poem COLLECTION #1: FRAGMENTS OF RHYME AND REASON
part 3: lifelines
Lifeline
Seek knowledge, heed wisdom found in others and share it should by good fortune it be yours; with searching mind endlessly insist that old ways be challenged, that assumptions be tested, that mediocrity be rejected, that means used be not incompatible with ends sought; in all things aspire for the higher ground, dealing with others by the rule called golden.
1979
Seek knowledge, heed wisdom found in others and share it should by good fortune it be yours; with searching mind endlessly insist that old ways be challenged, that assumptions be tested, that mediocrity be rejected, that means used be not incompatible with ends sought; in all things aspire for the higher ground, dealing with others by the rule called golden.
1979
Grandpa's Gift
Come take your place where in the line we stand
For there are words of counsel I would share
To bring you surer feet on shifting sand
To fully live and yet avoid the snare.
Shun not the trials that serve to bring you strength
We often find we're strongest when most weak
And find road's breadth less useful than its length
When promised help from up above we seek.
Should anger cherished friendships put to test
Advance the extra mile to make amends
And when you reach for stars to be the best
Use only means compatible with ends.
It's links of love that forge life's golden chain
It's giving ever yields the greater gain.
1984
Come take your place where in the line we stand
For there are words of counsel I would share
To bring you surer feet on shifting sand
To fully live and yet avoid the snare.
Shun not the trials that serve to bring you strength
We often find we're strongest when most weak
And find road's breadth less useful than its length
When promised help from up above we seek.
Should anger cherished friendships put to test
Advance the extra mile to make amends
And when you reach for stars to be the best
Use only means compatible with ends.
It's links of love that forge life's golden chain
It's giving ever yields the greater gain.
1984
Finals
The cup lies on the trophy shelf
Engraved of victor's name
Who passed the course's stiffest test
Excelling each opponent's best
And thus lays claim to fame.
Still reach he must beyond the game
If he true champion be
To gain the greater victory:
The mastery of self.
1980
The cup lies on the trophy shelf
Engraved of victor's name
Who passed the course's stiffest test
Excelling each opponent's best
And thus lays claim to fame.
Still reach he must beyond the game
If he true champion be
To gain the greater victory:
The mastery of self.
1980
CIA
You with the scholar's clarity of mind
That we the wiser, surer path may find
Discern what was or is or yet may be
In China, Russia, oil rich Araby.
Lest we the errors of the past repeat
Warn us of tests and trials that defeat;
With care sift through your gleanings cause by cause
Detaching tendrils of effect from cause.
For him who presidential courses charts
Extract from all the sciences and arts
A sum beyond the sum of separate parts
1980
You with the scholar's clarity of mind
That we the wiser, surer path may find
Discern what was or is or yet may be
In China, Russia, oil rich Araby.
Lest we the errors of the past repeat
Warn us of tests and trials that defeat;
With care sift through your gleanings cause by cause
Detaching tendrils of effect from cause.
For him who presidential courses charts
Extract from all the sciences and arts
A sum beyond the sum of separate parts
1980
Juris
Those legal eagles soar in troubled air
While human woes on battlefields lie bare
Against defendants plaintiffs now appear
Robed judges yet another case must hear
And counsellors at equity and law
With jurors before JUSTICE stand in awe.
1980
Those legal eagles soar in troubled air
While human woes on battlefields lie bare
Against defendants plaintiffs now appear
Robed judges yet another case must hear
And counsellors at equity and law
With jurors before JUSTICE stand in awe.
1980
The Matterhorn:
View from a Zermatt Graveside
Its brooding silence speaks more loudly than
The crashing crushing slide of rock and ice
Of those who dared and failed since time began
And calls to us who've yet to pay the price.
1982
View from a Zermatt Graveside
Its brooding silence speaks more loudly than
The crashing crushing slide of rock and ice
Of those who dared and failed since time began
And calls to us who've yet to pay the price.
1982
L'Envoi from WW II
Then sounded clarion call for all to rise
To man the threatened ramparts of our strand
And thus our sacred duty solemnize:
Safeguard the precious freedom of the land.
