My Poetry And Prose-Page 3
Here is a collection of my poetry and prose writings that I have written over the years. Most of my writings were created and composed in my youth.
(91) To The Hermit Thrush
Thy fair voice fills the air with song,
With melody clear and strong,
With music the angels would fain hear
it is thy grace to delight my ear.
Thy beautiful voice through God born
Is far beyond pipe or horn,
Is sweeter far than man's highest cord,
Is to my heart life's dearest reward.
(92) An Answer
An answer it seems there ought to be
To life's mystery.
From a hillside looking long
I wonder where I belong.
Just a hint, a sign would comfort give,
A reason to live,
To point me on the way I should go.
That at least a person should know.
The birds are more wise than I,
They know where to fly.
That hawk circling 'bove my head,
Is by some secret compass led.
Even the ant scurring at my feet
Has business to complete,
A creature with a goal in mind,
What I cannot seem to find.
The blades of grass I carelessly trod
Up through the earth prod
With purpose in their tender blade,
Struggling that their goal be made.
A key all Creation seems to own,
by this key have grown,
And have the answer for going on.
Why, my answer alone gone?
Why should I for a reason labor,
When my small neighbor
The little bee at this hour
Has his errand with a flower?
(93) Recollections
The hills and the trees
Are my fondest memories,
Birds singing and the wind,
All together seem to blend.
Places I often forget,
Events, people I sometimes omit,
For memory's bright eye
Recalls only the blue sky.
The mind saw it all
The grass, the leaves in fall,
And sweet record did impart,
Held forever in the heart.
Strife and turmoil are past,
Only dewdrops seem to last,
And fragrances unknown,
Wonders by the wind blown.
Sorrow, pain, and fear
Pass as quickly as a tear,
While the hillside's cool green
Is an everlasting scene.
The babbling stream,
This is life's eternal dream,
Not chatter in the town,
Such heavenly sound can drown.
Pleasures what are they?
Wealth, power pass away
As if they had never been,
But the sunshine always comes again.
Hear the rain falling,
The many creatures calling?
Precious memories of long ago
In the end are all we know.
(94) How Swiftly Rainbows Pass Away
How Swiftly rainbows pass away,
How brief was our meeting together,
Was but the shadow of a day,
But I will remember forever;
Was so like a springtime shower,
An instant in eternity,
The glimpse of a falling star,
But dear, the joy it gave to me;
Was like a linnet on the wing,
Was like a snowflake from the sky,
Like a far away bell's brief ring,
Like love light in a lover's eye.
(95) Eveningtime
How beautiful the evening time
When all the world does rest,
That moment before the stars come out
When serenity abounds,
And earth is heavenlike,
Misty and quiet,
All around under a spell,
As coolness greets the brow,
And tenderness plucks away care,
As joy beyond words,
Calms and adorns the thoughts,
When wonder and awe,
repose in every common thing
Makes the hectic world of moments ago
A place of peace and tranquillity.
(96) Never Doubt Yourself
If I would leave any thought with someone I would say never doubt yourself. No matter what people say, no matter what you may think sometimes, never doubt yourself. If you believe in yourself you will succeed far more than you will fail. He who possesses a quiet kind of faith in his ability to perform a task already has the task half completed.
Believe in yourself despite setbacks, despite the seemingly immovable obstacles, despite the cold and dark, despite the woe and pain, and eventually your faith will come to fruition, and you will find all those troubles behind you.
The simplest thing in the world is to deride ourself because we made a mistake, to give up and say, "I'm no good", but the more difficult thing is to believe in ourself and constructively continue our life. The greatest error in life is to downgrade ourself. The most horrible tragedies in life have occurred from a lack of faith in one's own self, one's own ability, from a belief that one cannot succeed, but that failure is their sole lot in life.
There seems to be a self uncertainty that builds up in the mind every time one makes a mistake or fails to accomplish a task, and with every successive blunder the uncertainty grows stronger until one doubts one's ability to do anything right. Being human we are host to a number of frailties, each one of which desturbs and depresses us, and makes us doubt our worth. We are not a mechanically precise machine, we are a bundle of nerves which often tangle and get jangled, but are capable of amazing performance.
We have more strength than we believe, there is more fight within us than we know, and far more potential than we could ever call forth or even dream of being possible.
(97) You Are Important
Always remember you are unique and you are important. There is no one else in the world quite like you. You are special. There never has been and there never will be anyone like you again.
Don't let people take away your respect for yourself. No matter what they say or do remember that you are very important and a worthwhile person, and always retain respect for yourself. They cannot take away your self respect and dignity, for you control what you think of yourself and no one else.
