When we were young and loved so true
The words we whispered were “I do”
To swear the truth or honor still
The vows we’ve pledged is that “I will”.
To do our duty, follow through
The words “I can” belong there too
And when the cause is fair and just
The answer should be this “I must”
Thus those statements we’ve said or heard
Become part of our sacred word !
To the youth it is invincibility
To the student, academic scrutiny
To the homeless, it’s acceptability
To the wiseman it is probability
To the aged inevitability
And to God, it is infallibility !
I hear Your voice in the rhythm of trees
Your smile persists in the sigh of each breeze
The glow of Your love heals the ailing heart
The strength of Your presence gave life its start !
Oh blessed Lord give my heart wings
To fly away above the crowd
To where the sweetest angel sings
With voice that’s been by God endowed.
This tiny star that shines so bright
It’s luminescence fills the sky
No matter if it’s day or night
We know that He will be close by !
I feel the mist that covers all
While winding through the shades of fall
Seems life survives beneath this tent
Of autumn days that God has sent.
The leaves that fly along the street
Now dog the foosteps of our feet,
Ambitious winds that heave and sigh
Impatient now await goodbye.
The seasons come, the seasons go
This is the pattern that we know
So little changes as we pass
Our lives before God’s looking glass !
To all the men who fought that day
And those that have since passed away
The thanks of us all should convey
Tales of your sacrifice, we pray
God bless us all and vow to say
We’ll never fight again that way !
On the cliffs above that sandy beach
Learn a lesson only sight can teach
It’s a vast stretch of a foreign land
That belongs to us, in our command
And each time I’m there my heart does cry
For buried men who cannot reply.
Ten thousand erect markers still stand
So faraway from their own homeland
On American soil by that beach
That’s as far as they would ever reach !
Oh those men who took the hill that day
In a foreign land so far away,
Too many died as they gained the beach
A thousand drowned weighted in the breach.
Who knew what strengths would fill all these men
When courage chose to inspire again
And charge the hill filled with fire and brim
Like hell’s front gate at volcano rim ?
While the memories still haunt their nights
With death’s dark vision midst blinding lights,
What’s wrong with this world in which we live
When is time ripe to learn to forgive ?
There was a boy twas just a youth
Who in his life did honor truth
Integrity was his true bag
He loved his country and its flag.
They told him he was needed so
It’s off to war that he must go
And there was he, he went to war
He’d never held a gun before.
Since neither kith nor kin had he
The service was his family
His honor served him through those years
He did his duty without fears.
In one last charge as lives were lost
These men all shared the final cost
Broken bones in a tomb of stone
Engraved thereon one word, unknown !
Let us take the time to thank God above
For His constant care and abiding love
For the stars that shine and the winds that blow
For the rains that fall and those things that grow
For the oceans’ roar and the fish that swim
Are the gifts to us that come straight from Him.
There is no time left for us to conceive
Any other way except to believe
For however long our time mayhaps be
I know He is there through eternity !
There is a magic genie that I’ve never seen
His spirit works quite hard and all behind the scene
Though we have not yet met I’m sure that He exists
Else how do we explain why our belief persists ?
In spite of all our setbacks, chaos on the way
We’ll manage to get through if only day by day
It’s amazing how much help we’ve found everywhere
Thank you Gentle Giant for all Your love and care !
The dampness slips beneath my sheet
From hips on down to icy feet
The chill pervades the very air
I can no longer linger there
Tis time to rise begin the day
And try to wish the cold away.
I look beyond my window glass
To watch the cold of morning pass
It’s not that I don’t favor snow
The warmth just seems to please me so !
Love is a word I use a lot
For without love what have I got,
A lonely world all to myself
I’d be there wasting on some shelf.
I’d rather be a loving soul
Than searching for an empty goal
Whatever joy that life may bear
It’s so much greater when we share !
I hear the sound of marching feet
The drums of war do loudly beat
The peal of bells does emanate
While throngs distressed paticipate.
