force.
Be as a flower, content to be, to grow
In sweetness day by day; content to know
The hidden blessing in the seeming curse;
A child of Love, unargumentative;
Content to be and know—as thou dost live—
The simple secret of the Universe.