I found this poem in a little anthology called Poetry for a Lifetime, selected and annotated by Samuel Norfleet Etheredge in 1999.

Poetry for a Lifetime is available on that treasure trove of the Internet, archive.org, where you can borrow a PDF for an hour.

I dipped in and I found this poem.

Samuel Norfleet Etheredge was a World War II veteran, and heart surgeon, and lifelong advocate for poetry and the power of poems.

He died in 2011.

Priscilla Leonard was the pen-name of Emily Bissell, a social worker and social advocate who lived at the turn of the 20th century.

The poem is a little allegory of what happiness amounts to. It suggests that happiness is a crystal that's smashed in a million pieces, and all we can ever do is hope to gather up some of them and strive to avoid looking into the distance at the pieces of the crystal that can't be ours.

It is a gentle reminder to accept, to be grateful, to look at what we have and not what we don't.

You can read the poem here

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