POETRY
THE DAY
The day will bring some lovely thing,
I say it over each new dawn;
"So gay, adventurous thing to hold
Against my heart, when it is gone."
And so I rise and go to meet
The day with wings apon my feet.
I come upon it unaware-
Some sudden beauty without name;
A snach of song, a breath of pine;
A poem lit with golden flame;
High tangled bird notes, keenly thinned,
Like flying color on the wing.
No days have never failed me quite-
Before the gravest day is done,
I come upon some misty bloom
Or a late line of crimsom sun.
Each night I paus, remembering
Some day, adventurous, lovely thing.
Grace Noll Crowell
REMEMBRANCE
Undaunted by December,
The sap is faithful yet.
The giving earth remembers
And only men forget.
John G. Neihardt
PLEASURE AND SORROW
I walk a mile with pleasure,
She chattered all the way,
But left me none the wiser.
For all she had to say.
I walked a mile with sorrow,
And ne'er a word said she;
But, oh,the things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me!
Robert Browning Hamilton
GETHSEMANE
All those who journey, soon of late,
Must pass within the garden's gate;
Must kneel alone in darkness there,
and battle with some fierce despair.
God pity those who cannot say:
"Not but thine"; who only pray:
"Let this cup pass," and
cannot see
The purpose on Gethsemane.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Never a tear bedims the eye
That time and patience will not dry.
Bret Harte
FIELD OF LABOR
Go and toil in my vineyard,
Do not fear to do or dare;
if you want a field of labor,
You can find it anywhere.
A BAG OF TOOLS
Isn't it strange
That princes and kings,
And clowns that caper
In sawdust rings,
And common people
Like you and me
Are builders for eternity?
Each is given a bag of tools,
A shipless mass,
A book of rules;
And each must make,
Ere life is flown,
A stumbling-block
or a stepping-stone.
R.L. Sharpe
FROM L'ENVOI
When Earth's last picture is painted,
and the
tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colors have faded, and the
youngest critic has died.
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall
need it-lie
down for an aeon or two,
Till the master of all good workmen shall
put us to work anew.
Rudyard Kipling
Give us Lord, a bit o' sun.
A bit o' work and a bit o' fun;
Give us al in the struggle and splutter,
Our daily bread and a bit o' butter.
Give us Lord, a chance to be
Our goodly best, brave, wise, and free,
Our goodly best for ourselves and others,
Till all men learn to live as brothers.
FROM AN OLD ENGLISH INN
Work diligently toward a goal;
On plans and dreams often dwell;
Don't wait until you are thirsty,
Before you dig a well.
Rosemary Perry
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