Thoughts Are Things, and Their Airy
Wings Are Swifter than Carrier Doves
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)
You never can tell when you send a word,
Like an arrow shot from a bow
By an archer blind, be it cruel or kind,
Just where it may chance to go.
It may pierce the breast of your dearest friend.
Tipped with its poison or balm,
To a stranger’s heart in life’s great mart,
It may carry its pain or its calm.
You never can tell when you do an act
Just what the result will be;
But with every deed you are sowing a seed,
Though the harvest you may not see.
Each kindly act is an acorn dropped
In God’s productive soil [1]
You may not know, but the tree shall grow,
With shelter for those who toil.
You never can tell what your thoughts will do,
In bringing you hate or love;
For thoughts are things, and their airy wings
Are swifter than carrier doves.
They follow the law of the universe –
Each thing must create its kind,
And they speed o’er the track to bring you back
Whatever went out from your mind.
NOTE:
[1] “God’s productive soil” – Here the word “God” would be of course a sad misnomer if understood as having a monotheistic meaning. Each Church and sect manufactures its own “God” for selfish corporative purposes. God is a worldly tool to justify war, injustice and theft. In legitimate esoteric philosophy, the word can mean: a) the collectivity of eternal cosmic Intelligences; b) the universal and sacred Law, impersonally present in everyone’s heart; c) one’s own higher self and spiritual soul, united to the eternal law. According to theosophy, no deity is real who can be used by sects or corporations. (CCA)
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Reproduced from “Custer And Other Poems”, by Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Copyright 1896, W. B. Conkey Company, Chicago, USA. Available online. The poem is also published at the February 2016 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, pp. 4-5.
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