this too shall pass.

This Too, Shall Pass Away

by Paul Hamilton Hayne, American editor, writer, poet.

“Art thou in misery, brother? Then I pray
Be comforted. Thy grief shall pass away.
Art thou elated? Ah, be not too gay;
Temper thy joy: this, too, shall pass away.
Art thou in danger? Still let reason sway,
And cling to hope: this, too, shall pass away.
Tempted art thou? In all thine anguish lay
One truth to heart: this, too, shall pass away.
Do rays of loftier glory round thee play?
Kinglike art thou? This, too, shall pass away!
Whate’er thou art, wher’er thy footsteps stray,
Heed these wise words: This, too, shall pass away.”

this too shall pass.

THIS TOO SHALL PASS


Things change fast
But this too shall pass
Better carve it on your forehead
Or tattoo it on your ass
Cause who can tell
When the clock strikes twelve
If today’s become tomorrow
Or if it’s all just gone to hell
My friend makes rings
She swirls and sings
She’s a mystic in the sense
That she’s still mystified by things
But scared to ask
How can nothing last
Cause like a cancer in your body
It all just goes too fast

We think too big
We think our self is one whole thing
And we claim that this collection
Has a name and is a being
But deep inside
When every cell divides
It sets upon the rule that states
Self-interest is divine
Cancer, too
Lives by this golden rule
That you must do unto the others
As the others unto you
All for the best
Cause that’s all the life accepts
And so we kill it like a buffalo
With awe and with respect

Don’t ask God
Just ask the sky
She’ll tell it to you plainly
In the clouds that whisper by
And praise the shapes
And then praise the way they change
And they’ll teach you not to pray to light
Without you pray to rain
So I pray to hands
And I pray to needs
And I pray to blades of grass
To find forgiveness in the weeds
But as for health
I just never did believe
And so I never prayed myself
Except to those that prayed for me

The story goes
Or the way that I was told
There was a king that always felt too high
And then he fell too low
And so he called
All the wise men to the hall
And begged them for a gift
To end the rises and the falls
And here’s the thing
They came back with a ring
It was simple and was plainly
Unbefitting of a king
Engraved in black
It had no front or back
But there were words around the band that said
Just know: This Too Shall Pass

Copyright 2004. Words and music by Danny Schmidt

totem 2

(Original Link: http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/storm-clouds-south-dakota/)

totem 1

(Photo Link: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/photos/hummingbird-photos/#/hummingbird-wings-straight_12894_600x450.jpg)

there's a cancer.

There’s a cancer inside each of us

It just looks like different things

Could be multiplying cells

And pain inside the blood

Or a father that called you names

Or a mother that couldn’t mother

Could be a nagging insecurity

That your life is always in question

There’s a cancer inside each of us

Just looks like different things

Could be the needles left behind from taking a life

For your country, that stab everytime you move

Or a not-yet-adult lying in the highway

His life slipping away from beneath a broken helmet

Or the hard coldness of a hand

That forces you to say, “I fell down the stairs.”

There’s a cancer inside all of us

It just looks like different things

Life is about dying, and dying is about living

And that’s the cancer inside all of us.