Copyrights 
 
 COESUGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
POEMS 
 
 by GRANVILLE LOWTHER 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/poemsOOIowt 
 
POEMS 
 
 BY 
 
 GRANVILLE LOWTHER 
 
 NEW YORK 
 MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY 
 
 1922 
 

 Copyright, 1922, by 
 MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY 
 
 OCT 1872 
 
 C1A683791 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PART ONE 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Christian 9 
 
 The Philosopher 10 
 
 The Agnostic 12 
 
 The Higher Law 13 
 
 The Human Trinity 14 
 
 Building 15 
 
 Involution, Evolution 16 
 
 Peace on Earth 17 
 
 The Infinite Good 18 
 
 Where Is God? 19 
 
 Billy, the Dog 20 
 
 To My Critics 21 
 
 My Destiny 22 
 
 The End of the Rainbow 23 
 
 Love Survives 25 
 
 PART TWO 
 
 Sense and Nonsense 
 
 Early Days 33 
 
 Success 34 
 
 It Can Be Done 35 
 
 Suggestion 36 
 
 Washington 37 
 
 Lessons From the Mississippi Flood 39 
 
 Signs and Wonders 42 
 
 Success or Failure 43 
 
 Whence and Whither 44 
 
 Life 45 
 
 Speaking the Truth 46 
 
 Great and Small 47 
 
Part One 
 
THE CHRISTIAN 
 
 Whoever feeds a hungry babe 
 Or clothes a naked child; 
 Whoever rescues from the depth 
 A soul with sin defiled ; 
 
 Whoever cools a parched tongue 
 Or bathes an aching brow, 
 Proves to the doubting ones, 
 That God is here and NOW. 
 
 The Indian "sees God in the storm 
 And hears him in the wind:" 
 The Magi saw Him in the star, 
 The Brahmins through the "MIND." 
 
 Some see the "Power that makes for right;" 
 Some say "The Great Unknown;" 
 The Zoroastrians called him "Light," 
 Jews, "The Almighty One." 
 
 The Greeks saw Life Divine ensouled 
 In Nature's forms and plan, 
 While Christians look to Christ and feel 
 That God abides in Man. 
 
 All races struggle toward the good 
 As flowers seek the light; 
 Search out the mysteries of God, 
 Express the Infinite. 
 
 In field and forest, earth and sea, 
 In sun and star and air; 
 In Mind and Matter, Life and Law 
 Our God is EVERYWHERE. 
 
 — 9 — 
 
THE PHILOSOPHER 
 
 In thought sublime transcending time 
 He spans Eternity 
 To find the throne of the Unknown 
 Who fills Infinity. 
 
 He seeks the cause : the Life, the Laws 
 Of forms that dance and play 
 Of measures given in vibrant rhythm 
 That speed the suns away. 
 
 He seeks the Surge, the endless Urge, 
 The twinkling stars that sing 
 While light and heat in splendor meet 
 With mutual offerings. 
 
 See atoms born and worlds take form 
 While comets plume their trains, 
 To join the chorus of the spheres 
 In musical refrains. 
 
 See mountains rise to meet the skies 
 The surging seas shut in 
 See angry clouds like funeral shrouds 
 The earth convulsed within. 
 
 The awful strife of dawning life 
 Survival of the strong: 
 Evolving man, apparent plan, 
 A sense of right and wrong. 
 
 10 — 
 
The wars, the flash of whip and lash, 
 The victor and the slave; 
 Hear cannons roar, see shot swept shore, 
 To free, avenge, and save. 
 
 The pains and moans, the dying groans, 
 Tumult and angry strife, 
 Are pangs of woe by which we grow 
 To higher forms of life. 
 
 The measured years with floods and tears 
 Their sweat and toil and blood 
 Enrich the earth and bring to birth 
 Concepts of greater good. 
 
 From grief and wrong we rise in song, 
 From depths to heights above ; 
 Through war and woe men learn to know 
 The mastery of love. 
 
 — 11 
 
THE AGNOSTIC 
 
 "I know not whence I came, 
 
 I know not whither I go ;" 
 But I am here on this little sphere 
 
 With longings to learn and grow. 
 
