What Is Life? by Angela Lansbury

What Is Life by Angela Lansbury 

 “What is life if full of care 

You have no time to stand and stare?” 

That old rhyme’s out of copyright

 I’ve worried over this all night.

 The problem is too many do 

But function half as well as you 

To stare too long’s like too much drink 

Do something, don’t just worry and think 

 The man who wrote that when a tramp 

Lit by the moon and not a lamp 

Did not look after family 

Had no responsibility

 Although he wrote great poetry

 He functioned half as well as me 

He stood and stared all on his own

 He did not have a house nor home 

 My mother said, “It’s rude to stare

 Don’t offer, act, to show you care 

When you see someone else wash up 

Pick up a tea towel, dry a cup 

 Don’t go to lunch with unmade beds

 And ceilings left with spiders’ webs 

Don’t leave crumbs on the kitchen floor 

Or mice and rats will wait for more 

 My mother said you need to dust 

And keep to time, earn people’s trust 

Keep calm, in order, without strife 

Show all how well you run your life 

 When you invite your friends to call 

Go shopping in the nearest mall 

Get dressed, refreshed, look wide awake 

Put out good food, or make a cake 

 Weed the garden, plant fruit and flowers 

You’ll clean the whole house in two hours 

If your good friends are due at three 

Imagine VIPs will come for tea

 If you’ve been running round all day 

Done a good day’s work before you play 

Follow the rules and do what’s right 

Why? You’ll sleep well, safe, sound, at night 

 Then at weekends, with your house clean 

Go out with friends, to walk the green 

Tell what you’ve done, while I make tea 

With time to spare, sit, smile at me. 

 You see the old who stand and stare 

With dirty cups and uncombed hair 

We’ll never be like that old one 

No - each hour we’ll get something done. 

 Start each day with life’s doing list 

Make sure no vital task is missed 

Tick what you’ve done to show you care 

A ticked list shared is worth a stare 

 Life has no problems we can’t fix 

If we throw action in the mix 

We’ll work together as a team 

Just do it, you’ll see what I mean 

 You speak, you lead, then others follow 

What’s started today is finished tomorrow 

Not hard to be the leading one 

Let others stare at what you’ve done. 

 You learn to learn, you yearn to know, 

 You start to build, you start to grow 

I learn from you, you learn from me 

We plant a seed, we grow a tree.

 -ends- Copyright Angela Lansbury 2016. 

Copyright protects my right to be paid if this work is used commercially, to not quote the whole thing so I can still make money from selling the complete work. Copyright protects my right to be acknowledged as the author. Review allows you to quote or paraphrase a small part providing the purpose is to direct others to my work. You may copy any couplet from this page providing you attribute it to Angela Lansbury, author, or Angela Lansbury, poet, and give this page as a link. The original couplet on standing and staring was from Davies, the tramp poet.