Here’s to the vets of every war
What was it they were fighting for
These valiant souls who fought and died
They stood alone or side by side,
For war is such an ugly thing
We’ve seen the sadness it can bring
The victor tastes both death and pain
While those who lose have fought in vain !
Now turn around and search about
There is some way to figure out
Chaos must end ere it’s too late
Or we will share the selfsame fate !
EXCUSE me, have you heard of Sir Edward Dyer (1543-1607), Earl of Oxford, English lyric poet and attributed author of “My Mind To Me A Kingdom Is” ? Today, a chilly Sunday morn, these 7 words were my waking thought ! I am not a suspicious sort but I question the reason, I should like to learn where these words emerged from. Perhaps we live an alternate life within our private dreamworld ? Or as my mother was prone to point out to me quite frequently, I possess an overactive mind, aha ! Back to my original observation about this poem written mid 16th century, please take time to research original 8 stanza, 48 line piece of melodic perfection ! Once again I credit my English mentor, Lorena E. Fry for introducing this depression-era child to the pure joy of words ! Can you imagine what it must have been like for the ancient Greeks to participate in the Socratic Circles of Plato’s time ? Or to stand in the Pit of the Globe in 1600 London ? Where would we be without the vocal power of the pulpits of life ? I’ll close with Dyer’s last stanza:
My wealth is health and perfect ease…….My conscience clear my chief defence
I neither seek by bribes to please……………Nor by deceit to breed offence
Thus do I live, thus will I die…………………….Would all did so as well as I !
Sincerely, Claire B.
Sometimes the heart wells up with joy
Fueled by the truth friendships employ
And brings sunshine to time and place
To leave impressions we embrace !
To be a friend is no small act
It takes great effort and some tact
But most of all forgiving thought
Will in our growing web be caught !
How wonderful our lives would be
If God should bless this company
And save us with a show of hands
Mongst friends from many other lands !
I try to keep myself quite occupied
And free from traits of vanity and pride
Preferring to embrace those simple joys
Of loving kindness, happiness and poise !
For in my life this is what I have found
Tis best to keep one’s feet upon the ground
Forsake the envy hiding in each heart
And grateful thank the Lord for His new start !
I’d love to be a child once more
And welcome daddy at the door
To laugh and smile and play some game
Or hear my mother call my name !
We’d spend an evening by the fire
Reading chapters meant to inspire
Our hearts to learn the proper ways
To love our Lord and render praise !
I cannot wait till winter’s done
These bones of mine are not much fun
They grind and groan and mostly ache
Sometimes I think they will just break !
When I was young and in my prime
I’d bend and stretch and dance and climb
But that was very long ago
Before my age began to show !
Take this advice from one so old
When youth has flown and love grown cold
Remember God is there for you
With warmth and love He’ll see you through !
I hear the cries they fill the air
The world is bleeding everywhere
I beg our God to still the sound
This world is dying all around
Oh Lord above please hear our plea
And save us from catastrophe !
The silence creeps into the room
Its magic soon all thoughts consume
The shadows fall upon the door
Then slowly settle to the floor.
It seeps into each lonely crack
To lure the quiet darkness back
And melts away into the night
As we arise with morning light !
There is no winner in defeat
That moment lost will not repeat
The air is chill the world is blind
What is it that one seeks to find ?
For strength and faith shall ever be
And like the wind will set us free !
Oh my beloved Lord, wherefore hast Thou forsaken me
And left me here to weep and sigh for an eternity ?
Some memories I can’t retrace
They’re part of this my final race
Like thieves that scampered into night
Whose victims never knew the right.
The aged man the sweet-faced boys
Who filled my days with endless joys
Their names leap off my secret page
Now I have reached declining age.
Amid the faces I have kept
Are tears I’ve hid and never wept
While time each lonely fragment keeps
My heart recoils and weeps and weeps !
I prayed I might amend my sight
To never face that lost daylight
I could not bear those days again
That patient silent waiting pain.
Now Mary was the special one
God picked to bear His only son
From Judah’s tribe she had to be
Samuel vowed to Ruth’s Jesse !
Descended from son David’s clan
His grandson who was called Nathan
Was that forebear of Miriam,
Her name was changed to Mary then !
Now Joseph was descended from
King David’s young son Solomon,
Oh what confusion this must be
Describing Christ’s birth history,
It is so hard to learn these facts
I should have picked the Book of Acts !
When I was young and in my teens
I never owned a pair of jeans
At school we learned to sew and cook,
Spend time with God and His good book.
