Poetry Corner

[Anonymous]

FaithfulSkeptic wrote:

I love Carol Lynn Pearson’s poem, “Pioneers.”

Quote:

My people were Mormon pioneers.

Is the blood still good?

They stood in awe as truth

Flew by like a dove

And dropped a feather in the West.

Where truth flies you follow

If you are a pioneer.

I have searched the skies

And now and then

Another feather has fallen.

I have packed the handcart again

Packed it with the precious things

And thrown away the rest.

I will sing by the fires at night

Out there on uncharted ground

Where I am my own captain of tens

Where I blow the bugle

Bring myself to morning prayer

Map out the miles

And never know when or where

Or if at all I will finally say,

“This is the place,”

I face the plains

On a good day for walking.

The sun rises

And the mist clears.

I will be all right:

My people were Mormon Pioneers.

[Anonymous]

Wow! I got busy at work last month and Roy filled up the thread with so much great stuff. Thanks!

Here’s one I love. I think I only have part of the poem. I briefly got to look through a book of poems by Minnie Louise Haskins who is most known for her poem “God Knows” that was quoted by the King of England during WWII. That poem was in a book called “The Desert” and this is the titular poem from the collection and my favorite.

Quote:

Fate led me to a desert bleak and bare,

My back on light and hope, and turned my face

Towards trackless wastes – and bade me journey there

As one apart from all my kind and race.

And so I journeyed – weary and alone

With dull quiescence meeting Fate’s decree,

With hands hung limp and heart’s flesh turned to stone,

And eyes that sought in vain Love’s track to see.

The night came down upon the sandy waste,

The beasts that prowl in darkness passed me by,

God saw and sent the stars to shine in haste,

God saw and stooped Himself to catch my cry:

“I need a lonely place from men’s haunts free,

To weep,” He said, “Come, walk the plains with Me.”

Relentless night – which wraps the plains in gloom,

Relentless day – with noontide’s scorching glare,

Relentless everything which makes our doom

And gives us pain of dark or light to bear:

And so – relentless God, we cry at last,

As pitiless the scourge of life we feel,

“Keep off, Thou Infinite,” we faintly gasp,

“And give us time our lives to mend and heal.”

The dull night darkly keeps its funeral pall,

The hot day swiftly trims her burning lamp,

And Doom’s black finger grimly touches all

As time moves onward in her steady tramp;

And God – relentless – weeps upon the plain

And leaves the sand red-spotted with a stain.

The tears of God and man together flow

For what has been and what has still to be;

Man weeps because he cannot truly know,

And God because He must both know and see.

The woes of ignorance and knowledge meet;

The pangs of doubt and throes of certainty

Co-mingle in the desert air and greet

The footsteps of unfaltering destiny.

The long waste stretches widely on before,

The long waste stretches widely from behind –

God’s heart drops blood – and human feet are sore,

Hope lost – and death alone as seeming kind:

But for God’s heart no kindly death can wait,

And man with God walks on to meet his fate.

[Anonymous]

My contribution:

Quote:

Abou Ben Adhem

By Leigh Hunt

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,

And saw, within the moonlight in his room,

Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,

An angel writing in a book of gold:—

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,

And to the presence in the room he said,

“What writest thou?”—The vision raised its head,

And with a look made of all sweet accord,

Answered, “The names of those who love the Lord.”

“And is mine one?” said Abou. “Nay, not so,”

Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,

But cheerly still; and said, “I pray thee, then,

Write me as one that loves his fellow men.”

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night

It came again with a great wakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God had blest,

And lo! Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest.

[Anonymous]

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. This is the poem I ended up using in the talk that inspired this thread. The talk was about faith and hope.

Quote:

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;

It rains, and the wind is never weary;

The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,

But at every gust the dead leaves fall,

And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;

It rains, and the wind is never weary;

My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,

But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,

And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;

Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;

Thy fate is the common fate of all,

Into each life some rain must fall,

Some days must be dark and dreary.

Gerald, thanks for adding that. I haven’t read it in years but absolutely love it. Gave me chills to read it today.

[Anonymous]

It’s been a very long two weeks and I needed these.

Thank you everyone. I mean it.

[Anonymous]

Quote:

“Father, where shall I work today?”

And, my love flowed warm and free.

Then He pointed out a humble spot and said,

“Tend that for me!”

I answered quickly, “Oh, no, not that!

Why, no one would ever see.

No matter how well my work was done:

Not that little place for me!”

The word He spoke, it was not stern;

He answered me tenderly;

“Ah, little one, search thine heart;

Art thou working for them or Me?

Nazareth was a little place,

And so was Galilee.”

[Anonymous]

Quote:

Father, where shall I work today?”

And, my love flowed warm and free.

Then He pointed out a humble spot and said,

“Tend that for me!”……

I haven’t heard this poem for a long time. I really like it.

[Author]

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