Some Broken Twigs | Page 2

about
And we sing by the Riverside drive.
Thus

we play and we eat and we thrive.
THE FLEET (1945)
A long line of ships,
War-scarred in glory smothered
On navy's
glad day.
SPRING IS BUDDING
Why is the sun ashining
And all the faces glad?
Why are the buds
abursting
And not, a thing is sad?
I hear the sparrow twittering
Her sweet old melody.
Darling the
spring is budding
In all her ecstasy.
Spring and the sun are smiling

To bring the leaves and cress.
Love in the heart is waking
To
give us happiness.
I hear the lark awarbling
Her sweet old melody.
And too my heart
is singing
In happy ecstasy.
BEAUTIFUL ROSE
Beautiful rose
Your crimson velvet tells me
The loveliest message.
SUN ON THE RIVER
O river, flowing on,
In flashing sunlight roll,
And join the ocean
lawn
Up to the island shoal.
O great and mighty stream,
With flaming breast and bow,
Your
ferries glide and gleam
Through sparkling glare and glow.
O sun, on rolling wave
Shine far out to the sea,
And rounded
billows pave,
Like quickened silver flee.
O sheets of dazzling light,
Move on close to the edge,
Where ships
are anchored right,
And gold flames on the ledge.

O rivers, drifting fire
With steamers flaming wide,
Play on your
silent lyre
Until the shadows hide.
OUT ON THE BAY
Out on the bay
Was spread a silver while sheet,
Glazed and painted
by the sun,
Today.
Down in my heart
Was pain and sorrow's dark sleet
Eased and
melted by the sun,
In part.
RESTING
There is no soothing so complete,
As sitting in the sun,
Or chasing
butterflies through wheat,
Although no cloth is spun.
A SHOWER'S MELODY
A babbling brooklet wends its happy way
Adown a rocky path across
the plain.
And goes a-galloping along in rain.
In drought he stops
and waits a lucky day,
When clouds roll up and men and women pray,

And withered is the corn and grasses and grain.
The dust clings
thick on every sill and pane.
A shower soon refreshes loam and clay.

The little stream resumes its cheerful hymn.
It warbles on content
to sing and flow,
The music lilts and swells in happy glee;
And too,
the birds and bees join in with vim,
Harmonious, alive, in twilight
glow
A mighty choir of gorgeous melody!
IF YOU HEAR
If you hear the scoff of friends,
Or see their anger grow,
Just please
remember this,
Perhaps they do not know.
DANCING ON A LEVEL ROAD
It is a happy thing to dance
A long a level road
So brave a deed to

take a chance
Of slipping off the load.
IT WAS HOME
A little old house in a sheltered nook,
Some cottonwood trees near a
babbling brook,
A sturdy gnarled oak by a grassy lane
That leads to
green pastures past flowing grain.
A trellised rose bush hides a
crumbling wall,
Where lovers have stood near the waterfall;

Beyond the sun sets in a golden glow
And shadows stretch far to the
mead below.
A shining wire fence follows up the hill
And curves
about to the graded fill.
Then back to the house in a cozy spot
We
loiter there on the hallowed lot,
Where Mother's sweet face waits, in
gentle calm,
And Father sits near and roads an old psalm.
QUESTIONS
If I could brush the cobwebs from my eyes,
What could I see?
If I could roll the boulder from my path,
What would I be?
DISTRUST
He walks the safest way;
There must be no thistles on his path.
He
knows all men are clay.
If truth wears feathers in her cap,
They
must be plucked away,
That all may proven be.
COUNTING
The morning sun casts purple in the fields,
A mocking bird sings
gaily in the oaks,
White fluffy clouds rest in the murky sky.
It is yet
cool, the maples scarcely stir,
But noon will burn the grasses by the
way
And give the girl there at the soda fount
A welcome trade. The
heat will parch the earth,
So that flowers will wilt and droop their
charm.
But night will come and bring refreshing breeze
And fold a

soothing mantle over all
Like mother spreading blankets over Tom.

Now day by day the summer slips on by,
Its stifling heat and gloomy
skies will pass.
And winter cold will come with hoary frost;
Yet by
our hearths we rest in quiet peace,
Secure our roofs and snug our
sheltered beds.
Remember Spring, how roses bloom and flamed!

And how the sunny days kept pace with time.
In winter some hours
will be gilded gold.
It's true our blessings add up more than half.
ON THE FERRY
A multitude of lights twinkled in glee;
Receding ones reached out,
their friendship gleamed
With hands across to shield from dark, it
seemed;
And coming dock was lit from home to sea.
There was no
gloam and dusk for you and me.
The stars above, grand sentinels all
reamed,
Conducting us home like naught ever dreamed;
The
scalloped bridge festooned like a Christmas tree,
And gate post lamps
led strangers through the park.
Our fathers planned that all should
walk in light,
That every man could find his way like day,
Until the
amber dawning wake the lark.
Thus peacefully we glided through the
night,
Serenely going home the ferry way.
PERHAPS
I see a gorgeous city, pompous, grand,
And hear