 My path through the ages past 
 May have been through clay and clod; 
 
 And I do not know if the way I go 
 Leads back to the dust, or to God. 
 
 The forces of Nature fight 
 
 And science seem so austere 
 That I wonder at last when the wars are past, 
 
 Will good in it all appear? 
 
 I read and reason and wait, 
 And think and ponder and prove 
 
 But I do not foresee an eternity 
 Of personal pain or love. 
 
 I know not the "Great World Ground" 
 I know not the "Great First Cause" 
 
 But I know loss and gain, and pleasure and 
 pain 
 Result from governing laws. 
 
 I know not of heaven or Hell 
 Where all earth's inhabitants go ; 
 
 But I know as we give we surely receive 
 And reap whatsoever we sow. 
 
 — 12 — 
 
THE HIGHER LAW 
 
 Unfathomed Substance, Spirit, Life, 
 Unmeasured force and form, 
 Teach us the law by which we rise 
 Through struggle, stress and storm 
 
 We feel the surging energy 
 
 That stirs the rolling seas ; 
 
 That wings the winds and speeds the worlds 
 
 And spans eternity. 
 
 May countless modes of life and force 
 And all the stars and suns 
 Teach us the true affinity 
 Of many joined in One. 
 
 If Thou dost "Fill unmeasured space 
 And bound infinity" 
 May every atom find some place 
 Of harmony in Thee. 
 
 We may have "come through slime and mold, 
 Through hoof and horn and claw" 
 To reach the ever larger life, 
 To find the higher law, 
 
 To sense the purer atmosphere 
 To clearer, brighter light 
 And rise to power and liberty 
 Through justice, truth and right. 
 
 But now we catch the distant notes 
 Of symphonies above, 
 We'll join them in the sweeter strains 
 Of Universal LOVE. 
 
 — 13 — 
 
THE HUMAN TRINITY 
 
 The sunshine reached across the space, 
 And kissed my baby on the face, 
 
 And painted it so rich a hue 
 That I stooped down and kissed her too. 
 
 Now little one, what makes you coo? 
 
 Did sunshine paint your two eyes blue? 
 What makes that curious little smile 
 And keeps you struggling all the while ? 
 
 There now ! what is it makes you weep ? 
 
 What do you dream when you're asleep? 
 What makes you gaze and yawn and blink? 
 
 I wonder what you really think. 
 
 I wonder, will your life be blurred 
 By actions where I may have erred ? 
 
 Or if some power could atone 
 For any wrongs I may have done. 
 
 I hope my life will be so true, 
 That no reproach will come to you 
 
 Or sorrow with its awful load, 
 From reaping what your father sowed. 
 
 Your mother pure as pure can be, 
 Now stoops and kisses you and me, 
 
 As if that sunshine from above 
 Came to ignite our latent love. 
 
 Perhaps from many million years 
 Our race has come through toil and tears, 
 
 To demonstrate that God is good 
 In father, childhood, motherhood. 
 
 — 14 — 
 
BUILDING 
 
 Sometimes we wear a pleasant smile, 
 When all our fairest hopes are crushed; 
 
 With laugh and jest our friends beguile, 
 When grief would seem the heart to burst. 
 
 We move amidst a pleasant throng, 
 
 Disguising all the spirit feels 
 And not in language jest or song 
 
 The sufferings of the heart reveal. 
 
 The spirit lowers like storm and night 
 Deepening the darkness of the skies, 
 
 Forgetful that the sun of light 
 In majesty and power will rise ; 
 
 Or, like the earth's interior fires 
 Belching forth thunderous torrents loud 
 
 Building majestic mountain spires 
 That lift their heads above the clouds. 
 
 Thus shall the forces of my soul 
 
 Build domes that pierce the heavens above, 
 And light eternal prove that all 
 
 Is Wisdom, Unity, and Love. 
 
 — 15 
 
INVOLUTION, EVOLUTION 
 
 What is this energy, this life 
 
 That struggles from the sod, 
 
 Through plant, and fish and beast and bird 
 
 To man who seeks for God? 
 
