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 the dumb shall speak;
Till the deaf world's ear be made to hear
The cry of the wordless weak.
From street, from cage and from kennel,
From jungle and stall, the wail
Of my tortured kin proclaims 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 mother of mortals
Who have not stopped to teach
Of the sorrow that lies in dear, dumb 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