Some sixteen million took the crimson field
As ruptured homefront labored in support
With valiant allies forcing foe to yield
On land and sea fair victory to court.
Now many men in blue and khaki lie
In gardens under glistening white stone cross
While statesmen strive to clear the cloudy sky
On parchment still another pact emboss.
Yet all the past but worse to come precedes
While horsemen four bestride their fearsome steeds.
1985
Then sounded clarion call for all to rise
To man the threatened ramparts of our strand
And thus our sacred duty solemnize:
Safeguard the precious freedom of the land.
Some sixteen million took the crimson field
As ruptured homefront labored in support
With valiant allies forcing foe to yield
On land and sea fair victory to court.
Now many men in blue and khaki lie
In gardens under glistening white stone cross
While statesmen strive to clear the cloudy sky
On parchment still another pact emboss.
Yet all the past but worse to come precedes
While horsemen four bestride their fearsome steeds.
1985
History
To feel the pulse of earth where man has trod and for the future keep the past.
1981
To feel the pulse of earth where man has trod and for the future keep the past.
1981
|
Hope
When winter comes remember summer And when the leaves of fall in greater number Begin their downward way Remember too That spring will bring the new To yield a brighter day. 1976 |
Thankfulness
For the bird that sweetly sings For the tree that grows For the flower and such things As the brook that flows, I thank thee, God, Unworthy though I be For all these gifts which thou Has given unto me. 1934 |
Recruits Wanted
Water, land and air abhor
Oil that floats along the shore
Waste that piles up evermore
Noxious fumes that make lungs sore.
Can we therefore not agree
Times ahead would be less hard
If each now took care to be
Good earth's private bodyguard?
1979
Water, land and air abhor
Oil that floats along the shore
Waste that piles up evermore
Noxious fumes that make lungs sore.
Can we therefore not agree
Times ahead would be less hard
If each now took care to be
Good earth's private bodyguard?
1979
Intelligence Dilemma
Spies collect in secret
What the scholars analyze
Adding information
Of which others them apprise:
Biographic tidbits
Gathered about chaps
Geographic data
To be found on maps
Words are plucked from airways
Stamps hide microdots
Satellites take pictures
Of the parking lots.
Budgets and all key appointments
Pass the Congress in review
Plied with policy anointments
As they vote for me and you.
All designed to make for
Saner Presidential choice
Sparing us war's terror
So that man may keep his voice.
All this seems so very clear
Basis for agreed surmise
But as we proceed I fear
Many questions do arise:
Where are SECRETS to reside
During conference with the press
Shall the CIA decide
Or can anybody guess?
Is the writer of the book
Who uncovers special source
Hailed as hero or as crook
Based on level of remorse?
Where is justice when an act
Causes Agent deadly pain
Then disclosure of the fact
Brings the actor lasting gain?
Has the Congress unique right
To unauthorized repeating
Or should those whose oversight
Seek the senators' unseating?
Bodyguard of lies called up
To protect our fair esprit
Can we mesh deception
With the truth that makes us free?
1977/1979
Spies collect in secret
What the scholars analyze
Adding information
Of which others them apprise:
Biographic tidbits
Gathered about chaps
Geographic data
To be found on maps
Words are plucked from airways
Stamps hide microdots
Satellites take pictures
Of the parking lots.
Budgets and all key appointments
Pass the Congress in review
Plied with policy anointments
As they vote for me and you.
All designed to make for
Saner Presidential choice
Sparing us war's terror
So that man may keep his voice.
All this seems so very clear
Basis for agreed surmise
But as we proceed I fear
Many questions do arise:
Where are SECRETS to reside
During conference with the press
Shall the CIA decide
Or can anybody guess?
Is the writer of the book
Who uncovers special source
Hailed as hero or as crook
Based on level of remorse?
Where is justice when an act
Causes Agent deadly pain
Then disclosure of the fact
Brings the actor lasting gain?
Has the Congress unique right
To unauthorized repeating
Or should those whose oversight
Seek the senators' unseating?
Bodyguard of lies called up
To protect our fair esprit
Can we mesh deception
With the truth that makes us free?
