MAIS OU SONT LES NEIGES D'ANTON
PS
Many poetic thoughts are left unwritTHOMAS
Once you laughed-
My ears strain to catch the echoing ring
Once your cried-
My fingers stretch to wipe your tear stained cheek.
Once you went away-
My salty fingers try in vain to close
my echoing ears.
Now you have returned-
Doubts reecho in empty ears, as tear-most
fingers touch your wounds of love<./h3>
THERE WAS LOVE
There was love and light and laughter
in the castle of the king
The night the shepherds crossed the hills
to hear the angels sing.
And as the years rolled by for centuries
the name of Christ was sung.
On cold and winter nights,
while chapel bells were rung
There was light in every window
there was love in every eye
There was laughter in the schoolroom
with Christmas cribs near-by.
There was love and light and laughter then
behind each schoolhouse door.
But the name of Christ can not be sung
by children anymore.
Instead we hear some sleigh bells ring,
or see a few green trees,
An imitation Santa Claus
with children on his kness,
Expensive gifts, and mistletoe
and whiskey running free,
and empty love, and broken harts,
and Christless revelry.
I WALKED
I walked the grey mist of morning
(Lord, give me light that I might see)
And felt the moist grass crush beneath me.
I wished for the wind, a breath-breeze,
I longed for a whisper of wind,
A wood-wind rustle of leaves
Or a wind-ripple on the waters.
Then the breeze came!
The mist vanished and the sun
Melted the gray ghost of dawn;
Weight lifted and wheat waved again;
Leaves brushed aside the dew,
And green grass burned soft
And fresh beneath me where I rested,
Dreaming of the wind and gray mist.
TWO COUPLETS
I've just been told two couplets must be done
and handed in by nine today. (That's one)
I'll have to hurry. What would Father do
If this were not turned in on time, (There's two)
ON WRITING POETRY
It really isn't hard to write a poem,
While sipping beer and blowing off the foam.
Begin by writing any simple line,
And if, by luck, it seems you're doing fine,
Then start the next and try to find a rhyme,
And let iambics march in proper time.
By poets who could not make the meter fit.
BROKEN ECHOES
My eyes have dimmed so I can hardly see
The green of spring, the gold of autumn leaves
The white of softly falling winter snow,
Or summer waters lapping on the shore.
And sounds are far away now, like broken echoes,
Like sea waves washing wishes on the sand
Or sparkling whispers on cliff-bound coast.
And yet I know the sun has comfort, warmth,
And silver stars are winking at the moon,
And wood-brooks bubble for the ears of those
Who come to listen and be silent there,
To hear the April tree buds bursting spring,
The breeze, the singing songbirds, - everything!
GROWN OLD
I have grown old this winter.
The snow has melted
But spring is late in coming.
It is that empty time of year
When there is neither whiteness nor roses.
I wait for time to pass
And etrnity to begin.
But here is eternity waiting for time to end.
All is present.
There is no passage of time.
Nothing to wait for - only
Now
This is the day that the Lord has made
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
SHARING
Long ago I loved the sea
When I was free to roam
And be alone with love.
This sea of mine and I would keep it, mine
And mine alone, and I would fight the one
Who tried to take it from me. "Blow you winds,
And crack your cheeks," you can not take it now.
Come rope, come rack, come death as black as hell
...........My love at least is mine, - and mine alone.
Take it! Take it away! It isn't good
For me to want is so! I long to give
And not to hoard this sea in which I drowned.
Help me? Help me to share my restless sea,
For sharing is the better part of love
And loving is the better part of man.
THE MIRACLE THAT NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE
The miracle that never happened before -
Has happened! Not once, but over and over.
It happend before, too, I suppose,
But eyes and ears did not percieve
The miracle is people - like you -
The giving, not once, but over and over.
Yet more, allowing us to give
For demands of love help us to grow.
And so a bud blossoms and grows,
Till snowflakes fall upon the rose.
The memory of the caring goes
Beyond the redness of the fading rose.
THE LEAVES AND I
Old leaves came running on a wind-rush down
Between the hemlock, oak, and maple trees,
And nestled in the bottom of the dell
Along the silver threaded woodland stream.
The winds were silent whispers overhead.
The stream pool only rippled from the flow
Of moving water slipping in from nowhere.
Fall's last brown leaf flopped lazy in the pool
And drifted.
I nestled with the leaves within the hollow
And listened to the whisper of the wind
Above me, and watched the rippled cloudlets move
Across the still blue pool - and drifted.
THE MEASURE OF LOVE
to Barbara
The years we lived together, the memories we have?
Events have shaped our lives, bonded us.
At first we were two,
Trying in separate ways to help our fellow man
Then as a couple
We shared our goals
In public careers, in our private lives.
Finally as one
We fled forward
Meeting new challenges as one.
As time moves on
You become more to me, for me
And I to you, for you,
As one.