When I was young I tried to be
A credit to my family
I followed all the rules I knew
As mom and dad had asked me to
They taught me manners, best they could
To be polite as children should.
Speaking the truth was number one
Do not mock others just for fun
Be sure to help if one’s in need
And of your words, take special heed
These rules were simple as you see
Basics of sense and courtesy !
I wish I were a child again
If only to remember when
We both were young, so long ago
And life was our own picture show.
We laughed and loved, it was such fun
For us our world had just begun
Each moment held a new surprise
It warmed our hearts and teared our eyes.
I’m sorry that it didn’t last
But left behind its storied past
To still tug on these old heartstrings
With sadness that forever clings !
T’was once upon a time ago
When we were full of life aglow
Before emerged this need to know
With tiny impetus for show
Our lives were truly less confused
Filled with days both calm and diffused
May all that anger be excused
To find ourselves in turn amused !
Sometimes I think I’m lost in space
Or living in a foreign place
Well, certainly no spot I know
No matter where it is I go !
It’s up or down and all around
It’s in and out or underground
Chock full of people with no couth
Millenials and most our youth.
How sad to notice, worse to be
Midst all this incivility !
Oh that yearning for times long past
Those youthful days that did not last
Where all our dreams began as hope
To bear no limits in their scope
For youth is that which knows no fear
Of obstacles both far and near.
Yet all too soon those days must pass
Like shadows in life’s looking glass
While time alone may leave its marks
As former youth on age embarks
There face anew another day
To pack their former life away !
To those days that were and are no more
With youth and beauty flown out the door
To leave us dreaming what used to be
When times were young and our lives carefree.
Oh to relive those elusive days
Where we thrived on love and hope and praise
Since all’s now past, chances diminished
The road is done, we’re almost finished !
Once you and I walked hand in hand
We dug our toes into the sand
Salt water lapped about our feet
The ocean air was crisp and sweet
The breeze seemed to caress our hair
Twas such a pleasure to be there.
I can remember that last day
The one before you went away
All wars have costs that rise too high
With little chance for much goodbye.
War has not changed these thousand years
Great danger bides beyond our fears
Tis sad to say but true it seems
That youth still pays for old men’s dreams !
When I was young and meek and mild
I knew the manners of a child
But as I grew and aged a bit
My ways improved I learned to fit.
It seems to me that age must share
Abilities of love and care
Yet caution all to patience earn
As one by one each takes a turn !
I found my love when but a teen
I knew great joy at seventeen
I thought the world was lean and keen
When I had turned just seventeen.
The times were tough and war was mean
When I was only seventeen
My heart got broken neat and clean
And there I was but seventeen.
All through those years that passed unseen
Life disappeared at seventeen
I wish my time had been pristine
Like once it was at seventeen
I’d sacrifice the years between
Again to be just seventeen !
They’ve walked and talked and played a bit
They’ve tossed and lost, made fun of it
As playmates they have shared a game
They ran about and called each name.
For that is what small children do
Beginning to form friendships true
While all the years that pass between
Hold fast as they become a teen.
Their friendships have a special bond
They cling to those of whom they’re fond
They fill the hours of youthful days
In trying out our grownup ways.
God plays a role for they must grow
Into adults who need to know
Because this task is too intense
Who speaks for them in their defense
The problem is in growing up
One needs to drink from every cup !
How I do miss the candles’ light
That flickered silent in the night
Its flame once bright now fades to dim
Lights dancing on the glasses’ rim
Creating shadows on the lace
While brightness shimmers on the face.
The waxy smell sweetens the air
Reminding one of evening prayer.
Those aged candlesticks recall
The winding stairs where footsteps fall
There in the dim glow of each night
That sees the heart in candlelight !
The sunshine sneaks into my room
Replacing night time’s eerie gloom
The photos hung upon the wall
Do happy days and times recall.
Familiar faces one by one
Remind me of past summer’s fun
Those thoughts so full of magic sights
And warm and sunny days and nights !
I wish somehow we could return
To memories for which we yearn
But it’s too late for turning back
That train left on another track !
The bells ring out with such joyful sound
The bellmans feet scarce touch the ground
He performs the chore his very best
His effort seems to outdo the rest.
What a happy face he shows to God
As he pulls those cords so extra hard,
What a wond’rous place for us to be
To share this path to eternity !
I’ve seen the little children play
Around the park along the way
I’ve heard their jumbled shrieks of glee
While hiding there behind a tree !
They laugh and skip and jump and run
It’s heart warming to see such fun.
Sometimes I feel the strongest yearn
To be a child who can return
I’d put my grownup cares away
Just to be young for one last day !
I met a boy I know not when
So long ago remember then
How is it that I can’t forget
Within this life a deep regret ?
I’ve turned a corner in my mind
While searching but I cannot find
The special closeness that we shared
And like most hopes were unprepared.
We did not meet, no not today
As other strangers had their way
And yet the past is always there
It mattered not how much we cared.
In all our dreams it’s far too late
No matter then how long we’d wait
The sadness that I can’t deny
We never got to say goodbye !
Wherever you look this world is shaded in green dye
From the forest’s floor clear to a rainbow in the sky,
A verdant place live with the miracle of God’s care
Plush valleys, woodlands and mountains that rise in the air.
What is green? I know that its not these roads that I trod
But the friendly gardens I pass that wave me a nod,
The blazoned grass in the fields and the oak when it’s young,
The trees that cover each grove with their seed as they’re sprung,
Grasshopper’s in flight emitting sounds that echo and hum,
No, not the air that we breathe but the source that it’s from.
Green’s my favorite color and the color of pine
Like the stem of each flower and the stalk of each vine,
The crest of each hill that’s burdened with blossoms it blows,
The fruits of the orchard and the tall corn as it grows,
Solemn moss upon a rock that betrays not its age,
A bird’s chorus sung from a branch, the air as its stage.
What is green? The deep of the sea, the heart of a palm
The chant of the willow’s sweep like the words of a psalm,
Caterpillars at birth and the new bud of a rose,
The youth of a man, the lid of his grave at its close,
The rigid eyes of a cat while its vigil will keep
In silence watching some prey, seeming lulled into sleep,
And there, like vespers in the wind that scatters its seeds
Fast being held in the grasp of life’s swift spreading weeds
Tiny sprouts that protrude through the wet earth after rain
Are now promising me hope that the green will remain.
While the green of an emerald possesses great worth,
The best of life’s green is bound to the crust of the earth
Be glad that green’s the one color we cannot replace
It relieves the monotony of blacks, browns, and grays.
This loud vituperous generation
Bred of wealth and moral degradation,
Abusive seedlings of decadence sown,
Wanton youth, in lack of awareness grown,
Floundering, for want of clear fortitude
Drowning in the flow of visciditude,
Expressing blame in terms most coarse and vile,
Censure holding, and decency defiled.
Poor wasted youth in sad afflicted plight
That knows no pledge nor holds a promise bright
They having days with but little merit
Some future, this lunacy inherit.
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Claire V. Bogdanos 