 What heights, what distant fields afar 
 Contain the greatest good? 
 The instinct answers "Follow me" 
 And leads the way to God. 
 
 Is there some "Great First Cause," some Life, 
 
 Some Universal Good 
 
 From whence we came, to whom we go? 
 
 Man's reason answers, God. 
 
 We sense the Great, the Infinite, 
 The boundless, countless Whole; 
 The substance of the Universe 
 The All-inclusive Soul. 
 
 16 
 
PEACE ON EARTH 
 
 Whenever we come to be civil 
 
 The predisposition to fight, 
 Will conquer the forces of Nature 
 
 With clear intellectual light. 
 
 Whenever we come to be moral 
 The instincts that lead us to strife, 
 
 Will guide us to grapple with causes 
 Producing the comforts of life. 
 
 Whenever we come to be Christian 
 With justice our fortress and might, 
 
 Our armies and navies will vanish 
 Like phantoms and ghosts of the night. 
 
 When a court of the world shall determine 
 What governing forces are just, 
 
 Then a God will rule over the nations 
 All religions and races can trust. 
 
 — 17™ 
 
THE INFINITE GOD 
 
 At-one with the Infinite God; 
 
 Expressing His wisdom and power 
 The Absolute Measureless Good 
 
 Renewing my life every hour. 
 
 I quietly, silently wait 
 
 The inflowing currents Divine 
 Which strange inspirations awake, 
 
 And new aspirations are mine. 
 
 New concepts of duty control 
 Enthuse with the vigor of youth, 
 
 Energize all the powers of the soul 
 Which vibrate to visions of truth. 
 
 All things emanated from God 
 All creatures below and above; 
 
 The plan of all nature is good, 
 And the law of right living is Love. 
 
 18 — 
 
WHERE IS GOD? 
 
 If God in every atom lives 
 "Holy and undefiled," 
 Then all the earth is "holy ground" 
 And every one his child. 
 
 With part of God's Eternal time 
 We measure human life: 
 Then all our days are "holy days" 
 With none for greed and strife. 
 
 The priest in sacred robes may point 
 "The straight and narrow way." 
 But honest toil appeals to God 
 As much as when we pray. 
 
 If all men have their origin 
 
 In one great Fatherhood, 
 
 Then all should think and act and live 
 
 As one great brotherhood. 
 
 Then spurn to crush a human life 
 For what we do not need ; 
 Love cannot wage an angry strife 
 For selfishness and greed. 
 
 We build our altars of our hearts 
 Our sacred selves we bring, 
 Where every worshiper's a priest 
 And every man a king. 
 
 19 — 
 
BILLY THE DOG 
 
 Only a dog, but he loves me 
 I seem to him as a God, 
 He sits with his face toward me 
 Awaiting my every nod. 
 
 He knows not my mind, but he trusts me 
 Obedient to my command, 
 He lies at my feet and watches 
 And tenderly fondles my hand. 
 
 His looks and his whinings are pleadings 
 Delivered in his simple way, 
 In substance they speak to his master 
 As I to my Father would pray. 
 
 I know not what he is thinking 
 Or whether he thinks at all, 
 But he and I are included in the limitless "All 
 in All." 
 
 20 — 
 
TO MY CRITICS 
 
 A critic called me an Atheist, 
 But Atheism means no God; 
 
 Another called me a Pantheist, 
 But Pantheism means all God. 
 
 One said, "He's in mid-ocean drifting" 
 Another, "He's headed for Hell" 
 
 Then where are the harbors and inlets 
 To Hades, can anyone tell? 
 
 Now may it not be that an instinct 
 Divine, is directing us right, 
 
 And when the wild voyage is ended 
 We'll find all our critics in sight? 
 
 And when we sail into the harbor 
 From rounding the limitless coast, 
 
 We'll find there are millions on millions 
 We formerly thought had been lost? 
 
 And won't we be glad to discover 
 That goodness was everywhere; 
 
 That no one had stranded or drifted 
 Outside of His Infinite care. 
 
 — 21 
 
MY DESTINY 
 
 Whatever, whoever I am, 
 Wherever my pathway may be, 
 Howe'er my existence began, 
 I am shaping my own destiny. 
 
