Jendi’s Journal Rotating Header Image

Sunday Poem ~ The Ridiculous Optimist

Thanks for visiting! If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed using the feedburner link to the right.

Tableau of Lady Visiting a Laborer and His Family Outside Door of Their Cottage

There was once a man who smiled
…Because the day was bright,
…Because he slept at night,
…Because God gave him sight
To gaze upon his child;
…Because his little one,
…Could leap and laugh and run;
…Because the distant sun
Smiled on the earth he smiled.

-

He smiled because the sky
…Was high above his head,
…Because the rose was red,
…Because the past was dead!
He never wondered why
…The Lord had blundered so
…That all things have to go
…The wrong way, here below
The over-arching sky.

-

He toiled, and still was glad
…Because the air was free,
…Because he loved, and she
…That claimed his love and he
Shared all the joys they had!
…Because the grasses grew,
…Because the sweet winds blew,
…Because that he could hew
And hammer, he was glad.

-

Because he lived he smiled,
…And did not look ahead
…With bitterness or dread,
…But nightly sought his bed
As calmly as a child.
…And people called him mad
…For being always glad
…With such things as he had,
And shook their heads and smiled.

~ Samuel Ellsworth Kiser

Possibly Related posts:

  1. Sunday Poem ~ I Met God in the Morning Time
  2. Sunday Poem ~ What Makes A Home?
  3. Sunday Poem ~ One Small Child
  4. Sunday Poem ~ A Hard Preacher
  5. Sunday Poem ~ Resting in Him

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

1 Comment on “Sunday Poem ~ The Ridiculous Optimist”

  1. #1 Pamela Kramer
    on Aug 24th, 2008 at 8:19 pm

    Thank you for stopping by to post a comment on my TT post. We adore our new baby girl. Thanks for sharing in our joy!

    Pamela Kramers last blog post..Birthday - Day 144

Leave a Comment