You have your own special qualities and talents, and though you may not have the talents and gifts that someone else has, you have your own talents and gifts that others do not have. No one else can be you. Only you can be you. Try to be the best you possible.
Remember also that you are important to other people. You cannot help but touch the lives of other people as you go through life. There are many people who need your love and support, and who look up to you, and want to emulate you. People you may not even be aware of need you, and watch your life, and if you give up and fail yourself, you are failing them and letting them down too.
And you are important in the eyes of God. The Bible says that God loves you very much. The Bible says that God loves you so much that He sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross for you.
(98) Our Spirits Rise and Fall
Daily our spirits rise and fall
Like the tides in their rythmic flow,
Though there is no pattern at all
To the agony and joy we know.
It comes like wind and the storm
The upheavel of our emotional soul,
Dark and lowering the clouds do form,
And difficulties seem life's only role.
But we weather the storm and the sun
In all its glory shines once again,
And woes we seem to have none,
We are among the happiest of men.
(99) Strength From The Hills
We draw our strength from the hills,
From the trees and flowers,
From rain crows and whippoorwills,
From summer air and spring showers.
We draw our strength from the breezes,
From the distant stars above,
From little joys that please us,
From little miracles that we love.
We draw our strength from the sun,
From the clouds in the sky,
From little creatures that run,
From the seasons passing by.
We draw our strength each day
From all Nature's vast store,
As we go on our way,
And there always seems to be more.
(100) Hope And Love
There are certain remarkable attributes that people possess. If anything is immortal, it is hope, and people possess it in abundance. Sometimes hope seems to die down to the root, but it ever flourishes anew at the least opportunity.
It is a wondrous thing, this hope. I am not sure how it is formed, and more often than not there does not appear much reason for it, but by some process natural or supernatural the supply is unquenchable. It takes us through dark and bitter years and makes them liveable, and not only liveable, but enjoyable, because it gives us a light inside.
And then there is love. Death, pain, and the hardships of life do not distract from love. Here again seems to be an undying substance, a formless, shapeless nonentity, intangible outside the individual. Yet within a person it looms gigantic, it moves mountains, and is the beginning and end of our being.
Love gives the world its attraction. It is love alone that pleases and delights, and that prevents the world from becoming a place of desolation. Like the touch of a magician's wand love is ever creating new visions and dreams, ever providing freshets of new ideas and inspirations.
Somehow it seems an inference fraught with error to assume love is a product of mere flesh and blood. A whisper from deep within tells us love comes upon gossamer wings from God.
(101) A Cataclysm
When life hurts the most we are sometimes most benefited by it. For mental and spiritual growth sometimes a cataclysm must occur. And it is a hard thing to endure, but if we survive we are often ten times better for it.
To find out life's worth we sometimes have to go down there among the smoldering volcanoes, the falling rocks, and the bottomless pits. That is where the truth is, in the arena, in the thick of the fight, where if any contestant comes out alive he is endowed with understanding, forbearance, and contentment.
(102) The Other Power
We are more than sensation. I cannot tell how, or from where, but I know the senses are but the servants of this other power. What is this power? It is an unknowable power which takes and grasps our sensations and puts them into thoughts, yea, and more than thoughts, puts them into deeds.
This same power makes us feel good or bad, pricks us with conscience, prods us into aspiring, or settles us into serenity. It is this power which lets us know ourselves and comprehend the universe in time and space, and which allows us to form airy dreams.
It is this power which makes us try to leave something of ourselves, and gives us our greatest happiness when we help others. It is this power above sensation which hints of God.
The senses see and hear, feel and smell, and let us know what is around us, but it is this other sense or power which reveals to us that it is beautiful, and which gives us the ability to love and hope and care.
(103) We Must Bend
There's no doubt we must bend,
Or be snapped by the wind.
We must yield when we'er wrong,
Only fools are too headstrong.
Great tall trees break like a twig,
While the grass not nearly so big
Endures the hurricane,
Stands in the fierciest of rain.
(104) Friends And Feelings
What is the end of life? It is to be a friend. Ever notice how our problems seem to clear away when we like someone? Nothing else matters except the feelings of people. All else is so much decoration. It is in the arena of the heart where the true world revolves.
That is where all the beauty or horror is, and where all the meaning and purpose for our being dwells. Feelings are more important than volcanic irruptions. Someone down and out made to feel hope and love is of more worth than the birth of a star.
(105) Loneliness
Loneliness is the saddest state in life. If I could ask that a prayer be granted for every person on earth, it would be that in their darkest hour of their most dire need, on that dark night or horrible day when they are most fearful and in their greatest agony of body or mind, that they are not alone, but that someone who cares about them and who will comfort them is near.