 I think and my thought is a cause ; 
 I will and new powers generate; 
 In thinking and willing, I am 
 Creator and cause of my fate. 
 
 I pulsate with limitless life, 
 Vibrate with its rhythmical plan, 
 Then follow my longings and wait 
 The process of making a man. 
 
 — 22 — 
 
THE END OF THE RAINBOW 
 
 At the end of the rainbow I have been told 
 Were treasures awaiting for me ; 
 
 Great hopes of the best things with silver and 
 gold 
 From the ends of the earth and the sea. 
 
 When raindrops were falling and sunbeams 
 reflecting 
 
 Out just beyond meadow and lea, 
 I wondered if woodland or hilltop or lowland, 
 
 Had fairies out waiting for me. 
 
 Sometimes I could see them, then sometimes I 
 heard them: 
 Sometimes I saw snares set for me ; 
 But something kept surging within me and 
 urging, 
 "Why don't you run out there and see?" 
 
 One day on the hillside, above and beyond me, 
 The end of the rainbow was clear ; 
 
 I ran out to meet it, possess it and greet it 
 While all of its prizes were near. 
 
 But when I arrived where I surely had seen it, 
 'Twas kissing the hilltop beyond ; 
 
 I kept on pursuing, it kept on alluring, 
 Wherever I went it was gone. 
 
 I was tired, disappointed, discouraged, de- 
 spondent, 
 Resolved to chase rainbows no more ; 
 But the hills and the mountains, enlarging my 
 vision, 
 Beckoned me as never before. 
 
There are rainbows of mind that allure the 
 inventors, 
 Explorers who chart earth and sea; 
 They inspire the reformer, the poets and 
 prophets 
 With visions of good things to be. 
 
 These leaders have followed their rainbows of 
 beauty; 
 Kept chasing the sunbeams of light ; 
 Their day dreams, their night dreams, their 
 phantoms and fancies, 
 Their clearest conceptions of right. 
 
 They conceived of the coming of some great 
 Messiah 
 
 To save from the ruin of sin: 
 Their concepts inspired and their visions 
 transformed, 
 Till they found their Redeemer within. 
 
 With instincts and impulses urging him on- 
 ward, 
 Man follows his concepts of good ; 
 'Till he consciously lives in the Boundless 
 
 Eternal, 
 The absolute Infinite God. 
 
 — 24 
 
LOVE SURVIVES 
 
 When He and She were courting 
 They had very little gold; 
 But they loved and loved more tensely 
 Than their tongues had ever told. 
 
 She was a modest maiden 
 And He — well he was young 
 Unaccustomed to expressing 
 His affections with his tongue. 
 
 So it very often happened 
 They expressed their hearts desire 
 When they sat as mum as mummies 
 Looking straight into the fire. 
 
 There they seemed to read their future 
 In the flames of blazing light 
 As they danced and swayed and sputtered 
 To conquer cold and night. 
 
 And they wondered if the storms without 
 Were symbols of their lives 
 And if the love young lovers feel 
 All turbulence survives. 
 
 And he led her to the altar 
 Prouder than a plumed knight: 
 Mailed and mounted for the f oeman 
 Eager to begin the fight 
 
 Not a fight with bristling warriors 
 Armed with battle ax and steel : 
 But with plow and hoe and reaper 
 In the broad and fertile field. 
 
 — 25 — 
 
They settled where the prairie "grand" 
 
 Coquets the sons of toil, 
 
 And yields luxurious treasures 
 
 On the bosom of her soil. 
 
 They drained the sloughs and turned the sod 
 Where the wild fowls conk and coo, 
 They built a little cottage there 
 Just large enough for two. 
 
 There was not a shingle on the roof, 
 Nor plank upon the floor 
 And not a brick or stone or nail, 
 Or hinge or lock or door; 
 
 Not a rose bush in the garden, 
 Not an ornament or tree ; 
 But they had planned and planted 
 In faith and hope and glee. 
 
 There where the wild flowers blossom 
 Where the breezes play and sing 
 His wife was happy as a queen 
 And he felt like a king. 
 