I hear the sound of ramparts roar
There bides no glory in a war
Mass explosions and missiles flare
While cries of sorrow fill the air.
I hear the sound of shuffling feet
The muted call of last retreat
What good was all this killing for
I pray we go to war no more !
An early chill now fills the air
And soon the sun its warmth will share
As for the day we all prepare
Our joyful show of hope and care
Let’s join together in a prayer
A loving God is always there !
If life were like a baseball game
If sportsmanship brought most great fame
And bases were our only aim
We’d garner love and glory claim.
But life is more intense, devout
It’s faith and truth God is about
We hear the words His umpires shout
You reach the end and learn “you’re out”.
So be it when the inning’s o’er
If that is all that we can score
Before time closes its last door
We could have reached for so much more !
My tears, dear Lord are for the weak
For those who have no power to speak
So many voices to be heard
They cannot hear the sacred word.
They live in fear and discontent
Apart from truth their years are spent
Imprisoned, bullied, overrun
Both old and young their dreams undone.
Our God above does not relent
For those in need care will be sent
And soon to come His time will be
When He shall set His children free !
I look around, what do I see
A world debauched in infamy
My heart cries out, Lord help us all
Please save us from old Satan’s call.
The evil that occurs right here
Weighs heavy on eyes, mind and ear
Where is the strength we need to find
The courage to leave sin behind
Desert us not, dear gracious God
The path ahead seems really hard !
Be still my heart nay do not speak
The angels know tis whom I seek
The time is come twill be quite soon
Just keep your eye fixed on the moon
And when the color turns to red
It is the time of which it’s said
Our Lord and Savior will return
To cleanse this earth and evil burn
Thus should I die before His task
Remember me is all I ask !
The sands of time consume my feet
In gritty piles silent, discreet
The speed of light is on its way
Its hours burn both night and day.
There is no vigil I must keep
It matters nought how long I sleep
For time does know its boundaries
It comes and goes and perhaps flees.
The winds all blow in divers ways
Tis soon the last of all my days !
I sense the silence falling on my ear
What is this message that we cannot hear
Who reaches out because of these dark fears
I think the day of tribulation nears.
Awake, I know the morning will soon come
What is it we are all escaping from
There can be no true place of safety left
And that of which we dreamt leaves us bereft !
The early sunlight filters through the trees
The naked branches quiver in the breeze
The air is chill and threatens soon to freeze
I spy the foam-capped waves upon the seas.
The winter winds of change creep round the bend
As late fall exits after summer’s end
The icy gray grip of frosty morning
Is the master of each daily dawning.
I hear the cold sounds rasp upon my ear
Increasing as the year end grows quite near,
Oh to join that moving mass exodus
And escape this winter’s freeze and excess !
I feel the silence all around
There is no movement to be found
No beating heart, no breathing sound
The quiet permeates the ground
The air is still, unused, unbound
The loss intense, the wound profound !
The sounds of life’s struggle carry on
Like some sad elusive marathon
The unseen chains that we drag about
Will do nought more than enforce our doubt.
A simple act is encumbered then
By the hesitant “remember when”
If we could but rise beyond our pain
To rejoin the hopeful once again !
Oh that we might remember well
The classic tales that wisemen tell
Of love and pain and avarice
And joy and fear and fate amiss.
See how the world progresses on
From Eden into Babylon
The changes wrought may interfere
With what you’re taught year after year.
I yearn to taste the glory old
That laces stories I’ve been told
The magic’s gone from all we see
Leaving but mediocrity !
The name was Cemetery Hill
Its victims’ cries do echo still
Where fifty thousand was the cost
Of dead and wounded and those lost.
The men that fought that long hot day
They had no chance to getaway
While blood they shed covered the ground
There was no hero to be found.
A war is such an ugly curse
I can’t believe there is much worse !
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Claire V. Bogdanos 