Tag: Love

The Imposters

Triumph and Disaster are imposters. They may engender strong emotions at the time, but those emotion fade and are replaced by the next big issue facing us in life.

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same

(If – Rudyard Kipling)

Porthcawl Beach

Rudyard Kipling’s poem, If, is a study in contrasts, considering many of the opposites that we encounter in daily life. He describes being able to do what others cannot; of handling situations with equanimity; of dealing with life in a balanced way.

Yet his comment, above, on the opposites, Triumph and Disaster, seems to add another dimension. Most versions of the poem capitalise the words as proper nouns, almost as if they are people, or even gods. And, in truth, many people see triumph as an idol to be worshipped at all costs.

Continue reading “The Imposters”

If on a sunny summer’s day

Summer Garden

If on a sunny summer’s day

I walked along a rambling way

Through trees and fields of new mown hay

What profit would it bring me?

 

Or if in autumn I did ride

Upon a boat washed by the tide

To find a place where I could hide

What pleasure would it give me?

 

Perhaps in winter I could run

And slide with children having fun

Or throw a snowball at someone

What lessons would it teach me?

 

If in the spring I watched the trees

Or saw the way a sparrow sees

The spiders and the humming bees

What happiness would greet me?

 

In summer, autumn, winter, spring

Whatever weather they would bring

If I could give to you a ring

What wond’rous love would fill me.