If I Had Known

If I had known what trouble you were bearing;

What griefs were in the silence of your face;

I would have been more gentle, and more caring,

And tried to give you gladness for a space.

I would have brought more warmth into the place,

If I had known.

If I had known what throughts despairing drew you;

(Why do we never try to understand?)

I would have lent a little friendship to yoiu,

And slipped my hand within your hand,

And made your stay more pleasant in the land,

If I had known.

-Mary Carolyn Davies

from the book: Best Loved Poems of the American People

A Creed

There is a destiny that makes us brothers;

None goes his way alone:

All that we send into the lives of others

Comes back into our own.

I care not what is temples or his creeds,

One thing holds firm and fast –

That into his fateful heap of days and deeds

The soul of man is cast.

-Edwin Markham

from the book: Best Loved Poems of the American People