A Reproof

In view of your manner
of spending your days
I hope you may learn,
before ending them,
that the effort you spend
on defending your ways
could be better spent
on amending them.

poem by Piet Hein
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Prayer

Sun that givest all things birth
Shine on everything on earth!

If that's too much to demand
Shine at least on this our land!

If even that's too much for thee
Shine at any rate on me.

poem by Piet Hein
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Rhyme and Reason

There was an old woman
who lived in a shoe.
She had so many children.
She didn't know what to do.
But try as she would
she could never detect
which was the cause
and which the effect.

poem by Piet Hein
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Two Passivists

Eradicate the optimist
who takes the easy view
that human values will persist
no matter what we do.
Annihilate the pessimist
whose ineffectual cry
is that the goal's already missed
however hard we try.

poem by Piet Hein
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Time and Eternity

Where the woods and ploughlands
of tradition and modernity
run into the never-ending
deserts of eternity,
there I have my daily task
while time smoothly passes,
spooning the eternal sands
into hour glass.

poem by Piet Hein
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A Psychological Tip

Whenever you're called on to make up your mind,
and you're hampered by not having any,
the best way to solve the dilemma, you'll find,
is simply by spinning a penny.
No -- not so that chance shall decide the affair
while you're passively standing there moping;
but the moment the penny is up in the air,
you suddenly know what you're hoping.

poem by Piet Hein
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