 But the mortgage they had given 
 To secure the payments all, 
 Stood, challenging their energies, 
 To liquidate at call. 
 
 And they met the challenge bravely 
 Working fourteen hours a day; 
 Stopping not for cold or sunshine 
 Scarcely taking time to pray. 
 
 — 26 — 
 
They saw it growing smaller 
 As each year the roses fall 
 And they talked of how they'd live 
 When they had payed it all. 
 
 It was an awful struggle 
 For prices went to crash 
 And every mortgage holder then 
 Was clamoring for cash ; 
 
 And everything the debtors had 
 Was offered to be sold, 
 And every creditor required 
 The equivalent of gold. 
 
 They saw their neighbors' holdings lost 
 Their earnings swept away, 
 Saw manhood yield to mammon 
 And character decay. 
 
 Saw thousands work and toil and strive 
 With debt, despair and sin, 
 While every effort to get out, 
 Brought them more deeply in. 
 
 Again he asked her if the storms 
 Were symbols of their lives 
 And if the love true lovers feel 
 All turbulence survives. 
 
 Her loyal heart responded yes, 
 With hope and love enthroned: 
 We two can better face the storm 
 Together than alone. 
 
 — 27 — 
 
They conquered debt and poverty 
 But gained what counted more ; 
 They learned to love the struggling, 
 Love the helpless and the poor. 
 
 Now they have grown more feeble, wan, 
 Less able for the strife : 
 Soon they will pass the pearly gates 
 Beyond the storm and strife. 
 
 They've lived together fifty years 
 But love, the heart's desire, 
 Still burns as they together sit 
 Looking straight into the fire. 
 
 Then let the storm clouds rage without 
 As symbols of their lives: 
 They know the true love lovers feel 
 All turbulence survives. 
 
 Written for the fiftieth wedding anniversary of 
 Mr. and Mrs. Harry Boone. 
 
 — 28 — 
 
LATER 
 
 Now he is gone the old love lives ; 
 The flame of life's desire 
 Burns, while she sits in solitude 
 And looks into the fire. 
 
 The winter winds may rush and surge 
 As symbols of their lives : 
 She knows the true love lovers feel 
 Will death itself survive. 
 
 — 29 — 
 
Part Two 
 
 SENSE AND NONSENSE 
 
EARLY DAYS 
 
 I think of early school days 
 "Three R's" and "spelling bee" days 
 When every master used the whip 
 For nearly every little slip 
 In breaking rules he made. 
 
 I think of early church days 
 Long sermons "Holy Sundays" 
 When every child was born depraved 
 And every soul from Hell was saved 
 By very narrow creeds. 
 
 I think of early farm days 
 Hard work with few rest days : 
 When big and little used their powers 
 From ten to twelve or fifteen hours 
 And Mother made the clothes. 
 
 And now I wonder if the ways 
 Of pleasure riding Sundays, 
 And easy times on week days, 
 With vaudevilles and screen plays 
 Will make strong characters. 
 
 If we had every good thing 
 The past and modern thought brings, 
 Without the faults of early days 
 Or foolish fads of modern ways 
 We'd make the planets ring. 
 
 — 33 — 
 
SUCCESS 
 
 Fix the goal of your ambition, 
 Far beyond the common vision. 
 Straggle upward: keep on going: 
 Feed the mind, continue growing. 
 If you reach your heart's desire 
 Keep advancing, higher, higher ! 
 On! and on FOREVER. 
 
 — 34 
 
IT CAN BE DONE 
 
 Did you hear some one say that "It can not be 
 
 done; 
 Because no one ever has done it?" 
 Keep thinking and planning: persisting and 
 
 trying : 
 The first thing you know you'll have done it. 
 
 Of every device in existence today, 
 Some one has affirmed "you can't do it !" 
 But someone else saw it, believed he could do 
 
 it* 
 The next thing was known, HE HAD DONE 
 
 IT. 
 
 Perhaps when God planned to create a few 
 planets 
 
 Old Lucifer said, "You can't do it." 
 
 But Nature responded: the Universe thun- 
 dered : 
 
 The next thing was known, HE HAD DONE 
 IT. 
 