Loneliness can also eat away at us slowly much like a cancer, until it destroys the core of our being. The enjoyment of life is eroded by loneliness, and our dreams become diminished. We sink into a kind of bleak oblivion. We are not yet dead, but not really alive either. We are just existing. Sometimes too late we realize the wonder of having friends, what it means to have someone to talk to, what it means to thwart that awful feeling of loneliness by having someone to confide in. It is a blessing to pass the dark and difficult hours with someone dear. It is a curse to spend them frightened and alone crying to ourself.
If you have friends or family nearby to help you in time of need, to confide in and spend blissful hours with, you are most fortunate. Never take them for granted. Your friends and family are the most precious blessings on earth.
(106) Suppertime And Fishing
Sometimes when I am feeling sad and alone and miss my parents a lot, I think back to my childhood. And I can hear from far off the faint sound of my mother calling me for suppertime. Almost like some kind of miracle I am transported back many long years ago to when I was a boy on the farm, and I can see my mother again cooking at the stove and smell the wonderful aroma of our kitchen at suppertime. Little did I know then that many years later that would be among my most precious memories.
Another of my precious memories are the times I spent fishing with my father down at the creek that ran near our house. At those times when the memories come floating back through the mists of time, I can see the cork from my fishing line bobbing in the water and feel the excitement and happiness that only a small boy with his father can feel when he catches a fish.
(107) Have No Fear
Often we falter and often we flail
Beneath the wind and blowing gale.
Life is a hard road to walk upon,
And sometimes hope is almost gone,
Then behold a whisper in our ear,
The words from Jesus, "have no fear",
And we rise and walk again
Proclaiming Jesus and His love to men.
Often the way becomes rough and worn,
Our heart becomes pierced and torn,
And we say I can go on no more,
Lord I am weak and poor,
I can hardly go on this way,
Then we stop and sincerely pray,
And once more do we hear
The words of Jesus, "have no fear".
(108) Life
It is difficult to fathom human life. There are wonderful, difficult, contrary forces at work. Life is simple, complex, impossible, real, and a dream without dimension. Life can be harmonious, discordant, heavenly, and hellish all in one day, in one moment.
Life is deceiving, revealing, confusing, and in certain moments clear beyond the shadow of a doubt.
Life can be beautiful, horrible, gentle, and at times more cruel than the human heart can stand.
Life is filled with remorse, happiness, sorrow, and a joy unuttered, inconstant, though eternal. Life can be a burden, a joy, a success, or a waste. Life is disappointing, satisfying, crushing, and in some instances raising one to the highest heights.
Life can bring hope, despair, radiance, and a haze inpenetrable and unyielding. Life is a heartache, a heart-throb, a passion, and an ideal sinking and emerging in the bosom of the deep. Life can be exciting, dull, invigorating, or listless and without purpose.
Life is a war, a race, a trap, a free uninhibited ride through time. Life can be a loss, a gain, a reward, or a persecution. Life is a fall, a step, a jump, a reach unceasing and in every child born anew.
life can be a light, a darkness, a mirror, or a substance without true reflection nor visible illumination, a virtual and complete darkness, taking in but never giving back. Life is strange, familiar, unknown, known, and ever to be known again.
Life can be, and life is unlike anything else that exists, something to be eternally grateful for, a possession for which there can be no duplicate.
(109) Our Friends The Animals
What a wonderful array of animals share our world with us. They are often our best friends. They don't ask for much. They give so much unconditional love and companionship to us.
Our domestic animals and pets are especially important and valuable to us. Pets are wonderful companions. Pets can provide invaluable companionship to children and those who live alone. When we approach our pets they greet us with friendship with their bright and happy eyes. They even seem to possess qualities more excellent than we commonly exhibit. They are loving, have undying loyalty, patience, and forgiveness. They patiently suffer through our bad moods, and always seem to be there to share our good moods.
It would be a cold and empty world if it were without animals. The world would be a lonely place if none of those marvelous, funny, wonderful little creatures existed. Imagine how empty the sky would be without birds, and how desolate the woods would be without its myriad of furry critters.
We are fortunate to share our world with such interesting, and for the most part harmless and gentle beings. They are content with their ever decreasing portion, and rarely encroach upon our domain. The wild animals can get by very well on their own if we have a little tolerance and understanding, and leave them alone and not totally destroy their habitats.
By our very dominance we inherit the resposibility for these lesser, vulnerable fellow creatures. It would be a mark of savagery far worse than any of them ever exhibited were we to annihilate them and cause their extinction.