1977/1979
Consternation
Oh night that haunts me
like a half-forgotten dream
Where shall I seek refuge?
I find no solace where I once found peace
My goal is blurred by the mist
of doubt and despair
My eyes no longer see the star
which once shone the way.
Still, I must fight!
Fight to regain the lost
and to conquer the new
And like a child that newly
learns to walk
I now begin anew
And thrill to the coming of the dawn.
1934
Oh night that haunts me
like a half-forgotten dream
Where shall I seek refuge?
I find no solace where I once found peace
My goal is blurred by the mist
of doubt and despair
My eyes no longer see the star
which once shone the way.
Still, I must fight!
Fight to regain the lost
and to conquer the new
And like a child that newly
learns to walk
I now begin anew
And thrill to the coming of the dawn.
1934
Taps
In Arlington we gathered round
As winds and chill impressed
Where heroes lie beneath the ground
We lay him to his rest
The call to muster sounds again
The last salute to give
For us the memories remain
To light the life we live.
1976
In Arlington we gathered round
As winds and chill impressed
Where heroes lie beneath the ground
We lay him to his rest
The call to muster sounds again
The last salute to give
For us the memories remain
To light the life we live.
1976
Stewardship
The good steward is the able manager of the property of another and renders this service because of the particular ties between them creating this obligation.
A key word here is "service," which manifests itself in the sharing of what one has.
Our highest obligation is to our maker. Through membership in our church we accomplish two essential things: we renew our awareness of our debt to God, and we find the noblest of ways to express our thanks by sharing what we are and what we have.
Our lives are largely governed by our commitments, requiring an ordering of these.
When I have made and honored meaningful commitments to my church as a first order of business, I have experienced an abiding, joyful assurance that all else would somehow be taken care of. And it has been.
The good steward is the able manager of the property of another and renders this service because of the particular ties between them creating this obligation.
A key word here is "service," which manifests itself in the sharing of what one has.
Our highest obligation is to our maker. Through membership in our church we accomplish two essential things: we renew our awareness of our debt to God, and we find the noblest of ways to express our thanks by sharing what we are and what we have.
Our lives are largely governed by our commitments, requiring an ordering of these.
When I have made and honored meaningful commitments to my church as a first order of business, I have experienced an abiding, joyful assurance that all else would somehow be taken care of. And it has been.
The Great Search
"But seek ye first the kingdon of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." -- Matthew 6:33
No word fires the imagination more than discover. To seek the new is instinctive, the resultant discovery one of man's most satisfying experiences. This is so whether the process takes place in the physical world or in the realm of ideas. Can you imagine how Columbus must have felt when a new continental landfall confirmed his contested theory? And Edison, when his electric bulb first illumined the sceptics?
Now, the Bible has a good many things to say about discovery. It tells us in what spirit we should make our effort: "Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee" (Ps. 70:4). It promises results: "See, and ye shall find" (Matt. 7:7). It identifies our target: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" (Matt. 6:33). It urges us to undertake our search at an opportune time: "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near" (Isa. 55:6). We are also told how to get results: "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13).
With these assurances how can we fail to seek to discover God through Christ, and thus reap the ultimate reward -- peace of mind on earth, and beyond, life eternal itself.
1971
"But seek ye first the kingdon of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." -- Matthew 6:33
No word fires the imagination more than discover. To seek the new is instinctive, the resultant discovery one of man's most satisfying experiences. This is so whether the process takes place in the physical world or in the realm of ideas. Can you imagine how Columbus must have felt when a new continental landfall confirmed his contested theory? And Edison, when his electric bulb first illumined the sceptics?
Now, the Bible has a good many things to say about discovery. It tells us in what spirit we should make our effort: "Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee" (Ps. 70:4). It promises results: "See, and ye shall find" (Matt. 7:7). It identifies our target: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" (Matt. 6:33). It urges us to undertake our search at an opportune time: "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near" (Isa. 55:6). We are also told how to get results: "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13).
With these assurances how can we fail to seek to discover God through Christ, and thus reap the ultimate reward -- peace of mind on earth, and beyond, life eternal itself.
1971
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