 Then Lucifer, some of our poets have told us, 
 Began a rebellion in Heaven 
 And he kept on repeating, "It cannot be done" 
 Until he into Hades was driven. 
 
 35 
 
SUGGESTION 
 
 I don't know what I'll grow to be 
 
 When I become a man, 
 But I would like to be the boy 
 
 My Mother thinks I am. 
 
 So many things I'd like to do 
 
 That I don't think are good. 
 But then I'd like to be the boy 
 
 My Mother thinks I should. 
 
 I want to whip the boy next door 
 Whenever he steals my ball, 
 
 But Mother says I never fight 
 So, I can't fight at all. 
 
 Sometimes I feel so cross and mean 
 
 I'd like to swear and damn: 
 But if I did, I could not be 
 
 What Mother thinks I am. 
 
 She thinks I'm growing strong and fine, 
 
 And I most think so too. 
 So I don't want to do the thing 
 
 She says I wouldn't do. 
 
 I'm going to cut out all that's mean 
 
 And grow to be a man, 
 So I can be the kind of boy 
 
 My Mother thinks I am. 
 
 36 — 
 
WASHINGTON 
 
 I love the State of Washington, 
 Her valleys and her plateaus ; 
 
 Her fertile soil thrown from the cones 
 Of surging volcanoes. 
 
 I love her orchards, gardens, homes: 
 
 Her hills and grazing herds, 
 Her fields of grass and growing grains, 
 
 Her fishes, beasts and birds. 
 
 And thou the great Columbia 
 
 That pours into the sea 
 Fresh waters from the mountain streams, 
 
 I think and sing of thee. 
 
 I love the snow capped mountain peaks, 
 
 The cedars, firs and pines; 
 The rock ribbed ranges, canyons, crags, 
 
 The water falls and mines. 
 
 — 37 — 
 
I love the inland lakes and bays ; 
 
 The splendid Puget Sound ; 
 The Islands, promontories, peaks, 
 
 And the Great Ocean's bound. 
 
 There's something good in every place 
 
 Beneath the shining sun ; 
 But I have never seen so much 
 
 Concentrated into ONE. 
 
 38 
 
LESSONS FROM THE MISSISSIPPI 
 FLOOD 
 
 The fish deposit spawn upon the shallows, 
 Their young are hatched in millions near the 
 deep ; 
 
 The shifting riverbeds cast out their minnows 
 Upon the sands for beasts and birds to eat. 
 
 The ants are building hillocks near the river ; 
 
 They struggle, store and build from day to 
 day; 
 Not knowing that the rolling, roaring torrent 
 
 Will flood the land and wash them all away. 
 
 The birds are building nests among the for- 
 ests, 
 In which to breed their young and grow 
 their kind: 
 Not sensing that the awful storms of summer 
 May sweep them down like zephyrs in the 
 wind. 
 
 So, men are building near the Mississippi, 
 They toil through many sacrificial years; 
 
 The raging torrents sweep away their labor, 
 And leave them naught but poverty and 
 tears. 
 
 Does this great river teach the old, old lesson 
 That men are brothers at its source and 
 mouth? 
 That if the north would irrigate its prairies 
 The channel would not break and flood the 
 south. 
 
 — 39 — 
 
The arid wastes of many million acres 
 
 Beg for the cooling streams to quench their 
 thirst ; 
 In turn they promise lakes and fruits and for- 
 ests 
 Till storage rooms and granaries shall burst. 
 
 Then, too, the leagues of vast denuded uplands 
 Are stripped of all their foliage and pride; 
 
 They take revenge by sending raging torrents 
 From every vale and hill and mountainside. 
 
 They cry "restore to us our wasted treasures : 
 
 Our chestnuts, walnuts, forest trees and 
 
 flowers : 
 
 Our wealth will flow then on the river bosom 
 
 And health and beauty will be yours and 
 
 ours." 
 
 Will we decide that providence is cruel? 
 
 That nature forces have no soul or heart? 
 Or shall we see that law is Universal 
 
 With cause and consequence in every part? 
 
