This piece of music never fails to inspire me; I'd like other members to share the music or poetry which they find inspiring?
O Fortuna - C. Orff
O Fortune,
like the moon
you are constantly changing,
ever growing
and waning;
hateful life
now opresses
and then soothes
as fancy takes it;
poverty
and power
it melts them like ice.
Fate - montrous
and empty,
you whirling wheel,
you are malevolent,
well-being is vain
and always fades to nothing,
shadowed
and veiled
you plaque me too;
now through the game
I bring my bare back
to your villany.
Fate, in health
and virtue,
is against me
driven on
and weighted down,
always enslaved.
So at this hour
without delay
pluck the vibrating strings;
since fate
strikes down the strong man,
everyone weep with me!
YouTube - O, Fortuna