(110) Just A Few Little Words
It only takes a few little words to cause much pain, and it only takes a few words to cause much happiness. It only takes a few words to crush a heart, and it only takes a few words to give a heart joy. It only takes a few words to alienate a friendship, and it only takes a few words to make a friendship blossom.
It only takes a few words to cause someone to go astray, and it only takes a few words to help them find their way back again. It only takes a few words to destroy someone's hopes and dreams, and it only takes a few words to give a person reason to hope and dream again. It only takes a few words to make someone cry, and it only takes a few words to take their tears away.
It only takes a few words to make someone's day sad and dreary, and it only takes a few words to make someone's day happy and cheery. It only takes a few words to cause dark clouds to appear, and it only takes a few words to chase all those dark clouds away.
Just a few little words can comfort one in grief, can soothe a broken heart, can bring one back from the brink of despair. Just a few little words can help someone cope, can help someone lonely feel not so alone.
Just a few words can calm someone's fears, and ease someone's troubled thoughts. Just a few little words can brighten someone's day, and make their road in life easier to travel. Just a few little words can lift someone's burdens, and help them make it through the day.
(111) Magical Moments
Fireflies in the night,
Rainbows overhead,
Golden sunlight,
Evening sky of red;
Snowflakes falling down,
little eyes aglow,
Happiness all around,
Footprints in the snow;
The Sound of rain,
Fluttering butterflies,
The birds' refrain,
Bright blue skies;
Autumn leaves falling,
Trees in the breeze,
Mothers softly calling,
Magical moments are these.
(112) Redbirds and Chickadees
Two of my favorite birds are the redbird and chickadee. They don't go south when the weather gets cold, but stay around all winter to cheer me. To the bright plummage and cheerful chirping of the redbird I owe a great deal. The redbird lingers through the long, cold winter, and adds a bit of beauty and sweetness to that sometimes dreary season. The redbird, or cardinal, as he is commonly known, is a welcome sight in winter bobbing over the snow, and bright and glistening on a bare tree limb.
The redbird keeps alive our hopes and dreams as he reminds us that all is not that bad, and speaks of a happiness and glory we almost tend to forget during the long winter nights. Perhaps the redbird is the Creators's gift to us sent to brighten our spirits through the long winter months.
In the winter the grass is gone, the trees are bare, the flowers no more, and many of the birds have departed for warmer climes. All is silent and lonely, except for just outside our window the redbird hopping on the ground, or setting in the bushes gaily bedight in his red suit and black tie singing joyfully in the cold, crisp air.
I have also always loved the little chickadee. In the winter when we open our door he comes and greets us, that friendly fellow with his black cap, and sings us a happy song. He does not leave either like the other birds, but stays around just to cheer our heart and brighten our day. When the trees are bare, and we feel lonely amid so much bleak emptiness, then comes the little chickadee, and sits thus on a limb above our head, quite near, and sings us a little song.
(113) One Day At A Time
Yesterday is past.
Tomorrow is not yet cast.
Just getting through today,
That is the only way.
My loved ones are here no more.
They are on the other shore.
They would want me to go on,
And not despair that they are gone.
The future is a sealed book
Into which I cannot look.
This day is all that is my own.
No use to worry about the unknown.
(114) The Invisible Cords
Invisible cords which are tied to our heart link us to others. Any rending of the cords tears a part of our heart. Those dear to us when they separate from us either in death or in emotional or physical separation take part of us with them. The stronger the cords we share with others the more secure we feel.
Our life is bound by the cords of friendship. Yes, our life and our happiness. It is being bound to others which keeps us from falling off the precipice. The cords prevent us from plunging into the lagoon of desolation and despair.
The best of what we are and hope to be we owe to others. Being loved by another adds ten times more strength to us. Inspiration is derived only from the love of another. All our faith and hope can be directly attributed to those who have cared for us in the past and who care for us now.
It is our caring for someone else that makes us strive to succeed. We do not have the imputus to labor merely for ourself as we do for others. We want those we love to be proud of us and share in our success, and this is the reason for most of our actions. To merit their admiration and acceptance we would literally go through fire. For when all is said and done we are nothing unless we love and feel that we are loved.
(115) Kindness
I believe kindness is caring and having compassion for others. Sometimes kindness is just a kind word or a smile, or it can be going out of our way to help another.
Kindness is having love in our heart for all living things and for people of all circumstances, religions, cultures, and races. I believe kindness is trying to make the world a better place in some small way in our everyday words and actions.
