Poem - The World's Need

We found the following poem on a web site recently. Working in the animal adoption world is a tough job as anyone who's been there knows. We all get tired and worn out from having to deal with problems and issues that take us away from the mission we set off to accomplish. We have to keep remembering that it's about the greyhounds that we are trying to help. Sometimes just a simple poem can remind us of how important our work is. We would like to share this poem with our friends. We hope it inspires you like it does us.

The World’s Need

So many gods, so many creeds,
So many paths that wind and wind,
While just the art of being kind
Is all the sad world needs.

I am the voice of the voiceless:
Through me, their hearts shall speak;
Till the deaf world’s ear be made to hear
The cry of the wordless weak.

From lab, from cage and from forests,
From slaughterhouse stalls, come the wail
Of my tortured kin. They proclaim the sin
Of the mighty against the frail.

For love is the true religion,
And love is the law sublime;
And all that is wrought, where love is not
Will die at the touch of time.

Oh, shame on the mothers of mortals
Who have not stopped to teach
Of the sorrow that lies in an animal’s eyes,
The sorrow that has no speech.

The same Power formed the sparrow
That fashioned man – the King;
The God of the whole gave a living soul
To furred and to feathered thing.

And I am my brother’s keeper,
And I will fight his fight;
And speak the word for beast and bird
Till the world shall set things right.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)
American Poet