Monotony

Today like yesterday
Tomorrow like today
The drip, drip, drip of monotony
Is wearing my life away
Today like yesterday
Tomorrow like today

-Langston Hughes



Freedom Seeker

I see a woman with wings
Trying to escape from a cage
And the cage door
Has fallen on her wings

They are long wings
Which drag on the ground
When she stands up,

But she hasn’t enough strength
To pull them away
From the weight of the cage door,
She is caught and held by her wings

-Langston Hughes




Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end;
Yet days go by, and weeks rush on,
And before I know it a year is gone,
And I never see my old friend’s face,
For life is a swift and terrible race.
He knows I like him just as well
As in the days when I rang his bell
And he rang mine. We were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men;
Tired with playing a foolish game,
Tired with trying to make a name.
“Tomorrow”, I say, “I will call on Jim,
Just to show that I am thinking of him.”
But tomorrow comes - and tomorrow goes,
And the distance between us grows and grows
Around the corner! - yet miles away…
“Here’s a telegram, sir…”
“Jim died today.”
And that’s what we get, and deserve in the end;
Around the corner, a vanished friend.

-Charles Hanson Towne




So often we reach out
And offer that which we have to give
To someone who has no need
Or does not recognize the value of our gift
Thus our gift goes unreceived
Through no fault of our own
And this rejection causes pain

But the real tragedy occurs
When someone comes along
Who has a need for
And recognizes the value
Of what we have to give
But because the memory of rejection
Is still fresh on our mind
We are no longer
Reaching out

-unknown



Death

No need to fear the specter death,
For he brings joy with every breath.
He takes you from this sodden earth
To planes of happiness and mirth.

I’ve met him…felt his cool breath,
He whispered peace… for I am death
I teetered on the threshold then.
Uncertain if to sink or swim.

Modern medicine did prevail,
I woke-up locked up in a jail…
So many times since that day,
I’ve wished that death had come to stay.

-Henry Floyd Brown



The Bars Around My Soul

The bars across my cell
Symbolize to me
The bars around my soul
And it’s striving to be free

Outward freedom has no meaning,
If deep within our hearts
Awesome prison bars
Keep us and God apart.

-Henry Floyd Brown



Mistakes

God sent us here to make mistakes,
To strive, to fail, to re-begin,
To taste the tempting fruit of sin,
And find what bitter food it makes,

To miss the path, to go astray,
To wander blindly in the night;
But, searching, praying for the light,
Until at last we find the way.

And looking back along the past,
We know we needed all the strain
Of fear and doubt and strife and pain
To make us value peace, at last.

Who fails, finds later triumph sweet;
Who stumbles once, walks then with care,
And knows the place to cry beware
To other unaccustomed feet.

Through strife the slumbering soul awakes,
We learn on error's troubled route
The truths we could not prize without
The sorrow of our sad mistakes.

-Ella Wheeler Wilcox




The Sloth

In moving slow he has no peer.
You ask him something in his Ear,
He thinks about it for a year;

And then, before he says a word
There, upside down (unlike a Bird),
He will assume that you have heard-

A most Ex-as-per-at-ing Lug.
But should you call his manner smug,
He’ll sigh and give his Branch a Hug;

Then off again to Sleep he goes,
Still swaying gently by his Toes,
And you just know he knows, he knows.

-Theodore Roethke



Should You Go First

Should you go first and I remain
To walk the road alone,
I’ll live in memory’s garden, dear,
With happy days we’ve known.
In spring I’ll watch for roses red
When fades the lilac blue,
In early fall when brown leaves call
I’ll catch a glimpse of you.

Should you go first and I remain
For battles to be fought,
Each thing you’ve touched along the way
Will be a hallowed spot.
I’ll hear your voice, I’ll see your smile,
Though blindly I may grope,
The memory of your helping hand
Will buoy me on with hope.

Should you go first and I remain,
To finish with the scroll.
No lengthening shadows shall creep in
To make this life seem droll.
We’ve know so much of happiness,
We’ve had our cup of joy
And memory is one gift of God
That death cannot destroy.

Should you go first and I remain,
One thing I’d have you do;
Walk slowly down that long, lone path,
For soon I’ll follow you.
I’ll want to know each step you take
That I may walk the same.
For someday, down that lonely road,
You’ll hear me call your name.

-Albert Rowswell