The World Is Better That I Lived

Let me today do something that shall take

A little sadness from the world’s vast store,

And may I be so favored as to make

Off joy’s too scanty sum a little more.

Let me not hurt, by any selfish deed

Or thoughtless word, the heart of foe or friend;

Nor would I pass, unseeing, worthy of need,

or stand by silence when I should defend.

However, meager be my worldly wealth,

Let me give something that shall aid my kind-

A word of courage, or a thought of health,

Dropped as I pass for troubled hearts to find.

Let me to-night look back across the span

“Twix, dawn, and dark, and to my conscience say-

Because of some good act to beast or man-

“The world is better that I lived today.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850 -1919)

American author and poet 💕✌️🙏