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Impermanence
To take the fleeting for the permanent Is foolish and pitiable.
Great wealth, like a crowd at a concert, Gathers and melts.
Wealth never stays; use it on the instant On things that stay.
A day, so called, if rightly understood, Is a sword hacking at life.
Do good in time, ere the tongue dies With the last hiccup.
"He was here yesterday," gloats the earth over man, "Today he is gone."
Men unsure of the next moment Make more than a million plans.
Lik a bird's to the shell it leaves Is life's link to its body.
Death is but a sleep, and birth An awakening.
Can life never have a house of its own Cribbed ever in its cabin?
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