Your children: Kahlil Gibran

Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls, for their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seem to make them like you. For life goes not backwards nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The Archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the Archer's hand be for gladness; for even as He loves the arrow that flies, so He also loves the bow that is stable.

How do I love thee? : Elizabeth Barret Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways,
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height,
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight,
For the ends of Being and Ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's,
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love with a passion put to use,
In my old grief, and in my childhood's faith.
I love thee with love I seemed to lose,
With my lost saints,...I love thee with the breadth,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! ...and if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Dreams : Langston Hughes

Hold onto dreams,
for if dreams die,
life is like a broken-winged bird,
that cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams,
for when dreams go,
life is a barren field,
frozen with snow.

A Poem of Friendship: Nikki Giovanni

We are not lovers,
because of the love,
we make,
but the love,
we have.

We are not friends,
because of the laughs,
we spend,
but the tears,
we save.

I will never miss you,
because of what we do,
but what we are,
together.

I do not love you except because I love you : Pablo Neruda

I do not love you except because I love you,
I go from loving to not loving you,
from waiting to not waiting for you,
my heart moves from cold to fire.

I love you because it's you the one I love,
I hate you deeply and hating you,
bend to you and the measure of my changing love for you,
is that I do not see you but love you blindly.

May be January light will consume,
my heart with it's cruel ray,
stealing my key to true calm.

In this part of the story I am the one who dies,
the only one and I will die of love because I love you,
because I love you, Love, in fire and in blood.

Don't Quit : Clinton Howell

When things go wrong,as they sometimes will,
When the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest,if you must,but don't quit.

Life is strange with twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about,
When he or she might have won had one stuck it out,
Don't give up, though the pace seems slow,
You might succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than it seems,
To a faint and flattering woman or man,
Often the struggler has given up,
When one might have captured the victor's cup,
And he or she learnt too late,
When the night slipped down,
How close one was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out,
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you can never tell how close you are,
It may be nearer when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you are hardest hit,
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Do It Anyway : Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable,illogical and self centered:
forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives:
be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies:
succeed anyway.

What you spend your years building, some could destroy overnight:
build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous:
be happy anyway.

The good you do today,people will often forget tomorrow:
be good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, it may never be enough:
give the world the best you have got anyway.

You see the final analysis, it is between you and God:
it was never between you and them, anyway.