Kindness is visiting, calling, or writing someone who is sick or alone, someone who is sad or grieving, and just letting them know that somebody cares. Just a word of comfort or sympathy means so much, and gives so much hope and strength to someone who feels despondent.
What a wonderful world it would be to live in if each of us did an act of kindness each day. I think in no time the world would be filled with so much love and happiness that all the strife and hatred and sadness would magically disappear.
(116) The Unwritten Law
There is an unwritten spiritual law which governs the human heart. On most occasions we may be only vaguely aware of it. Only when we break this law do we feel its punishment. In brief this law demands that we do not under any circumstances cause another person hurt or sadness.
This law applies not only to our actions, but to our intentions as well. Like all laws it is a law liable to be broken, and regretably is often broken, but always to our detriment.
Some people call this unwritten law conscience. No one can intentionally hurt another person either physically or emotionally without inflicting a greater hurt upon their own self. For there is no reprieve from conscience. The conscience never forgives or forgets.
There are those with such seared consciences that they seem oblivious of the harm they do to others, but these poor creatures are to be pitied the most, for they have lost their humanity.
On the other hand there seems to be another law of reciprocation at work when we show kindness and love toward others. When we are kind and considerate of the feelings of others we feel a peacefulness and happiness within.
(117) Love
The capacity to love is the greatest single asset a person may possess. All other assets, accomplishments, and worldly goods don't mean a thing if a person doesn't have love in their heart. The richest man in the world if he doesn't have love has nothing. The most talented and gifted person in the world, the most accomplished and renowned, if that person is not able to give or receive love then he or she is the most bereft and wretched person alive.
The beauty and the joy of life is condensed into that one word, love. Love creates a world all its own, a world in which pettiness, animosity, and despair are unknown, a world centered on hope.
Love is the light of the universe. From love emits a radiance the darkness cannot penetrate. Love in its essence is purity, truth, and beauty. Throughout the eons love has been the source of all that is good and blessed.
The wonder of love is its ability to refresh and inspire the soul, its miraculous power of transforming the appearance of things and making the heart conscious of a wonderful something. From love the eyes view the world anew, see things in a different light, and are aware of beauty and serenity never before glimpsed and never imagined.
The resources of love are limitless, and the magnitude untapped. Love by existing makes life endurable, and makes hardship and suffering bearable.
Without some spark of love there are none of us could continue down the sometimes difficult and frightening road of life we must trek.
Love makes even the severest truths acceptable, and grants one the strength to face the hardest facts and circumstances of life. Love is the supreme privilege of life and as necessary for survival as food or water.
Love is the lifeline which saves us from the oblivion of our own despair, and which secures us from plunging into the darkness of our own disappointments and dejections. Love is the one constant and good in a sometimes terrifying world of pain and suffering, and hate and evil.
(118) Wonders
To be
A wonder to me.
A tree,
The sea
A mystery
To see,
A wonder to me.
a baby crying,
A bird flying,
A star shining,
God's designing,
trees growing,
Streams flowing,
Clouds drifting,
The mist lifting,
Tall mountains,
Water fountains.
Life!
(119) Dig Deep
My only advice to you,
Dig deep my friend.
Leave shallowness to shallow men.
Go to your limit and then go again.
Expose if it be truth.
He who does not follow his heart
Is discordant with his part,
And can nothing start.
Without limit our soul
Can span the infinite boundaries of space,
Go on the shores of any place,
And the stars embrace.
Falter at the precipice,
And fear to cross a place so high,
Though the other side be nigh.
Come, let us try!
If we should not succeed,
So, we shall only once fall.
Better than trying not at all,
And heeding not the call.
(120) Lately
Lately no stars are bright,
Lately nothing seems right,
No dreams in my mind,
My hopes all left behind.
Lately the skies are grey,
Nothing going my way,
No songs in my heart,
And smiles so far apart.
Lately I feel forlorn,
Wonder why I was born,
Joy is lost to me,
And all else lately.
(121) The Empty Heart
The starless sky, the empty heart are one,
Alone, darkness around, no hope, no light.
As the stars shining do make beam the night,
So love does then make of the heart a sun.
A tree barren, a wretched thing to see,
A man alone, a wretched person he.
Without someone to share life's hopes and dreams,
There's little worth to life it seems.
As flowers in light reveal their colors hue.
So love in the heart does then come shining through.
As the singing bird, the ringing bell,
Thoughts of someone dear makes the heart feel well.
Summer, the breeze so fair, the sky so blue,
I would my heart loved someone so true.
The night so dark I sit alone and sigh,
With empty heart, a hopeless man am I.
