Found It!
A piece of verse has been stuck in my head for many years, and until now I had been unable to remember who had written it. I thought it was a Russian poet, but no, it was a Polish one, Leopold Staff:
Foundations
I built on the sand
And it tumbled down,
I built on a rock
And it tumbled down.
Now when I build, I shall begin
With the smoke from the chimney.
A simple poem, but I love it. I touches upon what I think is one of the hardest questions in life: do I work, or do I play. To achieve anything of significance takes years of hard work; but will I even live until tomorrow, and, moreover, is anything truly of significance? Slow and steady work? Or carpe diem?
Now if I could only find the complete poem that this other line in my head is from. The poem talks about the absurdities of life, and ends with something like--'in my next life, I want to be a plump madam's pampered dog.' I think it was by a French poet, but who knows--at that time in my life I was reading a lot of poetry and drinking a lot of wine.
Foundations
I built on the sand
And it tumbled down,
I built on a rock
And it tumbled down.
Now when I build, I shall begin
With the smoke from the chimney.
A simple poem, but I love it. I touches upon what I think is one of the hardest questions in life: do I work, or do I play. To achieve anything of significance takes years of hard work; but will I even live until tomorrow, and, moreover, is anything truly of significance? Slow and steady work? Or carpe diem?
Now if I could only find the complete poem that this other line in my head is from. The poem talks about the absurdities of life, and ends with something like--'in my next life, I want to be a plump madam's pampered dog.' I think it was by a French poet, but who knows--at that time in my life I was reading a lot of poetry and drinking a lot of wine.