The lilac

"Our children gardened here in bygone days-
each with a fenced in garden all his own
I can't recall, mayhap this one was May's
Or Edith's?--Well the lilac's left alone

It matters little now which one was which
The children dug and laughed through happiest hours
This dirt is rich; I wheel it from yon ditch
to help the lilac give these sweetest flowers

It is no matter who's this garden was
nor who set out this lilac.Let me see
Mayhap their mother dug the roots--One does
the hardest for children, glad and free

The by gone days come thronging back when'er
this lilac flowers and sends its fragrance far
Those gardens were so pretty! and the care
the children took of them,no memories mar

Long since the little fences had to go
though many an hour of rest I patched them up
The children age and grow; so fast they grow.
they think life holds a larger fuller cup

"When lilacs last in court yard bloom"I read
first time when the children planted here.
With in my mind those words are oft' times said
as clear and meaningly as some one near

The children have to scatter and leave
their little gardens; and the old folks can't
quite shoulder all the stunts.I grieve
when things they planted pass or fences slant

It does not matter whose! The best thing was
to take the fences down! And nature did
almost unnoticed, as she mostly does
the shaking gently--See! they're almost hid

but this one lilac lives despite the shade
and so for old times sake,the trees I pruned
The soil and light and care I gave,have made
this lilac thrifty---Oft' here I have nooned.

The Four Tined Fork

This four tined fork I use so much
whose handle i love to touch
is but a toy, made for my child
when she was little-Look I filed
the tines much shorter:smoothed the ends
lest she should hurt herself.One mends
such handles often, though tis true
twe're easier to make one new
But if you did I'd not like you..

This broomstick handle,mended much
is magical; behold I touch
and days and months and years are gone
swifter than light that speeds the dawn
I'm in her garden, child with me
near "wigwam place" whee grapevines free
have canopied from tree to tree
And now we've passed to "Linas" where
the honeysuckle scents the air
and such a peace pervades the place
as loving hearts alone can place
Behold and listen! For she tells
of plans and hopes and soon compels
by loving glance and kisses kind
the aid she needs from Daddy. Mind?
Of course I don't, we'll surely find
gobs of fun a doing all
the building,diging, rocking and
the planting shall-Oh!hear her call
Be hers alone who's little hand
succeeds so well with living things
attached to her by heartfelt strings
that they must show their love for her
by growing as her hopeings were
So while we talk the fork is used
by deftest fingers that excused
old 'daddy 'dear"to building work
or digging rock where flowers will grow
if plans work out just thus and so
Work daddy work, dose daddy shirk
though all the muses want their devrk
Nay! nay! the poem will wait
(is this the place you want the gate?)
till we are through-I'll catch the clue
of lives that rivel drops of dew
while working here quite close to you
Ah me, ah me; how visions fleet
and leave us longing:leave our feet
to tread again where loved ones walked
remembering clearly how they talked
and lived their lives beside us and
in sanest hours reached out our hando sea, o realm of air canest bond
our coming close? canst comprehend
the magic of that little tool
who's touch makes me king--at school
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As It Was and Is To Be

E A Brenholtz

Have they told you i"m busted and ain't worth a thing,
not enough to buy a paper, much less a wedding ring?
Did they tell you that the flurry in stocks down in town
had sheered thousands of sheep and cooked this goose quite brown?
What? They told? and you greet in the same loving way
as when I was owner of yacht on the bay,
and of houses and lands, bonds, stocks and shares.
Why my love I'm forgetting I'm one of the bears
that got gored in the scrimmage and mulct his estate
Why , I feel as if I were the master of fate.
Come and stand where the gleams of the chandelier streams
so that I may be certain I'm not dreaming dreams
Oh, my love, can it be true that your kiss meant to tell
that ill fortune this day which so dourly befell
has no power to part this, my loved one, from me?
Why, my sweetheart, I'm laughing in absolute glee.
Now then whisper again what you've just told me, sweet
that foul fortune or good together will' meet
Now yo know don't you dear, I'm not given to prayers
but I think the almighty has human affairs
in a pretty tight clasp and controls all events
So if you will kneel with me i'll thank him just now
for the black frown that clouded my fortunes fair brow
Heart-alive, how I'll work to recoup all the loss
Oh, what joy to discover hearts gold has no dross
Why, i'm rich beyond telling,beyond all compute
Fortune's welcome this night to the wealth she did loot
so that ill which befalls oft some greater prevents
For i've found out this day,three friends, tried and true
who shall smile on me, love as you do ,as you do
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The folowing poem was written at the time of WW-1 and was titled "When German Might".Where ever German appeared I changed it to Terrorist as it seemed to fit the times we are living in. Nothing else was changed. All of the other poems are copied as best I could exatly as written.9-1-03 /DSB

When terrorist Might

When terrorist might maintains it's right to massacre and rape
with aim to rule,there is a school that teaches us escape
This school of war we did abhor, as children sometimes hate
restraint and task and never ask "who fixed for us this fate"

When terrorist might maintains its right to rule and kulter man
it may rejoice: we've made our choice to do what mortals can,
at cost of strife, at cost of life, to crush this monster thing;
the school of war, we did abhor, to us success can bring

When terrorist might maintains it's right to disregard its word,
on every hand, in every land a solum oath is heard;
Hear us again, as we are men, we dedicate our all
to humble him who's honor's dim what ever us befall

When terrorist might maintains it's right to ravage earth and sea
because it can, there's not a man who treasures liberty
who would care to halt, would dare default his utmost to give
to end the power that in it's hour denies his right to live

When terrorist might maintains it's right to give to Christ the lie
by claiming God, his chastening rod will reach it bye and bye
In his good time,in every clime, Christ's cohorts stem the tide
of terrorist gains; avenge the stains of him crucified

When terrorist might maintains it's right to subjugate mankind
There is an hour when it has power,so that every soul shall find
confronting it,the need for grit-the kind that calls defeat
a needful thing till we can bring pure lives to Christ his seat

For terrorist might maintains it's right because our selfish lives
encouraged it to do it's bit to strangle what survives
in us of God,that at it's nod democracy should die--
What'er the cost, your cause is lost, unselfishly lets cry
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Fatalism