(122) The Long Silent Years
The long silent years mock at my delay,
A thousand dark nights deride me with scorn,
Unfulfilled hours laugh from yesterday,
At one among men who is most forlorn.
The days I have spent alone in my room,
The wasted hours listening to wind and rain,
Such loneliness as one in the tomb,
Visited my soul in its abject pain.
Wasted time that can never more be mine,
Fruitless years that have passed forever,
Make me weary and sad with my life's design,
Which brought me true happiness never.
Oh, if I could live the years over again,
I would put laughter where sadness had been.
(123) The Dove
A gentle, peaceful creature is the dove. The dove has long been symbolic of peace and love. Her beautiful call reminds us of sad and thoughtful things. Shy and retiring as she is, we seldom get too near her as she flies away at the least noise.
The flapping of the wings of a dove is a lovely sound, a sound as natural and pleasant as the falling wind or water trickling over the rocks. If all things in life were so kind, and had the sweet and innocent ways of the dove, our world would be a paradise.
Malice and rage are not found in the dove, as she goes along life's way a quiet and harmless being. It is a joy to me that such a fond creature should breathe the same air as I, and that life should be so good to me as to let me behold a dove.
The dove proves beyond all doubt that life is good, and that a higher power is responsible for our being. In the quiet eye of the dove shines the love of the Deity.
(124) The New Millennium
I believe there will be many remarkable changes in the coming millennium. There will be many advances as well as challenges. I think there will be a natural progression toward the exploration of outer space as well as the greater exploration of our own earth's ocean depths and inner core.
There will be the development of cleaner and more efficient fuels and forms of energy. There will be great advancements made in the area of medicine and the cure of diseases with a resulting increase in life span. There will be great advances made in the area of technology and artificial intelligence. But all these advancements and progressions will be contingent upon a stable political and social structure throughout the world and a lack of cataclysmic natural disasters.
Hopefully the world of the future will be inhabited by people who are more caring and tolerant and who have love and compassion for one another, for their fellow creatures, and for their planet.
(125) Our Beautiful World
How the beauty of our world enters into every day of our life, and makes us appreciate living, helps us bear those difficulties we encounter, and gives meaning to our existence.
How enchanting the evening mist settling over a little cove, flowers dancing in the wind, the rustle of the leaves. How inspiring the brisk morning air, the glowing red sky just before sun arises, and the birds just beginning their serenade.
There is always music in the air if one will listen closely, always songs of delight as crickets, katydids and frogs add melody to the summer nights. And there are many unspoken joys of flowers, and trees, and clinging vines, of drifting clouds and peaceful skies, and of little shady bowers and rivulets. And when all is said and done are not these the true joys of living, these little things that make life worthwhile?
Day and night the beauty of our world is made evident via our eyes and ears and all our senses, made evident in our heart, and we are made more serene, more attuned to what is fair.
How the tranquillity of restful surroundings seems to envelope us and instill in our hearts a part of the beauty and repose which dwells there. The harmony of a lovely scene is sufficient to bring us contentment after a hard day, and to give us once more the zest for living to continue on our way.
If we could always be fortunate enough to view at select times these lovely scenes, and feel that beautiful and happy spirit the countryside inspires we would never despair. How fortunate we are to live in such a beautiful world.
(126) The Destroyers
How often fools step upon flowers,
Or tear down from above stars.
they trample upon beauty,
They stomp upon the fair,
The delicate they destroy,
They damage the very air.
How often the cruel and mean,
Defile and corrupt a beautiful scene.
With their hate they mangle and crush,
They destroy in their selfishness.
With their anger and rage
They turn beauty into ugliness.
(127) Flowers
How magnificent are flowers,
each a glory all their own,
Each a personification of the divine,
glittering in the morning dew,
Glowing in the noonday sun,
Making the world more beautiful
just by being there.
Enhancing all that is fair,
Contradicting all that is evil,
A simple graceful flower,
A precious bundle of color,
Which glorifies the scene.
And in its brief hour gives joy
To every passing mortal.
(128) The Right Attitude
It is all a matter of attitude. one can do almost anything if they have the right attitude. I suppose it is the difference between the believer and the doubter. The one never despairs, while the other despairs over everything.
The believer expects to win, while the doubter expects to lose. The one is cheerful and hopeful even in hardship and pain, the other sad, downcast even in good fortune. The one the perennial optimist, the other always the pessimist.
The believer finds contentment, while the doubter is discontented and distraught regardless the circumstances. The one is certain and proceeds with confidence, the other constantly unsure and hesitant. The one with purpose, the other purposeless. The one always finding a way, the other forever groping. The one in the light, the other always in the dark.
