Integrity poems
WHAT IS PURPLE?
Grapes are purple; grape jelly; grape juice; grape ‘bubble gum’
Purple is violet and lavender;
It’s royal, stalwart, true;
It is the color of the mountains majesty
Purple is to be honored, it is loyal
A soldier who is battle wounded wears a purple heart .
Purple is when the heart and mind and deed become one in truth
What is purple? Purple is Integrity
Integrity Every Day
How many of us live with true integrity every day?
Do your work to the fullest, never cheat in any way.
Stay to the path you made up your mind to tread,
Falling away from truth never entering your head.
However hard th way, if you have integrity in you,
You’ll strive and never give in until you are through
You’ll be honored and trusted by all those you meet,
Your word will be your bond, always fit to greet.
Will never give into temptation however strong,
Never on purpose would you ever do anything wrong,
No bribe would ever be large enough to lead you astray,
For integrity would always show you the right way.
Give me the strength to have integrity through my life,
That however hard the struggle, however much strife
I will stand strong and true, until my earthly life is through,
That I will be honorable and honest in all the things I do.
-M. Ann Margetson
WILL THE REAL YOU PLEASE STAND UP?!
Submit to pressure from your peers and you move down to their level.
Speak up for your own beliefs and you invite them up to your level.
If you move with the crowd, you’ll get to further than the crowd.
When 40 million people believe in a dumb idea, it’s still a dumb idea.
Simply swimming with the tide leaves you nowhere.
So if you believe in something that’s good, honest, and bright—stand up for it.
Maybe your peers will get smart and drift your way.
Within my earthly temple there’s a crowd;
There’s one of us that’s humble, one that’s proud,
There’s one that’s broken-hearted for his sins,
There’s one that unrepentant sits and grins;
There’s one that loves his neighbor as himself,
And one that cares for naught but fame and pelf.
From such corroding care I should be free
If I could once determine whish is me!
–Edward Sanford Martin
ANYWAY
People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered,
LOVE THEM ANYWAY-
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives,
DO GOOD ANYWAY-
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies,
SUCCEED ANYWAY-
The good you do will be forgotten tomorrow,
DO GOOD ANYWAY-
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable,
BE HONEST AND FRANK ANYWAY-
What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight,
BUILD ANYWAY-
People really need help but may attack you if you help them,
HELP PEOPLE ANYWAY-
Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth,
GIVE THE WORLD THE BEST YOU’VE GOT ANYWAY.
YOU TELL ON YOURSELF
You tell on yourself
By the friends you seek,
By the every manner in which you speak;
By the way you employ your leisure time.
By the use you make of a dollar or dime.
You tell what you are
By the things you wear,
By the spirit by which your burdens you bear;
By the the kind of things at whivch you laugh,
By the records you play on the phonograph.
You can tell what you are
By the way you talk,
By the manner in which you bear defeat;
By so simple a thing as what you eat,
By the books you choose from the well-filled shelf.
In these ways and more you tell on yourself.
So there is really not a particle of sense
In your efforts to keep up your false pretense.
“MYSELF”
by Edgar A. Guest
I have to live with myself, and so
I want to be fit for myself to know;
I want to be able as days go by
Always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don’t want to stand with the setting sun
And hate myself for the things I’ve done.
I don’t want to keep on a closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself,
And fool myself as I come and go
Into thinking that nobody else will know
The kind of a man I really am;
I don’t want to dress myself up in sham.
I want to go out with my head erect,
I want to deserve all men’s respect;
But here in the struggle for fame and pelf,
I want to be able to like myself.
I don’t want to think as I come and go
That I’m bluster and bluff and empty show.
I never can hide myself from me,
I see what others may never see,
I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself — and so,
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.
INTEGRITY
Immortal life is something to be earned,
By slow, self-conquest, comradeship with pain,
And patient seeking after higher truths.
We cannot follow our own wayward wills
And feed our baser appetites and give
Loose reins to foolish tempers, year on year,
And then cry, ‘Lord, forgive me, I believe –‘
And straightway bathe in glory. Men must learn
God’s system is too great a thing for that;
The spark divine dwells in each soul, and we
Can fan it to a steady flame of light,
Whose lustre guilds the pathway of the tomb
And shines on through eternity, or else
Neglect it till it simmers down to death
And leaves us but the darkness of the grave.
Each conquered passion feeds the living flame;
Each well-borne sorrow is a step toward God.
Faith cannot rescue, and no blood redeem
The soul that will not reason and resolve.
Lean on thyself, yet prop thyself with prayer,
For these are spirits, messengers of light,
Who come at call and fortify thy strength,
Make friends with thee and with thine inner self,
Cast out all envy, bitterness, and hate.
And keep the mind’s fair tabernacle pure;
Shake hands with Pain, give greeting unto Grief,
Those angels in disguise and thy glad soul,
From light to light from star to shining star,
Shall climb and claim blest immortality.”
–Ella Wheeler Wilcox
My Mother Says
My Mother says she doesn’t care
About the color of my hair
Or if my eyes are blue or brown
Or if my nose turns up or down
My Mother says these things don’t matter.
My Mother says she doesn’t care,
If I’m, dark or if I’m, fair
If I’m thin or if I’m fat
She doesn’t’ fret o’er things like that
She says these things don’t really matter.
But if I cheat or tell a lie
Or do mean things to make folks cry,
Or if I’m rude or impolite,
And these things really matter.
It isn’t looks that make one great
It’s character that seals our fate.
It’s what’s within our hearts you see
That makes or mars our destiny
And that’s what really matters.