There was world war, we did our part
And prayed that soon our lives would start
We volunteered for U S O
And questioned where our youth should go !
Cold war, Korea, Vietnam
Ungodly wars since it began
Please pray on this, what shall we do
When will its ugliness be through ?
It is foolish for a bird on the wing
To look for a reason for him to sing
While a wolf on the prowl seeking a kill
Silently hunts on a crest of the hill.
For these are God’s creatures without a cause
What is it they know that lends them no pause ?
I wish that I had the faith that they do
To know that God’s there forever like glue !
We’ll say goodbye to days that were
With all the visions they incurred
While every road must have a bend
So every page may have an end !
The times have come and gone away
To leave us lost or led astray
Or on the path to happiness
Possessing keys to our success !
To each is given that bag of tools
God’s map to life supplies the rules
What shall we do then if we fail
We’ll try again with tooth and nail !
the moon is there for all to see
yet toils in obscurity
there was a time it wasn’t so
all those in love would seek its glow
to ask the goddess of the night
to answer dreams with softened light
i know the times i’ve done the same
with no one near i’d call her name
though full or half or hidden be
she’s always there to comfort me
your son
i’m not an old man yet you see
i’m waiting too there by the sea
he gives me hope and this i know
he’s waiting there for me to show
i’ve stumbled and fallen this is true
but now i’m up i’ve made it thru
so here i am on bended knee
to ask forgiveness and forgiven be
how i made it here upon this place
was a mother’s love and strength and grace
i love you mom
The early hours are best of all
The air is crisp and full of fall
The wind is brisk it knows its way
The lower branches bend and sway.
Seems all the birds are southward bent
Where warmer breezes have been sent
We’ll have to wait until next year
For summertime to reappear !
Oh, Dorothy where are you now
Who’ll till the fields, who’ll milk the cow
Who’ll tend the geese and raise the hen
Did we forget remember when ?
The farmer is a dying breed
Who’ll grow the food and plant the seed
What shall we do to stay alive
How will the rest of us survive ?
The world has lost its common sense
Its main concern is self defense
When all is done we’ll look around
Discovering we’ve run aground !
Dear Lord above what shall we do
The future now seems overdue
I wonder what would Noah think
Of mankind trembling on the brink ?
Most days I find my morning sings
My heart grows bold and sprouts new wings
I fly so high into the sky
I brush the clouds while passing by !
Sometimes I think I hear the sound
Of feathers drifting to the ground
And I am sure angels are there
To do God’s work with love and care !
They are His messengers we’re told
I guess they must be really old,
I do not mean to give offence
I comprehend they’re God’s defense !
Well here we are another day
What is it there is left to say
Just one more spate of noun and verb
Some sweet, some kind and some acerb ?
Close to the end we wait on line
And query how we’ll spend our time
Will it be worth this last delay
Is there value in one more stay ?
We’ve had our chance of small avail
Do you believe that we shall fail ?
I’ll take no risk and won’t assume
Now I am in God’s waiting room !
Oh Lamb of God so full of grace
I wish I could have seen your face
In shining light or dark of night
I’m sure it was a brilliant sight !
Old men who leaned upon their crutch
The widowed who had suffered much
The crippled old, completely blind,
They flocked to Him to solace find !
While those whose spirits went astray
Came to hear what He had to say
A godlike man with message clear
God loves us all, allay your fear !
I am the vision you once knew
When you believed dreams could come true
I am the hope born in your heart
When life first had its fragile start.
I am the power you need to live
With courage and the strength to give
I am the choice you had to make
Decide to bend or chance to break
What shall you do as time draws near
The final choice is yours and here !
There are these things that we hold dear
The right to life that’s free of fear
A sense of self we must not lose
A love of God, our right to choose
And faith in those who will not fail
To keep our values unassailed !
I love you Lord, you’re stuck with me
And from your love I shall not flee
You are my hope and faith and dreams
And everything that’s good it seems !
You’re never far away from me
You are my strength, my charity
My voice, my thoughts and all I know
Are yours alone where e’er I go !
When lives are touched by tragedy
And good men fall in agony
We pray our God who is all-see
Will help them rise to victory.
Sometimes it seems thoughts tiptoe past
That fragile space where dreams are cast
And linger there in that dark spot
Till time beyond forget-me-not.
It is with wonder that I see
The mind’s acute complexity
What power above did give us breath
To see us through from birth to death ?
What would we learn if we could know
When life is done, where do we go ?
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
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| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | |
Claire V. Bogdanos 