You Never Can Tell

You never can tell when you send a word

Like an arrow shot from a bow

By an archer blind, be it cruel or kind,

Just where it may chance to go.

It may pierce the breast of your dearest friend,

Tipped with its poison or balm,

To a stranger's heart in life's great mart

It may carry its pain or its calm.

You never can tell when you do an act

Just what the results will be,

But with every deed you are sowing a seed,

Though the harvest you may not see.

Each kindly act is an acorn dropped

In God's productive soil;

You may not know, but the tree shall grow

With shelter for those who toil.

You never can tell what your thoughts will do

In bringing you hate or love,

For thoughts are things and their airy wings

Are swifter than carrier doves.

They follow the law of the universe-

Each thing must create its kind,

And they speed o'er the track to bring you back

Whatever went out from your mind.

"You Never Can Tell"

Ella Wheeler Wilcox