The right attitude can change a person's life, can change the world. One can do and complete things with the right attitude that they wouldn't even attempt otherwise.
Unfortunately the right attitude seems to be evanescent, here today, gone tomorrow. If only we knew how to create the right attitude, and after we created it could bottle it some way to use later when we needed it. If only we could keep and have the right attitude indefinately how wonderful that would be. I believe our spiritual faith and love for God and our love for others helps us to find and maintain the right attitude.
The right attitude gives beauty and grace to all things in proper proportion, enhances our joys, and helps us accept and maybe even make use of or find something beneficial in those difficult things we could not accept before.
The right attitude helps us to be more understanding of people, and gives us more forbearance, more compassion, and makes us more kindly and friendly. The right attitude helps a person to have more patience and to show more interest in other people and in the world in general, rather than to have annoyance, indifference, and disgust.
Often the difference between success and failure is the right attitude. It seems to be the magic ingredient and formula for success in almost every endeavor in life.
(129) Paradise Lost
Her bright eyes smiled back at me,
And I felt a happiness deep inside.
Near her I wished forever to be,
In her heavenly aura to abide.
She walked with beauty and with grace,
Her voice was like music to my ear,
Joy was given to me by her lovely face,
I was in paradise when she was near.
Her love it was not my fate to win,
I would enjoy such ecstasy never.
Almost I wish that I had never been,
Than that we should never be together.
Sadly it was to be my hapless fate,
To falter before the heavenly state.
(130) Ahchoo
Ahchoo, ahchoo, and ahchoo, ahchoo,
Sneeze, sneeze, is all I do.
My head it aches, and my throat is sore,
I've got myself a cold once more.
I can't breathe at all through my nose,
And all the time my nose I blows.
As from my cold the world I see,
It looks a place of misery.
I'm chilled and then I'm hot.
It is another cold I've got.
Just when I feel all right,
Then comes a cold overnight.
I wake up and then I see,
That I am feeling lousy.
In bed then I wish to stay,
And cough and sneeze there all day.
(131) The Imagination
The imagination is immune to control. Prisons seen or unseen cannot fully enclose the eternal imaginative powers.
The imagination goes through walls made of rock, steel, or convention, prejudice, and fear. The imagination is not bound by where we live or who we are. The imagination is always looking beyond the horizon, and entering into new worlds, unknown and unexplored.
The imagination is a shadowy realm whose boundaries reach to the infinite. The imagination goes beyond time and space and is a life unto itself. The imagination is always there first, as it comes upon the reality before it is a reality, the fact before it is a fact, and beholds the truth before the truth can be known. The imagination reaches and grasps into the unknown with a power all its own.
The imagination is ever in part discontent, ever restless, searching for a land beyond. Imagination never quite reaches the ultimate land or destination it seeks or if it does it instantly seeks another, and thus it never dies. For imagination to reach the ultimate and accept that as all, never to seek another destination beyond the horizon would be the death of imagination.
No, imagination needs to forever reach out and find new lands, new worlds, new destinations, inventions, ideas, and concepts. The imagination needs to be free, and cannot be stifled or quenched. It is the spark of creativity and innovation which has guided humanity since the beginning.
The Imagnation has worlds of untapped resources ever to be found which will release their fresh contents of vigor and beauty always giving variety and wonder to our existence.
(132) Dawn
A heavenly time is the dawn,
Just before the daylight breaks,
The birds sing sweetest then,
The air breathes freshest then,
And all the world is hope filled,
As dew sparkles on the grass,
As golden beams the eastern sky,
And golden glistens the tree tops.
Wonder of the wondrous world,
Is the dawn time in all its glory,
As all the day light creatures stir
To begin another day's life,
As the brilliant golden sun
Beckons the stars adieu,
And the world good day.
(133) Heavenly Realm
Of fairness manifold,
Our earth has no lack,
Regions of vernal delight,
Charm the eye, soothe the heart,
Bath the soul with visions,
Visions of heavenly beauty,
Beauty too divine for the earthly,
Beauty too ethereal for our reason,
Too delicate for our thoughts,
Too beautiful for man,
And but for a few brief moments
When the weight of earth and living are least,
Do we sense this beautiful realm
Which exists all around.
(134) Communication
Sometimes we live with our loved ones for many years and never really tell them we love and appreciate them. Sometimes we wait too long to communicate our feelings to them, and have deep regrets after their death.
After all we do need communication and meaning between us, for what have we without it? Sometimes the most honest and truest communications are not words, but small actions like smiles, hugs, and the clasp of hands which convey our love, understanding, and caring. When eyes meet or hands clasp they speak a language beyond words.
