The document is a collection of poems and reflections on themes such as friendship, love, the passage of time, success, and loss. Notable authors included are Helen Steiner Rice, William Shakespeare, Rudyard Kipling, and others, each conveying profound messages about human experiences. The pieces emphasize the importance of inner strength, the value of true friendships, and encouraging others to cherish life and their memories.

2. LOVE

3. HELEN STEINER RICE
The Golden Chain
Friendship is a golden chainthe links are friends so dearand like a rare and precious jewelit's treasured more each year... it's clasped together firmlywith a love that's deep and trueand it's rich and happy memoriesand fond recollections too... time can't destroy it's beautyfor as long as memories liveyears can't erase the pleasurethe joy that friendship givesfor friendship is a priceless giftthat can't be bought or soldbut to have an understanding friendis worth far more than goldand the golden chain of friendshipis a strong and blessed tiebinding kindred hearts togetheras the years go passing by.

4. HENRY VAN DYKE
Katrina’s Sun Dial
Time is too slow for those who wait, Too swift for those who fear, Too long for those who grieve, Too short for those who rejoice, But for those who love, time isEternity.

5. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Sonnet CXVI
Let me not to the marriage of true mindsAdmit impediments. Love is not loveWhich alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeksWithin his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

6. ENLIGHTENMENT

7. All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'dpantaloons,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
As You Like It, Act II, Scene VII
www.flickr.com/photos/mckaysavage/2997813540

8. When you get what you want in your struggle for selfAnd the world makes you king for a day, Just go to the mirror and look at yourselfAnd see what that man has to say. For it isn't your father or mother or wifeWhose judgment upon you youmust pass. The fellow whose verdict counts most in your lifeIs the one staring back from the glass. You may be like Jack Horner and chisel a plumAnd think you're a wonderful guy. But the man in the glass says you're only a bumIf you can't look him straight in the eye. He's the fellow to please-never mind all the rest, For he's with you clear to the end. And you've passed your most dangerous, difficult testIf the man in the glass is your friend. You may fool the whole world down the pathway of yearsAnd get pats on the back as you pass. But your final reward will be heartache and tearsIf you've cheated the man in the glass.
PETER WINBROWSR
The Man In The Glass
Photo credit: Source unknown

9. If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream --and not make dreams your master;
If you can think --and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'emup with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings --nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And --which is more --you'll be a Man, my son!
RUDYARD KIPLING
If

10. INSPIRATION

11. To laugh often and much; To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; To appreciate beauty, To find the best in others, To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, A garden patch or a redeemed social condition; To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.
RALPH WALDO EMERSON
Success

12. Don't quit when the tide is lowest, For it's just about to turn; Don't quit over doubts and questions, For there's something you may learn. Don't quit when the night is darkest, For it's just a while 'til dawn; Don't quit when you've run the farthest, For the race is almost won. Don't quit when the hill is steepest, For your goal is almost nigh; Don't quit, for you're not a failureUntil you fail to try.
UNKNOWN
Don’t Quit

13. Out of the night that covers me, Black as the pit from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstanceI have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeoningsof chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms but the Horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the yearsFinds and shall find me unafraid
It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.
WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY
Invictus

14. LOSS

15. If I should dieandLeave you here awhileBe not like others sore undone, Who keep long vigilsBy the silent dust and weep. For my sake turn againTo life and smileNerving thy heartAnd trembling hand to doSomething to comfortOther hearts than thine. Complete these dearUnfinished Tasks of mine, And I, perchanceMay therein comfort you.
MARY LEE HALL
Turn again to life

16. Do not stand at my grave and weep; I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn's rain. When you awaken in the morning's hush, I am the swift uplifting rush Of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there. I did not die.
MARY FRYE
Do not stand at my grave and weep

17. When I come to the end of the road And the sun has set for me I want no rites in a gloom filled room Why cry for a soul set free? Miss me a little, but not for long And not with your head bowed low Remember the love that once we shared Miss me, but let me go. For this is a journey we all must take And each must go alone. It's all part of the master plan A step on the road to home. When you are lonely and sick at heart Go the friends we know. Laugh at all the things we used to do Miss me, but let me go.
When I am dead my dearest Sing no sad songs for me Plant thou no roses at my head Nor shady cypress tree Be the green grass above me With showers and dewdrops wet And if thou wilt remember And if thou wilt, forget.
I shall not see the shadows, I shall not fear the rain; I shall not hear the nightingale Sing on as if in pain; And dreaming through the twilight That doth not rise nor set, Haply I may remember, And haply may forget.
CHRISTINA ROSETTI
Let me go

18. COLLATED BY
CAROLE THELWALL-JONES