 Millions have ridden in the storms to victory, 
 Gained strength in every battle with the 
 waves : 
 Then bade defiance to the winds and oceans, 
 Their skill and wisdom their own power to 
 save. 
 
 40 — 
 
Shall men who cable the deep beds of ocean, 
 And talk to nations with the lightning's 
 flash 
 Accept their fate like dumb, unthinking in- 
 sects, 
 And float to sea with ruined homes and 
 trash ? 
 
 We proudly ride upon the wind and currents : 
 We sail the air as ships sail on the sea ; 
 
 Are these our masters, these unfeeling forces, 
 Or angel messengers to set us free ? 
 
 Will God with countless systems all in motion 
 Suspend their forces for a human cry? 
 
 Or must we, like birds and beasts and insects 
 Adjust ourselves to keep the law, or die? 
 
 Sometime when we have fully comprehended 
 Forces that now seem little understood, 
 
 We may discover that the central power 
 Which moves the great, broad Universe is 
 Good. 
 
 — 41 — 
 
SIGNS AND WONDERS 
 
 When the peacock screams at sunset, 
 And the trees are tipped with white, 
 
 It's a sign of passing daylight 
 And the coming of the night. 
 
 When the rooster crows at midnight 
 With his cock-a-doodle-doo, 
 
 There is something in the atmosphere, 
 Frost, rain or snow, or dew. 
 
 When the turkey gobbler gobbles, 
 With that tuneful voice of his, 
 
 "Then the weather either changes, 
 Or continues as it is." 
 
 When your rheumatism hurts you, 
 And you're feeling rather strange, 
 
 There is something going to happen, 
 Or, there's going to be a change. 
 
 When the ground hog sees his shadow, 
 As he leaves his wintry den, 
 
 He either likely roams about, 
 Or wanders back again. 
 
 If the fortune teller sees your 
 Many friends who've gone before, 
 
 There will be another death some time, 
 Or maybe three or four. 
 
 Be careful when you're gardening, 
 Don't sow the seed too soon; 
 
 Remember, too, whate'er you do, 
 "Plant taters in the moon." 
 
 — 42 — 
 
SUCCESS OR FAILURE 
 
 Do we look at the faults of our fathers and 
 say, 
 
 "How simple their notions were," 
 Or do we obsreve our own errors and see 
 
 "How foolish we mortals are." 
 
 Be not too severe, for the men who succeed, 
 Who have mounted the heights and pre- 
 vailed, 
 
 Owe more than they know to the heroic deeds 
 Of the men who have struggled and failed. 
 
 The bold pioneers in the unknown wilds, 
 Whose mistakes teach us what not to do, 
 
 Help us succeed with the knowledge we gain 
 By keeping their errors in view. 
 
 43 
 
WHENCE AND WHITHER 
 
 I think I have come from the limitless past, 
 
 A limitless future my goal ; 
 A product of matter, intelligence, life ; 
 
 Some part of the Infinite whole. 
 
 I feel I am launched on the measureless path, 
 That millions before me have trod. 
 
 That longing for life in its fullness foretells 
 Eternal outreachings for God. 
 
 — 44 — 
 
LIFE 
 
 As rolls the sea, surge after surge, 
 
 Evolving life in endless URGE ; 
 
 A radiant energy, a force 
 
 With solar systems in its course; 
 
 It leaps through space, outmeasures time, 
 
 Creating myriad shapes sublime; 
 
 From countless germs and countless norms 
 
 Expressing ever higher forms. 
 
 45 
 
SPEAKING THE TRUTH 
 
 If everybody spoke the truth 
 Without one effort to pretend, 
 
 How many would there be on earth 
 Who had a single sincere friend? 
 
 This does not mean that false and true 
 Are equal, or that lies are good; 
 
 It means we have not learned the law 
 Of true unselfish brotherhood. 
 
 46 — 
 
GREAT AND SMALL 
 
 There is something of life in an atom; 
 
 There is something of love in a rose; 
 There is something of Infinite power 
 
 In every wind that blows. 
 
 From measureless space comes matter; 
 
 Out of Eternity, time; 
 And out of the discords of ages 
 
 Grow harmonies sublime. 
 
 — 47 —