We often get caught up in our own world and the activities of life and forget or neglect those around us. Our time on this earth is short and our opportunities are brief and limited to let those around us know that they are important to us and that we care about them.
(135) Cruelty
Cruelty is a thing one never hopes to find among civilized beings, yet it is often found in our society. It often rears its ugly head in the most unlikely of persons.
time and again we are appalled to find it in our acquaintances, and even more appalled to find it lurking in ourselves. That cruety is a flagrant violation of all that is decent and right unfortunately apparently does not prohibit people from resorting to it all too often.
The fact that cruelty is an irrational and inhuman act does not seem to deter people from allowing it to reside in their thoughts and in their hearts. If only we could abide by and adhere to the commandment in the Bible to love our neighbor as ourself.
(136) Morning Song
Morning and the birds sing,
Wonder what the day will bring?
Auspicious morning song,
Surely nothing could go wrong.
Got to hope, got to believe,
No more I'm going to grieve,
Going to listen more to birds,
They comfort more than words.
The world is good they say,
Cast your despair away,
See the morning air is clear,
The best of life is near.
(137) Our Earth
We must now cooperate, must work together, all nations, all peoples toward one common goal, survival, survival of our earth as a habitable planet, survival of life of all types, large and small, those living and those yet to be born.
Our little island in space, earth, is not indestructible as we once believed, but is vulnerable just like all of us. We have got to learn about our earth, and be concerned about how we treat it.
We must discover the means of giving back to the earth as much or more than we take away from it. A new outlook is needed, a new way of living, a way of living in harmony with the earth.
For a change rather than concentrating wholly on pleasing ourselves, we are going to have to start pleasing our earth. No more can we afford to take of the precious resources selfishly and indiscriminately, no more dumping into the soil, atmosphere, rivers, and seas substances harmful to life and toxic to our envorinment, no more living just for today and what we can consume, but conserving and planning for the future.
(138) Nature
I have been previleged to view
Sights to cheer my heart,
As if sadness I never knew,
As if woe were not of nature a part.
When in my childhood a love did bloom
For the woods around,
A silent, gentle world did loom
When I the beauty of nature found.
Always shy, reserved, and still,
Nature took me in,
In it too a shyness doth fill,
It being always withdrawn from men.
The rash may not intrude there,
Into that hallowed realm so fair.
(139) The Beauty In one Another
What we search for is here and now in one another. It is not tomorrow in some far distant place with someone else the bliss we seek, but here and now in the presence of those most near us.
It is a smile, a handshake, a well wish, it is merely being together and enjoying one another's company that makes life worthwhile. We seek a lifetime for happiness and all we gain is emptiness, when happiness, true happiness was ever so near, and all we had to do was to reach out and grasp it. How blind we are that we cannot see the beauty in one another.
(140) Honoring One Another
All the blessing is in honoring others. By that means we honor ourself. Soon life will be past and our chances for bridging the gap between us and the rest of the world will be at an end.
Our friends may never know us as we are unless we speak and act sincerely, and show them we are in reality a friend. If we have a compliment to give or a token of good-will it would behoove us to do so while the thing is still fresh in our mind, and while we still have the time.
Swiftly go the days, and our opportunities to augment friendships are regretably quite rare. Thus we must not let slip the grand and wonderful chance to reveal our friendship for another, and our chance to honor another.
(141) This Is My Moment
This is my moment. There is in this place, at this time, a link with all things, and with the all-pervading Creative Force. It is here each time I breathe, as I think.
All is known, I am known, the dangling moth caught in a spider web is known, the falling star is known, the crying baby is known. The world, and life, and I with my thoughts are whirled in this point in time. The strands of being are fastened securely to my heart, and I am not apart, for I am tied in with the whole.
I behold the lovely flower, I feel the wind upon my cheek, I look upon the far horizon and I am. The clouds above, the skyso blue, the birds that sing, all touch my soul and we are one.
I breathe the air, I hear, I feel, and I live. No one has any more than this, their moment in the sun, their moment to look around and enjoy, their moment to be a part of all this. This is my moment.
(142) Kindness Is
Kindness is a word of cheer,
To lend a hand or lend an ear,
Just to let someone know
that you are there,
And that you care.
Kindness is being there when troubles rain
To help allay someone's pain
With a kind word or smile,
A card or a small gift,
Meant to cheer and uplift.
Kindness is being there in time of need,
And showing by word or deed
Your caring and support.
And kindness finally in the end,
Is just being a friend.
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