Monday, December 31, 2007

"Time…left twelve fresh months in your care"

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, it's been almost ten years since my old Dad passed away. Dad was born back in 1924. When I was growin' up, he'd sometimes recite inspirational poems he'd memorized as young feller. Here's a couple of 'em that come to mind at New Years.
VICTORY

You are the man who used to boast
That you’d achieve the uttermost,
Some day.

You merely wished a show,
To demonstrate how much you know
And prove the distance you can go…

Another year we’ve just passed through.
What new ideas came to you?
How many big things did you do?

Time…left twelve fresh months in your care
How many of them did you share
With opportunity and dare?

Again, we do not find you on the list of Makers Good.
Explain the fact!
Ah No, ’twas not the chance you lacked!
As usual - you failed to act!
and this one:
Salutation to the Dawn

Look to this day!
For it is life, the very life of life,
In its brief course
Lie all the verities and realities of your existence:
The bliss of growth
The glory of action
The splendor of beauty,
For yesterday is but a dream
And tomorrow only a vision,
But today well lived makes every yesterday
a dream of happiness
And every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Look well, therefore, to this day!
Such is the salutation to the dawn.

Dad had a way o' makin' the recitations dramatic and I reckon he tried his best to live by them poems he remembered all them years. I first remember hearin' them poems when I was only about 7 or 8. That was 50 years ago. I still like what they got to say.

Happy New Year,

JimBobby

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember reciting the Salutation to the Dawn when I were a tad at camp, JimBobby. It brings back lovely memories of quiet, lapping waters.

Happy New Year to you and yours -- well, y'know: as happy as possible, under the circumstances. ;-)

JimBobby said...

Whooee! Thankee fer droppin' by, Skdaddler. Wishin' you the best fer 2008.
JB