One of my favourite nature poems which always brings a touch of sunshine to my day when I recall its seemingly effortless lines. It also features in a gem of a movie I saw recently (Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont) starring Joan Plowright.

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed - but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

                    - William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

Because each of us can make a difference...

I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.                       
                   
             - Edward Everett Hale, author (1822-1909)

A modified version of a favourite old English folk song...

A Wise Old Owl

A wise old owl lived in an oak,

The more it saw the less it spoke;

The less it spoke the more it heard,

There's a lot we can learn from that wise old bird...

                                                                - Anonymous