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After The Rain
Poet: Patience Strong
Lovely is the garden after summer showers,
When the crystal raindrops tremble on the flowers -
And the grasses glitter with the clinging rain,
As on leaf and petal sunlight falls again.
Everything is sparkling, fresh and bright and clean-
Colours that had faded wear a rich new sheen -
Smell of wet earth mingles with the fragrant fumes,
Drifting from the censers of the dripping blooms.
Sweetly sing the songbirds in the shining bowers,
From the secret turrets of their leafy towers -
Pouring notes of rapture in a glad refrain -
As the garden echoes: Thank you for the rain. -
Roofs
Poet: Patience Strong
I love to climb the hill that lies behind our little town -
And when the sun shines after the rain, it's lovely to look down -
Upon the coloured roofs below, lit by the sun's bright ray -
A beautiful mosaic, brown and red and green and grey...
The town looks small and toy-like underneath the sky's great dome -
And as I gaze, I realize that each roof is a home -
Where people strive and work and play, and children laugh and cry -
And men and women play their parts, and live and love and die...
And yet the town looks so content, so happy and serene,
With all its little shining roofs of red and brown and green -
And as the daylight fades to dusk, I watch as sunsets gleams,
And pray God sends to every home joy - peace - and happy dreams. -
Message of Christmas
Poet: Patience Strong
Welcome Christmas once again!
Come blizzard, snow or rime
It cannot dim the joy that’s fills
Our hearts at this glad time.
The days are brief, the nights are long,
The skies are bleak and drear -
But a glory shines about
The ending of the year.
The glory of a wondrous thing:
The Christmas Mystery.
The strange and lovely story of
Our Lord’s nativity.
The only hope that’s left to Man
Upon this troubled earth -
The hope God gave at Bethlehem
At the Messiah’s birth
Welcome sweet and holy day,
The day of Christ the King.
Once again the world awaits
The message that you bring. -
The Tides of Providence
Poet: Patience Strong
It's not what you gather, but what you sow,
That gives the heart a warming glow.
It's not what you get, but what you give,
Decides the kind of life you live.
It's not what you have, but what you spare.
It's not what you take, but what you share
That pays the greater dividend
And makes you richer in the end.
It's not what you spend upon yourself
Or hide away upon a shelf,
That brings a blessing for the day.
It's what you scatter by the way.
A wasted effort it may seem.
But what you cast upon the stream
Comes back to you recompense
Upon the tides of providence. -
Anticipation
Poet: Patience Strong
The very best part of a party, I think
Is the house before guests come along -
And you sit very still, just composing your thoughts
(if you don't things are bound to go wrong) ...
When the table is laid and the places are set,
And the fire is ablaze in the grate,
When the flowers are arranged and the lamp is switched on
And there's nothing to do but just wait...
And at last when the bell rings and people crowd in,
Bringing gaiety, laughter and fun -
Then you feel that you've lived through it all in your thoughts -
As you hasten to welcome each one...
I enjoy every moment I spend with my guests
Till the good-byes are said in the hall -
But the quiet hour of anticipation, for me,
Is the very best part of it all. -
Cradles
Poet: Patience Strong
I love to look at cradles, for they seem to symbolize -
The whole of human tenderness - their pretty frills and ties -
Are emblems of the love that spreads its kind protective wings -
Around the helpless and the weak, and small defenseless things...
And we are all defenseless from the moment of our birth -
Frail, tiny figures strutting on our little spinning earth -
Our world is whirling in the void - we face Eternity -
We cannot probe the secrets of our hidden Destiny...
And yet, we, too, are cradled, safe within His tender care -
The love too deep for man to know is always waiting there -
Creating and controlling - suns and stars and worlds above -
And we are safe within the cradle of that perfect Love... -
Wonderland
Poet: Patience Strong
Blessed are the happy folks who understand the trees -
And hear the whispered messages that float along the breeze -
For they are never lonely though they may be all alone -
They have their secret Wonderland - treasures of their own...
They know the language of the flowers, and hear the symphony -
Of rain and wind and rustling leaves and sweet bird-melody...
And happy ghosts troop in and out the quiet of their room-
With hints of lovely things to come - dispelling fear and gloom ...
Familiar voices echo from the mists of Memory -
They live in friendly intercourse with that great company,
That moves around us all the time - protective - yet unseen,
With blessings for the heart that is receptive and serene. -
Winter Sunset
Poet: Patience Strong
The winter sunset flames about a world of smoky grey -
The wild red glory of the clouds lights up the day day
The sky is slashed with whips of fire - the bright sun dips to rest -
And fans of gold and orange flames strike upward from the West...
The heedless crowds go crawling by along the ugly street -
Intent upon their little lives - what they shall wear and eat...
How strange they do not stand and gaze with hungry, staring eyes -
And read the blazing message of God's writing in the skies. -
Seaside Reverie
Poet: Patience Strong
I shall remember this beautiful scene -
When I'm caught one again on the wheel of routine...
I shall pause as I go on my dull humdrum way,
to recapture this hour of my brief holiday.
And against the drab background of commonplace things
I'll conjure the picture of white wheeling wings -
Swift gulls gliding low through the shimmering haze -
The bright crowded beach and the sun's golden blaze -
The stain of red sails on the blue of the sea -
The gleam of tanned figures, like bronze statuary...
A vivid scene flashed on a canvas of grey -
To light up the murk of some winter's day.
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