The Stranger within my gate,
He may be true or kind,
But he does not talk my talk--
I cannot feel his mind.
I see the face and the eyes and the mouth,
But not the soul behind.
The men of my own stock,
They may do ill or well,
But they tell the lies I am wanted to,
......
A Conversation Poem, April, 1798
No cloud, no relique of the sunken day
Distinguishes the West, no long thin slip
Of sullen light, no obscure trembling hues.
Come, we will rest on this old mossy bridge!
You see the glimmer of the stream beneath,
But hear no murmuring: it flows silently.
O'er its soft bed of verdure. All is still.
A balmy night! and though the stars be dim,
......
Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray:
And, when I crossed the wild,
I chanced to see at break of day
The solitary child.
No mate, no comrade Lucy knew;
She dwelt on a wide moor,
- The sweetest thing that ever grew
Beside a human door!
......
Out of the church she followed them
With a lofty step and mien:
His bride was like a village maid,
Maude Clare was like a queen.
“Son Thomas, ” his lady mother said,
With smiles, almost with tears:
“May Nell and you but live as true
As we have done for years;
......
Sad is the man who is asked for a story
and can't come up with one.
His five-year-old son waits in his lap.
Not the same story, Baba. A new one.
The man rubs his chin, scratches his ear.
In a room full of books in a world
of stories, he can recall
not one, and soon, he thinks, the boy
......
it never came with conclusion as how the night took its time to raise a sunshine
to survive in the wild makes no sense for such a young wolf
to be part of a pack , to learn how to defend , avoid danger , hunt — crushed hares , bison , and moose
much more to be close to them all
blood dripping all the way to my mom’s home
at heightened peril of death , all lone and numb from hunger
wandering through unknown terrain , limping , some bones broken
no such scheme in mind for how the high spirits turned way upside down
to ponder why it unfolded just as it did
......
Father will be there
To heal me from my sickness
Any time today
Father will be there
And put me to sleep
This night
I need that badly
Father will be there
To pray together with me
Before I go to sleep
......
I know you still care for me
Father
Also father I have no enemies in my life
And I hope to keep that way
I never built any fence around me
There is no need for that
Because I only have friends
And no enemies
I don't need enemies in my life
When a door closes
......
Before the dawn of time’s first breath,
Before the light of morning’s crest,
There was a Presence, pure and grand,
Who shaped the stars with His own hand.
He did not begin where beginnings unfold,
Nor fit within the bounds of old,
For He, the Prime Mover, the Uncaused Cause,
Initiated all with divine laws.
......
Few words I pen, for today is your day,
A celebration of you, in every way.
Thrilled and happy, my heart does sing,
For your life has been a blessing in everything.
A father you are, steadfast and true,
A husband so loving, through and through.
A godly man, with wisdom to share,
A parent so devoted, beyond compare.
......