Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Existence

You are here, and you are wanted,
    Though a waif upon life's stair;
Though the sunlit hours are haunted
    With the shadowy shapes of care.
Still the Great One, the All-Seeing
Called your spirit into being--
Gave you strength for any fate.
Since your life by Him was needed,
All your ways by Him are heeded--
    You can trust and you can wait.

You can wait to know the meaning
    Of the troubles sent your soul;
Of the chasms intervening
    'Twixt your purpose and your goal;
Of the sorrows and the trials,
Of the silence and denials,
    Ofttimes answering to your pleas;
Of the stinted sweets of pleasure,
And of pain's too generous measure--
    You can wait the why of these.

Forth from planet unto planet,
    You have gone, and you will go.
Space is vast, but we must span it;
    For life's purpose is to know.
Earth retains you but a minute,
Make the best of what lies in it;
    Light the pathway where you are.
There is nothing worth the doing
That will leave regret or rueing,
    As you speed from star to star.

You are part of the Beginning,
    You are parcel of To-day.
When He set His world to spinning
    You were flung upon your way.
When the system falls to pieces,
When this pulsing epoch ceases,
    When the is becomes the was,
You will live, for you will enter
In the great Creative Centre,
    In the All-Enduring Cause.