Amelia Earhart (1897 - 1937) - aviator and poet

An e-mail from a lady in America seeking information about the poet Mary C.D. Hamilton, who wrote a prayer for aviators in 1915 that was set to music, sent me on a search for further information about Mary.  As I searched, I discovered that Amelia Earhart (1897 - 1937) pioneer female aviator who volunteered with the VAD in Canada during WW1,  wrote a poem which I feel rings very true today:

"Courage" by Amelia Earhart (1897 - 1937)

Courage is the price that life exacts

For granting peace.

The soul that knows it not

Knows not the livid loneliness of fear,

Nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear

The sound of wings.

How can life grant us boon of living, compensate

For dull, gray ugliness and pregnant hate

Unless we dare

The soul's dominion?  Each time we make a choice we pay

With courage to behold the resistless day,

And count if fair.

I included Amelia Earhart some time ago under the heading "Inspirational Women of World War One" -  http://inspirationalwomenofww1.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=Amelia+Earhart

Amelia's poem from http://aviationpoetry.org - a website worth looking at.