Little Messages Of Joy And Hope

I.     Take Heart     Take heart again. Joy may be lost awhile.     It is not always Spring.     And even now from some far Summer Isle     Hither the birds may wing. II.     Touchstones     Hearts, that have cheered us ever, night and day,     With words that helped us on the rugged way,     The hard, long road of life to whom is due     More than the heart can ever hope to pay     Are they not touchstones, soul-transmuting true     All thoughts to gold, refining thus the clay? III.     Fortune     Fortune may pass us by:     Follow her flying feet.     Love, all we ask, deny:     Never admit defeat.     Take heart again and try.     Never say die. IV     Be Glad     Be glad, just for to-day!     O heart, be glad!     Cast all your cares away!     Doff all that 's sad!     Put of your garments gray     Be glad to-day!     Be merry while you-can;     For life is short     It seemeth but a span     Before we part.     Let each maid take her man,     And dance while dance she can:     Life's but a little span     Be merry while you can. V.     Carpe Diem     Blow high, blow low!     No longer borrow     Care of tomorrow:     Take joy of life, and let care go! VI.     Joy Speaks     One with the Heaven above     Am I its bliss:     Part of its truth and love,     And what God is.     I heal the soul and mind:     I work their cures:     Not Grief, that rends Mankind,     But Joy endures. VII.     For The Old     These are the things I pray Heaven send us still,     To blow the ashes of the years away,     Or keep aglow forever 'neath their gray     The fire that warms when Life's old house grows chill:     First Faith, that gazed into our youth's bright eyes;     Courage, that helped us onward, rain or sun;     Then Hope, who captained all our deeds well done;     And, last, the dream of Love that never dies.