Some Broken Twigs | Page 3

it weeping with pain
long borne.
It is built on rock and nobly planned,
The glory shine
like bloom with leaf and thorn.
I feel its memories in brick and stone,
And lift my eyes to see the sky
and stars.
Unpainted rock in weathered greys and blown
With
winds and well I understand the bars.
From walk to turret there are many eyes,
Perhaps some measuring
these thoughts of mine,
What color hair? How long the coat and
thighs?
It may be true we drink the self-same wine.

OKLAHOMA
Hail Oklahoma land! O prairie plain,
There is no state more dearly
loved.--All hail!
Where grassy hills and sheltered cove and vale

Rest quietly in peace--and in refrain
Our voices lift in praise and joy
again;
We sing of Oklahoma land.--All hail!
Of sunny skies and
even windy gale,
And wealth of growing corn and flowing grain;

Where black gold gleams and roses bloom in spring.
Here long roads
stretch and grazing cow-herds roam.
We build in faith great churches
and our state
With many schools, where children gaily sing.
We
love our loamy fields and prairie home
And struggle onward upward,
soon and late.
Hail Oklahoma land! O grassy plain,
There is no state more dearly
loved.--All hail!
OUR MORNING PRAYER
Our Father in heaven,
Drive from the soul the hopelessness,
Fill it
with charity and faith,
And fire the heart with kindliness,
For Jesus
sake, amen.
WE THANK OUR GOD
We thank our God for this glad Christmas day,
For health and
freedom, peace and hope today.
We float our flag on every hill and
trail;
All Hail! The red and white and blue, all hail!
Again upon the
board a feast is spread,
And God now guards and blesses our good
bread.
Our turkey's big and fat and pudding brown,
And we will
smile all day and wear no frown.
Once more our bins are filled with
corn and wheat,
The bread we break is good, so light and sweet,

Cranberries, pumpkin pies and walnut meats.
We bow to thank our
God for these good eats.
This land America! To God give thanks.

Our men are strong and brave in all the ranks.
All Hail America! Our
hope and pride.
God bless our home and now with us abide.

WAITING
The waiting minutes
Tick on but never ending
To eternity.
The
years do not wait.
So stealthily do they move,
Like deep swift
water.
THAT HAPPY COMPANIONSHIP
Remembering friends of the not long ago,
Their laughter a gay
bubbling song.
The whispering of secrets, the rapture of show.
The
mounting of spirits lit the peak aglow
And lifted the heart up along
The forgetting of wrong in a moment of joy,
Quite erased the hurt
and the scar,
With music of kindness and naught to annoy,
And
gold of the friendship refusing alloy.
Thus comrades in their
happiness are.
I WATCHED MY FLOWERS
I watched my flowers grow and brighten barren places;
They smiled
at me the whole day long with brilliant faces The blues and reds, the
white and yellow in morning dews
Drove out the hurt of bitter grief
and other bruise,
But now the drought will blight the tender buds and
leaves. And parch the earth as the winds blow on scorching sprees, 'Til
July's heat and August sun are duly past,
Yet many things are fine
and good at weary last
For if the rain should come, good seed would
surely die.
In truth, I should be thankful for a cloudless sky
To
ripen seed that sprout and grow in barren places.
And wink at me next
year with bright and smiling faces
BEES OF HATRED
The bees of hatred hover
Above and around us.
A good crop will be
hatched
To torment and sting us.
THIS AFTERNOON

This afternoon, an angry heart and crude
Consoled himself with an
unkindly deed.
Within his soul was hate like garden weed,
That
choked the buds and bulbs. In childish feud,
His glee, like noisy
urchins brash and rude,
Who trample flowers, pay no thoughtful heed.

The careless acts bring harm and pain with speed.
And sin-scarred
hearts deceive themselves, delude
No one. Such souls will have few
friends at last.
When life is hard, no one will bear his care
Unless a
kindly one, who looks about
To help, to pull and clear. The field is
vast!
O weary man! Unhappy world! "Unfair
Is life" men say, "The
whole is full of doubt."
SHE RETURNED IT
She borrowed a lump of sugar
To sweeten a cup of tea.
I felt so
very silly
When she brought it back to me.
TO MY FRIENDS
On Christmas day, let happy dreams
Sparkle and flow like bubbling
streams.
A MAIDEN'S DREAM
I often think and dream and ponder
Of things that I have seen,
And
twist the real into a wonder
When men and birds convene.
If I could reach that star up yonder,
My soul would lift and preen;
If
Summertime would always stay
My yard would be more green.
I see the airplane rise and soaring
On all bright days and fair;
The
tiny specks go roaring out
Across the hills from care.
If my good pilot friend is landing
On some star world up there.
He
might bring back some silver
Or flowers for my hair.
PROMISES

On New Year's day
Mankind makes promises
Of