We Live in Deeds, Not Years...

"We Live in Deeds, Not Years; In Thoughts, Not Breaths"
by Philip James Bailey (1816-1902)

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
And he whose heart beats quickest lives the longest:
Lives in one hour more than in years do some
Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along their veins.
Life's but a means unto an end; that end,
Beginning, mean, and end to all things—God.
The dead have all the glory of the world.

~*~

I found this on the Academy of American Poets web site (www.poets.org). I subscribe to their e-newsletter, and this was linked in this morning's issue on the theme of "Carpe Diem."

It certainly goes along with my workshop on the "The Real 3R's of Literature: Read, Reflect, Respond" that I am presenting at the second annual Books & Beyond seminar on January 24. I do not ever wish to live my life numbly, but to think and feel deeply.

Here is another bit from the poet Philip James Bailey, found at www.BrainyQuote.com.

Let each man think himself an act of God,
His mind a thought, his life a breath of God;
And let each try, by great thoughts and good deeds,
To show the most of Heaven he hath in him.