THE WORLD'S NEED (A Poem from over 100 years ago)

So many gods So many creeds, 

So many paths that wind and wind 

While just the art of being kind 

is all this sad world needs. 

I am the voice of the voiceless 

Through me the mute shall speak 

'til the deaf world's ear be made to hear 

the cry of the wordless weak. 

From lab, from cage, from kennel, 

from slaughterhouses, comes the wail 

of my tortured kin who 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 with 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 

til the world shall set things right.

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)