My Favourite Poem - Love and Faith

Love and Faith

You are not poor if you
love something, someone,
humanity maybe, and have faith
that you will somewhere,
sometime be satisfied, though you
know not how.

You may even feel that your
sorrow is but a school to teach
you the virtues of sympathy and
gentleness, that will avail
you hereafter, though you know
not where.

I am not always on the highway
that leads to this hilltop,
but I have seen the lighted road
stretching on and on;
sometimes I have even fancies
that I saw the windows of
the castle all aglow.

And I have hastened my steps
to be in time for the feast,
and taken counsel of my courage
lest I falter and fall on the way.

May I keep this vision of
the castle ever before my eyes,
and a disbelief in my heart
that the journey is worthwhile,
and the castle and the glow
in the windows not all illusion.

(From collection of inspirational verses of Max Ehrmann's poems that reveal his love of this world).