Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood.
– T S Eliot
And here I am, truly hoping that this communicates.
Table of Contents
Inspirational Poems About Life
Life can often feel overwhelming, leaving us grasping around for a strand of hope to lift us out of the darkness. It is easy to lose our footing and tough grip.
It’s all crazy but we still love it, though, right? We still gotta love it because it is the most beautiful thing we’ll ever see—life.
Here’s to those who live.
Find below these amazing inspirational poems about life to motivate yourself whenever you might be feeling down. These life poems are bound to make you smile, or take action, or probably cry because of the much desired breakthrough they’d give you.
Keep Breathing, by Yours Truly
Just a little reminder, you can find the complete poetry ebook collection of mine on Amazon for just $1.00, or read completely for free if you’re a Kindle Unlimited reader. Buy it here.
How Did You Die? by Edmund Vance Cooke
This poem gives readers the courage and inspiration to face whatever hurdles they might face in life. At the end of the day what matters the most is how we managed to survive, and for what greater cause did we sacrifice our comfort.
Read on!
Did you tackle that trouble that came your way
With a resolute heart and cheerful?
Or hide your face from the light of day
With a craven soul and fearful?
Oh, a trouble’s a ton, or a trouble’s an ounce,
Or a trouble is what you make it,
And it isn’t the fact that you’re hurt that counts,
But only how did you take it?
You are beaten to earth?
Well, well, what’s that?
Come up with a smiling face.
It’s nothing against you to fall down flat,
But to lie there—that’s disgrace.
The harder you’re thrown, why the higher you bounce;
Be proud of your blackened eye!
It isn’t the fact that you’re licked that counts,
It’s how did you fight—and why?
And though you be done to the death, what then?
If you battled the best you could,
If you played your part in the world of men,
Why, the Critic will call it good.
Death comes with a crawl, or comes with a pounce,
And whether he’s slow or spry,
It isn’t the fact that you’re dead that counts,
But only how did you die?
Hope is the Thing With Featers, by Emily Dickinson
If Hope was a bird…that is…Emily Dickinson speaks here of how humans have a tendency to hope in all situations. And sometimes, it’s that kind of fearless hope in the face of daunting situations that gets us through.
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
The most beautiful thought in this poem would be in the last stanza; how hope keeps us alive when we dare to have it, and yet it never costs us anything to harness the power of hope. No matter how hard the situation can be, we can just keep hoping and eventually save ourselves at the end of the day.
The Summer Day, by Mary Oliver
Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?
Opportunity, by Berton Braley
With doubt and dismay you are smitten
You think there’s no chance for you, son?
Why, the best books haven’t been written
The best race hasn’t been run,
The best score hasn’t been made yet,
The best song hasn’t been sung,
The best tune hasn’t been played yet,
Cheer up, for the world is young!
No chance? Why the world is just eager
For things that you ought to create
Its store of true wealth is still meagre
Its needs are incessant and great,
It yearns for more power and beauty
More laughter and love and romance,
More loyalty, labor and duty,
No chance – why there’s nothing but chance!
For the best verse hasn’t been rhymed yet,
The best house hasn’t been planned,
The highest peak hasn’t been climbed yet,
The mightiest rivers aren’t spanned,
Don’t worry and fret, faint hearted,
The chances have just begun,
For the Best jobs haven’t been started,
The Best work hasn’t been done
You could write the next bestseller that will change the life of millions in an incomparable and amazing way. You could make the next chartbuster in your industry. You could build a business that would surpass any other for the value it gives to people. You could create the next masterpiece and see your soul coming alive inside of it.
There are lots of opportunities around us. Which one are you going to grab?
Inspirational Quotes About Life
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?”
– Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles“
“Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them.”
– Albert Einstein
“We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.”
– Martin Luther King
“If you are still breathing maybe it is not such a bad day after all…”
– Darren E. Laws
“A fight is going on inside me,” said an old man to his son. “It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf is evil. He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other wolf is good. he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you.”
The son thought about it for a minute and then asked, “Which wolf will win?”
The old man replied simply, “The one you feed.”
– Wendy Mass, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life
“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
“Life is very short, and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friends”
– John Lennon
“I think that we are like stars. Something happens to burst us open; but when we burst open and think we are dying; we’re actually turning into a supernova. And then when we look at ourselves again, we see that we’re suddenly more beautiful than we ever were before!”
– C. JoyBell C.
“The whole summer lay ahead of us-time to rest, time to wait. And when the future comes-no matter what comes with it-I’ll be smarter. I’ll be stronger. I’ll be ready.”
– Ally Carter, Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy
“The hardest battle you are ever going to have to fight is the battle to be just you.”
– Leo Buscaglia
Find More Poems to Read:
Poems On Mothers and Motherhood
