The Ridiculous Optimist

The Ridiculous Optimist

There was once a man who smiled


…Because the day was bright,


…Because he slept at night,


…Because God gave him sight


To gaze upon his child;


…Because his little one,


…Could leap and laugh and run;


…Because the distant sun


Smiled on the earth he smiled.

-

He smiled because the sky


…Was high above his head,


…Because the rose was red,


…Because the past was dead!


He never wondered why


…The Lord had blundered so


…That all things have to go


…The wrong way, here below


The over-arching sky.

-

He toiled, and still was glad


…Because the air was free,


…Because he loved, and she


…That claimed his love and he


Shared all the joys they had!


…Because the grasses grew,


…Because the sweet winds blew,


…Because that he could hew


And hammer, he was glad.

-

Because he lived he smiled,


…And did not look ahead


…With bitterness or dread,


…But nightly sought his bed


As calmly as a child.
…

And people called him mad


…For being always glad
…

With such things as he had,


And shook their heads and smiled.

~ Samuel Ellsworth Kiser