This poem is the original source of the popular quotation “How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it.” Ms. Elliston was an investigative reporter in Ohio. She was also a poet on the side, so passionate about the craft that she bequeathed much of her estate to the University of Cincinnati to encourage and promote the study and composition of poetry.
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How beautiful a day can be When kindness touches it! As suddenly illumined as A room that's newly lit. In busy hours how grateful is A little word of cheer, So close it brings its tenderness, Its sympathy so near. The weariness of heavy tasks Is lost upon a day When kind words bring their comfort, joy, To any busy way. |
—George Elliston (1883–1946), “How Beautiful,” Cinderella Cargoes: Poems for Poets and for Those Who Love Poetry, 1929
Image sources: The Birmingham News—Age-Herald, 1935, modified t.g.; my personal copy of Elliston’s Cinderella Cargoes, George Sully & Co., 1929; author inscription in same, undated
